mccordia

And we've also added the order form for the new Havok Carve! Its available as of now! Get it while its hot JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

We're releasing an order form for the Havok Carve (as mentioned in the news). But the suit isnt listed on the website yet, due to various size templates still being cut. But it will be listed among the other suits officially within a few days. The order form will be up later tonight. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Normally the dealer is the only point of contact a costumer would need. But often people bypass the dealer after the initial order, where-as a dealer can actually help both client and us a lot. As they can filter down the questions from clients to more direct and short answers, instead of the sometimes book-sized stories some people send. Also in case of problems, the dealers have direct contact with the factory, and often can answer a lot of client questions for them already. Its not always a perfect track record, but like said before, we sadly only get the 1% of people who have a negative experience being loud and vocal about it (and usually not through the proper channels). We're not a huge company with a 50 person support staff. But we do make proper wingsuits, and put a lot of work in the design and testing phase, to make sure you get a class A product. Something that will also be clear in the new products about to be released. For the few who do have a negative experience, it often ignored that a fitting solution is always provided, and great care is taken to try and make everyone happy. Again, for those who have questions, contact your dealer, or any of the info@ macca@ edo@ jarno@ PF adresses, should you somehow not find you dealer getting the information you want/need. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Yes, we just updated the PF website with information. Expect a full product page next week as well. You can check the info here JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

V-Race and V-Power are more glide oriented, but with new advances a big step up in agility for that class/size wingsuit. Ive been doing (big suit) coaching jumps on Eloy, while flying the V-Power, doing steep banking turns and headdown carves Id never dreamt of doing with any big suit. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The V5 is the most agile, agressive ground hugging proxi suit in the lineup... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

I had the special pleasure filming this jump 2 days ago. Check it out! http://youtu.be/PltxHmEEFkk JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The Venom Power has a slightly better glide, the V-Race a bit of an edge in agility. On the prototypes shown, cutaways aren't always present, but for customers these are always available standard, and possible without if people really want. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The Vampire Race is a suit seperate from the V5. The Venom Power is technically the Venom 2 JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Also without the stabilizers it flies great. But the fins add an amount of stability and sharp turning to these big suits, that so far hasnt been available on any similar sized suit. But thats a thing you need to try to fully appreciate. All suits are offered with the fins as an option, but the bootie-less design also flies well without. Though the bootie-less sharper flying style may not suit everyone, and may require more than the max 2 skydives of training some do, to fly the way its been designed in the base environment That aside, filmed a rodeo of full lower body (and hand) amputee Todd Love, riding my leg-amputee wingsuit teammate and camera man 'bionic' Rob today. Most amazing thing Ive witnessed in a while. Video soon!! JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Regarding the fins being hazardous for flocking: The are not kitchen knives, but do pose a hard surface that should be taken care of. But at the experience/skill level needed to fly these sized suits, it shouldnt pose much more (or even less) of a danger than the GoPro extensions and various mounts people jump on skydives. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

The escape sleeve is a system that also decreases agility and direct feedback in flying a lot. It tends to create a distorted leading edge that disrupts the clean airflow, causing less direct response. We noticed such a huge difference in handling, that we decided to focus on the aspects one buys the suit for. The flying. A loose sleeve influences handling, like toggles on a canopy with too much slack. It delays inputs, and mandates bigger inputs as well. Removing the subtle more precise control. But it does require a certain more assertive flying style beyond straight lines to appreachiate the differences. Not having to wrestle a suit around the sky with huge inputs. In walking on sloping surfaces, weird edges/outcrops or plane skydives the fins dont hinder, but make a big positive change in agility. The whole suit cuts through the dky and carves in turns like a knife through butter. As well as an improved glide due to the better low drag characteristics. Thats something you notice quite quick when you fly the suit, and shows none of the made up 'obvious' yet imaginary issues. Ive flown a lot of wingsuits the last 12 years, and this one surprised me so much in agile/responsive handling, Im making it my main suit for coming base season (next to the Carve for acro/backflying stuff). And so far, most people who demo-ed the suit (or its speedy V-Race brother) are saying/experiencing the same positive things. As theres a dozen other/additional updates and changes in design that also make it fly better than previous big suit designs. You'll be seeing more of these available for demo soon, and an announcement on (pre)ordering this month. Ill be on Eloy the coming 2 weeks, and Elsinore end of March for those wanting to try this one or the Havok Carve. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

You seem to notice most things that work against the brand you clearly dislike in what you post. But ignoring that, everyone email gets dealt with. In order in which they come in, when we're on email. Sometimes that can be a few days, due to the people you're communicating with actually being at work in the factory, designing, and actually testing and making the suits you're buying. Our customers are not test pilots. Sometimes people mis-communicate things with their intermediate dealers, sometimes things dont go as planned. But 99% of the orders come through without problems. But life isnt perfect, so sometimes there is a thing that goes different than planned. Sadly some people don't have the courtesy and patience to deal with these matters the way its usually sorted. And instead resort to more aggressive ways. Ways that are not needed, as customer service always works with the client to provide a solution that everyone is happy with. There is a large volume of orders made, and customer service is not a 500 people strong department like Microsoft. So a bit of patience is sometimes needed. Aside from negative attention, posts here dont change a thing in how or when things get dealt with. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Keep an eye on the PF website the coming days ;) JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Which is the most stupid reason of all the get hurt, or skimp on doing stuff with the right gear. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

If you want to swing that on luck, go with the choice you have in mind. If you want to do it without a dozen, or any cutaways, pick a smarter canopy. And either switch mains (a 2nd hand 'old' one for wingsuit isnt that pricey) or decide which dicipline you want to dedicate your gear towards. Choose the right gear for the right sport/discipline. And swooping-wise, be carefull saying stuff about doing the max of whats possible under a canopy. But than again, I jumped a 170 spectre the first 1000 jumps, and learnt to swoop that without problems. So might not be the best 'downsizing' coaching... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Typically, wingsuits with a 'split' armwing, that dont have a single surface but a smaller upper wing, and longer narrow cell allong the body tend to be less suitable for backflying. You dont fully control the lower wing, which means the tail tends to over-power the upper armwing. And the armwing-root being linked to the leg, also leads to opposing inputs between arms and legs, which can cause a lot of sliding around, leading to a suit that can't really be flown on the back in any inefficient way, and is hard to control. Thats why there is a certain wing type/suit size (single surface armwing, and wingroot not further than a few inches bellow the knee max) that most aggressive acrobatic (back) flying wingsuit pilots choose. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Actually a lot of other suits would have a much simpler pull as well, and though it may not be your experience, mispulls/fabric grabs happen across the board, and not just on the brand you prefer to put down But the cut on the wing on the V series allowed for a leg pouch, where on bigger wings it leads to the armwing folding over the pouch on a pull. So design-wise, its not an option. That said, I jump any suit (including the V3/4/5) with the BOC, as for me its 2500+ wingsuit jumps experience pulling from that location. So in case of need/panic, thats most likely what muscle memory will 'make me' do. And just in terms of wingsize/gripper length, the suits dont differ from anything else of comparable size on the market in terms of pull difficulty. The fact that pulls on big suits are 'easier' is also for a large factor depending on experience/training. The design with slight cut-ins in the suit at the wrist, is only a very small aspect. We're (in base) still seeing A LOT of people jump into new suits without a triple dozen to couple of 100 training jumps from an airplane. And good methodical training at this point in time, seems to be in bigger need that relocating the PC itself. We're seeing people in big suits on base exits, that wouldn't be allowed to jump them at dropzones due to not even having half the recommended experience levels mandated for said designs. As you also mentioned before, if the pull is giving one trouble, more training on skydives or actually jumping a different/smaller suit would be far more valuable. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

When people don't behave according to rules/safety standards, you do tell them exactly how fast to fly. Especially if they are putting other lives in danger by doing so. Pilots can tell jumpers where not to fly, due to it being in the way of their patern. So either way, both do get to tell eachother how to do their job when safety is concerned. Its not rocket science, but a bit of communication never hurt anyone... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Not wanting to mix too much into the language/writing discussion. But when someone does jump 10-200 as solo tracking jumps, thats for sure detrimental to his progress, and those people usually miss a big background in safety and awareness that is of great importance when they put on a suit that allows them to head-but a person with 200 mph differences in speed if they screw up. Tracking is a good skill, but you dont need more experience beyond seperating from a good freefly or RW jump that had a decent plan/debrief to be a safe and skilled wingsuit pilot from 200 freefall jumps or (preferably more) onward... JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

More info will be up on that one soon....but having done testjumps on it the last few months, its a high class suit, thats actually super agile. Its my choice for the 2014 season. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

If you look at PPC results, speed has a high percentage of smaller wingsuits in the top scores, and wind and pilot skill seem to be the final determining factor. So yes..in terms of speed its not 'biggest one wins' by far. Glide of course differs, but speed actually shows a tracking suit as the highest score. Doesnt get much smaller. Suit wise Ive flown a lot over the years, but flying every suit on the market would be a fulltime job to keep up with JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

Actually those speeds are pretty much the same but the amount of surface you are trying to drag around the sky is double the size. Comparable from driving a small car to driving a truck. Bigger suits also have more fabric, and though they fly better glide ratios, they also have a lot more drag. If you put small people in bigger suits, they will become slower in forward speed in most cases. Often upsizing isnt the answer, but more training on small suits. Though the matras fanclub for sure doesnt seem to entertain that idea. I fly big suits as well, both in base and skydiving. And dont use a single different input going from small to big suits. Look at PPC scores, top 25 have a lot of small suits as well, and look across the board, and you see small/big suits setting pretty much same forward speeds when you look at comparable glide ratios, and a guy in a small/tiny trackingsuit actually having the highest speed, ranking #1. If you look at a small airplane vs a big airplane (same aerodynamics) the inputs of the smaller one are also much more direct. And the big plane is a slow hulking beast in comparison. Though people like to believe ninja tricks, magic fairies and unicorns make us fly, in the end you can look at every input, every aspect of a wingsuit, and the conditions in which we fly from a science/aerodynamics POV and get an equal (if not bettter) understanding of how we fly and maneuver. From there its still skill, experience and (suit and body) build that determines how we actually fly. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

While if you re-read your own text, your in essence saying that the big suits dont respond to small body movements well. 'they fly themselves' is the same you could say for a huge canopy. But when it comes to harness inputs and small body movements, those are the things you feel a lot better when the canopy is smaller as well. And that one is by far the more agile one. And all the inputs one does on a small canopy, will work on the big one as well. Just needing the same input, but super-huge to have an effect. But not different in any way (subtle-ties aside) All the tricks learnt on smaller suits work exactly the same on big suits. The input itself just needs to be bigger, and a bit slower. But similar to airplanes, where you also dont pilot a 747 before you learnt to fly, land, stall etc a cessna, smaller suits 100% sure are the better way to learn. If you lack that finer control, for sure you can use a bigger suit to compensate. But thats the same reason why we're now seeing a lot of beginners jumping to big suits vs actually acquiring skills. And doing a lot of stuff they shouldnt be doing skill/experience wise as a result because 'the suit flies easy'. But that can catch anyone out at some point (in skydiving and base). People need to practice more than flying in a straight line. Regardless of suit size. Flying isnt just 'full glide' but its also learning the full flight envelope in terms of agility. To clarrify: When it comes to bending elbows, I dont mean the subtle curve/bend in the default arm position. But moreso, the maneuvres you make to actually steer/control the suit. Use the wings as a solid surface, and only make subtle corrections that steer/maneuver the suit in an effective way with small inputs (vs bending the full wing out of shape, and using huge break/speadup inputs to try and achieve what you want to do). Actually, most top level pilots use the same optimal flying techniques. Aerodynamics are just pure science. Analyzing your flying more with that mindset, and learning which controls are the most effective will teach you a lot more than that 'disco' mindset... And even from the art POV. isnt being as fluid, smooth and beautifull in terms of clean shapes and movements a thing worth striving for. JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?

We're in the final stages of testing on three new/updated suits, and another few on the horizon. The final production model of the Havok Carve will be on display (flying around formations) in Puerto Rico in 2 weeks, and after that we will also post a PDF with full info on the exact changes and updates to the suit. We are not upsizing the suit in any way, the wings stay the same size (though we did have some fun with larger prototypes :) But we've put a lot of work into drag reduction/wing surface optimization, and trying to make modifications that increase handling/sharpness in flying, and more agile maneuvering. And there's also several user-friendly changes/updates that make the suit even more pleasant for both skydiving and basejumping us. All in all...Im stoked....and on the Venom Power, after extensive testing during skydives, we've put it through the ringer in the base enviroment over the last month, and we'll also soon release a bit more info and pictures on that new beast of a suit (my suit choice for the 2014 BASE season;) JC FlyLikeBrick I'm an Athlete?