Impact

[leroydb 0]

i'd like to try it out when you head back to PK airpark

Leroy


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

[MB38 0]

Somebody needs to bring a demo suit for a tall, lanky guy to Perris

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[dploi 0]

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I would be careful with that assumption. IMO the PF suit requires more control than a small wingsuit like a classic.

Totally. It takes more practice to get a stable-yet-performance body position on the PF tracking suit than a lot of beginner/intermediate wingsuits. But when you nail it, it really screams.

What sort of glides have the Impact been giving? Me in my PF suit averages close to 1.3 for skydives. It also gets going really fast from fixed objects. Would be nice to see how the VKB "influenced" Impact compares.

[mccordia 73]

http://www.bird-man.com/?n=News&id=1102

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[piisfish 135]

I tried an Impact, without the leg wing..

Was very impressed by :
-feeling of flying
-ease of flight
-ease of use
-performance (without maxing anything, suit was a bit small so I couldn't take grippers, and lost one of the leg booties)
-looks

Was not impressed by :
-plastic zippers
-bad quality pressure buttons

If these 2 hardware features are solved on production suits, I will definitely get 1.

Found it much easier to fly in a comfortable manner than my PF tracking suit (but once again I don't have many jumps with either suit)

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[neiliss 0]

The guys at bird-man do not seem to have any requirements for the suit in terms of jump numbers, ability etc.

What do you think should be the minimum requirements for this suit?

Cheers
Neil

Blue Skies
Neil

[mccordia 73]

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The guys at bird-man do not seem to have any requirements for the suit in terms of jump numbers, ability etc.

What do you think should be the minimum requirements for this suit?

Cheers
Neil

I think there's two advices...bare minimum, and 'what would be a smart amount of experience'

Smart would probably be having a solid experience and awareness, as you will be navigating across a large piece of sky. Other canopies and freefalling jumpers etc can become a real danger if the flyer doesnt know what he's doing..

I dont know what the bare minimum would be, but that would probably be roughly the same as the other available trackingsuits (whats that, 60 jumps or so?)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[piisfish 135]

Quote

What do you think should be the minimum requirements for this suit?

not being a BMI or any wingsuitI of any kind... my advice is to take with a grain of salt.. But I'd say something around a 200 current jumps would be cool, with good tracking awareness.

scissors beat paper, paper beat rock, rock beat wingsuit - KarlM

[dropoutdave 0]

One thing I noticed about the leg wing is that the leg wing was held in place with mini karabinas, not good if you deploy unstable and the bridle between your legs.

Something like the one in the picture, no locking mechanism.

------------------------------------------------------
May Contain Nut traces......

[riggerrob 558]

You might be safer installing Maillon
Rapide #6 connector links.
Another option is attaching the leg wing with SLinks.

[stratman05 0]

I was thinking "what are the chances of the bridle getting caught in one".

then I remembered my climbing trip in June...a couple times we were working projects and had the rope clip into the lower biner on a quick draw. While they are bent to help accept ropes easier, it only takes one time

[neiliss 0]

That is a little bit worrying especially since this is not really a "WingSuit" and therefore does not carry the same requirements from the jumper in terms of numbers etc. It would be a pity to buy the suit and then not fly with the leg wing in place because of this.

I have also not seen alot of info on dz.com about this suit, anyone had experience with it for skydiving particularly.

Cheers
Neil

[LouDiamond 1]

The size of the carabiners is such that when the leg wing is in place the gates are either covered by the fabric of the loop or there is not enough play in the gate to allow it to open enough that anything extra could easily slide inside. The amount of space between the leg and the leg wing is +/- 1/2 inch from any of the points of attachment. If for some reason the bridle went between ones legs on deployment(back to earth deployment) chances are it would clear quickly as the only part of the leg it could potentialy wrap around is from the knee down which is less total leg than is exposed on a normal skydive.

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

[maretus 0]

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If for some reason the bridle went between ones legs on deployment(back to earth deployment) chances are it would clear quickly as the only part of the leg it could potentialy wrap around is from the knee down which is less total leg than is exposed on a normal skydive.

I agree that the chances of getting bridle entangled with carabiners is pretty small but it still is there. On a skydive the risk might be acceptable but on a base enviroment I wouldn't want to take that chance. I thought of a simple solution of replacing the carabiners with standard small rapid links (connectors), that way you would have zero chance of getting anything caught inside the connector. Like the one in picture here http://www.bkreng.com/pcat-gifs/products-small/rapid-connector-link.jpg

http://www.ufufreefly.com

[SkymonkeyONE 3]

I think that if that is your concern then you are surely free to do it with small rapide links. Like Scott implied though, it's just an amazingly miniscule posibility with the way the system is configured. This is a dangerous sport though and I guess anything is possible. I guess it's possible that someone might throw their pilot chute through the legwing vent on a Vampire too, but I don't see that happening, even though it's technically possible. I just don't live my life worrying about the small stuff. YMMV.

Chuck

[mccordia 73]

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I thought of a simple solution of replacing the carabiners with standard small rapid links (connectors)

The mini-carabiners (its not the huge climbing ones for sure) on the Impact I flew werent any larger than a rapid link..Trying to pass a pilot-chute through one of those would be completely impossible..(but praiseable if you do manage, and also get it on video)

The only thing would be the hole itself, but like mentioned earlyer..that could be an issue on almost any suit..

If you're worried about someone throwing their pilotchute through that hole, he/she has no business being in a track/wingsuit at all and should revert to learning to pull stable first

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[stratman05 0]

I think it's more of the bridal catching, but I agree with what you and Chuck are saying. I haven't seen them in person, but I imagine it's a one in a million chance for the bridle to get through one of the biners.

[maretus 0]

Quote

Quote

I thought of a simple solution of replacing the carabiners with standard small rapid links (connectors)

If you're worried about someone throwing their pilotchute through that hole, he/she has no business being in a track/wingsuit at all and should revert to learning to pull stable first

Brothers... I agree with you completely when it comes to skydiving. I too (like Chuck) don't live my life worrying about "one in a million" type risks. But when it comes to BASE I tend to be anal about the gear I jump and if there is a "one in a million" type chance of getting something caught somewhere and it can be easily fixed, I'll fix it and feel happy the next I'm at the exit point for having one thing less to worry about. I've only jumped the Impact from cliffs and used the normal carabiners on those jumps, no worries there at all. But if I was to buy myself one, I'd probably go with rapid links. Just personal choice. :)

http://www.ufufreefly.com

[ernokaikkonen 0]

I had a minor issue with the carabiners. I was going up in a C206 to try the suit, and the legstrap of the person sitting in front of me got caught in the carabiner. No big deal, I noticed it when he was getting up before jump run and un-clipped the carabiner. It took a while but there was no damage to the strap or anything.

[neiliss 0]

Bird-man emailed me today to say that my new Impact Tracking suit has been shipped and on its way to me today in Australia. I hope that it will arrive and clear customs in time for me to use it next weekend. I will post my impressions as soon as I can to the forum, however being a total newbie and having no experience with proper wingsuits I am really not sure what to expect.

Blue Skies, Soft Openings, Safe Landings
Neil

[Zoter 0]

*Bump*
Any more updates on (objective) users views on performance with this equipment ? particularly in comparison to the PF tracking suit?
And does anyone know if a revised edition of the PF track suit is coming out ?

[neiliss 0]

I spent the past week flying my new Impact suit. I am very inexperienced this being the first tracking type of suit that I have flown so I am not able to say how it compares to anything else. However I have really enjoyed using the suit. The pants and jacket are really comfortable and fit really well. In the air they are so comfortable and they seem to fly very well for my experience. I have no negative expereince with the suit itself. I have not yet used the leg wing attachment which I will use once I am more comfortable (I am very conservative) with the suit as I am still a bit jerky with the legs having never used booties.

My negatives though are the leg wing even though I have not used it yet it seems to be very difficult to get on and off with the current system especially once your rig is on.

My overall impression is that this could be a really great suit for someone looking to progress to a proper wingsuit but it does not have the complications that a low currency or jump number flyer has to deal with. You legs and arms are free all of the time and deployment is normal.

I did a tracking dive with a guy at my DZ who is really good and he kept up with me okay but told me afterwards that I needed to adjust my arm angle to get the maximum benefit from the suit so I guess I could track much further.

Hope this gives some insight guys, I am supremely happy with my purchase and look forward to every jump with the suit, hopefully I will put more jumps next week and then progress to the leg wing.

Cheers
Neil