iFlyFast

Line-over, that's nasty. Did you pack yourself a malfunction?

Well, I'll be sure to keep away from husbands with a line-twist fetish. Apparently WL of 1.4 are just as dangerous.

I imagine the lines cost the same, so the $100 is probably the same price as relining but it includes the changes necessary for the 4.0 mod. Well, that being so as soon as I need a relining I guess I'll go for it. And I can say I'm really happy with the TRI-220. I though it would be tough to adapt to, coming from the "very forgiving" navigator. But I as put more jumps and landings on it, I'm more and more convinced that it's actually easier to pilot and land than the navigator. It has a more predictable flying path, and it's way easier to get your landing pattern right. Although I still wasn't able to tiptoe myself out of a landing, I was able to land it downwind, almost like a swoop (more like a slide on the wet grass hehe) and still stand. I'm still making a few packing experiments to see what gives the most reliable on-heading openings. Right now I've been packing for about 10 jumps with large rubber bands and double stowing. But I'm getting mixed openings with an occasional 180º. Next I'm planing to experiment with small rubber bands and single stowing. Let's see if I can get the reliable on-heading openings that everyone brags about.

ah it's a petty we can't see it very well.

When I said I don't think it's possible, it's because I think it would be too costly. I doubt that the "management" would be willing to have a vidiot on board if the TM can shoot the dive by himself. MikeJD well you actually can if you place the camera at a good angle. Probably having long arms and a small tandem passenger also helps.

N/A

Cool stuff guys. BTW IrishDave do you have the video of this on youtube or the likes? And could you post the video link? People like to see other people mess up and survive.

I get the argument for the outside video, but if I was a customer I would be happier having the video of the canopy flying. It allows him/her to express his/her emotions, which are at a peak at that precise moment. And it provides some really nice angles (while under canopy). Maybe this is personal, but I think tandem inside video always gives better results. However, I agree that it would be even better to have both. Since I don't think that is possible, I personally would prefer inside footage. Maybe I could make this a poll. As for the SIM, it doesn't say anything about tandem master jumping with a camera mount. That's probably in the IRM as peek mentioned. I did read the SIM up to chapter 6 (including section 6.9 muhaha ) three times before starting my AFF. Never read the rest though. But I'm guessing that many people don't even read it once. coff coff

No one mentioned the USPA. Can anyone tell me what are the requirements set by USPA for a person to be recognized as a TI? And what do they say about cameras?

Hi all, quick question. Can anyone explain why some tandem pilots jump with a wrist mount camera and others use a third person to film the dive? Is there a requirement for a tandem pilot to be able to jump with camera? I do think a wrist mounted camera provides better video for the client. Specially since it allows the under canopy part to be included. And I think that part is really important, as it provides really nice footage, and I'm sure much better customer satisfaction. I think it also adds to the customer experience if he's allowed to play with the toggles. However, I see that sometimes some pilots don't let the customer pilot the canopy, not even for the camera shot. Is there a good reason for this? What do you do?

Wow, nice one. (if I may say so) I wish there was some video of that. Unfortunately, judging by your number of jumps you probably were not allowed to jump with camera. This is actually a very similar configuration to what I'm jumping, specially the wing loading. Now I'm trying to loose some weight, but I wonder if it'll work hehe When you got the canopy back, were you able to understand what kind of knot it was, and how it got there? NWFlyer wrote a pretty nice post. Yeah, I tend to pack very slowly. Mainly because I try to make no mistakes. Since I'm afraid that I wont be able to detect them anyway, I just look at it for hours to make sure that everything looks in place. Last time it was a bit ridiculous. I took the time of two or three loads to finish packing. I had the canopy in the bag, but it had a strange shape when inserted into the container. I ended up unpacking and restarting all over. 2nd time around was a bit better, but it still felt a bit out of shape, so I spanked it a bit. Poor thing. Well, one possible malfunction is a pilot chute in tow, with a d-bag stuck in the container. The main might not cut loose in this case. If lucky, one might be able to to release it. But being a high-speed malfunction it's not for everyone to fix. On top of everything the pilot chute might even get tangled in the reserve. Nevertheless, I think that's a malfunction related to a PC not matching the size of the container, or even a damaged PC. aahhh, I can only imagine the adrenaline rush it must be.

Hi, thanks for the answers so far. I appreciate it.

Hi everyone, I was wondering if there's was a poll-like discussion of first cut-aways? I'm interested in information like what canopy the person was flying, WL, reason for the chop and number of jumps at the time of the chop? I'm also curious to know if certain malfunctions are highly connected to certain canopies types. Or to be more precise, if those spinning malfunctions, with line twists, are more common on heavily loaded high performance canopies, or are they just as likely on a 7-cell canopy? Let's consider equal WL. if you are reading this please consider contributing your own experience. Thanks in advance.

Steeper than what? Steeper than the Nav? Steeper than a 9 cell.

It's from 98 ver 2.07. You're talking about the 5.0 mod? But how much $$$ would that be?

Well, I talked to the instructors at my DZ, and they said it would be ok to try the canopy in low wind conditions (

Well, davelepka gives me some good advice. Although I want to save some money to be able to jump more, I want to do it safely. Anyway, 10 jumps or so is not that much of a wait. I'll have a talk with one of the instructors at my current DZ, and after a few jumps, if I feel confident and I get his blessing, I'll go for a jump trial with my new gear. I think the hardest thing is to make that first jump.

Again thanks for the input. I did mean to say "around say two or three body heights I would go 1/4 or 1/2 breaks to make it slower/easier to make the final flare" - which is what I've been training and trying to do. I do think it works better than waiting for the one body height + single movement flare. That's a good way of flaring too low and crashing. And don't get me wrong. I do think that flaring too low is preferable to flaring too high. Actually I don't want to downsize. I just want to use my gear as soon as I can, so I can save money on rentals (they cost as much as one jump), and therefore I could jump more, and subsequently get more experience. Unlike other skydivers, for me the only good reason I see for downsizing is to have a smaller container. Right now I expect to use this rig for at least 200 jumps. So I'm definitely NOT in a rush to downsize. As for the Germain course, given the jump to 1.3 WL it almost sounds like the guy will teach you to go radical. Which does not seem like his style. He appears to be very conservative (in a non political way). But if you were able to make that progress that is awesome - although not my objective.

Thank you all for helping. I guess I'll try the 240 at least one more time to see how it feels. Since now I have my own gear I was hoping to save a lot of money on rental gear, and therefore be able to jump more often. But first I need to be able to use it. I was also thinking that the Triathlon would be even easier to land than a Navigator. Everyone says it has "lots of flare". I though that using a 1/4 to 1/2 breaks on the last bit would level me enough to reduce downspeed, and then I would just use the rest of the "lots of flare" to finish it safely. @freakflyer9999 the reserve is a pdr193, on my current weight that would be a WL of 1.21 coff coff

Hi, I just got myself a used rig with a Triathlon 220. I have only 27 jumps, so I'm fresh out of school My current exit weight is 234; so the WL would be 1.08. I read on the forums that, for example, Brian Germain recommends one should not exceed 1.0 WL before 100 jumps. I'm just wondering if it's insane to jump a Triathlon at 1.08 WL if you have only 27 jumps, or is it more like not crazy, but it will be harder to land standing? It would be cool if I could get an answer comparing it to a Navigator 240 My experience: (chronologically) 14 jumps with a Manta 280; exit weight 250; WL 0.89 6 jumps with a Navigator 280; exit weight 250; WL 0.89 5 jumps with a Navigator 240; exit weight ~250; WL 1.04 2 jumps with a Navigator 240; exit weight 240; WL 1.0 My own opinion: The Manta was not very good. Very steep descent rate. Hard to get the flare at the right time. Maybe because it was my first student canopy. The Navigator 280 was awesome. Almost didn't need to brake to land standing even in no wind conditions. In turbulent winds that thing hardly moved. Very stable. As for the Navigator 240 I got mixed results. You can definitely feel the turbulent winds. It took me 3 jumps to finally be able to land standing. I feel it's easy to land when there's a bit of wind, but on no wind conditions that thing flies really fast = crash landing. I read lots of good things about the Triathlon, Specter and Storm. I'm just wondering if it will be a huge difference in descent rate, etc. Not so much worried about the 1.08 WL, because I jumped at 1.04 and I don't think that a difference of 4% in WL would make that much difference (if the parachute was the same model at least).