TracyS

Lethal1ty17

No problem. I am interested in seeing your opinion on how it flies.

Well, I'll tell ya, I'm sure the Swurve flies very well....... with a more experienced wingsuit jumper flying it. One jump on it was enough to demonstrate for me that it was more performance than I was ready for.
I had perfect control of it, for about 2 seconds after I exited the plane. From than point on, it was more like the wingsuit flew me instead of me flying it. The entire flight, including deploying, was the most extreme roller coaster ride I've ever experienced.

I have put it in the closet for now and gone back down to a Vulcan. I plan on putting a good 100-200 jumps, or more, on the Vulcan before I contemplate flying the Swurve again.
It's not taking up much space in the closet and it will be there when I'm ready for it.

On a separate note, I contacted Walt from Redline Aerosports, and he got me into a Vulcan that fits great. I put two flights on it this past weekend and they were both much more stable and in control than I was with the Swurve.

Too funny. Just looked at another thread, where I got a base picture to Photoshop the color palette I wanted for mine. It was your picture that I used as a starting point to show how I wanted it to turn out.

So, THANKS! You made my job easier.

Swurve wingsuit arrived from Redline Aerosports today.

It turned out EXACTLY as I wanted, and is almost identical to what I had photoshopped.

Customer service was TOP NOTCH. After ordering, Walt and I chatted about a few details and rechecked a couple of measurements to ensure I would end up with a well fitting wingsuit. Could not have hoped for better service. GREAT COMMUNICATION throughout process.

Made in the USA by a wingsuit flier, for wingsuit fliers.

Ordered on 21st of September and delivered on 7 October. Just barely over 2 weeks from order to delivery. OUTSTANDING!!

This thing is absolutely GORGEOUS!!
Absolutely love the contrast between the neon green and the black.
I'm certain it will fly as good as it looks and can't wait to get it in the air.

gunsmokex

I don't know if there is any truth to the PISA using a bigger slider from 2002 on but mines a 2001. I've tried to do a little research on this but seems that Aerodyne doesn't know a great amount about the Hornets any longer. Hell I don't ever really know how long they were made much less if they changed sliders. I guess I could measure mine and post it, if anyone has a 2002 or later I'd be interested in their slider size as it'd be nice to at least help reduce the possibility of a slammer opening if I keep this thing for a while.

After I bought mine, I was told that they had a reputation for being "neck breakers" and that they had gone back and started putting bigger sliders on them. I called Aerodyne, and got in touch with someone there who was familiar with the Hornets. He confirmed the bigger slider information. As for openings, mine has given me very nice, gentle openings for the most part. Any opening I've had, that has been less than gentle, has usually been because I allowed myself to get in a rush with my pack job.

Southern_Man

I sold mine in 2013. It only had ~400 jumps on it, so I think it is still being jumped elsewhere. I would jumpe one if I found a 170 in good condition.

Or a 210 in Georgia?

Yep. 210 Hornet. Bought it 2013 and love it.

RichyR,

Don't sweat the time that it takes. Speed comes with repetition.
Just take your time and focus on doing it the same way each time, so it becomes a routine.
The more times you do it, the better your time will get.

RichyR

Thanks everyone.

Now signed off to pack, and have packed a couple unsupervised that both opened great.

Still takes almost 30mins though!!

I'll give that a look. Thanks.

Hi all. Does anyone know the canopy drills from the Flight-1 101 & 102 courses. I attended the courses in 2013 and can no longer find my notes.
In August of 2014 I was involved in an accident and haven't been able to jump since. My rig is back together now. Back and shoulder have healed, and I have even done some time in the tunnel to see how the back is gonna feel. I messaged the instructor from the courses asking for a list of the drills so that I can work on getting myself back up to speed, but got no response. He's a pretty busy guy and I don't want to pester him by repeatedly asking, so I thought I'd try here to see if anyone else has taken the courses and still has a list of the canopy drills that were done.
Any help appreciated.

RiggerLee

I'm going to play the devils advocate here. It's easy to say that he should have cut away at 13,000 ft when you have never been there and never expect to be in that situation. I've done a lot of CRW and we've faced issues like that often. The very statement that you should cut away from some thing like that imedeantly implies that you do not have faith in you're reserve system and perhaps in this case he should not have. But it also implies that it is suicidal to open your main at 3,500 ft on every jump. By you're logic you should plan to be in the saddle by 6,000 feet or higher on every jump. He was by no means or pushing the envelope on his equipment in any way. The altitude that he cut away at should have been ample several times over. There was nothing wrong with his decisions. There was how ever some thing severely wrong with the performance of his equipment. You can not glaze over that fact with the simple assertion that he should have done some thing differently.

At some point we have to put our faith in our gear. As to what we expect from it... that's very personal depending on the equipment and the individual. But there are clear minimum standards set out for it's performance. Minimum I say. It's spelled out in the testing standards of the TSO's. If it can't meet those then there's some thing wrong and it needs to be addressed.

Lee

RiggerLee,

I sincerely hope that you'll read this with the humor in which it is intended. I get the impression from your use of the word "he" that you haven't grasped that I am "he" and that you are defending me from me.
I have been there. In fact, I was there at that very moment.
It was not meant to imply that I don't have faith in my reserve, I do.
What my statement says, very clearly, is that the valid point was made to me that cutting away higher might have been the better choice in case there was any further problem to be dealt with.
Not trying to glaze over anything. Just trying to learn from this and evaluate what I could have done differently.
Thank you very much for your input. I do truly appreciate it.

ChrisD

C

Looks like an ad for a skyhook IMO.

And we still have those that want to dick around with their explanations to justify their learning experience?

Seriously,

Really:

More armchair advocates making statements that riding a fatal main is ok? The ADHD fired, so that makes this ok????

Don't think

PERFORME YOUR EP'S FOLKS.

Time is not on your side....

I bet the kid did the best he could under the circumstances,... there is nothing new here other than the amount of stupidity shown by more than a few comments advocating delaying your EP's.

ChrisD, Yes. Under the circumstances I did the best I could. The point has been correctly made that I might have wished for all of that altitude back had I had a malfunction with the reserve that I had to deal with.
Again, I'm not trying to justify my decisions. In retrospect, I know that there are other decisions that i could have made that might have been better.
Although I factored it into my decision, losing a main is not worth losing my life. I think that the only, truly correct, answer would have been to cut it away around 13,000 if I was going to cut it away. That said, I did have faith in my reserve and made the decision that I made. The fact that I walked away from it doesn't make it the BEST decision, just the one I made.

Quagmirian

Am I wrong, or is that a 9 cell reserve? Not saying it had anything to do with the hesitation, just an observation.

PD Reserve, 253 Sq ft.

riggerrob

Which model of container?
How big is the container?
How big is the reserve?
Is that size of reserve recommended on the container compatibility chart?
How long was the reserve closing loop?

Wings W-30
253 Sq ft
Same reserve that it came with from the manufacturer, so I hope it would be compatible.
Don't know how long the reserve closing loop was.

kuai43

Quote

Exited the plane around 14k, stable with about a 3 second delay and opened into a line over with a hard left turn.

Having recently had a cutaway in which I couldn't find my main and free bag for 3 weeks, I didn't want to chop it too high if I could safely ride it to a lower altitude and minimize the drift of the main and free bag.

Clearly the cost of a new main is high, but what's the cost of a replacement line vs. a reserve repack? @hook-knife.

Amen!, that is why I now carry a hook knife on every jump.

BigMikeH77

Quote

he paused to let a canopy pass beneath him.

It's difficult for me to really tell what's going on in the video... Clearly the use of digital zoom indicates there is a good deal of altitude still, and I see what appears to be a line-over (is that correct?) malfunction. The pilot cuts the malfunctioned main away, and then for a moment it looks like the reserve canopy is still inside the freebag and in tow - as though it doesn't "want" to open.

After that the camera follows the main to the ground.

So I'm slightly confused - Did the pilot wait to deploy his reserve or did the reserve deploy upon cutaway but not open?

No digital zoom used. Low light and optical zoom only. Reserve was NOT in tow. That is the PC that you see.

Just before I cutaway, you can see me get straight under the canopy for a moment. I already had my left hand on the reserve handle and, knowing that letting go of the right toggle would send me back into a hard left turn, pulled the right brake down to the same level as my cutaway handle so that I could release the brake, grab the cutaway handle and chop it.i followed with the reserve handle within one second.

RiggerLee

It's a perfectly reasonable concern. It was a high altitude hop and pop, like a crw dive. His cutaway altitude was still at a conservative height. There is no reason for it to be dangerous to cut away from 2,500 or slightly lower, he paused to let a canopy pass beneath him. He has every right to expect his equipment to perform from a fraction of this altitude. This appears to be a failure, or near failure of the reserve system. It's hard to say exactly what happened but it sure sounds like a stuck bag just like some of the other incidents/accidents we've seen lately. If you don't keep up with it be advised that there are several threads discussing bag extraction failure in the rigging section.

Lee

RiggerLee, you've got it right. It is hard to say exactly what happened.
I have heard theories about the PC being in a burble, needing to build enough speed for it to have enough force to extract the reserve, the container being too tight for the reserve ( this is the original reserve that came with the rig per my discussion with the manufacturer ), and a few other theories.
I don't claim to know why it happened. On my first cutaway, the reserve extracted just fine. All I know is that when I looked over my shoulder and saw the PC and the bridle streaming out behind me, my thought was to change my body position. It was right after that that I could feel it start to extract.

SEREJumper

***

Quote

exactly my thought, he says it was to chop lower so his main wouldn't drift far away. Could have cost him his life.

That exact thing has killed people already.

***I've never been in a cutaway situation... But I can't imagine that when the time comes I would be worried about whether or not I recover the main. That just doesn't seem like it would, or should be, a priority at that moment.

Unfortunetly with most anything we as humans do, we tend to get complacent after having done something awhile, even skydiving. We must always be vigilant and realize each jump is unique.

SEREJumper, no complacency issue here. It was a decision, right or wrong but don't jump to the conclusion that I was complacent. You would be mistaken.
I am learning. I am taking input from all sources and evaluating what I might do differently.

BigMikeH77

Quote

exactly my thought, he says it was to chop lower so his main wouldn't drift far away. Could have cost him his life.

I've never been in a cutaway situation... But I can't imagine that when the time comes I would be worried about whether or not I recover the main. That just doesn't seem like it would, or should be, a priority at that moment.

BigMikeH77, you are indeed right. It shouldn't be a priority at that moment. But, having just gotten my rig back that day from my first cutaway, in which it took me 3 weekends to find the main and free bag, it WAS a part of the decision making process. It was not THE priority, but it was a factor. I had no reason to expect such a long hesitation in my reserve opening and the malfunction was safely controllable to a lower altitude. Had I chopped it at the altitude that it occurred, it would have likely made it to the next state before coming down.
to saying my decision was THE right one, but it was the one I made.
I am open to any and all input, or criticisms offered. I'm a big boy, so let em fly.

-ftp-

***He sure stayed with the main a long time. The blue canopy at 1:08 is the reserve, the camera just lost track of him.

Sparky

exactly my thought, he says it was to chop lower so his main wouldn't drift far away. Could have cost him his life.

Ok, so I only found out today that this was being discussed here, so I figured I'd chime in.
The video was me.
Yes, you are correct, the decision to ride it down to 2500, and then a little lower due to the other jumper flying beneath me could have cost me my life. That thought has occurred to me.
As for the comment by someone else about a hook knife; I was not carrying one prior to this jump. I now have one with me on every jump.
The point about the hook knife was made to me by a friend and I promised I'd start carrying one.

Congrats, just had my first chop too.
Not at all frightening when it happened and kind of glad to have the first one out of the way.

Although I wouldn't want to make a habit of having cutaways, it was kind of fun; the different sensation of falling away from the main with no relative wind pushing against me. Truly getting that falling feeling.

Mine was without an RSL, making me solely responsible for getting it done. I am giving thought to getting an RSL, but haven't decided yet.

Anyway, congrats again. I would rather see/read this type of story, where somebody executes their EP's and lives to jump another day than some of the ones we've seen lately that didn't survive it.

chuckakers

***Yes, that's what I thought it was when I looked up at it.
I didn't catch it when laid it down for the packer.
I always stow my brakes, un-collapse the slider and walk the lines even though I use a packer because I figure it's ultimately my responsibility, not the packer.
The packer does/checks those things also and felt bad for not catching either, but it was 100% my mistake.

It's a good idea to perform a quick line check each time you lay your canopy out. It's quick and easy - just make sure that the brake lines, the outside front lines, and the outside rear lines go from the links to the canopy without crossing any other line.

Whether it's your job or the packer's job at your DZ, you're the one that will end up with the problem. Doing it yourself will eliminate the possibility.

Chuck, I couldn't agree with you more. I honestly don't know if my DZ has a specific policy about it. I personally view it as being in my own best interest regardless of the any policy the DZ might have to check it myself for the very reason you state.
I always, without exception, walk my lines and I've never seen my packer not do the same. I have no idea how this ended up happening.
Either we both missed it or it happened during packing.
I honestly don't even care at this point. No one was hurt and, as in many other close calls, it can serve as a reminder to me, my packer and anyone else to be vigilant in checking their gear.

In naval aviation, tool boxes are checked out and back in every time they are used. They have shadows where each tool goes and yet, every once in a while, a tool is still forgotten on an aircraft.
I used to teach people that their eyes will lie to them, that they will see what they expect to see. So I would try to instill in them to touch every tool as they inventoried it.
Thanks for the feedback.

Ron

Quote

I will consider getting an RSL. Not attempting to rationalize not having one but just clarifying, I chose to wait a second or two before pulling. I had a hand on each handle and could have done a quick one the the other.
Your advice, as always, is good advice and I'll give it some thought.

Don't let people bully you into doing what THEY want. You did fine. Yes, an RSL might save you, it also might kill you but they never mention that point.

Thanks, I don't take it as bullying. This something that they believe in and I am willing to listen to differing opinions than mine so that I can see it from someone else's point of view.

nadominhoca

In my opinion, everytime you give your rig for someone to pack your parachute, you are taking a certain risk... no matter how good the packer is!!! It takes only one minor mistake for a bad packing job.. which eventually could lend to a malfunction..

I agree with the PO... it's your responsibility at the end of the day!! In my DZ, we have 10-15 packers every weekend.. those guys works like machine, packing one parachute after the other... I wouldn't blame them for a potential malfunction in my canopy due to a "bad" packing job..

We have two options... 1) Learn how to pack... 2) Give your rig to someone else to pack it.. and trust them!!

Agreed. I'm not saying they had no part in it or absolving their role in it.
I'm simply accepting that it MY gear and that if you crank out pack jobs like some of them do on a weekend, sooner or later something is going to happen.
I walked away from it with my little "no shit, there I was" story with no harm to myself.
I'm still confident in my packer.

davelepka

Quote

I will consider getting an RSL

Although I see the value of an RSL, I have some reservations about having an RSL under a spinning line twist or some other situations that make me feel better about not having it.

Here's the problem with your thinking, your reservation about the RSL is that you don't want to dump your reserve right after cutting away from a spinning mal and so what you're doing is building the idea of waiting until you are square and stable to dump your reserve, and this is exactly where people get into trouble.

A spinning mal is also a diving mal, and that means you're losing altitude faster than you think. When you combine that with a pre-determined idea that you need to delay and get stable, you're creating a recipe for an incident.

The simple fact is that the vast majority of RSL deployments from spinning mals have resulted in no problems what so ever. Let's go back to the first jump course, and review the pull priorities -
1. Pull
2. Pull at the correct altitude
3. Pull while stable

In a mal/cutaway situation, the correct altitude is long past, that's where you threw your PC before the mal, so at that point 'pull' comes well before 'stable'.

Monkey made a great, succinct point - Would you rather hit the ground with line twists, or with your slider still up?

Well said sir, to you and Monkycndo

monkycndo

At Safety Day, a question was posed to those that do not use an RSL.

When under your reserve, would you rather land with line twists or at line stretch?

Monkycndo, you make a valid point. As said before I'm going to reevaluate my position on the RSL.
As always, I appreciate the constructive feedback that I get from experienced, knowledgable folks like yourself. That is why I posted the video and the description to spark the conversation and help me assess my position.