TALONSKY

Here' pic's of mine Kirk

A few months ago Manbird(Steve) borrowed my B rig an Eclipse container with a Crossfire2 130(no mod’s and standard bridle with 28” PC). He would collapse all wings for 500 feet then deploy and had great openings. The reason for the 500 feet collapse was due to the Eclipse container’s bottom corners are sewn up 1 – 2” toward the reserve so by bleeding off forward speed and going faster down allowed the d-bag better deployment. Kirk

I have about 50 jumps on my S3. I have been jumping an Infinity container with a 100” bridle/pilot chute from birdman with a Crossfire 129. I do not have the corners modified on my Infinity. At pull time(4000 AGL) I collapse all wings reach under the wings and make sure I have a firm grip on the pilot chute hacky. Then I throw out fairly hard to get it into clear air. The only problems I have come across are three different times I did not get a good grip on the hacky and threw out fairly lightly and ended up with a few line twist that I was able to kick out of. Kirk

If there is any doubt that it is landable cut it away. Better to loose your gear than your life. Also if you have renters/homeowners insurance it may cover it. A friend of mine lost a main worth about $350.00 he received a check for $1800.00 from his insurance company or a replacement. Mals generally get worse not better. I made the mistake of trying to land a tandem with tention knotts on the right side, what was a slow turn to the right at 5000 AGL turned into a hard spriral turn to the right(without correcting with left toggle) at 1000 AGL. Kirk

I would think in order to compare driving to skydiving fatality rates we would need to compare similar things. What I mean is in driving you are comparing accidents fatality per every 100.000 drivers. Now to make a fair comparison you would either need to approximate per every trip made by each driver or change the skydiving comparison to number of skydivers per fatatlity Kirk

Taking a step back from my passion to fly wingsuits and looking at the idea of having to pay $300 to get a BMI rating just sounds wrong. I mean I know that the people that give the course should be paid for what they do, but it only sales more suits for the company if there are more BMI’s out there. Why then should potential candidates have to pay to become a BMI (or in put a different way a partial sales rep for Birdman). I think people should have quality instruction for the first flight but I really am not sold on the idea of the BMI. I am against the idea of having to pay Birdman to certify me to teach others how to fly birdman suits (which again will only make the company more money in the long run with increased sales). Kirk

I am not nervous abut landing in the plane I just hate paying for the plane ride and not jumping. In 4 years and 630 jumps I have only landed with the plane 4 times. On one of the times I was coaching a Hop-n-pop for a students first so we needed 5500 AGL and only had 4000 AGL Kirk

When I flew my GTI I did not have any modifications done to the rigs I used. I used a Javelin, a Talon and Eclipse (not recommended do to the lower corners being sewn up about 1-1/2” around the corner toward the closing loop) and an Infinity. I did not have an extended bridle or anything. When I got my S3 I bought a 100” bridle based on the bigger burble that the larger wings have. While I do not think it is necessary to have any modifications done to a rig, I think the modifications lessen the possibility of a mal. Most important as manbird stated is be aware of the equipment you fly and fly in accordance to it’s possible limitations. Kirk

I totally understand and agree with what you are saying. However, I think it behooves all of us to do a visual gear checks of the people in our visual range in the plane. I know I caught several minor gears up mistakes by doing this (things ranging from riser cover undone to on two separate occasions with two different people who had a twist in his main webbing do to putting on leg strap wrong.) Kirk

Hey Scott, I was not aware that you were able to conduct BMI course. Congrat's if you are able to. Kirk

A post in Canopy control forum got me thinking about the idea of mounting a wind meter on a bracket mounted on like your chest strap. I just wanted to get others thoughts on if this might be a way to find out forward speed of these suits? Kirk

You might try their web page http://www.strongparachutes.com. I know that in Washington and Oregon Jim Straight is the director that can give certifaction course. Jim owns BodySport USA (503) 285-5492. I do not know if you need a cutaway or not but Strong can ship out a three canopy rig for doing an intentional cutaway for $25 over te cost of shipping. Kirk

For the Pectoral Major muscle wouldn't the fly movment be a better choice. I also feel that in the fly movement your arms are pretty much the same position you would be flying (minus shrugging your shoulders)? Kirk P.S. great post

I currently fly a Crossfire 1 129 and a Crossfire 2 130. I load them at 1.8 to 1. The Crossfire 2 has about 1/2 the front riser pressure of the Crossfire 1, it also has a longer recovery arch and is alot more sensitive to harness input than the Crossfire 1. Along with all of that the Crossfire 2 turns alittle quicker and seems to fly faster. I prefer my Crossfire 2 by far but also enjoy flying the Crossfire 1 too. Both canopies open great, nice and soft. Kirk

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 use to have a Safire 1 169, comparing it to a Sbre 150 they were the same size when you laid them over each other. Kirk

Hey Steve: Glad to hear you got some totally awesome jumps in. I thought about coming back out or not even leaving but both ideas came back to two realities. One that I really did not have money to jump and the second I really would rather not jump my Eclipse container doing Birdman and I know I would really want to be jumping my S3 not the GTI. I still want to know how you got your rig packed before mine :)~. See you next Saturday, I think I should be able to do a few jumps Kirk

Funny I put over 300 jumps on a Safire and never once had a hard opening. I currently have 200 jumps on a Crossfire 2 and only have had one brisk opening(that was a very bad pack job) Kirk

Demoing the canopy you plan to buy is always a great idea. I would also suggest demoing other canopies from other manufactures as well. There are alot of great canopies out there. Hey one last thing, from different post it sounds like some Cobalts open hard while others open great. There seems to be no rime or reason for it so as someone in another post suggested if you want a Cobalt demo one and find one that open's soft and buy the canopy you demo Kirk

Hey Roq: I did not mean my post to come off as a personal attach and if it did I am sorry. I find it very intriguing that a company (ATAIR) has a canopy (Cobalt) that it claim to fame is really outstanding openings, and more than just a few open really hard. Atair’s fix’s for these hard opening canopies range from body position at pull time, packing, to using a 24” pilot chute. The Cobalt may be a really outstanding canopy however; if they can not get them to open softly, I personally would never consider jumping one. Hell the Sabre is an outstanding canopy if you look beyond the hard openings. Kirk

Or just maybe instead of making sure you pack your new Cobalt "just right" and deploy in "just the right way" or modify your rig by getting the "just right pilot chute" to get that really great 2 stage opening, you may just want to buy a canopy that does not need that much attention to get great openings. Kirk

have you looked at Infinity containers yet. They are cheaper than an Odyssey and you can get one alot quicker than a Javelin. Kirk

Nice Suit !! Damn you are fucking tall. This may just be from the angle the picture was shot but it appears (to me anyways) that your arms are swept back a lot further than my S3 is. I am not sure what affect this may have on flight but I just thought I would bring up the observation. I am attaching some pic’s of my suit for reference. Not that it would matter but I am 6’3” and 215 LBS. Kirk

I paid $2598.00 for an Infinity container with everything and a PD 143 Reserve. The Cypress was $850.00 and a Crossfire 2 130 with 70 jumps on it was $1200.00. So my first custom rig was $4648.00 My Second rig $250.00 for a pristine Eclipse container, $630.00 for a PD 126 and $800 for a Crossfire 129 with 200 jumps so "B" rig $1680.00 Kirk

I am not sure what a good fit is. I can tell you that when ordering my S3 I added alittle to all the dimensions from how my GTI was ordered. When I got my S3 it fits pretty tight. Now my GTI fit fine and I do not understand how my S3 fits tighter unless it is meant to be tight. I find it is easier to just sit down and put the leg straps on and zip up the legs then kind put the rest of the suit on. Unzipping under canopy took a little while to get down Kirk

I know your looking for a comparison, but I thought I would give you my input on L&B. I do not think there are very many companies in the world that would back their product as well as L & B. I lost my ProTrack due to a riser strike. I e-mailed L&B about it and asked if there was anything they could do. The next day I got an e-mail back stating they were shipping me a new one that day. Four days later I received a new ProTrack sent from Denmark. Kirk