Article on John Kallend

The website of Illinois newspaper Southtown Star has an informative article on John "The Professor" Kallend (as he's known on dropzone.com) and his skydiving carreer.

Read the article here.

The Sharp End - Trailer

A video on Chris Macnamara, as part of a promo for a DVD production called THE SHARP END by Sender films.

Check it out!

2009 - 2010: a friendly wish and message

As new years eve crawls closer with every second, we see another amazing year come to an end. A year with many amazing things that happened. A year with sad things as well.

The discipline is growing, rapidly expanding. And we see many good things come from that. Something that really showed this past year.
Lots of new people coming to the sport. More and more coaching, instruction and general safety information becoming available everywhere. General skills and knowledge slowly expanding. Wingsuit development moving forward, step by step.
Pushing us more and more towards the flying dream that started it all.
Wingsuit formations, flown in shapes, sizes and numbers we didn't imagine doable a few years back. Flying distances we couldn't have imagined, doing aerobatics, trying new things and expanding the competitive disciplines. People flying with jet engines. Skimming rocks. Flying relative to canopies. Every few weeks, something new that amazes us. Every week new things that inspire us. New things that also help us grow, as they pull more enthousiastic people towards the nylon.

But as we grow in numbers, we sadly also see some of the negative effects.
The many videos online are also pushing and pulling people into our sport that seem to be in a rush. Not doing it for the road and experience, but merely wanting to reach the destination as soon as they can.
Making them aim to do things their experience levels don't always match.
Doing jumps they shouldn't be doing. Flying suits they shouldn't be flying. Just like the rapid growth freeflying experienced in the beginning, we do sometimes show the urge to run before we can walk, or dare I say sometimes didn't even master crawling.

Small growing pains. But pains we should always watch and be mind full of to not let complacency set it.

Regardless of your experience level. Be it zero, five or five-thousand wingsuit jumps. Never fear to speak up when it comes to safety.
And realise (and help raise general awareness in new flyers) that many of the amazing things everyone sees in photos and videos, sometimes came at a high price. A lot of the good flyers have honed their skills through hundreds, if not thousands of jumps. This past year we've seen many of the people that helped push the sport, and more specifically our discipline, get injured or worse.

We lost many great people this year. Some directly to our sport. Some to other sports or unplanned events. Sometimes preventable, sometimes not.
But regardless, people that lived and breathed flying. Sport only being a small word for something that means so much more to us all. A passion. A lifestyle. An obsession. A dream.

Its hard to look back, and see mistakes people made. Sometimes even worse to look back and actually see they did everything right, and still died.
Its a dangerous game we play. And though for everyone the reward seems more than worth the risk, that doesn't mean we can not do everything within our power to try and minimise that risk. And try making this sport (regardless if its BASE or Skydive) as safe as possible.

If there is one message I would wish everyone for the coming year. Its to make 2010 the year where you pay attention to the person next to you. Be it with a tip, check, warning or compliment. We are only a small group of friends, in a big big world. Lets all try and make this world a fun one, where everyone is the best he can be, in the safest possible way.

And one where www.wingsuitnews.com is not the place where you go to read bad news, but the place where we get to read and write about the cool things, and see great videos on peoples accomplishments.

Everyone, have a safe new years eve.
And many, many beautiful, safe and incredible flights for 2010.

Sincerely,
Jarno

Wingsuits: Powered by Cisco

Ill Vision helped create a TV commercial.

Iwan van der Schoor, iwanvanderschoor.com contracted Ill Vision to help with a Cisco promotional video.

Ed, Dingo, and So-Cal heavy hitter Brian Drake got the needed aerial shots in 2 days.

Check it out!

Wingsuit Accident - UK Basejumper

Its with much sadnes that I post the news of Darren Bull, who had an accident at the start of an intended wingsuit BASE jump in the famous Swiss valley.

Slipping at the exit platform as he was about to jump, he fell of the platform.
Though he managed to open is canopy, it sadly opened facing the wall. Immidiately followed by a cliff strike.

Check out Darren's YouTube profile, to see some of his videos, and find out more about the nice guy (and awesome video editor) he was.

J

Croatian wingsuit team Drazan to perform at the Al Ain airshow

Our daily search for wingsuit related news in the mass media lead us to this article, basically a press release/advertisement, about the Al Ain (UAE) airshow which will be held on the 30th of January. They mention Croatia's 'Drazen Wingsuit' demo team, but I could not find any info about this team on the web. Does anyone know who are the members and if they have a website? Leave a comment to let us know!

Read the article here.

USPA President Flies a Wingsuit

Jay Stokes, President of the United States Parachute Association did his first wingsuit jump, followed up by coach jumps, at Skydive Elsinore this week. He also did his first wingsuit dock, so he owes just a bit of beer.
Click for more info and photos.

AN2 - No funny exits

Rolf talks some jumpers through their first Antonov 2 wingsuit exit.
The comment 'no funny exits' is of course (unintentionaly) followed by lots of funny exits.

Check it out!

Stupino L210

Some nice older footage showing Loic jean-Albert leading a big flock, with James Boole on his back underneath doing video.

Check it out!

Skydiving at Hanko

Some Finish skydiving at Hanko.

Check it out!

Article by James Boole on his accident

In an interesting article written by James himself, instead of some sensationalist whuffo reporter, he retells the story of his accident in Russia and the events that followed.

Read the article here.

Scientific paper on wingsuit aerodynamics

Swiss university researcher Geoffrey Robson has been studying wingsuit flight to unprecedented accuracy, by using a very sensitive instrument which measures 3D location by GPS and inertial measurement, flyer attitude and heading, altitude, and air pressure (for air density data) during many wingsuit BASE jumps. The device, called the MTi-G, was purchased from Xsens, a Dutch company that specializes in 3D motion tracking.

Geo studied the optimal angle of attack for the best glide ratio. He's also been working closely together with Visa Parviainen to gather data on powered wingsuit flight. The article of a couple days ago about Visa mentions doing tests and gathering data. Visa is sharing this data with Geo for his research.

Geo submitted his paper to the 2010 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, where it will hopefully be published. We've been given a sneak preview of the very interesting paper, but unfortunately we cannot show it to you yet. When Geo releases it to the general public, probably in January, we'll post a link to it here on WWWN too.

Read the article/press release on the xsens.com website here or visit Geo's website on the subject.

Wingsuit BASE jump

A promotional with endorment quotes from Matt Gerdes for TonySuits

Check it out!

Birds Flock

Not really wingsuit flying, but so cool we had to post.

Bird Swarm Captured on Video Over Sacramento County
An expert estimated it was a flock of up to 500,000 European Starling birds gathered in eastern Sacramento County Friday that put on a dazzling aerial display -- a sight caught on video.

Check it out!

Stealth flying (GoPro Hero)

B-Rad taking his new birthday present out for a spin (gopro HD camera)

Check it out!

Latin American Wingsuit Boogie 2009

Juan Mayer posted a nice video on the third edition of the Latin American Wingsuit Boogie 2009.

Check it out!

Stealth Jet

Visa Parviainen is well known for his jet (micro-turbine) powered wingsuit adventures.
Recently he has been testing some new Jet Engines, combined with the (soon to be released) Stealth2 from Phoenix-Fly, and the results are quite awesome to watch.
Expect more footage on this one soon!

Check it out!



From Visa's facebook account

Had a successful rocket test with a sophisticated flightrecording device. Exit alt 1460, got levelflight at 1150m. Lenght over 4 minutes, deploy alt 960m. airspeed around 180 km/h . During 30 seconds I was able to climb 30 m. Test shows that angle of the attac has to be less than 10 degreess and Phoenix-fly wingsuit i...s actually working as a wing and creating lift :) Very happy now

The footage was shot by Tanel

Visa is sponsored by:
Phoenix-fly
AMT-Jets
Wings-Containers
Atair

2009 antics in review

Justin Shorb has posted a new video called 'Collective Addiction' showing some of the events he attended and organised the past year.

Check it out!

DLD - Karina Hollekim

DLD is a similar format to the famous TED talks, and this interesting talk on Basejumping (and wingsuits) surfaced on their website today.

Karina Hollekim from Norway loves risk and is a professional free-skier and the only professional base jumper from the Skandinavian state. Karina Hollekom's skills, fearlessness, struggles und successes have been documented in several films - one is '20 seconds of joy'. In the session with the same name she talks about her passions.

Check it out by clicking here

Flock & Dock 5, 2009

And its one of those fun times where we get to (ab)use WingsuitNews.com a bit for our own video stuff.

There is a short trailer on YouTube, and if you like, you can check out the full version at www.flylikebrick.com.



Click here to go to the full (23 minute) video.

Bispen

And some nice Bispen (Norway) FlyBy's as shot by jumpers and tourists.

Check it out!

Team Funky Spin

Mostly (aerobatic) paraglider stuff, but some lost shots of wingsuit flyers also show up in this promo for Team Funky Spin.

Check it out!

Filmato Wingsuit

A nice video showing some flocking/coaching jumps in San Diego (CA, USA).

Check it out!

Plane vs Wingsuit

We posted on aerobatics pilot Melissa and her wingsuit flying husband before.
Now they are the subject of a nice TV item. Pretty cool!

Chrck it out!



PS. A nerdy WingsuitNews.com first. This news was posted from a mobile (I)phone...So more 'on the road' updates. The ever climbing visitor numbers are way cool! Thanx for reading and making our efforts worthwhile.

Red Bull WS team

Some nice POV and Air2Air shots on some of the Red Bull athletes flying.
Check it out!

(NOTE: could be old footage, as it wasnt uploaded by the original owner. Anyone who has more information, please reply in the comments)

Zwartberg flying

Gert Michiels shot some of his wingsuit students at Zwartberg (Belgium), flying the clubs' new S-Fly 'Indy' demo suits.

Check it out!

Wingsuit vs Pilatus PC-6

Some nice relative flying with an airplane, and a good full-flight canopy flyby.

Check it out!

Dolomiti Air Show - Wingsuit Demo

A nice wingsuit demo in Italy for the "Dolomiti air show", set to some groovy tunes of which I swear Ive heard em before on some bad p*rn movie.
But back on subject, a nice double view halfway into the video, showing the smoke trail from the ground.

Check it out!

wingsuit big way 2009 US

Bo Weinberg posted the following video:

Pictures and video from my point of view in the US national wingsuit Big way

Check it out!

Leo Houlding in Manchester

Note to any readers living in or around the Manchester, UK area, website Outdoorsmagic.com has a short press release that climber and base jumper extraordinaire Leo Houlding will be at the new Nevisport outdoors store in Manchester on Thursday 10 December giving a talk about the Asgard Project, which we've covered before.

Houlding's at the store on Deansgate from 4pm to 7pm talking about the ambitious expedition to Baffin Island that forms the basis for the astonishing Asgard Project film - see our review - and also discussing the Berghaus kit used on the trip, which involved climbing a desperate big wall in arctic conditions followed by a wingsuit descent back to camp.

Click here for the complete article

2009 in review

Brian Drake just posted a new video called '2009 in Review' with some of his year highlights.

Check it out!

Wingsuit BASE by proxy

New Zealand news site The National Business Review has an article about (wingsuit) BASE jumper Chuck Berry having set up a clever tourist attraction where a tourist can pay to watch him jump off a cliff, from the safety of a nearby hovering helicopter.

Read the complete article here.

Gryphon

The (jet-powered) Gryphon glider is getting more and more media attention (probably related to Yves Rossy and his recent Jet-Wing adventures)

IGN: Jet Powered Wingsuits Coming soon - Mixing up the Gryphon designers and Yves Rossy, but its aimed at whuffo's so accurate facts dont matter :)
Wingsuit Soldiers: Man can really fly - similar article
Gryphon Stealth Wings.

An older item from FOX news showing some footage from the Gryphon



And a PIA report from our own DSE, with the Gryphon designers.

2009 extended

Leslie Mathues posted another nice video, with some of his 2009 season highlights.

Check it out!

Frode - A BASE life

Some fairly dramatic music, but nice scenery and flying by Norwegian wingsuit pilot, Frode.

Check it out!

Close shave - BASE jump Bispen Norway

Though it sounds close to the title of a great Wallace and Grommit animation, this video also shows it deserves that name.
A basejumper wanting to perform a cool tourist flyby, accidently stalls his wingsuit while making a sharp turn and has to do an emergency pull to avoid a collision with the ground.

Check it out!

GoProHero HD - Backflying

Hans Schoeber was also testing his new GoPro Hero HD past weekend, and uploaded some shots to Vimeo.

If we have one more post with GoProHero HD in the title, we will start charging the company for free advertising ;)

Check it out!

GoProHD - Wingsuit

With many GoPro Hero HD cameras now hitting dropzones and mountains worldwide, we see more and more test and demo shots appear on the web.

Here is another one. Check it out!

new website - s-flycommunity.com

There is now a French blog/community website at s-flycommunity.com which shows a selection of wingsuitnews related to the French brand/wingsuit S-Fly (FlyYourBody).

The site is part English, part French. Click here for a Google translated version.

Check it out!

Red Devills Parachute Regiments Freefall Team

The Parachute Regiments Free fall team the Red Devils team film 2009.
A compilation of Displays and Tandem skydives the team has undertaken for Charity in 2009.

Be sure to check out the Red Devils website for more information about the charity jumps and demo skydives they do.

WingFutoon 2008

These guys created quite a unique exit/aircraft/what is it

3 good friends, one couch (futon), a hot air balloon, and some parachutes. What better way to spend a cold Colorado morning!

Check it out!

Military flying wing 'Gryphon'

From the somewhat-wingsuit-related-dept, Wired.com has an article about the Gryphon rigid wing developed by some German companies. It is the same idea as Yves Rossy's wing, except one that can also carry a payload.

One wonders how useful this would be compared to a parapente, which can fly further and carry more cargo...

Check it out here.

It's our 1 year anniversary!

Today it's been 1 year since we posted our first article!

We've done our best to cover as many aspects of the wingsuit world as we can. Our intrepid Jarno Cordia has been our top poster, providing you with 90% of the content you read, watch and enjoy on this website. And of course we'd like to thank you for making lots of videos and doing crazy stuff so we can keep on posting new items to this site.

We've been keeping tabs on our visitors too. Using Google Analytics we've seen our reader numbers increase throughout the year. Since our inception, we've had over 65,000 pageviews during 40,000 visits by close to 18,000 visitors!

The highest peak was on May 19th, with 654 visits. This was during our coverage of James Boole's accident where he deployed low during a BASE jump and got injured pretty badly, but thankfully survived.

As you can see from this map, most of our visitors come from the US (click on it to make it bigger):


It's been a great year, and we plan to keep going. If you think you'd like to become a WWWN author, let us know, and we'll consider it. Jarno could use some help with all the videos... :)

New Scientist article: "Don't pack your parachute: Totally free fall"

In a very well written article on the New Scientist website, author Julian Smith explores the idea of landing your wingsuit without a parachute.

Apart from Jeb Corliss' project, a huge ramp on which to land and slow down, he also reveals an idea by Maria von Egidy of Jii-Wings, where during the last bit of the flight, you hang underneath your wingsuit as in a glider...

Read the full article here.

Sebastian Flock

The Sebastian Flock uploads clips from their jumps to YouTube regularly. Here are a few of the recent videos.

Check it out!

A history of wingsuiting

The Globe and Mail's Peter Cheney is apparently very interested in wingsuits, because he's posted a third story about wingsuits. This time it's a short timeline of various wingsuit milestones.

Read the complete article here.

For a truly indepth story about the history of wingsuiting, check out Birdmen, Batmen, and Skyflyers: Wingsuits and the Pioneers Who Flew in Them, Fell in Them, and Perfected Them by Michael Abrams.

Servus TV, 2009

A brief item on hot air balloons, from GermanAustrian television.

Check it out!
NOTE: wingsuit at 2:12

Apocalipse Snow - Wingsuit Flying

A trailer for the cool docu/drama production Apocalipse Snow.

Check it out!



You can order the DVD at adrenalinbase.com

Landing a wingsuit: "The last great first"

In a cleverly titled article "The last great first" on The Globe and Mail website, Peter Cheney's interviews Jeb Corliss on the various aspects and difficulties of landing a wingsuit.

Read the complete article here.

"How the Rocketman flies"

From the wingsuits-in-the-mass-media dept, a story in The Globe and Mail on Yves Rossy, "Rocketman". He actually calls himself Fusion man and doesn't use rockets at all, but jets. :-)

Read the full story here.

Wingsuit Balloon Flyby

A pretty cool wingsuit flyby, on a hot air balloon.

Beautiful Colorado morning, Ultralight, Cessna, Hot Air Balloon, and Wingsuit action. 110 mph at 15-feet.

Check it out!

Countour HD

Some brief shots of hybrid wingsuit/tracking suits (VKB would have been my first guess, but appearantly its 'pressurized' gear) shot with the increasingly popular HD sports camera toys.

Check it out!

Adrenalin Base - Mount Blanc

A nice video from adrenalinbase.com showed up on YouTube. Snowy flights over the Mount Blanc.

Check it out!

Oxygen Wingsuit team, Autumn fun

And some Belgian flocking for you to enjoy!

composition of fun jumps made in autumn 2009. DZ Hoevenen Belgium. check out our website www.lowpull.be. Hope you enjoy this one ! grtzzz tim ve

Check it out!

Prodigy2 Handcam

And some French footage showing a wingsuit flight from a hand-cam perspective. Check it out!

GTA San Andreas - Wingsuit Mod

A fun mod. for the game Grand Theft Auto, allowing you to fly a wingsuit.

wingsuit for gta sa maked by Marco [SE]Basejumper. Visit the clan's web site: www.jumpingzone.es.tl

Check it out!

Dave Barlia - Wingsuit Proximity Flying

A short bit of footage from the film 'Red Helmet', (part of the Nissan Outdoor Games) surfaced on YouTube today. Impressive shots of Dave Barlia skimming mountain terrain at treetop level.

Check it out!

Technology Review Magazine - Wingsuits

Mirko sent us a photo of the latest issue of the German Technology Review Magazine.



It features a great explanation on the inner and outer workings and construction of a PF Vampire 3 wingsuit. With some great graphics, supplied by Mirko himself (who is a graphic designer). Especialy for Wingsuitnews.com, he also sent us a small sample of the source image he supplied to the magazine.

Check it out!

Luigi Cani :: 2010 documentary :: official trailer

A documantary on Luigi Cani is currently being made. Today the trailer premiered on Vimeo:

The official trailer: With more than 10,000 jumps and several world records, including the fastest free fall speed, Cani is a test pilot for developing new materials and technology, recognized for his daring Wing-Suit stunts. He is also a precise athlete in many other adventure sports. His experience as an action scenes director for his own stunts has been broadcasted by some of the major TV shows in America and Brazil.

Check it out!

Birdman presents new suit: Blade 2

Birdman has announced a new wingsuit in their november newsletter, the Blade 2, with a new rigging system (the same zipper system that FlyYourBody/Sfly, Tony Suits and Phoenix-Fly use), a new cutaway system, new inlets, bigger deflector, bigger legwing, and many other changes.

See the complete description and more pictures at their online store.

Yves Rossi - Gibraltar Crossing (video)

And some more video and (printed) press coverage on Yves Rossi and his aborted Gibraltar crossing.

Check it out!

video:


press:
The Guardian - Rocket Man brought down to earth
Daily Star - Yves Rossy's rocket bird fails
Telegraph.co.uk - Fusionman’s adventure meets watery end
Hamburger Abendblatt - Raketenmann landet im Atlantik

Sevilla - Backfly

Patrick posted a video, showing some backflying and fun relative flight in the Spanisch Skies. Check it out!

'Rocket Man' Yves Rossy - Straight of Gibraltar

Yves Rossy (aged 50 year), the Swiss Pilot better known as 'rocket man', attempted to fly from Tangier (North Africa) to a beach in southern Spain (Europe). Crossing the straight of Gibraltar.
The plan was to jump out at 6,500 feet, deploying the wings and activating the engine, then fly at up to 180mph, with a flying time of 15 minutes.

Sadly he ran into trouble halfway into his crossing, and ended up landing in the sea, where he was resqued by helicopter.

Press
Metro UK - Rocket Man' Yves Rossy crashes into sea as crossing flops

Video
Straight of Gibraltar Crossing - Video (prior to the attempt)


English Channel Crossing - Video

The Scary Roll.....that Wasn't

And our featured blogger DSE posted a video on his first wingsuit flight after a long break from skydiving, due to a previous accident. From the sound of things, not a completely un-eventfull flight.

This was supposed to have been a relaxed four-way dock. We dirt dived as such. Justin changed his mind at some point and attempted to do scary rolls. Scary Rolls don't work so well on someone who doesn't want to be rolled.

Check it out!

USA Bigway

And slowly more and more inside videos from the US bigway event from last month start showing up.

Check it out!

Geraldine Fasnacht - Wingsuit Flyer

The French television is having a ball with wingsuit items.
This time it's a nice interview with wingsuit pilot, and BASE jumper, Geraldine Fasnacht.

Check it out!

GPS data - for the fans

A video we posted earlier (the original on skydivingmovies.com is no longer online) showing a Script in action that allows for GPS data overlays on video.

Check it out here on YouTube (embedding disabled)

Dean Potter

A nice promotional item from National Geographic on Dean Potter. Rock Climber and BASE jumper.

Check it out!

Hugo's first V3 Jump

Not much we can ad to that title...Hugo's first V3 Jump

Check it out!

Dont Panic

Costyn is in Kenya at the moment, and while trying to do a subtle fix to the website, I screwed up the side bar.

Lets all pray Costyn is back soon, so you dont have to scroll down 2 meters to find some interface stuff :)

My appologiez!
Jarno

Loic Jean Albert

An older TV item surfaced on YouTube today. Showing some of the flying by Loic-Jean Albert. There is also some nice archival footage on the initial wingsuit pioneers, and Patrick DeGayardon who made several big design improvements that led to wingsuit design as we know it today.

Check it out!

Ill Vision strikes again!

The guys from team Ill Vision just uploaded some 1st person POV's on the recent US bigway event. Some really nice shots from the left wing of the formation.

Check it out!



and a fun (non wingsuit) bonus video from the same guys, showing some fun on the ground at Lake Elsinore, flying an RC plane with a small videocamera around the DZ.

Swiss Valley - Steph Davis

steph davis posted a nice video on some Swiss BASE flights.

Check it out!

Record breaking 'arrow' sky dive

BBC news also has a short bit on the US bigway adventures.

Check it out on their website

The Sun

The UK paper The Sun also placed an article on the recent USPA bigway record. Sadly some factual errors with regards to the cause of the accident that followed shortly after the record was set.

You can check out the article here

Wing-suit skydivers set record - The Age

FairFax Digital has a nice video item on the recent USPA record, flown over lake Elsinore (USA). Nice air 2 air camerawork, and worth checking out!

Click here to go to the website

FFC - Cerfontaine, Belgium

Wouter uploaded a video to YouTube showing his first wingsuit flight, a few months back at the ToraTora boogie in Cerfontaine (Belgium). (His FFC was taught, and video-ed by yours truly)

Check it out!

Scandinavian BASE building record - KL tower 2009

A (low-ish) 4 way (wingsuit) jump of KL tower.

Check it out!

Media: 68 way wingsuit formation

Though incorrectly labeling it a world record (ignoring the 71 way flown to the same criteria a year ago), the online paper MyValleyNews.com wrote a nice (whuffo oriented)
article on the recent (USPA) 68 way wingsuit record which was set at Lake Elsinore (USA) last week by a large team of international flyers.

Check it out here

Swiss Wingsuit BASE

Teton Gravity Research athlete, Erik Roner, performs a wingsuit BASE jump

Check it out!

Nitro Circus stunt: Wingsuit Battle

A brief wingsuit segment made it onto the MTV show Nitro Circus

Nitro Circus stunt: Wingsuit Battle - Erik Roner and friends jump from an airplane in wingsuits and do some battle royal mid flight.

Check it out!

Adrenalin Base

Jean Noel from adrenalinbase.com updated the video section of its website with some really nice wingsuit BASE videos.

Check it out!

Ueli Gegenschatz 1971 - 2009

After initial reports about Ueli Gegenschatz being seriously hurt, due to a public basejumping demo gone bad, we are sorry to report that the injuries sustained have ended up costing him his life.

Everyone who knew him always spoke kindly on his lack of a big ego, upbeat attitude and how nice and accesable a person he was. And looking back at his career in BASEjumping, he has the most impressive resume one could ask for.

Several local news websites reported on his accident, and slowly the mainstream media is catching onto the news of his passing.

videoportal.sf.tv (CH)
blick.ch (CH)
blick.ch (CH)
20min.ch (CH)
tagesanzeiger.ch (CH)
tagesanzeiger.ch (CH)
tsr.ch (FR)




Ueli was quite a famous person in wingsuit flying and BASE, and over the years has done many amazing flights and media promotion for both himself and the sport. For those who dont know him that well, here is a brief selection of articles and media mentions on Ueli:

TED Talk Ueli talking about his sport, and the urge to fly
World Base Race - Interview & promotional item
Red Bull AirRace Barcelona - 2009 Wingsuit demo
Wingsuit Flyer Faster than Speeding Plane - Wingsuit vs Airplane race
TV item - Interview and footage
Ride the Planets - wingsuit flying

Oxygen Wingsuit Team - Autumn 2009

And some Belgian wingsuit flying, edited by Tim Van Eesteren:

composition of fun jumps made in autumn 2009. DZ Hoevenen Belgium. check out our website www.lowpull.be. Hope you enjoy this one ! grtzzz tim ve

Check it out!

Marocco wingsuit BASE

A nice video showing some Marocco wingsuit BASE.

Base jump en wing-suit à la Cathédrale Haut Atlas, Maroc

Check it out!

BASE jumping - WBR & interviews

The Swiss TV channel Schweizer Fernsehen: Video has a long TV item and interviews on the World Base Race, and wingsuit BASE in general.

Long, but definately worth watching!
Check it out here!

Be sure to check out all parts of the episode!

Roch Malnuit - Website & videos

And we got some nice videos submitted by Roch Malnuit, who also has a nice website worth checking out.



Roch also has a video on the tallest BASEjump in the world, jumping from the top of the East Face of Meru Peak, at 6600 meter .
Check that one out by clicking here

In memoriam - Steve Harrington 1968 - 2009

Flock University has posted a moving tribute to Steve Harrington. Wingsuit flyer, and founding member of the US based wingsuit school.

The group of flyers who flew with Steve in a 68 way wingsuit formation past week, are planning a 58 way memorial jump tomorrow to celebrate his life.



from FlockUniversity.org:

Requiem for a Wingsuiter

On November 11, 2009, the wingsuiting community lost one of its greatest and most unsung contributors. Earlier in the day, Steve Harrington had joined with dozens of other wingsuiters to set the US record for largest flock: a 68-way slot perfect design. On the last load of the day – a fun jump to celebrate that success – tragedy occurred when he struck the tail of the aircraft on exit.

Steve started skydiving in 1991, when he first went through AFF on a whim with his twin brother. Steve continued on in the skydiving world, when his twin drifted out of the sport. Despite his love for jumping, over time, his skydiving started to decrease. “I hadn’t made a lot of jumps in the preceding five or six years due to work commitments, recovery from a skiing accident, buying new home, and getting married,” he once remarked. All that turned around when he discovered wingsuiting. “Wingsuiting made me realize what I was missing; it just made me feel alive again,” he said. Steve co-founded Flock University because he loved wingsuiting and wanted to share that love and enthusiasm with other skydivers. That effort was just another manifestation of his quiet and unassuming – but consistently friendly and positive – manner. He was “one of those jumpers that you looked forward to seeing on the plane every time,” a friend wrote. “He always had a warm smile, welcoming attitude, and a keen eye for jumper safety.”

Steve was a trailblazer both in the sky and in his personal life. Steve married his partner, Adam, in one of the first same-sex marriages conducted following its legalization in Massachusetts. “My spouse is now in medical school – I guess that makes us a ‘power couple’ – a doctor and business professional”, Steve once joked.

He often remarked that skydiving has made him a more “complete” and “confident” person. “Friends at work always ask me about recent jumps and travels,” he once said. “They say their lives are boring in comparison, and they’re jealous... But they also say they are jealous that I am not tied down to a nagging wife,” he added with a smile.

A friend wrote, “Steve was always in a good mood, always positive – he lived his life the way he wanted to. He was a true and genuine human being. He was part of the reason we had so much fun jumping our wingsuits.” Another commented, “He touched many lives... We are all truly honored who got to share the air with him. He will not be forgotten...”

All of us at Flock University mourn Steve’s loss, and we all extend our deep condolences to Adam and Steve’s family.

Blue Skies, Steve... Fly free.




Steven Harrington (November 25, 1968 to November 11, 2009).

Lake Elsinore wingsuit formation - Press

NBC Los Angeles also posted an article and (nice air 2 air footage!) video on the Lake Elsinore wingsuit formation.

Check it out here.

Elsinore news - completed 68 way

picture by DSE from one of the practice jumps leading up to the succesfully completed formation

Congratulations to all the men and women who flew a 68 way wingsuit formation, in full compliance to the current USPA rules.
The formation sadly didnt pass the previous 71 way formation from 2008, which was flown to the same grid specification. But officialy, its the first recognised bigway of its kind. So congratulations to everyone involved!


A short POV video Danish skydiver Bo Weinberg posted on the record jump

Allong with the good news on the event, also some sad news.
As during one of the jumps at the event, just shortly after the completed bigway, one of the flyers appearantly hit the tail of the aircraft and (dispite a cypres activation) didnt survive the injuries sustained.



There are some news reports online on the accident, which can be found here and here.

For more in depth discussion on the accident, check this thread on dropzone.com

BASE 2009

Leslie Mathues uploaded a nice compilation of videos he shot during his 2009 BASE flights.

Check it out!

[ critics ] Webisode 6

Two guys talk about internet videos, and of course, cant resist commenting on one of the most viewed (and copied) internet videoclip.

Co-hosts Steve Weiss & Philip Bloom open up with some witty banter, including a view jibes on fashion choices. Next, they critique 4 new shorts: an underground music video, an insane crazy-dangerous wing-suit base jumping, and Trash the Dress Bridal: a couture video highlighting a bride rolling in the sea. The webisode ends with a critique on "A Short Love Story in Stop Motion," one of the most viewed videos on Vimeo.

Check it out!

Kick Ass

The trailer for a new film called 'Kick Ass' shows some nifty wingsuit construction (and flying).

Check it out!

Australian wingsuiter Michael Schenk featured

NT News (Nothern Territories) has an article about Michael Schenk and his participation in the Australian 13-way record flown there recently.

Read the complete article here.

Shane McConkey 1969 - 2009 (tribute)

A moving piece, remembering the life of Shane McConkey. A hero of many sports, who died doing what he loved. Pushing the sport, and doing what others only dream of.,,

Check it out.

Wingsuit proximity flying: Andrey Karr Boldyrev

Some sick, fast proximity flying in Norway.

Gravity Workshop summer trip to Norway, 2009. Last flight on Bispen. Ground camera - Tomas Galasek.

Check it out!