dirtbox

One jump half on my back, easier that a tony suit for backflying, harder than phoenixfly. Stable, good leg wing control didn't feel I had as much range though...but then it was a one jump go at it :S

yeh I donæt get it - you see the bottom of the aircraft and then open...less than 10ft drop... but hey you can't fix stupid

I don't fly one wish I had gone to the boogie though The worst offenders for exits are big suit jumpers for some reason, the ones who should know better... off of my soapbox again...

look on their website... I may be in the video as well :P

I believe there was an issue with QC but after having a few discussing with Fidel I was under the impression he went back to Vietnam to deal with the issues. I have looked over possibly 10 of the suits and there was no consistency as a whole but I believe the newer ones were more consistent in build quality.

Yeh what he said, very fast forward, stable on its back. Not as floaty as a tony suit, not a nimble as a Sfly or Phoenix fly suit but very fast forward. I have 3 jumps on the G5/7 prototype hybrid thing handing up in the Zflock shack.

I am going with option C - Trunk is really the Easter bunny and had to hop the pond anyway, which is why you go it on time :P It is cool when people give a shout out for people doing good things :)

Where are your zippers? close the leg wing, maybe open the arm up an inch each side (easier to learn, close it later). You are currently in a recliner position. Think about bringing your leg wing down to 40-60% but pointing you toes, pushing your head back and raising your hips to stop that sit position (once you got it you wont have to cock your head all the way back but at first the head movement really seems to limit the hip movement -> when you look at your toes you sit a bit). I take my arm wing all the back and fly palms down with my thumb along the gripper about 4 inches below the bottom of my back. P.S. if you think about it you should know who this is, we did more than a few jumps together and I was rather obsessed with getting my Rbird on its back...finally got in consistent and going good Your canopy fixed yet?

Well I was going to come, guess I wont be any more now Remi... you ruined it for me...

So last weekend I didn't have the shoes I had when my wingsuit was made, now I have 130 or so jumps in this suit in a ~4month period so I know it really well and it flew differently because there was an inch or so difference in the thickness off the shoes. My point being, if bigger shoes make the suit to tight forcing me to change my foot angle noticeable changes what about jumping without a rig? Does this suit have no fastback on it or a special on that is sitting under the rig compressed? what about the dead air created behind the head that would of previously smoothed by the rig? How will the lack of rig affect the fit and flying characteristics? I have personally jumped with Gary and like him (hell I jumped his Xbird while he jumped his appache) and I am sure he has all this sorted but it is an interesting thought?

Don't we call modern ram air parachutes a wing? and if it was worn wouldn't it be a wing-suit..wingsuit? :P http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

Aus is a far more expensive country but so is the level of income ... while the whole gap seems a bit irreconcilable but a lot of it is understandable. You have had your bit in one forum and are only representing one small part of your story... even in the US, where things are much cheaper, people will not give some one a free AFF course and bend over backwards to help you.. I will probably get a warning for this from a mod but you are contributing nothing to this topic (which is an issue of interest at a DZ I now work at) and whining with no valid reason to.

circumstance relevant in a very social group ... it wouldn't work in a bar, I'd probably get maced ... other great tricks that have got me laid include putting her best friend in hospital after a piggy back gone tragically wrong and throwing up on a girls feet. point being a conversation normally works a charm but otherwise be able to make the best of a bad situation and be interesting and unique, not like every other drink holding clone wearing skinny jeans and conforming to some bland social group code of conduct

try "hi, my name is..." or you know... a normal conversation, if your interesting and attractive a guy will be interesting, if not we'll move onto another chic, just like girls do with guys... failing that getting attention and being 'ballsy' is always good, last stupid thing I did that got me laid was me: "do you know how I am getting laid tonight?" girl: "what? no..." me: "Because I am stronger than you" She was a pretty rad chic with a wicked sense of humor

Why the hell would you want more ratings? The problem is the term AFF-I. AFF focuses too much on free fall which is only a part of the sky dive. Any instructor should be a complete skydiver capable of teaching both basic canopy and free fall and packing and safety procedures. How about instead of another rating you make canopy control part of the instructors rating? Oh wait, it is! Sure it could be covered more but it is in there, just seems a lot of people don't bother to teach it and that is why people do dumb shit under canopy. So why not teach more in the A licence course, instead of all the solo jumps why aren't there coached canopy jumps (just like a basic canopy course, hop and pop with a pre-jump brief and set of tasks followed by a video of the landing and a debrief). Hell if it could be worked a coached canopy jump with an instructor and 2 way radio, though I can see logistical problems with that idea. 02 cents from a naive freshly minted AFF-I

never jumped a PF suit with it but I am familiar with it (got to rotate it on a V4 in the plane when it had inversed and checked a few suits out on the ground with it) and my tony suit has its version ... the basic principal is the same, which is to maintain the wing shape better. Tony uses tubular foam (and neoprene on some suits) that sits above the arm and PF uses shaped foam that conforms to the arm shape - both raise the leading edge slightly above the arms and are there to add the shape, the rest is semantics really. is it worth it? If it makes you feel happy get it. I'd argue that unless you're one of the 10 best wingsuit pilots in the world you would get more out of technique and training jumps than the foam will give you and even then it would still be minimal. Be it Tony, PF, Alien et al, it is only a suit, you still have to fly it

that is kind of over kill. I used about 4 different designs before I got to my current one Bungee loop and a small clip from a dog collar I got at walmart for $2 (http://www.bitsandbats.com/images/mallace%20021.jpg like that one, about the size of the fingernail on my small finger) and tied it in the middle. it has lasted the last 100 jumps or so. I had one with a bigger clib but sometimes sitting on the floor of the AC it would stick into me (the little one doesn't). I had also tried some other cs clips though they snapped and keyring loops though they bent and weren't as quick. Bungee cord (or thick hair eleastic) $2 collar from walmart (for a rat sized dog) scissors and 5 minutes is all you need...

in your own words define landing?

I picked my R bird up at around 25 jumps after 20 jumps on a P2. The P2 is far easier to fly and a really nice suit. The R bird was a bit twitchy but ok at that point and I wouldn't suggest having less than 25 or 30 jumps before getting one. Wouldn't buy a T bird. Now I am use to the R bird it is great - 3:20 is pretty straight forward (dumping at 3,300) but much past that you rapidly lose forward drive and it gets twitchy and wants to stall (3:40 is the longest I have in it dumping at 3,300 and the suit wasn't happy). That said I can fly it with firebirds, p2s, V4, X birds and everything inbetween and take docks and whatever else so it has a lot of range (i'd say more than the P2) but the P2 flys on its back better. So it depends on what you want to do.

nope - Rob Harris has had a mod done to his and now everything is outboard but otherwise the others just have the little loops on the outside of the suit connected to a rapid link which mates with the exposed park of the cable between the handles and hard housing inside the suit.

So when they fit tundra tires to small aircraft and land them in a bush is that not a landing? A jetlines uses a runway is that not a landing? If a bird puts its feet out is that not a landing? I kind of see a need for all landing gear to be integrated into the suit but at the same time there are very few man made things that can land anywhere without some form of prepaired landing area. Bottom line if it is repeatble it is a landing with a landing area (no different to a jet) if not, it is a crash (kind of like table mountain )

planes land on a runway... what if this became the runway needed for wingsuits so to speak? I think it counts as a landing which would make him the first to do it. There is a large amount of skill involved in doing what he is doing. Divebomb a small patch of cloud 100 times and tell me how many times you hit it? now doing it now while diving but while flaring and know that if you miss you are a stain with a watch symbol on your back... Hats off to Gary for it. My 0.02 cents

Ikarumba! You would have trouble exiting a skyvan, much less a caravan There are some good folks at Suomen laskuvarjokerho that know a lot about wingsuiting (pm me if you want a name or two). A p3 would be great and you would only have trouble flocking with the biggest of suits if they were maxing it. There are plenty human wrecking balls (your weight, 3 feet shorter) flocking in P2s once they know how to fly them - most flocks are flown pretty dirty anyway which allows everyone to get in. Now, if you ever get in an appache or mattress class suit you may never come down, you'd have more wing than some small aircraft

Gary was testing his new Appache (not the one in the pic) at Zhills for a few weeks in Jan. It be for real.

how about common sense and ability? I have heard of a few rare people at ~600 jumps on xbraced canopies doing 270s and doing great. I have met people with 1000 jumps who shouldn't think about going past 1:1 ... And well if someone is stupid/ignorant enough to break themselves through a sustained series of poor decisions what can you do? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. The same goes for bigway, wingsuits, climbing, mountaineering, eating hotdogs...