I've only had two experiences with a ghillie suit. My first time, I handed the majority of my gear over to a friend to hold, put on the ghillie suit and relogged. I spawned in the ocean with the ghillie suit still on, and swam to shore, and made the long run back to my friend (running through zombies etc with no weapons and very few supplies was quite intense). After that initial ocean spawn, I was fine in the ghillie suit and had no further issues (until I got randomly blown up by an explosion in the middle of the forest -_-). My second attempt was much like the first, but when I spawned in the ocean, sadly I was back in my civi skin. I'm currently just about to install the Beta Patch as I'm hoping to find another ghillie suit and would like it to go smoothly.