Who's the fastest wingsuit flyer of them all? The answer, my friends, will be discovered in late June in the gloriously named Russian town, Stupino (also useful for palindromes: "Spam at noon? I put Stupino onta maps"). The event is titled The World Wingsuit Boogie and Competition, and it will be the first of its sort. Skyflyers there will attempt to outdo each other in races for speed and flights for distance—in their given weight class. There will also be a contest of some sort for style: flying in formation or performing nifty tricks in the air.The machines that will lift wingsuiters to jumping altitude are to be two MI-8 helicopters—troop transport left over from more Soviet times. These will haul some 20 to 30 jumpers each, allowing the competitors to attempt to set a record for the largest wingsuit formation. Should they manage it, the mark will hold at least till July when 70 wingsuiters will try for such a record in Germany.
6 comments:
AH HA! An expert - so, can you tell me just how accurate is the scene in the second Tomb Raider when Angie and Gerry jump off that building and wing it over to their ride?
p.s. thanks for checkin' me out and leaving a comment. I love comments.
Super color scheme, I like it! Good job. Go on.
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Your are Nice. And so is your site! Maybe you need some more pictures. Will return in the near future.
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Your website has a useful information for beginners like me.
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Teri,
The Tomb Raider scene was somewhat accurate. People do basejump with wingsuits off of cliffs. I haven't seen any videos of people jumping wingsuits off of buildings, except in the movie. The stunt in the movie is real though, with real BASE jumpers jumping real wingsuits.
I saw the movie too long ago to remember how long they flew. This might have been inaccurate.
What was the biggest falacy in the movie was that you cannot outrun bad guys in a wingsuit. In one shot, you see them running with base rigs, then the next shot, they suddenly are wearing wingsuits and leap off the building. You wonder how they managed to get it on that quickly. :-)
Actually, the scene in Tomb Raider was compiled from several jumps. When they ran off the building, they did not have wingsuits on. After they got flat and stable off the building, you see them bring their hands back (to pull on the actual BASE jumps) and touch their feet together. What you then see is a quick splice to the actual wingsuiters (in BirdMan Skyflyers) popping all three wings and flying off. Jari provided all the wingsuits. Two to fit Angelina and the ones that the stunt jumpers wore. The scene looks great, right up to the point where Angelina is landing the canopy. You can see in that scene that the suit is rigged incorrectly; the legstraps were routed outside the wingsuit. That, by the way, was only possible on that suit because of the vent between the rear air deflector and the legwing.
Chuck Blue
BirdMan Chief Instructor-4
chuck@bird-man.com
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