New wingsuit flyers!!! Photos

[flymelonfilms 0]

Hi Guys,

Here are some photos of 2 new wingsuit flyers who made the course last weekend.

Congratulations and welcome to the flock!

Juan 'Melon' Mayer
www.Phoenix-Fly.com
www.FlymelonFilms.com

Juan "MELON" Mayer
www.JuanMayer.com
[email protected]

[arai 0]

I'm pretty sure good clouds on your first few jumps doubles the likelyhood you'll take up wingsuiting as a regular thing.

[TheCaptain 2]

That is awesome, I sure hope that is not an Skyflyer 3 being used for someones first wingsuit flight though.

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[lurch 0]

NICE!!!
The cloud looked EPIC.

Hey Cap, I don't want to be dick here, but honestly? After having taken up quite a few students myself, I don't seriously see an S3 as a problem for a first timer. Back when it was the biggest suit you could get, yeah, it was regarded as a handful, but now? A lot of first timers go up in an Intro, and an Intro isn't as big as an S3...its bigger. The free arms don't undo the fact that its still a larger suit with more wing area and much tighter pressurization and students do just fine with it.

I've never used an S3 for a student, but I've used plenty of GTIs for first timers and the difference between the two suits in terms of manageability is negligible. An S3 is a little faster forward and a little slower down, and thats all.

An S3 was regarded as inappropriate back when we were still taking baby steps for the same reasons it used to be regarded as irresponsible to let newbie skydivers fly squares.

If it were a Mach, a Blade, a Vampire or any of the more challenging suits, I'd question it, but I flew an S6 (which is another of those negligible upgrade suits with no real noticeable difference from an S3) for years and although it was good enough to be competitive and gave some badass performance, it was no more challenging to fly than the GTI I started out on.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[DSE 3]

I wouldn't worry about an S3, Intro, or Phantom 2 for FFC jumps. True, the Intro can have the wings unleashed, but still...it's a bigger suit than an S3, as is the Phantom 2.

Juan, those pix are sweet! Welcome your guys to the flock. Love the clouds!

[TheCaptain 2]

Wow, I did not realize we have come so far that an S3 is a great beginners suit. That is amazing, I guess next we will be teaching students on crossfire's next. Sorry for the other comment I will revise my standard now.

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[base851 0]

I've been busting out wingsuit jumps on an S3 as, more or less, a beginner. I don't see it as a bad beginner wingsuit, it's not hard to control. That said, the extra fabric adds to fatigue, which can be an issue come pull time. But other than that, it's a fine all-around suit.

[TheCaptain 2]

Sweet, so once again I will make a mental note 20 jumps and an S3 go to goI think we should use the same logic in canopy progression, why step to a eliptical when you eventually are going to crossbraced. Might as well save the money and go from the beginner canopy to the cheapest high proformance canopy you can get like an old Icarus Extreme FX.

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[repcool 2]

Can you reach the toggles without unzipping on an S3 like you can a Prodigy or Intro?

Simon

[voodew1 0]

Super instructing going on now

Lets see a few years ago an S3 was and still is an advanced or expert suit..................but now its a good beginner suit!
Fucking think about what you are saying!!!
Just because there are bigger more advanced suits the older suits are now beginner???
Ya that's brilliant!!!

The difference in the newer beginner suits is balance in design which makes it easier to fly ---- look at leg stance in the S3 or most other suits of that age and look at the wider stance now that makes it much more solid and stable

Any of the suits that were once considered advanced or expert are still that and with all the documentations saying this out there when one of you bad instructors puts up a first jump student in an expert suit and they kill themselves...........YOUR FUCKED

Or maybe I am totally wrong and over the last 10 years the human race has just evolved into natural wingsuit pilots...........I bet thats it.

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

[TheCaptain 2]

Thank you and well said

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[kallend 1,625]

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Wow, I did not realize we have come so far that an S3 is a great beginners suit. That is amazing, I guess next we will be teaching students on crossfire's next. Sorry for the other comment I will revise my standard now.

Hey, I still have an S1 hanging in my closet. Every bigger suit I've flown was a damn sight easier to fly!

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[TheCaptain 2]

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Wow, I did not realize we have come so far that an S3 is a great beginners suit. That is amazing, I guess next we will be teaching students on crossfire's next. Sorry for the other comment I will revise my standard now.

Hey, I still have an S1 hanging in my closet. Every bigger suit I've flown was a damn sight easier to fly!

Yes, the exact reason why high performance then should still be high performance now even if it is a far cry from current suits but then again what do I know according to others on this thread .

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[Sangi 0]

If they fly those suits well and ok what's the problem?

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[voodew1 0]

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If they fly those suits well and ok what's the problem?

There is no problem other than its risky................but what happens when they don't fly those suits and you have no idea who is and who isn't going to fly them well.

There seems to be a lot of awesome instructors who like to write checks their asses can't cash - for instance less than a year ago a well known instructor turned down teaching someone who was not qualified -- 2 weeks later or less the want to be wingsuit jumper found someone who would -- HE IS DEAD NOW! -- guess the well known instructor who said you don't have enough jumps or experience was right!

So what is the problem you ask??
Years ago there was a training guide line put into effect by Birdman......it was pretty well done and adopted by USPA and sort of copied by other manufactures - over time some of the training methods have been tweaked slightly (such as arm wing cut away situations) but for the most part it is a good training method - somewhere in there I believe it was recommended to have at least 100 wingsuit jumps before flying and expert or advanced suit.......................but now you don't even need 1 wingsuit jump and you can fly one of the most bad ass suits of yester-year.

This is the problem with unregulated wingsuit instruction.........don't get me wrong there are many very good wingsuit instructors out there who might not even have a coach rating -- but there are way to many God like wingsuit fuck-tard instructors out there doing stupid things like putting FF jumpers in expert suits just because "you should be alright" and thinking its OK


If they fly those suits well and ok what's the problem?

ITS NOT RIGHT AND SOMEBODY WILL DIE AGAIN!

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

[monkycndo 0]

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If they fly those suits well and ok what's the problem?

It's questions like this that show that you don't know what you don't know. A little more time in sport and being around when someone dies might have you rethink the statement you made.

Please folks, take it slow. Lets do all we can to get our new birds down safe to take the picture of excitement of the first flight.

And now back to posting the proud pics of new hatched birds.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[Sangi 0]

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A little more time in sport and being around when someone dies might have you rethink the statement you made.

Let's not rush this shall we? At least that's what they all say eh?

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean

[The111 0]

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I wouldn't worry about an S3, Intro, or Phantom 2 for FFC jumps. True, the Intro can have the wings unleashed, but still...it's a bigger suit than an S3, as is the Phantom 2.

I do not own an Intro, but I am pretty sure it's the smallest of the 3 suits listed.

I do own both an S3 and a P2, and I am almost positive the S3 has more surface area, and it has that area (in the leg) distributed in a less beginner friendly way (narrower and longer).

For FFC:
Intro: yes
P2: yes (maybe not quite ideal)
S3: not a good choice IMO

www.WingsuitPhotos.com

[mccordia 73]

I would have no issues taking anyone on an FFC in an Intro, Prodigy2, Phantom, Classic, Firebird, Sfly, Acro or similar.

On bigger suits (even if 'okayish' according to some) Id prefer having people do 20 or so jumps (at least) on the smaller wings before upsizing to the tyipcal carpet people tend to go for these days as their first suit.

(Though usually recommend going for a suit size thats good for more than long floaty falls, and good for the full range of flocks, docks and flying)

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[Ludde 0]

The difference as i see it with an s3, compared to a phantom2, isn't so much wingarea as to pressurization.

imho the s3 is much easier to collapse (both armwings and legwing) and get into a stable position before pull, than in the phantom 2.

My thought is that neither is the ideal suit for first fligtht though probably a better choice than a s1 (due to it's unstable flight characteristics).

It's not over untill the bearded lady swings!

[TheCaptain 2]

Hmmmm, it looks like alot of others would disagree about the Skyflyer 3 being a good suit for a beginner suit

Kirk
He's dead Jim

[SuperGirl 0]

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Hmmmm, it looks like alot of others would disagree about the Skyflyer 3 being a good suit for a beginner suit

hehe. someone even voted for the Mach 1 being fine... gotta love this forum. if you put XS or XBird or Stealth2 in that list I'm sure someone will vote for that, too... hell, we could even have an option that says "FFC student should be encouraged to land his wingsuit" and it'll get a couple votes.

[base851 0]

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hell, we could even have an option that says "FFC student should be encouraged to land his wingsuit" and it'll get a couple votes.

Landing a wingsuit is soooo 2008...

[lurch 0]

I never said it was "Good". I said I didn't really see a -problem- with it. Not what I would choose, not what I would recommend, but not likely to get a student in trouble either. Your attempt to gloat does not serve you well. Plus your reading comprehension appears to leave something to be desired.

Like I said in my earlier post, I've never used one as a beginner suit for my own students. Why? Caution. There are better suits for that. Like the older GTIs and Classics I keep for that reason.

The point I was trying to make that was then eloquently backed up by the hysterical flaming reaction that appeared in this thread shortly after is, there is relatively little difference between a GTI and an S3. I should know: I only spent my first 600 wingsuit flights in a GTI followed by another 1000 in an S6. So maybe...just maybe I've got a clue what I'm talking about.

I bought the GTI as my first suit because current wisdom at the time said better safe than sorry, recommendations were not to try an S3 until you'd mastered a GTI and being inexperienced, I figured the few extra square inches of a Skyflyer was a risk I didn't feel like taking.
Later, when I upgraded my only real regret was that I'd wasted my money because there was so little difference between the two that I wished I'd just bought the S3 first. There was no noticeable increase in difficulty flying the thing. If anything the S3 was more stable than the GTI.

I've test flown some of the student suits available from the smallest, (Prodigy) to the biggest (Intro).

The Intro was quite a bit bigger than the S6 I flew as a daily driver, noticeably more work to fly and with the gigantic tailwing, required much more management to fly than my S6 does. I don't see that as a problem either. Students do just fine in it. The one student I am aware of who has died flying one did so not because of control issues but because he missed his leg straps.

The hysterical OMG SOMEBODYS GONNA DIE!!!! being posted in this thread strikes me as ridiculous given the wide range of student suits and the fact that an S3 actually fits neatly in the middle of that scale. Its like seeing students being put up under a square Sabre 260, or a square Sabre 190, but put one up under a slightly tapered Sabre2 230 and somebody starts screaming "You're gonna get a student killed, ZOMG!!! WTF!!!"
For christs sake, get a grip.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[Sangi 0]

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Its like seeing students being put up under a square Sabre 260, or a square Sabre 190, but put one up under a slightly tapered Sabre2 230 and somebody starts screaming "You're gonna get a student killed, ZOMG!!! WTF!!!"
For christs sake, get a grip.
-B

lolz, you tell em!

"Dream as you'll live forever, live as you'll die today." James Dean