ManBird

Ahh... sorry, I thought his exit weight was higher than that. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I'm educated guessing between 4.5 and 4.6. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Bastards! Zaz (under his 68) and I got to this same point... it's hard to let those grippers go and maintain the same flight. We need to beat them to it! I realize docks have happened, but the canopy pilot either used trim tabs or cutaway a very small canopy. We wanted to do one where the canopy pilot flies the canopy in a normal configuration and we dock. Soon. Soon. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

http://canopypiloting.tempwebpage.com/cgi-bin/gforum/gforum.cgi?post=998; "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

This is my understanding, as well. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Definitely. Looks like you have the numbers and stuff now. You and Sean will have to fight over it once you've done your FFC. I might be down there this Sunday. It's supposed to rain up here, but our weather isn't necessarily your weather. If it sucks up here and is clear down there, then I'll see you on Sunday. Our Otter is back online on down here, so you guys might have a Caravan in the near future. Don't know what this year's arrangement is, though. Anyone else going to Kamloops May 21 - 24? Ray, Spense, and I are headed up there. US $35 full altitude huey jumps! "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

[replyThat may be it. My right leg is a half inch longer than my left as the result of a broken left femur many years ago... A longer right leg on a very tight suit could very likely be the culprit to a slight left turn. By pushing your left heel out, you are stretching the tail to even out the trailing edge between your legs (since it's above your heels on the GTi), and therefore removing the turn. I think we may have found the problem. One more reason to avoid to tight of a suit. :) "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

270 out the door with 20 flights? 58 sounds just fine, my friend. Depends on your height, too. If you're four feet tall, then you're kicking ass. If you're eight feet tall, you can expect some improvement down the road. I'm assuming you're neither. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

With a wing suit that gets done on the ground. No way am I undoing my suit on jump run to adjust legstraps.Done as in sewn up or put on? If you need to adjust leg straps, just unzip the double zippers. I do it all the time. Being that it's very difficult to adjust leg straps under canopy, I pay extra attention to leg strap symmetry and adjust, if needed -- even in the plane. As a side note, I always don my suit while standing.

I don't think anyone, not even BirdMan, would argue that the Classic took up where Patric's suit left off. Granted, it had some construction improvements right up front, but the concept of the wing shape, cutaway system, and body+wings were evidently borrowed. Loic's one-wing concept came up as a solution when Patric had problems appropriately attaching the wings to a RW suit. Loic started making his own suit based on this idea. It wasn't marketed/sold until 2000, when Parasport Italia took it up. The wing shape, cutaway system, and one-wing concept were fairly different than what Patric was working on. Patric was not the father of wingsuit flying in general, but he was definitely the man behind the modern wingsuit that could be flown safely and effectively. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

If you accidentally route the cable through the hip ring, it is not noticeable at once the wing is sewn up, unless you closely examine it from the inside. But if you're certain that it was done right, than I believe you. Wind won't change your heading. It affects your flight the same way it affects everything else. It will change your position in relation to the ground, but not heading. The only difference is that flying at very low velocity ("floaty" or stalled) in a crosswind, you can feel one side of the suit pushing up a little bit, or near clouds, you can experience turbulence (only at very low velocities). It could, but only according to a wild theory I just thought up. Is it possible that one leg is slightly longer than the other? It wouldn't affect anything until you put on a tight suit. It's not uncommon (in fact, my right leg is about 1/5" longer than my left). In this case, it's possible to encounter a suit that fits in a way where only one leg can fully extend and the other one either needs a slight bend in the knee or doesn't fully stretch out the bootie. Seems crazy, but not impossible. It's the last thing I can think of before blaming the pilot. Turn issues are almost ALWAYS feet. I've videoed people that swore up and down that their feet were symmetrical and on level, but the video showed otherwise. It's usually instability, though (assymetrical heels). If your feet aren't on level, it causes a slide. If one foot is pushed back further than the other, it causes a turn. You have a subtle and almost unnoticeable combination of these going on that results in a "built-in" turn. And I seriously doubt it's the suit itself. If others have flown it straight, then that's not the issue. If you looked at how they're made, assymetrical construction is pretty much ruled out. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I'll give that a shot. Rolling shoulders forwards/together generally isn't enough (no offense to raymod2). Maybe I'm just a wuss. Oh, yeah... I am. Almost forgot. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

You're right. What I was trying to say earlier is that it is VERY difficult if not damn near impossible to loosen my chest strap once the canopy is open. Otherwise, I would be loosening my chest strap more regularly (I can get it sometimes). "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Very, very pretty. My coworker owns one. I wish I would have saved a little extra and bought this camera. It's frickin fabulous in all regards. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Nice. Will Mr. Lard of the Wings be there? He was smoking in the original Skyflyer. I'd love to see what sort of forward speed he's getting with that S3. Get video (duh). "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Nice. 161 was my fastest ever... about 10 MPH off my suitless head down. This was after staying headdown for about fifteen seconds. Hit some very slow speeds pulling out of it. Had a few between 130 and 150, as well. Same thing... diving and pulling out to get some very slow speeds (and have a lot of fun). I did eventually find, though, that those same low fall rates can be hit without a dive. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I might see you up there. Just for the hell of it, here's a frame from some video TALONSKY got while doing some really tight (relativewise) flights. Yeah, knees are bent and stuff, but that's what happens when flying relative. Anywho, cool shot. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Yeah, some people have managed to route the cutaway cable through or under the legstrap, not just the lateral, on one side. I saw this just recently, and it was only on close inspection. One side of the suit was "scrunched" up a wee bit. The suit wasn't flown that way, but I would imagine that one leg would be pulled up one to two inches, which would definitely put in a turn. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I've jumped with someone who had a VERY similar suit (an uberlarge one-winger). It's basically braked freefall. The fall rate wasn't all that (50 MPH or so) and the forward speed was non-existent. This one might be a bit better, but the principle of giant wings just means more drag... without the drive to obtain lift, the fall rate and glide ratio can never really be that great. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Thank you for your opinion. Dude, it's in all caps, and is therefore a fact. I'm only using slocks, as far as stowing devices go. I was tucking the slider under my helmet a bit, but gave it up for eighteen jumps this past weekend per Mr. Germain. It doesn't affect performance and IF it stays 100% deflated, it's not an issue. However, it needs to very taught between the risers to always stay deflated. I can't always get that really wide riser separation because of the type of webbing on my Wings' chest strap. For flying wingsuits and tracking, I don't want the type that slides that easily, and I generally wear it "freefly tight". In this situation, my slider partially inflates even after collapsing it and getting everything under the slocks. I put the front grommets under the slocks, and then the rear grommets under the front grommets so that the slocks hold everything down. But when the slider partially inflates, it can often have enough drag to pull the one or both rear grommets out from under the front ones. This blocks my vision on the side or sides that the grommet escaped. This can be bad news in any sort of traffic. I already have the toggles in my hands by the time this problem occurs (I grab them after everything is secured down), so I don't see any major control system issues occuring. The only one I envisioned was MAYBE pinning a couple inches of brake line up above (but outside) the ring, but even that could be fixed with a flare (just pulls the grommet down below the ring). The slocks would prevent the slider from going up too high to cause any real issues. Long story short, I strongly believe that tucking a bit of slider under the back of my helmet would not inhibit a cutaway at all. In picking the lesser of two evils, I'm going to have to go with my previous method. Not recommending it or saying that it's right, but this is my personal decision... for now. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Very nice just to have done that. That is a pretty fast overall fall rate, but hell, it's 29,000'. Thin air, plenty of exhaustion, and probably the desire to get down from the freezing temperatures. And you still got a big, fat freefall. I'm going in the opposite direction. I want to do about twenty five or so wingsuit flights from 5K and just focus on consistently breaking 30s before 3.5K. Don't think I'm quite up for high altitude wingsuit stuff just right now. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Sorry dude, couldn't resist.... You forgot... "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

I wonder what was used to film him in those videos. The first couple shots are obviously just freefall, but the two clips at the end are following pretty closely. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Yeah, just poking fun (though that is sort of an "oh shit" body position). I think it's kind of a cool concept, but I've got about 72 reasons not to endorse the use of rigid wings. Plus, I like the idea of shaping your wings yourself a lot more. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click

Kevlar, I believe. "¯"`-._.-¯) ManBird (¯-._.-´"¯" Click