excaza

I've been happy with my Pelican 1620. It'll fit a rig (started with a V3 350) & G3 without much of an issue, if you don't have a super big rig you can probably get a jumpsuit/odds & ends in as well. See if there's a dealer around your area, you can bring your stuff and try cramming it in cases of various sizes to see which one fits best.

Works pretty well for traveling too, though I'll carry on my rig & use the space for my usual luggage. One caveat is that the case weighs ~22 lb empty, so that can take a good ding out of your packing.

Andy9o8

From a regulatory perspective, as long as it's launched at altitude, and the flyer-jumper uses a tso'd rig that is deployed at a safe altitude, why should the faa regulate it much differently than skysurfing? If it's risk of the wing freefalling to the ground, shouldn't that be roughly equivalent to jettisoning a skyboard during EPs?

Given that premise I don't disagree but that's not the pitch. It's a towed system. Granted it's not unlike a glider, but you (hopefully) can't fall off a glider at low altitude and die.

Looks like it would be fun, though given my inability to stand up on a wakeboard I probably wouldn't give it a shot because I'm a fan of not dying.

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Regulations placed on the WIngBoard would not be insurmountable, however: the risk is just in delays with regulator red tape.

Definitely understating it. I'd be curious to see how, if at all, this clears the FAA.

I like to tape it to my face.

riggerrob

Does that 300 pounds mean: exit weight, fighting weight, etc. ?

Exit weight. Max for a T-10 is 360, not 300. Good luck telling people to carry less weight.

rifleman

In other words, as a paratrooper, you can expect to fired upon from the moment you leave the aircaft. Anything that makes you a target for longer than is absolutely necessary is to be avoided at all costs.

You're going to be a target with broken ankles too.

brodg

All I'm saying is if every time you jump you have, for example, a 1% chance of dying, then the probability of dying in 50 jumps is 1x50=50%, which is not the same as the probability of dying in you 50th jump (which still is 1%).

Vegas must love you

achikin

Are you planning to sell those cutaway chinstraps as a separate product? Would be a nice addition to my current helmets.

If it's the one I'm thinking of, it's been floating around for motorcycle helmets for a while. Hard to pin down a supplier for them that isn't some bulk thing from China, I got a couple off of ebay (just an example, this is not the seller I used) to play around with.

I mounted my hard case on one of the wrist sweat bands from the PD shop, works fine.

Pretty cool looking helmet. The buckle looks like the one I was thinking about modding for a G3.

As much as I love SDAZ and Sebastian, right now it's pretty balls hot in Arizona/Florida so I'd probably go with somewhere in New England (SNE, Cross Keys, The Ranch, etc.) or Chicago.

ianmdrennan

Lol - lets not go throwing the word "muscle" around like that

Well he does need to stay toned enough for his competition pants.

I've had good luck just mounting the hard case onto a sweatband.

stayhigh

Funny thing is that when they have belly big way, the canopy traffic goes to shit, little more than half of the group stands up their landing. And when they have freefly big way, I'm talking 60+, there is no canopy traffic issue, and about 95% of the stands it up. I wonder why???

Probably because the belly guys are folks whose shit don't stink and want to s-turn and oscillate themselves around with toggles for the entire pattern and the freefliers just want to race to hook themselves into the ground.

Solo hop & pop.

That way you can reflect on all the knowledge you're about to gain as you hit 100 jumps and know everything about skydiving.

Doug_Davis

Like I said never had an instructor tell me that, nor have I heard it in the 3+ canopy piloting courses I have taken. Flying quarter brakes during landing pattern, right up until turning onto final? Sure.

Perhaps your approach should be to ask these questions of your instructors before going on with the attitude of "I've taken three canopy courses and haven't been told this so it's wrong." You may not be explicitly stating it, but it's what's coming across.

Quarter brakes, half brakes, 3/4 brakes, full brakes, it doesn't matter, they're all fine. The jumper just needs to be aware that he is taking energy away from his flare (and potentially approaching a stall) and plan accordingly.

Doug_Davis

Also that part you quoted? Was ONLY if he is doing a BRAKED TURN.

Except, you know, where it says braked approach.

Listen more, talk less.

Doug_Davis

***

If landing out, yes, his instructor probably taught him this. When landing out in an unfamiliar area, with unknown obstacles and grass height, it's widely known and accepted to fly a braked approach.

On final? Never had an instructor tell me to do that.

Going full flight kinda defeats the purpose of a braked approach.

riggerrob

I would like to see a new scale that compares body fat, with muscle mass with bone mass.

The purpose of BMI is as a relative metric for populations, not an individual guide. Of course it's much nicer to have specific body composition data, but good luck getting a data set comparable to what we can get with height/weight.

I hope not, you're taller and lighter than I was. I'm 5'8" and was around 220 when I started and had no issues.

CSpenceFLY

This should have given you your first clue. They generally don't just make up training information.

No sense discouraging inquiry so casually. There is nothing wrong with wanting to understand what you're being taught. Though this isn't one of them, there are more than a few examples of modern scientific dogma that have gone quite far with little to no backing. Military training is not exempt.

phoenixlpr

Switching to other risers where velcro is used for securing toggles?

How would that help?

PhreeZone

From my understand they are currently migrating or are starting the migration to a whole new membership database platform and until this is completed they are warning that there could be a delay since they need to make sure that the data is entered correctly and is process under the correct platform.

They migrated databases in October...

Deimian

I am also wondering if opening times will be the same, since air density is much lower, and fill the canopy cells with enough molecules might require more time. My assumption is that the extra time needed (at a constant speed) to inflate a canopy at a high altitude is compensated by the fact that the fall speed is not the same.

The air density is lower but you're falling faster. At terminal, your dynamic pressure (and therefore indicated airspeed) is going to be the same, so you're still moving by the same amount of molecules in that time. However, your true airspeed is higher so you have more kinetic energy to bleed off during the opening process resulting in a higher total shock.

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To summarize, I think the post is correct, but I am not an expert in fluid dynamics, and I would like to know if there have been experiments about that, or if an expert in fluid dynamics can confirm these assumptions.

There has been a good amount of testing done, starting with the Army & Air Force post WWII through the 60s-70s with NASA joining in for the latter portion with their development of canopies for various spacecraft, landers & crew modules. I don't have specific references on hand but if I get a chance I can see if some of the historical work is online somewhere.

katzas

At 100k ft I doubt that there is enough air density to even inflate a parachute much less blow one up.

Not true. NASA has deployed at lower air densities for its Mars missions. It's also important to remember that the majority of the opening forces on a gliding parachute come from bottom skin inflation, not full canopy inflation, because it's the largest change in drag area.

Even a partial inflation is enough to cause serious issues, on Kittinger's ~75k jump his drogue deployed too early, caught around his neck, and spun him fast enough to G-LOC him.

Part of it comes down to the fact that making a parachute smaller while retaining familiar flight characteristics, particularly in those performance envelopes, is a lot more involved than just saying "shrink everything by x%." It takes a lot of time and effort to ensure you're not compromising the characteristics of the wing and turning out an unsafe product.