V1 - first flight impressions

[redfox 0]

Hello Together,

I want to told you my first impression from my flights with the V1
The weather forecast was not very good for the last weekend, but luckily I was able to make 4 flights on Saturday over Locarno / Switzerland.

Please note that I am not an authority on wingsuit flying, this are just my very first impressions!

To the suit:

The quality of suit has improved (double seams on ribs for profile), many small improvements you can now find in the user manual from Phoenix Fly.
Overall the look and feel is of very high quality.


To the flight:

For me on the very positive side:

The suit is still easy to fly (I am tempted to say easier than the S3 due to bigger wings) and more comfortable.

Smoother turns are now possible, for radical turns you feel the force of better aerodynamics – this shows that is still a high end suit!

Time in air was nearly the same as with in my S3, but covered much more ground
- the speed of the suit is awesome!!!
With the bigger grippers you may be able to fly longer too, but I was concentrated on distance.
I think the gliding ratio of 3 can easily be flown, also by not so experienced flyers like me.

Due to weather conditions I am not able to provide some numbers, just from my visuals!

Robert has done an outstanding work, I am eager to see what the future will bring…

So in the next weeks the wingsuit community will share more impressions on flying the V1


Best regards,

Herwig


"et primo similis volucri, mox vera volucris"

[KrisFlyZ 0]

Quote

Hello Together,

So in the next weeks the wingsuit community will share more impressions on flying the V1


Best regards,

Herwig

"et primo similis volucri, mox vera volucris"

Congrats on receiving and flying your V-1. I will be adding my feedback to this thread soon.

Kris.

[dmkellett 0]

Hey,

My new Red/white V1 arrived on wednesday last week, and i took it for it's inorgoral flight yesterday.The weather here in the UK isnt too reliable at this time of year but i managed 2 jumps!!! here are my initial impressions:

Construction:

The V1 is built to very high standards in terms of design, material selection and construction. It seems to be reinforced in all the important places and you can tell a lot of thought has gone into the layout. I wont say much more as i think its already been discussed...

Assembly:

The suit is mated to the rig in the same manner as other designs by Robert. The twin zipper design makes doning the suit easy. Once on, the first thing i noticed was the size of the leg wing and how much wider the stance is than an S3. i'm not too flexible, and with the leg wing tensioned i was at my "hamstring pain threshold..." Although i thought in flight this wouldnt be much of an issue. Again the arm wing size was noticeable but a few practice pulls using Scott Campos's technique gave me the impression that the real thing wouldn't be too difficult.....(arch hard, hands together under base of your arse, follow upwards to base of container, then symmetrically out onto handle and vigorous throw..)
The suit certainly didn't cause any concern over locating the emergency handles.

Pre-jump :

Walking about in the suit isn't to difficult, although i would advise leaving the leg wing folded and clipped in place using the snappers on the bootie's until jump run. However, i was jumping from a Dornier which is very cramped and so i had to be "ready to jump" when i boarded. This is where the V1 gets interesting!; the leg wing is so long it gets dragged around when u walk with the bootie's on.
After waddling around on the grass like a penguin for a while waiting to board the a/c it dawned on me that black may have been a more appropriate choice for the dacron.....

The mylar stiffeners worried me a little bit before the jump as i thought the standard practice of BM sitting up front and having someone put the rig between your legs on top of your leg wing wouldnt be appropriate. I think I am right in saying cramped a/c are going to cause problems if more than a couple of people are in V1's, as you definitely take up more space than the average idiot with their limbs tied together........

On my first jump i sat up front and things were "cramped" but by the second i was last on board sitting on the floor by the door and on jump run i just crouched at the back until it was my turn to exit. This is my favourite method of riding up in any wingsuit, although its not always possible due to large exit group sizes (RW).

Jump :

A standard exit is all you need. But i would anticipate with larger wings the chance of "tail rash" is increased if you open out the door. I gave it one good second and then popped them into my standard S3 "sweet spot".
I popped up and was almost on level with the a/c!! I decided that a standard 1st wingsuit jump routine would be best, although i decided that due to my S3 experience and my numerous ground practice pulls i wouldn't burn into my altitude too much by doing any high up PRCP's.
So i turned left 90 and began to explore the envelope. Like previous posters have pointed out, the initial impression is of high forward speed and i can say that i was above some cloud and yes the thing moves quickly indeed..... this was just an impression though as i have not yet attached my gps unit to my helmet. this will be done by the end of next week, so numbers may be available after the z-flock/dock.

The suit has the feeling that it is trimmed with a more "nose down" attitude than the S3 and this may be due to the arm wings being set with a lower angle of attack. I would assume this has been achieved by changing angle that the wing root insertion makes into the body......? but maybe the longer, wider tail wing contributes to this as well....?

On the ground it is obvious that the airfoil sections of both wings have been changed when compared side by side with the S3. I dont know enough about aerodynamics to comment any further......maybe others could...?

I decided to assume the sweet spot to be a similar body position to the S3 and to start by (as far as possible) changing just one variable at at time to see the effect.

By experimenting with the hip position, I found a wide range of vertical speeds possible. I came to think that just slightly hips "up" from neutral was the best.

The arm wings are my favorite thing about the suit, due mostly from the fact that the gripper is so much longer than anything i've used before. With large control inputs this allows a huge roll rate to be established virtually instantly, as well as very finite control if used lightly. The last few inches of the arm wings are effectively ailerons and your control of roll on every other wingsuit so far produced (bar perhaps the S3) has been much less.

More so, an attribute i have always disliked about wingsuits is their feeling of "side slip" when rolling and turning... ie they are not stabalised in the "yaw plane" This may be due to the fear i had of my flight instructor who used to shout very loudly at me years ago when i was not using the "pedals". (not having the balance ball in the middle) I am therefore not very comfortable when flying out of trim either in an airplane or wingsuit. Although no wingsuit (yet) has rudders I believe the long armwing grippers do provide for better performance with respect to Yaw. They seem to act in a similar way to the V tail aircraft.

A different analogy would be to visualise the effect of having good new edges on a snowboard. You feel like your carving the mountain rather than skidding sideways downhill. I didnt have too much trouble with the arm wings, they are quite easy to get the hang of but are also very powerful.

However I struggled to get a grip of the leg wing position. I found the leg wing difficult to position for best results and i'm sure I felt it flapping some of the time too. I dont think this was due to anything other than a poor body position by myself. I found I was so amazed at the arm wings I initially relaxed my legs and stopped thinking about them. It seemed much easier to fly once I thought about what position my feet were in, and like Perry said pushing down with the toes while pushing your legs apart works best at both maintaining tension on the wing and also contributing to lateral stability. It feels like (in terms of forward speed) the suits main "throttle" control is how straight your legs are, just like other suits. However, pushing down on the leg wing hard did give the impression that i had adopted a lower head (nose) attitude. The forward speed attained made sure it got noisy when I tried to max it out.............

I thought back flying was pretty easy too as you have the grippers to push down with.


Combinations of inputs proved to be the most impressive stuff. By using the wingtip grippers like aircraft ailerons( one up and one down) along with twisting the leg wing barrel rolls were easy and quick. Rolling the shoulders forward, de-arching a little, sucking your head in, straightening the leg wing hard, all while pushing down and out with the feet and using the grippers to quickly lower nose attitude caused a feeling of "afterburner".

I was pretty exhausted by about 6 grand and thought a nice high pull was in order. This is when I regretted not doing any high up PRCP's. I closed up and the first thing i noticed was just like the S3 you must squeeze the leg wing like an accordion progressively from the top and then hold it shut..... it wants to fly!!!! I let go of the grippers and went looking..... I found it, but it was covered by wing. so I relaxed and arched harder. Anyway I found it without its special wrapping at about 4.5 K. I had already decided to put the shrivel flap on my bridle as one day its coming to Norway with me and I only want one type of muscle memory to develop..... The second jump went pretty much the same, and I pulled at 5.5 K. This time I found it easy enough. Nice high pulls on first V1 flights are a good idea everyone. Only problem with finding the handle quickly is being left at 4.5K late on sunday afternoon in early march, northern England. It was cold.

In summary, go easy, relax, think about where your limbs (wings) are, do loads of PRCP's on the ground if going with the BOC, be careful of the high closing speeds induced by large control inputs, and get the F*** down the gym and work that lazy ass beach bum skydiver body of yours, or your gonna be tired on this baby.
( Focus on shoulders, back, chest and arms, but also the evil leg abduction machine....)

Thanks to Robert I did very little in work today, apart from day-dreaming looking out of the office window.

Florida in 2 days......
D

[unclecharlie95 3]

thanks for sharing Darren. See you in FL.

Where are the photos?

BASEstore.it

[dmkellett 0]

I could lie, but the truth is i'm too computer illiterate to know how to compress a 10 mb file. i've some pics but i took them with my 20d.....

Help...?

D

[mccordia 73]

In photoshop (or any other photo-app) resize your pictures to 640x480, then save em as .jpg in quality 4, or 40% (that should get em small enough to attach em here)

No more excusses...pics!

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[dmkellett 0]

Will -do asap, late for work got to run, many eyes to test. will sort it tonight....

d

[KrisFlyZ 0]

The forward speed on this suit is unreal!!

Will post more details on monday and tuesday when I can fly solo.

Kris.

[KrisFlyZ 0]

The V-1 is a big step up from the S3. It flies faster and is less tiring to fly. The forward speed on this suit is exhilarating. The sound is like its a sitfly jump.

Kris.

[TomAiello 25]

Hannes has posted some thoughts from his initial V-1 experiences in the BASE forum.

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[bodypilot1 0]

Quote

Hannes has posted some thoughts from his initial V-1 experiences in the BASE forum.

Who is Hannes?



Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[leroydb 0]

who's on first?

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[bodypilot1 0]

Quote

who's on first?

Then would someone tell Hannes that, because he thinks he's on BASE.



Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[leroydb 0]

good one

Leroy


..I knew I was an unwanted baby when I saw my bath toys were a toaster and a radio...

[TomAiello 25]

Quote

Who is Hannes?

Hannes is one of the world's longest term and most experienced BASE jumpers. He's known, liked, and respected by BASE jumpers the world over. You can see him in the "low pull in Slovenia" video, jumping just before Robi.

Honestly, it hadn't occured to me that he'd need introduction in this crowd. In my little BASE world, saying "Hannes" is a bit like saying "Dwain" or "Vrank" or "Yuri".

-- Tom Aiello

[email protected]
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[bodypilot1 0]

Thanks for clarifing Tom.






Be safe.
Ed

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[basehoundsam 0]

I must say that my V-1 is the nicest piece of skydiving/BASE gear that I own. I am so impressed with the fit and feel of my suit.... it's amazing.
As far as flights, I can barely fly it 3 or 4 jumps before I am wasted. As everyone has stated, It's forward speed is so incredible, it scared me on the first few flights. I've never experienced so much forward speed in the air.
It's definitely a ton of wing at pull time. I would give yourself a few jumps with a very docile canopy and higher than usual(5,000 ft ) pulls. The leg wing seems to fly you a bit at the first stage of closing things down, I almost get a yawing sensation as I settle in for pull time.
All in all it is has a feeling of a high powered motorcycle in the air, compared to A high speed glider(older technology suits). I am psyched to dial in my body position , as I feel myself floating in and out of the sweet spot. I am averaging in the 50's with dips into low 40's for 5 or 6 seconds at a time.
Just my .02 cents....

Jay Epstein Ramirez
www.adrenalineexploits.com

[flyinfishman 0]

Flying max glide for 3-4 minutes will be tough.

I've found that after 60 secs or so, performance tapers off for me.

Even when flying with arms wasted, glide isn't too bad and fall rate still in the mid 50's

For me, it's working the upper back below the shoulder blades, and calves more than the arms.

Nothing a few hundred more flights won't fix.

BOC is alright, just have to be deliberate and slower.

Even with extending the arms all the way down, up to the container and out to the handle, a few times the wingtip gripper has got in the way of deployment and I have to take a split second to flick it out of the way.

I've been going back and forth on whether or not to use the pouch and have decided to put it to use.

If flying maxed out for a long time, relax for a bit before pull to avoid the ManBird "impossipull" or a lazy/tired throw.
I had a tired/lazy throw last week, but I collapsed all wings to help get the PC off.
JIM

[unclecharlie95 3]

I have about 30 flights on my V-1 now and starting to get used to it.

Wore my gps at the weekend, sustained forward speed of 102 mph, fallrate low forties. I can feel the suit still has much more to offer.

BASEstore.it

[KrisFlyZ 0]

I had the issue of not finding the BOC on the first few flights. I found that keeping the adjustable swoop cords(chords?) a little bit loose helped with deployment. It was like with any other wingsuit, natural. We jumped from under 6K a bunch on the 21st and I did not have to think twice about pulling lower than usual .

Kris.

[flyinfishman 0]

"I have about 30 flights..."

dang, you've been busy, must not be raining where you are

I know what you mean about more to offer, my best GR with only 7 jumps on it is 2.3
There is a big range on this suit and it will take time to dial it in...heck, it took at least 100 flights to dial in the GTi, even then, I kept improving with more time on it.
Patience is the key...or maybe I'm a slow learner!

Floating does not seem to be an issue, 36 avg. on my floaty flight from 6'5, low of 30, which kicked my ass, or arms..and that was only 45 seconds.
It's pretty dang cool to see the "Max Speed" indicator on the protrack only at 62!

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I finally got to lay my hands on a Vampire last weekend and I think it's absolutely bad-ass. Very, very well constructed and full of cool features. It was Derek Thomas's suit which he had just gotten from Robi. Derek was admittedly out of practice and only had a total of eight wingsuit flights, but he still did well in the suit. I flew easilly with him in my S3 and videoed the entire jump. Once again, it's a very, very nice suit.

Chuck

[unclecharlie95 3]

Did he let you have a go with his new toy?

BASEstore.it

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

It was MUCH too large for me, so no.

[verticalflyer 11]

Mine should hopefully arrive in a couple of weeks, since my lowest average to date has been on a skyflyer at 48mph I cant wait to get hold of the V1, never tried the S3 so could be fun, will probably need a trip to the gym.

Jim have your 30 jumps been mostly in still air ;)

Dont just talk about it, Do it!