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I have been wearing chest & spine armour for nearly all of my jumps which have mainly been 400ft cliff jumps. I'm now getting into tracking jumps from higher cliffs but have found that my chest/spine armour really does not fit at all well under the PF track suit. PF recommend that the jacket be tucked into the trousers but this forces the armour upwards and makes it almost un-wearable. Leaving the jacket on the outside of the trousers blocks some of the ram air inlets on the thighs, is less aerodynamic and not satisfactory.

This then made me wonder if armour is even necessary on tracking (and wing suit) jumps when deployment is some distance from the object.

As I don’t have much access to other jumpers and have read all I can find in the forum(s) I respectfully ask:

Q1 – Do you use chest/spine armour on either tracking or WS jumps?

Q2 – Is this level of protection really required on such jumps?

Thanks in advance

John

I think that is a personal decision, with factors like, what does the landing area look like, how hard is it to get to the best landing area, where would you land a somewhat screwed up canopy (water vs rock garden), etc.

I will start off by saying that I wear full armour on almost all of my jumps. I guess I got lucky, but my armour fits well under my PF suit. I have also wondered about the benefits of wearing armour on slider up jumps where you are opening a distance from the object. Several people made comments on my last trip to the Swiss Valley, things like “better insurance would be a good track” as they saw me putting armour on. My response was, “yes, but even better insurance would be a good track and armour”.

I think that the decision to wear armour or not should not only be based on your intended landing area, but also the area you would have to land if everything went to shit (like a 180 with line twists). Yes you may be opening far from an object, but what if? That is why we wear armour, right?

A couple ideas for you:
1. I have heard that the pants are the majority of the benefit in the tracking suit. I have heard of people wearing tight shirts with pants, and even saw a guy sewing closed his vents on his PF jacket. You could try a different jacket, one with more room to cover your armour. Be cautious as it may fly different than you were used to with the whole suit.

2. Maybe try some different armour, some that fits tighter. So that you can fit the armour and jacket (if possible)

3. I sometimes saw just the spine armour sticking out between the jacket and pants. Would this help at all? Can you tuck just the front of the jacket in? So that the vents are not blocked, but the armour can sit better?

Hopefully there is something useful for you in this post.

my understanding is that you ALWAYS jump arm/or under something - to eliminate snag points , , , haven't seen yours

dress 4 the crash - not the cruise
but, you do what you want cuz that's what base jumpers do -like maggot

I wear full armour on almost all my jumps these days. As has already been said, even if you're opening a long way from the cliff, there are often plenty of hazards that are armour-worthy on big walls.

Our local terminal wall is overhung and gorgeous, but the landing area, while huge, is on high-angle talus strewn with head-sized ankle breakers and larger boulders and bluffs, all at 7500' elevation. I've made good use of elbow, knee, and hip armour on many occasions there.

A friend of mine tripped on, well, nothing, exiting our big wall. As 1200 feet, it's barely terminal, and those of us left at the exit point worried he might not make it, as he disappeared tumbling ass over tea kettle. In a situation like that, your odds of an off-heading are through the roof, and armour would be a major plus. He actually managed to open pointed away from the wall, but I certainly wouldn't have counted on it.

I'm always a little surprised at how many people jump the popular Norwegian wall with absolutely minimal armour. Granted, it's a terminal wall with a large grassy landing area, and there's no good reason to wind up in the ample boulder field between the wall and the beach. But bad reasons will break your arms/legs/back as surely as good ones will, so I try to prepare for the worst.

I wear Dainese Shuttle Pro armour under a PF tracking suit without trouble. For me, the trick is to pull the bottom of the back protector right down to my tailbone, and cinch the pants over both the jacket and the cumberbund. This seems to keep the back protector in place.

Michael