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draero

Tunnelsuit or FF suit?

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Sorry if this has been posted before but Im having a hard time choosing which jumpsuit to buy.

I am planning to fly in the windtunnel for about 2 hours a month during the winter,
and during the summer I will mostly skydive but also do some windtunnel here
and there. I do mostly FF. The suits that Im kinda interested in atm are the ones from boogieman.

Here are some questions:

1. What kind of suit would you recommend that I look into?

2. What is the difference between polycoton, sliding, and codura?

3. Is there any difference between tight and medium fit for FF?

Thanks a lot in advance!

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mattjw916

The guy was ripped apart!!? :D

I hope it wasn't in a recirculating tunnel... B|



it was; they guys with the red suits kept on flying.. everyone else - well, they all had red suits after THEY kept on flying!
“Some may never live, but the crazy never die.”
-Hunter S. Thompson
"No. Try not. Do... or do not. There is no try."
-Yoda

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Ignore the nonsense above. :D

Cordura adds drag, if you're a big guy it can slow you down.
Nylon makes your suit slipperier. Increases your fall rate but harder to control in the tunnel.
Polycotton's kind of the middle ground. It's also a bit more comfy than the others. Cordura's definitely a bit on the warm side.

You can use a FF suit in the tunnel or a tunnel suit in the sky. Tunnel suits are often a bit more basic to reduce the number of seams that can rip and sometimes made a bit more robust. Sonic also add a windproof zip to their tunnel suit.

Baggy, regular and tight fit often only relate to the arms and legs. The body is made to measure. The tighter the fit the more accurate control you're meant to have but harder to fly, supposedly.

Most suits get used in the tunnel and most are robust enough to cope so I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. If you were a regular guy with regular build then I'd get a polycotton suit, regular fit.

As with all freeflyers though.. the most important thing is to look great and match your suit to your rig. Being seen in an uncool suit... well that's almost worthy of an entry in the 'incidents' thread on dz.com. :P;)

Hope this helps.

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I'll add one more comment to all this. The more I fly in the tunnel, the less desirable any "bagginess" to the arms and legs is to me. And I mean I absolutely despise it now. Plus, baggy suits will absolutely tear you up if you fly in high wind speeds over many sessions. I have been essentially "burned" by suits the chaffing was so bad. It feels like a bad sunburn. B|

I'm at the point where I need to order a dedicated tunnel suit as my freefly suit I don't think would be up to the challenge without the extra zipper protection. I'd hate to blow it up because I really like it.

Given carte blanche I would order a suit in a "middle ground" type of material, low drag but not skin tight (face it, not many people can pull that look off anyway :P). This will let you layer something sleek like under-armour for when it's cold or if you're going to be flying a lot for extra skin protection.

Cheers

NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

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adamUK

Baggy, regular and tight fit often only relate to the arms and legs. The body is made to measure. The tighter the fit the more accurate control you're meant to have but harder to fly, supposedly.



This is correct for both, but there's another factor as well. You are right that baggier suits can be "easier" to fly (because they give you more drag and thus more effect on the wind), but can be slightly less precise. Tighter suits will be more difficult, but more precise.

However, the other factor is fall rate. If you plan on flying with other people (in the tunnel or in the sky), you will need to be able to match fall rate with them. A tight suit will make you fall faster (or make you need higher wind speed in the tunnel), and vice versa.

Best advice is that if you're just starting out, go to one of the well-known suit manufacturers, give them your measurements and your weight, and they will make the correct suit for you--they've done this a lot and know how to get you the proper fall rate :)

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no matter you are big or small.
let your body fly, not the suit.

sleek tunnel suit will be more reliable, stronger, lasts longer and overall works better everywhere. extra fabric does not help you to fly, it slows you down. if you relying on the suit to control the fallrate, that means you could not fly (not talking about winged camera suits here).

and you could fly in the tunnel too in this suit so you do not need another.

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