Yo !
>However if somebody is asking for a ballpark figure
>then I believe 2.5 – 2.6 is probably somewhere
>close to the maximum (not average) achievable
>glide ratio given average wing loadings, near sea
>level air density and nil-wind conditions for both
>Vtec FOX’s and Mojo’s.
Another obvious point is a particular flight mode: glide ratios will be different for full flight, half-brakes, rear
risers or a combination of them and brakes etc (with some rear risers providing the best ratio, in my experience). Were your numbers measured in full flight ?
In addition to what Adam said about comparing different
canopies: L/D depends on a trim, and some canopies will fly steeper than others in full flight. However some brake or riser input changes the flight angle quite a bit, and more so for steeper-trimmed canopies, so the end result can be the same max L/D.
A side note: we have already stepped over L/D of 2 for the wingsuits, nearly or exactly matching L/D of a somewhat beat up base canopy. This means that in order to reach a distant LZ, soon we will have to be pulling low - as opposed to pulling high in the old days of base jumping... What a concept! ;-)
bsbd!
Yuri.