Roberta Mancino flys an X2 and she's smaller than me. I absolutely love my p2z, which is my main suit, and I've made quite a few flights on the R bird,
The X2 is only going to have one purpose. Traveling to XRW camps and getting into that. I figure with my feather lite frame it should be good fun, as long as I can deal with how mushy the suit will feel at my wingloading...
i am 145 and jumped an x1 yesterday, got down to 23 mph vertical. i fell in love with the suit! and we did some cool flocks with rob as the base in a rbird. then scotty was the base for the newbie flock. good times!
Hah! I just ordered an Apache also for just one purpose, competition dragster. I'll load it so lightly it'd be good for nothing else anyway, but it ain't gonna feel mushy, the speeds I'll be hammering it at. The poor suit is going to feel confused... "You bought the biggest most advanced suit you could get, and you're gonna use me for...freeflying?"
Hah! I just ordered an Apache also for just one purpose, competition dragster. I'll load it so lightly it'd be good for nothing else anyway, but it ain't gonna feel mushy, the speeds I'll be hammering it at. The poor suit is going to feel confused... "You bought the biggest most advanced suit you could get, and you're gonna use me for...freeflying?"
Hah! I just ordered an Apache also for just one purpose, competition dragster. I'll load it so lightly it'd be good for nothing else anyway, but it ain't gonna feel mushy, the speeds I'll be hammering it at. The poor suit is going to feel confused... "You bought the biggest most advanced suit you could get, and you're gonna use me for...freeflying?"
Hah! I just ordered an Apache also for just one purpose, competition dragster. I'll load it so lightly it'd be good for nothing else anyway, but it ain't gonna feel mushy, the speeds I'll be hammering it at. The poor suit is going to feel confused... "You bought the biggest most advanced suit you could get, and you're gonna use me for...freeflying?"
What modification are you going to make for your handles? I have heard some interesting ones, and some not so successful ones.... I'd be interested to see pics, as I feel you'll probably work it out for the better.
Shouldn't take much, if anything. First I'm just going to have a good look at what I get. Tony revises his suits so often he may have implemented a better solution by now in production suits.
The ones I've seen being flown in skydiving use so far just had various ties and bindings to keep the handles from pulling out. Anyway I figure, it was intended as a BASE design, and any skydivers using it are accepting the risk of off-label use of a design like that.
If I still think its sketchy when I get it, I have a simple mod in mind... not sure I can do it till I get a closer look at it, but it looked doable. Just a couple of slits above and below the handle, a little velcro to close the big slit behind the lift web. That'd put just the relevant 6 inches of lift web plus handle outside the suit entirely and leave the rest of it alone, pretty much eliminate any chance of handle suck or suit induced pull I think. -B
Buy a longer bridle and may be a bigger pilochute, at first is not easy to fly but when you get use to it is amazing, it takes a bout 30 skydives to get full control on it for regular skills. Have fun and take care. Post your impressions on first flights.
Buy a longer bridle and may be a bigger pilochute, at first is not easy to fly but when you get use to it is amazing, it takes a bout 30 skydives to get full control on it for regular skills. Have fun and take care. Post your impressions on first flights.
This is BS. I jump X-Bird with normal bridle and 24" PC.
This is BS. I jump X-Bird with normal bridle and 24" PC.
define normal ?
I like my 9ft bridle, my 36'' F111 PC, and my MagBag
Exactly. Normal is different with every rig. As I've posted before, a new rig from a popular vendor once left me with a SIX foot bridle ("normal" on their rigs) that gave me hesitations with suits much smaller than an X2.
Buy a longer bridle and may be a bigger pilochute, at first is not easy to fly but when you get use to it is amazing, it takes a bout 30 skydives to get full control on it for regular skills. Have fun and take care. Post your impressions on first flights.
This is BS. I jump X-Bird with normal bridle and 24" PC.
Sorry, I have to disagree too. My worst ever skydive was with a loaner 6' bridle. I made a really good throw too, but still wound up with the pc laying on my tail like a dead duck. Coincidence? Maybe, but I won't be trying it again.
Buy a longer bridle and may be a bigger pilochute, at first is not easy to fly but when you get use to it is amazing, it takes a bout 30 skydives to get full control on it for regular skills. Have fun and take care. Post your impressions on first flights.
This is BS. I jump X-Bird with normal bridle and 24" PC.
Sorry, I have to disagree too. My worst ever skydive was with a loaner 6' bridle. I made a really good throw too, but still wound up with the pc laying on my tail like a dead duck. Coincidence? Maybe, but I won't be trying it again.
I have tried so far: 32" F111 kill-line PC, 150 cm from pin to PC bridle 27(?)" ZP kill-line PC, Bird-Man branded, 240 cm from pin to PC bridle 24" ZP kill-line PC, 205 cm from pin to PC bridle.
Can you find anything common from 3 above?
I jumped Phantom with the first 2. I have jumped Stealth, Phatom2, V3, X-Bird with the last 2 setup.
There are people jumping tiny highly loaded elyptical canopies with wingsuits without issues. Doesnt always mean its the recommendable and sane choice in gear. Big suits/burbles have a definate preference for longer bridle/bigger pilotchutes. Sure you can get lucky and do ok with smaller/shorter.
There are people jumping tiny highly loaded elyptical canopies with wingsuits without issues. Doesnt always mean its the recommendable and sane choice in gear. Big suits/burbles have a definate preference for longer bridle/bigger pilotchutes. Sure you can get lucky and do ok with smaller/shorter.
Quote:
Buy a longer bridle and may be a bigger pilochute,
Is giving a blanket advice without any knowledge of the facts reasonable?
Too long bridle can also cause trouble, see base fatality list for example.
PC is a part of the deployment system. It should be adjusted for the main canopy.
I have tried so far: 32" F111 kill-line PC, 150 cm from pin to PC bridle 27(?)" ZP kill-line PC, Bird-Man branded, 240 cm from pin to PC bridle 24" ZP kill-line PC, 205 cm from pin to PC bridle.
"Too long bridle can also cause trouble, see base fatality list for example. "
What number?
Sorry. My bad, not in the list. Someone used some extra long bridle in BASE, he broke himself with that setup. He got permanent handycap and wheelchair. He commited suicide later.
Trouble:
Quote:
He basically had a bridle long enough that his PC came around the nose and entangled the slider during the opening, causing his slider to hang up and snivel him into the ground.
(This post was edited by phoenixlpr on Feb 6, 2012, 7:15 PM)
He basically had a bridle long enough that his PC came around the nose and entangled the slider during the opening, causing his slider to hang up and snivel him into the ground.
Quote:
I've only seen this malfunction on spring-loaded pilot chutes, how does it occur on a BASE PC without even a kill line? I can get the PC in front of my Troll by backing up on rears but the PC is above the canopy.
I'm really curious about this as well. I'm 5'10" and 135 WITH all of my gear on. I'm pretty curious about what kind of vertical speeds I can get in an X/X2. When I had a handful of wingsuit jumps I was flying a rental T-Brid and holding low 30's so I really look forward to the day I try something that sized. I ordered a V4 for this coming season, one of the deciding factors was that I would float LESS in it than an X/X2 because I already out float most people at my DZ in my P2. I have a feeling I will be holding onto my P2(or ordering one to fit, not a demo suit) just to have a more "comfortable" suit to fly with the bigger guys.
I just now got around to reading the end of this thread. Holy Crap!!! 5 10, 135 EXIT weight?
First, um, yeah. Keep the P2. Or get another. You're going to need it. There is no, frakking, WAY you'll be able to fly the X in a flock unless the flock is made up exclusively of birds capable of 4 minutes or better. I don't think theres ten of us in the world yet.
As it is the V4 is going to be too much suit for many of your needs. Get used to flying scrunched up. And enjoy the PHENOMENAL catapult effect you'll get when you open up at the end of a flock and engage the other 90% of the suit you weren't using.
Never thought I'd be jealous, but if you can pack enough lean muscle to handle that suit onto that frame of yours you'll be untouchable. Good luck, let us know how it works out for ya, you may become the first bird I've heard of to sustain 15mph the whole damn ride. Your muscles will be your limiting factor but you'll be in the 4:00 to 4:30 range. Maybe a bit further. -B
And I just noticed you replied Lurch. Yeah I will likely order a P3 built for me. I already fly my P2 scrunched up to stay with most of the people I fly with. I'll have to get some video from one of them. Currently I can sustain 36ish mph in my P2. Though I don't pay much attention to my vertical speeds. I surely wont be flocking in something big. It would be quite uncomfortable I think. Needless to say I have a lot of dive/swoop practice. ;)
But you're right, my muscles are the thing I'm worried about the most on going to something like an X or Apache. I only recently started working out. I'm hoping I can pack on some lean muscle without much weight.
My suggestion for you is, do a lot of things that involve static strain. Hold gallon jugs of water at arms length as long as you can... that sort of thing.
I build my "workout" into activities of daily living... carrying heavy things even when I have a cart or something with wheels. I lug my groceries out to the jeep the hard way, bags slung on partially outstretched arms.
When I started jumping I was a scrawny pencilneck. Now, I still weigh the same, but my neck's almost as wide around as my skull and I look like a slightly gaunt bleached-white Bruce Lee with my shirt off. Flying really hard does wonders for making us skinny guys look buff and it'll jack your strength/weight ratio through the ROOF.
After 9 years of this I can casually pick up half my own weight with one hand, and pick up and throw objects that weigh more than I do such as 4 and 6-cylinder engine blocks as big as a 4.0 liter Jeep engine, stripped to just the block, crank and head. (about 176 lb total) Not easy, or intelligent because I do not have the bodymass to back it up, but I can do it. At work when I get bored I've taken to amusing myself by slowly tying knots in the 3/4 inch thick footlong ingot bars of solid pure tin we have lying around. Forearm workout.
It took awhile of flying an S-bird before my own frame could take the kind of a beating it delivers all the way down, you're going to find an X2 to be even more savage than THAT. Take it easy and don't hesitate to pull high if you feel like you're getting tapped out. I've pushed it too far a few times and had a few moments of extreme alarm when I realized I was blazing through 2300 feet and my arm muscles were refusing to respond and obey my command to pull. I was stuck in half-flight and couldn't move, all I could get out of my arms was a quivering action like a stalled electric motor cause I'd pushed it to actual muscle failure.
Finally half-rolled right to help flop my destroyed arm toward the handle, got a grip, tried to pull and failed because I had no strength left to tug on the handle, could barely grip it, then kept the grip and deliberately went limp, causing the wing to open and more or less pull FOR me...then when I knew the PC was at least out of the pouch I just let go of everything, flopped asymmetrically to the side to get clean air at my back and hoped for the best.
Since then I've learned where my limits are and if I've overdone it I'll pull a bit high while I still can. Being even lighter than I, you'll have even less reserves so be careful ok? -B
Yeah safety is definitely a primary concern. I have no problem pulling high if my body can't take it. I remember flying an R-Bird on a jump in which I broke 3 minutes. It wasn't to the point of not being able to pull but boy were my arms sore after that. That was last July and from just flying I've got stronger(you wouldn't be able to tell looking at me haha). But I'm definitely working out in prep for a flying air mattress.
My suggestion for you is, do a lot of things that involve static strain. Hold gallon jugs of water at arms length as long as you can... that sort of thing.
I build my "workout" into activities of daily living... carrying heavy things even when I have a cart or something with wheels. I lug my groceries out to the jeep the hard way, bags slung on partially outstretched arms.
When I started jumping I was a scrawny pencilneck. Now, I still weigh the same, but my neck's almost as wide around as my skull and I look like a slightly gaunt bleached-white Bruce Lee with my shirt off. Flying really hard does wonders for making us skinny guys look buff and it'll jack your strength/weight ratio through the ROOF.
After 9 years of this I can casually pick up half my own weight with one hand, and pick up and throw objects that weigh more than I do such as 4 and 6-cylinder engine blocks as big as a 4.0 liter Jeep engine, stripped to just the block, crank and head. (about 176 lb total) Not easy, or intelligent because I do not have the bodymass to back it up, but I can do it. At work when I get bored I've taken to amusing myself by slowly tying knots in the 3/4 inch thick footlong ingot bars of solid pure tin we have lying around. Forearm workout.
It took awhile of flying an S-bird before my own frame could take the kind of a beating it delivers all the way down, you're going to find an X2 to be even more savage than THAT. Take it easy and don't hesitate to pull high if you feel like you're getting tapped out. I've pushed it too far a few times and had a few moments of extreme alarm when I realized I was blazing through 2300 feet and my arm muscles were refusing to respond and obey my command to pull. I was stuck in half-flight and couldn't move, all I could get out of my arms was a quivering action like a stalled electric motor cause I'd pushed it to actual muscle failure.
Finally half-rolled right to help flop my destroyed arm toward the handle, got a grip, tried to pull and failed because I had no strength left to tug on the handle, could barely grip it, then kept the grip and deliberately went limp, causing the wing to open and more or less pull FOR me...then when I knew the PC was at least out of the pouch I just let go of everything, flopped asymmetrically to the side to get clean air at my back and hoped for the best.
Since then I've learned where my limits are and if I've overdone it I'll pull a bit high while I still can. Being even lighter than I, you'll have even less reserves so be careful ok? -B
Hi Brian,
I'm not exactly muscular, and nearly as skinny as you. I haven't yet broken 4 mins but i have a bunch well over 3 mins in my S-Bird, and don't really find it all that tiring. Although I have to say that around the 3 minute mark I sometimes find myself asking "are we there yet"?
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