Mar 10, 2002, 9:33 PM
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wing suits!!!
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another hard day at work...
Monday thru Friday, I guess you people know, I assume you all know, I work a desk/factory. Saturday/Sunday, I work my DZ.... The sweet part of my job(s) is that sometimes I get to skydive, (I get to Bird-Man!).
Swooping.... Why have the REAL swoopers... (Bird-men), not been posting here?
If you don't own a suit yet, I must tell you... it's only a matter of time.
Who's jumped one... is it just me or is this (almost!) as good as sex?
That's what I said about my first static line jump... but this is different, this is even better!
Chris
p.s. If you're a working stiff, (Tandem/AFF/videot) don't try one... you'll quit your income producing jumps... once you go to the darkside, you'll never return,,,, oy! what a great day.
I made a few jumps on a GTi last easter and have been meaning to buy a suit since then. You are correct in stating that it is a great feeling. I am getting one of my Javs modified for BirdMan use so I don't have the problems my boy Bobby Pritchard has had. Bobby has had three instances where he has not had sufficient snatch force to get his main open. Being a smart boy, he immediately had his brand new Mirage modified to alleviate that problem.
The mod is for the bottom of the container....this way your deployment bag doesn't snag and have a delayed opening..your container basicly opens up more with out a shelf on the bottom..
From my experience.. Deploying my main with a wing suit on.. I get really small.. I pull the legs in and I pull the arms in to damn near eliminate the burble.
So legs together and feet on the ass arms in at deployment. That is what I do.. Any ideas?
I don't do that at all. I do exactly like I was instructed: A jumping jack moion to get the pilot chute out and then continue forward. The bag gets drug out behind. I haven't had a problem with a un-modified rig, but my buddy Bobby Pritchard has had three very bad problems which led to cutaways and low reserve deployments. Bobby jumps an old "Classic" and can slow it down to 32 MPH easilly. What happened was that he did not have enough snatch force to open his main. He is a small guy, maybe 130 pounds, and when he went to chop there was not enough drag on his bag/pilot chute to release his three rings! From that point, he got very small and frantically tried to speed up. Fired his reserve one time just as his risers let go; very dangerous. He had his rig modified and now has no problem whatsoever. The lack of snatch force with an unmodified rig comes from your bridle having to pull your deployment bag first OVER the bottom lip of the container, then BACKWARDS to get deployed since you are travelling forward at a high rate. Most of the snatch gets used up by that first "roadblock". We discussed this in an earlier thread a few months ago.
Bottom line here, at least for someone jumping a tiny Javelin like mine where the bag goes straight down, lines toward my backpad (not rotated) is that you need to have your rig modified if you are going to jump a BirdMan suit. I am doing it to my pond rig right away.
