LukeH

http://www.freefalluniversity.co.uk/bas_jumping.asp

Aparently if you go to a big cliff then jumping off is just like a skydive. The new trend is to put on a wingsuit as soon as possible as it's clearly safer. If you are far away from the cliif you can't hit it right! James has just the spot to combine your first Base jump and WS base jump.

dude... 1 ProTrack, 1 ProDytter and 1 Neptune! (Is that where the name comes from?) You've gone gadget crazy. all these things beeping at me in freefall would piss me off. i sold my ProTrack over 150 skydives ago. If you don't depend on the audible why do you have two and why all the different beeps? Do you get lonely if you don't hear some electronic noise every few seconds? How did those poor skydivers ever survive back in the days before this junk. You are in for a shock when you start base jumping

By straight arm I assume you mean is there a straight line from the shoulder to wrist when viewed from above. For me no, I push my elbows forward and don't put much tension on the wing grippers. The elbow does have a bend. I try not to get caught up in being too technical and just fly the suit. I've found that the Prodigy naturally put's me in a good flying position without me having to do too much work

I finally got around to making a few skydives on my Prodigy, and this suit kicks ass. The performance is quite amazing. I had suspected that the Prodigy could out-fly a GTi, but was quite surprised with how easily. I have made about 30 cliff jumps with the Prodigy but every time I went to the DZ there was always someone else that wanted to try the Prodigy so I ended up jumping the GTi. Well a couple of weekends ago, I finally got a chance to take it for a skydive. A two way with a guy (also with 100+ GTi jumps) in his GTi. It was very easy to flock together but when I poured on the power he just couldn't stay with me. I flew up up and away. We jump together quite a bit and are usually quite well matched in performance. Later that day I took a new bird for his second flight in the Prodigy. He was trying to fly maxed out, I was back in the GTi and just couldn't make any ground on him! This is obviously not a scientific measurement of either suits performance, but it does appear that it's far easier for a new or average pilot to get a higher performance (higher forward speed and lower decent rate) out of the Prodigy than a GTi.

no need to use a carabiner, just use a rapid link. it doesn't even have to be a skydiving grade link. go to a local hardware store and buy any link. it's not going to break before the break cord. more importantly, don't tie directly onto the building. tie some strong cord onto the building and tie the breakcord onto that (sharpe corners would cause the breakcord to break easier) if you are worried about leaving the rope behind, do a search for "carry with you" static lines. yes the corner would be preferable for the reasons you mentioned assuming everything else is equal. light winds are usually preferred for buildings because there is likely to be lots of turbulance around the building. obviously you would want to avoid a head wind, and a tail wind is probably going to swirl around the building so i think a light cross wind would be best.... just my thoughts, i don't know shit...

Do you mean a Troll MDV or do you really want a unvented DW?

well lets say it takes 95 feet for the canopy to fully open and start flying (i believe it may be a lot less especially with vents perhaps 60'-70') then you still have 90 ft of height in which to travel the < 30 feet to the fence. in 0 wind you can get a much better glide ratio. so it shouldn't be a problem. however if you have an off heading or it takes longer to get flying it could be close... you don't have much time to evaluate what's going on and pick an alternate if you need to. how do you feel about being impailed on the fence?? ;-)

dude you really need to work on your tracking skills. twelve inches really isn't that far. if you push really really hard you can probably get almost 12" from the tower without tracking at all. i've made a couple of jumps from guyed towers in the "dark". just because it is night time doesn't mean you can't seen anything. after half an hour climbing around in the dark you can see quite well. especially if there is any moon light. better still when there is lots of snow! ah... i miss being on the steel in -20C.... happy days... even if you can't see the wires themselves, you should have a good idea of where they are based on where the tower and other objects on the ground are.

throw a gainer out the door and head in a straight line. the U turn will cost you more that the throw of the AC will gain you. (if you do the turn slow and flat you will be going in the wrong direction for too long. if you crank around a 180 you will loose lots of height.)

It appears that the Phantom far out performs the GTi (of course it's always pilot dependent). The comparison is a little unfair because the GTi is an older generation (RP1) of suit, I'm surprised it hasn't been completely replaced by the Firebird. The Prodigy with it's large back deflector and wide leg is probably 'as good' as a GTi. From what i've heard and seen the Phantom is closer to the S3 than the GTi in terms of performance. But don't get hung up on the performance, if you are jumping from an airplane does it really matter? Few people fly their wingsuits to the maximum on a skydive. It's a wingsuit - just learn to fly it and have fun. Stop worrying about who has the better suit, and worry about who flys their suit better.

how far out and down from the exit point is the edge of the tallus?

The arm padding in more likely for performance than comfort, although comfort may be a side benefit. It should give a cleaner smoother leading edge than just an arm in thin fabric.

i can't go this year. my slot is for sale at cost. PM if you want it.

nice colours ;) what kind of container is it?

I'm curious as to why you think it would be a better suit with a narrower stance? The wide stance seems to be key to the freedom of leg movement in case of twists and for landing without undoing anything on the legs. We already agree that the performance is great, so it seems Robi got it just right. BTW, for my first 10 or so jumps on my Prodigy I wasn't routing the wing snaps correctly and they never came open. I find it hard to believe that when routed correctly they would come undone under normal use. Perhaps the snaps weren't fastened correctly or were defective? It wouldn't be a bad idea to include a sheet of paper showing the correct routing with new suits.

Does anyone know if there any active or retired jumpers in Northern Ireland? Thanks - Luke

an experienced pilot in an advanced suit can sustain a decent rate of around 40 mph. i'm sure there are folks out there that have maintained a lower decent rate.

hey dude, i had similar requirements to you. after much research i ended up going for a Gargoyle with some WS options (dynamic corners, soft yoke, streamlined riser covers and bridle pouch) i've recently put my first 30 jumps on the container and it is awesome! i bought it with a Troll DW, which also rocks. dougs prefers his troll to his old flick.

the consensus from all of the people that were there - was that deployment appeared to have been ititated at a "normal" height. a stability problem may have then occurred. he may have then delayed deployment to deal with this problem. i'm not saying these are facts, but seems a more reasonable scenario to me.

hi space, yes i'm here in lysebotn. i was on the load and was watching from the landing area.

What about the report of the fumbled pitch? Was that also the case or was it strictly a low pull issue? i think it is highly unlikely that there was a fumble. this was a very experienced and current jumper. using a rig he was very familiar with. as i already implied i don't think a low pull was the root cause of the issue.

facts... the media may not care about them but jumpers should. firstly this incident happened on July 19th not 17th. secondly "intentionally very low" is not a fact. "very low" is relative, and "intentionally" is impossible to say unless the jumper said he was going to do it before hand. the eventual deployment was clearly too late, but that is not to say it was intended that way.

for whatever reason they don't see eye to eye. let's not hijack this thread any further.

oh come on... force the two of them into a room to give a combined course! it would be way more fun!