Category: Skydiving

Short video of my friend Miles Dasher getting his wing on.

Only two and a half months until skydiving season starts!

I’ve always said that as soon as they start selling the Jetman jet powered gliders I’ll be first in to buy one.  This video of one without the jet engines attached is intriguing.  They claim that it’s twice as efficient as the latest birdman suits and that’s tempting but I’m sure that it’s a LOT more expensive and quite a hassle finding an aircraft with the room to take you to altitude.  And once you deploy the parachute it would be a huge amount of drag which would make the canopy ride boring and slow.  With my birdman suit I can get into any skydiving plane, make a jump, land back in front of the building and walk back inside easily.  I guess I’ll have to wait and see how much they go for.

Just when you thought wingsuit videos couldn’t get any better.  Check out the line they take starting at about the 4:00 mark.

I was there, OK on the ground looking up but I was still there.

This is a video of the skydiving team that my drop zone sponsors.  I’m especially proud of them because two of the team members are old friends and I taught the other two how to skydive.  Great job guys!

 

Felix did a great job of getting out of the flat spin he got into but with his face plate fogging up he pulled too early to set the freefall record, so there is still something to shoot for.  I’d give anything to be able to do that so if anybody has a few million dollars burning a hole in their pocket I’m your guy!

 

Felix Baumatrner is poised to make history this morning by jumping from a stratospheric balloon at the record breaking altitude of 120,000 feet.  If successful he will break the speed of sound and break the current record held by retired Colonel Joe Kittinger.  Joe’s record jump from 102,800 ft in 1960 was during a time when no one knew if a human could survive a jump from the edge of space. Joe was a Captain in the U.S. Air Force and had already taken a balloon to 97,000 feet in Project ManHigh and survived a drogue mishap during a jump from 76,400 feet in Excelsior I. The Excelsior III mission was his 33rd parachute jump.  God speed Felix and remember if you have any second thoughts I’d gladly take your place!