klafollette

Swoop Cords! I'm 5'10" and 220lb and struggled with bigger groups that were falling in the 114mph range. Even with double fabric and big arms, it was not fun. Even if I could slow down enough, it was difficult to do anything else while "hugging the ball". Hooked up the swoop cords and it was like night and day. Now I have a wide control range and can fly with the slowest of them. I've got a Zute Sute with the continuous cord around the back. I like it since it lets me put my glove on over my right hand loop, so the loop won't catch on the hackey at pull-time (would make for a nasty horseshoe). I then put the left-hand loop over the outside of my glove. After opening, I just need to pull the left hand loop off my left hand, and it frees up both hands so I can get to my slider and toggles. That only works if the cord is one continuous line.

"Inboard" line stows are on top the bag flap, about a 1/3 of the way inboard from each side. "Outboard" line stows are on the side ends of the bag itself, at the edge of the bag lip.

I just got a new Vector-3, with which the D-bag has the line stows on the side of the bag. Along with my new Vector, I have a new Samurai, and Brian Germain recommends inboard line-stows. I understand the concept of inboard stows is to limit torque on the bag, reducing chance of line twists, and have read that the idea of side stows is to reduce # of stows and reducing chance of entanglement and bag-lock. So which is the lesser of 2 evils? In my other Rig, a Mirage it has inboard line stows and have never had an entanglement or bag-lock in 600 jumps, but know that doesn't mean it can't happen, though I have had line-twists on both (unknown if they were stow related) Mr. Booth, feel free to chime in with your thoughts. Just don't judge me because I have a collapsible pilot chute . At least it is one of yours.

My experience has been that small bands on the lower lines get too loose after a couple jumps if single wrapped, and are too tight when double wrapped, so I double wrap large bands, and seems just right. On the locking stows, I single wrap the inside 2, and double wrap the outside two.

I'm looking for some info on the Colorado jumping scene. To give you a frame of reference, I'm currently at a Super-Twotter DZ, doing mostly RW where we jump at 13.5K AGL (14K MSL). The loads turn constantly on the weekend, with a rare shut-down the whole day. RW organizing is great, regularly doing 4, 8, 10+, and occasional 20 ways. So how do Colorado DZs compare? I've read a bunch of posts, but couldn't really get a feel for the type of jumping favored at each, how busy they are, or how easy to come in from out of town and get in on some jumps. Looks like there are now 2 DZs; Longmont and Canon City. Brush and Calhan appear to be closed? What altitudes (AGL/MSL) are typical? Do you have O2 available on the planes for us low-landers? August 18-22, I will be vacationing in Estes Park, and planning 1 day of jumping; tentavely either Saturday or Sunday, unless something is going on at one of the DZs that would make a difference.

I'm looking for some info on the Colorado jumping scene. To give you a frame of reference, I'm currently at a Super-Twotter DZ, doing mostly RW where we jump at 13.5K AGL (14K MSL). The loads turn constantly on the weekend, with a rare shut-down the whole day. RW organizing is great, regularly doing 4, 8, 10+, and occasional 20 ways. So how do Colorado DZs compare? I've read a bunch of posts, but couldn't really get a feel for the type of jumping favored at each, how busy they are, or how easy to come in from out of town and get in on some jumps. Looks like there are now 2 DZs; Longmont and Canon City. Brush and Calhan appear to be closed? What altitudes (AGL/MSL) are typical? Do you have O2 available on the planes for us low-landers? August 18-22, I will be vacationing in Estes Park, and planning 1 day of jumping; tentavely either Saturday or Sunday, unless something is going on at one of the DZs that would make a difference.

I've got a Zute Sute with the continuous cord around the back. I like it since it lets me put my glove on over my right hand loop, so the loop won't catch on the hackey at pull-time (would make for a nasty horseshoe). I then put the left-hand loop over the outside of my glove. After opening, I just need to pull the left hand loop off my left hand, and it frees up both hands so I can get to my slider and toggles. That only works if the cord is one continuous line.

8:15 AM Eastern or Central Time??

When you order, decide what canopies you want and they will size the rig accordingly. If you want a reserve bigger than the main, they'll work something out if the difference isn't too outrageous. I sized mine with a PD 176R and a Samurai 170. They gave me a V348M. Looks/fits awesome. Having a huge difference in reserve/main could make for an interesting ride if you ever have 2 out.

Did another helicopter jump this weekend, and have done balloon jumps in the past. Had a question pop into my head. I've always delayed long enough to reach terminal speed before deploying, but what if I dumped only a couple seconds after jumping out of a balloon or helo? Assuming you have your canopy packed for a normal terminal deployment, would it snivel forever, or slam you since there's little wind to hold the slider up? Would a small pilot chute even extract the bag? Never done a BASE jump, so not sure where the comparisons are. For this thought exercise, I'm jumping a generic 9-cell loaded at 1.3 with a 30" pilot chute. I'm guessing it wouldn't be the same as a sub-terminal airplane deployment where you're doing 90mph out the door. I would guess 2-3 seconds after leaving a balloon/helo, you might be doing 30-40mph?

I wear gloves on every jump, even when it's 90 in the shade: My sweaty palms slip off the bar when I'm hanging outside, and the plane has to keep up the speed because we've got a 1-ton chunck going out the door. The risers are mad at me and decide to give me a slap. Somebody's got a loose jumpsuit, flapping in the breeze, and your fingers are getting beat-up trying to take grips. Your long on the spot, need a touch of rear-risers, and your cold fingers just can keep a grip for more than 10 seconds. I've never worried about them protecting me on a landing. Glove of choice are Neuman's tackified

Had a Chicago co-worker claim he skydives all the time. Says he was just out at Sandwich a couple weeks ago (Roger Nelson had moved his DZ to Ottawa several years earlier). That was my first clue he was a Wuffo-wanna-be. I say "I thought the Sandwich DZ closed years ago?" Then he says, "Oh yeah, I have a buddy with a Piper at the airport who just takes us up for fun. We park our cars near a cornfield and land next to them. I say "A Piper?? I've never jumped out of one of those, what's it like?". He says "It rocks, we take the door off, walk out on the wing and pretend we're surfing, but it's so cold at 20,000 feet." Asked him what kind of canopy he jumped; a Parabola or Trapezoid. He jumps a Trapezoid. By this point I'm biting my lip trying to keep from busting out laughing. Ask him when he's going next, I'd love to go. But wouldn't you know it, his buddy's plane is getting worked on and don't know when he can go again.

And it's specifically designed to launch a 4-way, one person out of each tube.

I know people have been saying the Samsung is not "high-quality" video, but I was even thinking about it for a POV cam for myself to remember jumps, things I did right/wrong. Wouldn't need the best DV-8 quality for that. Besides video quality, does anyone know how well it works from an operational standpoint? Supposedly it's digital from camera to recorder, and is image stabilized. It looks a little bigger than your standard Sony bullet-cam, and can't really tell what the mounting options are. I've never wanted to slap a big brick on the side of my head, and wasn't going to start playing with Video until I could get a streamlined pencil style camera that would limit weight and snag points. But to-date most systems I've seen are a bit kludgy, using a Sony Bulletcam and your standard camcorder in a belly pack, and a bunch of cables. The closest thing I've seen to this is a Sony bulletcam with a solid state recorder, "Mini DVR Pro" from www.ffv.com. Shoots high quality MP4 video. Only problem with that is the Mini DVR Pro with 4GB of RAM would cost about $4,500!!

Go to the incidents section, and read where this very scenerio played out at Spaceland earlier this month, just not with an RSL. Person cut-away but didn't completely clear the cables, had one riser still attached and then pulled the reserve, resulting an entanglement.

Was looking for a status on the tunnel, but the www.skyventureaz.com website is down. Hope that's not a bad sign. I've heard there's been a bunch of delays and overbudget issues. Was out at Eloy last month, and they were just putting the last exaust pipe on. Looked a long way from completion. Anyone have a good guess on when it's going to be running?

I think the thing we are all forgetting is that we and our parachute have mass, and thus take time to accelerate/decelerate when a force (the wind) acts upon us. With wind in a steady-state as we turn, our body/canopy have time to accelerate (relative to the ground) as the wind shifts from headwind, to crosswind, to tailwind. If that turn is made gradually enough, you will experience pretty much a constant airspeed regardless of the wind speed/direction (ignoring for the moment all the lift vector stuff that causes us to accelerate in a turn). Now consider that you are flying in a 10 mph headwind (groundspeed), and your canopy has a normal gliding airspeed of 20 mph (airspeed). Your ground speed will then be 10mph. Now you fly into a wind shear with a 10 mph tailwind (groundspeed). Under the right conditions, you could encounter that wind change in less than a second as you drop through it. As the wind changes 180-degrees, you aren't going to instantly accelerate to a 30mph ground-speed, maintaining the 20mph airspeed. Until you and your canopy have a chance to accelerate, your canopy will, for a few moments, continue to have a ground speed of 10mph, but now with a 10mph tail wind (ground speed) and actually experience an airspeed of 0 (zero) mph until you start to accelerate. That could potentially stall your canopy or cause an end-cell to collapse, until it accelerates to the normal 20mph windspeed. Same principle would apply with gusty winds. Air can accelerate/decelerate very quickly (compared to us) and a 10-15 mph change can hit in an instant, while your canopy takes time to react to that wind. for that instant a portion of your canopy can have a dramatic change in the relative airspeed, causing a stall, lift imbalance, turning moment, all sorts of bad stuff, and usually at the most inopportune time

Getting ready to order a new Vector. There's an option to have the body contact area in Parapak or Cordura. I assume that "body contact" means backpad and inside of harness. Anyone have an opinion? My rigs have always had Parapak. Any advantage to Cordura? Only thing I could think of is that Cordura might keep the rig from sliding around on the back a bit since it isn't so slippery, and Corura might be a bit cooler?

I'm interested in this sizing document. Looked on www.pia.com, but not finding it. Can someone point the way or post it?

Besides all the technical stuff, probably the biggest thing to help me as a student was someone telling me "Don't think about landing. That will happen one way or another. Think instead about flying your canopy relative to the ground." Feel how the canopy is flying as you approach the ground, think about controlling the speed, attitude, and altitude, so that the canopy has given up all its energy and quits flying just as your feet touch the ground. Now, how to make your canopy fly the way you want it to comes from practice. Do it up high, practice flairing. You don't have a ground reference, but you can feel from the harness how the canopy (and you) slow down during the flair, when the canopy runs out of gas, how much toggle makes you pop back up, etc. When you come in to land, don't look straight down, don't look out to the horizon. Look for the spot that isn't moving up or down, that is where you are going to land at any given moment of the landing process. As you begin to flair, that spot will continue to move further out in front of you. Fly yourself towards that spot as it continues to move farther out in front of you. I'll second the idea of reading Brian Germain's book at http://bigairsportz.com. It's called "The Parachute Pilot" or something like that.

Time to downsize and get a new rig after flying a Safire 209 for 500 jumps. Looking at getting a Crossfire2 169, and looking for anyone with advice. Question: Being 240lbs out-the-door, a 169 sq.ft canopy would put me about 1.4 loading. According to Icarus, that's at the bottom end of the recommended loading for a Crossfire2. Any issues anyone has had flying one that lightly loaded? I hear the loading sweet spot is around 1.8, but I'm conservative in my flying and not thinking it wise to drop down to a 139. I'm not interested in 'hooking it in' pond-swooping, doing front-riser 270s, etc. Just want a good flying fun canopy with smooth, soft, on-heading openings with plenty of drive in the headwinds, and good glide ratio. Reason I'm looking at the Crossfire2 is I really like the idea of the closed nose, being more like a fully formed wing, being more aerodynamic and giving better glide ratio. My other consideration is a Safire2, since that's what I'm familiar with. Anyone with experience jumping a Crossfire2 similarly loaded, or comparison with a Safire2 loaded at 1.4?? Thanks in advance

I have the RWS TruLock risers for a year, and never knew about wrapping the steering line loop back around the locking pin. I talked my rigger today, and he advised against doing as RWS recommends. He has seen 2 instances where the top of the toggle was released from the keeper, thus freeing the brake, while the bottom pin was still stowed. This caused the steering line loop to tighten and trap the pin, so the toggle to be released. We tried on the ground, and sure enough, with moderate tension on the steering line, I couldn't pull the toggle free. I think I'll just leave mine hanging free after snaking through the stows on the back of the riser.

So sorry to hear of your situation. I just jumping out of your Porter at Hinckley this afternoon. We were bitching about not having the Otter, but now you have put it in perspective. We could have had nothing at all!!

Has anybody looked at other recorders other than a CamCorder? No point paying for a lens and CCD if you're going to use a bullet cam. I would think a portable DVR would be the perfect way to go. This product looks interesting, anyone have any experience with it? http://www.ffv.com/documents/MiniDVRProDataSheet.PDF This thing is 3.5" W x 5.7" L x 1.2" D!!

I had my Safire relined with Vectran lines beginning of the season. I also had the oily lines. My symptoms were not dirt or stains, but slamming fast openings. I thought they screwed up the trim until talking to my local rigger who confirmed that new Vectran linesets come with an oily coating that causes fast openings from both line dumping and the slider coming down fast. Coating make line stows slippery, so I've been replacing my rubber bands every weekend. I had to pack my Safire like a Sabre to keep openings tolerable. After about 50 jumps it started to slow down, as the lines got a little dirty and the slider slowed down.