IT IS HERE!!! Questions, comments, concerns...

[kevin922 0]

Well she came, haven't named her yet, but she's here... my birdman suit that is -- ooo it is soooo sexy. :) White wings, black ribs, black tail, red body.. a little kid running around the DZ waiting on his mother to make a tandem told me I looked like a bird with that suit on :) guess that is kudos to the design team (and my color selection maybe?) anyway -- few questions to those who have the suits:

Question 1:
How tough is it supposed to be to get your booties on your feet??? When they are on and i'm standing up everything is good, when I bend my legs about 45 degrees they are tight.. the problem I'm running into is that I can't bend over to put the legs on because the legs come up when you bend over.. it's almost impossible to put them on.. how I get them on i'm not real sure, but I do manage to do it...

Question 2:
Secondly, I only had time to jump it once - and my exit SUCKED.... the first time I jumped a birdman suit the exit was good (i guess it's kinda like jumping for the first time - you don't know what to expect so you're not scared) now that I know what the suit is capable of i'm paranoid i'm going to fly up and it the horiz. stab. Jari had taught me to jump out sideways of the plane (otter) facing the front of the plane and as soon as you clear the door ARCH and spread your wings... which when I jumped with him that's what I did and had no problems.. now i guess i'm just a little paranoid.. so I did go out sideways but had everything collapsed for a few seconds ended up flipping over opened up my wings and everything was all good from there... any tips on exits? I woudl like to be able to exit and face the front of the plane the whole time not go flying off in some other direction

[cpoxon 0]

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Well she came

Good, maybe you'll shut up about it now! :-P

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Question 1:
How tough is it supposed to be to get your booties on your feet??? When they are on and i'm standing up everything is good, when I bend my legs about 45 degrees they are tight.. the problem I'm running into is that I can't bend over to put the legs on because the legs come up when you bend over.. it's almost impossible to put them on.. how I get them on i'm not real sure, but I do manage to do it...

It is supposed to be quite tight so you can get the leg wing nice and taught. I rather it was like this than no tension on the wing.

Simple answer, don't bend over to put them on! My Skyflyer is not as bad as my GTi was but then my Skyflyer is generally loser than my GTi. When standing up, you should be able to wiggle, shuffle and shake your foot into the bootie. Once it's in, you have tension on it and the suit gives in other places when you bend over to zip up (down?) the leg. The leg is a bit floppy and if you can't get into it freely, stand on the tab on the tip of the bootie with the other foot to keepit still whilst you guide your foot in. Some planes just don't have the headroom to allow this (i.e. Caravan) so I prefer to have my booties on before boarding the plane (as long as boarding isn't an issue (i.e. high door and no steps)).

Alternatively, get a friendly jumper on the plane to kneel before you on the ride to altitude and do them up for you; makes great tandem footage.

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Question 2:
Secondly, I only had time to jump it once - and my exit SUCKED.... the first time I jumped a birdman suit the exit was good (i guess it's kinda like jumping for the first time - you don't know what to expect so you're not scared) now that I know what the suit is capable of i'm paranoid i'm going to fly up and it the horiz. stab. Jari had taught me to jump out sideways of the plane (otter) facing the front of the plane and as soon as you clear the door ARCH and spread your wings... which when I jumped with him that's what I did and had no problems.. now i guess i'm just a little paranoid.. so I did go out sideways but had everything collapsed for a few seconds ended up flipping over opened up my wings and everything was all good from there... any tips on exits? I woudl like to be able to exit and face the front of the plane the whole time not go flying off in some other direction

I think you just freaked yourself out. Have you done many hop and pops/crew exits? It's no big deal. If not, maybe some practices would be good. Make sure everything is collapsed, and evenly; if something is out and unsymetric, that will flip you. How much effort are you putting into your exit? You could be overdoing it and put in an involuntary turn. Take it easy and relax.

[TALONSKY 0]

After putting 30 some jumps on my GTI I feel pretty strongly that jump number and jump maturity are important factors to really consider. I personally would question whether or not you should be jumping a birdman suit at 200+ jumps. That aside I would suggest practicing the exit without the suit (I do the exit that is described in the manual) until you have it down to a completely stable exit before trying it again with the birdman suit.
Kirk

[kevin922 0]

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After putting 30 some jumps on my GTI I feel pretty strongly that jump number and jump maturity are important factors to really consider. I personally would question whether or not you should be jumping a birdman suit at 200+ jumps. That aside I would suggest practicing the exit without the suit (I do the exit that is described in the manual) until you have it down to a completely stable exit before trying it again with the birdman suit.
Kirk

Well thanks for the tip - i personally feel that people develop differently in skydiving and someone with 200 jumps could do one thing better than someone with 400.. i've evaluated my skydiving "maturity" and feel that i am to the point where I can safely handle the suit.

As far as the exit goes - i have practiced for the past 11weeks while waiting on the suit not only the exit but also the pull and waveoff procedures. Things are slightly different when you have an actual suit on.

[TALONSKY 0]

Well Kevin I was not trying to insult you but just bring up a possible point. In my 30 birdman suit jumps I have never left unstable and have been rock solid out the door, I have watch a fellow birdman go through a learning curve on exits (He had a lower jump number). I personally feel if I can do something then most everyone should be able to do the same, with that in mind the only difference between me and this other birdman were jump numbers and jump styles (RW verses Freeflying). I believe what helped the other birdman out was inflating the arm wings slightly before the leg wing.
Kirk

[kevin922 0]

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Well Kevin I was not trying to insult you but just bring up a possible point. In my 30 birdman suit jumps I have never left unstable and have been rock solid out the door, I have watch a fellow birdman go through a learning curve on exits (He had a lower jump number). I personally feel if I can do something then most everyone should be able to do the same, with that in mind the only difference between me and this other birdman were jump numbers and jump styles (RW verses Freeflying). I believe what helped the other birdman out was inflating the arm wings slightly before the leg wing.
Kirk

Ok no harm.. sounds like you picked up pretty quick on it.... I know some people who were able to do a solid sit on their first try -- some people, like I said, pick up on things quicker than others...

how long have you been jumping the suit?
what plane do you jump from?

Kevin

[TALONSKY 0]

I have been jumping my GTI for about 4 months. I have found it very difficult to fit in all the things I love to do in skydiving. I jump the GTI about once or twice a weekend. I have a big docile main I jump with it to avoid adding more complications so since I got a Crossfire 2 it has been difficult to not want to fly a docile canopy and therefore I jump the wing suit just occasionally.
As far as what I jump out of, I usually jump out of a twin Otter but have jumped it out of a grand caravan. I have not yet had the opportunity to jump it out of a 182, but do look forward to it.
Kirk

[ManBird 0]

Talonsky was probably talking about me. My exits sucked ass at first. I got a good tip from a very experienced skyflyer that worked for me. Basically, I leave the plane the same way (chest into the wind), but rather than pop everything out all at once, I smoothly open the wings slightly before the tail. It's still fast, but it just feels really nice and smooth and is extremely stable.

Regarding the booties, the tighter they are, the better, IMO.

And regarding aircraft, while the horizontal stabilizer looks mean and low on the Caravan on the ground, it lifts up significantly in flight. I had the same fear of hitting it for while, but have found that, basically, if you're leaving the plane with your wings closed, you will lose enough altitude to get under the plane, even if it's for a quarter of a second.

My 2¢.

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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[maretus 0]

ManBird wrote :
"if you're leaving the plane with your wings closed, you will lose enough altitude to get under the plane, even if it's for a quarter of a second. "
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Exactly so. I was quite freaked out about the stabilizer too, but then I jumped with couple of my friends and had couple of jumps on video and there you really see how much you lose altitude if you exit all wings closed. As to the original questions, if you have problems with your exits, ask someone to video them. It really helps to see what is flipping you over! And as a bonus, 2way is much better than going solo. (Yes, in skyflying too... ;)

http://www.ufufreefly.com

[bobsoutar 0]

[How tough is it supposed to be to get your booties on your feet??? ]

Only done 4 birdies but got a good tip on the bootee issue. Leave the zip undone so that your knee is not inside while you put your foot into the bootee - then straighten your leg and zip up.

[verticalflyer 11]

Two ways you can do this Fordy puts his foot in with his knee outside the line of the suit leg then pops the suit across as he straightens his leg up and it works for him. Personnally i pull all excess slack down from waist etc with legs straight and curl toes up to get in the bootie and then finally keeping tension on the suit pulling it down towards the foot, zip up. keep an eyeopen for stitching pulling away on the bootie if its taught as the fabric on the base of the bootie can tear. Birdman are aware of this, in flight if the bootie comes off its fine to fly as long as the zip is still intact.

As for exits otter are nice and easy with bigs doors and once you get happy you can go out in a lot of orientations yoiu just have to remember to keep it all in and remain symmetrical. The hardest to exit was ironically an exit from a Cessna 182 as the step was getting in the way and you had to avoid catching the suit on it.

The main thing is not to fight the exit but fly with it, I have used the classica dn Skyflyer and made 200 bird jumps know and never had a problems with exit.

Had one cutaway at the herc boogie which was a bit annoying as it stopped me jumpinjg for the day but that was my own fault for not keeping my legs together on deployment and I think assisted the back to tumble a bit.

Hope you enjoy the suit.
Cheers

Fraser

Dont just talk about it, Do it!

[ManBird 0]

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in flight if the bootie comes off its fine to fly as long as the zip is still intact.

Just seconding this. I exited a 182 and had a bootie slip off as I was backing up into the door (dive out). I found that I could still fly just fine, but had to fight the auto-turn whenever I punched it out.

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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[kevin922 0]

Hey thanks guys for the tips on the exit, my exits are perfect now! I found that if I slow down and wait a fraction of a second longer once i'm out the door then things work out perfectly... i'm soo excited :)