flyinfishman

Nice avatar. Scalloped! I take it you have flown one now?

The photos that Mark took are awesome. I have a new 20X30 hanging over my desk! -Lodi Wingsuits 007- http://www.shutterfly.com/progal/album.jsp?aid=768a5498cf4b720ba535

Thank you Ed for putting this together! Lodi birds rock! I hated to leave...my kind of fun! Jim

I'm in. Vacation time is ticking away...does not look good, but I'm here now watching and waiting....

Great video of Robert on the Morpheus website! www.baserigs.com

It's less than two weeks away...

Used a new PC and base pouch today, the 30"ZP and 10' bridle was bulky enough to be secure when packed mushroom style. Not sure about the S3 base pouch, but the V1 is plenty elastic at the mouth. So much easier at pull time...fast.

Looking for opinions from those you that have used the pouch with skydiving and BASE PC's. Have you found it necessary to have the pouch resized for a 28-30" ZP or are you just packing the skydiving PC bulkier? thanks

"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!

Don't use wire cutters, use the rigger's steel cable cutters. Scrunching up while seated in a Cessna for example can cause it to push up against the end of the little keeper, eventually poking thru which is no big deal. If you cut it too short it can come out when you're stretched out.

I'm not a BASE jumper, but from what I understand the foam cap or PVC is standard on base gear, not a small, free floating handle? I thought briefly about the internal handle, but decided not to sacrifice grip or having the handle get swallowed into the pouch or slip around. IMO the pud type handle dangling away from the PC would be the worst for WS flying when it comes to wanting to avoid a PC wrap. Why use a film canister and not the wiffle ball or lightweight hackey?

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.

I agree...I think that how the PC is packed and deployed should be looked at too before laying all the blame on the hackey for a malfunction. I'm changing my handle from the hackey even though I've never had a problem with it either, just for good karma or... whatever

I have, and yes, you must be very specific with what you want. I was trying to make the point that all the discussion going on about hackeys or handles prone to wrapping seems to be new information to manufacturers. they say "I've never heard of that happening before...."

Is it the 'freefly' handle attached to the apex with a 1 inch long piece of tape, dangling away from the PC or is the handle sewn directly to the PC? In calling around to different manufacturers lately I've found that they don't seem to know about the PC in tows from certain handles and still put hackeys on their 'wingsuit friendly' PC's. glad you're OK!

Very cool pictures! That one is definitely longer (unclecharlies?) I believe the long tail is the pre production and the "shorter" one is like mine. I wonder what the difference is and why it was shortened? Maybe that extra length was unnecessary?

HOLY SHIT BATMAN! Now we're cookin' with grease!! Made two semi-2 ways with Martini today. This thing ROCKS!! Even with the few practice pulls and finding the best position, I covered 2 miles in about a minute. Didn't have GPS but fall rate was around 33 for about 10 seconds before I started the practice pulls. Forward speed was incredible. I could tell by the clouds I was flying next to- very quickly! UP, UP AND AWAY! WEEEEEE!!!!!

Any pictures of the new production model yet?

It's working again. The display got stuck on "software loading" when I ran the updater. I had to wait 12 hours for the battery to die, then I was able to run the updater and fortunately none of the tracks were lost. The thing that sux about the logbook software is that the speed graph disappears off the screen. I guess Garmin figures no one will ever be able to run at 150mph! I'd also think that if I were running at over 100mph for 2 minutes I would burn more than 30 calories Photomaps displays the speeds at each track point though.

Gripping the wing tip on the GTi (in my experience) doesn't improve glide or FF times in the slightest. The wing was made to fly without being gripped, and distorting it will kill performance. Others may disagree, but I've GPS'd enough flights to know it does nothing (for me) IMO focus more on forward speed to get the most out of that suit. ( and fly it a lot ) I fly it at 1.8 GR in no wind. Jim

Can't wait to fly it!

forerunner 201 and yep, I'll have to send it in (dang it!)

Have you found the forward speed signifcantly greater than the S3? Hope mine shows up soon....it's been 14 weeks now I broke 150 mph ground speed yesterday in my Gti with uppers 55-60 kts! With fall rate average of 47 a good portion of the flight was over 3:1 G/R GPS locked up trying to update logbook software now it won't turn on…aarrggh! The display had best pace at a 24 second mile. Felt like I could fly over the horizon and keep on going…. I wondered what the V1 could have done...

Bald Eagle!!