skow

In short, is AresII worth 100 bucks more, and if so why?

Second the thing about the bridle - it's nice but for small suit not crucial. Open corners, (semi) stowless bag, Snatch PC - also nice to have but definitely not a must for a beginner. For starters - do the FFC course and focus on good body position and good pitch - they have much more impact on openings than the gear. After you get some jumps under your belt you can gradually do the gear changes I have couple hundred jumps on the Hornet and maybe a couple of hard openings - you should be just fine with it as well. Swift, Phantom - whichever you choose will be just fine. Swift will be a bit more powerful with more range but still easy to fly.

if not for AAD, human kind would evolve into so smart species....

What other manufacturer's canopy can Echo be compared to? It is more like a Sabre or Crossfire or Katana?

Maybe during next weekend I could do a comparison based on flysight data between Swift3 and Freak2. Those are same generation suits and build for and flown by the same person so could give some answers.vBut I don't own an ATC.

Statistically we all have one boob and one testicle I may be wrong, but I have a feeling that people tend to fly bigger suits so there may not be enough data about smaller ones.

I would rather contact container manufacturer, as they know better about the proper fit. However if it fits and is not too loose - there should be no problem

There used to be a lot of problems with material that PF used on their wingsuits. The "colour" layer was peeling leaving a thin fabric that air was passing through. However PF seems to be now using different materials on newer suits which is of much better quality. Seems that the lead times have also become shorter. So a little competition is good for everyone - especially the customers.

Not to disrespect the other brands, but no other WS manufacturer comes even remotely close.

Yep, this table is not very precise. Bars with 200 numbers start in different place than the Advanced category

I would definitely go for Swift. This suit will keep you busy for hundreds of jumps. You should feel already quite a difference between the Indy and the S3. Also everything (transitions, barrel rolls, back flying, flocking) will be significantly easier on S3 than on the Funk which will allow you to progress much faster. Swift 3 came out last year so the new version will come at earliest in 2020. However the difference shouldn't be too big (S3 is already an awesome suit. Also technically speaking more "advanced" than Funk1 in that sense that it came out few years later)

If nothing has recently changed, then you need to fly all the disciplines in the same suit during performance competitions. That is why people fly speed in big suits (because gain in distance and time is worth "losing" a bit in speed). However if we talk physics, wingsuits work pretty much in the same way as canopies - the bigger the size the bigger the drag. Easy to check - trying to fly in WS and catch up somebody with no suit in head down.

Pay also attention to exits from the plane. That means that Freak being more powerful can send you more easily into plane's stabiliser if you exit with improper body position. I wouldn't expect the Freak to be faster than ATC, if sth than otherwise as bigger suit introduces more drag (e.g. my Swift 3 is much faster than Freak 2)

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I beg to differ

My guess is that because area-wise ATC is much smaller than Strix. Also similar doesn't mean the same. Still Strix has more power than ATC.

Where does it stand if you compare to e.g. Katana?

I have the same experience - Freak is less forgiving e.g. on your back (you have to fly well to fly well ) than Strix but definitely you get more power and range. I'm guessing that's why Rafale was born - to have similar performance to Freak (however with bigger area). There are some differences between Strix/ATC and Freak/Rafale in the way they fly. Best bet is to test. However you should be satisfied with whatever suit you decide to get.

Some pics have been posted to icarus' instagram. (Surprise, surprise...) looks like Leia / Valkyrie, with slightly different cross-braces

Not seeing much sense in comparing Valkyrie 96 and WinX ( even though both are 7-cells ). Have done hundreds of jumps on 1.75 wingloading with 9-cells - pilot and sabre (and occasionally 7-cells WinX, Kraken etc) and experienced also some mad linetwists. Never, ever experienced any crazy spinning - on the contrary, all the canopies were flying just straight. So what I'm saying is that if all manufacturers (except SQ) recommend certain WL for a type of canopy, you will be fine also with SQ canopy with that WL. Especially if we talk about your WL of around 1.1 - 1.2 (can't imagine a 7 cell not-crossbraced, non elliptical that would have any hard or even semi-hard spinning with that WL) Squirrel's max WL recommendation of 1,18 for 190sqft or 1 for 210sqft seems to me more like a protection against lawsuit rather than actual maximum range. But of course it's your decision, so not trying to convince you to buy anything that you are not comfortable with.

New kid on the block. Anybody got to fly it? mHow does it compare to Leia / Valkyrie etc?

When talking about WS specific canopies, WinX in my opinion is the best choice. The openings are very good, not too slow (which you don't want with wingsuit) and it's more fun to fly than the others. So you might want to reconsider. Also, the same physics apply to all wings - so I wouldn't freak out too much if you go slightly over the recommended WL stated by one manufacturer (of course if you feel comfortable flying it). I tested the WinX on 1.75 WL and it flew just fine. Other canopies of the same type will act the same as the construction is pretty much the same (with small tweaks)

does anybody have any experience how does it compare to base canopies?

You definitely need to flare the wingsuit before opening. I'm currently jumping Sabre1 150 and with a bit of flare it opens perfectly every time. I also like to dive quite much to have a better flare. So forget about the first flight yoga opening position and just flare nicely before you pitch. Works like a charm.

You definitely aren't flaring :) Well, what I do is push down on the arm wings, which does change the airspeed for sure. From what you say, I'm pretty sure you actually are flaring (or at last trying to). Keep in mind that with Swift you will not get straight head-up flare that you see in the videos. You may get a little bit of that, but this will actually need a steep dive before flaring - just like with canopy flying, the more speed you have (e.g. using fronts) the more power you have and the more up you can go during flare (however with canopies you don't want to do that, at least near the ground). So the idea is the same as with your canopy - change your AoA which will level your flight and slow you down. (later you can also try to dive and gain speed - it's super fun :) ) Are you talking about the angle with respect to horizon? This is something totally different than AoA (which to my knowledge is impossible to film outside of laboratory). Anyway, seems to me that you are on a right track. Just keep you suit straight (to have it as efficient as possible) and practice those flares. Remember that flaring is quite slow process which takes at least few seconds. So don't change your position to rapidly (it's the same as yanking too much on you rears - this will stall the canopy / suit immediately), but very slowly and gradually change your position. Also when not-pitching - practice gaining some speed before flares- for me it makes it more stable. As for when to pitch - I like to flare as much as possible and pitch couple seconds after that, when I start to dive again. This is because of the fact that at the peak of the flare you may have some burble (because you still have some airspeed). Some people also pitch before reaching the peak of the flare. You can check also the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8zZ-jjTqcgU