0
Newbie

Does anyone else constantly see video with flat flyers who can't track at break off for love nor money?

Recommended Posts

I really do not follow your logic here.

A canopy, an airplane, a falling body do not care of wind speed becuse they move with the mass of air.

As for speed and distance they are IMO meaningless prameters in this scenario.

It would be better to talk about glide ratio and there is a specific body position to maximize L/D on track.

And as stated somewhere else, a skydive is not the best enviroment to test L/D of tracker or a WS pilot...
Memento Audere Semper

903

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
>Tracking competitions are won or lost on ground distance travelled.

Sort of. They're lost on distance travelled in a certain amount of altitude. If you go farthest but pull at 500 feet you lose, and if you get the pilot to go higher for your pass you get disqualified. So someone who can track at 50mph but falls at 120mph will lose to someone who can track at 45mph but falls at 90mph.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
The one at Perris the other week was done on horizontal distance covered between 15 seconds from exit and 45 seconds from exit if i remember correctly. (That thing with the guy with the GPS) It caught a couple of people out to start with because they went too steep and didn't actually hit 45 secs before pulling.

Tim porter was smoking everyone by about 400m the last results i saw
Never try to eat more than you can lift

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

BTW.. does GPS work on speed in the air?


If it has reception yes, but it would record ground speed.



GPS records altitude, latitude, and longitude at each interval (mine does it once per second). It is useful for flight as well as ground navigation and logging.

It is true that the max speed recorded will be the plane's speed. However using Paralog 2.1.7 and a GPS unit, it's easy to see what horizontal distance you've travelled throughout the entire skydive. You could just look at the breakoff altitue to the pull altitude and see what your glide ratio is, horizontal speed, vertical speed, 3-D speed, heading, and turn rate. The Google Earth connection is really cool too. You can also attach a video with the jump profile and sync up the data. I've only used it for wingsuit flights though, and haven't tried the video sync yet.
BASE 1224, Senior Parachute Rigger, CPL ASEL IA, AGI, IGI
USPA Coach & UPT Tandem Instructor, PRO, Altimaster Field Support Representative

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

The one at Perris the other week was done on horizontal distance covered between 15 seconds from exit and 45 seconds from exit if i remember correctly. (That thing with the guy with the GPS) It caught a couple of people out to start with because they went too steep and didn't actually hit 45 secs before pulling.

Tim porter was smoking everyone by about 400m the last results i saw



Maybe, but that is not how a breakoff track works, nor does it encourage a high glide ratio..
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I would bet good money that you wouldn't beat Flyangel2 (or Larry Henderson or Raider Ramstead). I've not watched Bill track, so I'll let him speak for himself.



I know a guy who followed Bill tracking out of the maze of jumpers on the last World Record attempt (day after day) in Thailand. He swears there's no way he could keep up with him in a track. He's a former World Champion who goes on all of B.J.'s big ways, so I know he knows a good tracker when he sees one. So, my money is on Bill.....Steve1

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
i agree totally, i was just replying to Billvon's post saying that ground speed is not just what is measured, when in this case that is exactly what was crucial. maybe its a bad way to run a tracking comp...?
Never try to eat more than you can lift

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

GPS records altitude, latitude, and longitude at each interval (mine does it once per second). It is useful for flight as well as ground navigation and logging.

It is true that the max speed recorded will be the plane's speed. However using Paralog 2.1.7 and a GPS unit, it's easy to see what horizontal distance you've travelled throughout the entire skydive.



What model are you using? How do you access the second by second data? I've never moved on from my classic Garmin GPS12, which has no immediately accessible manner of dumping. I think it does have the port for some sort of data connection, but never investigated it further.

Short of that, you only have the max speed to work with, and it's not too useful. OTOH, if the speed updates quickly enough, I have one of the early versions of the Timex Speed-Distance units that you could eyeball.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

>Tracking competitions are won or lost on ground distance travelled.

Sort of. They're lost on distance travelled in a certain amount of altitude. If you go farthest but pull at 500 feet you lose, and if you get the pilot to go higher for your pass you get disqualified. So someone who can track at 50mph but falls at 120mph will lose to someone who can track at 45mph but falls at 90mph.

IMHO, it's all about distance covered for a given altitude, not how fast you cover it. At breakoff, you have x amount of altitude to get as much separation as possible from the other jumpers. The flattest track wins. And that is not necessarily the slowest track, either. Just like any aircraft, the best L/D ratio is found well above the stall speed.

Most people don't trackas well as they could, from what I observe. Most common mistakes are arching and not really pushing on the air with their arms and hands. But they ususally track well enough for the dives they go on. [:/]

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

it's all about distance covered for a given altitude, not how fast you cover it.



For break-off, definatly. You need to get as much distance covered between breakoff until opening.

For tracking competitions, I think its measured from X seconds from exit, for T time (45s I think). It's its own different little world.
Remster

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Quote

>Tracking competitions are won or lost on ground distance travelled.

Sort of. They're lost on distance travelled in a certain amount of altitude. If you go farthest but pull at 500 feet you lose, and if you get the pilot to go higher for your pass you get disqualified. So someone who can track at 50mph but falls at 120mph will lose to someone who can track at 45mph but falls at 90mph.

IMHO, it's all about distance covered for a given altitude, not how fast you cover it. At breakoff, you have x amount of altitude to get as much separation as possible from the other jumpers. The flattest track wins. And that is not necessarily the slowest track, either. Just like any aircraft, the best L/D ratio is found well above the stall speed.

Most people don't trackas well as they could, from what I observe. Most common mistakes are arching and not really pushing on the air with their arms and hands. But they ususally track well enough for the dives they go on. [:/]



If everyone improved their tracks from "well enough" to "excellent" the breakoff altitude could be lower giving more time to do whatever.
...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Again, I don't mean to bash flatties, but i think you see less of this with FFer's because of the propensity to go on tracking dives, to feel more of the wind on different body configurations and hence understand how to be more effecient at flying and what efficient flying feels like.



Huh? You gotta be jumping with people from a different planet than me. I've done a bit of both free-flying and belly flying. By and large, the belly flyers tend to be MUCH better trackers. It's not always the case. But I've seen a lot more FFs that track poorly.

I shouldn't be such a judge of tracking - it's something I'm not great at myself. So I do a lot of practice tracking jumps (solo and with groups). I recognize that I should be much better than I am. So I keep working at it ...
Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0