0
Ronaldo

Aura X Apache/ X glide performance

Recommended Posts

send me the suits...ill do the experiment :)

in my apache x, 3 GR is easy and 3.5 sustained in favorable weather conditions with out much thought into the body position. x3/rebel will carry those glide ratios at a slower speed (my experience.) from what i have heard from close friends about the aura and seen in videos, it is the fastest starting suit i have ever seen/heard from friends first hand or eyeball experience and 3.5 GR achieved pretty easy. even after putting a few flights on a colugo, im holding out from jumping on the squirrel band wagon. i invested in a viper. im getting glide ratios im stoked on but just posted a thread about the rest of that...got myself into something crazy here.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
flipwithit

send me the suits...ill do the experiment :)

in my apache x, 3 GR is easy and 3.5 sustained in favorable weather conditions with out much thought into the body position. x3/rebel will carry those glide ratios at a slower speed (my experience.) from what i have heard from close friends about the aura and seen in videos, it is the fastest starting suit i have ever seen/heard from friends first hand or eyeball experience and 3.5 GR achieved pretty easy. even after putting a few flights on a colugo, im holding out from jumping on the squirrel band wagon. i invested in a viper. im getting glide ratios im stoked on but just posted a thread about the rest of that...got myself into something crazy here.



favorable conditions = tail wind. ;)

Personally I think there is a much smaller difference in performance between this high end suits than there is difference between pilots.

I would also be interested in an objective review from the same pilot who has flown these suits to the same levels. Not just a handful of jumps on each but a true relationship with the suit.
Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Haven't flown an Aura (yet) but have flown with one being flown well, holding my own with an Apache Rebel.
Amy Shaw. Fantastic pilot. She'd asked me to fly along and review her flight technique. Which led me to expect she might not have a handle on it yet.
So it was with an enormous grin that I watched her take off like she was on FIRE with it. She wasn't just "not-bad" with it she utterly DOMINATED with it.

Maxed out, flat, fast and far, very low fallrate. I opened up my suit to basic max...she kept gaining on me... I started stacking tricks and techniques together till I was gaining on her, and then sorted through my bag of options till I put together a combo that allowed me to both keep up -and- command the scene with camera, orbit around the flock from above and to the sides. I had very little headroom...was using the Apache at about 90% just keeping up. I think I still could have outrun her, I still had a fair bit of additional power held in reserve and available if I needed it but it would have taken most of the flight to creep ahead. I did not try. Was having WAY too much fun.
My verdict:
There is very little difference with suits like these. Scale of suit and skill of pilot matters more than make or model. The Aura is easily a solid competitor to the Apache class, and put up against each other its the pilot, not the suit, that will be the decisive factor. I still think perhaps the Apache has slightly more low-fallrate potential, which can be converted into slightly more distance in the right conditions. But then I'm a bit of a fan of Tony's designs for the last 4 years or so, so my opinion will be slightly prejudiced. But even for a Tony fan, I gotta admit, having gone up against one in action the Aura's one hell of a suit. I'm eagerly awaiting Tony's next model, myself. :)-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Eh, I think it depends on the build of the pilot. Amy seemed to be exactly my height and weight, maybe a little lighter... (she's fantastically gorgeous and fun to be around, too, girl has a smile like a new day) and standing side by side the suits appeared near-identical in wingspan, overall size and gripper length. So much so that it wasn't easy to tell em apart till you looked close at the detailing. The one significant difference I did note was the shape and depth of the wing cutout... Apache has a little more filled in, wing cuts behind the grippers have a few more square inches of material which probably accounts for the little extra I was accessing to be able to move around or float on the group.

But it also depends which Apache you're talking about, although at first glance they all more or less look the same, there's quite a bit of variation where Tony pushed material around or varied the wing sweep and total length from model to model. He sort of renames and blends suit generations together, periodically solidifying his latest variant into a formalized production model, and there have now been 3 to 5 generations of Apache depending on how you define em.

There's the original basic base model Apache, call it Apache Classic. I first saw one in a pile of suits Justin had around early 2011, scariest lookin' suit I ever saw, few months later when I got to a comp in Germany the things had bred like rats, every serious competitor already had one, there must have been half a dozen of em with various mods to make em skydivable because the chassis itself was unbeatable. Then there's "Apache X", then I got one of a series of 6 preproduction prototypes labelled "Apache XRW" the model Gary landed in boxes. I modified mine for skydiving, used it in comps and fly it to this day, (still hands-down the most perfect, euphoric suit I have ever flown) which he then formalized and split into 2 models, "Rebel" and "X3" for BASE and skydiving respectively... then he branched off a slicker speed BASE variant series he named "Jedei" based on the current Apache platform but fine tuned for steeper faster flight, (I tried one... doesn't hangtime like my XRW but unlike my suit this thing flew like it was on rails in any sort of dive... very very fast... a very specialized and fine tuned instrument, single-purpose suit for the speed BASE guys) and spun off another popular variant the "Apache Scorpion", a slightly downscaled version for the mass market who want a powerhouse without having to go THAT extreme with it which I haven't had a chance to sample yet.

So I think the Aura is bigger than some, smaller than others of the same suit class, probably leaning toward the lighter nimbler end of the spectrum in that class. I know this, properly used that suit is amazing. I'm still holding out for Tony's next-gen heavy cruiser, though. I'm hoping for something as perfectly balanced as what I got but even more brutal in scale. I know it'll probably fly like a tank, but I'm all about sheer distance and time potential so I don't care how it handles, just whether or not I can use it to fly even slower and longer.
-B
Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
That's like saying "I agree, the sky is blue."
Self-evident truth and all that...
Haven't flown the Aura, but flew with one a couple days ago. It's obviously the pilot, because the one I flew with couldn't keep it up nor forward with a Venom. He weighs a little more than me, just a tad taller at 5'10", and 200lbs.
However, another person had an Aura (I didn't get to jump w/him) who performed well with a V4 flying alongside.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0