The PD Blog

XRW Elsinore Video

For those of you looking for some sweet video to check out this morning.  Here's about 5 minutes of wingsuit/canopy footage from the XRW project in Elsinore with the PD Factory Team.

Project XRW: Elsinore 2010 from Raise the Sky.

Artistic Wingsuit flying?!?

That's right!  The 3rd Int'l artistic wingsuit competition took place in September in Terni, Italy.  Here's some footage of the routine from Fly Like Brick.    The 135 Storm was their choice in canopy for when their wingsuit cruising was completed..

FlyLikeBrick - 3rd Intl. Artistic Wingsuit Competition 2010 from FlyLikeBrick on Vimeo.

Wingsuit demos with your PD Storm

Here's a clip of some sweet flying by a few happy PD Storm pilots cruising around with their S-fly wingsuits.  The photo's and video were from a demo they did in St Hilaire du Touvet.  Enjoy...

S-fly Demo Flights from Gert Michiels.

 
Photo by: Alain Moreau

Project XRW Elsinore with the PD Factory Team a success!

 
LAKE ELSINORE, CA, 23 September, 2010 – For the first time in the history of human flight, three wingsuit skydivers in freefall linked up with three parachutists for simultaneous “human surfing” in the air. One of the linked pairs became the first female team ever to ever dock a wingsuit and parachute in flight (skydiving is an 85 percent male-dominated sport). The surfing pairs held the configurations for a full minute, a new record, at an average vertical descent rate of 33 miles per hour.

On a separate jump, two wingsuit skydivers flew up on either side of a parachutist, taking both his hands in a never-before-seen linked configuration. Advances in technology and skill allowed the wingsuit skydivers in freefall to match the slower vertical descent of the parachutists while flying in formation. The wingsuit skydivers all opened their own parachutes before landing.

The stunts were organized by Raise the Sky in coordination with the Performance Designs Factory Team at Skydive Elsinore. The event marked the launch of a partnership to take lessons about leadership and the science of human flight into schools around the United States. “XRW is a grueling and rewarding process. We want to share our adrenaline management skills not just with other skydivers, but also with kids for whom the risks and fears of getting to school every day make XRW look tame,” said Ian Bobo, a PD Factory Team parachutist.

Reported by: Taya Weiss

To learn more about this spectacular project, check out raisethesky.org, and the event blog.

 

Wingsuiting at Soest

While trying out this new crazy sports-camera toy, I had some fun with my

wingsuit and Storm (135), and got some cool angles which I compiled into a video.

Next to being a fun video, its also a nice showcase as to why the

Storm is THE best choice for anyone flying a wingsuit. Always on

heading, fun to fly, and a flare that never ends!!

All the best from the Netherlands!

 

Reported by: Jarno Cordia

PD Sponsored Athlete

 

 

Bigway Wingsuit Invitational

Wingsuit pilots from as far away as South Africa and Russia recently gathered in Eloy, Arizona for a two day invitational wingsuit event. The focus was on doing a different formation each day and while the weather conspired to make it difficult, by the end of the weekend a total of 350 skydives had been made.

Photo galleries from the event can be found  here and here.

Many thanks to photographers Norman Kent,Juan Meyer, Scott Callentine, Scotty Burns and Mark Harris for sharing their work.

Below is a video put together by Douglas Spotted Eagle - enjoy!

That boogie that didn't have an AN-72

So the AN-72 boogie in Germany this year didn't quite live up to its name - what with there being a distinct lack of an AN-72, but that didn't stop us having some awesome fun.

The organisers quickly shipped in an AN-28 and a Sky van to make sure we all still got high. The following video (shot and edited by Jarno), gives you an idea of the kind of things we got up to while playing around in those 'crazy' suits that look like a cross between a straight jacket and a body bag.

Enjoy - preferably with beer, or if you're at work, two.

Big sky time love!

Macca & Jarno

 

Wingsuit Competition Spa

Jarno here from 'the lowlands' with a short newsflash on whats happening in the world of wingsuits;

Better late than never is what they always say (or at least what Im using as my motto to make up for being about a month late with this news).

Past April, skydive center Spa in Belgium was host to the first International Artistic Wingsuit Competition.
Competing over 5 rounds, teams of two wingsuit performers flew a series of docks and transitions, captured by their cameraman.
Judges Hans Schoeber, Christian Waard and Patrick De Guillebon watched the videos per round as soon as they came in.
A special page on the website with live webcam feeds and constant scoring updates proved to be incredibly popular. Receiving an enormous amount of views from throughout the world.

A special handicap scoring system made sure all rounds ended up with comparable scores, even though the difficulty level went up a notch with each one. Especially the later rounds with more backflying proved to be difficult. Points were also awarded for the camera flying.

The teams from Tony Suits and Phoenix Fly put up a big fight for the 1st place.
But when team FlyLikeBrick managed to outscore the Phoenix Fly team in round 4, team Tony Suits smelled blood and made a leap for the gold by winning the last round, and thus taking 1st place in the competition. Phoenix Fly took home the 2nd prize, with FlyLikeBrick winning 3d.

a short video with some of the competition highlights.
For more information check www.wingsuitcompetition.com

There where many amazing prizes made available by the events main sponsor Cypres, as well as FlyYourBody, Birdman, Phoenix Fly, TonySuits, Paralog and Extreme FlyWear.

Team FlyLikeBrick also managed to take home the DoDo Award. A special cash prize made available by german SkyJester for the most spectacular tumble in competition. There was also a raffle for everyone attending, with special prizes made available by Cypres and TonySuits.

For the next edition we will be revising the rules a little, and working towards getting everyone to 'fly' more, as some rounds resembled RW/FF more than having anything to do with wingsuit flight.
But the general rules and framework of the competition proved to be working and the competition was a big succes.

A big thank you to all the sponsors and the wonderfull dropzone Spa, and an even bigger thank you for all the teams who traveled and jumped in the freezing cold to make this competition a reality!

Wingsuit Flights in Norway

PD Factory Team pilot, Jonathan Tagle, documented some wingsuit flights with PD athlete, Nils Predstrup in Norway earlier this month. Check out the short video...

Nils Completes His First Wingsuit BASE Jump!

Nils Predstrup of Denmark has just completed his first wingsuit BASE jump. After the 6 hour hike from the valley floor, Nils and crew reached the exit point in Romsdalen, Norway. The weather here in Norway has been unusually great for this time of year, and it presented perfect conditions for this special BASE jump. Several local jumpers came along to add to the excitement.

With cameras rolling Nils launched off the cliff. After a small adjustment he really started getting into the full range of the suit as he flew off into the valley toward the main landing area. The TV crew was stoked about the footage they captured.

Here's what Nils had to say about his experience...

"I'm personally super content just because I did my first wingsuit BASE jump and opened the doorway to a new discipline, and because we successfully recorded a lot of good material for what I hope will become a good documentary about wingsuit BASE jumping in one of the most beautiful valleys I have ever visited. What I did to deserve the experiences I've had the last few days I don't know, but I guess I'm just happy and grateful for an awesome time."

You can visit his website at: www.funkflyz.com

-jonathan tagle