Jiggs

I want the suit that gives me the best range to fly with my friends and gives me the freedom to get photos that I want to get. I am a short, solid guy 169cm and 72kg - there will always be people that can smoke me for FF time. Eg I have a mate that is a foot taller than me at the same weight! Hammering back at a fast pace is fun and the responsiveness of the wings is so much fun. I just want to be a good flyer and share the fun with those that want come up and play. I would love to see the suits to be cheaper so more people could afford them. Probably with more freefall time as that is what seems to blow ~most~ people away I have an S3 and a MTR2. When flocking with I think the Matter is better but I love the feel of the S3 - now all I need is a few more people to get into it hard core so we can start doing aerobatics together (things like split-s, etc) and anything else I can think of. Canopy wingsuit docks are lined up for next year (but unfortunately I will only be camera) "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

I do not have many jumps on a S3 (and only 80 w/s jumps) but I have noticed that the pressure on the suit can be considerable depending on how much tension you try to put on the wing - trying to keep it really taut and flat rather than allowing it to "bubble" up is a very different level of pressure. Unfortunately I had decided to go nuts on weigths and managed to over do it after a few months - now my arms are very sore indeed! That said my MTR2 is very easy to physically fly in comparison, but I just can't seem to get the same forward drive. Sorry don't mean to hijack the thread but: What should I be trying to do with the s3? Flatest and tautest wings or the just a bit of arc in the wings? Palms facing the sky and shoulders rolled? Whats the best? What about through the hips - dearached or flat? Flying it, felt like it had for lack of a better term "gears". Slow and cruisy vs Fast forward "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Smoke is way better visually than flour but the hassle of it is more of an issue - We are not so much looking toward getting good visuals for anyone on the ground just what will provide additional contrast in the sky. Planning - its underway at the moment, ---> Thanks for the info "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hi guys and gals: We have an opportunity to do some pretty cool jumps over my home city and I was thinking it would be kind of cool to punch up the visuals on these jumps (other than the fantastic backgrounds) and have a bit of a play with some cheapo extras - I am thinking of flour as opposed to true smoke on some of our fliers - will set a nice base and create some cool visuals. I was thinking it would look cool to chuck on some of those 100+ feet long streamers on some of the jumps - but I doubt that they would last very long - has anyone got any ideas? It would be pretty cool to be able to see the glide slope of the wing! What are your experiences? Cheers! "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

I am seeing a few references to F111 and ZP. I would assume that the suit is ZP so whats with the F111 material?What am I missing? "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey Tonto, What exactly is your take on the Safire2 for Wingsuit flight, I currently fly my trusty old Sabre 150 and its feeling like a bit of a dog lately (had it for 500 jumps or so). I was thinking of getting a Safire2 129 for a bit more fun under canopy but I have not had the chance to demo around this size (just crossfires). Anyway since I am more into wingsuits than anything else at the moment - how does it handle line twists? How are the openings (other than mellow?) Whats the riser pressure and recovery arc like? What would the dive be comparable to? How does it sit in brakes? Finally how is it in Turbulence and the in the wakes of other canopies? Cheers mate, "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Thanks for the info - quite an interesting read! Just checking out who does developing for KodaChrome there only appears to be a few places around the world! Just for clarity isn't Ektachrome under the name of elite chrome now? "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey all, I was wondering if anyone had any slide film recommendations or tips - Have an opportunity to do a wingsuit flight with a few friends over my home city! (Melbourne) I really want to try and get some great shots! Has anyone got any suggestions or tips? What do you use? I am leaning towards some kodak chrome, either 100 or 200 depending on the weather. (found some old etchachrome that I would be tempted to use but its a couple of years old and I have no idea of its condition) Any sage words of wisdom???? (edit spelling) "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Well here we go, here are (some of) the places that I have had to have work done: The area at the bottom of the leg wing joining the 2 pieces (eg the intersect of the front and the back)- stitching came apart about an inch Leg wing to booster - the point at which the leg wing joins the top of the booster. Booster (2) - first time the booster started seperating at the top of the toes (between the join of the 2 materials). Second time was further along the booster on the same side. Leg wing zipper - velcro tab and button - stitching came apart was holding by a few threads. Velcro that ensures that cutaway handle does not go into the suit - this fell off after a jump! Found it inside the suit when taking the gear off. Think that when I am under canopy - that there is some tension / load against this point (don't wish to guess otherwise) Back zipper (left) - stitching has come apart sligtly meaning the zipper can move about an inch sideways - not sure of why this has happened. Have noticed that the zipper (while still attached) will sometimes open most of the way - this has happened twice. Wonder if this is due to backflying. Will see how it goes now that is is repaired. There was a few other minor things but this is the pattern that I am seeing - I have not had any instance where I can think of a direct cause of any damage - eg it getting rubbed against something or anything like that. Any ideas on what to do? (Edit to add - have never used the booster strap - its pointless) "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hi all, I bought a MTR2 a few months back and have done 50-70 jumps on this set of wings - one thing that has come up a few times is the stitching on the suit - particularly around the booster area. In a few places the stitching has come undone/broken - it is a pain in the arse to keep on getting this fixed. Speaking to the rigger he was of the opinion the the thread used was a heavy duty household type of thread as opposed to something normally used in skydiving (the term type E thread vaguely rings a bell). Now to tie off the obvious questions - Yes I do take care of my gear, all of my gear and other suits (eg rel/freefly/camera/etc) are all in good condition. I always tuck the boosters up on landing and the suit has never been subject to any bad landings. I was previously jumping a Classic2 with an absolute ton of jumps - never had any problems with it. The contributors to this problem (I think) are the amount of tension that is required to fully inflate the leg wing and the fact that the stitching is black on an all black suit. Are others having the same problems? Is anyone else having this experience? Any ideas? I am probably going to get a S3 shortly - so don't suggest it! (I am hoping to keep the MTR2 as well) Cheers, "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey guys & girls, We have recently been mucking around with a few rodeo / tracking dives and having tons of fun. One idea had that had come up was to have the rider dump off while still riding the wingsuit flyer. We were thinking that as long as the rider was sitting up and gave a vigorous pitch it would be no worries? What do we need to be aware of? Any suggestions? Cheers, "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Maybe - occasionaly there are things on the video that might help you with your own personal safety. Also it is another means of reminding ourselves of our own mortatility and it can help change our mindset to keep us safer. It also would depend on who went in and the circumstances that led to it. Generally speaking I would not say that I would be in a hurry to see the video - I have seen 2 in person close up - as well as some vid - I don't need to see more. I think that some jumpers should see this sort of thing, at 100 jumps I was invulnerable and could walk on water - now I realise how much I was pushing it with skills I did not have. Safety comes down to: Experience Planning Thinking Skill and sometimes just plain luck. Seeing things like this remind us that sometimes that sometimes all of these are not enough - be safe - don't be the video your friends see. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Needs more black Lets see if we can get some freefall shots in this weekend. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

It should be a blast - and we are looking at a pretty good turn out - should be at least 20 slabs Jas - when are you thinking of heading over? Any chance of some Friday jumps? "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

N/A

Sorry - perhaps I should be a little clearer --> We intend on usuing a variety of different canopies on a cutaway harness. The reason I brought up the 74 as its the smallest main that we will be mucking around with. One of the people that will be using this will have a wingloading of around 4 - we are not Luigi so no intention of landing this! Perhaps this might be better placed in gear and rigging? I was hoping to see if anyone had any specific advice to offer on attempts of this size. Cheers, "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey all, As you can guess from the title of this post we are planning for some fun and games with various canopies including a FX-74. What I was wondering is has anyone had much experience direct bagging exits with a canopy of this size? Is there anything that we need to be aware of? Any general hints or tips would be appreciated. Cheers! "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

The 45 degree angle I was referring to is relative to ground. Think of the fins on a surf board - treat that as 90 degrees. Change the angle to around 30-45 degrees from the board, that is the sort of angle I mean relative to ground. As I said as I was screwing around I decided to fly them like fins just to see what it would be like - hey presto - inflatable wings. I'll try to have a proper look at the suit tonight and see if I can find anything odd. In regards to leg wings - I had the same problems at the start but now its no problems. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey All, I picked up a MTR2 a few weeks back but due to a crappy winter and a few other things I have not been able to get many flights (say 10-20 or so). Anyway I have not been getting a huge performance difference in terms of times from the classic that I was using (definetly faster forward though). - What I did not fully realise until today is that my arm wings are not actually inflating with my current body position! I did not realise that till yesterday when I was screwing around with various positions, I essentially had my arms at a 45 degree angle to the ground and pop - instant arm inflation! What a difference in flight! Anyway what I was hoping to get was some pointers on arm position, what has worked best for everyone else? Previously I was flying pretty much straight arms and I guess I have been shutting off the airflow to the vents - so how do I get around it? What the hell am I doing wrong? What should I be doing? Unfortunately I am not able to get any vid as I am about the only one doing this in these parts. Other info: ~I was getting around 65mph in the classic2 (20-25 jumps) and at the moment I think the slowest average that I have held in the MTR2 was something like 56mph. I am around 5'7 with an exit weight of approximately 180 pounds so any help would be great!~ Cheers! "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Nope its a lot of fun to jump from, its a very tidy plane to get loads in. Any plane can stall (or drop the tail) if given the right circumstances. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Thanks Jas for putting this out on dz.com as I had forgotten! Whoops! The only piece of news that I would like to add is that we should have 2 or 3 qualified instructors available for first flight courses & 1-1's. Not to mention a variety of suits for everyone to try! For the experienced jumpers there should be some cool flocking action as well. The numbers for this are looking pretty good and we should be able to fill out the XL So if you want to come down and play, shoot me a message. Cheers! "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

It might be an idea to try it before you make up your mind on this one - I am not a comp camera guy so I could not answer that question. I don't have that experience at that level. Whats that abbreviation YMMV? The w/s jumper extended all his wings as he tumbled on exit (he was on a classic) - he missed by a bit but I can see how with the right combination of events it could lead to carnage. I suppose the plus was to remind me how important it is to go out closed on my flights! "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

The one we have here has a recessed step, this means that with any outward facing exits it can be a real bastard (read impossible) to do some of those exits. You still can exit from inside wel enough as the door is fairly large. For 8's and bigger (especially if people are taking there sweet time) it really helps the pilot to load up the nose as much as possible. For the camera flyers - have not had much experience but the step and handles (its the big long rail that is just right) are fantastic. Might want to watch popping those wings as I saw a w/s jumper almost hit the wing when he inflated the wings prematurely. The plane climbs quicker than the cresco (cleaner body) with the same load. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Hey all, Just took delivery of my MTR2 the other day and while chucking it all together and I thought i'd better ask some questions of the people that have them. So - I guess the main one is what do people do with the excess on the cutaway cables? It seems that the long one is a few inches too long and hangs out - should I just snip it a bit and melt the end? Impressions Build- A little bit to early to tell, the material used in this suit is not the same as used by BM, for lack of a better term its kind of more plastic like. It makes more noise but seems to be a lot more slick. Not sure on the durability issue but time will tell. There are some good improvements: - the cutaway - while it seems like a pain in the arse you can actually quite quickly get it on and off. The idea with the split cables is a pretty good one. One issue I noticed was it was an absolute bastard to fit the cables to the end grommets the first time - it was so stiff that it required a quite bit of time to assemble - no doubt it will become easier in time as it takes a "set". Has anyone else had any experience in this? The setup of the rig to suit is very, very easy! Does not take long at all. When you first look at the suit you see all the zips and think you have to be kidding me but after you do it you can see that it is actually quicker than other suits. The size of the wings is quite a change from what I am used to jumping (Classic 2) - when I layed it ontop of the of the Matter it really emphasised the difference. Not only is the leg wing significantly longer (goes all the way to the ground) but the stance is quite a bit wider (several inches) resulting in an even larger surface area. The arm wings are naturally longer as well - once again the spread of the wings is larger . So they are quite a bit larger. Zippers - the zippers I am not 100% sure about, the arm zippers do not seem to extend far enough on my suit leading to some restriction (neglibile) of the arms. I am not sure about how well the arm zippers will open when you are really under the pump, the cables can be a small hassle here as they can slightly alter the direction of the zipper without enough tension on the wing. I do prefer the handle type of grip that Matter has gone with as opposed to the thumb loops - winter and cold hands & gloves can make thumb loops an added complication, loops = no worries. Legs - The boosters are held on with a velcro/elastic combination at the bottom. Added to that they have added this sort of loop on the top of the booster - this is very easy to grab onto and you can pull them off in a hurry - a good idea I would say. The leg stance is much wider than what I am used to and short of slipping over in the wet I reckon I could run okay with the leg zippers still done up There is a base pouch as standard - not my bag and I don't know enough to comment. Will be interesting to see what the performance is like in the coming weeks (and if I can finally catch the XL!) Edit for typo's "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

Have done a few from the XL - 16ways are not really a goer since you really need to have some of the weight up forward. Door is basically the same as a Caravan. 5 Floaters - Can get interesting at normal jump run speeds and you need to be quick about the builds. I am not a pilot (note the technical terms) but I have been in it a few times when it has stalled - Stall is very mushy and tends to roll around a bit. All those people at the back tend to block the wind to the tail = not good. Its good fun and relatively fast. When you get those chunks leaving you will tend to hit the roof but at least it means you get to have a longer dive going out last. "Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain." "In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus