Davo

That's how i describe the "spot that doesn't move" while in gliding flight, it works for canopies and wingsuits, and the spot moves if any of the variables change (like winds at different altitudes, pilot input, thermals). Highwinder, nobody said that this should take away from your responsibilities for situational awareness and safe flight. holy crap

Yeah, i picked up my production Freak yesterday, so here are the photos. Apparently Vicente and I have similar suits... we're definitely going to put this to use and fly together :-) We're gonna get so effing freaky together! "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

I think we've gotten away from the time of 'bigger is better' and i still can't sell my Apache.... The tail wing size is standard across the production Freak wingsuits. (of course prototypes were variable) I'll post photos of mine shortly, but seriously, the full picture includes trim and airfoil shape... the 'my tailwing looks like this' forum crap is just a sidebar to the people that are out there jumping and enjoying the shit out of their suits! sometimes the best wingsuit in the quiver is what you've currently got hooked up... its on you as a pilot to make it work whether you're backflying or base or camera. non-rigid wings are a gateway drug stay safe https://vimeo.com/user1963125 "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

Yeah, that was me in the video at 2:49 and its a prototype suit with non-production closures that i didn't attach correctly. The zipper opened after landing when i was gathering up all my stuff. If you have issues with your zippers just refer to the diagrams posted by Squirrel on here, or call the dudes and they're happy to help. If i'm around in person I'd be happy to help too, but i'm traveling so much lately that its hard to tell where i'm going to be jumping. I've been in Switzerland jumping the Aura but i can't wait to get back to my home DZ and skydive my production Funk! "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

I have a couple of points that could be brought up, 1. What suits were you jumping prior to going into hibernation for the canadian winter? 2. What was wrong with the flaps? 3. Lots of side presentation, you luckily stayed low and away from the tail but as you rotated your head back towards the relative wind, the left armwing definitely inflates first. It looks like your right armwing at that time is still down along your torso. The asymmetric armwing inflation seems to me to cause the tumble, just be carefull, the Aura is a Beast of a suit, definitely able to influence the inputs from the pilot due to high internal cell pressures and really nice airfoil design. Nice job not freaking out and making the situation better, but i'd advise against high speed passes with side door aircraft. -DC "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

Despite the thread hijacking trying to turn this into a discussion about who sucks at WS coaching and lenses... I was able to jump a Swift prototype in Elsinore and it performed very well for me. I agree with Scotty on the niche that the suit fits, probably not the easiest for an FFC student, but for someone that started on a borrowed P2/P3/T-bird its a great first suit. With a little practice the Swift has incredible range and acrobatic potential. It performs like a light race car, except that when you tumble it, it's easy to recover from. Build quality and safety factors are top notch, no other suits have easier access to risers/toggles. (i've been getting toggles before the slider comes down on base jumps in the Aura and don't worry about unzipping arms for that environment.) Because its not just made for skydiving the suit pressurizes very positively which is a progression that i've seen in big suits over the years as well. The smaller arm wings on the swift make it easier to modify the lift that you're developing from the arms. I can disagree that the "arms back" approach is easier... maybe its more stable, but i always think skydivers that fly arms back are watching too many proximity flying videos. From a performance flying perspective, the only reason you would do that is to drop altitude and maintain speed, but to a certain extent you can do that with your body before you need to pull your arms back. As far as i can tell a straight leading edge is the best for performance and speed in all of the squirrel range. oh, and DSE told me i couldn't land in the main landing area after wingsuiting (and i was the only person in the sky at the time)... then i watched him hypocritically land right where i had, later the same day. "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

it was a vigil 1, i was told it had a vigil 2 cutter. i'm curious what they say, and also pretty happy the dual canopy situation didn't hurt my buddy. "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

old thread so what the hell... I started wanting to jump wingsuits before i had 200 jumps, talked to a bunch of people about it, including a Birdman Instructor, and they gave me some pointers, so after some track-only dives i borrowed a Prodigy and took off. Last one out of the plane, stable exit in direction of flight with all wing material collapsed, then slowly expanding the wings. A few seconds later my priority was handle checks, 3 of them, then i went back to trying to learn the wingsuit. After some variations in flying speed and a long slow turn back towards the dropzone i started running through the pull sequence in my head, then at 5000 i minimized the wing surfaces, arched and pulled. No issues. And that was with around 150 skydives. Prodigy is harder to fly well than the phantom 2, but due to the fact you don't have the restrictions of a full suit with the prodigy that's the one that i'd recommend, plus it'll make the phantoms or t-birds easier when you want to step up to a flocking level suit with some great performance. More practice and trying different suits, i now have an S-bird which I love... So, if you know what you're getting into then the 200 or 500 jump stuff is fucking stupid, or maybe it's meant for the normal skydiving public who will always try to progress faster than their skills warrant, be it multi-ways, canopy size, low turns, freeflying, base jumping, or wingsuiting be willing to live with the decisions you make, if you're not sure about it, then do more research till you are sure. "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

ok, i jumped the gun, i expected some dorkzonehero style rants about that first post. Here are some pictures of prototypes apparently. There were some sweet phantom 2 flights from the bridge, BTW. I'm still not a wingsuit owner, so if they're just super similar looking then fine, but it seemed like a bit of a copied design. "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

Coming at you from Bridge Day, Fayetteville, WV. So i'm in the wingsuit market, and noticed something unusual. For some reason the prototype Vampire 4 for and a new suit called the Venom, or at least the examples they have here, look very similar to Tonysuits designs. same arm wing shaping, and similar long leg wing like the S-bird, X-bird. I have some Demo flights on gear from both manufacturers, and it looks like PF is trying to do some catch-up by using the newer tonysuits design patterns. I have the handout factsheets and a couple pictures but today i have to fall off a bridge so maybe after the weekend i'll add that stuff. let the shit-throwing begin, you trolls "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938

I'm a fan so far of the lazybag concept, the flexible lock-stows are the weak link in my opinion. if you retained the standard D-bag first 2 rubber band stows, then incorporated lazybag line pocket i think it would be the best of both worlds. The worst thing about the BASE tailpocket is the velcro, so when i saw people post that as an improvement i was pretty shocked. with the parachute in the bag, the rigidity of the bag means the male tuck tabs should be much more robust with frequent use than a velcro, tailpocket styled, line stow. "What kind of man would live a life without daring? Is life so sweet that we should criticize men that seek adventure?Is there a better way to die?" Charles Lindberg, August 26th, 1938