Good fall rate for 4-way?

[jumper03 0]

What would a good fall rate range be for 4-way? Faster the better, but what is fast? 110? 120? 130?

I'd like to see some numbers so I can get an idea.

Our fledging team did it's first jumps this past weekend and we were around 112-114. Personally I thought it was slow and spent more time slowing down than anything else.

Jump

Scars remind us that the past is real

[DrewGPM 0]

There is no standard for this, it depends on your team members. The fall rate for your team is set by your fastest faller. Any slower than that and he/she will be forced to fly in a de-arch and she/he go low a lot. That gets frustrating for EVERYONE. It's easier to have three people go faster than it is for one to go slower.

I set the rate for my team. I used to de-arch and match the 120-125 average of my team. I went low quite a bit and had lots of trouble on 360 degree turns. Then we got some coaching. Based on the coaching, I started to arch a little bit and the rest of the team wore weight belts. We added 2 full points to average on that day! We continued to improve throughout the season at our new fall rate, 130MPH! I never went low after that. In fact, I lost 10 pounds and was floaty on a couple jumps. I didn't need a baggier suit. The team mebers who already wore weight belts added 2-4 pounds. The other person arched a little more, but didn't have a problem with that little bit of extra arching. everyone noticed their turns were faster, stops were more crisp and we all felt like we had more control.

If you notice your fast faller flies in a hard arch or wears a tight jump suit, then you can work on slowing her/him down by getting a baggy suit and flying in a more relaxed arch. You probably don't have that problem at 114MPH...but I thought i'd mention it.

[Albatross 0]

That is the bottom line. Find out where the fastest person is comfortable then either add suit to slow them down or add weight to the rest of the team. Everyone needs to be in a good position to move. If you are dearched to slow down then you'll ahve problems on the turns and moves.

Chris

[rehmwa 2]

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either add suit to slow them down or add weight to the rest of the team.

I'm not a big fan of adding suit. Prefer to weight up and have everyone wear a nicely fitting suit. One way to keep from having a lot of excess material might be to have a higher drag material (our team two of us have polycotton and the other two have nylon fronts - it helps a little bit).

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[GQ_jumper 4]

One way to keep from having a lot of excess material might be to have a higher drag material (our team two of us have polycotton and the other two have nylon fronts - it helps a little bit).

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I've always gone with supplex, I have an incredible range of fall rate with it.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.
--Dwight D. Eisenhower

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[rehmwa 2]

Supplex is very popular and nicely mid range between pc and nylon - since the other two had so much weight to carry, when we ordered suits we just went with the extremes for torso material. It really didn't cause them to drop more than a pound or two - most likely it was just mental. But it's a mental sport, so that's fine.

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Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants