Thread: Cops Photography Topic.

Photos from wingsuit event last week in Lake Elsinore, CA. The 8th photo is a really cool "self-portrait" via a goggle reflection while hanging on the outside of a plane, waiting for the lead planes to exit. The 10th photo shows a motocross track in the background that Gonzo rides at!

Veo, I think I counted about 60 people in the second to last photo. How many were there for this jump? That is crazy organization.

Originally Posted by CivilWars

Veo, I think I counted about 60 people in the second to last photo. How many were there for this jump? That is crazy organization.

The goal was 71 wingsuit pilots in formation which is called a "71-way." There should be pictures of the planned formation at www.wingsuitworldrecord.com (I can't view that site from here). As the domain name indicates, this was supposed to be a "world record" event. Whether or not it was successful as a "record" is actually a point of hot debate within the wingsuit community right now. See, any other discipline of skydiving uses "docks" (holding hands) to define formation completion. Pictures below of current RW (Relative Work = flat belly flight) and freefly (vertical, head-down in this case) records... 400-way and 69-way respectively (notice both are docked). Freeflying is much more powerful and difficult than RW (and newer) hence the disparity.





Well, wingsuit flying is even newer than freeflying (so a small participant pool and skillset), and it is twitchier, though not necessarily harder to do in itself. A wingsuit is fairly easy to fly, but to fly docked is very hard (more than 2 or 3 docks combined and it usually "funnels"... goes to hell and falls apart)... so formations must be flown relative and undocked, which is not fairly easy. The largest wingsuit "formations" in the past were around 45 people or so, but very unorganized and sloppy looking. The goal here was a 71-way "slot specific" formation. Before this probably the largest "perfect" formation ever flown was a 16-way. So, people from 6 continents (no Antarctica) came to CA for 5 days to make 30 jumps with the intent of building a perfect flock (only wingsuiters call a formation a flock... well us and birds). I was selected as one of 4 photographers fortunate enough to shoot the event. I had my doubts about how well it would turn out, as did everyone else, considering the limited skillset and the ambitiousness of the goal. In short... it went MUCH better than I could have ever hoped for, but I do not think it was ever truly "perfect" on any of the jumps (though it was close for a few seconds on a few jumps). Many people are claiming it a new "world record" and many others (out of jealousy and actual objectivity) are denying this. It's a tough call and the bottom line is it's very difficult to define success without docks. As such the FAI currently doesn't accept wingsuit flight as a discipline in which they will log records. Everybody is racking their brains trying to come up with an acceptable criteria for both (a) all the flockers to agree on and (b) FAI to accept. Currently there's no solution. Any ideas?

Record or not that is bad ass.

Originally Posted by w4jchosen

Get somebody on a tall ladder, everyone lay on the ground and photoshop it .

I actually already did that, come to think of it. All 71 flockers were lined up lying down in the grass landing area to practice (called a "dirt dive"). There was like a 30 foot metal staircase/ladder on wheels (no idea what it was for) that got wheeled out and us photographers tooks turns shooting from the top of it. I forgot I had those pictures, need to dig them off my memory card tonight and make a cool photo.

More skydiving photos... taken in Puerto Rico last week.

The last one is my fiancée.