What was your very first wing suit size.

Small sized wing-suit having leg wings that extends out to somewhere around shin and Large having leg wings that extends beyond the foot and medium size somewhere in between the two.


And it be super helpful if you can also state the jump number when you first flew one and if you can share and explain your most difficult part of flying a wing suit.

First 3 jumps on Prodigy, afterwards an I bird for 1 jumps. Followed by a Phantom 1 for about 20-25 jumps and now happily jumping my Intrudair Piranha 2. Wingsuiting isn't my main discipline, just something for those nice heavily clouded skies to play around when there is nobody to jump with ;-)

I had about 300 jumps when I made my first flight on an iffy fitting Birdman Classic. The most difficult thing for me so far, once I bought my T-Bird, was learning how to shut it down enough to flock with others wearing small suits.

14 jumps on a Birdman Firebird followed by 200+ on a Phantom2. Late last season started trying different suits like Ghost3, S-Bird and Vampire 4/5.

At first the hardest thing about it for me was going fast, could never catch up to people. Most would tell me to get a bigger suit but I put in the time on my P2 anyway and got some coaching instead

Birdman Classic 2002 (there was no other option)
Skyflyer 1 2003
Vampire 1
Jii Wings Glide System 1 2005 (first serious big wing wing from ankles to wrists)
Vampire 4 2007
Venom 2010
Tony X Wing 2010
Viper 2013

150 jumps on a phantom 2. wingsuits are not difficult to fly. the hardest part is to train yourself properly not to exit into the tail. just keep your head low.

I had 200 jumps and started on an I-bird.

I had a slow and difficult start (with control). I had about 20 flights before I felt like I could fly where I wanted to if someone was flying with me.

After 26 flights I went to the R-bird with good success.

I started on a birdman classic ( still on it ) with almost 400 jumps. The hardest part that I found was trying to not go low on everyone. I'm almost flying it in the stall position. I'm gonna attend my ffc next month and am excited about trying new suits!

3 on Prodigy 1
8ish on GTI
75 or so skydives on Phantom 2
18 BASE jumps on Phantom 2
Currently Skydiving and BASE Jumping a Colugo

started out on a Piranha that I am still jumping

156th skydive, 3 prodigy jumps
175th skydive, FFC in Birdman Firebird
Various ill fitting P2s. and expert for 20 or so jumps
Wicked wingsuits tbird 30ish jumps
S fly expert (that actually fit) 50ish jumps
New Ghost 3 200+ Jumps
20 or so V4 and various other suits


All this before first WSBASE jump in the Ghost, made a mistake on WSBASE #5 that with less experience in the suit could have very easily cost me my life... experience made it scary but fairly easily handled was stoked to have waited.


Now in an Aura from a colugo

Probably more detail then you were looking for but someone else might be interested. Some may consider this a fast progression, others a fairly conservative one... for me it was just right.

Most difficult part was being above average weight for my height and sinking out constantly, didn't get a bigger suit... Lost ten pounds and learned to fly the Sfly expert I had (hint keep your speed up and be aggressive!!!)

A borrowed GTI .... thanks Pete ..... you too Ed.

around 300th jump, with Fred Fugen from Babylon at Empuriabrava Xmas Boogie 2003.
It was on my S-Fly suit from flyyourbody. Later the name changed to S-Fly Expert.

I did 2 jumps on a Prodigy at around 200-205 jumps.
Around 300 jumps I started jumping a Phantom (P1).
Borrowed a P2 at about 30 WS jumps, and loved it!.
Kept jumping the P1 till my P2 arrived (total about 50 jumps on the P1).
At around 150-200 WS jumps I started looking for a bigger suit for hang time, played with Ghost, Ghost2, R-Bird, but didn't like them. Stayed with the Phantoms and ordered a P3 after about 650 jumps on my P2.
Put about 100-ish jumps on my P3 (don't have access to my log book to check).
Somewhere in the 200-500 WS jumps range I jumped a myriad of suits a handful of times, including SuperMach1, S-Bird, Vampire3, Vampire4, Ghost2, R-Bird.

Altogether I have about 800 wingsuit jumps, with 90% of them on Phantoms.

First 10 - Birdman GTI - easy to fly and stable
next 30 - Birdman S3 - enjoy to fly
next 20 - Vampire 1 - enjoy the speed
then Birdman Blade - enjoy the flocking

Right at jump 200 I did a couple of jumps on a Prodigy. Then I upgraded to a Firebird while waiting for my P2. Right around jump 50 I switched to an R Bird which I flew for well over 300 flights. Then I moved to an S Bird as my main suit. Since then I have flown many prototype suits including the Scorpion but I still keep my S. Luckily I have access to a few R birds for when the mood takes me.

The biggest difference I learned when I first started was that everything was different. The gear, the exit, the pattern, landing with the tandems.

259 jumps - TS Aerobat

Did two jumps at around 250 on a Phantom then got a Birdman fire bird and have about 10-15 jumps on that. Just ordered a Intrudair Piranha 2. Hope to have that for a while. God I hate the way you put together the firebird. I just put it on one of my rigs and don't take it off anymore.

how do you like the piranha

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stayhigh

Small sized wing-suit having leg wings that extends out to somewhere around shin and Large having leg wings that extends beyond the foot and medium size somewhere in between the two.


And it be super helpful if you can also state the jump number when you first flew one and if you can share and explain your most difficult part of flying a wing suit.

Birdman Classic (15 skydives/1st Basejmp)
GTI
Vampire1
Vampire3
Venom

In this present era of large wings, I am very surprised and a little freaked out that people are jumping large suits with very little preparation to entering the WS environment progressing from smaller, more forgiving, wings? Especially in their rush to fixed object jumping. Looking at this thread I see a normal, common sense, progression from small and intermediate size suits, yet in the last year or so, I have noticed a lot of low time jumpers immediately trying to begin wingsuiting in what only one year previously would have been the highest performance suit on the market. I am alarmed that suits that two years previously were "expert only " are now finding their way into the hands of first time wingsuiters. I have been an AFF instructor for over 20 years and can tell you from first hand experience that this is what's happening!!!
I have a ton of respect for people like Simon at "Wicked ", who are trying to teach the up and comers, but am curious to know if anyone else is noticing this phenomena ?

Regards, B

i have to agree stalthy! i have met alot of these jumpers myself who by jump 75 are strapping on auras and apache rebels, some people just think they are cooler by flyng super suits early when they dont really even know how to fly theit body right,i myself am fairly new to the wingsuit world and i flew my swift for well over 100 jumps before i thought myself capable enough to get the funk,, after getting that i can easily say i have no need for anything bigger for awhile! but nothing can annoy me more then seeing these people who have less then 100 WS jumps or jump a wingsit maybe a few times a year with barely over 100 and jumping these supersized suits

You're just jealous!

update flying an aura now sorry Brenden..
It seems now the intermediate suits are considered beginner,the bigg suit from a few years ago are consider medium and It is the norm from what I have seen to go from you first small suit to a mattress.
Im guilty and so are all of my friends.
Put 200 on my piranha
jumped a venom a few times
jumped a calugo twice
now on my aura

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Small sized wing-suit having leg wings that extends out to somewhere around shin and Large having leg wings that extends beyond the foot and medium size somewhere in between the two.

I'd redefine it a bit more

Small/beginner: armwing reaching to waist/hips
Intermediate: armwing anywhere from airwing at hip area to lower leg
Advanced/Large: armwing down to feet / legwing extending past

Ive did the first 600 to 1000 jumps on Classic/Skyflyer1, 3, 3S.
After that jumped a mixture of suits, but Id say out of the last 2000 or so wingsuit, still about half is in the PF Shadow.

The flying technique is the same in any suit. And its a lot easier to master, feel and apply in a small one. The added hangtime gives people the idea of 'better flying' but in terms of mastering technique, inputs, angle and all-round control. The small suits are the way to go...

Going from a small suit to a bigger one was never really a problem, due to technique/inputs having been sorted on around a 1000 small suit jumps first.

BirdMan Classic when I had 1500 jumps in 1999
BirdMan GTi (which I later gifted to Chris Frisella who owns BoneHead Composites)
BirdMan Skyflyer (which I sold to Scott Campos a year later)
BirdMan S3, then another one of those, then an S6 for about 1500 flights.. I still own one S3 and one S6.
BirdMan Blade (which I did not like and sold to Phil Peggs)
S-Fly expert and ProFly (which I still own)
PF Phantom, Acro, Phantom2 (over 1000 jumps on the Phantoms, which I still own)
Tony Raptor, R-bird, and S-bird
PF Vampire
Rigor Mortis
Sugar Glider (which is in a box somewere)
PF Havok Carve which will likely never be de-rigged from my WS rig.