voilsb

Wingsuit First Flight Course Brian

You're right, but I don't believe it's intentionally misleading. When I jumped/packed all 4 canopies, I measured them, too. The Speed200/190 is slightly larger than a Spectre/170, and clearly larger than the OP and Nano 160. The 8% math from the Icarus days says a 190=176, etc, so that's probably the discrepancy Brian

From another thread I posted in today: I've packed and jumped an Optimum/160, Nano/160, and Speed 2000/190, all in a reserve tray built for a PD 143. All packed easier than the PD 143 did, in the same container, both with and without an AAD. All 4 packed within 2lb of the same pull force. Nano had the best flare, straight in and with front risers, but had very fast reserve-like openings. Optimum had an excellent flare with a front riser approach, and a regular flare straight in. Also had the softest openings. Speed had the steepest glide slope, but consequently had an excellent flare straight in. Brakes were set too short, so I experienced bucking on front risers. Nano and Optimum had similar altitude loss in turns. Speed lost the most altitude in turns. Brian

I've packed and jumped an Optimum/160, Nano/160, and Speed 2000/190, all in a reserve tray built for a PD 143. All packed easier than the PD 143 did, in the same container, both with and without an AAD. All 4 packed within 2lb of the same pull force. Nano had the best flare, straight in and with front risers, but had very fast reserve-like openings. Optimum had an excellent flare with a front riser approach, and a regular flare straight in. Also had the softest openings. Speed had the steepest glide slope, but consequently had an excellent flare straight in. Brakes were set too short, so I experienced bucking on front risers. Nano and Optimum had similar altitude loss in turns. Speed lost the most altitude in turns. Brian

This is why I don't hire a packer. By the time I deal with my brakes, slider, and pilot chute, I've already done 2/3 of the work. All that's left is bagging my canopy and closing the container, which only takes a few minutes. Brian

I jumped a similar one in Puerto Rico and Marathon Key. Never used it, so I don't know how well that part works ... Brian

Might try installing the PD riser "hats" ... they make it more difficult for the slider to fall past the line attachment on opening, but they're easy to pull the slider past. Can probably get them for free from your local rigger or gear shop, too. Brian

Yes, but how tight? UPT's vector size chart lists smaller size speed 2000's than OPTs... Pretty comfortably. Within 1 lb on the pull force between a Speed2000/190, Nano/160, and Optimum/160 Brian

I currently have a demo Speed2000/190 canopy Stefan sent out. I've put 3 jumps on it, and I can confirm that a Speed2000/190 will pack into the same reserve tray a PD143 will. I plan to jump it some more to better review the flight characteristics, but so far it definitely opens quick and lands easily. Brian

I jumped a Nano 160 set up as a main. Opened quick, flew stable, recovered easily from stalls, and landed like a main. Brian

Same Brian

I flew a Spectre190 a little on student status and don't really remember it. I flew a Spectre170 loaded at 1.2:1 a couple weeks ago for a weekend, and I felt it had a very easy to time, strong flare and was fun to zip around the sky, too. I was extremely surprised. Brian

The impression I got reading the article is that his 2300 jumps are more like 300 jumps, plus one or two jumps 2000 times. So he changed canopies and tried to do the exact same jump he's done 2000 times, and it didn't work because it was a different jump. Brian

I can also confirm the brakes are quite deep, but can't confirm the brake fire because I've only put 800 jumps on the canopy and the closest opening issue I've had is half a line twist one time, and it sometimes opens so soft the slider hangs up. Brian

I routinely pull below 3000 ft, and when I get the chance I'll dock at 3500 ft, then scary roll, then break off, and pull 2500ish ft. It doesn't take a lot of altitude to get plenty of separation in a small group. Brian

How long of a break? I took a 9 month break, and made a significant upsize when I came back. Was jumping a Storm 150 at 1.6:1, lost weight while I was gone, and came back to a Silhouette 210 at 1:1. Jumped that a couple weekends, then a Spectre 170 at 1.23:1, then back to my Storm now at 1.4:1. You might think of doing similar, then think of getting rid of your "boring" Sabre2 this winter after you put a hundred-ish jumps on it. Brian

I took a 9 month break, and made a significant upsize when I came back. Was jumping a Storm 150 at 1.6:1, lost weight while I was gone, and came back to a Silhouette 210 at 1:1. Jumped that a couple weekends, then a Spectre 170 at 1.23:1, then back to my Storm now at 1.4:1. I figured better safe than sorry. For your experience, I'd guess demo or borrow a Sabre2 120 or 135, then a Katana 107, then back to the Velocity 96 or whatever, over the course of a month. Brian

Not knocking the UPT bag, but have you considered calling Velocity and getting a party bag for an I-44? I mean, it is designed for that container ... Brian

The Altimount is carbon fiber, not metal. It's easy to file it such that the bend is weak, and I've had one break off from a light freefall bump during a horny gorilla. I also use a plastic one made by user monkycndo (http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?username=monkycndo;). His are very inexpensive, and they're designed to bend on impact. Brian

Does anyone know how hard it would be to get a demo speed 2000 (in the USA) to test out its pack volume in a familiar reserve tray? Brian

I relined my canopy with 350 lb Dacron, but it doesn't slam open like some base canopies Brian

Oh, I wasn't suggesting you compile all the data into one reconciled report. I just meant it would show the data separately, and let the user decide which information to believe. For me, I look at all that information separately. And when I travel, it's a pain to try to figure out which winds aloft and METAR stations are closest to the DZ. Once I'm familiar with an area I save the information and check it out. So when I go to the DZ, I look up the winds, I look up the METARs, I look up the forecasts ... it'd be convenient to have it all in one spot, that's all. Brian

I did 2 jumps on a Prodigy at around 200-205 jumps. Around 300 jumps I started jumping a Phantom (P1). Borrowed a P2 at about 30 WS jumps, and loved it!. Kept jumping the P1 till my P2 arrived (total about 50 jumps on the P1). At around 150-200 WS jumps I started looking for a bigger suit for hang time, played with Ghost, Ghost2, R-Bird, but didn't like them. Stayed with the Phantoms and ordered a P3 after about 650 jumps on my P2. Put about 100-ish jumps on my P3 (don't have access to my log book to check). Somewhere in the 200-500 WS jumps range I jumped a myriad of suits a handful of times, including SuperMach1, S-Bird, Vampire3, Vampire4, Ghost2, R-Bird. Altogether I have about 800 wingsuit jumps, with 90% of them on Phantoms. Brian

I'm still a fan of the PCPRG Winds Aloft Forecast tool (http://www.pcprg.com/cgi-bin/windsaloft.cgi). What I would really love is if someone wrote an interface where you put in the coordinates of your DZ, and it would pull up the PCPRG Winds Aloft for the nearest two stations, the nearest two METARs, the nearest two cloud forecasts from USAirNet, and the local weather from weatherunderground/accuweather/etc. Brian

Seems legit. Did you offer him a couple GoPros so he could film it from every angle? Brian