Aura 3

[Cyrevan 0]

Hey, i'am interested by an aura 3 but the interchangeable system foam leave me skeptical. Anyone have a picture of this system and can explain me how it works ?

Cherrs

[Fall0ut 3]

The Aura Series is getting more and more focused on BASE jumping only.. I know very few people who enjoy skydiving it. The Freak and C-Race/CR+ are the Squirrel designs for big suit skydiving.

There's a thread where your question can probably be answered: http://www.basejumper.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2993182;page=unread#unread

[SLAMBO 0]

Skeptical? Squirrel is an aerospace company, comparable to Boeing except with no motor.

Seriously though, its super easy. Its just to customize your leading edge stiffness, basically. I have not messed with my Freak2, but I played with the thick and skinny foam in my C2, I liked the smaller foam better for BASE for ease at pull time. The CRace suits have thicker, stiffer foam for performance.

You should not worry about it, the design is top notch.

[BryanCampau 0]

Hahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahaha god damn their marketing is incredible.

[SLAMBO 0]

hahahhahahahahahah you work for phoenix fly. They also have good marketing. And make good suits.

I still dont know what is so funny. Maybe thats why some people refer to me as Brick.

[lyosha 50]

SLAMBO

Skeptical? Squirrel is an aerospace company, comparable to Boeing except with no motor.

... this is a joke right?

[BryanCampau 0]

I've never had a check made out to me by Phoenix Fly or received anything from them I didn't pay for. A rep isn't an employee nor a sponsorship. But I'm a proud supporter of their products. :)

The comical thing is you comparing them to Boeing and being aeronautical. It would be comical if you said that about any brand. They have all earned a place in the market. Competition between brands is healthy and ultimately we all benefit from the improvements made to suits.

[DanielRistow 3]

I'll copy over what I put in the BASE forum here:

DFR

Now that I've put a few jumps on the new Aura3, I thought I'd throw some feedback out there and hopefully whoever else is jumping one can add to it!

To start, I'm coming from an Aura, never jumped an Aura2, so I'm only comparing it to the original Aura.

The start:

I found the start arc to be fairly similar in terms of when I crossed the 45 degree line, but slightly shorter with the Aura3 over the Aura. My best starts in good conditions were in the 550 foot range, my average in normal conditions or with 90 degree turns were 650-700 feet, and with tailwinds and cold air, 800-850 feet, no surprises there, the conditions effect the start more than anything else.

The big thing I noticed was the power and glide I came out of my start with in the Aura3 over the Aura. My shallowest, shortest starts in the Aura were coming out around 1.7-2.1, but the Aura3 was coming out with 2.2-2.5. When I would take it steeper in the Aura and have a longer but faster start (700-750 feet), I was coming out with a 2.2-2.5. With the Aura3 on steeper starts it was getting 2.7-3.2, which I would say is a huge improvement!

The flight:

I don't have much to say on the glide, as I've only done one jump where I exited and flew max performance to the LZ before pitching, but it was a two way with an Aura2, and we exited at the same time, had a similar start, and pitched at the same height. Our glide was matched but our speed wasn't even close. I pitched 5 seconds before him and ~100' further than he flew. Maybe once I skydive the suit more I'll unlock more of the glide.

In terms of steep flight, the Aura3 is levels above the Aura. With the Aura, taking it steep with little to no dihedral took a fair bit of effort and you had to be very conscious of the point of back deflection, where it liked to "whomp" you or throw you unstable if you hadn't trained for it and knew the exact point where it would occur. The Aura3 feels at home going steep with no dihedral at all. On the few skydives I did with it, I took it from max glide immediately into aggressive dives with no issues like I had with the Aura. The Aura3 wants to go steep with little effort and is way more stable at those steep angles.

The arm sweep is steeper in the Aura3, which took a jump or two to get used to, but after getting over that the suit felt just as natural to fly as my Aura. I laid my Aura3 over an Aura2 that was built to similar dimensions, and if you swept the arms steeper on the Aura2 to match the arm sweep of the Aura3, the grippers would line up perfectly and the wing profile would match. So it seems like the arm wing is shaped to the position of the Aura2 in aggressive flight, without the extra flap of fabric and wing distortion you get when you sweep your arms back in the Aura2. If that doesn't make sense, I'll try to find someone with an Aura2 and recreate that and take a picture this time.

The deployment

I found the Aura3 more stable at the end of a big flare than the Aura (not that the Aura wasn't stable, the Aura3 is just more stable). It seems to have more pressure in the arm wings, although that could just be that the air is harder to push out when collapsing the wings because of the new inlet, but either way it didn't seem any harder to reach back for the PC. After deploying, I was still able to reach the toggles without touching a single zipper, just like with the Aura. I am running no foam at all in the Aura3, maybe I'll try the thing black foam at some point and repost back on toggle access with that.

Review

All in all, The Aura3 is starting slightly faster and shallower than the Aura with more power and glide, it has tons more speed then the Aura 2 (my friend flying the Aura 2 on that jump has more jumps in that suit alone than I have total and is heavier than me and he is always faster than me when we are in the same suit), is more stable at steeper angles of flight, and still keeps the same ease of deployment and access to risers and toggles.

Below I have attached two pictures of my starts in the Aura3 and my starts in the Aura. The crazy 423' start in the Aura was in crazy thermals with a nice updraft headwind, and I think it was having issues connecting with satellites as the data got funny further down the flight. I haven't had nearly as good of conditions yet jumping the Aura3 and I've gotten with the Aura, so the good Aura3 starts are in similar conditions the the decent Aura starts.

Let me know if there's anything else you want to know about the suit! I'll post back once I get a bunch more jumps on it in more varied conditions

If you want, I can take pictures of the different foam if you're unclear what they mean by it.

Whats the point of living if you aren't doing what you love?

[SLAMBO 0]

The comical thing is no one here ever catches a hint of sarcasm. Dorkzone. Carry on.

[jakee 1,489]

BryanCampau

The comical thing is you comparing them to Boeing and being aeronautical.

It was very comical!
Like it was supposed to be

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[SLAMBO 0]

Nope.