Martini

You can use any canopy that you can get airborne, it's done with skydiving canopies all the time. Specifically information on glide and speed for Sabre-1 120, 135 and 150 canopies loaded around 1.2 to 1.6 would be helpful to Tony and me. We have other canopy options but are looking at launching a difficult hill with those canopies. Yes we plan on gathering our own data but it would be useful to hear about other people's measured glide and forward speed. I'm not interested in discussion about flight theory or calculations, only experimental data. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

If for example you were at only 1000ft and the plane was in trouble. And you had to get out. Would you and could you go straight for your reserve? Quote Are you kidding me? You know what a reserve repack costs these days? Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I'm good for 2 or 3 jumps Sat or Sun if I don't have to drive too far. Prolly Tony, maybe Dave, Bob not. Geez, wha happen to the NW flock? Kew is out, Jim ??????, Michael????? Cindy's suit still gathering dust. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Not as many times as I've eaten him. I might get bit less often if I didn't tease him so much though. And I haven't flight tested a PDR for almost two years. But my (for the record four) wingsuit choppers do give me some qualification for my previous remarks. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

So i don't have to start another thread do you and other wingstuiters think you get less or more problems or mals when deploying your main with wings on or off?Quote No question in my mind that line twists are more common and harder to resolve on wingsuit jumps. That's one reason that high performance canopies are not generally reccommended when wingsuiting. It is also a reason that wingsuiting isn't advised for low-timers. Line twists can become spinners/unrecoverable spinners more easily on a wingsuit and on HP canopies. Using a tamer canopy and having more experience can help keep problems from becoming incidents. YMMV Sometimes you eat the bear..............

You might want to think about what you'll do when you have a mal at 12K. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

It appears in the video that your risers are offset by about 1 1/2 inches. Easy to see in the first frames of the risers, not so clear later on. Once the canopy spins up the offset becomes pretty locked in but can some times be evened out with a few hard tugs on the appropriate riser while giving slack to the other. Even a fairly small offset can lead to an unrecoverable spin. Cause of initial spin (packing, body position etc.) isn't important if you can't get control afterward. And yes I've spun up Tri's and Sabre-1's too, it's easy if you're good at it. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I don't have enough stuff, I'd be glad to help out by taking one of those rigs off your hands. Then we'd each have three, there would be balance in the universe and I won't even charge you for the privilege. Just make sure the rig you give me has a PD reserve. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

And one in Washington (state). Edit to add: what Krisanne said. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

PM sent Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I got tossed et Baker, the patrol was actually pretty cool after they were done wih their cop routine. The thing that struck me as funny was that they weren't worried about my hitting a skier, they were concerned that I could damage the chairlift. I've heard about a few guys getting the OK at a Washington area but I don't have details and won't give names. It might be worth exploring if you have connections in the Seattle area. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Well I only looked at the PF website. The suit doesn't seem to me to have an advantage over the V-2, at least that was my impression after reading Hans' description of his experience with it. Stability seemed to be an issue with the Shadow. I'd say stability is a strong point of the V-2 although my experience isn't based on flying next to a rock wall. Since the Shadow project appears to be six months or more old without mention of it on PF's website it doesn't look like it will be available anytime soon. Then again the V-1 and V-2 were available before they were shown on the website, possibly to avoid production backups. BTW I'm not dissing PF here, actually I'm impressed at the ongoing development in wingsuits. As far as suitability for the original poster dunderhead1 the Shadow wouldn't fit the bill due to it's relatively large wings. Also I'd be afraid to fly wingsuit BASE without a leg pouch but that's just me. (the suit will apparently be available with one though) Sometimes you eat the bear..............

So where would one look for information on the forthcoming PF Shadow? First I've heard of it. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Right on Yuri! The possibilities are enormous. Then again we might be a bunch of overacheiving monkeys. You certainly do have a way with words, I believe that is an indication of enthusiasm as opposed to say, drug-induced mania. Keep on rockin. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Tony actually gives me a goal performance-wise, I'm hoping to overcome the 6 inch height advantage he has but it would help if he gained about 60 lbs. It would be fun to get Tony and Jim together, Tony is super competitive and pretty current, Jim is the most amazing flier i've seen yet, he can come out after not jumping for a year and fly circles around everyone.......except possibly Tony. I'm looking forward to dicussing another suit with you, if I do any alterations I'll keep them simple and removable. This post has generated a lot of useful discussion and a number of PMs with very different ideas and perspectives, all thoughtful and valuable. I'm impressed and appreciative. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I thought that might be the case, bigger wings being less BASE friendly, I'm assuming that big wings also make a BASE pouch hard to place. It would have to be on the leg in front of the lower wing surface or even on the lower wing surface itself. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Groundlaunching forum = good plan.

Can't agree with your assessment of the problem being attributable to squares, bucking hasn't been a problem on any of my Sabre-1 canopies nor has flaring been limited by long brakelines. I can front riser my 120 into a vertical dive and land it straight in too. I don't know a thing about Sabre-2 canopies though. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

In what way Glen? Like keeping straight legs, tensioning the legwing, de-arching the hips? I definitely don't fly with a relaxed upper body, my arms and shoulders get pretty tired, I'm not exactly a hulk but I have decent upper body strength. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I wonder if Jim will let me jump the cabin from his Porter? Seriously time and suit damage are concerns but not enough to stop me if I decide to try, my wife is also a very good seamstress and will probably keep me out of trouble. For the time being I'll focus on improving my skills. But tinkering with things is in my nature, someday I'm bound to try some change to some suit. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I'm beginning to think that you're right about improving technique. It took me over 100 jumps on the S-3 to feel like I was getting max performance, I only have 63 on the V-2. I had hoped that experience would translate better, apparently not. One thing I can tell you is that I'm not a lazy flier, I put a lot of energy, strength and concentration into my jumps (not that I never just screw around). If anything I may be trying to overpower the suit instead of finding the more subtle points about flying it. I've never gotten the speed that the suit has a reputation for, Tony R. in his V-2 can easily stay with me in both speed and float, then pull away at will. That points to poor skills on my part not a deficiency in the suit. But altering it someday would be fun though it might not help. I just don't want to replicate work that Robi has done and found to be unhelpful. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I definitely roll my shoulders and fly flat or de-arched, sometimes very de-arched. Turning the handles down really slows forward speed, I noticed early on my tendancy to tense my wrists and drag the ailerons, relaxing my wrists gives a noticeable increase in forward speed. That forward speed gives me lift too. I had hoped to get slower forward speed combined with a slower fallrate using the ailerons but that hasn't worked out for me. Coaching and video would no doubt be a lot of help. Losing weight would amount to about 5 lbs, not enough make a lot of difference. And I know that the V-2 isn't the ideal flocking suit, I'd like to be able to afford several but that won't happen soon. I 'm looking for increased performance overall in the V-2, I've been generally dissappointed. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Yuri, I've been tempted to do this mod for a long time, I think I'll hold off until I'm sure my skills aren't what's holding me back as the mod will be a lot of work. Robi obviously has spent time with this and reccommends against.. As Robi mentioned losing control of the PC is a serious issue. A friend who has a highly modified/customized BASE-wingsuit rig has issues with PC pouch placement, not a good thing in either environment. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

Thanks Robi, your input means a lot. Apparently my time will be better spent acquiring skill rather than altering the suit. I know I try to overpower the suit, how do you know how much to extend the arm and leg wings? I never get the extra lift I'm looking for by using my hips either, I assume more speed (head low) is the answer to gaining lift. I'm pretty tired of watching everyone fly up and away though. Sometimes you eat the bear..............

I like my V-2 alright, it just doesn't seem to have the performance I thought it would have. I know well enough that I have a lot to learn about flying it well but that can be said about any suit I put on. For lift (float), forward speed, duration and distance I believe that my S-3 out-performed it. I don't have GPS data for this, only a watch, distance over ground, flocking etc. The V-2 is far superior in stability, the S-3 was seriously twitchy by comparison. But other than that the V-2 doesn't seem to have any advantage (other than it fits better than my too-snug S-3, the V-2 also looks great and is built stronger). I haven't had a chance to fly the other suits only GTI, S-3, V-1 and V-2. BTW my impression of the S-6 is that the wing area is larger than the V-2. Also the S-6 shape may cause less arm fatigue with more wing at the body and less at the wingtip. I notice that most new designs with large wing surfaces have smaller tip area and large area close to the body. Airfoil considerations aside this clearly puts less stress on the arms. Not that fatigue is a huge factor but I expect some performance gain for the extra effort I put in flying. At any rate I'd still like to experiment with adding a single-surface curved trailing edge triangle behind the V-2 wing, if it doesn't work out I'll remove it. BTW I'm considering having the new cutaway "hinge" between the new and old wing or even using velcro (shudder) for an attatchment at the body with no need for a second cutaway. I still can't figure out if I can use the existing BASE pouch or if I have to design a new one. Which leads me to wonder if any of the newer suits (S-6, SM-1, Stealth, Ghost etc.) have a BASE PC pouch option? I sure like mine. Sometimes you eat the bear..............