cobaltdan

bigger is better in base...to a point. grossly underloaded canopies can effect control and efficiency. but at 230# you have little change that situation. the softest landing will be given not by the biggest canopy (unless it is simply line laundry?) but by the most efficient canopy. additionally some canopy companies measure differently i.e. only in base do some companies include the stabilizer areas. atair trolls are labled as small compared to how some other would manufacturers would lable them. i.e. i am 200 pounds exit and the 245 is the perfect size better for me than the 290. anyway best advice is to demo, fly and land the canopies to make a decision. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

just got back from test drops with rws last week. while there bill booth queried me about our experience and data using "small" pilot chutes, as atair recommends pilot chutes smaller than any other manufacturer. the discussion was extremely interesting. while inspecting one of our pilots, bill explained a few things that we took for granted but would explain why we have success with small pilots and some other manufacturers have not. for starters bill pointed out that many companies manufacture pilot chutes with improper technique or tollerences. such technique does not matter much on larger pilot chutes but makes all the difference on small ones. i.e. sewing tapes on the mess with the weave will result in skirt of the pilot not being equidistant to the bridal. there is a drastic difference in the drag of, and collapsing operation of a properly constructed small pilot and one that is not. we have always promoted pilot chutes custom made for our canopies by jim cazer. they are exceptional in construction quality and we have just took it for granted that all manufacturers would build them the same way. i have now inspected pilots from some major rig manufacturers, many would simply not work in a 22" size because of how they construct them. another interesting point brought up is how pilot size is measured. different companies measure them differently ie. cut size or sewn size. turns out that rws is considering offering a pilot for their smaller rigs that is almost identical in size to atair's 22". i believe bill will be giving a lecture at the pia covering pilot chute construction, hardware and more. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

skyflyer: in the exact same position i use for best flight (shoulders rolled, palms out, head slightly down, legs straight and toes dug in: flys fast but with best lift, takes practice not to waffle). simultaneously close all wings, and then re open while dumping pilot. when done right your flight path sould not change at all until the pilot/canopy pull on you. in this way your pilot always goes into clean air. i have seen and experienced problems with the arch and deploy technique and do not recommend it. if your canopy is not conducive to opening in a high speed track, get one that is (i.e. a cobalt) or practice slowing your track before deploying. i.e.slam on the brakes by bending your nees for a second, then transition back to your perfect track position, wait a couple seconds to make sure you are stable and have a good foward drive, and then dump as above. you will still have a good foward speed but about 20-30% slower than if you did not brake. the above has worked religiously for me with a 95 cobalt and a 22" pilot. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

eg from eg sky systems absolutely rules for gear bags. they are excellent construction, not expensive and he is great to work with on customs. we just bought a dozen gear bags from him with on them for all our demo's. if you never heard of him, you probably already have some of his work: he is the manufacturer of the leather hacky handles used by most rig manufactures, and the classic leather frap hats. www.egsky.com sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

sounds like dave brownells bag...? Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

4.5 # jump video link : http://www.extremefly.com/aerospace/press/index.html weight was used not a mister bill passenger. as far as mister bills, i have never done one. they always sounded like fun, then again always sounded like a stupid risk. the one mister bill i witnessed went as such: they both exit plane interlocked and a friend sets their pilot out the door. they tumble unstable before the canopy deploys and their bridal wraps about 3 times around them. they fall out of sight while everyone on the plane gasps... (they got out of it and deployed by 3000'..... (i think i will pass). sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

cross braces would do nothing as you have no suspension lines. in fact single surface wing suits work just as well as double surface ram air wing suits (they just dont look as cool). if you want to learn more on why do a search on Francis Rogallo. as far as spars on your flexible wingsuit, from a design standpoint : no , from a historic standpoint : no. too easy to kill yourself and the basic problem remains: your center of gravity is too far back to aerodynamicaly match with large arm wings. the next advance is a rigid wing such as the sky ray that places the wing where it should be, further back. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

without suspension lines or struts we are at the limit of wing size. wing suits rely on your body and arms to act as struts to form a rogalo wing. additional problems are even if your arms were longer the placement of the front wing is out of place with your center of gravity. sincerely dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

demo a cobalt too. jumped side by side with saf2 and sabre2 you will find that a cobalt has a significantly better glide ratio, more flare, is very stable and safer with regards to higher speed deployments. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

nenad pesault jumping a atair 245 vented troll took 3rd place individual. robert pecnik and nenad pesault both jumping atair 245 vented trolls took second place overall team. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

silver went to our buddies on vented trolls. i will post exacts soon (waiting for an email back). sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

"what i want from a chute is: nice, stress free openings deep diving when i want it, bring me home from a long spot and a very long swoop. oh and i forget, a very nice price-performance payoff. " all of which a good design elliptical can do better than any square. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

i did not jump with a datalogger, freefall seemed forever. i was nervous and freezing in the plane but once out: bliss..... deployed at 5k. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

i have jumped my skyflyer from 21,000 without a bail out. i also have never smoked cig in my life. i have seen some of my smoker friends feel the effects of short hops at altitude where i have not...? sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

even better than cylume is : photonlight.com put a bunch on with safety pins. looks awesome from the ground and air they are great for getting around the dz at night too. dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

jump the sabre before you decide to buy it (slam: ouch). dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

an opening that peaks at 6 gs and takes 5 seconds, is not at 6 g's for the entire 5 seconds. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

last pic looks like a vented troll. (red and black) i'll check who was jumping. dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

depends on the canopy. some canopies when underloaded can not be properly controlled and are increasingly prone to winds and turbulence. many underloaded canopies will have either very delayed response times to control inputs or even no appreciable reaction to control inputs. i have had two friends join the titanium club from grossly underloaded student canopies. when you load a canopy at its minimum rec. wing load it will be quite slow and docile, underloading it will not appreciably further reduce its speed, it will only hinder its reaction to control input. why was i taught to fly @ .86 # where as my girl friend was taught at .46#. this is wrong and resulted in a serious injury. follow manufacturer guidelines for min and max. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

i understand your point and as a manufacturer i can agree with you that it is the high performance canopies that set an image for a company. but i can also tell you that atair posts real world loading charts for their canopies and our promotional videos at boogies are a mix of low and high wing loadings. when we attend boogies our staff predominately coaches low to medium experience jumpers at light wing loadings. it is not uncommon to see our 'pro' pilots at boogies demonstrating canopy skills on 150's and 170's. and we have run several advertisments showing our canopies in the 1.2# wing load range. its fun to design pocket rockets but 90% of the industry flys at low to medium wing loadings. sincerely, dan www.extremefly.com Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

beer and some canopy patches... riggers are cheaper than doctors ! stay safe and happy new years ! dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

yeah, thats more or less it... as far as the 36 cell.check out the top skin picture again.with reference to the top skin it has 36 perfect sections with the lowest spanwise distortion ever seen. what would you call it? the fact that it has 18 divisions with regards to the bottom skin only means it has a lower pack volume. aerodynamically reducing bottom skin distortion effectively does nothing to improve performance. it is all about the top skin profile. HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE ! dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

if you are going to use thin gloves put on latex rubber gloves underneath. even if they are thick do it anyway, you will not be sorry. there is nothing worse than freezing your hands solid in freefal. it makes it difficult to get your fingers in your toggles, it is very creapy and scary to be banging your hands lifelessly against your helmet trying to make them move... and when they thaw you will be seeing stars it hurts so much. use rubber on your hands ! also note that full face helmets can frost up imparing sight. make sure you can flip your lens up. have fun... sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

hook, it has hit a peak. it is just a very fine line (peak rise time is 2 miliseconds) and doesn't show well on the compressed mini format video posted. you can distinctly view the peak on the original dv or by comparing time code to data logged. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)

hi hook, i did respond. go back in the thread and you will notice i said it was a military tandem drop. 1000# exit weight, 350 sq' main, vector tandem rig, 184mph speed at deployment. scrunchie failed to collapse drogue, line stretch generated 29g's, canopy upon exiting bag generated a max of 6.4 g's stage 1, about 3.5 g's stage 2. sincerely, dan Daniel Preston atairaerodynamics.com (sport) atairaerospace.com (military)