BirdMan & Canopy Chioce

[NathanL100 0]

What is the consencious on flying a Stiletto with a birdman. The loading would be about 1.4 and I've got about 500+ jumps, quite a few of those are Birdman jumps. I realize that you should fly a canopy that you are comfortable with I'm just a little wary of the spin up that Stilettos are so well known for. So is this setup asking to get spun up?

Base # 942
The race is long and in the end, its only with yourself.

[maretus 0]

I've used to fly a stiletto loaded at ~1.5 and I made ~40 Birdman jumps with it. I had no serious problems with it what so ever, linetwists occurred only once or twice. I'd say it's all about how you feel about your canopy. If you are comfortable with it and your deployment procedures with wingsuit are ok and you feel comfortable with your deployment in wingsuit, then it's all good. Stiletto's can spin up good but so can any other (elliptical) canopy. So I (or anybody else) can give you advice or share our experiences but it all comes down to you, how do you feel about your canopy ?

http://www.ufufreefly.com

[TomAiello 26]

I fly a Stiletto loaded at about 1.5 when I make Bird-man skydives. I had problems with line twists at first, but it all turned out to be in my body position. Once I got my technique sorted out, the canopy was fine (I've never had line twists on the canopy without the suit, so I've always been skeptical of the "spinetto" label).

-- Tom Aiello

Tom@SnakeRiverBASE.com
SnakeRiverBASE.com

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I don't have any problems whatsoever flying a Stilletto with a birdman suit, but then again, neither do I have a problem flying my Velocity 79 with my BirdMan suit. It's all about confidence in your ability to fly your suit and your canopy through the opening.

Chuck

[jari 0]

On Monday Kim, Kev and i did a shoot for popular science mag and on my third jump I had to cut away my 79 and use my 106 instead. damn that 106 is slow

I had just a few twists, canopy was flying straight, no problems I thought. I cut away my leg and started kicking. This time I did something differently though since instead of starting to untwist the canopy dove down, started spinning and making more twists. It was impressive how quickly all this happened and much G's there were in such a short time. I am glad I cut away immediately, it gets very violent very quickly.

Sally, thank you, I'll bring the bottle.
Henri, your newest cut-in-lateral Wings work fantasticly.
PD, thank you for the fantastic reserve.

The point is that you may jump any canopy you like with wingsuit but if you jump high performance parachute with high wing loading treat it with respect and schoose all your gear accordingly. BTW, my cut away ratio (wingsuit) is 1:450 and all flights with canopies between 75-96 sqf. If I jumped Sabre 2 with recommended wing loading I propbably had 0 cut aways?

Long and safe flights!

Jari

"Hey, don't be afraid, ever. Because, it's just a ride."

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

Well, I have had two chops in a bit over 200 flights; both on canopies well under 100 square feet (75's). One thing that I found to be critical to successfully jumping a main that small with a wingsuit is line trim. No matter how perfect your body position, if your main is out of trim to one side, your chances of spinning up increase exponentially. That being said, the vectran lines on my Velocity 79 aren't prone to that, so I have had a brilliant time jumping it with my SF-3. Just because Jari mentioned it though: I have a Sabre 2 97 in PD team colors on the way just for BirdMan ops and higher elevation jumping. Since I have three rigs, I see no reason whatsoever not to have one setup and sewn in all the time. The Sabre 2 97 will be the main in that rig. Small enought to fit in the tiniest rig, swoop the piss out of, yet smarter than my Velocities in the opening department.

Cheers to all, and I can't wait to see you in Panama City!

Chuckie