ph.nilsson

I have >200 jumps on crossfires at different loadings, and presently jump a x-fire 113 (for about 70isch jumps now). In my opinion, the recovery arc is about the same (short). The x-fire however feels more responsive in the harness, the first few jumps it even felt a little twitchy coming from a crossfire2 one size larger. Also, the x-fire opens noticeably faster than the crossfire2. In my opinion this is a good thing, but in practice it is really a matter of personal preference. Both canopies open very well. I must say tough that, at least when doing double fronts to 90-degree landings (I dont do any bigger turns), I would really like my x-fire to have a longer recovery arc. The ideal canopy in my book would have the flight of the katana and the openings of the x-fire...

I must say I am a little dissapointed with the canopy. I have jumped an x-fire 113 for 50+ jumps and was hoping it would be alot more aggressive. Previously I have jumped some different sized crossfire 2:s and a katana 120. My main reason for switching to the x-fire was to get a canopy to continue learning high performance landings on, while still having better openings than my previous katana. The openings are great, a bit towards the quicker opening end of the spectrum, but I've so far never been slammed by it. It's really responsive on the harness and flies great. For swooping however, I feel that I just can't get it to dive enough (despite getting canopy coaching). I start my 90 degree front riser turn at about 120 meters with a wingloading of 1.65. With my katana, that was a size larger, I started the same turn at 150 meters.

We had a new jumper who bought brand new gear with the same problem. He took a bunch of canopy courses where the instructors scratching their heads. In the end, the canopy turned out to be faulty and he got a new one from PD. I think the canopy in question was a Pulse 210.

I too have the same problem, but with my a6000...

I would also be interested in a comparison like this, anyone sitting on something juicy? In my book, a katana with crossfire-isch openings would be close to an ideal canopy...

Have some experience looking at different c206 and c207 aircraft, and 782kg strikes me as a very low weight for that aircraft, even with doors and seats removed.

Are these modifications allowed in europe as well, or do they work exclusively in the us?

There is a skydiving club about 30 minutes outside of Linköping, in Motala. They're a nice bunch of people flying an airvan to 4000 meters.

I think that I've found the communication protocol etc for the multiport and I have ordered a multiport connector to try and make my own indicator. The big bottleneck seems to be getting your hands on the multi terminal connectors. Will report back here when I've tried it out a little...

Does anyone know where to get a hold of the multiport protocol? Could be a fun way to spend some dark winter nights to try and make a simple recording indicator...

Hi guys! Pretty sure this is my first post here even tough I've been lurking the forums since before my aff a few years back. I'm looking to go some place to do organized bellyflying preferably sometime during June, but if anyone knows of an awesome opportunity sometime after June, that's appreciated as well! . I'll probably be going by my self and would like to squeeze in as many jumps as possible during a week or two. Where is not super important, but somewhere in europe would be convenient for me, although I’ve also been thinking about going to the states, depending a little on the cost of plane-tickets...

At first my thoughts were something like "hell yeah, there can never be enough nude (more or less) women-folk". But after reading the article they kinda have a point. I would think that rape-victims, eating disorder-victims etc are rather prone to living in their sheltered little world and just closing themselves in after the fact. So, skydiving nude is gonna be kind of a leap away from that, which might make it a bit easier to take the normal risks again (ie eating that muffin or saying hi to that guy in the bar) that after all is what makes up the better parts of life... And then again, it's a fucking fun and crazy thing to do, which is just awesome and shouldn't even need explaining...

Well, I got my first tandem skydive as a graduation-gift with the motivation that "it seems like something your (older) brother would like to do". They figured I wouldn't go. And I didn't. Until about 2 years later, after starting to climb and watching a climbing movie with some base in it, at which point I sent an email asking a dropzone when they opened for the season. The response I got was "you're booked 1030 on saturday" and so I figured I might as well just go with it. My parents drove me to the dropzone while trying to convince me that I could go do some other activity instead, "what about a hot-air ballon ride?". Three weeks later I did another tandem, this time my parents were really not liking the idea. Another month passed and before my aff started. Now, at 45 jumps, my mom reeeally doesn't like it (even crying while telling me that she doesn't want me to die at one point...) whereas I kinda suspect that my dad brags a bit about it at work and such...

This is just about the most fucked up thing I've ever heard I think... /Beginner jumper who just started learning how to pack tandems properly a week ago

One thing to mention about Scandinavian countries is that all of us are pretty much fluent in English tough, so learning the language is nothing you need to rush into. I'm a native Swede and I have a bunch of non Swedish friends who get by on their English without a problem;)

Actually, my instructor pulled for me twice. Once I got stressed out since I noticed pull height approaching in the middle of a turn, couldn't find the handle, and instructor pulled, that was on level 2. The next jump was kind of a mix between jump 4 and five (hade failed 5 and gone back to 4 but keeping some of the stuff from 5, like solo exit for instance). The second time I started rotating a bit, and the instructor grabbed my leg in kind of an awkward way, I tensed up and couldn't find the handle. After this one I got seriously scared since I had 3 weeks of off jumping after that...

I haven't read all the answers so someone may have mentioned this already... Anyways, I was recently in the exact same situation, two tandems, scared shitless, and thinking about doing the aff course. In the end I figured that the only way I'd be able to get to know whether or not skydiveing is actually for me, force myself out of a plane a bunch of times... First jump actually wasn't all that scary, for me the fear came after failing to deploy my parachute during the aff course...

I did some more looking, and actually found a DZ with a couple of open spots on their aff-course which starts in just 10 days, so I'm signed up there instead now, can't wait for a summer of skydiving right now

Haha, I would have liked to, but august was the earliest course that wasn't booked, some dz's are even booked for the entire season already;)

Okay, so now I just booked the aff course for early august, so seems I'll be dealing more with a scared... myself rather than scared parents in the upcoming months :D Thanks again for quick and good answers!

Firstly, thanks again for all the replies! Just to clarify, I do live in their home some times when I'm off from school, since my job is in the town where they live. Apart from that they haven't been paying any bills or supporting me in any other way for the past two years now. As for medical insurance, I live in Sweden, where such things doesn't have to be paid;) (I know, we have ridiculous taxes instead...) Thing is, I really like my parents, and while I definitely understand their concern (trust me, i'm not exactly all zen about jumping out of a friggin plane either;) I just feel that it's important for them to understand my choices. That being said, they seem to have changed their opinion almost over night to a much more understanding, altough not entirely liking attitude. I probably think I would have booked my aff-course even without approval, but it feels better having them behind me.

They haven't been supporting me financially for a rather long time now, so that is not the question at all. It would simply feel a lot better if they were supportive rather than throwing smug remarks about it every chance they get... Probably would be a good idea to let them have some understanding of the sport I guess, the only problem is that I at the moment don't have that understanding myself since, well, I'm not even a student yet :P Edit: Also, thanks a bunch for your answers!

Hi! So, I'm very eager to book my aff course. The only problem is that my parents have started rebelling against the idea (despite them giving me my first tandem...). While I am 20 years old and could definitely just book the course and crap on their opinions on the matter I figure that maybe I should try to have a constructive conversation with them before that. So, the question is what do I tell them? How dangerous is skydiving actually compared to other things, like driving or rockclimbing (which I do a great deal of) for instance? Also, what are your thoughts on the objections of relatives, does it matter that a parent or wife, husband etc is worried about you? My feeling is that it's their fear, and therefore their problem to deal with, even a bit unfair for them to be dumping it on me...

So, itook a second tandem yesterday, wasnt actually scared at all, and got to see a guy make his first aff jump right before me. As soon as i figure out when ill be working this summer im booking the course, thanks for the encouragement! onequestion tough, how do you generally get in touch with other skydivers? Im fairly certain none of my friends would even consider joining me for the course. Are skydivers generally so friendly that i wont seem wierd just going up and saying hi,or how do one usually met one's jumping buddies?

thanks for all the answers, especially thanks to u namowal, just read your entire blog, and decided that i'll make another tandem jump, and then probably go for the aff-course:-)