TALONSKY

I have flown both a Crossfire 1 and a Crossfire 2 at around 1.85:1. Crossfire's (1 & 2) have great opennings and are incredibly fun to fly. The opennings are around 1000 feet and very soft. the Crossfire 2 dives longer, is more hip input sensitive and has much lighter front riser pressure than the Crossfire 1. Kirk

I personally have jumped a Crossfire 2 loaded 1.85:1 with a wingsuit for 40 jumps. I did not like that in the few instances that I had line twist the canopy pointed it's self to the ground. I curently fly a VX loaded 2.1:1, with a wingsuit. I find that the VX handles line twist better (at least in my experiance). Canopy choice is a personal one, you need to choose your comfort zone and realize the inherent risks with the wing you choose. I openned a 1000 feet higher with the crossfire due to the longer opennings and its flight characteristics in line twist. I open at 3500 feet with my VX to allow time if something happens on openning. The safest choice is a square or semi-elliptical canopy. Kirk

I jump an Infinity and have never had any issues with it wingsuiting. I do not think you need the dynamic corner mod. The lateral webbing really in not much of an issue (it just fits kind of tight if you are only skipping one hinge knockel). I have jump quite a few different rigs with wingsuit with no special mods (Talon, Javelin, Infinity, and Eclipse). I really do not recommend the Eclipse though as the packing tray is sew up and inch or so at the top of the packing tray heading towards the reserve but if you collapse for long enough to lose all forward speed they are fine Kirk

Wow, it is amazing to see attitude like this when talking about peoples lives. You do realize that all of the above scenarios end with someone if not muliple people dieing or atleast being severely hurt. I believe it was two years ago that a tandem instructor and video guy died do to the video guy being slightly above them and on deployment the instructor hugged the student (putting video guy farther above them) and on deployment they surged forward putting the video guy directly above the tandem pair. The video guy and instructor collided, luckly the student lived. In skydiving there are some mistakes that can not be undone and (sorry will not fix) I had rethought my feelings on underage skydiving a while back and thought it may not be a bad thing. However, after reading your posts and your total lack of respect for human life makes me want to change my opinion, it is obvious that it is atleast in part if not all a pure lack of maturity leading this (and that is truly sad). Kirk

I have not had a chance to watch that episode but I have it on Tivo. My first thought is he has a base rig on and either has another harness on underneth with just a the main rings with a cutaway set up for the first canopy so he does not have a way to contain the d-bag or he has both sets of risers hooked to his base rig with a cutway set up on the first canopy and still has no way of containing the d-bag on the first canopy. Kirk

Hi Jarrett You know, I think you are one incredible kid with a huge potential for becoming one outstanding skydiver. Your dad, is also a very great person and skydiver. I understand how easy it would be at your age to think you have it all figured out( Hell, I know I would if I were you). I even have begun to work with my son (inspired by you) to become a skydiver earlier (below is just a selfess promotion of my son). But you really should listen to what these people are really trying to say (beyond the jabs at you). Always respect the opinion of those that have more experience than you and never disregard it. You see the longer your are in this sport the greater chance you have of seeing or at least knowing some that have went in or have been hurt pretty bad (if not it being yourself), it is only after this you can truely understand the real gravity of mistakes(ones that can not be taken back). I wish you well on your journey and please listen with open mind and ears. Kirk

I have a very large bias on this subject as I was cheated on numerous times in a 5-year relationship. Luckily for me, the relationship was in the middle of the end when I found out. She had slept with more than five and hopefully less than 25 guys during the course of our five-year relationship. I believe very strongly that if a person is selfish enough to care only about what they want and not the person they supposedly love, that they will never be trust worthy ever. I believe, once a cheater always a cheater. If you want out to the relationship your in, end it before sleeping with another. My wife and I have both been the victim of some selfish ass; we both agreed cheating is an unforgivable act. Kirk

Wow, if I was you I would as others have said check that they fit correctly. I have over 1000 jumps using contacts and have never had an issue at all with them popping out. I have for the last 500 jumps been using only tight fitting sunglasses and I have never had an issue. Kirk

I have been wearing contacts and skydiving for over 5 years and over 1000 jumps now . I have had no problems and for the last few years have been jumping with tight fitting sunglass and have had no problems. When I first started skydiving I had glasses and they were small enought to fit under my full faced helmet (which made life alot better) however: now that I have switched to contacts I would never go back. Kirk

Yes, tivo does Rock. I bought the first one for my house about a year ago, now we have one on every tv. My son even asked for one as a christmass present for his TV. Kirk

FYI I e-mailed Icarus and explained that this had been talked about here and if they could give me a reply that I could post so here is Icarus's reply The Safire-1 and the Omega are measured differently to PD canopies. As a rough guide a Safire-1 or Omega is about the same size as the next size down - eg A Safire 149 is about a 135. A Safire 119 is about a 109. Use an equation of 8%. The Safire-2 and Omni (Omni supercedes Omega) are measured the same as PD. All other Icarus Canopies are measured the same as PD. The reason for the difference is due to Precision measuring their canopies differently. Icarus have always measured the same as PD however when we originally commenced in the USA, Precision were building parachutes for us under license and were doing it using their size equations and not Icarus/PD's. We have therefore had to wait to supercede these models to change the size equation. Only the Safire and Omega were affected. Blue skies Simon Icarus Canopies USA: 1S671 Bender Lane, West Chicago, IL 60185, USA Ph. (630) 562-2735, Fax (630) 231-4430 Europe: P.I. El Ramassar, c/ Vallés, s/n O8520, Les Franqueses, Barcelona, SPAIN. Ph. (34) 938 496 432, Fax (34) 938 497 971 www.icaruscanopies.com

I found that the Xaos 27 in quite ground hungry, I have never flown a Xaos 21 but the 27 is more ground hungry than a VX and not quite as ground hungry as a Velocity. The Xaos 27 had very snappy turn rate and just a little over steer (but may be that was just me). I never had any trouble making it back but I never was really far out either. I aslo found it had more than enough flair. Kirk

In my limited experience (45 jumps on one), what I found is do a normal PRO pack job except with the nose fold the outer 3 cells on either side back(I just folded them back 180° and positioned them under the slider) and expose the center 3 cell out in front of the slider. I found that by doing that you avoid the bowtie however I always ended up with a fast 360° turn to which ever side open last. The opennings were always soft. Kirk

I have a bad tendency to over eat when I am stressed. In 2003, I was working 2 jobs to pay for skydiving (up to 80hours a week) and I gained about 30 LBS. At the beginning of 2004 I lost 40 LBS for quite a few reasons one of which was to fall slower when wingsuit flying. Since then I have had a couple of stressful years back to back. At the beginning of 2006, I had gained all my weight back and in April I took off 20 LBS to help with my wingsuit fling. Once again by the beginning of 2007, I had gained it all back. I have now lost 30 LBS of it and have another 12 LBS to go. Most of the reason for starting the weight loss was based on my wingsuit fall rate (plus packing around this extra weight sucks). I have not yet been able to go and do a max flight in my wingsuit but from my past experiences, I know the weight loss really helps on fall rate. My wife hates when I diet as I become in her words an ass

Wow, your are feeling very full of yourself aren't you ar the whole 400 something jumps. I know you and I am not sure why all the sudden you have this kind of attitude, anyway sooner or later you will experience line twist with you wingsuit and they are not fun. I had about 3 with my cross fire and everytime it would point it's self to the ground. I have had a handfull of line twist with my VX109 (most were when I was trying to figure out packing it) and only once did it point it's self to the ground for just 1 revolution. Anyways Jarett if you are going to jump a high performance canopy and wingsuit you should pull just a little higher to give altitude to deal with it (I personally added an extra 800 feet to my pull height with the crossfire) I hope everything is going great for you and your dad. Kirk

May be it was "just me" but the Xaos 27 cell I had did not have very good opennings. At first the end cells would inflate and fly together(Soo much fun). After quite a few of those opennings I finally got it to open consistently without doing that, however it would always open with a wicked fast 360° to one side or the other depending on which side open last. In my humble opinion, I loved the canopy once open but with its consistent inconsistent opennings I would rather jump my VX. Kirk

I am not sure if this would apply but with L&B's older ProTrac, you need atleast 9 seconds freefall for it to register the jump. Kirk

I have attached a Javelin sizing chart. Kirk

I love our little comunity. How quick we are to try and through manufactuiers under the bus. I love that we now have so many different brands. Hell, I remember being one of only a few at my DZ with a wingsuit and the DZO juking about if I am still alive in 50 jumps he may try it. I do not understand all of the contempt for other companies breaking into this very small market. Hell, love it and when I can find the money I will buy a Mach 1 just to see for myself. In the end in my humble opinion, it is does not matter weather the suit is a Birdman, Pheonix fly, a Tonysuit or any brand name, it really comes down to how the pilot flies it. I have been totally blown away by the talent I have seen flying all brands and makes. I love wingsuits and can not wait till the next level the manufacturers come up with. Kirk

While I personally have taken someone that was handycapped and basically had one arm, I really doubt I would do it again. Yes, it can be done and more or less the odds are in your favor if everything goes right, but what if it does not? MY DZO in the last year has had a change of heart (or acceptable risk) and would not allow a student this past year with almost the same condition as the student I have taken before. At first I did not truely get it but then if you look at the tree of what ifs, it seems to make at whole lot of sense. Do you really what to risk your life, career or finacial future (not to meantion the idea of a prison term if things go wrong) to take just one person on a joy ride that they may think nothing more of afterwards than an amusement park ride? I can tell you now my answer would be NO, and not just NO but HELL NO. I watch the last customer leave broken hearted because he could not skydive with his friends, but in the end a tandem skydive is much more then taking someone for a joy ride. I, personally, would not even know how to begin to deal with killing someone I knew was creating a larger risk in a skydive. Kirk

I had to deal with a neighbor below that was actually much worse. Apparently 2 months into her pregnancy she had to be in bed and could not work so she became everyone’s nightmare. She complained weekly to the apartment manager about the noise from my apartment. She even had the gall to come up while I was having sex with my girlfriend in my bedroom and started pounding on the door when I answered she asked if we could move it to the living room as it was disturbing her rest (mind you we were not being obnoxiously loud or anything out of the ordinary). On that occasion I just shut the door on her and yes she did on a normal basis call the appartment manager to complain about me having sex too loud. I call down and talked to the apartment manager and he explained the whole thing to me and apologized for the tenants behavior and stated that he truly did not believe any of her complaints as I had lived there for three years without complaint. Kirk

I have taken a student that had one arm that she had no control of . I had her put the arm inside her jumpsuit(so in essence it was taking someone with only one arm), then I tightened the chest strap pretty tight (making sure the main lift web were pretty close together. I also had her hold the chest strap with her good arm though out the skydive. The skydive went fine and she had a great time. Kirk

1 mile

IMHO, it is not so much that the Xaos 27 cell has such unpredictable opening tha I feel it makes a bad wingsuit canopy. It is that when it opens with the end cells inflated and flying together it is a twichy, kind of unstable wing. Yes all you need to do is pull on the rears to get it to open "if" you can get to them before it starts to spin up. On one of my intial jumps (Hop-n-pop) it opened in the above configuration but before I could get on the rears to open it up, it started to spin up. I got out of the line twist but once again before I could get to the rears it started to spin up the other direction. I was finally able to kick out and get the canopy open but it definitly got my heart racing. I guess where I am going with this is a canopy that either opens to the above configuration or opens with a quick 360° turn IMHO is not a canopy I would want. I think the Velocity is a better canopy and I personally love my VX. Yes the VX has really high riser pressure and can open kind of hard but both of these can be easily remedied. I personally want reliability in how a canopy is going to open first and performance second. Anyway have fun, as I stated above the Xaos 27 cell is a great canopy once it is open. Kirk

Your right, I figured since you flew a Xaos you would already be familar with the openings on the 27 Cell. I guess I was wrong, My bad.