What do you think of the Phoenix Fly Stealth WS?

[pierre3636 0]

someone else jumping it at the mo! i have only taken some on the ground. ill see what i can do!

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[VectorBoy 0]

I like the one in the avitar for example. No need for in air shots I can't tell one big suit from the next in the air.

[pierre3636 0]

here you go.

inflight by dawie duplessis

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[VectorBoy 0]

Merci.

[IslandGuy 0]

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The cut-away system is the best of any of the big suits out there in my opinion.

I saw someone cut their wings away on the ground in one and it didn't look like they could reach up much higher than with them on because the arms only opened up to about halfway up the bicep. Can you reach your toggles after cutting the wings away?

I think it was Flying Bob who demonstrated that. We were all admiring the cable cut-away system (which I personally like best) but when he pulled the handles to show how it worked, he could only reach just a little bit higher than before the cut.

Just speculating that maybe the fit was too tight or something.

Pierre, would be interested in hearing if you have a similar issue with the cut-away system.

[unclecharlie95 3]

The cut away system is to allow you to reach your steering line toggles and safely fly your canopy.

I have already used the system for real when a zip jammed, i was easily able to reach the toggles and land without problem.

The freedom of movement is not as good as the old side of body tab/cable BUT more than sufficient to reach your toggles and fly your canopy.

BASEstore.it

[yuri_base 1]

So, L/D is about 2.2 (the increased glide from 15 to 35s is a planeout).

James, can you post the data as an Excel or text file? And do you have the distance covered on this flight?

Thank you.
Yuri

Android+Wear/iOS/Windows apps:
L/D Vario, Smart Altimeter, Rockdrop Pro, Wingsuit FAP
iOS only: L/D Magic
Windows only: WS Studio

[pierre3636 0]

nope cut away worked fine for me.

i could reach toggles and steer no prob.

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[notsane 0]

Just for variety, here's a shot taken by Scotty Burns. I'm leading the flock in a Stealth ... also in the flock are the following suits:

Mach1
Super Mach1
S3
S6 Blade
S-Fly
V-1
Ghost
Raptor

Scott

[Bones 0]

"S6 Blade"....?

[unclecharlie95 3]

hmm is there any way to extract them from paralog? I don't think i have the raw gps file anymore..

BASEstore.it

[vidiot 0]

Long way: Right-click on the jump in the table. Select 'Copy' from the popup-menu. Paste jump into application of your choice (e.g. Word/Excel).

Short way: Drag-and-Drop the jump from the table to Word/Excel.

My Logbook

[pierre3636 0]

here are some more close up pictures as requested.

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[badenhop 0]

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Just for variety, here's a shot taken by Scotty Burns. I'm leading the flock in a Stealth ... also in the flock are the following suits:

Mach1
Super Mach1
S3
S6 Blade
S-Fly
V-1
Ghost
Raptor

Scott

So why is everyone flying with bent knees?

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I've got all I need, Jesus and gravity. Dolly Parton

http://www.AveryBadenhop.com

[mccordia 73]

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So why is everyone flying with bent knees?

Yea...this pic would have been much cooler (and cheeper in terms of 'money flying') with old trusty classics flown with straight legs

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[voodew1 0]

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So why is everyone flying with bent knees

Ted has his legs out in an Acro

The pimp hand is powdered up ... say something stupid

[notsane 0]

I'll take a stab at why everyone was flying slow forward ... because that was the rate I set and they were flying relative to me. I know it's hard for folks to get their heads around this, but the base has to blindly set the rate for the flock unless they're back flying. With a handful of people the base can look around, see that it's too slow and speed up, but with 16 or 20 people, that option doesn't exist.

I love to bust it out as much as anyone else, but I'd rather have everyone in the flock rather than leaving folks behind. I've seen photos of, and been in small flocks where everyone is busting it out. But other than one sponsored team who were all wearing the same suits, I've yet to see a large, tight flock where everyone was busting it out ... there are too many variables with weight, size and suit type.

But, IMHO, there are folks wearing the wrong suit to flock. If you're a skinny guy in a huge suit trying to flock with your hands on your ass, it might be time to add a smaller suit to your collection. There are several suits out there that can't slow down without sinking out ... and there are suits that can't fly throughout the range without flapping themselves to death ... these aren't good flocking suits.

It's all similar to the RW guys. The base has to set a rate that allows everyone to fly within their comfort zone. If we were as organized as the CRW guys, we'd swap suits around so that everyone was even.

[VectorBoy 0]

Its tuff being the base. Scott my hat is off to you!

[pierre3636 0]

yep its the most important slot in a big way - although most people seem to think its a drag to be base. a good, consistent base flyer makes or breaks any kind of relative flying. we saw that in germany with the 30 plus ways. when we hit clouds people have a natural tendency to lose focus on their body position and move their concentration for a split second to the up coming cloud and their shadow on the cloud causing a wobble from the base all the way through to the tail.

sorry off topic

~ time is ~ time was ~ times past ~

[peggs82 0]

Gray Mike and myself had the opportunity to take 2 stealths out for a shake down cruise. First impressions were as follows:

Pro:
Nicely built as always

Pretty suit

Pressurization is firm but not overly rigid. I really prefer this to the SM1. I don't dump in full flight, so this has always made my life difficult on the SM1. My stiletto 107 doesn't like it! This was much easier to shut down.

Looooonnnnnngggggg leg zips, and Looooonnnnngggg body zips. They overlap by about 6 inches, which makes for putting your suit on very easy. Not tony suit easy, but much easier than say a blade.

Easy hook up - over the shoulder zips

Cut away system is top notch. Best solution I've seen yet for the fast to hook up suits.

Cons:

Arm wing airlock orientation. From the shoulder it goes Belly-Back-Belly-Belly, on the SM1 it goes Back-Belly-Belly (or something like that. More on that later...

Fit (as always is critical)... Gray Mikes suit, a demo, not made for him, was very close to sucking in his handles. Overall the suit fit well, but it was a bit wide for him, which allowed this to happen. Not Pheonix Flys fault or problem, just be careful with your measurements!

Leg Zip catching - while unzipping the leg, the armwing has a nasty habit of getting caught in the zip.

On to the jumps

Jump 1:
Gray Mike was in his original Mach 1, I flew the stealth. Exit went well, on my belly. Inflation was quick and solid (not quite slam your arms and legs into position a-la SM1...some may like, some may not).

First 10-20 seconds spent coming on level with Mike. I experienced a bit of washy-ness, I believe it came as a response to my overflying/over-tensioning of the suit. A relaxed, de-arched position seemed to be the most solid for me.

We managed to fly ourselves a bit further out than we wanted..."oh look a cloud!!!".... Because of this, both Mike and I punched it out. I found that I out floated Mike, but he carried more forward drive than I did. My personal body position that I found to be the best is difficult to describe... Imagine standing up in a wingsuit position, and just slouching all your joints. Make sense?

Jump 2:
Pooper exit....didn't go to well. Attempted backflying and transitions. It is here that the airlock orientation manifested itself as a problem.

The backflying airlock is located right at the elbow. It seems that any bend in your arm results in closing off the airlock. See picture below for an example. I had difficulty digging in my shoulders and really flying it well. There is also a lot of leg wing to compensate for, even while mostly shut down.

Jump 3:
Gray Mikes turn, me on camera flying my blade. Same as dive 2, attempted back fly, then max out. I've always been able to remain in roughly the same proximity as a SM1 in max flight (well i can usually see their beer guts ) Gray Mike really beat me in forward speed....big time. He did not overly kill me in altitude, but roughly SM1ish. Not bad for his first flight

end verdict

I really really enjoyed this suit. It did seem to address alot of issues that I've heard at one time or another about its competitor. Cut away is a big plus for the Stealth. Hopefully we'll see it migrate on over. Also I liked the pressure of the airlocks. Not to much, not to little.

Is it a SM1 killer? I won't invite myself to the flame war that would start...but I'll say this. In todays flocking culture, its a fine suit. When everyone is flying with their knees bent anyway, does it matter that the SM1 may or may not be able to out float or out drive?? No...and its all in the pilot anyway.
Give the suit a chance, you may like it!

[IslandGuy 0]

I'll add a couple quick comments about my impression of the suit. First, I concur with most everything Phil mentioned.

First of all, the suit was tight on me. But being a demo, I was lucky it fit that well. This caused the handles to get uncomfortably close to the slots. (In the air, this turned out to be a non-issue.) It also made it a little difficult for me to reach up far enough to close the slider.

I found the suit very stable in all flight regimes from exit to flocking with Phil while he was on his back (faster fall rates), to flat out/max glide.

On my belly, the suit was solidly inflated and very easy on the arms and legs.

On my back - and admittedly, I'm not the best back flier - I couldn't get the wings to really inflate. Not sure what is cause and effect, but as Phil points out, it seems like the inlet at the elbow requires the arm to be straight to let the air enter properly for good inflation. But that's a bunch of wing, and without a little help from pressurized air, it's not so easy to extend your arm straight. I'm guessing this would not be a problem with practice, more muscles, and/or better technique.

At pull time, shutting down the suit was not a problem, but then, for me, it never has been, even with the SM1. At pull time, I pitch up to slow down (which I'm speculating decreases the pressure in the wings), put my legs together and pull my feet up towards my ass, and then go for the hack.

Had no problem at all with wing getting in the way, but what did happen is that as I reached back to the BOC, the right hand loop came off. Now I'm thinking, OK, I have this loop whipping around back there and as I go to pitch the PC, it's going to wrap around it and then I'm screwed. So I grabbed around with my outer 2 fingers until I got a hold of the hand loop and then went for the pull.

I've always much preferred thumb loops to hand loops or webbies, and this gives me just another reason for that thinking. On the second jump I made with this suit, I made sure I held on to the loop with a couple fingers to make sure it wouldn't come off again.

I tried different things to get the suit to flap and I couldn't. Inflation is very nice. On my second jump Phil didn't join me so I had some quality time flying with the plane... we were descending at the same rate (average about high 30's) but the plane was faster horizontally and so I took the inside track and we were able to stay with each other.

Second jump, exited at 13.7 and opened at 2.8 with over 3 minutes on the wing. Point being, so easy to dial-in, even an old guy can do it.
If you get a chance – give it a try, you’ll like it.

[dploi 0]

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Screen shot from Stealth flight (base) attached.

Skinny bastard.