This article is pure comedy.

[stayhigh 2]

http://www.cnet.com/news/on-a-wingsuit-and-a-prayer-flying-over-the-grand-canyon/

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[FlyingRhenquest 1]

Ahem

"I just flew over the Grand Canyon and boy are my arms tired!"

I'm trying to teach myself how to set things on fire with my mind. Hey... is it hot in here?

[dpreguy 14]

The "bends"? Not exactly the best description.

[Remster 30]

dpreguy

The "bends"? Not exactly the best description.

Don't worry. They have spare oxygen in their wings.

Remster

[DiverMike 5]

Yes - the "spare oxygen in their wings" is far more indicative of bad journalism than not referring to "the Bends" as Decompression Sickness.

For the same reason I jump off a perfectly good diving board.

[Blis 1]

"We decided that we liked the idea of getting the maximum performance out of the suit. Those people that you see on YouTube who fly down the cliff are actually flying the suit very badly. You'll always see them with their arms behind them because they have got to fall next to the cliff to follow that terrain. Whereas we're interested in flying as flat as possible so we can go as far as possible. It's high-performance flying."

Just wow, really? I have understood that in base flying flat gets you killed becouse you have no margin left, while flying steeper gives you more speed aka margin...

Best regards, a stupid noob

[Deimian 43]

Blis

"We decided that we liked the idea of getting the maximum performance out of the suit. Those people that you see on YouTube who fly down the cliff are actually flying the suit very badly. You'll always see them with their arms behind them because they have got to fall next to the cliff to follow that terrain. Whereas we're interested in flying as flat as possible so we can go as far as possible. It's high-performance flying."

Just wow, really? I have understood that in base flying flat gets you killed becouse you have no margin left, while flying steeper gives you more speed aka margin...

Best regards, a stupid noob

On that regard I think the article just used bad wording. What I understand is that on proximity flying the jumpers are not flying the wingsuits to their limit, precisely because they need that margin to bail out. "Not flying to the limit" can be (erroneously) reworded to "fly the suit very badly".

[Travman 6]

"Gravity powered gliders"... Not to be confused with those gliders powered by engines...

[Croc 0]

Probably poor journalism rather than poor understanding on the part of the wing suiter. Once I was in a jump plane with a reporter from a local newspaper who rode as an observer, and who was doing a story on skydiving. We all had a good laugh at the ridiculously inaccurate story he wrote and I wrote a letter to the editor to correct an error. (He wrote that all the pilots were unlicensed student pilots.)

"Here's a good specimen of my own wisdom. Something is so, except when it isn't so."

Charles Fort, commenting on the many contradictions of astronomy

[FlyBabeAU 3]

Its very common to find writers, journalists or even sub editors working over articles who change wording because they think it improves a piece or makes things easier for their readership to understand, and they are often unaware that doing so can substantially change meaning. I've seen it in my work, its irritating as hell if you are ever on the receiving end of it (i.e. were interviewed and see your words completely twisted or altered to publicly state information you never infact said in the first place, and it can be hard to get corrections published.) I've even been in a position of seeing changes made after an article was sent to the subject of the interview for approval before it goes to print, and often subjects are not even given that opportunity to approve copy before its released. Even when journalists mean well, they don't always accurately convey what the person being interviewed said, then add in journalist misunderstanding concepts or technical aspects of whatever subject matter is involved... I agree the article is a fine example of poor journalism.
Just as an aside, I think the concept of crossing the Grand Canyon is inspired.