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In backfly exits video it says "Should you find yourself slightly head low, try only opening the leg wing halfway" In other words, if you're head low, open your arms and don't open you leg wing more than half way?

Can you post a photo?

Over ~600 wingsuit jumps I've tried: Sabres, Sabre2s, Storms, Spectres, Triathlons, Volts, Alphas, Safires, and Pilots and even though I think PD makes the best canopies, I have to agree that the WS-specific canopies and the Pilot7 are unnecessary and the good ole original 9cell Pilot is the ultimate WS canopy. What makes it the ultimate WS canopy? I mean, that's such a subjective topic... my Sabre1 does a really good job in my opinion. My previous Sabre2 I also could not complain about... but I can see how if you're pulling from full flight training for BASE deployments you'd want something even more stable than a Sabre1... I also fly Pilot and think exactly the same. Openings are shorter than Sabre2 but not uncomfortably short. A little snivel and the canopy is open and on-heading (If your position is good). In linetwists it's super stable and doesn't dive (even at my WL 1.68). Still you can do some nice 270s while landing as it's more agressive than 7-cell and recovery arc is not too short (for this kind of canopy). Totally agree with Anachronist - if your openings on this canopy are bad - you are the reason, not the parachute.

How about flying with smaller suits, like phantoms?

I do my best. Here's another one for you Waiting for package from SQ now.... [inline download.jpg]

Bacause Noah and Julien woudn't otherwise get wingsuits from any manufactured so they are doomed to fly those shitty vietnamese flap flaps You all PF fanboys are getting more ridiculous every day

What people are using and can recommend?

Next time you're driving in a car on a motorway, put your hand out of the window and position it flat (parallel to the ground). Now AoA is zero. Now quite fast turn your palm so it's 30-35 degrees up. You'll feel pressure on your wrist (and your hand lifting up). Now go back to flat position and turn it fast so it's 90 degrees up in respect to the ground. The pressure on your wrist is much higher then previously. But how much did it go up? This is because AoA is much higher and more air is hitting your palm.

Yes, but still those are completely different things. E.g with enough speed and good flare you can change your trajectory e.g. from going 45 degrees down to 45 degrees up (in respect to horrizon). So the change in trajectory is 90 degrees, but change in AoA is very little. In any case, wing stalls if the AoA is too high - i.e. angle between the wing chord (trim) line and relative wind, no matter the speed. And with risers this change is much more dramatic than with toggles - which always makes toggles the safer option Well of course. You have to rememeber you are flying in an airmass, not in rollercoaster car on rails. With high speeds (lots of inertia) you'll experience "drift" before the canopy changes its pitch, especially with sharp stab. Imagine you are skiing fast down the slope. You won't just turn 60 degrees to the side if you aggressively lean, but the skis will slide before turn. And if you just turn your feet and skis 90 degrees to the side, you won't turn at all, just keep sliding down the hill in uncontrollable matter (so kind of stall) - which is the same as puling the risers - you turn the whole canopy radically against the relative wind increasing AoA very drastically This is why those wings are not for beginners but experienced jumpers who know what they are capable of

I cannot really agree with it. Toggles give you much slower change in angle of attack and that's why the canopy doesn't stall when you stab them. "Stabbing" on rears changes your AoA very dramatically and that's why the canopy may stall even if you fly 100 mph.

Couldn't agree more.

Very good read Anachronist I'd be careful, however with such statements. Many people think they should buy bigger suit right away just because they are heavy. I personally know a person with less than 10 ws jumps experience who bought a Havoc Carve because he's heavy and needs more wings. Personally I think he's a talent-less idiot and just doesn't get it.

From my experience the original Pilot is also more resistant to turning in linestwists than other canopies of the same class in the same size. I fly 150 sqft loaded quite heavily for WS (@1.68) and it goes straight like a train in linetwists. Hence the question about Pilot 7

First the mass, then the shape!!! So you need 'em burgers

No one is forcing you to use it. If you decide to buy one, you just better have enough brains to check your gear properly. And if not, then thanks for helping evolution make it's thing.

How does it handle line twists? Does it dive or does it stay "stable"?

Iäd rather put it like this Category 5 PD: Velocity, Comp Velocity NZ Aerosports: JVX, JFX Fluid Wings: ?? Category 6 PD: Valkyrie, Valkyrie Hybrid NZ Aerosports: Leia, Leia Hybrid Fluid Wings: Helix, Airwolf Category 6.5 PD: Peregrine NZ Aerosports: Petra, Sofia Fluid Wings: HK, HK Terminal, HS

If you want a good RDS slider buy one from SkyLark. Super easy to use in the air and put back on. Dealing with my current NZ Aerosports slider after Skylark's is a pain in the ass...

But in all seriousness. AAD are meant to save lives and should be as simple as possible. Every addition to it makes it more susceptible to failures. So if you try to make it work in a case which happens in one in 100,000 or 1,000,000 jumps, the risk that it will not work properly in those 100,000 jumps increases

If you're that unlucky maybe skydiving is just not your thing....

My internal technical nazi ordered me to say that in this video reserve actually was fully inflated. Anyway, IMHO in applications where linetwists are more probable (i.e. wingsuits) I personally think getting as big reserve as you possibly can is a good idea. In my case my reserve is bigger than main (160 vs 150 Pilot) and I see a big advantage here in lower bulk reserves as Optimum or Speed 2000 and the fact youcan squeeze one size (or maybe 2) bigger reserve than normally, even if you'd loose a 100-200 feet on opening

I think we talk about different things. I'm talking about the same canopy in different sizes. It is a fact that F111 (or 0-3 cfm) canopies flare worse than ZP. And this was my point - that you shouldn't upsize when switching to F111 because small canopy (if we talk only about flare) will work better, which I think we agree on :) (Edited to make it more readable)

Have you already tried it? From the interviews and videos I got the impression that this is a canopy which is super boring to fly, but will work for you if you have shitty opening position. I assume this is not very true so would be nice to hear some opinions how it actually flies

I'm not really sure this reasoning follows the laws of physics. Assuming the pilot knows what they are doing, the more speed you have the better the flare. So smaller canopy would give you a better flare, not bigger. Unless there's something I'm missing, so can you explain?

Yep, but usually they pack 2-3 sizes smaller. This one is said to pack 4 sizes (almost 40%) smaller