From Jeb: " The future of wingsuit proxy is here! The container is the size of a Mirage G3 170. We were able to fit a Flix 266 Ultra Light in. Soon it will be setup for proxy flying after tests in the sky"
I found that from a couple months ago when he first posted this picture.
Besides the fact that he fit a larger canopy into a smaller size container I know nothing. The thing i could imagine it changes the size of container takes up alot less room than needed with a larger canopy. Means more aerodynamic.
It sounds like he is trying to come up with a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Sparky
I hope it isn't a 'disguised' base rig with no reserve, giving the larger main size. It would be really shit to sneak a non tso single canopy system onto a plane and then bounce.
Given the statement that a container that normally houses a 170sq ft system has a close to 300sq ft system in it, what are the options?
- No reserve, just a large main - Large main and tiny reserve - large reserve and tiny main
I don't see what is so crazy about suggesting that it 'might' be option 1.
There are enough people in the sport willing to put themselves first and worry about the consequences for others as an afterthought.
do you think that a major manufacturer would put their arse on the line ? my wild arse guess is something like option 2, maybe also with different materials to save some bulk (and keep the extra space for the main canopy). Maybe also some alternative deployment system for the main ?
well I got a 205 F111 freepacked in a MT (designed for a 120 sq ft 9 cell ZP canopy)
and the flik is probably made with ultralite material which packs 2 sizes smaller than regular f111. so a 266 is equivalent to a 225 F111 which is probably easily equivalent to a 170 9 cell ZP + dbag.
I do also find it interesting that the main pack tray appears to be elongated. Perhaps there is more to it that first appears...longer main pack tray with freepacked ultralight base canopy + tiny optimum reserve
less drag due to elongated pack tray (lays flatter against back) + low weight due to small reserve volume
it would be fun as hell to jump this out of a plane near a gorge or some mountain...I'm sure it opens up a lot of proximity flights that are not possible with base exits (base you need at least 600-800 feet of vertical to get started I guess depending on flying skills)
this way all you need is a plane and you can proximity fly any mountain in the world that has a good run (but lacks a vertical cliff). Proximity flying in the Karakoram anybody???
I've also always thought it to be spectacular to proximity fly Aconcagua.
It appears the ratio of the reserve to main container may be different. The same overall size but the relative container size changed. But I don't have one to compare it to.
The pic tells everything....BASE Flik ultra light with a reserve (we can see flik deployment and reserve flaps still closed)
But whats the difference between this and Sorcerer old BASE Reserve containers? They even discontinued Sorcecer because people were getting killed by the reserve...
I believe that BASE is safier without reserve, otherwise sorcerer would not been discontinued.
But whats the difference between this and Sorcerer old BASE Reserve containers?
The Sorcerer wasn't TSO'd, and the Sorcerer had a pull-out style reserve PC mounted in a pouch on the outside of the reserve container, with a pud mounted on your shoulder. Those would be the two biggest differences.
The pic tells everything....BASE Flik ultra light with a reserve (we can see flik deployment and reserve flaps still closed)
But whats the difference between this and Sorcerer old BASE Reserve containers? They even discontinued Sorcecer because people were getting killed by the reserve...
I believe that BASE is safier without reserve, otherwise sorcerer would not been discontinued.
But whats the difference between this and Sorcerer old BASE Reserve containers?
The Sorcerer wasn't TSO'd, and the Sorcerer had a pull-out style reserve PC mounted in a pouch on the outside of the reserve container, with a pud mounted on your shoulder. Those would be the two biggest differences.
+1.
It worked well, too. I'm the guy in Mike McGowan's movie who cuts away at 250 feet on a Sorcerer at an early 1990s World Freefall Convention. Mike was behind me under canopy and the interesting thing about the shot is that there is no sky to be seen -- just green. Still had an almost 10-second canopy ride.
One of the main objections to the Sorcerer at the time was all the "smart" people who said it was dangerous because it had a pin closure instead of velcro. Now, of course, pin-closed BASE rigs are the standard, especially for wingsuiting.
Also, contrary to the assertion of another poster, only one guy got killed jumping a Sorcerer and IIRC it had more to do with the reserve canopy than anything about the container system.
The primary reason for discontinuing Sorcerer production was lack of demand; the system was designed when BASE jumping was still a pretty new and not-yet-popular sub-discipline and a lot of peeps didn't like the notion of jumping with only one parachute.
But as more and more people started BASE jumping, and each one made more and more BASE jumps, it became clear that one parachute was enough, so people lost interest in 2-parachute BASE rigs.
It's hard to imagine now, but in 1980, 100 BASE jumps was a lot, and even in 1993, when the rig's inventor Mark Hewitt became the first to make 1,000 BASE jumps, there were few people in the world with more than 200. *
Now, of course, there are some guys with 2,000, a significant number with 1,000, and a bunch with 500 or more -- and the number of BASE fatalities that "could have been prevented" by having a reserve are statistically insignificant.
The purpose of the BASeR and, now, the MiraJeb is so that BASE jumpers generally and wingsuit BASE jumpers in particular can hone their skills from airplanes with the same rig (or at least the same canopy) they want to jump with from fixed objects -- without having to have a "big-boy" rig in order to jump with their BASE canopy from an airplane.
Another intended feature of both systems was to eliminate the need to have a BASE rig AND a skydiving rig. There were several reasons that didn't happen with the BASeR; we'll see how it goes with the MiraJeb.
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* I was jumping with Mark at the time, and every time we launched, he'd say "another world record!" because at that time he did in fact break the record for most BASE jumps with every one he made.
