Birdman SF3 Base PC Option...

[kevin922 0]

So I went all out, got everything I could on my new SF3 including the base PC pouch. The pouch is really well designed, it even comes with a sleve which the bridle goes through so that it can velcro to the suit. Was wondering if anyone has jumpped using this? I talked with Robert (designer) and he says it can be used for normal wingsuit flight.. which I plan on trying this weekend. The hackey ends up being right at your finger tips when you collapse your wing, makes it easier to get to your PC - your wings dont fold over it or anything like that as with the BOC.

Will post more info next week

[gus 1]

Post a pic with it all rigged up and you in the suit, I'd like to see it.

Gus

OutpatientsOnline.com

[PerFlare 0]

Kevin,

The PC pouch has been jumped for quite a while both with skydive rigs and with single shot rigs. If you are a tall person you will benefit more then if you are a short person.

Team Bautasten has hundreds of jumps with this system and it works well

The shrivel flap is a good idea.

Now to the serious part, especially if you are jumping single shot rigs. Practice and practice and practice and focus on the fact that your PC is located in a different place. When you are in trouble and scared and you need to slow things down it is a good idea to find your PC :)

Have fun!

PerFlare
Member Team Bautasten

[cpoxon 0]

I have that option. I used it a few times skydiving, to get used to it, then I used it for real for peace of mind! I went through the stage of occasionally struggling for the hackey whilst I was skydiving. I weighed up the risk of having the hackey in a different location compared with trouble reaching the hackey and I decided I was happier with it more accessible (with skydiving practice of course)! I'm a lot more comfortable now with reaching my hackey so I may go back to a normal BOC deployment. I'll let you know in a couple of weeks :-)

A few points about this option:

Since all BASE PCs do not have a kill line and are attached by lark's head at the bridle, it's very easy to take the pilot chute off, slip the shealth over the bridle and reattach the pilot chute. Skydiving pilot chutes with kill lines are a lot trickier. At least with my Voodoo, I had to detach the bridle from the bag (Voodoo's have a ring looped between 2 splits in the bridle INSIDE of the bag) and the top of the canopy to get the sheath over which meant upacking the rig or waiting until after a jump. And the reverse to take it off again. I ended up leaving the sheath on the bridle for a few non-wingsuit skydives but this worried me because of the added risk and complication to the deployment mechanism from an unnecessary component. The hackey on the Voodoo is really tiny and I was hoping I could slip the sheath over the hackey and down the bridle but it was not possible.

I don't know how wide Robert is making the pocket now but on my Skyflyer it was extremely voluminous! Even a 38" PC would slip out of the pocket when I stood up or moved around so I didn't even want to try my normal 30" skydiving PC. So I got a rigger to stitch part way across the mouth and then up the pocket to drastically reduce it's capacity. My suit is made out of Atmotex and so is the pocket, which is then elasticated at the mouth. This isn't as stretchy or retentive as spandex and a compromise on the pocket was required; did I make it tight for the 38" PC or the 30" PC? I went with the 38" as that's what I would be mostly using with the pocket and had to risk a slightly looser pocket for the occasional skydives and a 30" PC. This could be overcome by stuffing the PC but then you risk a stiffer pull. I don't use a larger PC when I'm skydiving, but then 30" is fairly large for skydiving (150 Crossfire main) anyway. Your Mileage May Vary.

Finally, the sheath is very long. From conversations with Robert (please correct me if I'm wrong!!), if the velcro on the suit sits under your harness when you are wearing it then the sheath must go under there too. This seems slightly unnatural to me! So the bridle comes from the BOC, OVER THE HARNESS (i.e. don't route it round and pack yourself a total!), the sheath is mated on the velcro (which will probably run under your harness) and down the leg to the pocket.

[Faber 0]

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Post a pic with it all rigged up and you in the suit, I'd like to see it.

I would like to see it aswell

Stay safe
Stefan Faber

[PerFlare 0]

Craig,

Maybe I do not understand you as my English is not ... well perfect :)

You need to stich the shrivel flap to you bridle for it to work. So I do not understand how you can possibly take it on and off without much work.

About the length of the sheet ... you just cut it so it fits you and your rig. If you have a big rig you may have to make sure that the velcro (that's goes under your rig) does not wear on your harness and then you can simply take some "female" velcro and put it on the part of the velcro that goes under your rig. In other word you do not need to use the full length of the velcro on the suit. If you do you may feel that the routing of the bridle looks weird.

PerFlare
Member Team Bautasten

[robibird 2]

Hi guys,

Here is what I can say about this:

PC was originally made for BASE activities. Idea was to ensure easyer axces to PC Of course you can use it on skydiving as well. If you do so than you'll face the problem of the size of PC pouch. It is very hard to make the pouch which will suit the 24'' and 38'' in the correct way. I hope you'll agree w me about this. ( to ask rigger to make the pouch smaller is one of the good options you may take)

Second,

Shrivel is made bit longer cause I can't really cover all types of the rigs and lengths of containers. Also this is not the problem cause if you find that the shrivel is to long ( longer than velcro on the pouch) the part which is out of male side you just place in the PC pouch.( also, me personaly use the longer shrevel part to reinforce the fiting of the PC in the pouch.) I'll make the picture and will send it to you.
It is important to make attachment between the bridle and shrivel w one barttack too.
Attachment has to be made on the upper part ( the side which void to the pin) so that after you stretch the bridle, bridle has th freedom to peel from the velcro of the PC pouch completly before its start to pull the pin or velcro from the base /skydiving rig.

picture will explain better.

Sincerely
Robi

Robert Pecnik
[email protected]
www.phoenix-fly.com

[cpoxon 0]

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You need to stich the shrivel flap to you bridle for it to work. So I do not understand how you can possibly take it on and off without much work.

Yes, you are right. When I used the sheath, I was unaware that it had to be tacked to the bridle (Robert later corrected me), and used it without. Sorry I forgot to mention that. So it was only acting as bridle management (for the external bridle between the container and the pocket) and not as a shrivel. Still I wouldn't want any unnecessary velcro on the bridle if I didn't have to (to avoid any snag potential. Ideally you'd have a Birdman bridle with velcro attached and one without. People do have different (longer) bridles for wingsuit skydiving but they tend not to change it to a shorter one when they are not wingsuiting; I suspect due to the hassle of changing it over in conjunction with weighing up the potential risks of a longer bridle (entanglement? snatch hesitation?). With BASE it is easier to change the whole bridle than with skydiving and probably more advisable since with no reserve, unecessary velcro is a greater risk.

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About the length of the sheet ... you just cut it so it fits you and your rig. If you have a big rig you may have to make sure that the velcro (that's goes under your rig) does not wear on your harness and then you can simply take some "female" velcro and put it on the part of the velcro that goes under your rig. In other word you do not need to use the full length of the velcro on the suit. If you do you may feel that the routing of the bridle looks weird.

This is what I initially prepared but when I talked with Robert about it, he said it was unnecessary and advised routing the sheath back up under the harness to mate with the velcro. I don't know if it is different now.

[kevin922 0]

I had my rigger put the sleve on and sew it to the bridle (he was real careful as it is a collapseable PC). I also made sure I could still fold the PC into the BOC so I could jump it both ways with the sleve on. He also put a velcro square on the bridle so that it can attach just to the right of the BOC (on the bottom of container) so that the excess bridle doesn't move around.

I'll post pictures later...

here are two -- the sleve
the sleve attached to the velcrow along the back of the suit

[PerFlare 0]

Craig,

Yes it is easier to just route the whole shrivel flap under your rig and it works fine. but if you make allot of jumps with the suit the male velcro are wearing on your harness. It is not a big deal but personally I rather have that little extra work to customize the system in the beginning.

PerFlare
Member Team Bautasten

[ManBird 0]

Should I worry about the PC slipping out of the pocket when performing aerobatics? I mean, as fun as it is to have your bridle wrapped around your body, it's still something I'd like to avoid.

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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[kevin922 0]

my gut instinct is yes, don't fly in any other way than on your belly with this..

[ManBird 0]

Would backwards on my belly be alright?

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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[kevin922 0]

Okay I jumped it today, and LOVE IT. I can't explain the diffence, it almost seems like the PC inflates quicker (i guess less of a burble?) easy to get to. I did do barrel rolls with it and it stayed in.. didn't fly on my back any with it. I switched back and forth between BOC and base.. can fit it in the BOC with the "shrivel" on the bridle. had a great time at skydive atlanta today.. jumped out of a king air, not used to those small doors - great bunch of people had a great time!

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

You were in the Disco King?

[kevin922 0]

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You were in the Disco King?

*lol* yeah nice plane.. complete with the crushed velvet and mini-disco ball :)

Diving exits are interesting.. i think i've got them down now!

[ManBird 0]

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Okay I jumped it today, and LOVE IT. I can't explain the diffence, it almost seems like the PC inflates quicker (i guess less of a burble?) easy to get to. I did do barrel rolls with it and it stayed in.. didn't fly on my back any with it. I switched back and forth between BOC and base.. can fit it in the BOC with the "shrivel" on the bridle. had a great time at skydive atlanta today.. jumped out of a king air, not used to those small doors - great bunch of people had a great time!

Nice. I kind of figured that since the way the mouth is facing, it'd stay in pretty well. And I did mean flying backwards, not backflying. ;)

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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[ManBird 0]

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Diving exits are interesting.. i think i've got them down now!

Facing the nose or the tail? IMO, diving exit = front flip. Not in a bad way. I've just found that the easiest/fastest way to get in a stable position when diving towards the tail is to do one front flip. The amount of time it takes to get flat from a flip as opposed to recovering from a dive is, for me, significantly less.

Either way, it's kind of a diving out, though I did bang my leg pretty hard on the step of a 182. Jump farther, I guess.

"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

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