hjumper33

I see a whole lot of complaining in your posts, but very little talk of solutions. You seem to be the smartest guy in the room, and have a far better grasp on wingsuit aerodynamics than anyone in the world, so why haven’t you designed a new suit yet?

I think I got confused by the line in your post that’s says the V-4 but also 2004. I assumed you meant V1, but perhaps you meant a later date? V4 came out around 2011-12 iirc. In similar vein, I actually meant to type 3:1, not 3.3.

I guess if you only look at the maximum L/D people were getting, perhaps thats true. How many people were actually getting 2.5 in a V1 in 2004? Ive been hearing people claim 3:1 since about 2004, and only in the last 5-6 years was this really true. Wingsuits have improved immensely for the "average pilot". There were people in V1-V2 (yourself of course included) that could fly extremely well with an assortment of tricks and experience, and likely a COG/wingloading that just worked really well for those specific suit designs. (Just had dinner with James Boole not too long ago and laughed as we remembered how to tunnel the arms, and tension with the outside of your calves). Those were the days when a really talented phantom pilot could outfly a shitty V1 pilot. Now, anyone can strap on a modern giant airlocked suit, lay there, and fly 3.3:1. There arent as many tricks, because they arent really needed. Id say that in that 15 year period, the average pilot went from flying 2:1 to 3:1. I agree that the current overall design of modern big suits doesnt leave much room for big sweeping changes, more continuous fine tuning. Maybe its that we've reached close to maximum performance achievable by a sewn together nylon suit. More rigid material would be better, but are they cost effective, and would people hike them to the top of mountains in backpacks? Is anyone even flying for max distance anymore? I guess I dont skydive much, and I never got into the GPS dive/flare/tailwind competitions. My attention has turned to 1 piece tracking suit development, as its like the old days of wingsuiting where everyone has a different idea. At least Robi didnt follow through with his threats to never make one of those stupid dangerous flying mattress suits ;)

Can you elaborate??? Sure. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4841399#4841399 Meh, I’m understanding your theoretical arguement, but it seems pretty specific and theoretical in light of the advantages of a skyhook. To say “the jury is out” is kind of calling yourself the jury.

I pulled the zipper pull off an arm wing on a V2 on a base jump about 10 years ago. I didn't actually cut away the arm, and pulled the left (effected) toggle down with my right hand and handed it to myself.

Big adhesive sticker is probably your best bet. ACES used these and they work well, but leave some sticky shit on the suit.

Remember that 200 wasn't always a requirement as well. I took my FFC with a reputable (maybe debatably so ;) ) instructor on my 150th jump when 200 was still a recommendation. Ill bet there are more 1000.

Perfect fit isn't quite as important on smaller suits like a phantom as opposed to giant suits. It's interesting that phantoms do seem to hold their value better than the majority of suits these days. I'm amazed to see how many suits that were 1500-1800 new just 2-3 years ago listed for $400, and no one will even touch them at that. I remember having a v3 that I flew for 2 years and was still able to sell for $1100 with multiple offers.

Dragon heart string. I think squirrels are unicorn blood though, so that's something to consider.

What does "play for the win" mean? Race suits are being updated constantly by squirrel. The new stuff that works gets rolled into the new versions of each suit. Wasn't PF supposed to be the fast suit company? I thought that was the mantra for a long time, the whole "need for speed" thing. They still do acro competitions? Is that before or after style and accuracy? When are we doing the next big way so we can stop this brand fighting and get back to grids and wars between organizing sky gods.

Didn't we already do this exact same thread last year? Likely the year before that as well? With the exact same people making the exact same comments? Wingsuits have gotten boring. Phoenix fly sucks because...the have a smaller factory and it sometimes takes a long time to get suits. Squirrel sucks because... they have access to a giant state of the art production facility in Vietnam The freak 1 tail flapped some on its back Some early v3s flapped in steep dives Every company has made amazing state of the art suits, and some shitty ones along the way too. Yawn

Just flew one for the first time a couple days ago. Surprised how fast forward the suit is, and has good glide and very impressive flare given its size. Didn't back fly it, but it barrel rolled very nicely. I feel like this suit is a better stepping stone to large acro suits (freak/strix) than a funk. Definitely worth a fly if you can get ahold of a demo and looking for a suit in this category.

I was assuming that based on the face that PD already produces two other lightweight products. If they had a new revolutionary fabric that is that much smaller, one would think they would put this into production across multiple platforms, but who knows. I wonder if they will release a size recommendation chart or anything. I dont know if the fabric has changed from the prototypes people have been flying around for the last few years, but they seemed to size very similar to the other lightweight skydiving/wingsuit specific canopy on the market. The best I ever could manage was to freepack a 240 lightweight base canopy into a container for a 135. Remember the bigger the canopy, the bigger the difference the lightweight fabric makes in overall weight/volume. I should add I have a DNKY which is also listed as a 109-120 by javelin. It fit a sabre1 120 uncomfortably, fits a 150 epicene with plenty of squishiness, would fit a 170 comfortably but coming up on snug. I think a 190 would fit, but I wouldnt really want to pack it, and it would feel like a brick.

+1 Probably because their skydiving discipline of choice is something other than WS so they downsized hard and don't want to buy another container that fits a more appropriately sized canopy - for what is really just occasional WS. No issues with my Sabre 2 at 1.1 WL. This was/is honestly a problem for a lot of people. About 10 years ago, it seems that wingsuiters would fall into two groups. Old guys who wanted to be cool and didnt want to do just RW anymore and didnt freefly, and young guys who wanted to base jump. Both of these groups jump on average pretty large canopies, and the suits were pretty darn small (V2 being the massive suit of the era). In the last 5 years or so, all the cool freefly kids have found out that wingsuits are super fun. Its easy to tell a cool freeflier by their ultra small skydiving rig. Wingsuits during this time got bigger, and videos of canopies getting sucked into burbles on opening started showing up, and people got tired of cutting away small canopies, but didnt want to have a student rig that they kept around for wingsuiting. Enter the ultralight canopy and its ability to fit a 150 size canopy in the same container as your 70 velocity (or your backup rig that has a 75 in it). No one cool has a rig that fits a 170 non-low bulk canopy. I personally did more what you said above, rapidly downsized to a 120 in my first 2 years of jumping, and loved my sabre 1 120 for many many years of wingsuit flying with perfect openings. I got an apache prototype in 2012, and noticed that every suit of that size or large I flew, my openings were inconsistent at best, and terrifying at worse. I was much more scared to skydive a wingsuit than base jump it, and would do things like own a suit that had 2 skydives and 100 base jumps on it. Episcene 150 went in the container, openings became beautiful again. Skydiving became more fun again. If that kind of a story applies to your jumping, then yes, get a wingsuit specific canopy. If youre jumping a sabre2 170 already, or have a smaller wingsuit, then no, you dont really need a low bulk or wingsuit specific canopy. If you jump at a dz that has a bunch of cool sponsored jumpers that jump xyz sweet low bulk canopy, then yes, you probably should get one or youll feel ashamed a lot.

I could be wrong, but I was assuming it was probably similar/the same as the fabric from the optimum/lightweight base canopy that they already produce.