Is Birdman the only manufacturer?

[guest]

I have heard about a French made suit that is supposedly better with a single handle cutaway on the chest. Can anybody comment with some experience?

Luv Slim

[guest]

I believe Adrian Nichols sells his version also. Here is a quote from an article about wingsuits taken from the Wall Street Journal dated Sept. 30, 1999. "His wingsuits are sewn by his girlfriend Katarina Ollikainen, who also makes them for herself and jumps with him. She will sell her suits to skydivers she knows are qualified." If you are looking to get a wingsuit I think the Bird-Man is a better choice. You will probably never see a situation in which you have to cut away the wings, but if you do wouldn't it be nice if you could?

[guest]

The french guy who designed the suit is Loic JEAN-ALBERT who is for me the best skydiver I have never seen in my life, I have seen using the suit from Brento and went 1 and half further away than Patrick Degayardon , Loic flew the suits in french island La Reunion and did incredible stuff like staying one minute at 100 feet from the ground with no chance to pull before he caught more air !
anyway he is not really trying to sell the suit, for me it is a better design, one more step ahead than the birdman, the guy who makes the suit for him is Stephane Zunino, he sells the suit for 4 500 french francs, if you want to know more, let me know, but YES with no doubt it is a better suits, the glyde ratio is much better, best regards, eric

[guest]

Hi,

Can anyone help me get in touch with stephane zunino, the maker of this wingsuit?
E-mail, phone anything?

(or Eric Fradet, I got the impression that he had some more info)

I would also like to get in touch with people that has tried both the Birdman suit, and this french suit, and hear comments about their abilities.

Hope someone can help me,

Knut

[guest]

Hi,

Can anyone help me get in touch with stephane zunino, the maker of this wingsuit?
E-mail, phone anything?

(or Eric Fradet, I got the impression that he had some more info)

I would also like to get in touch with people that has tried both the Birdman suit, and this french suit, and hear comments about their abilities.

Hope someone can help me,

Knut

[guest]

Salut Eric, content de voir un français ici, et quel français !!
Let's continue in English ...
If you are interested in Loic Jean-Albert suit design, you should have a look at the following address : http://home.nordnet.fr/~paramag/archives/n145/articleGB.html
It doesn't give any information on dealers but it give interesting informations, especially on the differences between Loic's suit and other ones.

http://home.nordnet.fr/~paramag/archives/n145/images/aile2.jpg

[guest]

Hi Knut,

What were your finding on the wingsuit? Which one, if any, did you like best?

Regards

Tim

[guest]

Hi Knut,

Like Tim, I would like to know the results of your investigation. Wich suit did you found out to be better and for what reasons?
Or may be someone else can make some comments about this.
Thanks and... Have fun!

Mário

[guest]

there are 2 french guys who make wingsuits.one is Loic jean-albert who has made that wing suit you've heard about which has very good performances,better than birdman.The other is Jean noel itsztein who occassionally makes wing suits but doesn't commercialise them but work also quite well.
blue sky's
Alastair

[guest]

hi,

i would not say that loic' suit is better then bird-man, but just that loic can fly a suit like nobody else...

[guest]

About the French vs. Birdman.

I started jumping the French suit last year and I have allot of jumps together with classic birdman's and it is faster then a classic birdman, there is no doubt about that. It is a more advanced suit so I not that surprised

We will see about how it will stand up against Birdman's new suit. The Skyflyer :) because it looks really fast :)

See ya
PerFlare

[guest]

Hello.
I am not familiar with french wingsuits but have some knowledge about Bird-Man products. There are three different designs available ( Classic II, GTi and Skyflyer) all of which have different different characteristics. Bird-Man int. has tested and recorded performance of each suit. You can ask bird-man for any suit-related data they have by e-mail or fax.

[guest]

Those of you that have been lost, have now been found. The new suit that is being made is the "Cross Bow" by Parasports Italia. It does out perform the birdman. I have had the luxery of demoing the suits and testing them in flight side by side with Birdmans best. Lets just say I have had proud bird man owners place orders for the "Cross Bow". If you would like to testfly one or would like more info, please feel free to contact me at Skydive Az or KLBreezz2@aol.com or (206)890-2539. As of right now I am the primary dealer for the suits in the states, I have colors, prices, some stats and and and. These are the suits of Loic's design. For those of you used to flying a birdman you will enjoy the simplicity of design. The suit is a wing, not a suit with wings.

Alexander

PS Slim, you have my best wishes. I have recovered since hof, and am flying once again.

[guest]

The biggest difference between the FLYING suits is in the person WHO is FLYING the suit - NOT the suit itself. You can give "the best" wing suit to the poor flyer and he (she) will still be poor flyer. Excellent flyers will fly excellent because they can feel what is happening NOT because they have this or that.

Very important issue are your personal measures. It is obvious that person 190 cm tall with 75 kg will fly much better than another that is 160 cm tall with 80 kg no matter if it is with the same TYPE of the suit. If two persons have different body measures that means suits are not the same - one or another will have bigger wings -more or less lift. These are fact of the aerodynamics!

Statement like this that "one is better than another" are STUPID without the information who flew one or another and with what (BirdMan have three different models...).

Always keep safety in mind - that is something where BIRDMAN is better. I heard some HORROR ACCIDENTS with the French WS where cutaway handle run in to the suit - that is not possible with the BirdMan suits. And wing-cutaway system on Birdman is much more confident to me than the other.

At the end - I am not a dealer of the WS or any kind of skydiving equipment. I just like to fly WS (Skyflyer of course)!

[crwper]

I have flown the Crossbow suit once, and have not flown the Birdman at all. To me, the Crossbow seems to do a pretty good job of getting the suit around the harness. I'm not familiar with the Birdman design.

If I remember correctly, the Crossbow uses a snap just below the cutaway to keep the handle exposed, and then a zipper goes up from there. I can see that if the snap came undone, the handle could disappear into the suit. How does Birdman prevent this problem?

Could someone with experience on both suits comment on how the cutaway problem mentioned here can happen with the Crossbow but not with the Birdman? Thanks.

Michael

[guest]

stephane zunino is on
home t00 33 494609446
mobile t00 33 607788867
until last yr he was making suits himself but was planning to employ a manufacturer to make them from abt sept 2000...hope my info is still current?
salutations...tim

[guest]

I AGREE WITH "BORIS SKYFLYER"......VERY NICE EXPLANATION BORIS...........2PAC

[guest]

What I can add to this is that during Vichy's boogie 2000, several people with all levels of practice and all kinds of body shapes were flying WS together with different suits (Birdman -even last models flown by the Birdman dudes themselves-, Crossbow, and others types...) and it appeared clearly to ALL that the CROSSBOW was flying far better... to the point that Birdman dudes didn't want to fly in the group again and left Vichy to fly at another dropzone....

[guest]

If you were in Vichy, you will know that French organizer did not allowed Birdman dudes to have first flight courses. Therefore they went to another location. Looks like French way to fight against another manufacturer to me....

[guest]

there actually 2 snaps, an inside one and an outside one. Between the two it should hold the handles on the outside of the wing. NOTE: this is true if your suit was measure for the rig(s) you are jumping. If someone should put a rig in your suit with a smaller harness, they should try a flex test, to make sure it will not get sucked into the suit.

[guest]

Dear Boris,
It is obvious that you are a limited in your capacity to think, so I shan't be witty, just straight forward.

Your quote
>Statement like this that "one is
>better than another" are STUPID
>without the information who flew one
>or another and with what (BirdMan have
>three different models...).

I can understand how someone would think that such statements might be made without the proper research or with out any research at all. As you would probably be like that yourself. Please rest assured that we did (and are continuing) tests. Generally we take the same pilot put him or her in the three suits we have available. Then we have them make 5 - 10 flights per suit performing set maneuvers each flight. Afterward we gather the info from the protrack, chart and graph it, and compare. Naturally none of these pilots are in your class. In our defense, we try and get people who are enthusiastic about wing suit flight for the test.

If you would like send me your e-mail, and I can pass on some of the info. It probably will not do much for you, but, what the hell.

In closing, I would like to add, Boris, it is nice to see someone as opinionated as yourself. It is truly a pleasure knowing that people of all types can enjoy our sport. For me, personally, it is much more important that there are those that are willing to try the new, and I give them much respect for forging the cutting edge, that some of us choose to follow. As for the prodigies of this sport, (like yourself), I can only hope that they take the time to pass on their knowledge, and educate the masses of us out there.

Tchuss,

Alexander