meekerboy

I was priveledged to be on Tom Aiello's 1000th jump about 3 weeks ago which was a 2-way wingsuit from Gridsetskolten in Romsdal in Norway (3000ft). I was looking at the video footage and got scared. The plan was for Tom to exit after me which he did. I was in a GTI and him a Skyflyer. Unfortunately he did not have a good launch and ended up flying below me unable to see where I was. I started to move left to get out of his way because I knew he could'nt see me. He also move left and moved a lot quicker than me as he had finally started flying his suit. Visions of a strike quickly passed before my eyes as he went in for the pull directly below me. His parachute passed next to my toes as I fell past him. Having had time to think about avoiding such problems again, this is a potential plan: If anyone goes low they should track on a pretermined course - straight ahead and let the person above do the move aside. Q - Is this applicable for non-wingsuit jumps? Q - Is this applicable for jumps bigger than 2-ways? At the end of the day, it would be good to find a plan that avoid this near-miss. PS Tom, thanks for the hot chocolate! Meeker

I was there also on that jump doing a wingsuit. I'm used to wingsuit base from Norway sized cliffs. This was also a personal low for me. I also jumped from The Mouse with a wingsuit (I think its also 1600ft) and caught my right wing on a branch as I was going over the edge. It sent me head-down and was somewhat scarey. Fortunately, it did not turn me. Nice effort Craig. Meeker

I just put my BMI badge above my right knee. The patch is white so wherever I put, its going to look dogeared within a few months.

Seeing as we are talking about BM-I's, who are the others qualified in the UK. I know of Fordy, Poxon, Baldrick and H (from Hibaldstow).

I was in norway recently and saw this mod in action on a skyflier. I was warned against using any hard materials such as downlings because if you fell over, it could hurt you. Instead, get some thick bungees such as the tandem ones. Cut them open and lay them lengthways along the edge of the wing tip (2 maybe needed ontop of each other to get the rigidity). Then sew some fabric tape over the top of it all onto the wing tips. Hope that made sense.... Meeker.