20kN

Depends on the suit. For a small suit, not really. Small suits are going to be hard if not impossible to gain altitude in during a flare. Some mid sized suits can do it, but only if you do it right. Putting the suit into a steep dive and then slamming it into a high AoA configuration super quick is not a flare. That will just have you plowing through disconnected air, slowing you down quick. But I am not the most experienced in the topic and so there are others that can comment better. Squirrel has some good resources on the matter on their website.

This is standard ZP vs standard ZP. The manufacturer says the WinX packs 5% smaller than the Storm, but I have never packed a Storm so that's not very useful to me. I asked for the measurement in cubic inches, but it doesent seem they have measured it before. If the 150 WinX packs like a 142 Storm that would make sense because the 150 WinX is actually a 144. The surface area of the canopies are smaller than the advertised size and this is mentioned in the manual. https://www.dropbox.com/s/6kex0zdkrl2ttbe/WINX%20MANUAL.docx?dl=0&fbclid=IwAR0ELViVyXm_g_cDy8Ax-P-6OrDyM4mgZrmWAm9ay69vT2AxYI-HEjVQoF4

Does anyone know how the WinX packs compared to the Pilot 7?

Well for one the Louts is a 9 cell with a higher aspect ratio and the Renegade is a 7 cell with a lower aspect ratio. I suspect the Renegade is closer to other non-WS specific 7-cells like the PD Storm than it is to a WS specific canopy like the Epicene. I dont think Brian would make a canopy that is extremely vanilla and boring to fly. However, that's what WS specific canopies are. They are usually LPV low bulk PN-9 type fabric that's intended to be as reliable and predictable as possible. I've flown the Epicene and the Horizon and found they fly like a semi-truck with flat tires, but that's the trade-off when you want opening reliability. I am not sure that anyone can make canopy that flies like a sports car while also making it rock-solid stable with 15 linetwists after a bad WS opening. Of course this is speculation as I have not flown a Renegade, but I'll report back if/ when I do.

I do try to flare the suit before I deploy. I push down on the arm wings and arch. However, it doesent result in the head-high orientation shown in the video. It more or less just levels me out with the horizon and drops my airspeed. You definitely aren't flaring :) From all your posts, you should really dedicate some time with a wing suit coach. It will help you progress far better than getting many different opinions here. Even if you have to travel and spend a few days with a quality coach you will gain a lot of insights into the basics and see video of what you are doing and how to correct. It's worth every penny if you want to be a good wingsuit pilot. Well, what I do is push down on the arm wings, which does change the airspeed for sure. It's hard to tell how it effects the angle of attack without having someone film me though. I have received coaching in the past and intend to get more in the future. But professional WS coaching is not easily available around my parts and requires extensive travel, so it only happens when I am on vacation. When I am at home, I try to jump with more experienced jumpers when possible and learn as much as possible from all available sources. Well, it's not clear what happened so I am not sure what the lesson is other than it's possible to get stuck in a spin (which I already knew). I've watched it several times but it's not clear what caused the instability. I am aware of the risks of becoming unstable near pull altitude, and so when I get close to pull time I try not to execute any maneuver that increases my risk of getting stuck in a spin. I try to practice that stuff up higher.

How was your suit unzipped if you had diving linetwists right upon deployment? Did you unzip your suit while spinning around? On another note, I noticed that many wingsuiters have metal D handles on the reserve instead of the soft pillow. I always joked it was because wingsuiters have to spend their money on $2000 wingsuits so they cannot afford soft pillows, but in all seriousness is there a specific reason for this or just coincidence?

Exactly! I often wonder why so many people try to make it harder than just that. Well I've seen several rather experienced WSers bring their arms in after deploying. Some of the people in the Squirrel instructional video on deployments do it if I recall right as well. The argument I got was that it reduces the size of your burble if you bring the arms in after pitching vs putting them back out into full flight.

I'm still a WS noob. About 50 WS jumps so far and this was one of my first questions to my FFC coach. However, I've gotten mixed answers so I am curious what others think. EPs: I have a MARD/ RSL, but of course we are all trained to assume these devices wont work. So, if I have a low speed mal like a spinning canopy and I'm on my back in my WS, when I cut away should I collapse all the wings and arch, or something else? I've seen people say to try to fly out of the cut away, so keep all the wings open. But if you're on your back spinning and you cut away, you're going to go in the wrong direction relative to the direction the suit is intended to fly. EPs: In the past I have unzipped my WS and stowed the leg wing straps to the button by my hips before unstowing my toggles. I then thought that if I have to cut away because one of the toggles gets stuck or something, I'd be cutting away with a WS that is partly unzipped. I have since changed to unstowing my toggles and performing a controlibity check before unzipping anything except my arm wings. Is that the ideal way of going about things, or is the first option fine? Decision altitude: My decision altitude is 2k with a deployment of 4k (3.5k on 4-way jumps) on belly/ FF jumps. On WS jumps I increase my deployment altitude to 4.5k, but keep the decision altitude at 2k. Should I raise the decision altitude to 2.5k? The main reason why I havent is to keep things simple so I dont have to memorize and then recall a ton of different altitudes depending on jump type. But if cutting away with a WS really increases the likeliness of problems on the reserve, then maybe an increase to 2.5k would be preferable? Thanks.

Regarding the arms, after you throw your PC do you bring the arms in to your center mass like you're doing a plank, or do you put the arms back out into flight to control your heading? I've seen people argue to bring the arms in to help reduce your burble, but the disadvantage is that it seems easier to start flying off heading since you have no arm wings to control your heading.

I do try to flare the suit before I deploy. I push down on the arm wings and arch. However, it doesent result in the head-high orientation shown in the video. It more or less just levels me out with the horizon and drops my airspeed. If using your knees to brake is not the most efficient option, what is? I know that flaring will drop the forward speed, but it also seems to decrease your fall rate. Say I'm flying behind someone at the same level, catching up to them. I will need to slow my forward speed, but not change levels. If I push down on the wings, it will slow me down, but I'll also climb up and above my friend since it will decrease my decent rate. So what would be the best option for this scenario if bringing the knees forward is not the solution? I am not super clear on flying fast in skydiving. I get it for BASE. Slow = stall = insufficient altitude to recover. However, in skydiving, if I stall my suit, I just point it head down and it recovers almost instantly as long as I remain stable. So is the main concern with flying fast in skydiving just to help prevent instability/ flat spins? When you speak about flying the suit as fast as possible, are we talking about trying to point the suit head down and fly very steep, or are we talking about just flying flat with the horizon and trying to keep the wings as flat and efficient as possible (e.g. point the toes, keep the arms straight and the arm wing flat)? I normally do the latter, but not the former. I've tried flying the suit in a very steep dive before and it felt a lot more dangerous than flying flat. The airspeed was very high, the suit was really twitchy and I thought that if I became unstable it would be harder to regain stability at that high air speed and steep angle. When flying a bit more flat, input to the suit resulted in a more stable and predictable output. But that's just my experience so far. I havent done too many WS jumps with the suit pinned very steep the whole time though.

This video demonstrates the way I try to deploy. As shown in the video, the pilot has his knees forward while deploying, as opposed to keeping the leg wing fully straight as you would in fully flight. The main difference between what he does in the video and what I do is that I am not able to keep as head-high as he is. My body is closer to perpendicular with the ground, but otherwise the general body position and the way he deploys matches fairly closely what I try to do. I dont know whether this is the best way to deploy, it's just what I have been doing so far and in the Swift it seems to work okay so far. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhCaQc8pJAU I've heard others say that, but I havent really understood the why so far. I've done several jumps where myself and another Swift flew as fast as possible by staying steep. I found the jumps to be more challenging than if they flew at a slightly less steep angle. The issue was that when flying that steep, if the other Swift is maxed out and in front of me, it's really hard to catch him because my maximum speed is going to be similar to his. On the other hand, I've flown steep with ATCs and Freaks and been fine. I was able to keep up the whole time, so I am not sure. It's probably more of a pilot limitation than a suit limitation. I dont know if it's right or wrong, but when I am the base I bring my knees forward to try to limit my forward speed until everyone catches up, then I go into full flight. I've found that makes for a more successful jump than just pinning it to the max and hoping everyone will catch up. Again, no idea if that's proper or not, just something I've tried.

Unfortunately at my DZ WS is a fringe discipline. There are maybe four somewhat regular wingsuiters at my entire DZ. As such, coaching can be a bit limited and easily half of my jumps end up being solo, but I try to get some advice or fly with someone better than me every chance I get. That's why I wanted 100 jumps on the S3 before flying the ATC because many of those jumps end up being solos. Anyway, I feel that my deployment technique is functional on the S3. I am not sure how it would transfer over to the ATC, but this is what I do. From full flight: 1. Flare by pushing down on the arm wings and hold for about three seconds until there is a noticeable decrease in flight speed. 2. Conduct the following simultaneously: a. Arch & head up b. Symmetrically reach back with both arms. c. Without collapsing the leg wing, bring my knees forward to about 60 degrees, just like flying in brakes. 3. While keeping the leg wing at 60 degrees like flying in brakes, bring the arm wings back out to full flight and toss the PC once my arms are fully extended. 4. Still keep the knees at 60 degrees like flying in brakes, but use the arm wings to continue flying as straight and symmetrical as possible until the parachute opens.** 5. As soon as the parachute opens, bring knees all the way up at 90 degrees, punch out of the arm wings, and grab the risers to attempt to clear any body twists that may happen. **I've been told by some that once I toss the PC, instead of keeping the arm wings in full flight to help stabilize my flight, I should collapse them to reduce my burble. I havent tried that yet though. **** The reason why I bring my knees foward to 60 degrees during deployment is because it helps remind me to bring them up fully once the parachute opens (to avoid getting thrown forward and almost kicking the risers), and I theorize it reduces my burble footprint since I am moving some of the leg wing under me and it further reduces my airspeed. No idea if that's true or not though. I dont know whether that would work for the ATC or not, but it's been working great on my Swift so far.

I have around 60 WS jumps. 10 on a Hatch, 50 on a Swift 3. I was looking into getting an ATC. I dont feel the need to fly an ATC now, but considering the lead time on a new suit I would likely be able to put in another 50 jumps on my Swift 3 by the time the ATC arrived. My goal is to put 100 jumps on my S3 total before switching suits. What I am wondering is how much of a step up from the Swift the ATC is and whether I would be better suited with a Funk 3 or ATC. I dont like the gripperless design of the Funk 3 all too much, but it does seem like a bit smaller of a suit. Thanks.