kimgriffin

Okay, I guess I have more to say... Murray, as I said above, the Skyflyer and S3 are not ideal suits for your first flights, even with your high jump number. They are both very sensitive to user input and when you are leanring you will not always handle the suit smoothly. I have seen the Skyflyer (not the S3) in action in a knarly, uncontrollable flat spin with an experienced WS jumper and it wasn't pretty. (He eventually used the "balling up" technique and got out of it and is alive and well.) But, if you find a killer deal and/or you know you will want the S3 soon anyway, then if I were you I would go for it. (Because you do have so many jumps.) BUUUUTTTTT, I would not even consider flying the suit until I had instruction from someone very experienced in flying the Skyflyer/S3. The BM manual (which was written by BM owner, Jari, and later updated by me) was written for for Classic or GTi flight techniques and not for the advanced suits. Don't get me wrong, the manual will do you plenty of good but I would strongly advise that you get some instruction from someone who is familiar with the Skyflyer/S3. There are some special safety in flying this suit. Likely, if you read the manaul and used your common sense then your first flights will be uneventful, although you will be suprized at the suit's power. But, murphy's law is why is why I would say you should seek such instruction. If you buy a Skyflyer or S3 as your first suit, then as an experience Skflyer flyer (that sounds pretty funny) and a decent human being I would be happy to tell you what to be cautious of and how to best fly the suit. (A side note: I worked for BM for over 2 years and have been on the Skyflyer and now the S3 for 2 years. I have been fortunate to learn from Jari, who is the world's most experienced (and best) fllyer.) There are many excellent Skyflyer flyers on this site give you good info. (SkyMonkey1, Lou Diamond, Veso, Yuri and I'm sure there are others.). If you chose the Skyflyer to start with, please PM me, I'll be happy to tell you what I know. Many of us are not for novice flyers going for the Skyflyer/S3 right away. But, I have learned that you can not stop people from doing what they really want to do. I'd rather, then, have those people informed with all the info possible. I'll be honest to say that I did about 30 jumps on the ClassicI and went straight to the Skyflyer. I did not like the suit at all at first. I went low on big formations (and I'm pretty small) and I did not love how sensitive it was at pull time. But about 10 jumps later I was loving it. Both the Skyflyer and S3 take a non-egotistical attitude towards learning. If you do chose this suit as your first suit (which is not ideal, nor recommended) you MUST be very aware of your surroundings and be very in to learing how to fly the suit (most important for safety reasons, second for performance reasons.) Please don't hesitate to ask questions. Best of luck in finding a suit! A whole new world is at your finger tips. ~Kim Griffin BMI/E, AFF, SL, SDU, blah blah blah -Kimberly Griffin

"is the performance difference between the ClassicII and the Gti worth the extra 100USD?" Yes, the GTi definitely has a more surface area on both the arm and leg wings. It is a noticably, but not radically, better performing suit than the ClassicII. I'd say it is definitely worth the extra money if you want a suit with more float and forward drive. "Just how twitchy is the Skyflyer on deployment?" The Skyflyer is not twitchy on deployment but the pilot could easily cause it to be because both the Skyflyer and S3 are very senstive to input. This sensitivity is due mostly to the fact that the suits have a lot of forward speed. The faster you go the more senstive the suit is to input. I don't have problems with my S3 being twichy on the pull because I slow down her forward speed by arching when I start my wave off. By the time I pull I've decreased my foward speed enough that the suit feels quite stable. Arching is really the key here. It's like driving a very fast motercycle. If you're doing 100 mph and go to make a quick turn, you are more likely to lose stablity than if you slowed down to 50 to make the turn. What others have said above about the Skyflyer being more twitchy than the S3 is true. They're both fast fwd suits but the Skyflyer's narrower leg stance does not feel as stable as the S3's. I would never recommend either of these suits for the first flights. I;ve seen a couple people do their first flights on the Skyflyer and it was intimidating at best (these guys had thousands of jumps.) I've seen some people who do a handful of GTi jumps then order a S3 straight away and do just fine. There are also people out there who have WS experience, thousands of jumps and just do not want the extra caution needed for the Skyflyer/S3 so they chose the GTi. If you are worried about your openings, remember to arch at pull time, keep a straight heading, throw symetrically, have your bag packed either bridle up or towards your feet, make sure your bag will not stick in your container, make sure your kill-line pilot chute is is good condition and that your bridle is long enough to clear your burble. These are what most commonly cause line twists. OH yeah... and pack your own gear if you are concerned about line twists (unless you're a sucky packer). Seems when ever I get a packer I don't know they somehow get my Sabre2 97 with WS corners and long bridle to get in to a line twist or two - not an easy thing to do. Hope I didn't ramble on too much. I have that problem sometimes. ~Kim Griffin BMI/E -Kimberly Griffin

Bring on the naked, hairy chests! I'm certainly not afraid. Much more fun ripping off the stickers that way. Wonder if I could talk Kev in to it? Hmmm.... he IS sound asleep at the moment. ~KG -Kimberly Griffin

I think next month's BirdBoy of the month should be considered only if he's bare chested and, at the most, wearing BM stickers over his nipples. All's fair, right.... ? Lou D, if anyone deserved to be BirdBoy for Aug it was most definitely you (and not cuz of the hot chicks). ~Kimi -Kimberly Griffin

NO underwear is recommened but not mandatory. -Kimberly Griffin

I've done a sit in my old Skyflyer - was pretty easy. Beware: keep your arm wings symetrical. I got myself spinning faster than I intended by bringing in one arm. But, won't be freeflying in my S3 any time soon (except for needing to go headdown to catch someone). The suits are designed to FLY like a bird, not fall like a greased anvil. I'm with the other guys... the fast stuff is not great for your wings. The BM suits are made with excellent workmanship but they are not designed for the stresses of freeflying. Why would you want your skydive over in less than a minute anyway??? I love it when I'm still flying and I can see the freeflyer from my load getting ready to land. (Not that I'm opposed to FF - it can be fun too - but just hard to learn and over so damn fast.) Have a great weekend Birdies... ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

You won't regret the decision. The S3 is an amazing flying machine, so much fun! Not sure about the Pantz getting you laid, but they do have the tendancy to make your butt look really good. ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Hi Steve. I spoke to the Berger bag designer yesterday and he said that Sun Path holds the patent on the new stowless bag. ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Hey Steve. Yeah... I llike the new "Berger" stowless bag (named after Morten Berger, who invented it - he works for PD actually.) It looks kind of funky and like it's going to complicated to pack but it's SO easy. I only have a few flights on it but so far so good - nice deployments, no broken rubber bands - a benifit to a lazy packer like me. Not sure if it's patented but when has that stopped any one in the skydiving industry? Faster slower longer ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Damn, wish Florida and SoCal were a closer this Thursday!!! These DJs are excellent and hanging with skydiving buddies on top of it - NICE! DJ/skydiver Colleen Malone is an awesome person and fantastic DJ. You'd never know a girl that small could kick so much ass on a turn table. Chris and Dave rock too, nice styles that you'll love dancing to. All my best on a great night to you all, Kim -Kimberly Griffin

I've had the great pleasure of hearing these DJs spin on both the east and west coast. Their styles are all a little different from one another but they are all excellent (and not just for skydivers). I'd be there in a heart beat if I weren't living here in DeLand - a little too far to drive and too expensive to fly. Colleen (Small Coll) is this tiny little power house of girl who's incredibly talented (a bit shy about it though.) Bring comfortable shoes because you are going to dance your ass off. Have fun, sorry I'm going to miss it!!!!! ~Kim~ -Kimberly Griffin

Sun Path Javelin Odyssey with wingsuit corners and WS bridle (about 100"). Derek Thomas (Sun Path co-owner with his wife Pat) flies a BirdMan Skyflyer so he understands the needs of WS flyers. You can order your container to be made with a longer bridle (to let your PC get away from the big burble) and wingsuit corners (which allows your main container to flap completely open once the pin is popped. It also allows you to pack your main bag with the bridle grommet towards your feet as is best for WS openings). Often times, line twists come from the bag being stuck in the container, the bridle being too short or the PC being too weak (if it's old and too small). I did about 200 jumps on a normal Javelin with no mods at all and was happy with it - had a line twist maybe 1 out of 20 flights (on an elliptical loaded at 1.5, so the line twists were not a train smash). So, it's not that you HAVE to have the mods to safely fly the suit but they do help you have a clean deployment. Your wingloading and canopy type (eliptical or not) should play a factor in deciding to get the WS mods or not. Of course, the higher your wingloading the less you want to get yourself in to linetwists. If you are jumping a very conservative square canopy getting the mods may not make much of a difference to you. Just make sure to pack bridle up (as bbarnhouse mentioned earlier). My openings could not be better, the rig looks great, has a long record of being a safe rig, is easy to pack and is the most comfortable rig I've ever worn. My honest and heartfelt 2cents! ~Kim Griffin BMI/E, AFF JM, S/L JM, SDU, blah blah blah (See picture attached of Vladi Pesa's Javelin (left) and mine on the right. The pic is taken at the BirdMan booth at the 2003 PIA Symposium.) -Kimberly Griffin

Cool, BB. You coming to Florida in October??? Hope DeLand in on your schedule! Keep in touch if there is anything I can do to help. I hope it works out. I know DeLand is (in)famous for its RW teams but there are a ton of really good WS flyers there, as well as good freeflyers who like to share the love. Also, I won't complain for one second about the super Van or super Otter! Hope you are keeping cool in Az. I hear it's toasty out there. XO, Kim -Kimberly Griffin

I've seen a couple of pics of Shawn Smith from SA in a suit that I believe he made himself. He has a couple of BirdMan suits and I know him (through emailing) from when I used to work at BM. The picture he sent BM about a half year ago showed him in his own suit, but this may not be the suit that is being spoke of in this post (maybe he's refined the original suit?) Yes, it had giant arm wings, arm to ankle, think really oversized Crossbow. Having somewhere around 350 WS jumps, I would not attempt to fly it. (May be my lack of balls or just common sense?) His account of his first flight on it sounded pretty scary. Lots of stability issues, or lack there of. Just as Neils in his big homemade suit reported on his first flight. Over a year ago BirdMan had a crazy big-winged prototype (arm to ankle) and Jari was not pleased with its performance or stability. Sometimes bigger is not always better. But, it's great to see people are out there trying new things. It's going to be interesting to see where WS flying is in another few years. ~Kim Griffin -Kimberly Griffin

It was so great to get to know you Pixie, Sangiro, and LouD. SkyMonkey, always good to see your happy face! (Digging the long hair BTW.) So many of you around the BirdMan booth made it such a fun place to be! Thank you SO much BB, LouD and Chuckie for your help at the BirdMan booth. You guys really kicked ass there. Mine and Kev's ride back to DeLand (our friends in the Mirage RV) ended up heading out before we had planned on leaving (we left Sat evening before the festivities) so we didn't get a chance to say "see ya" to anyone or get anyone's contact info. It was good to get on the road but I am a bit sad to have not seen you all one more time. Can you pop me personal messages with your email addresses - please? BB, I have your business card stuck to my fridge right now - good thinking. I'll be writing you soon. I really hope I get a chance to fly with you all in the near future. I knew going in to this boogie that my priority was going to be helping customers on the groud, rather than in the air. No matter, I had a FANTASTIC time. I have to say that I do like Rantoul over Quincy. After a long drive back to DeLand, I had that double edge sword feeling of being happy to be back home but sad to not get up in the morning and walk on to the DZ to see so many wonderful people and see parachutes landing all over place. All boogies must come to and end I guess. I do feel very lucky to live this sometimes crazy, wonderful life and to have the chance to know such kind and fun loving people. Until next time.... keep happy, healthy and flying. ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Hi Gus. You are right about the 200/500 jump numbers recommended to learn to fly BirdMan. Although, even if you do have 1000 jumps, it would still be best to learn from a BMI. In the beginning Jari started with 500 jumps as the recommendation. BirdMan changed to the 200/500 recommendation years ago. It's so good to see that the BPA is getting with the times. There are plenty of good BirdMan instructors in England to learn from now. Thank you to who ever made that happen (Andy?) ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Hey VectorBoy! Ha... very cool pictures! Thanks for the very nice compliments. I had a great time at the boogie. Sorry I couldn't play with you experienced birds but I needed to stay ground bound to talk to people and teach, not to mention I was nursing a bit of a sinus cold that I wish would just go away already! Did one experience load last Thrus and got blown away by the over 6 ft long legged monsters (but so did Craig OB so I didn't feel so bad.) Being short is great for Cessna jumps and being light is good for it's floaty aspect, but I'd mame someone for longer legs. Yeah.... you did look like a kid who just got a new super powered toy at Christmas. So glad you got the suit, think you'll have lots more fun to come. That suit is a one of a kind - an S3 prototype. It was the one version before the S3 was finalized I believe. The wing profile and size should be the same, but you may want to write Jari to be sure. You'll find his email on the BM site. Different than the S3 is that is does NOT have wingtip grippers and I think it does not have mesh inside the arms along the zippers. But, I know Jari loved the suit. It flies well and will help you kick the taller guys asses. It was so nice to see you in Perris. I'm really looking forward to the next time. I've got a thought brewing about flocking dives at the Freefly Festival. (And leaving students to other BMIs.) I hope you and Ira got a nice ballon WS jump in that morning. You were both gone by the time I got back to the DZ. Happy, long flights! ~Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Hey there D! Thanks for the compliment! You made my job easy - a perfect first flight and not to mention FUN for both of us!!! You really rocked the house up there. I hope you're able to get a suit soon so you can get back to flying. I had such a blast in Perris. There are some really nice people there. Plus, the staff and pilots were so easy to work with. It was great to meet you, D. See you the next time I'm out west. ~Kim Griffin -Kimberly Griffin

Hi. The rumors are right. BirdMan does not carry S3s in their demo program. And that is because #1, it is not a suit we teach people the FWC on. #2, BirdMan is still too small financially to afford these expensive suits on their demo program. I will bring to Perris one of Jari's old Skyflyer.3s for people to demo or purchase. But, you will have to be around 6 ft and 150-175 lb. We do have some regular Skyflyers and a couple GTis that are brand new on the shelf right now. But since they are brand-new we do not demo them. I won't be bringing these with me (Jari is bringing them to a boogie in NC since he's driving) but I'll have the list with me. See you all on the west coast very soon!!! Looking forward to it. ~Kim BirdMan -Kimberly Griffin

Working for BirdMan over the past few years I have noticed (and smelled) that many people don't realize they can wash their BirdMan suits. The suits can be washed in any normal washing machine, gentle cycle with normal color safe detergent. Remove any cables and your hook knife before washing. Hang it to dry. (No dryers.) The same goes for the Pantz. Happy, long and smell-free flights! ~Kim Griffin -Kimberly Griffin

Thank you so much for your words and wishes. I really appreciate that. As to what I'm going to be doing after Rantoul, I don't honestly know. It's the first time since I was 15 that I do not know ahead of time what I'll be doing for work. I've been working in the skydiving industry for 10 years, so I know what I WON'T be doing... and that's wearing nylons and sitting some stuffy, uptight office. I've been way too spoiled coming to work in tevas for too long now. Once I finish training Asaf, get my stuff organized so he and Jari can understand it all, and hit a couple boogies (Perris and Rantoul) I'll have some time to actually think about what to do next. I plan to continue to do some WS training with and/or without Jariat boogies and here in DeLand. There is no problems in my working relationship or friendship with Jari. On the contrary, everything is being left on as good of terms as they get. I'll still be considered part of the BirdMan team, just in a different way. I have great faith that WS flying is only going to grow and I know it's due in large part to what Jari and Robert started years ago. (And of course, to Patrick, who was their inspiration.) Tango: By holiday boogie... if you mean Perris Valley over the 4th of July, then the answer is yes I'll be there. The guys from PD will also be there demoing canopies. For those of you in NC, Jari will be at the 4th Boogie at the Raeford DZ (along with SkyMonkey). Ciao for now... Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Dear friends, After two+ years and some of the best times of my life working at BirdMan, it is time for change. I recently resigned as business manager. My final day at the BirdMan headquarters in DeLand, Florida, will be July 30th. This is not to say you can get rid of me so easily! My love of wingsuit flying is as strong as ever. I will continue to live in DeLand and periodically travel to boogies as a BirdMan instructor. In fact, if you are at the World Freefall Convention this year, please stop by the BirdMan booth to say hello. Both Jari and I will be there with demo wingsuits and Pantz. Plus, I will still cruise this forum. In fact, I'll probabaly have more time to do so soon come mid-August. BirdMan's new business manager is Asaf Fishelson. Asaf has extensive managerial experience in the business world (a.k.a. "the real world"), a Bachelors of Business Administration degree. He has over 2,400 jumps and about 50 wingsuit flights. You may have seen him in recent years organizing at the World Freefall Convention or fun jumping at The Blue Sky Ranch in New York. He is a multi-rated tandem instructor, a videographer, and holds a Dolphin A license. Blue Skies, Long Soars! ~Kim _________________________ Kimberly Griffin BirdMan, Inc. -Kimberly Griffin

Here's a few... #1 Group over DeLand #2 Baxter Gillespie of GA and Perry Towbridge of FL over the keys #3 Hercules exit, Herc Boogie, Sweden #4 Two unidentifiable Swedes over Gryttjom, Sweden Keep well, Kim -Kimberly Griffin

Yes, it's true, 200 jumps within 24 months is BM's recommendation. If you have less than 500 jumps then it should be a one-on-one flight with a BMI. If you have over 500 jumps then we feel confident that you can read the manual and safely fly the suit. Although, I would suggest most anyone to go to a BMI if possible. You are totally right, Eddie, that jump # means little really. But, there have to be some kind of recommendations. I have surely seen people with thousands of jumps suck badly on their first flight and some 200 jump wonders who rock the sky. In fact, the 200-300 jump guy or girl who has done tracking jumps and who is truly willing and open to listening and learning is my favorite WS student to take. They usually do exactly what you tell them to do and have a nice flight. My most unfavorite? The 260 lb guy who's done 3000 tandems and who knows it all. But, of course every flight is fantastic and teaching all sorts is so much fun and so rewarding. Hey, I really like that picture, Eddy! I think Mark L may turn it in to a US mag. Maybe you'll be famous. slower - faster - longer Kim Griffin BirdMan Inc -Kimberly Griffin

I wish I could come! Do you guys know you are one of the biggest WS DZs I know of? (They have something like 20 birds flying there - including some really experienced ones.) Have an ass kicking boogie. I hope you get some nice flying pics. ~Kim BirdMan Inc -Kimberly Griffin