Crossbraces at low wingloadings

[AdD 1]

You are also slowing down your progress by not spending enough time on your wings before moving to the next one. At your experience level 100 jumps seems significant but when you are talking about learning to swoop it is not a lot of time. If you got hurt following (qualified?) people's advice my feeling is you probably are only hearing what you want to hear.

Life is ez
On the dz
Every jumper's dream
3 rigs and an airstream

[ridebmxbikes 0]

Hey! I've never said I don't take risks or that I don't see any dangers of the canopies I jump. I said I don't see the added risk from the katana to the velo. I did skip steps with this last parachute and have decided to take a step back. You are right that I am at a higher risk and I do do a lot of hop n pops or high pulls. If for nothing else I don't have to worry about the traffic and it gives me the freedom to do more drills.also Im not flying a velo, i jumped one. maybe ill get one after I throw another step and learn some more stuff. I appreciate your concern but I've figured out what I need to do and the step I need to take now.

[jacketsdb23 45]

Super happy to hear that. Not everyone figures it out.

Hop n' pops are a great way to learn. Hope to see you breaking records one day.

Thanks for the update!

Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

[stayhigh 2]

Yeah, I agree on some of your idea.

I really don't see how Ka is safer vs Velo.
I turn my Ka 120 and Velo 96 at almost same altitude.

I know handful of people who jumped x-braced loaded over 2. with less than 500 jumps.

Also so know handful of people who has 5000+ jumps and they shouldn't be flying Velo's, flying it their old way, toggle whipping, stabbing out Velo pilots.

So who is to say who can jump what canopy??

Can we all take the velo away from people who doesn't do proper approach and stab out every single time when they land???

Just because you have years in sport, thousands of jumps plus all kinds of examiner rating doesn't grant you to fly x-brace canopy, imo

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[ridebmxbikes 0]

Haha. Well that (qualified?) persons advice was to plain out on rears when I had 200 jumps when I just started doing 90s. I didn't get injured, just a sore tail bone for about 3 weeks. I see how I could be holding myself back too. Overtime I change canopies I have to re-adjust my pattern, figure out my dive altitudes, learn the slow flight of it. There's a lot to each canopy that Im not maxing out. Ill let you read some of the previous posts for the rest though.

Edit to add my plan with this next canopy is to wring out every last bit of performance and make it piss itself before I go and further. This last purchase
Was a impulse buy without much thinking but after some thinking I decided to rethink my original thought.

[ridebmxbikes 0]

Haha, that is true, just like some people shouldn't be driving cars. While Im sure Im not ready for a 2.0 w/l I wasn't ready for a sports car at 16 either. I see some people with smarter canopy choices scare the crap out of me and everybody else. Some people are more capable than others and Im going to get back on track to prove what Im capable of when the time comes. Although that velo was a sweet canopy Im gonna save it for when it deserves my worth and mad skillz.

[stayhigh 2]

And also to trained eyes, there is nothing more dumb looking than flying velo like a dumbass.

and in order to fly velo like a champ, you need to learn how to look good under non velo first, something that flys like one, it goes by name of Katana.

For those with thousands of jumps on stiletto and still flys velo like it is your stiletto, please stop jumping em, you look retarded.

Sad thing is that those individuals that i mentioned up top, wouldn't even realize that I been making fun of them.

Bernie Sanders for President 2016

[Jiggs 0]

Here is an idea – why not use the money to actually get some canopy coaching rather than messing around with different canopies?

With 400 jumps you have a very low level of experience and have not mastered ANY wing. Nor will you have good turn mechanics at this point.

Why change planform and set your learning back?

Also the big velocities are like driving a bus compared to similar sized other canopies.

The openings are not as good – more “searchy” and I would say not as soft

It packs larger & costs more

Risk is kind of like an exponential curve, you are just moving further along the curve. I think you are already at high risk with the canopy that you currently jump and more so around your thought process. But whatever, it is your life and your ability to walk. Just try not to hit anyone else.

I do not hear any reason for you to change wings.

Ohh – here is a reason not to; actual swoopers will laugh at you. When you fly like miss daisy drives; on a velocity – it is worthy of derision.

Stay on your current wing and learn to swoop properly. Learn to fly your wing, learn to do everything you can do on the wing (e.g. all inputs), improve your turn mechanic, improve your accuracy and depth, learn to swoop gates. Set yourself some goals, have a progression plan and rock that plan. If you master your current canopy and learn to fly it to it’s full potential, you will have a much faster progression, will be a better canopy pilot and better equipped to downsize.

One last thing, when you are jumping more loaded canopies, the thing that people tend to not realise at the time is the bigger jump you need in mental awareness and planning a flight path to negotiate canopy traffic to ensure you can swoop (and swoop safely). I generally don’t bother with my favourite main if I have to deal with traffic on a load.

EDIT: oops punctuation!

"Don't blame malice for what stupidity can explain."

"In our sleep, pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart and in our despair, against our will comes wisdom" - Aeschylus

[Joellercoaster 6]

AdD

You are also slowing down your progress by not spending enough time on your wings before moving to the next one.

This is an interesting thing to say.

Experience (this thread, and the other thousand like it) has shown that talking to people about danger just bounces off the wonthappentome filter that most skydivers have somewhere in our souls. But maybe speaking directly to the ego and their stated desire to progress "efficiently" or whatever, might work better.

Interesting.

(Of course it does nothing for another common problem, which is that (although they would never admit it) when they say "progress" a lot of these guys don't mean in skill, they mean onto the size and kind of canopy the cool kids jump - but mostly they won't even admit that one to themselves.)

To the OP, I don't know you, this is not particularly directed at you - but the topic of canopy choice persuasion is certainly problematic.

--
"I'll tell you how all skydivers are judged, . They are judged by the laws of physics." - kkeenan

"You jump out, pull the string and either live or die. What's there to be good at?

[hookitt 0]

One issue with low wingload Velocities is they fly like trucks. Except they're fast trucks with low response to control inputs. That's far from optimum. Unless you're going to wingload it and have the skills to do it, it's pointless.

Katanas suck enough as they are, and slow your progression down when you have lower jump numbers. Since you're already on it, whatever, keep flying it but don't bother with a light load Velocity.

Malfunctions on a Cross brace canopy are pretty fun if they're just simple turning line twists. Malfunctions that involve tension knots and a slammer helicopter spin, is non-describable and your reaction time to deal with it needs to be immediate. NO time to waste when the lights are about to turn out. You have to have a thought process to find the handle when it's not where it's supposed to be.

If you're wondering what I mean but that, a violent malfunction is NOT spiraling line twists. Those suck too and are serious business. A spinner loaded on 1 riser after being slammed will cause you to pass out much quicker. You've got a few seconds to deal with plus you just had your bell rung. Finding your handles has a whole new meaning.

Flying a parachute is fun. A radical malfunction will blow your mind. I wrote to my friends about mine. I've had plenty of malfunctions. When you type it out or describe it in person, it's sounds like like you're making it up when in fact you're probably not coming close to what happened.

Keep flying what you have, get better at it and progress like a smart person. The education is readily available and choosing to ignore it is dumb. Good luck!

My grammar sometimes resembles that of magnetic refrigerator poetry... Ghetto

[DocPop 1]

hookitt

Katanas suck enough as they are, and slow your progression down when you have lower jump numbers. Since you're already on it, whatever, keep flying it but don't bother with a light load Velocity.

Having jumped a Katana at low jump numbers (starting at about 150 jumps), I would be interested to hear more about why you say this.

I didn't feel like it slowed me down, but then I don't know what my progression would have been like if I had stayed on a Sabre2 (for example) for another 400 jumps.

"The ground does not care who you are. It will always be tougher than the human behind the controls."

~ CanuckInUSA

[ridebmxbikes 0]

well I've always heard cross brace flew like trucks when they are loaded light, the riser pressure was a little heavier than the katana but thats not saying much. toggle response felt close to the same and harness response felt nice.

I've heard other people speak bad before about the katana and don't know what they are talking about. one guy recommended i get a velo 96 instead of another katana. i currently don't have a permanent canopy. i have a 93 fx, st107 and a pc. the st107 was bought as a back up between my katana downsize as its a pos cheap rag but i couldn't find a katana so i started playing with other stuff. now, I've never flown a velo at the wing loadings that it was made for but it still felt like a top notch canopy at 1.5!

i understand about high performance canopies doesn't just equal high performance flight but high performance openings, malfunctions and turbulence interference. gotta keep things interesting somehow right?!

[trigger 0]

Quote

gotta keep things interesting somehow right?!

Just a thought, but why don't you just stick with one canopy and learn to fly the absolute crap out of it.

Though downsizing, changing planform etc may seem interesting from a "i don't know what i'm doing it's scary/interesting point of view" in reality you're just holding yourself back and stifling your progression and adding un-necessary risk which is all very interesting until you find yourself in a whole world of pain.

Get yourself a Sabre II and master it.

I spent 10years flying one canopy and by my own admission whether i truly mastered it is very subjective.

.CHOP WOOD COLLECT WATER.

[yoink 321]

But you don't have mad skills or years of riding unicycles, or feel that it's other people holding you back because they're slow to learn, so your opinion is invalid....

[keithbar 1]

yoink

But you don't have mad skills or years of riding unicycles, or feel that it's other people holding you back because they're slow to learn, so your opinion is invalid....

i have on occasion been accused of pulling low . My response. Naw I wasn't low I'm just such a big guy I look closer than I really am .