That works out to be 119mph, seams like a totally reasonable speed, however it's more important that you are all falling together at the same speed.
In this you should also consider what you are using to measure that speed and where it is placed, the differences can be great between a Protrack in a helmet, or a Neptune on a wrist etc.
I use a ProTrack in my helmet. I never thought about asking each team member to show me their ProTrack after the dive, but I assume we would each have the same speed on it.
(This post was edited by Rebecca-Berlin on Sep 29, 2009, 2:32 AM)
I used a protrack in my Z1 and it was pretty consistent on 114mph, a team mate with a protrack in an Oxygen used to get 117mph. Your speed sounds good but having a speed that is comfortable for all of you is best.
In all honesty, I wouldn't look at x mph as your goal.
What your team should be doing is flying at a speed where the fastest faller will be comfortable in a normal jumpsuit (ie, no wings or excess fluff). Whatever that speed is (119, 200, 210 mph) is pretty much irrelevant.
In all honesty, I wouldn't look at x mph as your goal.
What your team should be doing is flying at a speed where the fastest faller will be comfortable in a normal jumpsuit (ie, no wings or excess fluff). Whatever that speed is (119, 200, 210 mph) is pretty much irrelevant.
perfect - your fastest faller should be able to fly right in the center of his range while in a strong and relaxed mantis- in a form fittiing suit that doesn't have any flapping or excess material - don't tie him up by making him dearch and get sloppy - or by having to wear a 'slow' fall suit that flaps or (really worse) has 'gimmicks' to slow him down. Let him fly - the rest can add lead for the same effect
as for the pros - I think over the last few, they've experimented with real fast, real slow, etc - energy and weight is a mobility tradeoff....
In all honesty, I wouldn't look at x mph as your goal.
What your team should be doing is flying at a speed where the fastest faller will be comfortable in a normal jumpsuit (ie, no wings or excess fluff). Whatever that speed is (119, 200, 210 mph) is pretty much irrelevant.
perfect - your fastest faller should be able to fly right in the center of his range while in a strong and relaxed mantis- in a form fittiing suit that doesn't have any flapping or excess material - don't tie him up by making him dearch and get sloppy - or by having to wear a 'slow' fall suit that flaps or (really worse) has 'gimmicks' to slow him down. Let him fly - the rest can add lead for the same effect
as for the pros - I think over the last few, they've experimented with real fast, real slow, etc - energy and weight is a mobility tradeoff....
I agree, the speed should be determined by range. if you all need to wear suction cups to get to that speed, don't do it. That being said, use the faster faller as your mark, not the middle faller as I have seen some teams do.
if you all need to wear suction cups to get to that speed
I don't know what that means, but now I'm intrigued
:) really, really tight jump suits, ones taht leave nothing to the imagination.
there is an advantage to falling faster as the more air you can deflect, the faster your moves will be. If, however, you need to compromise flexibility or flying position to get that speed then its not worth the trade off.
P>s I like the other type of suction cups mentioned above as well.
if you all need to wear suction cups to get to that speed
I don't know what that means, but now I'm intrigued
:) really, really tight jump suits, ones taht leave nothing to the imagination.
there is an advantage to falling faster as the more air you can deflect, the faster your moves will be. If, however, you need to compromise flexibility or flying position to get that speed then its not worth the trade off.
While this may well be true for top teams, I doubt many intermediate or advanced teams are score-limited by how fast their moves are. More likely by how skilled and precise they are.
Slightly changing the topic: on big-ways I think the balance has gone too far towards high fall rate. Fast moves are not relevant, and most of the issues we see are due to people being floaty on account of the sometimes ballistic fall rates. Last year I was on a 90-way where the fall rate was 133mph. A LOT of people were unable to dock on it.
In reply to:
P>s I like the other type of suction cups mentioned above as well.
Even with the faster fall rates on big ways, you always still have people going low it seems. And it's always easier to go faster by adding weights then it is to go slower. Maybe that's the reason for the faster trend?
JFTC Fall rate was 122 mph (top, bottom and average) as measured from the base with a helmet mounted Pro Track. This was our goal fall rate and it resulted in a fast falling but smoothly building formation.
JFTC Fall rate was 122 mph (top, bottom and average) as measured from the base with a helmet mounted Pro Track. This was our goal fall rate and it resulted in a fast falling but smoothly building formation.
Did you have any problems with jumpers going low?
Did you have any problems with jumpers being floaty?
1) people didn't go low, but they sure did manage to put themselves low a few times. Either by overswooping or not getting high enough in the stadium (for floaters from all planes or most from the A-B/H-J planes)
2) floaty people were floaty (Usually a result of fear factor), until they fixed it. Jumpers who paid attention locked in the fall rate early and had little/no problems. ]
There were women wearing sweaters/sleeves and women wearing weight belts. Many women were simply comfortable with their suits and body positions from the base 6 to the outer rows, so I'd say it was a "baby bear" fall rate... just right!
Sorry I was trying to be short since I am on my phone and typing can be a pain.
I'll try again.
A faster airspeed can be good. The problem is that when you add lead, you take the available surface area and add (for lack of a better word) wingloading.
While your weight will increase, your surface area will not. So now your control surfaces have more weight to move.
For max speed of movement, the less wingloading will result in a faster move.
Newtons 2nd law states that the amount of effort to create a result is affected by mass. The more mass the more energy it is going to take to start and to stop movement.
So if you add a ton of lead, it is going to be more difficult to start and stop a move.
You could claim that the added airspeed will give you more control ( and drag increases at the square of an airspeed).... But I personally have found that it dies not seem to provide a benefit.
My Airspeed comment was aimed at the fact those dudes (and dudetts) are blazing fast and if they thought adding lead would make them faster... I think they would be doing it. Yet they are not.
Continuing a tangent that's pretty much beside this thread:
Quote:
Most will wear weight to fly around the 135 mark. faster wind for the 35 seconds
You sure of that?
I seem to remember a conversation with Solly Williams a couple of years ago where he was talking about teams like Deland Majick and Airspeed slowing down to ~115mph.
Back onto the original topic:
Fall at the speed required by your fallest faller to be in the middle of their range. Otherwise you're handicapping the whole team. Make sure everyone is in a sensible jumpsuit, has a sane bodyposition, and lead-up as necessary.
Right now our team is going through some personnel changes, but as soon as it is clear who is staying and who is going, then I will know who has the fastest fall rate and can check their body position (assuming that that person will join me in the tunnel or that next season we will have a camera man willing to fly level with us once, for this purpose).
Since the skydive season in Germany is slowly coming to an end, all freefly questions will be mutating into tunnel questions during the winter months. So I may not be able to determine our optimal fall rate until next spring. But at least now I have a lot of information to pass on to the team mate who always says "Arch! Arch!" before boarding the plane.
My Airspeed comment was aimed at the fact those dudes (and dudetts) are blazing fast and if they thought adding lead would make them faster... I think they would be doing it. Yet they are not.
I disagree Ron. I don't see everyone on Airspeed loading up on lead to go faster...
I seem to remember a conversation with Solly Williams a couple of years ago where he was talking about teams like Deland Majick and Airspeed slowing down to ~115mph.
I second that. I was blessed enough to make a 4-way jump with Team Fastrax about 3 years ago (John Hart, Thomas Hughes and Nicklas Hemlin minus Doug Park). I am a little sh_t (5' 3-1/2" 130 lbs) and had on about 11 lbs and they were not falling fast at all. It all depends...
