Is Birdman the only manufacturer?

guest · November 23rd, 1999, 08:16 PM

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 · November 24th, 1999, 09:30 PM

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 · March 8th, 2000, 05:45 AM

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 · April 18th, 2000, 05:01 AM

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 · April 18th, 2000, 05:02 AM

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 · April 25th, 2000, 02:20 AM

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/arch...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/arch...ages/aile2.jpg

guest · January 23rd, 2001, 11:51 AM

Hi Knut,

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

Regards

Tim

guest · January 27th, 2001, 03:58 PM

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 · February 14th, 2001, 12:29 AM

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 · February 14th, 2001, 12:45 AM

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 · March 5th, 2001, 03:37 AM

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 · March 5th, 2001, 07:16 AM

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 · May 5th, 2001, 01:21 PM

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 · May 9th, 2001, 11:45 PM

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** · May 15th, 2001, 05:38 AM

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