First post...question regarding a light weight person

[sselos 0]

So, first of, first time here...Hi..

Second, I'm searching for a rig for my wife, who weighs about 115 without gear and has 30 jumps. I'm looking at a Javellin NJ A-14 style rig, that contains a 126 reserve and a 120 main (spectre). I'm thinking this will fit a 135 (which is what I would start her with). This still falls under the 1.0 wing loading for a low jump number.

My main concern is for myself. I currently weight about 180 (plan to loose some weight, hopefully). So, I am wondering the following two things:

1) Does taking my wife down to a 135 Sabre w/ 33 jumps a bad idea (she has been jumping for 20 jumps a 150 sabre, which is really slow up in the air)?

2) If at my current weight + gear I decide to jump the spectre 120, I would be near the max on the canopy (hopefully I can lose about 5-10 lbs). This would put me at a loading of about 1.5. I have 330 jumps and have been jumping for 7 years, with the sabre 135 for the past 100+ jumps. I've read some of the other topics on this, just curious what you guys think. I have jumped a 120 before, but I weighed less and it was a sabre. Is this a bad thing?

Attached below is what I am looking into
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/classifieds/detail_page.cgi?ID=11491&d=1

[UDSkyJunkie 0]

Second question first: 1.5 is a pretty high wingloading for 330 jumps, more so for someone who is only averaging about 50 jumps a year, and more so yet again on a spectre, which really wasn't designed to be highly loaded.

Furthermore, at 180 + approx 20 lbs equipment, your wingloading is closer to 1.7, or maybe 1.6 if you lose that 5-10 lbs. PD lists 192 as the MAX weight under a spectre 120, so you'd have to lose about 8 lbs just to be under that.

You should check out BillVon's article on downsizing, and really think about wether there is any reason for you to do so... at 330 jumps, it is unlikely that you are flying your already significantly loaded 135 at the edge of it's performance envelope. Another decent yardstick is the "canopy risk factor" article from the (i think) march 2004 issue of parachutist; It's far from perfect, but it gives a good starting point. I have no doubt that you could jump the 120 a few times and land it safely. Hell, I jumped (once) a stiletto 120, at about 1.25 at 58 jumps... about 15 jumps after getting off of 200+ f-111 canopies. Landed it just fine! The question is, can you land it safely EVERY time, ANYWHERE, in ANY wind conditions? In the above case, my answer was a resounding NO!

As for your wife, that all depends on her... at 1.0, that's a reasonable WL, but 135 IS on the smallish side. You'd need someone who knows something about her canopy control skills to adequately answer that question. Also consider that since she is so small, she might find she needs to wear weights, particularly if she does mostly RW jumps. Weights could easily bump the WL up to 1.1 or higher (I weigh about 130, and wear at least 14 lbs of weight on every jump...)

Blue Skies!

"Some people follow their dreams, others hunt them down and beat them mercilessly into submission."

[headoverheels 291]

Javelin's sizing chart shows a maximum of 120 for the NJ. Is that NJ one you have locally? You should try packing a 135 in it to verify fit.

Your wife is pretty light. If she wants to do formation skydiving, chances are that she will end up wearing weights, in the range of 10 pounds, which would push up her wing loading. PD recommends a maximum of 126 pounds exit weight for an "intermediate" jumper, whatever that is, and a maximum of 135 pounds for an "advanced" jumper, on the Sabre 135. Your wife is right at the maximum for "advanced" with gear, no weights. In other words, she would be overloaded for her skill level. She will almost certainly learn to fly the 135 quicker by first putting another 100 jumps on the 150, then flying the 135. At 200 jumps total, she would be flying the 135 better that way, than if she started in flying the 135 now.


I only have a couple of jumps on the Spectre. I wouldn't load one over about 1.3 (next size down for me would be 1.48), since I wasn't that impressed with the flare, compared to the Stiletto I usually jump. There are a lot of other people jumping them more loaded. I just don't think you'll be very happy on no-wind days, unless you like to run.

Be sure to demo any canopy on a no-wind day. You can probably land a handkerchief in a good head wind, so don't let a demo on such a day mislead you.

If you haven't already, check out the info on the PD website. Find the "Education" page, read about choosing canopy sizes. Also read about flying characteristics under the various canopy types.

[Icon134 0]

I've jumped a 190 @ ~ 0.9 since jump 5 so... and I was placed on it by my aff instructor... I haven't had any major problems.

but that is just me. she must fly what she is comfortable flying.

see the down sizing recomendation page and get some canopy piloting instruction. (I took a canopy course.)

Scott

Livin' on the Edge... sleeping with my rigger's wife...

[brits17 0]

Yo, Selos #2, check your PM's

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[sselos 0]

replied to ya Brit :) I'll probably be out this weekend, let me know

[jerm 0]

Quote

Does taking my wife down to a 135 Sabre w/ 33 jumps a bad idea (she has been jumping for 20 jumps a 150 sabre, which is really slow up in the air)?

that depends on several things. really look at WHY she'll be downsizing:

How does she feel under the sabre 150? Does she feel the need for more speed, faster responsivenes and less forgiveness to inputs?

Where is the decision to downsize come from? Is it she, you, others on the DZ? The trend these days seems to be to get smaller jumpers to an 'ideal' windloading, often w/o regard for their current skill and comfort level. remember, 1:1 for her and 1:1 for you are two vastly different performance ranges, hers being the more dangerous.

the phrase "does taking my wife down..." scares me.
Who's making gear decisions for your wife? At her level it really should be her with guidance from her instructors.

As a boyfriend of a low-time jumper i know the temptation to 'help' our ladies with their skydiving choices, but we really need to be careful about the help that we give. SHE should be driving this decision. We should be there for support and advice, especially when it comes to safety issues, but having us making gear choices for them is nothing but a detriment to their growth as competant and independant skydivers.


So, yes, i would say that you downsizing her to a 135 is a very bad decision indeed. If she wants to downsize to a 135, that's another issue all together.

Landing without injury is not necessarily evidence that you didn't fuck up... it just means you got away with it this time