Matching Canopies, Lighting vs. Triathlon

[DJL 232]

I'd like to hear some discussion based on Wendy's post in Safety and Training:

"Recently before I arrived at the dz for the day, several young jumpers went up to do CRW. They all had done a couple of CRW jumps with me, but really at this stage just know enough to get themselves into trouble. They built the stack with the 1-1 loaded canopy on top, the heavier loaded ZP second, and a 1.8 loaded Jonathan third. They didn't understand the concept of the fast canopies MUST go on top - anyone who's ever been around a stalling stack will never make that mistake twice. There were pictures of it with the bottom canopy deformed and I'm just thankful that it didn't stall and cause cutaways/injuries and possible death."

My DZ is starting to get pretty serious about CRW under the tutorship of a few guys with moderate CRW experience and one (Larry Westby) with the most extensive experience. We jump a variety of canopies and do stacks based on loading. Most canopies are regular Triathlons, then there's my 9 cell Paraflite Turbo ZX, a Lightning, and a random something here or there. We'll get to diamonds once we have dedicated crw canopies to jump but we're keeping to stacks right now. We got a 5 stack with me pinning 4th and then a Triathlon under me. We held it for a while but the bottom was obviously flying ahead of the pilot (w/ the Lightning) and we started that elephant trunk crap and had to break it down. We're planning an 8+ stack for Larry's 3000th jump in about a month and a half so I'd like to get a good feel for how to stage this.

So, please proceed with comments on how to stage based loading, canopy type, canopy angle of attack, zero-p and hybrids, jumper skill, riding out occillations, whatever you'dlike to add.

Also, no point in starting a separate thread: comments on crw dedicated Triathlons vs. Lightnings.

-Doug

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[faulknerwn 36]

Quote

Most canopies are regular Triathlons, then there's my 9 cell Paraflite Turbo ZX, a Lightning, and a random something here or there. We'll get to diamonds once we have dedicated crw canopies to jump but we're keeping to stacks right now. We got a 5 stack with me pinning 4th and then a Triathlon under me. We held it for a while but the bottom was obviously flying ahead of the pilot (w/ the Lightning) and we started that elephant trunk crap and had to break it down. We're planning an 8+ stack for Larry's 3000th jump in about a month and a half so I'd like to get a good feel for how to stage this.

Some of it depends on wing-loading, but in general, you'd want the 9-cell on top. They're a lot more "twitchy" and more likely to have issues than the 7-cells.

For equivalently loaded Lightnings and Triathalons, expect the Triathalons to be sinkier and slightly faster than the Lightnings. They have a deeper nose-down trim. So they'd have an easier time docking late, but they might could want to fly in a bit of brakes to slow themselves down. Big thing to watch out for is trailing pcs - especially if you plane it up, it can be a risk for sure.

...
So, please proceed with comments on how to stage based loading, canopy type, canopy angle of attack, zero-p and hybrids, jumper skill, riding out occillations, whatever you'dlike to add.

...
Hybrid Triathalons are good - especially if they've been bought with Dacron lines. The retract PC is a big help. Larry can teach you about riding out oscillations - he's been in bigger stacks than I I'm sure (I'm of the diamond age). In general you just start adding a touch of brakes from the bottom to the top.

[DJL 232]

Hey, thanks Wendy, we're going for an 8+ stack this weekend. What we have right now is:

Paraflite Turbo ZX 185
PF T ZX 165
Lightning 160
Tri
Tri
Tri
Tri
Tri

Lower guys will have weight.

Edit: Anyone feel free to share advice. I'm a student at crw so I'm happy to hear suggestions. The organizer has tons of experience, so the big picture is in good hands.

-Doug

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

[faulknerwn 36]

Quote

Hey, thanks Wendy, we're going for an 8+ stack this weekend. What we have right now is:

Paraflite Turbo ZX 185
PF T ZX 165
Lightning 160
Tri
Tri
Tri
Tri
Tri

Lower guys will have weight.

-Doug

Unless they're lightly loaded, I'd be surprised if the lower guys need to add much lead. Triathalons are going to be sinkier than the other canopies. If you plane down, make sure you have good cross-connectors. That stack of Triathalons is going to be really heavy. Make sure you have someone strong 2nd and especially 3rd. He's going to be holding a lot of weight.

Some of the lower canopies might be better off holding a touch of brakes - but just a touch.
W

[Shark 0]

Quote

Make sure you have someone strong 2nd and especially 3rd. He's going to be holding a lot of weight.

Yeah, they might be holding that weight for a long time, too! Been at #2 & #3 for what seemed like forever with the weight of the world hanging from me. Good luck!

Shark
CCS-1242

[DJL 232]

We only got one in, damn short winter days. I was to come in third and was all set up to come in but 2(tri) was having trouble getting in on the floaty pilot and I thought we were getting too far away from the wind line towards a solid forest and so I docked on a tri who I flying right next to we headed back to a better position. A tri and the Lightning hooked up and followed us and the pilot and #2 followed them. The original pilot then tried to get in on the other stack but was way too floaty and was zooming in a bit much. We approached in a plane, broke and I took up the #3 spot.

It was pretty fun, we just needed another jump to iron it out.

-Doug

"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher