outrager

Sabia is both active and over 1000, i believe. He also owns his own cliff bsbd! Yuri.

Some wars should be fought for humanitarian reasons but this has not happened yet, and probably will not any time soon. I'm not sure what exactly are you asking in the second part. Of course i would defend my country if it were attacked. However if you imply that US entered WW2 to save millions in concentration camps, you are wrong. bsbd! Yuri.

What i say is none of these wars were/are fought for humanitarian reasons. Not Yugoslavia, not Iraq, not WW2. Nations go to war to advance their own interests, not to "save people". However, they rarely admit it directly. Instead they shamelessly cite "humanitarian" reasons in PR efforts to justify the war. Sometimes it creates peculiar situations. Same "freedom fighters" aka "terrorists" have migated from Afganistan to Kosovo to Iraq and back to Afganistan, in the process being supported, then hunted, then supported and then hunted again by US - as current interest dictated. bsbd! Yuri.

Yes. Killing thousands of civilians is equally reprehensible no matter how you want to gift-wrap it. Another good example that often comes up here: nuking many thousands of japanese civilians to save the lives of many thousands of american soldiers. Either a horrible crime or a smart military move - generally depending on a nationality of a poster. You have to take sides here... because it clearly appears that morals depend on which side you take. bsbd! Yuri.

I know quite a bit about it. Do not forget that Albanians did exactly the same to Serbs, both sides in that conflict are equally bad. When you pick a side, you help one to cleanse another. Regarding Bush (and Clinton, for that matter - this isn't a partisan issue): what matters is they caused many thousands of innocent people to be killed, same as Milosevic. It absolutely does not make any difference for those people if they died from "ethnic cleansing" or "liberation". I hate when people are killed "for their own good". It adds an insult to an injury. At the very least be honest when you destroy a country to advance your own interests there. bsbd! Yuri.

It depends on what you are looking for PF has the best glide ratio. VKB suits rule in speed and precision. Most importantly: by the time you head out to Europe, there will be another generation of tracking suits out. Whatever you pick today will be obsolete next year. bsbd! Yuri.

Surprisingly, i agree with everything warpedskydiver have said here Now, substitute "Albanians" with "muslim extremists" or "terrorists", whichever sounds better. For a full picture, substitute Milosevic with Bush, and Kosovo with Iraq - you'll get an idea. Both presidents have caused deaths of many thousands of innocent (and guilty) muslims while advancing the interests of their countries. Both are considered heros by some people, and criminals by others. On the numbers: i know a few hundred million people who consider Milosevic a hero (do you need a hint here?). On the other hand, millions of muslims consider him a criminal. Funny enough, both groups consider Bush a criminal. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I've never had an object strike (nor any injury or bust) in 1100+ jumps off 180+ objects. I had a freefall/canopy collision around jump #35 on a poorly planned 3-way. I've had hundreds of off-heading openings, at least 100+ of which were 180s. I do not consider them a problem but merely a nuisance (when altitude to reach LZ is tight). I prefer to plan my jumps in such a way where opening direction is not important. That fully applies to non-wingsuit jumps, too. bsbd! Yuri.

You have seen the light! bsbd! Yuri.

Hmm... at ISTW a properly executed 6 to 7sec FF should put you so far from the wall that you will splash in before you touch the rock. Track people, track, god damn it!!! Opening close to an object while jumping slider-up is a mortal sin. Why risk a strike when it can be entirely avoided by launching and tracking??? I prefer to use the regular shallow slider-up brake settings. They allow for an immediate and radical control input without stalling a canopy or loosing too much altitude. bsbd! Yuri.

This is so lame! 60' might be ok for special olympics. Cool people (like frenchies) launch from 0', and they use no stinking skies either. bsbd! Yuri.

I think this logic should be modified a bit. Two beginner suits (Access and Prodigy), for example, must be flown with the equipped grippers held, but their wings do not get in the way at pull time. bsbd! Yuri.

Yo ! I've done it both ways, and cannot see any difference in actual openings. Primary stow looks like a good idea and i use it when forced to do a low jump Slider-down jumps suck ass. bsbd! Yuri.

Oops, this was not directed at you guys at all! I'll PM you the name i had in mind. I agree with everything you say. I felt horrible when Tore went in.... and had to deal with pieces a couple weeks later. It is a bad idea to just throw out information on the net, it needs to be passed on carefully. You guys do absolutely the best job sharing the passion and keeping the perfect balance here. I wanted to show another extreme, but didn't do it very well. What do you think when somebody opens a lot of amazing flights, truly incredible ones, and then keeps it completely to himself? bsbd! Yuri.

Yes, i know of people like that in Europe: a home-made suit, amazing flights at amazing places that nobody else is aware of... but that's pretty much it. When passion is not shared, it is dead. bsbd! Yuri.

That remark was only meant for Sx line. I totally agree about other innovatie designs. bsbd! Yuri.

It's quite common. I only have one piston, and it thrusts quite well bsbd! Yuri.

I agree! This is true for 90% plus of the pilots. If i were to choose a suit for flocking, i would pick based on color and style

Mee too! I still keep my old S3 prototype because it is a fun suit, cute and with a lot of history. You should have seen Robi's face when i had it shipped to France to replace V1, because i thought for a short while Vampire wasn't flying as good as my old suit.... that was right before i figured out how to fly V1 correctly. I only had to put them side by side once to see the light

Did anybody notice that everyone who tries to defend Sx line, sells them ? Are there any dealers who sell both companies suits? It would be lovely to hear what they say I have yet to see a pilot who chose Sx suit over Vx during the last 2 years because he gets better perfomance in it. Looks like there are no such pilots here, and likely none on the planet. Just about everyone switched the other way. I will be the first one in line to get whatever suit that surpasses V1. Please, somebody, make one!

That's exactly what gulls would say to Jonathan... Fortunately, folks like VKB won't listen. "Nice kids, no trouble to anyone", they follow their heart, their dream... You didn't get it. She says that it's much easier to copy a suit from a demo, then to build it from scattered patterns and descriptions bsbd! Yuri.

They are now starting to catch up in this field. At the beginning things looked rather poor, from a marketing point of view. I only hope that BM picks up on R&D in a similar manner, so there's finally a true choice of hi-end suits that i can select from. bsbd! Yuri.

Funny that you say that "Increased wing area is not a new design" That's about S3S and it does not, indeed, increase L/D. The difference about V1 is a new shape, that did increase L/D. There is only one meaningful and objective measure of a new design in perfomance suit class: increased L/D. Everything else is cosmetics and marketing. bsbd! Yuri.

I would love to see them come out with a new glide machine! Like i said, i am not attached to any particular brand, and only favor what currently flies better. I've partied a lot with both Jari and Robi, and know Cedric, Loic, Shaun and Julian well. They are all good friends, and there's nothing personal. My opinions are based on today's status quo, and i am simply disappointed by recycled 4-year-old designs. I'd love to know who is involved in the current R&D. So far BM tactic has been creating a lot of hype in advance, then nothing really came out The day it changes and i get to fly a new toy that passes the old suit will be one of the happiest in my life

I've flown plenty of Sx variations and prototypes. None of the minor changes mentioned for S6 had any effect on L/D. In fact, none of those small changes over Skyflyer Sx lifespan had any measurable effect on L/D. It took creating an entirely new platform (Vampire generation) to squeeze a bit more glide. This is where it stands now. At this stage in perfomance suit development no small cosmetic changes will have any effect. Adding more glide requires a major effort. And first of all, it requires a talented designer... that's the biggest and foremost problem: Original BirdMan had a great designer and a great marketer. The split created two companies, one with a great marketer, and another with a great designer. Currently BirdMan knows how to sell suits very well, but cannot design anything really new. Phoenix designs awesome new toys, but lags behind in advertising and marketing them. bsbd! Yuri.