View From The Porch: They could do this with pockets full of kryptonite.

Wednesday, July 30, 2014

They could do this with pockets full of kryptonite.

I could watch this video over and over again.
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17 comments:

Weer'd Beard said...: pretty cool.

Still you'll find me sitting in an Adirondack chair with a bourbon and my Bug-A-Salt, and only flies will be harmed.

Wicked cool, but I keep getting the boring ass Daddy idea in my head of "You're jumping out of a perfectly good Helicopter".; 9:40 AM, July 30, 2014
Fuzzy Curmudgeon said...: Great big brass ones.

Misjudge just ones and you're a red smear on the mountainside.

I'm with Weer'd.; 10:19 AM, July 30, 2014
P-Word said...: I've seen a bunch of these, but that thread-the-needle maneuver around 5:00 is amazing!; 12:00 PM, July 30, 2014
Educated Savage said...: That was quite possibly the coolest thing I've ever seen...If I decide I'm getting too old I might try it one day.; 12:46 PM, July 30, 2014
Alien said...: I wonder what the minimum glide ratio is on the suits, that'll determine the minimum successful gradient.

Still, pretty neat.; 1:04 PM, July 30, 2014
Maxwell said...: 5:08---HOLY CRAP!!!
Also, I haven't listened to RUSH in far too long. Thanx.; 2:20 PM, July 30, 2014
bluesun said...: From what I've read, those suits have about a 3:1 horizontal to vertical glide ratio, which seems to look about what these folks are doing.

On the Rush front, Clockwork Angels is their best album in at least 20 years, and you all should go and listen to it.; 2:40 PM, July 30, 2014
Stingray said...: Just say "go," boss.; 3:41 PM, July 30, 2014
fast richard said...: I never did any BASE jumping, although a couple of old skydiving buddies were involved in it from its early days. It's amazing what they can do with modern wing suits.; 4:17 PM, July 30, 2014
George P. Burdell said...: Headlong Flight and Manhattan Project references on the same day? What's up? Celebrating the 40th anniversary of Neil Peart joining the band?

(Or: she loves guns and Rush? *swoon*); 5:57 PM, July 30, 2014
Old NFO said...: Yep, all fun and nicky neat until they misjudge one, then you're scraping jelly off the rocks and picking pieces of brains out of the trees... And nobody ever says thank you to the poor SOBs that have to do that and live with the nightmares...

Got that last statement from a German mountaineer who's done a few AND even got accused of stealing a watch, since it wasn't returned...; 6:22 PM, July 30, 2014
Will said...: I'm wondering if there would be an advantage to using these suits for HALO military jumps? How much farther away could the insertion aircraft drop their jumpers? One would need more O2 due to a bit longer time at altitude, to start with.; 6:36 PM, July 30, 2014
libertyman said...: Kind of funny that they wear helmets, when you think about it.

Maybe to mount the camera.

I don't think a helmet would help much at all.; 7:37 PM, July 30, 2014
Atom Smasher said...: I wish I wanted to do that.; 9:19 PM, July 30, 2014
fast richard said...: Helmets are for aerodynamics, eye protection, and minor bumps like hitting the top of the door on exit. Heavy motorcycle helmets for skydiving were already on the way out when I started doing it in the early seventies. Skydiving fatalities tend to be the catastrophic sort that a helmet won't fix, and as Old NFO says, that is even more so when flying at high speed that close to a mountainside.; 11:20 PM, July 30, 2014
Adrian K said...: Good stuff. The Jeb Corliss stuff just amazes me. And speaking of ground-strikes, I submit this little tidbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEFCQRwj28w

And this is the part of the show where everyone gets to throw eggs at me. I don't care much for Rush. Geddy Lee's voice sets my teeth on edge.; 1:00 PM, July 31, 2014
Will said...: I suspect that there is a dramatic increase in sink rate that is not obvious, when one tries to approach a level flight mode. Not having a rigid structure may be part of this lack of feedback. Watching that guy hit the bridge when he tried to go over, instead of under, like his buddy did, was enlightening.; 2:51 PM, July 31, 2014