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Rebecca-Berlin

Fall Rate

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To achieve higher speeds means you can turn points quicker/easier which means higher averages?



Not really. Do you see everyone on Airspeed wearing lead?
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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Sorry I was trying to be short since I am on my phone and typing can be a pain.

I'll try again.

A faster airspeed can be good. The problem is that when you add lead, you take the available surface area and add (for lack of a better word) wingloading.

While your weight will increase, your surface area will not. So now your control surfaces have more weight to move.

For max speed of movement, the less wingloading will result in a faster move.

Newtons 2nd law states that the amount of effort to create a result is affected by mass. The more mass the more energy it is going to take to start and to stop movement.

So if you add a ton of lead, it is going to be more difficult to start and stop a move.

You could claim that the added airspeed will give you more control ( and drag increases at the square of an airspeed).... But I personally have found that it dies not seem to provide a benefit.

My Airspeed comment was aimed at the fact those dudes (and dudetts) are blazing fast and if they thought adding lead would make them faster... I think they would be doing it. Yet they are not.
"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

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If everyone is wearing lead.... Well then that's just silly. If everyone is wearing sleeves... Again silly.



Isn't this actually more the norm? To achieve higher speeds means you can turn points quicker/easier which means higher averages?



On what basis are you claiming that?
...

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

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If everyone is wearing lead.... Well then that's just silly. If everyone is wearing sleeves... Again silly.



Isn't this actually more the norm? To achieve higher speeds means you can turn points quicker/easier which means higher averages?



On what basis are you claiming that?



Reread my post. I'm not claiming anything, simply asking questions. Ron's reply answered my questions nicely.

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Continuing a tangent that's pretty much beside this thread:

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Most will wear weight to fly around the 135 mark. faster wind for the 35 seconds



You sure of that?

I seem to remember a conversation with Solly Williams a couple of years ago where he was talking about teams like Deland Majick and Airspeed slowing down to ~115mph.


Back onto the original topic:

Fall at the speed required by your fallest faller to be in the middle of their range. Otherwise you're handicapping the whole team. Make sure everyone is in a sensible jumpsuit, has a sane bodyposition, and lead-up as necessary.

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Thanks, everyone. ;)

Right now our team is going through some personnel changes, but as soon as it is clear who is staying and who is going, then I will know who has the fastest fall rate and can check their body position (assuming that that person will join me in the tunnel or that next season we will have a camera man willing to fly level with us once, for this purpose).

Since the skydive season in Germany is slowly coming to an end, all freefly questions will be mutating into tunnel questions during the winter months. So I may not be able to determine our optimal fall rate until next spring. But at least now I have a lot of information to pass on to the team mate who always says "Arch! Arch!" before boarding the plane.

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My Airspeed comment was aimed at the fact those dudes (and dudetts) are blazing fast and if they thought adding lead would make them faster... I think they would be doing it. Yet they are not.



I disagree Ron. I don't see everyone on Airspeed loading up on lead to go faster... :P
Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

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I seem to remember a conversation with Solly Williams a couple of years ago where he was talking about teams like Deland Majick and Airspeed slowing down to ~115mph.



I second that. I was blessed enough to make a 4-way jump with Team Fastrax about 3 years ago (John Hart, Thomas Hughes and Nicklas Hemlin minus Doug Park). I am a little sh_t (5' 3-1/2" 130 lbs) and had on about 11 lbs and they were not falling fast at all. It all depends...

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