Basejumper.com - archive

 

not a lot of people that are not squirrel people have two different new suits, at least people I know. I have a c3 and love it there is nothing I would jump that the c3 wouldn't be able to do and an A3 would. depends on what your jumping. Ive never jumped an a3 but I had an A1 and jumped an A2.

I saw Scotty-bob posting a video of a new suit called the Corvis (I think) due early 2019. It’s supposed to be a bit mellower version of the A3 from what little I could gather on his fb. It might be worth sending them an email about that too :)

I’ve done nearly 200 BASE jumps with my A3 and one with a C3. But I did the one on the C3 from Via and then the same exact jump in my A3 with same conditions less than an hour later. The first 3 ish seconds of the start we’re basically identical as expected and then the A3 was about 40-60’ higher through the rest of the arc. I wouldn’t say I was trying to start as fast as possible on either by it was same technique on both. The C3 was much easier to dive than the A3. I’ve got a C3 a couple weeks or so in a few months I can give more feedback but I’m guessing you want sooner info.

Message Gabriel Lott, he has a C3 and A3 and jumps them both regularly and can probably give you a much better opinion.

 

If still interested in this topic, I have a handful of jumps skydiving the C3 now. I am nowhere near using the suit to its full potential but have noticed quite a few differences. Mainly the way it dives, it is way less effort to dive it and likes to stay in whatever angle you put it in until you do something different. It also hits a steeper angle with flat or anhedral arm position before it starts to get less stable/rides the line of air deflection on the top of the wing making it want to buck you. The A3 wants to pull up from a dive whenever you relax vs the C3 will stay in the dive for the most part when relaxing and takes a counter effort to pull up. I also noticed it took a bit more effort to get a nice flare from it with a more precise entry to it compared to the easier flare of the A3, but the flare felt bigger on it too. They may just be a change in technique needed though as I haven't skydived my A3 in over a year and I remember the A3 felt different and a little harder to flare skydiving due to a much heavier and higher on my back rig that I'm used to compared to my BASE rig. So it may be that my flare technique is based around the weight and center of gravity of a base rig and the skydive rig is throwing me off. I can update once I BASE jump my C3 more.


If I was choosing one of the other, it would depend on the type of jump I'm doing. The starts seem very comparable between the two (although the A3 will be slightly better) so it really comes down to flying style. If you are flying flatter terrain (2:1 and above) I would prefer the A3 as it fly's really well at those angles and it feels a bit safer because when you are diving at that angle of terrain the suit is wanting to pull you up any time you relax it. At those angles in the C3 you will have to actively pull up from anything there by changing your body position to get away. For steeper terrain, I think I would prefer the C3 as it will be more stable at those angles and easier to fly on that terrain.

From what I've heard about the Corvid, the A3 and C3 are pretty similar with the Corvid being a bigger step away so if I had to choose 2 suits to have, it would probably be Corvid for shorter starts and flatter lines and C3 for steeper terrain. Luckily I have all three as there are quite a few times where I would want the A3 over the Corvid on shortish starts with long glide.