Review of the Z-wing Stingray

[LouDiamond 1]

I recently had the chance to see and fly one of Tony's new Z-wings while at Summerfest. Tony right now has 3 suits and a possible 4th that he and Jeff are working on. Starting from smallest wing to largest, the suits are being called the Stingray, Eagle and Nebula. There are 2 versions of the Nebula at the moment, 1 from Jeff and 1 from Tony, no word on which one they will go with. The 4th possible suit is a single skin type suit that has no inflatable cells.

Tony and I discussed his interest in building a wing suit a year ago during Summerfest 2005 so I was interested to see what he had come up with as well as fly his new suit. After looking at and discussing each of the prototype suits with Tony, I decided to fly the Stingray. I realize that all of the suits that were on hand were prototypes and based on that I also provided feedback to both Tony and Jeff on what my thoughts were to make them better.

I put a total of 5 jumps on the Stingray and my observations and comments on its characteristics are based on the prototype I flew. I am fully aware that the production suits may have slight differences and or improvements at a later date.

Suit Build

Tony’s wing suits are based off of his famous RW jumpsuit design. They very much look like a camera jumpsuit with a single zipper down the front, spandex back and booties. The difference is the addition of a leg wing and depending on the model suit, a variation on the arm wing with a built in spandex webbed glove. The suits have Supplex material in the groin/hip area about the same size as a pair of boxer underwear with the rest of the suit being made up of 1.9 oz rip stop nylon. None of the models I saw had any type of inner lining on the inside of the body or over the cells in the arm wings. Tony told me that this may change and the production models might have a lining.

The arm and leg wing cells are built much like a canopy cell is built with cross-ports in each cell chamber. Inflation for the arm wings of the Stingray and Eagle is accomplished through the use of front air deflectors, similar to the Birdman design, with the exception that the air inlet/mesh is under the front air deflector on the arm of the suit. Air entering the arm wing circulates through the entire sleeve/wing of the suit to include the attached webbed glove and body/torso portion of the suit. An air scoop is present on the shoulder region of the suit facing towards the jumpers back to aid in inflation during back flying.

The 5-cell arm wing of the suit forms a scalene triangle shape and is attached to the body of the suit via an RSL clip, identical to a camera wing. The model I flew also had a Velcro strip on each side of the wing along the wing /body juncture of the suit to allow the user to actually detach the entire wing from the body of the suit if needed. Tony has since said that feature will not be on the production models.

The leg wing on the Stingray is made up of 4 cells and is quite wide, slightly wider than a shoulder widths stance. The air inlet is situated and constructed similar to the Birdman leg air inlet with the exception that no rear air deflector is covering the backside of the leg wing. The leg sleeve and bootie has a zipper that runs almost ¾ up the leg of the suit. Tony has incorporated a Velcro and bungee system into the zipper pull-tab. A ¼ inch piece of Velcro runs along side the calf of the wearer allowing those who have a hard time reaching down or lifting their leg up to grasp the top portion of the Velcro strip and unzip the leg. Also attached to the zipper pull-tab is a small piece of bungee cord that is sewn into the underside of the bootie. This is used to hold the booties in the up or stowed position after deployment.

Donning the suit

The suit can be put on like any other one piece RW/FF suit with the rig going on second. To attach the suit around the rig the leg straps must be unfastened and passed between the legs via the small space above the leg wing air inlet. The arm wings are attached to the body of the suit via the RSL shackles the same way a camera wing is attached.

Flight Characteristics and Impressions

While the Stingray is the smallest model wing in the Z-wing line up, I would not recommend it for a first flight student nor is it a suit a beginner would want to learn on.

The suit inflates fairly well on exit and there is noticeably less pressure on the arm wings than most other entry-level suits. However, the very wide leg wing on the suit puts the wearer in a slight head low position and must be spread all the way open to fly correctly. Flying the leg wing dirty or partially open created minor instability that may cause a student or beginner to worry. Flown correctly, the suit handles best if flown like a mono wing suit from the waist up. With the position of the hands in a palm down attitude and the arms perpendicular to the body, the suit flies best if there is no rolling of the shoulder or arm and the torso is kept flat. Moving ones arms from the perpendicular position or rolling the shoulder greatly reduced the effectiveness of the arm wing and could immediately be felt. Because the arm attaches to the body with a RSL clip, the suit doesn’t have that familiar control of the arm wing feel that other suits have. While the chances are very remote, one of my concerns I brought up with Tony was the space between the arm wing and the body/RSL of the suit. Because of its location close to the hack and because its happened to cameramen before, there is a possibility that a weak throw could result in the hack/PC going between the body and arm wing where the RSL connects the two. While I acknowledge the odds are high against it, it has happened in the past with camera wings so it is not an impossibility.

The webbed spandex gloves had a tendency to bite into the space between my fingers when flown correctly. The arm position and the wing itself felt twitchy as small arm movements caused the suit to yaw or turn quickly. I am not sold on the gloves being that effective to flight performance or essential since they caused discomfort and the fact that it actually took me longer to free my arms/hands than normal. Unzipping the arm is no different than any other suit but I had to use my other hand to remove my hand entirely from the spandex glove. The webbed spandex glove also only leaves the very tips of your fingers exposed diminishing dexterity and feel. It also makes it harder to wear gloves in the winter/cold season. The webbed gloves also make wearing a wrist altimeter of any kind impossible. The suit I flew did not have one but Tony’s suit has a small clear pocket for a Neptune sewn on top of the left arm wing but due to the position ones hand is in during flight, it would be very hard to get a clear look at it with out bending the arm significantly.

From the waist down, the suit flies best if flown like a tri-wing suit. The leg wing of the suit is very wide and requires a wide stance and pointing of the toes outward to tension it entirely. Bending the knees toward the butt or dropping the knees caused the leg wing to quickly feel like it had lost a lot of its forward drive. The Velcro/bungee leg zipper system may be useful if your not very flexible but it still required me to grasp the toe of the bootie to remove the bootie entirely even after pointing my toe upward as Tony had suggested. With that said, if your not flexible you will like the Velcro /bungee system but it still needs a bootie pull tab on the top of the bootie and I recommended that to Tony afterwards.

The perception of forward speed on the suit isn’t as noticeable as is the head low attitude it puts one in, especially if you attempt to look at your toes and punch it out. Aside from feeling head low, the suit didn’t feel particularly fast nor did it appear to be faster than other suits when I observed Tony or Jeff flying their suits in flocks or on break off. Back flying in the suit was a bit of a challenge as the very large leg wing wants to drive you head low and the small arm wings with the loose feel due to the RSL attachments made back flying more work than it should have been in my opinion. I am not entirely sure the air inlets on the shoulder were working and inflating the arm wing properly. Its not hard, just different and you need to be comfortable on your back to find the correct position. Because the hands are palms up when back flying those with weak shoulders or injuries may find it unpleasant.

Summary

Overall, I felt that the Stingray might be a suit suitable for someone who already has wing suit experience and is familiar with flying in a mono wing suit or likes flying in a very flat body position. It has a different feel to the way it flies than the other suits on the market and that may appeal to those looking for something different. Tony has made some interesting suits with interesting features and they seem to be flying well at this stage and I am sure they will only continue to improve as they make changes. Tony and Jeff have done a good job and its obvious they put a lot of time and effort into their suits, if you have the opportunity try one out yourself.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING

[MarkM 0]

Is there any advantage to the hand glove being part of the suit? Won't it make sizing the suit that much harder and wouldn't it wear out faster than just a simple loop?

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

There are a lot of those suits here at Z-hills. Some people swear by the gloved hands, others don't like them. I don't like them, but Scotty Burns really does. I am sure Cancer Chris would like them too, since he jumps them with all of his other suits anyways. I have jumped with guys in the smaller suits that fall out of the sky and others, like Jeff, who can fly the exact same design with absolute authority, on his belly or his back. I am not very keen on the smaller-wing Z-wing suits with the hand gloves, but I do like the big black suit that Jeff normally jumps (no gloves). He has positively no problem staying with anyone on this dropzone, in ANY suit, when he is flying that thing. I believe the arm-wing length is a bit overkill on that suit, but for such a massive suit, it exhibits none of the "pure float/lack of forward speed" characteristics of say a GS-1. In my opinion, Tony is going to make money with two kinds of suits:

-The very-large thing that Jeff jumps, once they finalize the design

-the smaller-wing design (but without gloves) which permits a person to reach all the way up to their toggles if need be. Basically, the suit that has been reviewed here, minus the gloves.

Who knows if Tony and Jeff will listen, but that's what I would be pushing. Perhaps I should drive my golfcart one block up the road to Tony's shop and discuss it with him.

Chuck

[LouDiamond 1]

Quote

-The very-large thing that Jeff jumps, once they finalize the design

That would be Jeffs version of the Nebula which Nathaniel did a review on HERE along with the Eagle suit.

Quote

it exhibits none of the "pure float/lack of forward speed" characteristics of say a GS-1.

I think that is a misconception of the GS-1 and again points to the pilot ,not the suit, being the determining factor.Rod "Rocket" MILLNER flew his GS-1 at the AN 72 boogie most of the time with his leg wing flapping like crazy. The one time I set him as base and told him to kick it out and fly his leg wing right, he absolutely tore the sky a new asshole with his forward speed and many had a hard time staying with him.Later, he went on to the Marl boogie the following week to take 2nd in longest time aloft in the same suit.

"It's just skydiving..additional drama is not required"
Some people dream about flying, I live my dream
SKYMONKEY PUBLISHING