Skyflyers in Africa

[guest]

http://home.anet.ee/~outrager/sa2001-.jpg

Well, last 2 weeks have been very exciting for a few of us... ;-) The trip is not over yet for Jeb and Iiro, but since Omer and i had to go back to work, here's a short summary:

First, the new wingsuits. Skyflyer has been flown off 2 big rocks, about 3000ft exit to landing (lots of stuff to clear in between). The suit is just starting to show its perfomance and has a huge potential. Skyflyer takes a bit longer to learn because it's faster and more precise. I've made 26 skydives and 7 base flights on the suit so far, and it's barely adequate to survive and match the perfomance of the maxed out Classic. Actually the glide gets better with every flight - can't wait for the summer! Timewise, flights are either shorter or the same. Distance-wise, they are getting longer. As we learn more, i believe we'll get a few extra seconds and a great deal more of a distance out of this toy ;-) It takes about the same altitude (or a bit more so far) to start the suit - because we are inexperienced and the suit has to be flown faster. This part will improve with time, but probably stay close to the old suit. What changes quite a bit is a talles below - you could fly forever over 30 degree slope if you're really good! ;-)

Openings are unbelievably good on the new suit - my on-heading statistics are nearly perfect with a base rig, much better than without a suit. I don't have an explanation for this fact yet, but it's been like that even on the old Classic. Something to think about...

There were a few accidents along the way, mostly not jump-related. I hope John gets well soon, and Jeb buys some new black jeans. As for myself, i'll need an entire new rig ;-)

I'm sure there will be a few more things to post soon... i'll leave it up to those still having fun ;-) Here, it's back to winter and back to work. Oh well... life is hard!

I would like to thank John, Moose, Shaun, Pete, Julian, Brian, Ian and everybody else for the greatest time we had - despite all the trouble and stress and accidents! I really hope the movie comes out great!

Congratulations to Julian on his 1st, 2nd, 3rd and so on! ;-)

bsbd!

Yuri.

P.S. Pictures will be online tomorrow.

[guest]

Gidday Mate,

I am very jealous. Sounds like apart from the drama that it was a hell of an adventure. Looking forward to seeing some footage. I heard what happened to John (not Base related)and hope he is recoverying well.

Luv hearing about the skyflyers performance - I've got mine on order and this time will skydive it a bit more first. Sounds like a whole new experience to the classic - not that I was ever that good on it though.

Hope to catch up with you sometime this year to flap my wings. Are you going with the guys in April?

Luv SLIM