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rj2163

Anyone buy a Chris Kotscha (Freefalljump.com) wing suit in 2013?

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regardless Chris and freefalljump.com are MIA at this point...



Does any of this help you out? From a DNS Registry search, for his domain 'freefalljumper.com':

christopher kotscha
admin organization:
admin street: box 28197 east kelowna post office
admin city: kelowna
admin state/province: bc
admin postal code: v1w 4a6
admin country: ca
admin phone: +1.2507625987

His "Life and Business Coaching" website (ChrisKotscha.com) also shows a calendar for him, where right now it is saying he is:

NOV:
7-20 Phoenix, Arizona

23-27 Orlando, Florida

Betcha can extrapolate which dropzones he will be located, fairly easily, right there, from that. ;)
coitus non circum - Moab Stone

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From a DNS Registry search, for his domain 'freefalljumper.com'....



Yeah I'm aware of all that. This has dragged on a while so when I started to become a bit concerned I attempted some basic due diligence.

I believe that the DNS info you refer to is related to a family busininess. Html metadata on chrisKotscha.com show the content creator is Affordable Web Design Ltd. which appears to be a family run web design/services company. So they are perhaps handling the web page stuff for Chris and registered the site under their company address. That's fine. But they are not responsible for Chris's business activities. So if anyone is having problems don't go bugging them.

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I did...

I met Chris and purchased a RW suit on August 4th at SDC Summerfest. Chris is a nice guy with all of the ambition in the world.

After additional communication with Chris I realized that the seven week lead time for a RW suit would not work. Chris offered to send my money back, but that never happened. So...I elected to take a camera suit for the money that was paid for the RW suit. No big deal I thought...

Chris proposed a design, which I did not really like. I offered an option which would not work, and I finally came up with a color selection and pattern that would work with the materials that are offered. During this time the "computer work" and design was supposed to being completed. So I waited, waited, waited, and waited some more. I contacted Chris in Mid October and asked about my suit. I was told that there was a material issue and that he was waiting on new material and that I should see my suit in November. Ok, so I waited some more. Finally on December 3rd I received the camera suit.

I was amped, expecting perfection...and was literally crushed to see that the color pattern was not at all correct, as it was just as Chris proposed and I rejected. The suit also does not have the leg zippers and outside pocket that I paid for and the legs are too long for me to create any tension on the booties, even with thick soled shoes and the rig on.

I contacted Chris immediately and was told that he would call me this morning, nothing. I have requested that we agree on a solution by the end of the week (Dec 6th a full four months after I paid him). It looks like I may need someone to make the alterations that I need. Does anyone know of someone that can help me, maybe in the Chicago area?

I guess I will get to voice my opinion when he shows up at SDC next summer, and you can bet I will be telling everyone about this experience, even if I do it in front of his booth and every Boogie I attend.

Chris...if for some reason you read this and would like for me to edit, I will. I would be glad to let everyone know of the resolution we come to that makes us both happy.
You will never be more alive than you are the instant you let go!

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SkydiverShawn

I did...

I met Chris and purchased a RW suit on August 4th at SDC Summerfest. Chris is a nice guy with all of the ambition in the world.

After additional communication with Chris I realized that the seven week lead time for a RW suit would not work. Chris offered to send my money back, but that never happened. So...I elected to take a camera suit for the money that was paid for the RW suit. No big deal I thought...

Chris proposed a design, which I did not really like. I offered an option which would not work, and I finally came up with a color selection and pattern that would work with the materials that are offered. During this time the "computer work" and design was supposed to being completed. So I waited, waited, waited, and waited some more. I contacted Chris in Mid October and asked about my suit. I was told that there was a material issue and that he was waiting on new material and that I should see my suit in November. Ok, so I waited some more. Finally on December 3rd I received the camera suit.

I was amped, expecting perfection...and was literally crushed to see that the color pattern was not at all correct, as it was just as Chris proposed and I rejected. The suit also does not have the leg zippers and outside pocket that I paid for and the legs are too long for me to create any tension on the booties, even with thick soled shoes and the rig on.

I contacted Chris immediately and was told that he would call me this morning, nothing. I have requested that we agree on a solution by the end of the week (Dec 6th a full four months after I paid him). It looks like I may need someone to make the alterations that I need. Does anyone know of someone that can help me, maybe in the Chicago area?

I guess I will get to voice my opinion when he shows up at SDC next summer, and you can bet I will be telling everyone about this experience, even if I do it in front of his booth and every Boogie I attend.

Chris...if for some reason you read this and would like for me to edit, I will. I would be glad to let everyone know of the resolution we come to that makes us both happy.



I would like to post an update to my comments above.

Chris and I have been in regular contact regarding the issues surrounding the camera suit...and he has proposed a solution that is above an beyond what I would have expected, from any suit manufacturer. To protect Chris from exploitation in the future I am choosing to not share that here, if he chooses he can.

What I will add, I do not nor have I ever believed that Chris, or anyone at Freefall Suits was/is less than honest. He did offer to send my money back, and I am choosing to take the suit instead. This is a new company that is in its infancy, and there are pains with that. It is how Chris handles these few issues that will define Freefall Jump Suits as a company in the future, and when this all comes together for me I will be proud to wear this camera suit. His products are extremely well made and of the highest quality and craftsmanship.

As soon as this is completely resolved I will post photos of the suit. Until then I am confident that I am not only going to get what I paid for, but much more.
You will never be more alive than you are the instant you let go!

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an update from me too.....

I received the wingsuit from Chris on October 12. The suit was too big but Chris spent a lot of effort, time, money trying to make things right. I'm good to go and I'm looking forward to testing it in the spring. If I'm not happy with it I can return it.

When I received it the first thing I noticed was how tough it's made. Super strong materials, zipper etc. However, when I tried it on it was just too big.

I wanted a couple friends to look at it and that took a couple weeks but then I fired off an email to Chris with some pictures.

Chris was in the U.S. but said when he got back he'd come to my place and fix it. So, on Friday he drove 2.5 hrs from Toronto to Kingston, then sat in a hotel for a couple days fixing it, and delivered it to me on Monday afternoon.

Initially it seemed great and there was really no evidence rework. The crotch felt pretty snug but you can't directly see it. We talked about it, but I thought it would be ok. However, after Chris left I noticed the "boys" were feeling a bit sore so I tried on the suit again and realized the centre crotch seam was just too tight. I don't know why it wasn't THAT obvious when Chris was here but I had my rig pretty tight and I may have taken some painkillers because of my back and that might have masked the tighness.

So, the next day I contacted Chris saying if he could alter it I'd bring the suit to Toronto. He was at a hotel in Burlington, outside of Toronto, intending to leave for the U.S. but if I came down he'd stay another day a the hotel and it it would be easy to alter it.

So I went down and Chis adjusted the seam and I'm good to go.

He made a fairly significant offer of compensation for delays and frustrations. But I declined it as what I wanted was a suit to start flying and despite the frustations, he'd spent time, effort and money to fix it and I appreciated that.

He was concerned that I said in my earlier post that I had felt mislead by him. We talked about all that stuff for about two hours. All to say there have been some teething pains, a couple specific issues came up with my suit and I accept that. We talked about perceptions and communicaton and he understood why I felt that and I also came to understand better how/why that happened. He seems like a pretty decent guy and it was interesting talking to him.

At least for me, he's made a sincere effort to fix things. If you have any problems, don't stew about it, let him know and have some faith he'll probably do whatever it takes to fix it.

I understand he has purchased property around Eloy and is in the process of moving the business there. He'll be at a skyding centre so he can sell stuff but be able to better oversee day to day operations and jumpers will be able to come over and check out the operation.

It's been frustrating but to be fair I can't really think of another situation where someone has tried harder to fix a problem.

So I'm good to go. The two people I know who have Chris's wingsuits both say they fly great. So, I'm looking forward to testing it in the spring.

rj

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I'd like to mention that Kotscha's new website location is Freefallsuits.com.

The old one at Freefalljump.com is basically the same thing but some of the pages are broken. That site he told me was supposed to have been taken down but somehow was still live.

I just talked to him today -- He was still in Toronto after dealing with those couple customer relations issues that had gotten out of hand, bad enough that he felt he had to solve them in person, whatever the cost.

I understand that Chris won't push the wingsuits as much for the near future, while he focuses attention on setting up the Eloy-area production facility and perhaps then refine the designs. But he's still very enthused about wingsuiting.

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Well, better late than never....

This is a followup on this thread that I posted last year. I finally got around to jumping the wingsuit that I got over the winter from Chris.

Unfortunately due to health/time/weather I didn't jump much this year and only jumped it late in the year after taking a refresher course from Gord Sellers.

So this was only my 4th wingsuit jump. At pull time (5k) I tried twice and just couldn't clear the wing material to get my hacky so decided to play it safe and pulled my reserve (beer)(bit far from dz, over treed area, knew I was about 3k, was getting unstable then literally time slowed down and thought of a Canadian wingsuiter this summer that went unstable at pull time and maybe lost altitude awareness and went in - so I just exhaled, look, locate, pull - nice calm and controlled - instead of maybe setting up and trying again low where I really didn't want to be). I just made it back to the DZ and luckily easily found my free bag. So it all worked out ok.

I only managed to get a few more solo jumps on it in before the season ended and had absolutely no problems finding the hacky after that so I certainly wouldn't fault the suit. I don't have much to compare to but the suit seems fine.

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When will you guys learn, Kotchsa sucks .. Theres a bunch of threads about his suits sucking, his stuff not fitting, him lying about where it's made, and delivery dates .. Unless the threads were moved theres several you can search on here .. Stop funding him.


Edit : http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4553476;#4553476

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4630888;#4630888

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So this was only my 4th wingsuit jump. At pull time (5k) I tried twice and just couldn't clear the wing material to get my hacky so decided to play it safe and pulled my reserve (beer)(bit far from dz, over treed area, knew I was about 3k, was getting unstable then literally time slowed down and thought of a Canadian wingsuiter this summer that went unstable at pull time and maybe lost altitude awareness and went in - so I just exhaled, look, locate, pull - nice calm and controlled - instead of maybe setting up and trying again low where I really didn't want to be). I just made it back to the DZ and luckily easily found my free bag. So it all worked out ok.

I only managed to get a few more solo jumps on it in before the season ended and had absolutely no problems finding the hacky after that so I certainly wouldn't fault the suit.



I would. Not completely, but as a contributing factor. Basic arm wing cut and poor inflation create a much higher probability of covering the hackey. A better trailing edge shape that covers less of the rig for a similar overall wing size and a wing that stays inflated and is therefore much easier to reach around or push out of the way as needed makes for a far simpler deployment sequence.

That's why you got so many recommendations to go for a suit from a more recognised brand. Not because of the 'leading edge performance' that you dismissed upthread, but because the design and experience that has gone into them makes them better, easier and safer to fly. As well as having better performance.
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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