LetsGoOutside

R-Bird will likely give you some better fall rates right out of the box. I think you'd get better performance, range, glide, agility, and fun from the P2 if you learn to fly it. Personally, I'd say go for the P2. Get back fly inlets. Disclaimer: not a brand thing. Just my opinion. Will probably get a Tony suit this year.

Echoing/simplifying what's been said here. Have seen this when brake lines been the wrong length in either direction.

Because he is thinking in the past and not the future. Actually it's because I'm thinking of how easily somewhat similarly constructed paragliders inflate. The closed nose would obviously inhibit openings relative to PGs, but more material/guts means less space to inflate. Less space inflates more quickly. Just my experience with PGs (which have as many cells and X-bracing). Just a theory on the design as-is. Openings are a critical part of any canopy that gets on the market which I of course assume NZ Aerosports would address.

Too true. That's why I ordered a Shadow and plan on getting one of the newer big suits later. Shadow for WFS. Whatever's next for solo flights, etc. What you fly in a flock really should be about dressing to match fall rate and glide in a comfortable body position; with the base. Sure larger suits have "range", but there is a bottom end to that range. Flying at 10% or less can be just as difficult as flying at 90% or more. It's rare that someone with the latest big suit doesn't have a smaller suit more appropriate for the task at hand. You might get more out of your jump and improve the flock as a whole if your neutral is closer to the lowest common denominator. Just something to think about.

Attached pics from their Facebook page. One is of a JVX modded with a five-chamber center cell. The other is the "Sunshine", the concept canopy in question. Really resembles a paraglider once it's that divided up. Probably flights great, but opens like a bomb. My theory, anyway.

Big.

Interesting. Thoughts? http://www.nzaerosports.com/news/27/

Who? All I see in that video is a cute girl in an Ill Vision suit. ;) Nicely done.

Keeping the four old thread alive... http://matttg.com/new_apache_wingsuit.htm

Nice. Verso is the other one I was looking at.

Wingsuits are only interesting to the general public when they're being flown between tress, five feet off the talus. And the folks doing that really *are* the best wingsuit pilots in the world. Also, I just blacked out about seventeen times trying to watch this.

Good to hear. I have some Winter weight to shed, but not enough to need a bigger suit to offset it. Really interested in doing more acro, so Shadow sounds nice. The larger suits I've flown really have lost the agility of their predecessors.

Looking for a good flocking/formation/acro suit and the Shadow seems to be the right tool for the job. It just looks like it will be fun to fly. Thinking of picking one up, but would like to get some input. I haven't seen any reviews on it here other than the old prototypes which look nothing like the modern rendition. It's obviously not as high performance in fall rate/forward speed/glide as the bigger suits, but I'm curious as to what kind of difference to expect. If I'm on a flocking dive with mostly big suit folks, will I be a pain in their asses to stay down with? Really glad to see a suit like the Shadow on the market. After a decade on wingsuits and despite all the advances and enlargements which give these massive freefall times and distances, I really just want a suit that is fun to fly ten, twelve times in a day without thinking about it. Just more into acro and flocking -- having fun in the flight itself -- than I am concerned with statistics.

Right... but I'd say *any* instead of "all". I've definitely had times where it looked right, but an alarm or a peripheral glance at the altimeter told me otherwise, and my left 270 became a right 90, etc.

+1

Skydiving canopies are meant to get you onto the ground. Wings from the paragliding world are meant to keep you off it.

Good luck to the US team and hope that no one gets arrested for violating Saudi Arabia intensely strict laws. ;P From the American perspective anyway. That footage of the building flybys is *sick*!

Here's a direct link to his only post in the thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3869879;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;#3875734 So, no it wasn't him (or anyone in that thread). The canopies fly totally differently despite their physical similarities.

You can fly a skydiving canopy in deep brakes all day long too, if you want. The fact remains that once you are at your min. descent rate, you cannot go any slower. So if you are in deep brakes on top of the wire, and lose lift for any reason, you have no recovery. You'll mush down into the wire. Maybe you slide off to the side and get away clean. Maybe you hang up a ski on the wire or slide off inbetween the wires, and you're not as OK. Gotcha, misread (thought you were taking about stall potential). Well, the other things to take into consideration here are that these wings have a better glide than a skydiving canopy and the pilot here is a very experienced expert.

These wings behave differently than skydiving canopies. You can stay in pretty deep brakes all day if you need.

I would think so, similiar to skydiving. I would recommend calling ahead. Personally, I think it's a little silly to require PG ratings for speedflying. I think the resorts either need an exception or the US needs a separate rating system.

While the diving characteristics are significantly different between a Velocity and a Stiletto, your advice-giver is right in that the overall flight characteristics are actually pretty similar! The Katana is in there, too, but is much, much closer to the Velocity. If you're thinking about a Sabre2 150 right now, it sounds like you might want to hold off on the Katana. It's an amazing canopy, but it's very fast and ground hungry next to what it sounds like you've flown. The Sabre2 is a very-rounded canopy that has plenty of dive for you as you learn to use it. The Stiletto is a very responsive, fun, fast canopy, but wants to come out of a front riser turn sooner. Either one is a good path to the Katana -- it just depends on how you want to fly. As far as the Velocity goes, you'll want to wait until you're dialed on flying fast with more forgiving wings. You'll also want to be staying current, maybe 300 jumps per year or more, if you really want to be a fulltime Velo pilot. Good luck, stay safe!

It should be noted that you'll generally be using a larger PC on a BASE jump than a skydive. The BASE pouch is designed to hold BASE PCs, not 26" skydive PCs. If you want to train on skydives to use the BASE pouch, do what I did and shove a larger PC with a longer bridle in there. The two PC types attach and function differently, so I had a custom one built that was BASE-big with a practice golf ball handle, but it had a kill-line bridle and attached to a skydiving main. In general, big PCs aren't a good idea with small canopies, so please keep that in mind. I felt a *lot* of drag jumping this PC, even collapsed, on a sub-100 sq ft canopy. I didn't notice much change in the openings on my many BASE pouch skydives with a larger PC, but have heard of harder/brisker openings with this configuration. So be wary of that, too. Oh, and to keep this relevant... The Phantom 2z has the letter "z" in its name while the original Phantom 2 does not.

Absolutely wrong here. Sabre2 has a much longer recovery arc than a Stiletto. You can build up more speed in a slow front riser turn with the Sabre2 (assuming stock trim). The Stiletto is more *responsive* in pretty much every parameter, though.

Mt Howard and Mt Bachelor, but you need USHPA ratings.