Ski-Gliding the Eiger
Astonishing footage of ski-gliding on the Eiger - looks like a video game at times - but its real ...
Tags: extreme tales newsboard
November 25, 2006
July 18, 2006
Super Jump 2006
The current record for a freefall drop is by Joseph Kittinger, who jumped from 102,800 feet - a drop that exceeded the speed of sound and lasted only 4.5 minutes.
Now there is going to be an attempt at the record - later this year - by Michel Fournier in the Super Jump of 2006.
In August 2006 an extraordinary project will bind France, Canada and a single man for an historic supersonic free fall. Michel Fournier will drop out of the stratosphere from an altitude from about 130,000 feet (40 kilometers, nearly 25 miles) above the plains of Saskatchewan, Canada, and will contribute to the development of future technologies and the safety of stratospheric flight.So now I want to know - who can build a Wingsuit that can fly at the speed of sound?
Better still - what are the current technological limits governing drop height and wingsuits? The current estimates for Military Skyflying is about 120 miles - but what would be the drop height for this?
In my estimatation a drop from 130,000 feet will give roughly 80 miles (based on the Baumgartner drop) - yet the Military are claiming up to 120 miles - do military wingsuits have a higher lift ratio than commercially available wingsuits or will the military drop from a greater height?
But I like to look forward and ask crazy questions:
With the development of Wingsuits, rocket powered propulsions systems that increase the h/v ratio, and higher and higher drop sites - who will be the first SkyFlyer to cross the Atlantic using a Wingsuit?
Crazy?
Maybe - but then it was once deemed crazy to even attempt to fly across the Atlantic - and now large jets do it daily.
Tags: skyflying, free fall, wingsuits, kittinger, fournier, baumgartner, super drop
May 15, 2006
Sky Monkey
There are excerpts from "Skyflying, Wingsuits in Motion" by Scott Campos here that I recommend anyone to read - it sounds full of common sense to me - and I don't skydive.
There are also precautions that must be followed to ensure safe flocking even between as little as two people. Like any other group skydive, everyone involved should plan the dive and dive the plan. A good dirt dive on any flock, especially where there are varying skill levels or unfamiliar faces, is a must. Not only does this ensure everyone is aware of the safety aspects of the flock but also ensures that everyone knows what the plan is and where other wing suits will be in relation to them. Because wing suits can build formations in three dimensions both in depth and width, it is always a good idea, even with experienced pilots, to dirt dive the flight.
Even the exceprts make fascinating reading, so I can imagine the book is even better .. check it out if you are into wingsuits and skyflying.
Tags: skyflying, wingsuits, skydiving, Scott Campos
The Icarus Report
The Icarus Report: Marginalia writes about a subject dear to my heart - wingsuits and skyflying.
It's by Michael Abrams, the author of "Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers : Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them"
If we've reached the near end of wingsuit development, what's next in this new and ever evolving sport? More flight time can really only come with longer wings. But skyflyers tend to enjoy jumping with their friends, which is part of the reason wingsuits, unlike their rigid-winged counterparts, have become so quickly popular—they don't take up an extra seat in the plane. But for a more truly birdlike flight, Skyflyers will either have to have some kind of longer, collapsible wing, or start jumping by themselves.
Good question - as technological trends advance what will be the ultimate wingsuit?
I think wingsuit development will fragment as people discover what it is that they like about skyflying.
People who frefer formation diving may prefer flocking, while lone jumpers might well go for altitude and distance, meanwhile the pioneers can keep doing things like strapping jets to their legs.
Different suits for different folks ....
Tags: wingsuits, skyflying, skydiving, michael abrams, birdmen, batmen, early flight
March 15, 2006
SkyFlyers of 1931
I found this on a Magazine Cover website and thought it was good enough to share.
The combination of skiing and wingflying means that this might be the earliest picture of what would later become an extreme sport - with skiers jumping off of mountains with paragliders.
Are you a Skyflyer?
If so please contact the author to be interviewed for "Extreme Tales"
Tags: extreme sports extreme tales skydiving free fall base jumping wingsuits skyflying
February 16, 2006
SkySurfing
I like the idea of "SkySurfing".
The use of a board to "surf" currents of air in the way that surfers surf waves, snowboarders surf snow-waves and skateboarders board on artifical "waves" brings together many extreme disciplines into one place.
SkySurfing is more popular in the US than the rest of the world, and it is a challenge for even experienced skydivers and freefallers.
Using a modified "surfboard" as a monoplane wing, the skysurfing enthusiast soon learns how to work the board to best effect.
Tipping the front edge of the board down will increase airspeed - the air flow over the board is fast enough to give some "lift" even though the board surface is quite small and narrow.
It's when the board is tipped up that astonishing things occur - as the the board becomes more resistant to air the skysurfers flip over their centre of gravity - giving rise to the amazing loops and flips that you see on TV and video.
Learning to skysurf is +200 jumps - so it's for hardcore sydivers - not novices.
The great thing is that every year more and more people are attracted to skydiving and less and less people die - the pool of +200 people will grow and grow.
Isn't it time for the first "Sky Olympics".
The sports could be skysurfing, freefall acrobatics, freefall flown distance, skyflying acrobatics, skyflying flown distance, freefall formation and skyflying formation.
There are now enough competitors and enough different disciplines to make it possible - and there are experienced camera skydivers to make it work .
Enough people jump from all over the world to make it a reality without making it dangerous - the recent skydiving formation record in Thailand had 400 people from 31 countries - a massive undertaking.
If enough people decide to make it happen then the first "Sky Olympics" could be held within the next few years.
If that happens we can expect interesting crossovers as surfers, snowboarders and skaters learn to skydive so they can skysurf as well.
The resulting mashups should be visually spectacular and fun for everyone involved.
Tags: extreme sports extreme tales skydiving skyflying skysurfing sky olympics
January 16, 2006
The Skyflyers
Ever since mankind looked into the sky and watched the birds at play, the dream of flight has driven dreamers, engineers, scientists, artists and realists alike.
The early renaissance designs of Leonardo Da Vinci, were followed by successful experiments with hot air balloons by the Montgolfier brothers brothers in the 1800's, which in turn gave birth to the first heavier-than-air flight by the Wright brothers in 1903.
If anything, two world wars did nothing to slow down the adoption of flying.
With airplanes widely adopted by all sides in WWI, and thee rapid technological advances between the wars, it was inevitable that the modified and improved airplanes used at the outset of WWII would finally give way to the newer and faster "jet" engines.
When the WWII ended there was a surplus of pilots and planes, and several commercial airlines began their operations in the post war years starting the revolution that would lead to cheap package holidays in Majorca.
It was an age of quick technological evolution, as designs and techniques developed for war were recycled for peace - leading to rapid and fast development of larger and airplanes along with the increased competition.
By the late 1950's or early 1960's the "Aerial Age" had ended - and the "Age of Aviation" had begun.
Huge commercial corporations built the infrastructure of flight we take for granted today - and convinced millions of people that flying really was "as safe as taking the bus" - the world began to shrink and suddenly everyone could be a part of "the jet set".
Yet, even now in the modern "Charter Age" - when vast airliners carrying hundreds of people stream across the globe in a matter of hours - and flying really is as simple as taking a bus into the city, some men and women still dream of flying unassisted through the skies.
Skydiving and parachuting are one step forward into that dream, and ever since skydivers have been jumping out of airplanes they have been looking for ways to prolong the skydiving experience, to spend longer in the air, to forestall that moment when they come back to earth again.
The problem is physics - if you drop anything out of an airplane, it will fall and accelerate until it reaches terminal velocity - it can't go any faster. The only things between the skydiver and physics are (a) the shape of the body and (b) a parachute.
The development of skydiving as a sport has enabled an astonishing degree of bodily control on the trajectory before the point that the parachute is even opened.
This control allows experienced skydivers to speed up, slow down and, to a certain extent , to "fly" towards a designated point to meet up with other skydivers.
That this approach is successful can be seen from that fact that skilled skydivers can work in large teams - enabling such record breaking feats as creating a formation of 672 skydivers over Thailand in 2004.
But freefall is still freefall, and skydivers have been recently been experimenting with ways to fly further for longer - so they have developed the "wingsuit" - a specially adapted freefall jumpsuit with wings of material between the arms and the legs.
By the 1990's experiments with the early wingsuits by the French skydiver Patrick de Gayardon had inspired a generation of skydivers to take this one step further - and create and fly new designs of wingsuits engineered to take the skydiver further and faster than before.
Skyflying had been born and a now a whole new generation could now follow the age old dream of flight.
Wingsuits work in the way that any other wing works - by generating lift. The material between the legs and the folds of the arms works very similar to the folds of flesh on a flying squirrel and thus slowing the rate of descent - allowing the skyflyer to freefall for longer than ever before.
It doesn't matter whether you fly a kite, a glider, a 747 or a wingsuit - the scientific principle is the same - the aerodynamic properties of an airfoil forces air to move faster over the top part of the wing - and that generates "lift".
The faster the forward speed of an object, the faster the air rushing over the top of the wing, and the greater the amount of "lift".
Using a wingsuit creates a situation for the Skyflyer that has a "high glide ratio" - allowing more time in the air - and more time for exploration.
This exploration has paid off - Skyflyers have learned to exploit all the physics they can get - and then some more.
The result is that instead of falling from the sky like a stone - a Skyflyer can glide like a swallow , engage in "flocking behaviour" like a bird, do aerobatics like a plane, or simply cruise along talking to fellow Skyflyers.
This is a not a sport for the casual practitioner - but for experienced skydivers. If you wish to become a Skyflyer you will need somewhere around 200-500 jumps before even strapping on a wingsuit, and even then instruction is recommended.
Skyflying is a new sport, but already there experiments with rockets attached to the boots of jumpsuits - accelerating the Skyflyer and allowing level flight for a limited period. As technology advances we can be sure that Skyflying will become even more advanced, with new types of wing designs, new materials and new techniques.
I love this slogan from a t-shirt from the Bird-man site - it sums up everything I like about this new sport.
The world is made a better place by those who refuse to believe they can't fly.
Are you a Skyflyer?
If so please contact the author to be interviewed for "Extreme Tales"Tags: extreme sports extreme tales skydiving free fall base jumping wingsuits skyflying
December 31, 2005
Extreme Tales: Call for Contributions
Calling all cave divers, base jumpers, free climbers, surfers, bungee jumpers, zorbers, parkour enthusiasts, skateboarders, kite boarders, free divers, wing-suiters, freefall specialists, wind riders, wake boarders, urban exploration experts, wind surfers, cavers, mountaineers and white water rafters.
Dr. K, author of "Hackers' Tales" is currently researching a new book called "Extreme Tales".
Are you an extreme sports enthusiast?
Do you have tale to tell about your extreme sport?
If so please contact the author.
Tags: extreme sports skydiving snowboarding surfing kite surfing wind surfing free diving free climbing free fall skydiving base jumping skateboarding street luge parkour wingsuits skyflying spinning trebuchet