Jumping with a flag

[steve1 5]

I've seen some neat pictures lately of people doing demos with flags. I hope to have a pro rating sometime in the future and this has me thinking. Would a regular flag work or does it need to be of a lighter material. I was talking to a guy recently who said he makes his own flag out of light weight material. He carries it in a pouch around his waste. When he is under canopy he attaches it somehow to his risers and then puts his foot through a loop at the bottom of the flag. He also says he uses rubber bands in this attachment so he can get rid of it if he wants to. I saw a guy at Perris jumping an enormous flag about a year ago. I doubt if I'd ever try that, but was just wondering what would be a safe way to jump a smaller flag. I'm a show-off at heart and this looks like a fun way to make a demo. Anyone have any ideas on this? Steve

[slotperfect 7]

Four ways to jump a flag that I know of:
1) The old way of tacking it onto a suspension line, rolling it up, and stowing it in your line stows. I strongly discourage this method, as it is prone to cause malfunctions if not done exactly right.
2) A flag bag and pulley system like the Golden Knight use. It's a bit complicated, and needs to be put on by a Rigger that knows the system.
3) The "link-to-foot" flag. The disadvantage here is that once you snap the flag into the connector link and hook your foot in it, you cannot cut the canopy away on the off chance you would need to.
4) A "drop" flag. A flag bag attached to the waist or leg, with hardware on one end and a shot bag on the other. The disadvantage here is you have an anchor hanging below you, ready to hook on obstacles in your landing area.
For simplicity and ease of rigging/flying, I recommend a drop flag. Making the bag and attachment straps is SIMPLE, and it's easy to deploy, and almost impossible to rig upside down (taboo). I use a standard flag (5'x9'), with a small shot bag attached to the bottom grommet with 1/2" tubular nylon webbing. The other end has a quick ejector snap attached with 1/2" tubular as well, although I think a non-locking carabiner would work better. The latter is s-folded in the top of the pouch. When you want to deploy the flag, you simply pull the carabiner out, hook it to a fixed point on your harness (leg strap adapter for example) pull out the flag and the weight, and drop it.
There are HUGE drop flags out there which look really nice, but create a TON of drag, so you have to be wary of the approach angle. I jumped one of those on a demo in England once. Thay are also hard to catch completely, keeping the flag off the ground.
Respectfully,
SP

[billvon 2,400]

We rigged a drop flag about 5 years ago for a demo. It was enormous - around 20 by 50 feet, and weighed something like 60 pounds. We used a tandem with a deployment system on the front consisting four three-ring releases that dropped the bag; the top of the flag was attached to the upper tandem attachement points. It was a bear to fly - the canopy kept "getting in front" of the jumper, and it almost wanted to downplane with the flag. We ended up using a 520sqft canopy to do the demo, and that worked OK.
-bill von

[drenaline 0]

Dude you have a pic of it? sounds kinda kewl.
"Life is full of danger, so why be afraid?"
drenaline

[riggerrob 558]

How heavy a drop weight did you use with your 5'X9' flag?
Also remember to rehearse, with all your flags and whistles, at the DZ, a week before the demo.

[Hooknswoop 19]

"For simplicity and ease of rigging/flying, I recommend a drop flag. Making the bag and attachment straps is SIMPLE, and it's easy to deploy, and almost impossible to rig upside down (taboo). "
I was on a demo and watched another jumper deploy the U.S. flag upside down over a 4th of july Demo over Houston into the Westheimer festival. You would think a master rigger could pull that one off.
Hook

[AndyMan 7]

Quote

I was on a demo and watched another jumper deploy the U.S. flag upside down over a 4th of july Demo over Houston into the Westheimer festival. You would think a master rigger could pull that one off.

Off topic, but I'm sure it's no worse the the US Marines carrying the Canadian flag in upside down to the baseball All Star Game in Toronto's Skydome, a few years back. At least your master rigger had an excuse - the flag was burried in a bag. In this case, the flag was hanging right in front of a marines nose, and he didn't see it...
_Am
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[PhreeZone 15]

Or how about the Golden Knights jumping the flag into the Rose Bowl parade upside down a few years ago? Thats the best riggers, best demo jumpers, best equipment possible, and it still happened... all it proves is we are human and mistakes happen.
If once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will....

[jdhill 0]

Quote

over Houston into the Westheimer festival.

I was on the ground crew for that one... the event organizer came running over and was a little excited about it... we made up a quick story that he had the flag upside down in protest, since it was the Westheimer Fest. in exile... he seemed to buy it. A picture of it made the paper the next day. I have a pic of that I took (will try to find and post later)... Houston skyline, canopies, upside down flag?
http://www.aerialfusion.com

[tlshealy 0]

When I was on the team in 83-84, our team leader told us that if we would open the American Flag and it was rigged upside down, to chop it! I'm not sure if it ever happened, but he was serious. To us, that was a malfunction.
BSBD
Tad

[billvon 2,400]

>How heavy a drop weight did you use with your 5'X9' flag?
Between 40-60 lbs. I think we ended up with 40 lbs, mainly for ease of handling. It "bowed" the leading edge of the flag a lot, but it still looked good.
-bill von