Posted on 01/27/2014 1:55:05 PM PST by BenLurkin
Stather's friends were waiting on the canyon floor for him to complete his second jump when he never landed, azfamily.com reports.
The friends hiked out of the canyon and found his body about 2,000 feet from the top and called the police, according to a Coconino County Sheriff's Office spokesperson. Authorities said Stather was wearing a wing suit and parachute popular among those who do the activity.
(Excerpt) Read more at ibtimes.com ...
I'm guessing the 2000 feet was a mix of horizontal and vertical. They usually do these flights along slopes into the canyon, the type of face you could mostly walk down with some climbing. It makes for a great video as they are relatively close to the ground the whole time they are gliding.
The risk is that relatively close becomes too close in an instant, as was the case here.
I watched a documentary on it on Netflix. It was also a tribute to one of their jumpers that got killed doing it.
There was one shot of a guy on the green in a mountain village talking to the camera and two people flew over him at about 100 MPH.
I’ve seen the glide-ratio varying from 2.5 to 6 (to 1) Where a small plane may be around 9:1.
In the documentary, they claimed 7:1 (7 miles out from a mile high mountain top) and it showed them just skimming the edges of vertical cliffs and almost touching them with their fingertips. There would be several jump at once and while wearing helmet-cams.
I think they usually start by jumping out of airplanes as experienced parachutists before trying the wingsuit, then some graduate to “base-jumping”.
I don’t think they usually get killed by the fall (unless the suit fails) It’s probably from flying into a solid object a 100+ MPH.
Thanks. Very informative and a very nice write up by his fellow jumper. Sounds as though he died doing what he loved with good friends.
What happened to the bridge?
One of my favorite sayings. But this guy walks away from a l-o-n-g fall; watch this amazing footage:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHv-4lU184k
You may get a call from your congresscritter asking who had the audacity of making a law while not consulting him.
Bungee jumping is controlled by mechanical engineers that weigh you to determine how many strands are required.
It is easily the safest of the extreme sports.
Just don’t be the 1st to jump. Let someone else test it.....
“Yep told you the cord was too long”
Mark Sutton killed doing this. He slammed into the side of the mountain at over 100mph.
He was James Bond stand in at the Olympics. Other articles state he was in pieces when they found him.
http://tinyurl.com/pxgwus9
Jeb Corliss, who is from New Mexico, is a world famous wingsuit flyer. He broke both legs clipping a ledge on Table Mountain in South Africa. He uses regular helium balloons suspended at various heights to gauge his clearance at certain places on his flights. A flyer in front of him caused the balloons to drop and the strings got tangled in a bush. They were too low and he hit. Fortunately, there was enough of a drop off on the other side that he could deploy his chute.
I agree this is proof that Darwin’s Natural Selection
Process is working. The dumb ones are self-eliminating from the gene pool.
And you bounce around like a yo yo with no control of the situation. No thanks.
They’ll give you as much bounce as you prefer, its all in the preparation of the bungee, and how much it is wrapped.
I’ll control my exiliration thanks. Like I did for decades riding motorcycles fast in dicey situations.
BTW at my age and in my current health I no longer do any of these things. I only regret not learning to fly planes.
I’m still laughing at the “Kitty Corliss” short. Good find.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.