Bird-Man Track Pantz...

[imported_mknutson]

We are working on getting this information from Bird-man right now.

[Cajones]

If they only cost you $25 and they work better, how about building me a pair? In fact, maybe a little competition would bring the cost down so we could all afford this new flying marvel... How much for a pair for 36x34's?

[Dwain]

I've been test jumping various prototypes (including the first prototype ever made) for a year now in both the skydiving and BASE environments.

I wrote a review for Skydiving magazine that will be published in the November edition, however I can't post that review until after the November edition of Skydiving has been released.

However here are some key points I found:

* They require some practice (via skydiving) to become proficient at. You'll still get better performance without much practice, but to really fly the pants well you need to put in some effort skydiving - much like with a wingsuit.

* Optimum body position when tracking with the pants is different to when tracking without. You need to work harder with the upper portion of your body.

* My terminal fall rate is less than 80 mph when in the optimum position (data from Garmin Summit GPS).

* Glide ratio way exceeds anything I could ever achieve with a normal track.

* On a BASE jump the pants kick in at about the 5 sec mark, but really take off at about the 9-10 second mark. Note that the final product will have vent inlets on the upper portion of the leg that will help the pants inflate at even lower airspeeds.

* On a 13 sec delay I would typically double the horizontal distance of the best trackers in the group.

* I didn't find they had any negative effects on other flying positions in BASE (such as aerials, back tracking, flying relative to other jumpers, and doing camera).

* You need to be proficient in the basic art of tracking to reap the benefits of this new technology. In other words they will not magically turn a bad tracker into a good tracker.

My rating of this product: two thumbs up, 5 stars etc etc.
IMHO Robert Pecnik is an engineering genius when it comes to human flight.

See attachment for pic (photo by Karin S).