Well, they say the path to that is a full and fun one. We have talked about it before and mentioned The Brothers Gray in Orange, Virginia as some of the instructors available to teach you the how's and wherefore's, but here's another little drop in the ocean to think about. A quick a - z of what you are taking on.

You must first learn to skydive and to do this you need to find a drop zone. Depending on how much time you have, how much money you've got to spend, and how brave you are, you have three options for what method of skydiving you'll use for your first jump:

• tandem (where you are strapped to the front of your instructor),
• static line (where a cord attached from the plane to your parachute pulls the parachute open almost immediately after you jump out), and
• accelerated freefall (AFF) (you pull your own rip cord and you float to the ground solo). These offer varying levels of airborne freedom and varying levels of training time.

Then you must go through levels 1 - 7 of the AFF course which will teach you, in 7 jumps, how to belly fly and how to land a parachute. 'Belly fly' is the most basic style of free fall body control.

Follow the AFF up with a few coached jumps where you are jumping on your own. By the end of 25 jumps you will know how to pack a parachute, airplane protocol, belly flight body control and various landing patterns and what to do in an emergency. Both the Accelerated Freefall and the Advanced licence can be done in a week. You can of course take longer to do them but constant repetition makes you feel far more confident and it is important to be confident if you are going to continue your skydiving into wingsuit flying!

From Skdiving to Wingsuit Flying

Wingsuit flying is more regulated and also potentially far more dangerous than skydiving as there are a lot of things that can go wrong when your arms and legs are zipped up into the wings of the suit. It is highly unlikely that you will be allowed to progress to wingsuit lessons if you do not already have at least 200 skydives - we have discussed this before in an earlier blog.

By becoming an adept skydiver you will learn the various types of skydiving such as the above mentioned belly flying (the most basic), free flying, tracking (where you use your body to choose the direction of your flight) and relative work where you join with other people in the air. Learning how to do tracking is a very useful exercise as you learn to fly your body as if you are in a wingsuit.

It should also be said at this point that mistakes in judgment and procedure are the cause of 92% of skydiving fatalities. What does that mean? It means that if you do everything you're supposed to do during that exhilarating 60 second drop to the ground, you'll be fine, but if you don't...

You will finally be ready to progress to wingsuit flying and when you do this you will understand why skydivers are so regulatory about the learning process. A wingsuit instructor will teach you everything from how to connect the wingsuit to your skydiving rig, to how to exit the plane and throw your pilot chute, and what flight pattern to take.

You need to imagine yourself as an aeroplane during the jump! So the more you know and understand the actual flight of a plane the more you will understand your own flight in a wingsuit - talk to the pilots! Your first jumps are likely to be scary as you will be working hard just to stay stable in the air, but you will soon be 'flocking' with your friends. Don't fly 'blind' - which means landing miles away from the landing area!

Wingsuits or Squirrel Suits

There are various types of wing SUITS to use and they all sound like they come out of a Harry Potter novel! How about this one...Phoenix Fly Vampire 2 !!! However this particular suit is large and difficult to manage as a novice. It would be much better to start off with a small, intuitive, simple suit like the Birdman Classic or the Phoenix Fly Prodigy. When you are learning in these suits you will be able to do jumps out of helicopters, flips and barrel rolls, plus flying relative with other people. When you have built-up your confidence you can move on to the Phoenix Fly Vampire 2. It will take some getting used to as it is a very big, high performance suit and not easy to fly, but when you get used to it it is, apparently, perfect!

Obviously learning how to wingsuit fly is expensive, and costly on time too, but if you can afford to, it is recommended that you keep the lessons tightly packed so you create a habit not a hobby - skydivers call it 'being current'. You cannot afford to be cocky in this sport - one small slip could end everything. Not a nice thought.

Don't take my word for it though. Go to a skydive club and do everything by the book. Listen to and learn from your instructors. You are a braver person than I am! This is what Steph Potter (wife of Dean Potter the amazing mountain climber, baseliner, etc etc etc) has to say:

"Flying like a bird, with my friends, is perhaps the most amazing experience a human being can have. The more you fly, the more natural it becomes, and it just gets better and better".

Mariah Carey performed "Fly Like a Bird" ("Emancipation of Mimi") and did so splendidly. We still say her voice isn't what it used to be, but hey - every singer's voice changes in time huh? But either way, she sounded great - this is what happens when Mariah sing's LIVE!

What do you think? You diggin' it? Be HEARD!

Peace, Love & Mariah Carey

為慶祝2005年成功讓Mariah Carey天后再臨風光重回樂壇的專輯The Emancipation Of Mimi發行一週年，唱片公司於今年4月12日正式推出專輯中最後一波主打Say Somethin'/Fly Like A Bird。

為了宣傳這波主打，唱片公司不但在當日讓咪咪上了最受年輕族群喜愛的音樂節目MTV TRL大現場首播Say Somethin'的MV，還在網站上用力宣傳這兩首單曲，結果卻因為公司策略失敗而跌了個狗吃屎，讓這張2005各大排行與銷售榜的多料冠軍專輯整個抱憾收尾。

唱片公司的策略是讓Say Somethin'主攻Mainstream radio，而Fly Like A Bird主推Urban radio，希望在各自的領域上累積高點撥率之後再順勢推出數位下載以供銷售數字的計算。這個方案在Don't Forget About Us發行的當時是奏效的。由於Don't Forget About Us是在The Emancipation Of Mimi重新發行的白金慶功版中才收錄進去的，因此以點撥率撐到Top 40再用銷售量衝冠是絕對可行的。只是這種策略要用在已經發行一年了的解放咪咪專輯中的其他單曲上，說真的實在非常不智。

更何況，Say Somethin'已經不是第一次被加到廣播播放名單上了。其實當初在這張專輯即將發行的前夕，唱片公司已經決定第一波主打為Say Somethin'，並且也已經將單曲送至各大廣播節目提供播放，誰料到老闆又請Mariah跟JD再回去補歌，最後補出了It's Like That以及We Belong Together這兩首單曲，而It's Like That這首搶眼的party cut也喧賓奪主的成為了Mimi的首波主打單曲。[dailymotion id=x2qaa8&v3=1]

也因為這樣，Say Somethin'在2004年年終開始已經可以在不少的廣播節目裡聽到。比較embarrassing的是當時一起合作演出Say Somethin'的饒舌歌手Snoop Dogg還在MTV電視台上宣傳說連MV都拍好了；結果這個傳說中拍好的MV片段也剪入了後來拍攝的新版MV裡頭。新版的MV請來的是主唱Frontin'的黑人小天王同時也是Say Somethin'的製作人Pharrell跨刀演出，兩個人包下巴黎的Louis Vuitton旗艦店放肆拍攝不少親熱的鏡頭，其他的片段都是上演狗仔追逐的戲碼；比起專輯其他的MV，Say Somethin'真的遜色很多。而當時咪咪的專屬混音師David Morales混的電音版也在此時終於被釋放到網路上。這個remix version讓Say Somethin'拿到了Billboard Club Play Chart的冠軍，算是不無小補吧。

而這一波雙單曲的另一首歌Fly Like A Bird在專輯已經發行一年之後的今天絕對仍舊可以是所謂的"best bet"。理由一是雖然去年Fly Like A Bird也曾經搭配上一張專輯Charmbracelet中的福音歌曲My Saving Grace釋放到廣播電台去，但至少不像Say Somethin'那樣的大肆宣傳以及提供數位下載，同時也沒有像Mine Again那樣憑著超高點撥率而擠進R&B Chart。所以如果推出這樣一首還算沒有前科的單曲成績應該會不錯，至少擠進Top 20不算是難事。而且這首Fly Like A Bird不僅經過調查跟Mine Again一樣受到廣大歌迷的喜愛，更受到各大樂評雜誌的推崇，Billboard更直言說這首歌是結合流行與福音的經典，絕對是Mariah Carey事業重新定義的轉捩點。

由於唱片公司決策錯誤以及宣傳失敗，Say Somethin'最高只爬到Hot 100的第79名，前前後後也只在榜上停留五個星期；而Fly Like A Bird在R&B榜上最高爬到23名，在Hot 100 Bubbling Under上拿到第四 (也就是Hot流行榜第104名的意思)。也因為這波雙單曲推出沒多久後迅速跌出榜外，原本預定五月拍攝Fly Like A Bird的MV也隨後取消計畫，而當時唱片公司宣佈六月要發行的單曲CD我看也胎死腹中了吧。雖然如此，今年的Grammy Award上Mimi卯起來演唱的Fly Like A Bird片段確也著實讓世人傻眼，歷經16年後Mariah的海豚音仍舊是寶刀未老啊。同時Beyoncé的專屬混音師Maurice Joshua也特地為這首遺珠混了一個靈魂浩室的版本，也算是給歌迷心中這個大遺憾的小小慰藉。[dailymotion id=x56cir&v3=1]