How stupid?

[bofh 0]

I thought I'd take my new Prodigy along on a balloon jump. It will be my first WS jump...

I've done three balloon jumps before and been perfectly stable (well, recovered exactly as planned on one of them where I didn't intend to have a stable exit).

I've read the manual, other articles, about techniques for BASE exits etc. I have practiced pulls and emergency procedures on the ground and will do more of that before the jump. I find the suit "safe", it seems easy to reach the toggles, run etc without disconnecting wings or opening the legs and I can't seem to get fabric above the hackey nor emergency handles (perhaps if flying on the back, but then I guess I can get around that by pulling with the left hand on the right side and vice versa). I believe I can even fly in box if I need to without disconnecting the wings. The jump will be from 2000m so I feel I have a bit of time to become stable even if I do a really bad exit and still be able to pull high. I am of course worried about the pull, but I would be that even if I jumped from a plane.

My plan is to stand on the edge, take a small jump backwards with the leg wing collapsed, arm wings spread and slowly open the leg wing as I get some speed up, do two practice pulls and then pull at 1400m, to give myself some time to recover from an unstable pull, linetwists etc.

Anything else to think of or is this just a stupid idea that should be avoided at all costs?

[dragon2 2]

My first balloon jump ever was with a S3 and a camera Also from 6k/2000m. I sat on the edge and just dropped off, perfectly stable all the way. Made for a boring video

Ah read over the "first wingsuit jump" part.... Yeah, that's stupid.

Need to go back to work now.....

ciel bleu,
Saskia

[TALONSKY 0]

I think you said it best, "stupid". I really think you should jump the suit for a while out of a plane where you will have enough time to do lots of practise pulls before needing to pull.
Kirk

[Tonto 1]

Stupid.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[bodypilot1 0]

You practiced on the ground, what could go wrong..... Make sure to get video.



Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[stratman05 0]

Can I have first dibs on your suit?

[mccordia 74]

Quote

Can I have first dibs on your suit?

Only if you like it with brown stains in the crotch area...

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Costyn 1]

Yes, stupid. Please don't do your first wingsuit jump out of a balloon. Just do a normal jump out of a balloon and enjoy it that way. You can always in the future still do a wingsuit jump out of a balloon.

Costyn van Dongen - http://www.flylikebrick.com/ - World Wide Wingsuit News

[avenfoto 0]

do it, it will be fine. if you get sketched out/unstable whatever, let go of the grippers, collapse leg wing fall in box and deploy normally. piece of cake.

no need for in air practice touches, just let go of grippers, collapse leg wing, fall in box and deploy normally.

see a pattern here?

[stratman05 0]

yah...then again, it might just all turn to brown.

[bofh 0]

It's so strange, people with lots of jumps (and experience) are always more conservative than people with less experience, I wonder how that can be?

I do believe I have a slightly higher chance of making a stable exit from a balloon than from a plane, but at the same time, as mentioned by someone above, there is much less time to do practice pulls before the actual pull. If I do the first practice pull at 1700m, become unstable, I can not try again until at perhaps 1500m and then if I become unstable again I might not become stable and try the final pull until below my intended deployment altitude which obviously is a failure. At ground it seems that I can fly in box fine with the suit, but without knowing for sure I should not count on it.

The reason I was considering this was that this would be the last jump for this season and it would have been fun to try the WS once before spring (the new toys are always the most fun). I guess I'll take some pretty pictures with the new belly mount instead.
Thanks for the opinions!

[mccordia 74]

Quote

If I do the first practice pull at 1700m, become unstable, I can not try again until at perhaps 1500m

200 meters to recover from instability AND getting stable again and doing another practice pull?
Thats only for those able to plann their instabilty I think

People quite often lose a couple of thousand feet or more in serious flips or spins...200 meters is quite on the uber-skilled self-assured side

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[avenfoto 0]

well you did have to look to the internet for acceptance/reassurance first anyway, so maybe its not for you...

the point i was attempting to make is that the prodigy is a simple suit to fly and shut down, but youre thinking way to much about it.. just do it, if it dosent work out, RELAX.if it still dosent work out,go to box, fall straight down, deploy

if i add another zero to my jumps profile, would that change your mind? food for thought.

[bofh 0]

Quote

200 meters to recover from instability AND getting stable again and doing another practice pull?
Thats only for those able to plann their instabilty I think

People quite often lose a couple of thousand feet or more in serious flips or spins...200 meters is quite on the uber-skilled self-assured side

Perhaps.
I was mostly thinking of minor instabilities and dropping the grippers and going into box if it felt too unstable, but 200m is perhaps too optimistic even for minor instabilities? But then again I still obviously don't know for a fact that I can fly the prodigy in box and I'll try to find that out in another jump at some other time.

[bofh 0]

Quote

if i add another zero to my jumps profile, would that change your mind? food for thought.

I was more thinking along the line of, here are a lot of people with a lot more experience than me that says "don't". They have nothing to gain by it, so I would be truely stupid if I didn't listen to them.

Even if it turns out that they are ignorant about the prodigy and thinking it is much harder to fly than it really is, I really don't loose anything (except a good story perhaps), since there will be another balloon at another time and I'll be in it at that time. By the looks of the current weather, I'm starting to believe that there will not be a jump at all.

[mccordia 74]

Quote

if i add another zero to my jumps profile, would that change your mind? food for thought.

If that extra zero (or even just a 1) was in the more detailed profile where it sayd wingsuit jumps...maybe...yea...

Everybody in this forum WANTS the entire world hooked on wingsuits....they just want it to happen in a safe way..

And there are safer ways to make your first wingsuit jump then a still-air exit from not too much altitude...

so yea...

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[stratman05 0]

The prodigy flew differant that I thought. But I a bunch of jumps on a homemade tracking suit (a few with a wingsuit instructor) and the prodigy flew me more than I thought it would.

The leg wing is a lot bigger, which is where the drive and lift come from. It's twichy when you max it out.

I would take it out of a plane. If you can't get stable out of a plane, then don't jump. What are you gonna do when you stick your leg wing out and go head down, or end up rolling around and spinning?

While we don't have anything to gain, we have everything to lose. It will not look good to see someone doing their first jump deciding to go from a ballon and get hurt (or go in).

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

Anything else to think of or is this just a stupid idea that should be avoided at all costs? Tongue

You do know how to annoy others.

Does it matter what they say?

If they don't agree you might just ignore them or someone agree with you - you take it as positive confirmation.

You should really know what to do and what don't....

I hope we could read about you here or "Ron's Stupid things I've done" thread, but not the incident forum.

Have fun and don't die!

[bodypilot1 0]

Quote

just do it, if it dosent work out, RELAX.if it still dosent work out,go to box, fall straight down, deploy

and if it still doesnt work......walk toward the light



Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[The111 1]

Quote

Quote

just do it, if it dosent work out, RELAX.if it still dosent work out,go to box, fall straight down, deploy

and if it still doesnt work......walk toward the light

Don't forget to RELAX.

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[jakee 1,500]

Quote

I do believe I have a slightly higher chance of making a stable exit from a balloon than from a plane,

Really, um, why?

I have no dead air experience but what I will say is that a solo ws exit from a plane is pretty damn easy, but in BASE vids you often see experienced ws pilots go very headlow (or worse) when they first introduce ws to dead air exits.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[bofh 0]

Quote

Does it matter what they say?

If you had read the rest of the thread, you would know already.

[phoenixlpr 0]

Quote

If you had read the rest of the thread, you would know already.

So? Does it matter for you?

You seems to be on your own.

[bofh 0]

Quote

Quote

if i add another zero to my jumps profile, would that change your mind? food for thought.

If that extra zero (or even just a 1) was in the more detailed profile where it sayd wingsuit jumps...maybe...yea...

Everybody in this forum WANTS the entire world hooked on wingsuits....they just want it to happen in a safe way..

And there are safer ways to make your first wingsuit jump then a still-air exit from not too much altitude...

so yea...

You make the quote above look like it was I who had written it...

[bofh 0]

Quote

Quote

If you had read the rest of the thread, you would know already.

So? Does it matter for you?

You seems to be on your own.

As is pretty obvious, English is not my first language, but either I write so poorly that people don't understand me at all or I don't understand what the other posters have written if I am on my own as you put it. Perhaps you could please read the whole thread instead of just a single message and then explain to me in what way I am on my own.