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Hey,

In my tracking-dives with my Phoenix suit I'm using what I'll refer to as the Han Solo style. I like the palms up aspect of it, it seems to cup my shoulders by default, and shape a better surface in my jacket.

Another benefit is that the body stays more symmetrical during the pitch. You can try this for yourself. Take a default skydive track position, palms down and close to the body. Now reach for the pilotchute and notice how the elbow moves. Now do the Han Solo tracking position and reach for your pilotchute. Notice how the elbow doesn't move at all.

Anyway...

Pending the weather and clean undies, I'll be doing my first terminal cliff jump soon. As with any new element added to the mix, I'm back at square one, chockfull of questions, doubt and excitement. Usually, this results in me opening up IE and ranting on the forums...

So I'm trying to decide how to exit. Stability-wise it seems safest to exit in a box, transition to a delta quickly and then continue into a track.

However, the best trackers have developed a new exit method to start getting forward drive quicker. Unless you end up going head-low and unstable, this method seems safer because it gives more distance from the object.

Check out http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hansho/Vikesaksa.wmv and scroll to exactly two minutes into the video. It has great footage of the Han Solo style exit I'm talking about.

My question is whether or not such an exit is an advanced maneuvre. Are the risks of going head-low much bigger? Would I be better off doing the standard box exit, also considering it's only an 8 or 9 second jump anyway?

Thanks,

Jaap Suter

p.s. I'm sure that other people came up with this style of exit and tracking too, but Han Solo wrote about it in this post so that just kinda stuck. Sorry if somebody else deserves the credit.

Yep.

Then transition to a track. With limited exit experience and fairly limited tracking experience, it's best not to attempt tracking right off the exit point.

"The force is strong within you young Padawan, but you are not yet a Jedi"

From a newbie to another. Go for the stable exit first. If you plan on doing a running exit, make sure you got the manoeuvre down. I did my first runing exit at a terminal wall a while back... and screwed up the exit! Never got to the tracking part...
I have the jump on video, but I am not really proud of it . But put it this way, I showed the video to a Finnish guy and his answer was "DUDE!!! you need to put this one on the web... and you should have played lottery!"
So my two cents, go for the nice stable exit and then worry about the tracking performance. Tracking performance/efficiency should not be a decisive factor in the outcome of your first terminal cliff jump!

Smoothly is better than quickly. Don't rush into the position or you might end up frantically trying to claw your way out of shit and/or doing your first aerial (unplanned). That was no fun at all.

I was at an exit point on Tatooine at Beggars Canyon and saw one of those crazy ozzies doing what they called a chewbacca exit. They were tracking after 2 ft of descent. I am working on that exit. Your really able to out track those imperial guards!!

that is some spectacular footage
thanks for sharing.

i think i'll play with this position when i get my wingsuit back from repair.

would you please be so kind as to tell me what the two jumpers in black are wearing at around T=0.48?
Are these the new Phoenix two piece suits?

Be safe

kleggo

no I think they are made by another company, pressurized i believe

I gotta second that one. Great eye candy. Thanks Hans for editing that up.


Jaap, Youre gonna love the terminal jump. The guys in the video know what theyre doing.....hence more advanced techniques.

While exiting, focus on sticking your exit flat and stable (what ever you feel most solid doing). Once you feel solid in the air (probably at 1 second or so), smoothly (not necessarily slowly) transition into your tracking body position of choice.

As you make more of these type of jumps you can transition quicker and quicker and still be solid because of your experience.
And Jaap.....remember to have fun and dont die!

PS-I got the shirt, thanks.

~Johnny

I can garantuee the fun part. I'll do my best on the rest....

Thanks!

Anyway, I got some PM's and it seems that not everybody was familiar with the awesome videos that Han Solo has posted on his website. There are several more, check them out:

http://www.stud.ntnu.no/~hansho/

Han Solo posts here as well, so I recommend sending him a PM if you want more information. Also, read this post by him.

Thanks for the advice everybody. The general concensus is that I exit in a box-position. Which is what I'm most familiar with from my slider-down jump, so I'll stick with that. Thanks!

Cheers,

Jaap Suter

Jaap,
until you can stick a good horizontal exit, do not transition to a track too quickly. If you transition too quickly in the subterminal environment and have even the slightest rotation in an exit that should be ideally horizontal or slightly head high, you will tend to pitch head down quickly. For most jumpers, transitioning to a track in one or two seconds doesn't add that much to the total 'flight.'

Jaap Suter is such a cool name... I keep thinking its from one of the Stars Wars films.

i'm glad you all enjoy the vids.


the first jumper is me wearing a nike jacket and a regular pair of hiking pants. the ace up my sleeve is some rubber bands and a cord to tighten it.

the second jumper is a whole other story. this is a super suit (home made) under development, which has been refined for over a year. these jumps were made last year. this year it is even better. some of you might have seen it at the heliboogie in kjaerag. we logged glideratios better than 2:1 after 15 sec of flight with it!

I removed a bunch of extraneous one (and more) liners from this thread. If you guys want, I can move them over into the Bonfire.

Werd!