Slowest sustained fall rate?

[TomAiello 26]

Can anyone help guide me to the slowest falling suit on the market?

I understand that's not exactly a precise question, but assuming all else is equal (pilot size and skill, etc), what suit is going to generate the slowest sustained (i.e. average for the entire jump) fall rates?

In this application, I am looking almost entirely for slowest fall rate. Glide angle and speed are very secondary, and I understand that slowest fall rate will likely not have the best glide angle.

My preliminary opinion is that I ought to look at whatever the latest-greatest Tonysuit flying airmattress is (Apache Rebel or something, right?).

Can anyone offer any other opinions?

If you have real data on fall rates in various suits, that would be extremely helpful as well.

Thanks for any information or opinions you can share.

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[drunk 0]

http://www.paralog.net/ppc/showalltracks.php?sort=time

You can check the Average Vertical Speed by clicking on the track number link...



Edit to fix url.

[jakee 1,568]

Cardboard boxes on order?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[mccordia 74]

Most of the high scores in the PPC track database include a flare, and thus are not really systainable fallrates. But the point where the flare wears of around 40 or so seconds into each track probably comes close.

JC
FlyLikeBrick
I'm an Athlete?

[sinjin 0]

tom i would say a used tony x-1 would be the slowest falling suit. not sure how the new x-3 is ,,, the apache is not the slowest, it needs some speed.

dont let life pass you by

[lurch 0]

I'd still say Apache XRW/Rebel/X3 series.
Helmut still holds the top slot with a flared X1 attack (pure genius, I've been studying that attack for 6 months) but he's also even lighter than me and the track as mentioned doesn't show ultimate flight length or fallrate, just a comp attack..

Only recently did I actually take my Reb out for a few full altitude cruises, ranging from 12,000 to 13,800 feet and pulling around 3,000.

3 flights so far, all 3 easily topping 4 minutes, ranging from 4:07 to 4:10 and a sustained fallrate of well under 30, mostly averaging around 25 mph or a little over, for the entire flight. It can easily be dropped to teens and single digits, but will rebound into the 40's and 50's till airspeed is recovered. No free lunch.

Just my $.02
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.

[Shredex 0]

I've seen things around saying that people can actually gain altitude. I know physically it's possible...but has anyone really been able to accomplished it?

[lurch 0]

Oh, yes. Routinely, actually.
The technique is nearly identical to that used to punch a climb from a high speed exit off a tailgate jumpship. If you know how to do one of those, you'll be able to get a climb out of several megasuit models. Martijn Maas gets them fairly easily with a PF Venom. Tony got one in a BASE race this year, and I've spent the season doing competition training, mapping out the specs for when and how this suit will climb, at what speeds. The best use of the climb is to pop over the tops of clouds you've already descended below the summit of. The effect is breathtaking. It was one thing to get alti and GPS tracks showing it graphically, but when you have a somewhat stationary visual reference and can scoot back UP the side of a cloud and zoom down the far side, well, its... exultant.
The data are VERY rough. I consider both the GPS and altimeter readings subject to probable 50+% resolution error and put no faith in their actual accuracy, but between them the GPS shows climbs as high as 38 feet and the alti shows regains topping out at around 128 feet and a "fallrate" of -28 mph for a few seconds. The effect can be done routinely. If I'd been flying the suit in the 100 way I could have punched a fairly solid climb at every breakoff. Our forward speed and fallrate on those dives were far more than that suit needs. From lower fallrates you might have to boost your speed a bit to get a decent climb, if you try from too slow the effect will be weak or not happen at all, you'll just get a flare into the single digits or a couple seconds of 0mph fallrate and a partial stall.
-B

Live and learn... or die, and teach by example.