rrmtopo

Here's some more information. ~1200 jumps, all FS, about a third 4-way and the other third experienced 16-40 ways. Aero Engineer by trade so I can make reasonable observations but no instrumented data. 1.7 wingloading. A lot on Pilots then the last 200 on Zulu so for what I do I like a little flatter trimmed canopy. I'm not a swooper, but one of these canopies made me fall in love with flying the parachute again. ~10 jumps on Crossfire3 ~25 jumps on x-fire The Crossfire3 is trimmed a LOT steeper than x-fire. Suspended under, it has a similar planform of the Zulu (leading and trailing edge taper) which from pictures looks a lot like the Crossfire 2. As mentioned before, super snively, takes a while to open but it is soft. Good harness input, light front risers, responsive rears, loooooong flair like a pilot to shut it down. Liked how it flew performance wise, but it was really ground hungry. Large DZ, spent half the time on rears to make it back into the pattern. xfire.....I went into this demo exercise already with my mind made up on the Crossfire 3 based on what I read (some of it their marketing). I jumped the xfire just to be thorough, certainly didn't intend to like it so fucking much. Suspended beneath it has a schumann-like planform (tapered leading edge with an almost straight tail) and the openings were interesting. Fairly quick at first, not hard, just positive. Then a soft finish. Lose maybe a third less altitude on opening from the Crossfire 3. Also good harness input, a little heavier on the fronts but it's trimmed a little flatter so thats expected. Lighter than a Pilot but not as light as the Crossfire 3. For busy large dropzones where 90s are the rule in the pattern, a nice smooth front 90 to landing generated good energy. Initial flair stroke as compared to the Crossfire 3 is about half, but that bottom end even in no wind is amazing. One of my buddies in the know tells me to wait for PD's next midrange offering, but I don't want to give the xfire demo back just yet. I like that canopy.

Marketing appears to be directed towards the military so it might be expensive, but great low profile snag-less case design. [inline Mohoc_1.jpg] [inline Mohoc_2.jpg]

On my mind this week, brother. Wish you were jumping TeXXas 20 Ways with us Saturday. Blue Skies, Woody.

Since he's about to graduate college, would suck if his new employer asks to review his social media.......

Def fake, but the part where he is "skimming" the water reminded me of the aerodynamic phenomena known as "wing in ground effect". When skimming the surface of the ground (or water), starting within one wingspan of that surface, induced drag is reduced thus increasing lift. Anyone who has flown a high wing Cessna and a low wing Piper has felt the difference. It would be interesting to run the numbers to determine what wing-loading would be required to get the suit stall speed low enough to be survivable (repeatably) when in ground effect on water. Add the aeration as a safety factor. Interesting, especially since the current suits have a fairly small span, that's a really small margin for error.

There are actually quite a few of us out at Spaceland who had been jumpers in the 80s and allowed life to get in the way of us and skydiving. I got back into the sport going on 3 years ago after a 21 year layoff and could not be happier getting back in the sky. My opinion on gear may be a little different. I'm an engineer and one of the aspects of the sport that pleasantly surprised me since I jumped last in 1990 was the gear, and the advancements in safety that had come (AADs, RSL/Skyhook & gear made to incorporate those advancements in the safest possible ways). Spaceland has new, excellent student rigs with AAD/Skyhook RSLs, you can use those during training and then decide what you want to do. If you can afford it, why expose yourself to potentially greater risk with less safe gear than what is available now? JMHO. Welcome back! Randy

I'm in the minority as I'm an old-school jumper, but fuck me, boogies used to be about good times. Just say the word boogie now and half a dozen people want to shake your hand but have their other hand in your pocket. I understand "business is business", but IMHO some of those stealing from the sport are just stealing from the sport.

Thanks for the reply's y'all, I asked for specific value(s) based on the focus of my report. Everything else, while interesting, is beyond the scope of my paper (and holy crap, I had not thought of the manufacturing time for a wingsuit. Wow, thanks). I did receive via PM some very good information that fits my needs, so thanks again for y'all's help! Blue skies

Thanks for the guesses, but that's why I specifically asked for an "average" process time. Once all the nylon is cut, "on average" how long does the processes take. :) Spent a couple hours googleing this subject, although I could have missed it...thanks for the obvious brother. I think what JM meant was: call the various manufacturers up and ask a real person. Otherwise, the info that you will be getting is what people remember the wait for theirs was two or five years ago. LOL, I realize I can call manufacturers next week, just asking if anyone here on DZ,com "has a ballpark" knowledge of the process time.

Spent a couple hours googleing this subject, although I could have missed it...thanks for the obvious brother. I think what JM meant was: call the various manufacturers up and ask a real person. Otherwise, the info that you will be getting is what people remember the wait for theirs was two or five years ago. LOL, I realize I can call manufacturers next week, just asking if anyone here on DZ,com "has a ballpark" knowledge of the process time.

Spent a couple hours googleing this subject, although I could have missed it...thanks for the obvious brother.

Doing a little research for my last, final paper for my masters degree. The class is an Engineering Economy course, learning methods for design economics, alternative selection, risk & sensitivity analysis. Since this work is keeping me from the sky, might as well write my paper about something I'm passionate about. Not looking for any sensitive information, would just like a good ballpark figure for the total construction time of an average non-crossbraced canopy (including the QA process). Thanks

Holy necro post, nice 12 year old thread.....

Class act all around, I always enjoyed any opportunity to share the sky with Woody. Very fortunate to have been on a Night SCR jump with him last summer. Here is a little glimpse of his awesome personality from last year's TeXXas 20 ways. Blue skies Woody.

Maybe I missed something here, just before the level canopy flight departs into the left spin, from the video I observed: * toggles stowed * slider collapsed but didn't appear to have been pulled down past toggles, left side of the slider had slipped lower than where the left toggle was stowed, but not intentionally pulled down * canopy initiated the left turn BEFORE the right toggle was un-stowed (go back and stop the video when he touches the stowed right toggle in the video, the canopy is already turning). It appears to me the initial departure from level flight was a harness turn to the left, neither toggle was touched until after the canopy had already started turning. Whether the increased speed from the turn caused the slider to lower on the left who knows. Seems our jumper was distracted & just didn't pay attention to the details.