The111

Classic (or maybe Classic 2?) had 2 zippers. The S.U.I.T. had one zipper for sure. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

A 2nd grade education (i.e. literacy) and a few hours with a bible can inform anyone of what Christ's attitude was like. No belief in magic required. One thing I did notice was that Jesus did not spend much time bitching about his "enemies," or cleaning/preparing his weapons for the glorious day he'd get to use said weapons on said enemies. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Your savior associated with whores and criminals. I thought you were supposed to try to be like him. Refusing to associate with someone that has a differing opinion than you, in addition to being anti-Christian, is pretty much the dictionary definition of narrow-minded. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

The way the optics in a concentric ringsight work, precision is unaffected by the distance you mention. Unless you are referring to your own ability to place a mark over a target being somehow improved when the mark is smaller relative to the target. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Your equipment very likely weighs more than you're estimating. It won't make a huge difference, but you might as well get it right. Agreed. Clothes, shoes, rig, helmet, etc... probably closer to 30lbs than 20lbs. And yeah, staying on the 170 is the right idea. I'm only 5-10 lbs heavier than you and I stayed on a 170 until I had 500 jumps. To this day, the scariest landing I've ever had was a downwind crash landing into a tiny back yard, on my 170 when I had about 150 jumps. There were of course about a million things I did wrong in that scenario, but the one thing I did right was decide long before that stupid jump to keep a 170 over my head for the time being, which made my stupid crash landing survivable.

Ditto. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yeah, I'm a bit puzzled at how a thread about Dacron turned into a thread about HMA. Update from the OP, years later. Still using Dacron lines on my Pilot, still jumping with loads of crap on top of my head, still loving the soft openings.

Correct. Wingsuits don't stall like a plane does because we have non-rigid frames. A wingsuit stall is just a normal freefall. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Just to add more options, I use an old freeware program called Yamb to do the same thing. http://yamb.unite-video.com/ www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Obviously there are multiple levels of open-endedness to this question. The biggest one to me is the definition of proficient. I think a big part of the answer also depends on the suit, both in general (i.e. big vs small) and how similar it is to something you've flown before. I had around 500 jumps on an old S3 when I bought my P2. Within 5 jumps I felt like I knew the P2 as well as I did the S3... it flew very similarly. Fast forward a few years and a few hundred more jumps, and I get a G3. I have probably 40 jumps on the G3 so far, and feel nowhere close to mastery... doubt I will by 100 jumps either. Not that it's hard to fly, or not a blast... it's just... different, and I have to think a little bit more consciously about everything I do in it. One thing's for sure, I will never feel "proficient" enough in any suit to fly 12 inches away from a solid rock. (not trying to imply anything about the particular incident mentioned in the OP, but I know many recent incidents do involve proximity flight) www.WingsuitPhotos.com

This can be a big problem on tailgates even for people who know how to fly but don't understand physics. I can't count the number of times I'm doing a 5-10 way with very experienced pilots, and they want to do a group exit where some of us exit head high (i.e. a vanilla tailgate exit) and others do a gainer. Even after I explain why this is such a bad idea, there usually remains at least one very skilled flyer who doesn't understand. This is not RW. Even on the hill, everyone must be pointed in the same direction. If the guy in front of you is flying "up" the hill, and you are flying "down" the hill, you're only asking for bad shit to happen. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You're right, it does look like dead skin. I am sorry to report that you are going through metamorphosis. If you keep wearing this suit, you will eventually completely shed your first skin, and rise again from the ashes in 6-8* weeks (*metamorphosis times may vary based on current demand). Seriously though, not sure if I've seen that on my wingsuit, but I do have an old backpack that looks just like that on the inside. I think it might be waterproofing or something. Not much you can do about it at this point. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

There is a firmware update for all old ringsights. Download it and yours will be relevant again. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Grammar (definition) nazi time! Don't be ashamed. Shamelessly means without shame. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It has much more to do with the cut of the wing than the presence or absence of grippers. Stand in front of a mirror without a wingsuit and observe your arm profile as you do palms-down and palms-up positions. With palms up, your arms present a much straighter line, in some cases even concave (when viewed from the outside). In other words, the bend at your elbow causes your forearm/hand to move slightly further away from the line your upper arm creates. With palms down, your arms have a more pronounced bend and it is convex when viewed from the outside. In other words, the bend of your elbow causes your forearm/hand to come closer to your body than the line of your upper arm. Now, try on a suit like an Acro (if you can find one) or an SFly. On the ground, spread out your wings. If you try to do palms down, you'll feel much more tension on the elbow than anywhere else. If you do palms up, you'll get more even tension along your entire arm inside the sleeve, because of the shape the wing is cut. Now, in a suit like a Phantom or Vampire or a TonySuit (the few I've flown at least) or any Bird-Man suit, do the same thing. You'll notice the opposite. The wing is cut such that it conforms to your arm better when palms-up. When you position your arm such that the sleeve best conforms to it, you get a smoother wing, AND you get usage of the full surface area of the wing. If you have your arm positioned wrong and one part of the sleeve restricts your motion early (before the whole sleeve gets tensioned by your arm), then you are unable to use the whole surface area because you can't move your arm out all the way to where it should be. I drew the curvature on the images below (shamelessly using a pic of myself for one). [inline concave.jpg] [inline convex.jpg] www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You're just jealous they didn't use a toy squirrel. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yes, looks like him to me too. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It is. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

You participate in a sport where every single member, including you, regularly spends $25 for 60 seconds of fun. I'm not sure there is a better example in this world of "throwing money around." Throw some money at the jumpsuit you want, continue throwing the rest of your money at jump tickets, and then kindly STFU. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Where do you subscribe to these boner stats? www.WingsuitPhotos.com

That's commitment. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

I'm a tiny bit shorter than you and a tiny bit lighter than you (6ft 165lbs). I rarely ever try for time, but I've tried like once in both my P2 and my Ghost3, and in both suits I got exactly 2min 45sec. Yeah, I can go a little slower in the Ghost, but I also tire out more so my performance lags by the end... if I cared and did endurance training (or just jumped more often) I could probably do better in the Ghost, but I don't care. Phantom is more agile and less tiring. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Read that sentence very slowly again. If it helps, remove a couple of the descriptive phrases. We're left with: ... shooting ... is still considered a shooting. Yes, I guess that is indeed true. Remarkable. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

It doesn't sound like a step backwards, it sounds far more secure. What if you could combine both somehow? Use a zipper to quickly set the suit/harness relationship to where it should be, but then use cables or tabs with snaps to somehow lock it in place securely, the same way the old cable/tab systems locked things in place. That would give you the speed of zippers, but the security of tabs. www.WingsuitPhotos.com

Yes.