mccordia

With some rigs the handles can get close to being swallowed. In this case, contact the manufacturer and the suit can be adjusted (hole moved down by +- 10 cm) to prevent this from happening.

Here is a short trailer for a new video Im working on, showing some dynamic flocking and camerawork. Hope you like it! https://vimeo.com/46639942

Small secret: There IS no flatspin. The thing everyone calls 'a flatspin' is actually 'you are not doing the right thing to get stable again' and than putting a horror name onto it. Its just normal instability, that people dont fix quick enough. Anytime somebody tumbles or spins and doesnt get stable in a second they start crying 'flatspin' Train acrobatics, train backflying, train loops, train rolls...and you will never call it a flatspin..you will call it 'having fun'

FlatSpin Recovery Techniques

In situations where AAD is needed, a Cypres will work (jumper not capable/unconscious) and any wingsuit will fall faster than 78 mph down (activation speed). In situations where the user WANTS to fool the unit, he or she can fly through activation speed at lower speeds easy. But the reason why AAD is present, is still valid. In USA a jumper hit the tail of the plane and died 2 years ago. The AAD fired and made for recovery of the body under reserve. Still no difference for the user, but a big difference for the family. And there have been cypres fires on other wingsuit jumps as well after collisions in Italy.

I am one of the two appointed wingsuit advisors for the IPC Wingsuit workinggroup. And though I can not speak from the chair of IPC, I can tell you what has been done so far. For a look into some of the developments, you can see some of the documents I proposed here. Any standard submitted wil also need at least one year of testing, before going into practical application, so by current timeline (and best possible progres) 2013 will see the first possible accepted wingsuit judging standard. In case not all current problems with various judging systems can be adressed, and a 100% flawless, always correct intepretation of results is possible, longer devlopment could be needed. If you have input you'd like to see, or idea's on other possible judging methods, or improvements on the document posted here, feel free to email me at jarno@phoenix-fly.com and Ill forward your input to the IPC workgroup. Like FS and FF, (in my view) records should show the best possible, flown by the best people in the sport, at a high level of exelence that makes us all aspire to and train for. I think current bigways are a good step in the right direction, but personaly would love to see a record standard be a lot tighter, closer (and probably result in a first 'world record' of a much smaller size). I would strongly advice against any 'emergency resolutions' and instead trust in the development of a meaningfull, correct and worthy record standard that can stand for years. That said, I think russia has shown incredible steps the last years in quality of the bigways. Not going bigger and bigger, but instead tighter. I dont know this years plans, but I would love to see a formation the same size, but trying to fly it even tighter. Striving for exelence, instead of bigger and bigger numbers.

Compared to the USA bigway formations, the Russian formations actually show progress. The USA ones just show increase in size, where-as you guys REALLY improved the tightness so much over the years. Incredible to see! Cant wait to see what you guys are able to do next year!

Nice flying guys! With the circle system, you can make the circles smaller and smaller, untill they have everyone in (Red=Out). Out comes a vallue. So you can say> we flew this formation with this tollerance level. If you do another 36 way next year, you can do the same, and compare results and see if one has a higher accuracy (smaller circles) than the other one. We will also try and see if we can add a measurement unit (say, size of a rig) to get accurate/real distances between flyers measured..

There was no booking made for the event by anyone. So we sadly couldnt organize the event. But we did hear some wingsuit flyers from Holland and Estonia had some nice flocks at the dropzone for 2 weeks in a row.

Last weekend Werner flew his Venom in flocks with speeds of 60 to 90 km without problems... Werner is a light/tall person, but didnt strugle. Takes practice and skill...but these suits being comparable in size, shouldnt be an issue.

Though fun for long solos, these big suits are very sloppy to fly at their maximum efficiency, and in flocking actually are dificult to fly at speeds better than whats currently the standard. Seeing videos of people flocking with suits such as venom, xbird etc etc. it usually results in flocks of only 45 to 50 mph. Flying better makes close proximity and manouvering hard to impossible. I predict the year of dumbing down. Less focus on skill...more focus on compensation for lack of skill with surface area..

>PF + Tony = monopoly and higher prices Actually both seem to make suits for the lowest price they can. Last time I checked, neither Tony or Robert was driving Ferarri or Lamborgini (unlike some Russian skydivers Ive seen ) If there is anything Competition does, its lowering prices. To stay competitive with the other brand. Regardless of outcome, customer always wins..

New video on the Phoenix Fly frontpage, with Venom and V4 footage...

It is fun to see two suits arrive at close to similar wing design, without input from eachother (neither tony saw CCPF suit before, not was Xbird or any similar suit designed when this suit was made). But of course, yelling 'copy' and 'brandwar' is an easier way to please to crowd. Some vallue sensation higher, and compare two products of which neither has flown in comparable enviroment/setting/pilot Most skydiving diciplines have serious discussion...wingsuit always goes more towards hollywood trash magazines with gossip and screaming girls

Its easy to have suit designs end up similar. Even though most times the designs are not influenced at all. Draw 10 'big wings' around a human body, and most shapes will end up similar. This is a suit made by PF as a prototype for big wing flight back in 2009 (CCPF) which featured wings bigger than the current Venom/Xbird/Apache or other suit out there. Customer safety, made this stay 'prototype' (massive delays in pull, slow in handling and flying, pull presenting potential problems for less experienced flyers)

The Venom's that have so far flown have all been pre-production models. The first real production models are going out the door of the factory as we speak. And legwing inflation is not any issue there. Ill be posting some videos of Venom in skydive/base this afternoon, and you'll see that its not any problem (as others that have flown production models can attest to ) For any pre-production model out there (which featured different inlet and legwing design) the factory will replace/update the suit for free to the current standard. The new legwing design is also much easier to steer and control.

2.5m to 2.7 could also be. I was leaving some room for the newer wingsuit designs released by TS/PF recently, and the claims of 3.6 glide ratios on facebook

Like Deniq sais, the averadge glide is probably somewhere around 2.7 to maximum 3 perhaps when looking at the performance of the suit itself. All additions in glide seem mostly related to wind. Take Tony in his Xbird for example, and compare Gransee scoring at PPC Best score is 3588, lowest score is 1215. Both on the same suit. And this is not even sustained performance, but performance with dive/flare. So in all likelyhood, higher than the actual 'sustained glide ratio' of the suit. And looking at scores for different people, you see these high/low differences a lot. With the avg. middle being roughly around 2.5 to 2.7 for the best flyers. And scores also seem to vary greatly per event, showing wind to be the biggest influence. Without pitot tube, or accurate wind analysis (do a wingsuit jump with GPS, and tandem with GPS on same load, use tandem winddrift to calculate accurate wingsuit traveling distance by subtracting) a true quotation of glide ratio is hard to almost impossible. Especially when using flare-based competition as a table for comparison. I was personaly all for making the competition window longer (3500 meter to 1500 meter) to allow flare to be less part of the competition, and have it be more about endurance and full flight (sustained performance). But sadly the 1km altitude window was favoured. Also cool, but for sure not the true quote of performance possible.

Glide ratio (no wind) and distance flown (with wind) are two different things. Getting a bare result, without influence of wind is difficult. But seeing glide ratios of 3.6 by the same person who only flew 1.8 the same day on previous jumps with the same suit, shows that there are outside factors that influence the results, and its not 'glide ratio' that can be quoted as the possible result of the suit/model itself. Even in tracking 3.6 is doable, if the skydiver/basejumper has balls big enough (or brain small enough) to jump in tropical storm with 200 km/h winds

The pilot said he could follow the wingsuit from exit to ground, and it was impossible not to see

http://www.wingsuitcompetition.com/ppc/showdistancecomp.php this link is no longer updated http://www.paralog.net/ppc/ is the new URL for the competition (changes in software)

The red suit is a few sizes to big for the guy wearing it (Elias) so the fit is not nice and tight as it should be. This is proper fit of the suit, when made to specific size

Freefly Pud> USE IT! Its the safest handle you can have. I have 900+ wingsuit jumps with freefly pud, and never an issue. Also not on big wings. Also never an issue with it coming out during tumbles, bad exit etc. If you got one. Use it

On suits that feature good inflation/airlocks a normal pull also isnt that difficult Full flight pulls (base) are easy as normal. Collapsing wing takes some practice to get perfect and can be scary the first couple of jumps to get used to. It IS my personal belief that carpet-sized suits are less suitable for BASE when people keep pulling low and not resort to higher opening than normal (in base) Hesitations like that video are scary in skydiving.deadly in base..

Records are in most cases not really the records they claim or 'the best'...but simply a case of 'who dares to claim to be the first/best' Adrian Nicholas has been in the Guiness Book of Records for years with longest distance flown and longest freefall. Many people have broken these records, but everybody respected the old performance. Only recently a Japanese person applied to Guiness for the record. His record is not the best ever flown. But he IS the one to claim the biggest distance ever submitted to Guiness. So he has the record. Be it for personal enjoyment or marketing. Using results to sell a product or person is usually the reason. Im not to busy keeping up with who claims what. I stopped doing that when I stopped doing things for Birdman (who always made adverts in magazines saying 'fastest suit ever'). Putting it in nice wording.The best arrow is useless without a good Indian. And the best indians are often used to demonstrate what the arrow can do..this doesnt always present a fair view to the audience. Is it the arrow or the indian thats this good? Judging results from S-Fly with a (very clean looking) integrated rig/wingsuit combination, there is no real benefit to this setup (besides potential complications and cool marketing slogan ). Research shows the results are roughly the same as normal (low profile) wingsuit rigs for base. The addition of extra flaps, more zippers and scary setups that cover rig handles and 3 ring circus shows a lot of potentional for lost handles and restricting the function of the cutaway (on skydiving gear). And visualising the airflow, its not an area prone to a lot of drag in the first place. Going for slicker materials (F111 vs thick Parapak) and thinner wing profile will do more for speed and low-drag characteristic than the scary modifications mentioned before. Everyone is free to play with whatever design features they want. Im happy to say that the Venom has a new (100% working) feature, next to the proven function of the zippers an (new designed) armwing cutaway. More news on that soon. Regarding BASE pouch: the size of the wing means a secondairy (safer) pilotchute pouch is not possible. Pulling from normal BOC is not a problem, but definately TRAIN and adjust opening altitude accordingly to deal with small hesitations and other situations (larger flat-spin potential) that these type/size suits are more sensitive to. Someday I will claim, first wingsuit jump of 5 minutes in a pink suit with red hearts embroided. That will be my record! Longest flight in pink!