ClippedWings

When I had my custom Micron made, I had them write "Eject" on cutaway handle and "Air Brake" on reserve..

Sabre2 is your absolute best option.

First was F111 material Falcon and the second Safire2..

That's actually what I ended up getting... ...for now. I wouldn't recommend the Safire2 if you're hell bent on swooping, get a Sabre2 instead, but don't be stupid.. Safire2's (as well as Pilot's) have real short recovery arcs and unless you load it like a bitch you will be doing your turns low sooner or later, which means you barely have any margin for error.. One of the reasons I pounded in that day (besides my lack of skills / perception / experience) was that on other jumps doing a 270 I would lose speed very quickly, recover very quickly and pop up a bit and still have enough altitude left, what they call a panoramic swoop, but with a very shitty low speed.. Because of the quick recovery arc, for the swoop to look like a swoop and not "panoramic" I would do my 270 from around 400 feet. So I thought I'd keep my 270 turn the same, altitude the same, but slow the rotation down, well it didn't work out the way I wanted it to.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEC-wkrWEUk It's still swoopable, I had some decent swoops with it, but overall the design doesn't allow much room for error, due to the short recovery arc and forcing you do to your turn lower because of that to achieve the swoop you want to achieve.. PD actually got it right with their long recovery arcs, if you smack with that momentum generated from that long dive you will most likely die, but also you have a lot more time to save yourself due to the longer dive forcing you to initiate your turn much higher, thus diving for longer and having the time / altitude to asses if you can continue or need to bail / adjust.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue_3xzfU4YU

When I did a balloon jump I did it this way, I loved seeing it go "away" from me

Yes please, would be quite interesting to see your flying.. If you are so confident in yourself, you shouldn't be hiding your skills ledballoon.. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4493965;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

Holy moly now that's a tracking suit

For a beginner like you Safire2, because of the long and soft openings (comfortable and good for your back) and really great glide (getting from long spots is a breeze). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxKqo7YMHLk

Use a magnetic slider keeper.

I'm sorry man, but your arrogance is going to be your downfall.. It's all fun and games now, but it's going to suck sooner or later..

One more thing. You might say that you're not going to do anything radical with that canopy and that you will "tame" it over time, but let's be honest with ourselves, you didn't buy a velocity to fly it like a navigator, you bought it to fly it like a high performance wing that it is. With your level of experience / skill and that type of unforgiving wing sooner or later you will do something that you do not have the skill to properly execute and there are 3 possible outcomes: 1) You break yourself to a point where you can still recover, get scared and rethink your choices. 2) You get crippled and never jump again. 3) You die and never do anything again. Screwing yourself is one thing, but always remember others, people like your family and how they might feel when you cripple or kill yourself and for what? That extra bit of fun / pride that you can still have in the long run if you do it correctly? It's all about patience.. I wish you reflect on this and act wisely, don't be a dumbass like me, life's already hard, it's harder when you're dumb

hehe true that. No matter how good you think you are, especially if you think that "I managed to live through Katana, so why can't I do the same with a Velo", an xbrace at 400 jumps is just not logical, it really isn't. Swooping / canopy piloting isn't like freeflying for example, where you can have a few skydives, but hours in the tunnel and still be awesome and safe in the sky. Please, please, please, don't do what I did, because at this time in your career, the risk to reward ratio is not in your favor and is totally not worth it.. Sure you can "fly and land" your Velo, but for how long until something happens that you can't handle, because you were too confident and too proud to admit that you're simply not ready no matter what you say.. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4192725;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF578oSkrKk I did have a lot of fun with what I did, but in the end, it wasn't worth losing my legs over it since I won't be able to have that fun anymore.. Do you want to be in my shoes? Worst of all, don't ever think that that won't happen to you, that's exactly what I did. Sangi

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wuMUwh3jZM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJcao0Wt2X0

How about a chincup helmet or a full face with the visor removed + goggles? There are plenty of options..

This is exactly what got me in a wheelchair (not counting my lack of skill). I've been struggling with pop ups exactly like that in the video before, sometimes I would get a "decent" lucky turf surf, but most of the time it was a struggle and cursing because of those pop ups.. I was using a Safire 2 129 with 10 kg lead which made my WL of around 1.3 (doing 270's). That faithful day I popped up 3 times and I thought I'll just go harder on my last one to get a decent swoop and bam I got myself into ground.. I didn't increase my rotation that day, I only made it slower and it was enough for me to not react quick enough and whack myself.. It's true that canopies with short recovery demand a lot of skill and good judgement, furthermore emphasizing that it's not a good tool to learn to swoop on. Now I know why Velo's, Katana's and PD in general is the swoopers choice.. This was one of those when I didn't know wtf I did right, but it worked out "decently". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue_3xzfU4YU And this again, the failed one, after 3 pop ups, the 4th deciding one which got me, I thought that it will level out on it's own and might even pop up like always, but I was wrong and from a longer rotation, not a bigger one! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF578oSkrKk Be Safe

Whatever you're thinking of doing regarding swooping, whatever your reasons are, remember, in the end it's not worth it, it's not worth breaking yourself for this.. And never ever think it's not going to happen to you, life is too random you just never know, being conservative isn't a bad thing, coolness doesn't matter when you're broken or dead. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4192725;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tF578oSkrKk Edit: The thing is, you can most likely get away with jumping something small and higher performance for a while if you don't do anything with (and even then there are plenty of situations when the factors pile up and you get into that corner not because of yourself, but because of something else, it is very likely to happen), but eventually you will start doing something more with it and that's when the problems kick in.. For once I actually talk from experience here, I know I did get away with a lot of stupid stuff for a while (it was absolute pure luck when I look at it now, no skill), I thought and I a lot of probably think, especially if they save themselves from some trouble once or twice, they think that they will be able to do anytime all the time, so no worries.. wrong, if you don't spend your time piling up thousands of jumps (and actually making them count, not just racking up the numbers) and dedicating yourself to a step by step progression, when you start cutting corners, your luck will run out, it eventually will.. There are very few special people where they have an innate talent for stuff, but for most, it's the experience and step by step learning that got them to the point where they are now and know what they're actually doing (Soul Flyers, PD Factory Team etc).. and even then nobody is safe, look at Jonathan Tagle.. This sport is very expensive and time consuming, if you can't fully commit, don't cut corners. Just accept that, that's how it is. Not all of us are born into a rich family, so because of that you're not going to go and rob a bank now are you? I honestly thought I was special or somewhat naturally better than others, now I'm in a wheelchair, most likely for life. All I can say is, don't be me or if you are, you have to be one tough son of a bitch to cope with all the shit that's eventually coming for you.. are you able to do that?