Tracking Pantz Experience

[raym]

I have already read the reviews by Dwain and Jim Jennings regarding the Pantz but I was wondering if having all that drive in the legs effected your body position? I have only jumped in a loose freeflying suit off terminal walls and was curious about Birdman's new toy. Does anyone have experience off terminal or sub terminal walls and how the Pantz effected your max track body position? It seems to me that you would have to flatten your body position more to keep from going head low. Any imput would be greatly appreciated!

Cya!
Ray
BASE#578

[space]

I am not sure what you mean by "flatten", but I know from my experience that one must compensate by; a. shoulder rotation forward (to make a cupping trough and use this for lifting the upper body relative to the feet). b. play with the bend at the waist(to finish the end of the cupping trough for lowering the feet relative to level of the head). This should always equal that your head is on the same level as your feet regardless of your clothing.
I hope this helps..
take care,
space

[Karin]

Ray,

I've used the tracking Pantz on subterminal jumps and it took me a few to get used to them (and am still trying to find/keep the "sweet spot").

I totally agree with what Space said about cupping the shoulders to keep the them relatively even with the legs when flying the pants. I found that the Pantz caused me to pitch a bit head-down at first, but with minor adjustments and tweaks in my body position throughout each jump, I gained significant lift and forward speed - much more than I would have had w/o the Pantz. The optimum body position for me turned out to be quite "flat".

I've also found that even in the midst of a good flight, I needed to make small adjustments in my "heading"; there were moments in the middle of my track when my heading veered slightly to the left or right. I think that this is inevitable, even if you are (or THINK you are) maintaining a strong & consistent body position throughout your flight. The Pantz, like a wingsuit, are an "enhancement" or tool with very specific characteristics to aid and alter your freefall flights, and any changes to your body position (however slight) or body tension will affect your flight in various ways. The heading changes in my flight were minor (approximately 5 degrees or so - it's impossible to accurately measure this), so I either continued flying along the new heading and it wasn't a big deal, or I chose to make small corrections to bring my heading back to its original line.

Overall, I think that the Pantz are awesome. Two very big thumbs up. I personally will now not do any sub-terminal jumps w/o them. If you put the time & energy into refining your flights with the Pantz, they may save your life one day.

To give you an idea of how far one may get from an object, some of Dwain's Pantz flights gave him so much distance from the walls that you might've thought he was flying a wingsuit (but not having the greatest wingsuit flight). And I believe that this is possible for everyone to varying degrees, IF you put in the effort to learn how to fly them and IF you already have the fundamentals of tracking down. If you are a sucky tracker, the Pantz are not going to magically turn you into a Norwegian tracking monster...

[raym]

Thanks Space and Karin for the imput! I have made a couple of skydives with them (and plan to make more) but look forward to playing of a large wall in Feb. Cheers!
Ray