PIGY looks a lot different from when I saw her last. Does anyone know what she is up to now. I’ve heard that she is possibly operating out of Hereford. Has she left the ownership of Invicta Aviation.

Any idea who the Bronco pilot was?

They run in at around 75- 80 knots.

Let’s just be careful with what the media says. When skydiving makes the news in a negative fashion here in the UK, it is over sensationalised. Sadly it isn’t a sport known about, or understood, by those out side of it.

The aircraft (that specific model, or the type in general I am not yet sure of) was operated as a ‘jump ship’ for 14 years or so. That is a long time of cycles, people hanging off of the side of it, high speed airflow entering and circulating in the cabin (assuming there is no use of an internal or external wind deflector). That MIGHT give some backing to be overloaded and one bit of fatigue too much. As for points 2 and 3, I don’t share the opinion myself. The human body will perform worse at higher altitude ( up to 15000 feet as an example) than a aircraft wing.

Let’s see what the reports say and what the survives say. Thankfully(?) POV cameras are widely used in the skydiving community, so there is a good chance of internal footage as well. I have huge sympathy for those that have to watch that footage….

BSBD to those unfortunate soles 🙁

Lucky ******! There have been numerous near misses between the two up in the open air, but to have a collision right above the ground. Kind of a twisted sense of irony.

Thankfully both walked away from it. Not knowing the outcome before seeing the photos I was expecting the jumper to have suffered leg and spinal injuries.

Hello all. I’ll reply broadly to the whole thread.

The equipment that was almost certainly used would have been designed for BASE jumping. Although the principles of use and operation are very similar to ‘normal’ skydiving rig, they do not contain a reserve canopy. They are next to useless owing to the low heights BASE jumpers and these types of wing suiters deploy at. A rectangular reserve (round ones are not used in the civilian sector) requires about 500 feet to fully inflate. BASE jumps take place well below this height. It is part of the appeal of BASE and not having a back up.

You possibly could wear a more conventional rig but then that detracts from the idea of opening the canopy very close to the ground. As far as I know, standard systems are not used for it.

The wing-suit element, or proxi-flying as it as know, is really starting to gain popularity. Some people have taken to it so much they have a celebrity like status with the skydiving/ BASE world. For some it becomes their career and life through sponsorship. It is however very dangerous. Flight paths are scouted out for sometimes weeks at a time to make sure the route is safe and passable. However the human factor cannot be controlled, or other variables like the weather.That doesn’t stop a lot of people doing it and getting in to it. The pilots that do it have experience behind them from being in the sky. I very much doubt people just put on a suit and chuck themselves down a mountain. They are easy to fly once you are taught how to use them, but they can make things go wrong pretty quickly too.

Some people embrace it, some people watch and other people shun it. Whatever the take, we all have one life. We might as well enjoy it in what ways we can.

It looks like it’s made of Lego!