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airborne31582

Freeflying with a Dolphin container

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Dolphins are famous for having horseshoe mals. That's a scary mal to have when you are freeflying. The most recent containers by Dolphin have included the tuck in riser covers. I havent heard or read anything on the reliability of the new riser covers. I am not sure about the bridal protection
7 ounce wonders, music and dogs that are not into beer

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I've seen a couple of the newer (manufactured in the past 2 years) Dophins, they're not necissarily bad for FF, but I wouldn't put myself in a very highspeed situation with one. Sort of like when I was jumping a Vector II, I was FFing it with some mods done to container, but I knew the limitations, I couldn't take it HD and I had to be very careful with it or I could have a premie.

Just think of the basic safety requirements of a FF "friendly" rig: Pin protection, riser protection, bridle protection and PC security. If anything in that equation looks shaky, dont' FF it, its not worth having a premie at the speeds you can reach FFing.
--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

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I can only post my experience with my Dolphin container. FF'n with it isn't bad, but it doesn't have all the little nice things like the new Wings container and such. Here are some of my recommendations:

1. Check the BOC. Make sure you have a new or tight BOC. Example: sit flying from 11k and having deployment at 7k. (Pilot chute snaked out.)

2. Make sure your reserve closing loop is extremely tight. I had a lot of problems with material from my pilot chute getting out from underneath my pop top. Scary when you get down and most of your reserve pilot chute material is out from under your poptop.

3. If you have an older model and it still has the snap covers on the risers, send it in and get either the velco mod or the tuck tabs. Those snaps are notorious for breaking and having a riser over your elbow while head down is not cool. I highly recommend the tuck tabs.

All in all, I haven't had that many problems with my container, but everytime I go FF my rigger gives me that strange look like, "Are you seriously going to FF with that?" Common sense, and ask some of the guys that FF at your DZ about mods recommended for FF'n.

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I have over 200 free fly jumps on my 95 Dolphin. It is the "old" kind with the snaps which I like better than the velcro. I would of course prefer riser covers with good tuck tabs. I wouldn't mind owning my own plane either....;) Anyway....the container leaves an inch or so of bridal exposed so i make sure to tuck it under the right flap really well. I also make sure the BOC is in EXCELLENT condition. If I pack my rig before I leave the DZ I leave the PC out so the spandex lasts longer. I pull the risers down nice and tight when I pack it. I was having a problem with the reserve risers getting all out of place after a month or so of being packed. My rigger fixed that by tacking my front and back reserve risers together with seal thread. They have stayed nice and tight this time. Well...people can say what they want but I have over 200 free fly jumps and 260 some total on the rig without ANY problems. It's all about prudent packing.

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Yo, you can BASE jump with ratty old skydiving gear also but is it recommended, No. The state of the art current gear was designed for the specialized things we do in these sports. It was designed to give us maximum safety and protection in a time of high vulnerability. It was designed because people have died or been injured doing the things we do with older gear.
The Dolphin just was not designed with freeflying in mind. If you are going to be making lots of freefly jumps go with a container that was designed for it.
:)

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goat
derka jerka bukkake jihad

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I used a Dolphin for freefly for 1-1/2 years and never had a problem....but after buying a G-3, I would never jump a Dolphin again. The Dolphin just doesn't offer the same feeling of security. My friend just bought a second Dolphin and she is mostly a sitflyer. She has been freeflying 4 years with a Dolphin and has never had a problem. I had 2 chops freeflying with a Reflex.
"Slow down! You are too young
to be moving that fast!"

Old Man Crawfish

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I have a friend with @350 FF jumps on a Dolphin. He has never had a problem (yet). I always make sure that I am NEVER above him and never dock too hard or hold a dock. Can't say I would recommend it, but what does some idiot that jumps out of perfectly good airplanes know?

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The Dolphin just was not designed with freeflying in mind. If you are going to be making lots of freefly jumps go with a container that was designed for it.
:)



While I agree with Goat on this (hey Goat, you won't recognize me from the pic, but we've met at SDD!!!)...

I don't think the newer Dolphin's were designed totally ignoring freeflying... they feature full length riser covers, and pretty decent pin protection... they just do it with velcro. Velcro works fine when it's new, but degrades in time with normal use, and requires regular replacing to be effective... tuck tabs don't (although they do wear out over time too, I've pin checked some pretty sloppy riser covers that used tuck tabs, I'll take my chance with my velcro):P

That said, the Dolphin is still behind the times when it comes to being FF friendly, even though they do finally offer tucktab riser covers... [:/]

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

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Here is a link to a buddy's site that has a movie of another buddy (Mike) Good video, bad opening.

He was jumping a dolphin



Cool video!!!

But it looks to me like the pilot chute came out of the pouch prematurely (kinda of hard to tell from the video tho), in which case it may be incidental that it was Dolphin, since lots of rigs use spandex BOC pouches, and if you let them get sloppy loose, they ALL have the potential for a premature release...

"If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

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Anyone else noticed the guys Tevas flappin' in the wind as the camera falls away from him (canopy deployment). Aside from the seriousness of the situation, it's a funny sight.

--Jairo
Low Profile, snag free helmet mount for your Sony X3000 action cam!

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I was on that jump...right across from him in the horny gorilla. It's kinda funny cause i had been teasing him before the jump, telling him Dolphin containers sucked for freeflying. Of course i had no idea that would happen...

___________________________________________
meow

I get a Mike hug! I get a Mike hug!

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lmfao! I USED to jump a dolphin and I was doing some FF'n. I since bought a used Quasar for 1/2 the price of a used dolphin and I am 10 times safer now. Use your head people. Dolphins are nothing more than shitty student gear. Free Flying is for experienced skydivers and experienced skydivers should be smart enough to know what is good gear and what isn't. If you can't afford something free fly friendly, then stay on your belly until you can. Your life isn't worth it. Geeze...use your head before you lose it!
If you see someone flying something unsafe, refuse to jump with them. It might save their life. They might think you are an ego case or a jerk, but they will thank you for it when they learn better.;)

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