notsane

Awesome job, Matt ... great pics!

Cool device, though it's not as portable as the Garmin Foretrex 201.

Ouch. At least, someone better looking!

More shots of Purple Mike please!

Danny! Jose! It's time for a beer or 12!

Allright Jeff! Welcome ot the bashing!

A little update on the suit that Tony modified for me. This was the suit I had trouble with finding my BOC. Since this suit had webbie and I couldn't feel my handle I had Tony remove the gloves. The modification looks really good. The wing gripper comes out at a 45 degree angle (on most suits it's vertical when standing), but this wasn't an issue. On my first jump with the modification I had trouble again getting my BOC at pull time (but I did get it). The suit was a little tight across the chest and I had tried to reach my handle on the ground with no problem .. but apparently the situation at pull-time was a little different. I could barely reach my BOC ... the tightness restrained my reach. So it was NOT the webbies that caused my previous problem, although they made it worse by limiting my feeling. I just wanted to clear that up in light of this latest jump. Scott

Great job Matt! .. and don't think I didn't notice that the music got a little harder! The video of the "Z" formation over the DZ really looked good. Nice addition there at 3:23 ... did Omar help you out??

1. Perry 2. Matt 3. Purple Mike 4. Scott Bland 5. Gray Mike

I'm not sure what good the webbed gloves do him when he's holding his V1 wingtips the whole jump. He also uses the base pouch. I'll post something after the weekend about the Tony suit modifications.

.. and you have to tuck the cable end into your bootie so no-one stomps on it as you exit.

That's a pretty significant modification, but you're welcome to buy my S1 from me and give it a try!

8 or 10 guys busting it out and getting 2+ minutes for a flock is no big deal. We do it with smaller groups like this at ZHills all the time. But, if you're 22nd out of the Otter and 20 seconds after the base has exited chances are you'll never catch them if they've busted it out. So the slow forward speeds set by a good base allow the flockers in back to catch up, get set in their slot and fly the flock. And this isn't suit dependent; a group of V2's or a group of Classics would have the same issues. When you mix' em up in large flocks is when it gets fun. So IMHO a great flocking suit would have a wide vertical range of speeds as well as a wide range of horizontal speeds .. and these two characteristics wouldn't be tightly coupled. It would be smooth when flown dirty and go like a scalded cat when you bust it out. It'd be easy on the arms and out of the way at pull time. It would be durable, good looking and , oh yeah, cheap. Did I miss anything??

The two things I've learned about flat spins are: 1) fix it immediately. Don't wait until you're spun up really hard .. it'll be more difficult to get out of 2) The reason you're spinning is almost certainly your legs. When you ball up, grab your knees to make sure your legs are even. After the initial increase in rotational speed (conservation of angular momentum) things should slow down.

I believe it's some kind of Spandex type material. The majority of the suit is made from Parapack .. much tougher than F-111 or ZP.

Since Chuck brought my name up I'll join the discussion. I've got close to 2100 jumps and 600 wingsuit dives. I've jumped Classiscs, GTi's, S1's, S3's, Phi's, GS-1's, V-1's, V-2's and a number of Tony Suits. I've got 7 jumps on my V2. It certainly can smoke horizontally just about any other suit. It likes to fly fast. But when I slowed down a bit horizontally and tried to fly relative to other flyers I found that I didn't seem to have the vertical range .. the ability to slow my vertical rate .. that my S3 (for example) does. I'm certainly planning on putting some more jumps on it, but flocking is my main jump type. Unless everyone has a suit with similar characteristics I'm not sure at this point that it's my suit of choice for flocking. For playing in the clouds though it'll be hard to beat. Robi's workmanship is world-class, although I wonder about ANY suit with plastic ribs (V2, S3S, S6, etc). They are going to crack and break and need to be replaced. For the kind of money we're spending on these suits those things should be field replaceable if you ask me (which no-one has). I would prefer that the legs were somewhat more form fitting. My S3 doesn't flap at all even when flying dirty. On the V2 the leg wing looks great but the legs themselves ripple and flap considerably. It doesn't affect performance, but any flapping at all is detrimental to flocking. On the other hand, I think the Tony suit is a terrific flocking suit. It has a huge amount of range vertically and decent forward speed. These characteristics are probably related to the forward position of the arm wings. Oddly enough when I pushed for forward speed, the pressure on my arms actually decreased. I don't find the concept of putting my rig on over the suit to be that useful ... Since I don't have B-12 snaps on my leg straps I have to re-thread them every time, which is a pain. It's tough to leave the suit on the rig since it has a single zipper opening to put the suit on. And like the V2 I'd prefer the legs to be a little more form-fitting. Tony and Jeff are turning out some really nice suits. Their workmanship is second to none. Decide on the webbies for yourself ...

No I'm not dead, but thanks for being concerned. The jump was my 3rd on this suit and probably my 6th on suits that feature webbies. I have around 150 board jumps with webbies too. On this dive I put my hand back for the handle and felt absolutely nothing. I knew the handle was there since I checked it before exit, my packer packs the PC so it holds tight against the pouch lip and no-one had touched me during that dive. It's a PVC style handle rather than a hackey so it should be easy to feel the hard edges even though a glove. Two more tries and I still couldn't feel anything. I glanced at the ground to check my altitude and considered trying some more, but I knew I wouldn't have any luck. I pulled the silver handle and after a clean, quick but not jarring reserve opening I was in the saddle at 2400'. I unzipped and checked for the handle. It was right where it should be. Lessons learned? Pulling a little high with a wingsuit is still probably a good idea. For me, I'm ditching the webbies. Hell, I don't even like to wear gloves. I really like to be able to feel what I'm grabbing and quickly determine if it's my wing or my handle. I've jumped suits where the arm wings were so big it took 4 or 5 times to claw my way to the handle through the wing.

Just for jammed zippers (I've had it happen twice) the cutaways are worthwhile. And you can bet your ass that if I'm spinning away in a ball on my back, pulling those handles is going to look very attractive. I've watched a VERY experienced flyer pull them in that situation and he was instantly stable.

I watched the crap come off Mark's back with my own eyes and it was wrapping up at line stretch. We've all got to appreciate that going to your reserve has its own risks ... it's not 100%. Going from a mildly fucked up canopy back into freefall may not be the best option. In Mark's situation, unzipping and getting your hands on the risers looked pretty reasonable to me. A thousand feet lower and my opinion would certainly change. A slightly spun up, normally docile canopy is no reason for an immediate chop if you're high enough to think about it. Take it from the CRW guys, panic kills. Be altitude aware! IMHO Mark executed his EP's correctly ... not too late and not too soon. But like Scott C. said, the lower you pull the faster you're going to have to be on those EP's ... if you want to live that is.

Holy shit that's impressive! Bring on the video!

I'm guessing that by "something pretty" you mean me.

Come on down to Z-Hills, get current and flock with us. We're a lot of fun .. especially if you buy us beer!

I'm pretty sure that's me you can hear at the beginning going "WooHoo!" You can't hear me right after I kicked the bag ... "I said FUCK YOU!, Normiss!!"

Congrats to Tennessee Matt too! After his last jump Sunday he headed to Clearwater Beach and asked Marcie to marry him. Unfortunately (for her) she said YES.

Nice work Matt! I can't wait to see some video!