R2B2 first flights and TS customer service

[SteveSearle 0]

Hi all, I’ve just put a few jumps on the R2B2 and thought I’d share my initial experience and also wanted to mention the customer service I received, as this topic’s been discussed recently on this forum.

Bit of background I’m a very Average Joe wingsuiter with 500 wingsuit jumps and by no means awesome, the majority of flights having been done in an R-Bird. No affiliation to Tony suits but I personally like the way they feel / fly for ‘me’, others will not and I’m not looking to start another brand war.

Current back fly jump experience has been 6 jumps on and S-Fly Hawk (which was a bit too big for me) and about 15 jumps on a Phantom 3. I liked flying them both on their back but I didn’t like the way they felt when flying on their belly they just seemed to lack the ‘pop’ / performance of my R-Bird (I appreciate they weren’t designed for performance) they just didn’t feel right for me but I wanted to buy a back fly / acro type suit, so I made a few enquires about the R2B2 and took a gamble on it.

I've put 8 jumps on the R2B2 and I love it! It certainly gives me everything I wanted, on its back, its rock solid it feels very powerful and has tons of lift, I flew with a Hawk and an R- Bird (both on their belly) and could out float them on my back. I could also stay with guys in smaller suits and would be happy to use it flying with students.

I was worried about the transitions from belly to back and vice versa as it looks a big suit, I thought I may have to wrestle the suit over but it was easy to do and took minimal effort, instantly becoming stable again without any washing about, you do need to keep good shoulder posture to stop it going head low doing this. Personally, I felt like it took less effort to flip it than the Hawk and found the P3 washes about after rolling over but this could be my lack of time/ ability in these other suits.

Belly flight, it has loads more range than my R-Bird, I beat my longest flight time in my R by 20 seconds and going for lift / speed against similar size suits it left them standing.

I flew the suit both with the internal pressure zips open and closed, open I could feel some arm pressure when on my back and closed the suit was super stable, I did notice a slight difference when rolling the suit over, it was slightly easier with them open but not a big deal either way and I spent most jumps with them half open.

Deployment there’s a bit more wing to reach around than my R-bird and the leg wing takes a bit more effort to shut down but more to do with me getting a bit lazy I think as once I sorted my body position it felt better.

I opted for the zip system rather than the cables for around the harness (I have the cables on my Scorpion and found them a fiddle if swapping suits during the day).
The zips are similar to the Squirrel design and I found I had similar problems when sat in the plane with suit gapping around my reserve handle (I think having a beer belly makes this worse)
I fixed the problem on my second jump by tying a larks head knot round the 2 zips this keeps everything in place and I just adjust the suit before exit.

Now for the customer service bit;

I emailed Tony Suits about the zip issue and explained what had happened, I heard back from Tony himself within the day, asking how he could help.
I told him that although there was a suitable fix for the problem it still worried me a bit, so Tony asked me what I would I like to happen. I explained I would never want to use the suit for base and would prefer just a regular zip system just for skydiving harnesses.

Tony has now agreed to offer a ‘skydive specific’ zip system similar to the R-bird and I believe this will be an option on all R2B2’s.
He is also making me a brand new wingsuit with this zip system in!

I was really pleased with his response and I was just expecting to have my suit modified to the cable system, not have a new wingsuit made with the skydive zips.

Once I get the new suit back (hopefully it shouldn’t take too long), I’ll feedback on the harness system and the suit once I get some more flights on it but from my experience so far, if you’re looking for a suit that preforms better than an R-bird on its back as well as it does on its belly you can’t go far wrong.

[dthames 0]

Steve,

I flew with Travis (Wicked Wingsuits) a number of times this year and he really makes the R2B2 look good. He always has this big grin on his face and is always positive about that suit.

Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

[jasdcarter 0]

Post a pic!

[sdctlc 0]

jasdcarter

Post a pic!

Here is a pic...

"He who Hesitates Shall Inherit the Earth!"

[llloyd 0]

And some of the OP...



The range of the suit is mighty impressive to watch, especially at break-off. Steve's no ninja but this thing is rock solid on its back and a lot of fun to chase.

As noted above, the attachment system looks messy on this particular suit and raises a few eyebrows during flight-line checks (UK) etc, so fair dues to Tony for coming up with a solution.

I'll post some pics of the replacement as soon as it arrives.

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[roostnureye 2]

I had the chance to fly Travis's r2b2 this weekend, I only put two jumps on it, but immediately fell in love! I also put one jump on the rbird2. The r2b2 has a little more arm pressure than the rbird2. They both are amazing on their backs and bellies. Wayyy more power than the similar sized suits but a lot more performance on the belly.

Flock University FWC / ZFlock
B.A.S.E. 1580
Aussie BASE 121

[dthames 0]

jasdcarter

Post a pic!

At Skydive Dallas

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Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”