yuri_base

Thanks for the advice! For now, I settled on dumping tapes in iMovie 6 HD and saving the projects. The files are much larger than what you mentioned - about 1GB per minute, 60GB/hr. How do you get 13GB/hr without transcoding? Also, is there a way in iMovie to do "destructive editing" - i.e. permanently delete parts of the clips that were cropped out, to save space? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Prove it! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Is there an HDV file format that is cross-platform and not destined to be obsolete in at least couple of years? Is it that .m2t thingy? I have an iMac with Leopard and want to dump all tapes to computer. What software would you recommend for this purpose? Thanks! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

All right, I found this picture of you, so this is what you call women in bikinis, eh? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Hey, what happened? You started thinking about women in bikinis instead of lubricated ponies! And the formulas in my avatar? If they're wrong, it's your fault, not mine. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yes, knowing only vertical speed reduced the accuracy of the model, but the dynamics of it still contains (implicitly) information about horizontal speed. A flying object with the same sustained vertical speed, but significantly different horizontal speed (i.e. significantly different L/D) will planeout at different time and with different magnitude. The timing and magnitude of the planeout contain information on both vertical and horizontal sustained speeds, and that's how L/D is extracted. An object falling straight down (i.e. having L/D = 0) will not have a planeout, it will approach its sustained speed without going through a minimum, and equations willl "see" this and correctly deduct L/D = 0. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Brian, See the spreadsheet attached above, it is based on wingsuit equations introduced here. In a nutshell, observed velocity data allows one to extract total force (simple F=ma) and further extract lift and drag from it. Once you have lift and drag, you have L/D and can also compute sustained horizontal and vertical speeds. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Here's an illustration using wingsuit equations: simply run Solver in Excel and tell it to minimize the cumulative difference between Jeff's data and calculated data for the first 50 seconds of flight. Not only it shows how the fallrate could drop to low 20's at about 17 second mark, but extracts reasonable sustained speeds automatically as well: 75mph horizontally and 30mph vertically (L/D = 2.5). While the assumption of constant L/D is crude, the simulation still reflects major features of wingsuit dynamics rather well. And it's not surprising. After all, what is a better proof that you need to study physics to fly wingsuit than Purple Mike on the cover of physics books! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

So sustained is more like 30mph. 21 is a planeout, and the time it occurred after the exit (~17s) is typical for planeouts. See Planeout, or Why sometimes you think you can fly. A 30 to 21 sustained improvement would require a DRAMATIC change in aerodynamics. A simple estimate using wingsuit equations shows that the drag would have to be reduced by a factor of 2! Not something that can be done by simply unstitching the wing. Besides that, 9mph thermals do exist. But kudos to Jeff and Tony for constantly trying new things!!!!!!! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Congratulations, Matt!

As can be seen from these pictures (especially the 2nd one, which clearly shows L/D = 0.5 - worse than a good tracker can do in a tee and jeans), flying banner can make a good ad for a pizza place, but outright embarrassing for a wingsuit company. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Looks like he made front flip thru the risers. Perhaps, lines snagged on feet and threw him up? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yes, some people don't believe this basic fact of aerodynamics because they never tried. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Jarno, that's AWESOME!!! Can you send me a bigger version? I want to frame it and put on the wall! I always post "stabs" in light mood, I don't actually mean it. Sorry. But it works - a timeless piece of art is born!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Now, whenever I watch a porn movie with a poor choice of music, I just launch FlyLikeBrick Flight Manual - Video #7, minimize its window, mute the porn music and............... On a side note, your illustration of the relative wind hitting the flyer from behind... well, I've never seen anything like this, even in gay porn movies! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

How about this simple solution. Every time you receive a Parachutist, affix a neon pink label "Crap Inside" to it, a couple of stamps and send it back. Or maybe something more nicely worded, like "I donate my copy of Parachutist to other skydivers as I do not find anything interesting in it." It'll cost you about 10 bucks a year, but what a feeling! Maybe if USPA receives a few thousand Parachutists a month with neon pink "Crap!" on it, Chris Needels' Capital Commentary will magically disappear, the all-the-same list of DZ's and stupid pics of stupid awards will no longer waste Amazon forests, the B*** word will no longer be banned, and magazine will be full of useful and fun information? Hell, I'll start.

Yo! I have a nice collection of BASE videos, but it's slowly dying. Once in a while, I'd insert a DVD-R to watch the video and it would start skipping or not playing at all. So much for "70 year lifetime"! Radix - half dead Superterminal - dead Thread the Needle II - half dead Australian ABA videos 2004, 2005 (3 disks) - mostly dead and perhaps several others that I haven't watched in a while but are aging. None seemed to last longer than 2-year or so. Pressed DVDs work fine in the same player. Firstly, it's a heads-up. Got a video on DVD-R? Backup TODAY! Secondly, a question: anyone know any programs that can backup dying DVDs by doing multiple slow reads or whatnot? Thanks. Yuri Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Height, distance and time allow to estimate effective L/D using wingsuit equations. For Y=3100ft, X=7000ft, t=50s the result is: L/D = 3.15, equivalent sustained speeds Vx=107mph, Vy=34mph. The simple "averaging" method (L/D ~ distance/[available altitude - altitude to start flying]) is too crude to be useful, because even if your L/D is very consistent from jump to jump, it'll give you different results for mountains of different height (lower L/D on lower ones and higher on higher ones, due to initial start eating lesser chunk of overall altitude). Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

If you have at least some ground speed, floating longer (while having the same ground speed) will move you farther forward. And if you're going backwards, why did you jump? The components of the sustained airspeed of a flying body with adjusted lift and drag coefficients Kl and Kd are Vx = Kl/(Kl^2 + Kd^2)^(3/4) Vy = Kd/(Kl^2 + Kd^2)^(3/4) In a presence of a headwind W the glide ratio is G = (Vx - W)/Vy If you take the derivative of the glide to the drag coefficient, you will find out that it's negative (decreasing drag increases glide) for windspeeds up to W = Vx*(G0^2 + 1)/(G0^2 - 0.5) > Vx where G0=L/D, the glide without the wind. So, unless you're being pushed backwards, bringing the knees up increases your glide. The effect you describe (decreasing drag of a suspended weight will change the trim) is of the second order of magnitude, since a) the increase in the angle of attack will be partially compensated by increased L/D, and b) the pilot is still supposed to readjust the trim to maximize the glide when bringing the knees up. I brought the math up just for the fun of oiling the rusting braincells , but everybody knows from experience that bringing knees up gives noticeable improvement to glide, wind or no wind. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Imho, "HDV lens" is a marketing BS. I have a "regular" Century 0.55x and Raynox "High Definition" 0.5x and as far as resolution is concerned, both resolve HD just fine. (Razor sharp images in the center when examined closely on a good HDTV.) The differences are in quality of the picture near the edges, flare, color, etc. but that applies to all lenses. Also, I don't know if this problem exists with HC-3/5/7, but Raynox 0.5x 37mm lens has a convex rear element which will touch and scratch the lens on HC1. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Almost 3.0 in Phantom? Sounds [I]trackingderbyish[/I] Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Gay parade in the skies? Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

What an elaborate way to say simple truth: "Flocking SUCKS!!!" Breathtaking. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

I meant the frequency of dropouts when I was talking about differences between tapes. $8-10 difference in price per tape to marginally reduce the occurrence of dropouts is not worth it. Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio

Yo, After using HC-1 for 2 years, I see no discernible difference between regular Sony Premium $2.50 tapes and $10-13 HDV tapes. Skips do occur, once per 1 or 2 tapes. So, don't waste your money on expensive tapes! Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps: L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP iOS only: L/D Magic Windows only: WS Studio