progression to performance wingsuits

[PolinaVin 0]

I am interested in getting in to performance flying but I'm not ready for a jedi. I have about 200 jumps on a havok mostly flocking . I tried the v4 and it was too much arm pressure for me. What suit would you recommend I get next?

[johnmatrix 21]

I have not jumped a V4 but have started jumping a Vampire Race and the arm pressure is quite a bit less than the Stealth 2 I jump from time to time, I really like it.

Depends on what your goals are - skydiving performance competitions, or just having something fun, fast and agile to burn around the sky in (or something you want to eventually BASE jump as well).

I've heard a lot of good things about the Venom Power, Aura and Colugo. A mate of mine also did a lot of jumps on an S-Bird before going to the bigger Tony Suits.

[birdynamnam 28]

You can compete flying the Carve in the intermediate class (http://ppc.paralog.net/suits.php). If your question is more related to "I want a bigger performance suit and start competing in that", I would suggest a suit from the new "small-bigsuit" class, like Squirrel Colugo2 or Freak, PF Hunter (soon avail) or Tonysuit Foghead or R-Bird2. Way easier to fly than the huge performance suits and people are using these smaller suits in competitions quite successfully

[johnmatrix 21]

birdynamnam

PF Hunter (soon avail)

I believe this is the new Ghost, while I'm sure it's going to be a great suit it's probably not going to be a huge amount more performance over the Havok the OP is already using.

[birdynamnam 28]

johnmatrix

***PF Hunter (soon avail)

I believe this is the new Ghost, while I'm sure it's going to be a great suit it's probably not going to be a huge amount more performance over the Havok the OP is already using.

True. Still the OP might want that progression and as for PF they don't have other suits in that class atm

[keithbar 1]

so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .

[WickedWingsuits 0]

keithbar

so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless.

Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

[WickedWingsuits 0]

PolinaVin

I am interested in getting in to performance flying but I'm not ready for a jedi. I have about 200 jumps on a havok mostly flocking . I tried the v4 and it was too much arm pressure for me. What suit would you recommend I get next?

If you have been mostly flocking then I would just stick with the Havoc for now and get used to "maxing the crap" out of it. Only move up to a bigger suit when you are getting consistent and even boring results from the suit you already know.

A smaller suit makes you really work for it and feel what every part of your body is doing. When you get to the bigger ones a lot of that becomes a more blended feeling and you won't know what subtle changes to make to get the most out of it.

Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

[dthames 0]

WickedWingsuits

***I am interested in getting in to performance flying but I'm not ready for a jedi. I have about 200 jumps on a havok mostly flocking . I tried the v4 and it was too much arm pressure for me. What suit would you recommend I get next?

If you have been mostly flocking then I would just stick with the Havoc for now and get used to "maxing the crap" out of it. Only move up to a bigger suit when you are getting consistent and even boring results from the suit you already know.

A smaller suit makes you really work for it and feel what every part of your body is doing. When you get to the bigger ones a lot of that becomes a more blended feeling and you won't know what subtle changes to make to get the most out of it.

I have an X2 but my Rbird is still my primary weapon. I agree 100% about spending a lot of time on something smaller than a very large suit. I continue to surprise myself at what I am still learning with the Rbird.

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

[keithbar 1]

WickedWingsuits

***so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .

[lyosha 46]

keithbar

******so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

I have no idea what a Raptor is, but the guy that holds the US speed record for wingsuits is also tall and heavy. ;)

[WickedWingsuits 0]

keithbar

******so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

The Foghead has slightly bigger arm wings than the R Bird to balance it out. Travis dominates in it and he is shorter and only slightly lighter than you, which means with the extra surface area you would have from your height it should work our nicely.

The Raptor just isn't a modern wingsuit anymore and a new generation suit of the same scale will perform a lot more.

Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

[johnmatrix 21]

birdynamnam

******PF Hunter (soon avail)

I believe this is the new Ghost, while I'm sure it's going to be a great suit it's probably not going to be a huge amount more performance over the Havok the OP is already using.

True. Still the OP might want that progression and as for PF they don't have other suits in that class atm

The Hunter is up on PF's website now. It looks like I was wrong - it looks to have quite a bit more performance than the Havok.

http://phoenix-fly.com/portfolio/hunter/

[pms07 3]

WickedWingsuits

*********so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

The Foghead has slightly bigger arm wings than the R Bird to balance it out. Travis dominates in it and he is shorter and only slightly lighter than you, which means with the extra surface area you would have from your height it should work our nicely.

The Raptor just isn't a modern wingsuit anymore and a new generation suit of the same scale will perform a lot more.

Agree with everything Simon said. There is another TS option though that might fit your needs. Instead of the Foghead get the R-Bird Pro. Same leg wing, larger arm wing. Big suit but easier to fly than those suits you see being worn by lots of the world class performance folks, Jedei, etc. The R-Bird Pro is big for general flocking however...

And what Simon says about the Raptor is right on, I have finally put mine away for good because there are much better performing smaller suits. As an example, I have a Squirrel Swift with smaller wings than my Raptor that easily outperforms it...

[dthames 0]

pms07

************so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

The Foghead has slightly bigger arm wings than the R Bird to balance it out. Travis dominates in it and he is shorter and only slightly lighter than you, which means with the extra surface area you would have from your height it should work our nicely.

The Raptor just isn't a modern wingsuit anymore and a new generation suit of the same scale will perform a lot more.

Agree with everything Simon said. There is another TS option though that might fit your needs. Instead of the Foghead get the R-Bird Pro. Same leg wing, larger arm wing. Big suit but easier to fly than those suits you see being worn by lots of the world class performance folks, Jedei, etc. The R-Bird Pro is big for general flocking however...

And what Simon says about the Raptor is right on, I have finally put mine away for good because there are much better performing smaller suits. As an example, I have a Squirrel Swift with smaller wings than my Raptor that easily outperforms it...

A friend of mine was flying his Rbird-Pro in a bigway flock which has a fairly slow forward speed. On those suits where the large wing is affected by bending your knees, slowing it down appears to be a challenge.

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

[WickedWingsuits 0]

A technique worth trying other than dropping knees to slow down is to lift heels. This removes tension in the tail and adds drag on top of the tail but without creating the float you get when dropping knees into the "sit".

I haven't tried it on all suits but is works on many.

Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

[pms07 3]

dthames

***************so in your opinion. do you think stepping up from an old school Tony suit Raptor .to a foghead is a doable progression?

The Foghead is rooted in the R Bird which in turn is a modified Raptor, they all are in the same family.

If you are current and confident on a Raptor then a move to a Foghead should be pretty seamless. my problem is I'm 6 foot 4" 260 pounds without gear. I just get left in the dust on the Raptor. am I going to see enough performance increase with a fog is to make it worthwhile

The Foghead has slightly bigger arm wings than the R Bird to balance it out. Travis dominates in it and he is shorter and only slightly lighter than you, which means with the extra surface area you would have from your height it should work our nicely.

The Raptor just isn't a modern wingsuit anymore and a new generation suit of the same scale will perform a lot more.

Agree with everything Simon said. There is another TS option though that might fit your needs. Instead of the Foghead get the R-Bird Pro. Same leg wing, larger arm wing. Big suit but easier to fly than those suits you see being worn by lots of the world class performance folks, Jedei, etc. The R-Bird Pro is big for general flocking however...

And what Simon says about the Raptor is right on, I have finally put mine away for good because there are much better performing smaller suits. As an example, I have a Squirrel Swift with smaller wings than my Raptor that easily outperforms it...

A friend of mine was flying his Rbird-Pro in a bigway flock which has a fairly slow forward speed. On those suits where the large wing is affected by bending your knees, slowing it down appears to be a challenge.

Well, in no way would I recommend the R-Bird Pro as a general big way flocking suit although I know at least one dude that uses his that way. For typical big way speeds the RBP is probably way too big for most of us. YMMV...

[Anachronist 2]

WickedWingsuits

***I am interested in getting in to performance flying but I'm not ready for a jedi. I have about 200 jumps on a havok mostly flocking . I tried the v4 and it was too much arm pressure for me. What suit would you recommend I get next?

If you have been mostly flocking then I would just stick with the Havoc for now and get used to "maxing the crap" out of it. Only move up to a bigger suit when you are getting consistent and even boring results from the suit you already know.

A smaller suit makes you really work for it and feel what every part of your body is doing. When you get to the bigger ones a lot of that becomes a more blended feeling and you won't know what subtle changes to make to get the most out of it.

This is the best advice on the thread. Adding to it, get so comfortable being unstable, that it feels impossible to actually be unstable.

The transition to big suits is more about stability. If you can control the suit you can learn to fly it, and the best way to learn to control it is when it is unstable. Make intentionally sloppy rolls and front flips and then fix them, get so use to it that it becomes boring.

Too much arm pressure why? Because you don't like it or because you can't control it? Or because you are too weak to pull?

If you don't like it... too bad, everything is going to have higher wing pressure than the Havok (I know, I put over 200 jumps on one), welcome to big suits.

If it is because you can't control it... then do that stuff I just said, until there is zero question about you fixing any instability on your Havok in just a second or two. Also the maxing it out thing I quoted, that also makes the suit more sensitive, which all big suits will be, it will help you get use to making smaller inputs.

If it is because you are too weak... exercise, this is a sport that can kill you and requires a certain degree of fitness and athleticism to participate in reasonably. Some of the famous short and fat wingsuiters can make up for that lack of fitness with an incredible amount of experience. But you can choose, make thousands(literally) of jumps, or build up your muscles and lose weight.

#realtalk, not trying to be a dick.