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Vampire ALPINE - Review

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So I recently got the Vampire Alpine, I have not bought a big suit in a while, last suits in this class where the Viper and X-Wing both great suits in their own rights. However I was looking for a suit that would give me performance for max flight, agility whilst at the limit on flight and the crispness you feel in flight when the suit almost intuitively reads you body and reacts. I found this in the ALPINE.

The Alpine is a whole different beast, a brief background I have 1600 wingsuit flights and have been flying since 2001. The Alpine is very similar size to many of the big wingsuits on the market, however it has a number of very nice design features which for me have taken this suit to the next level.

The arm wing angle is enough to be aggressive and stable diving but also not have you having your arms hanging off after a maxed out flight from exit to pull. So far I have put 10 jumps on it over 3 weekends. Pressurisation is superb, but when you see the solid intakes its clear why and internal construction gives you super solid wing profile and pressurization. The profile appears to be cleaner than my old super suits and incredibly crisp to fly.

There are a bunch of design elements which I wont describe in detail but each is well thought out and really works, the wingtip grippers are shaped to naturally lock into your grip making for very easy maxed out flight yet come pull time you drop them with ease and pull time on this suit is no hassle. I use a Spectre 120 and its non issue, admittedly its a spectre.

The overall feeling in flight is one of speed and agility when you want it. Yet relax into a neutral flight position and you can happily cruise around at 30-35mph all day long. I have put it into steep dives and no tail flutter or stability issues, no issues with workload either in dive or pulling out and maxing glide. The glide is superb the suit naturally flies at a very flat angle. I shall be collecting more data over the next few weeks and months but even when carrying out initial lets see what you can do flights and expanding the envelope the average vertical speeds have been 30-35 mph with limited effort other than symmetric flying. In turns the suit feels like she is on rails with little to no side slip or loss of altitude, this is not surprising with the flat flight angle and the huge carbon fibre blades. All in all an epic suit which I am barely scratching the surface on.

I have never flown the Sukhoi but the pedigree is clear the Alpine feels like your inside a very fast high precision fighter jet. This suit just wants to fly.:)
Attached a couple of shots from exit and on the floor front and back, waiting for weather and other suits for some outside camera footage.
Dont just talk about it, Do it!

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I started flying it on the 3rd jump in a performance comp, as a first comp with no flysight or decent approach dive I was getting 70 seconds for time. Unfortunately I had to leave after round 1 due to a pretty serious family emergency. However this suit looks ideal for performance. I shall log a few runs on paralog. Jarno has already logged a few and already got pretty impressive flights. However always good to see in comps when under the same conditions as everyone else.
Dont just talk about it, Do it!

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I've only got 14 jumps on the suit so far, so still dialing it in.
Jump number 5 was already a personal best of 90.3 seconds, and feeling I can smooth out performance a lot still. Especially on glide the suit is extremely easy to fly long and far.

Also in Base its a mighty beast of a suit.
Quite turbulent conditions, so a bit further from the wall, but shows the nice start and good glide quite well. https://www.facebook.com/mccordia/videos/1152515598154955/
JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

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My review of the Alpine. I only based it but can be usefull for some here:

First, sorry for my shitty english.
So, after 20 jumps with an Alpine (lend by a friend), ultra light cameroon, fins, this is my review.
I have 300 ws skydive/ ~700 ws base. My actual suit is a Sukhoï. I stopped skydiving last season. I m not sponsorized but i flew mostly Phoenix Fly, by personnal choice.

Suit quality is like usually, for Vampires, close to perfect.The ultra light weight cameroon looks at first (and sound) fragile but in fact is way more resistant. Of course this material is not the best choice for skydivers. You still have the choice with "regular" light weight cameroon or parapak (recommended for skydiving).
"On the ground", the differences with the Sukhoï are the arms a little higher, more cells on the hips/ arms and longer deflector.
"In the air", Glide is way better than my SU or the Aura & Ridge i flew with. By a quite big margin.The suit looks like she stay at same level, not going down. For the handling, you re definitly in a Vampire. For sure it fell bigger and a little less agile than the SU but switching from one to the other was without any troubles. The added surface on the upper body make it easier to fly than the SU. No problem for the pulling neither. It's a user friendly suit (with appropriate experience of course). Agility is really good, closer than a Vrace/Venom Power than other big glide suit. If you actually have one of these it ll be a perfect and valuable upgrade.

In conclusion, the suit is easy to fly, easy to get amazing performance in: (start), glide, speed. The agility is really great for a big suit. Pull is easy.
For distance, time and speed competition it ll be the perfect tool!

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