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LouDiamond

What IS the "MATTER"?

By LouDiamond, in Wing Suit Flying

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
I had the opportunity to see and fly a Matter suit while at the WFFC thanks to Darren, who was in from the UK and also happens to be a Birdman and matter suit owner. I know there was some interest in this suit awhile back and thought it would be a good chance to let everyone else know what my impressions of the suit are. I took as many pictures as I thought were relevant and will attempt to address several topics.

My initial impressions of the suit were a bit skeptical since the suit pretty much looks, feels and sounds like the average Wal-Mart packing mat/ tarp found on DZ's everywhere. Thanks to BillVon I was told that the actual fabric is what is also used on the leading edges of paragliders. Needless to say, the material looks and feels brittle to the touch and makes a good deal of noise when worn. Darren informed me that the suit comes in 3 body sizes( S,M, L) and 3 leg/arm lengths right off the shelf. There is no custom ordering available. So one falls into one of the 3 body types and from there into one of the 3 leg/arm combos( IE: Small, small; Small, medium; Small, large and so on). The suit comes in it's own storage bag with a zipper closure made from the same materials used to reinforce the wear areas on the suit and looks alot like a large deposit bag. I laid the suit out for inspection and to take a look at what it had to offer. Having actually seen a crossbow and now the Matter suit I can see a few design and material upgrades but the overall design seems to be the same. The suit is extremely lightweight and almost seems fragile, durability is a major concern since the suit I jumped had only been jumped by it's owner (Darren) twice and I found it to already have two tears in the identical location where the arm zipper junction meets the body. I brought this to Darren's attention and he will be sending it back to Matter (Cedric? SP) for replacement. According to Darren the suit came with no instructions of any sort which required that Darren call(Spain) and inquire on how to rig and fly the suit. The suit incorporates the use of neoprene in the neck and back areas where one would expect to encounter spandex. I think this is due in part to the material the suit is made out of and the wear of stretching would cause spandex to wear out quickly. I will cover rigging and flight in detail but I will precede with donning the suit with rig installed. For those who have jumped an original Classic you know how difficult it is to get into and out of those early suits, the Matter suit is just as if not more difficult to get into. Seeing how fragile the fabric seemed to be I can only imagine that over time the donning process would wear the suit out a good deal if not cause seams to rip. The suit is a pain in the ass to get on, requires that you take your shoes off and has no leg zippers of any kind. The booties are held in place by a loop of 1 inch elastic that is stretched behind the heel of the shoe and is held in the up position by a snap, it is very simple in design.


RIGGING:
The rig is laid on the ground with the back pad facing up. The suit is laid on top of the rig and the neoprene back portion of the suit is unzipped and placed against the back pad of the rig. The zippers are then secured around the horizontal back strap of the rig with leg straps placed inside of the suit and zipped up to the top of the suit. This secures the back of the suit to the rig. The zippers on the front,neck portion of the suit are then unzipped to allow for the main lift web to be placed into the suit. Cutaway and reserve handles are routed through openings and secured in place using a combo of a snap which goes around the main lift web , below the handle itself and then and seperate piece of velcro. The top of the opening is secured in the same fashion with a snap. It is apparent this is all needed to keep the handles from slipping into the suit during flight. The whole rigging process on the front side has no les than 3 zippers and requires that you un-do the single point cut away sytem in order to rig and don the suit. The cut away system is a system of grommets and sewn loops on the inside of the arms of the suit with two different lengths of cut away cable securing the loop grommet system. The cutaway cable is in two different lengths so that the cutaway procedure requires less movement to release all of the loops from the grommets. Starting from the chest and working out, the shorter of the two cables in routed through the first 5 grommets. The longer cable picks up with the 6th grommet and terminates on the hand strap grommet which act much like the thumb loops on a Birdman suit work but not as effectivley, the excess also hangs out and requires it to be routed back up the sleeve or cut to length. Each arm requires that this be done and in order to use the suit. Both sets of cable terminate in a loop at the chest of the suit and are secured together using a screw link that is attached to the cutaway handle.The cutaway handle is a stiff piece of material that must be tucked into the suit on both sides into retaining slots. The screw link must be attached to the second cutaway cable after the suit has been donned and then secured in the retaining slots. The same holds true for removing the suit after a flight as the main entry zipper runs right down the middle of all of this. (see pictures for details).


DONNING:

Shoe removal is a must as one has to insert ones legs into the suit and out through the small leg holes that serve as the tail wing. The tail wing has a series of cell dividers and equalizers sewn in it as well and foot placement during donning is critical as it is possible to put ones foot into these during donning. As I stated before, getting into the suit is a bit difficult and is best accomplished if the entire set up is left on the ground and one slides into it and then stands up to put the arms in fully.Once upright the single main zipper is closed to the top of the neoprene neck and the cutaway screw link is placed into the second cable, tightened and the cutaway handle secured. Shoes can be replaced any time during the process but it's best to do it after you insert your legs through the holes while seated. Zippers on the suit, especially the arms, were hard to zip and unzip. It was as if they dind't want to close and required on a few occasions that some one help in getting the zipper closed/opened



BODY POSITION:
Since the whole suit is basically a wing, the body position is un like that of a birdman suit in some respects. The tail wing requires a far wider stance than even the SF3 and the arm position is'nt as far forward as on the birdman suit. One must tighten the arms and leg wing in order to give the whole suit it's wing shape. While the body position is not unfamiliar to those used to the birdman suit, it is a position one would not use to fly efficiently as it would put you in a diving attitude. However, this is what works for the Matter suit and as I found out. Using any other body position or those that are used for the Birdman suit cause the suit to become unstable or to buck. I found that any position other than fully spread with legs straight caused the tail of the suit to buck or wobble. Arm position didn't seem to be as drastic but I could feel the suit start to deflate when in any other position than the ideal. Hands are held facing down and dearching isn't really needed. The times I de arched the suit seemed to stall. Turning is accomplished in much of the same way as a birdman suit with the exception that it doesn't turn as responsively as a birdman suit. It is almost as if the suit slides in turns. I was told be Darren and another person that lateral stablity or sliding was common but I didn't encounter any problems but the turning did have that sliding feeling and seemed to take longer than I was used to in order to complete a turn. In my opinion, one simply has to hold the body position that tensions the suit correctly and let it fly. Any input from legs or arms other than to provide tension seems to be detrimental to optimum flight. Closing the suit down for pull was done the same as a birdman suit and stability was not an issue. The wing portion of the suit does not interfer with reaching the hack. The suit fabric really bunches up when you close down and one gets the feeling of wearing a garbage bag.




MY THOUGHTS:
As a comparison and witness to the fact I asked that BillVon accompany me on my flight so at least someone would know what had happened to me if I disappeared. I wasn't worried if the suit would fly but more about how it would handle as I put it throught it's paces and the functionabilty of the cutaway and opening of the zippers during post opening proceedures. We launched a side by side, poised flight(wings closed down) from the skyvan without incident. The first thing I noticed was how the suit inflated and then seemed to float. I flattened my dearch out and the suit really seemed to inflate and fly, while dearched I literally floated in place it seemed. I watched Bill fly and start to descend and attempted to follow. The suit just didn't want to go down so it seemed. It does not dive as much or as hard as one can in a birdman suit which gave me another issue to worry about. As I watched Bill fly back to the DZ, my horizontal speed seemed to crawl compared to his, I wasn't sure if I'd make it back to the DZ things were moving so slowly. Other than completly shutting down, any other body position only caused stability issues. My practice pulls went without incident and I went back to normal flight. I played with turning the suit hard and with leg/arm positions. The only word I can use to describe what turning was like is "slide" and "slow", much in the same way when a pilot turns an A/C and the bubble isn't centered. I was impressed with the suits ability to "float" without having to do anything other than spread ones arms and legs,the suit floats like a ballon on steroids . Somersaults and back flying didn't seem any harder than in a birdman suit but returning to the original body position immediately makes it smooth other wise stability becomes an issue. The only time I felt like I had obtained any horizontal speed comparable to the birdman suit was when I closed everything down and went into a dive. When I opened back up I got mad lift but also that floaty, almost suspended, in the air feeling. Opening the zippers after deployment wasn't as bad as I had expected but it was far from smooth and took a lit bit of my attention than what it normally does. While I found some things about the matter suit to be likeable, I found way too many other things about it unlikeable to even consider it an alternative to the birdman suit. Maybe if the design and fabric,manufacturing process is changed to make it more user friendly and do away with durability issues, it might find a small following in the US.

Pictures can be found HERE
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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ManBird    0

ManBird
Sounds just a like a Crossbow... a floating air hockey puck. ;) I'm actually interested in the S-Fly (Loic's new version). It's a whole different sensation, I'm sure. I haven't flown any Crossbow/derivatives, but have seen them in the air a bit, and have observed exactly what you described... floaty, little forward speed, and unresponsive turns that are more like big slides. I didn't see a better fall rate... even over the GTi, but did note that it takes less strength to maintain the optimum fall rate.
"¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯"

Click

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
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did you get any protrack data out of this flight?




My protrack is showing a max of 74 and a 1 and 2 average of 62 with 100 secs of flight. I'm not giving my pro track much credit since it has been consitent in giving me false readings for awhile( not going all the way to altitude, showing freefall time as 6 seconds and stopping at 119 secs on long flights) The deployment altitude is showing higher than what I have my audible set for and I know I pulled on the second warning of 4000 feet on that flight. I really don't rely on my protrack for anything other than to log my jumps and beep at set altitudes. For everything else I rely on my stop watch and video for time, For speeds I am using GPS data.
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
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do you know if MATTER really produce their suit ??? There is a rumor that only very few were made



Based on my discussion with Darren, loic and Cedric used to be business partners but had a falling out. Now each produces the suit, Loic with the aid of Salomon and Cedric with a paraglide company, each being in a different country.Fundamentaly I believe the suits to be identical in design with possible small differences in materials or design. The suit loic flies is not being marketed as far as I know.
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
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The suit loic flies is not being marketed as far as I know.


Apparently it is commercialised, the price is 750 euro and you can order it in places like Babylon...




Is there a web page or link you could provide? While I understand loic may be producing and selling suits, it is my understanding that the one he uses is different from what is being sold. Correct me if I'm wrong.
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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lazyfrog    0

lazyfrog
Quote

Quote

The suit loic flies is not being marketed as far as I know.


Apparently it is commercialised, the price is 750 euro and you can order it in places like Babylon...




Is there a web page or link you could provide? While I understand loic may be producing and selling suits, it is my understanding that the one he uses is different from what is being sold. Correct me if I'm wrong.


looking for the page... will come back later if I find something.
it is apparently the same suit, but Loic is not included ;)
----------
Fumer tue, péter pue
-------------
ourson #10, Mosquito Uno, CBT 579

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LouDiamond    1

LouDiamond
My french isn't what it used to be but unless I'm mistaken that article kind of slams Matter for copying the suit or putting unauthorized versions of it out. It also infers that there may be some legal matters underway with respect to a patent. Also, my earlier talk about a falling out seems to be cooborated somewhat as well. The Suit pictured has some notable differences from the matter suit but the overall design looks the same. Any French speakers care to verify my translation?
"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

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Remster    24

Remster
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Matter met sur le marché une copie conforme de cette combinaison sans autorisation. Nous gérons actuellement ce problème.



If you'Re refering to this, the exact translation is pretty close to your understanding.

They say

Matter is putting on the market an exact copy of the suit without authorisation. We are presently dealing with this issue.
Remster

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