Di0

The head start is actually getting in touch and working with a coach. They'll push you faster than you think possible. At least, that's my experience after having worked a few times with Jeannie and Curt (Alter Ego), and trying to work as regularly as possible with Greg Windmiller. I consider Greg my mentor and there is no way I would have been here without all their help, in fact when I was trying to get a "head start" I almost killed myself a few times and I was known on the DZ as "that guy". Realistically, you might be very talented but, if like me, you're not, then by trying to get a head start, you will likely learn bad habits that, best case scenario, will be hard and time consuming to kick out, worst case scenario, will fuck you up something proper. Now, well, now I'm better and everyone, from the young ling trying to figure out why their katanas open funky to the "old guys" wondering about wind conditions, ask for my opinion when it comes to "canopy stuff", so I guess I'm doing something right. When I say that Greg probably "saved my life", I mean it literally at this point, and I'll never get tired of stressing this point. Really, get in touch with a coach, it's your best, safest and fastest bet. One thing I will say though, related to your technique: be VERY careful with going into a full flare/surge at 220 feet. That's low, if you have even the slightest instability in the canopy at that stage due to turbulence or whatever, you might find yourself up shit creek really fast. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Actually, thank you! I will start doing this, not because I think it's easier, but because then, when walking the slider down the lines, it should be much harder for me to not spot this mistake in the future. I will try and change my packing routine to attach the slider immediately before I drop the rig down. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Was that a tension knot? Is your pack job all that contributed to it? Yes and no, yes in the sense that it was the exact same symptom, but no: it was caused by a line caught in the Removable Slider ring, if you go at the end of the video I posted a couple of pictures of the error (that was all on me) after I recovered the canopy. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Closer to 2.4 really, I gained some weight. :D Honestly? It was quite a bit tougher than I expected, I could swear I thought and went for a two handed grab, given the spin, but by looking at the video, that definitely wasn't the case (one-hand is how I practice on the ground anyway). I could definitely feel my arms getting very heavy, like 2 or 3 times their usual weight (I think I was at about 4G according to the flysight, not quite 10G). I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Ah, a person who's not a skydiver actually asked if"did I signal I was going to use my second chute?", then she thought about that and was like "oh no sorry, that doesn't make sense, I watched the video again". I was like "actually, I like that reasoning". LoL I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Bet ya you can still do a better job than what I did yesterday... LoL https://youtu.be/4FPa5qDqRYE I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

When I had about 100 jumps and I was working on packing, I was a grown ass man crying. I also thought I would never get it. Now I have a few jumps south of 1000 and, well, I'm still a relatively slow and clumsy packer compared to most BUT you'll get it to a decent point. As someone said, practice during the week: what I would do if you have space, leave the rig unpacked and practice only the part where you put it in and out of the bag, don't even bother reflaking the cocoon or closing the container, just redo that part from canopy on the ground to first stow (which is the part that requires some manual skill) until you feel like you got it 4 or 5 times in a row. Then of course undo everything and start your packjob from step 1 for the "real" packjob before jumping. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

My progression from memory: 0-50 Student canopies from 240 to 200. 50-300: Safire2 149 WL 1.2 300-600 Safire2 129 600-800 Crossifre2 109 WL 1.5-1.7 800-950 Katana 97 WL 1.9-2.0 950 - now (995): Velo 84 WL 2.2-2.4 Give or take. Numbers are approximate. I think, except for the idea of starting on a 150, which wasn't objectively a smart one, after that is neither fast neither slow. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

The way I look at it, if you try to go down the "you'll get hurt" argument, he'll always have a reason why he will not, they all do. It's pointless. I'd try a different approach, just explain to him how, if he does, most likely everybody will think he's an idiot and he'll be outcast pretty soon. He's not going to get any "cool-points" except maybe from people even less experienced than him, all the "cool people", the load organizers etc., if somehow he manages to sneak one on a load a few times, will not want to have anything to do with him and that kind of reputation is hard to shake off in skydiving. Take it from one who knows. ;) Tell him that kind of people most often end up jumping solo or with another couple of friends, it's always them, no one invites them on their jumps, and every time they make a mistake that usually would cause only a friendly laugh, when done by these people gets much more nastier comments and reactions, and again, this sort of reputation lasts hundreds for jumps. All of that because someone doesn't want to wait the year or so it takes to rack up 200 jumps on average, all other considerations of risks aside, which are all correct but to some people they're not as effective as positive peer pressure, it's just not worth it. IMHO. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Hello guys! First thing first, I know they manufacturer says "not recommended for use at terminal" (I am referring to sunpath specifically), so I am aware that this will be at my own risk. That said, does anyone have any experience with using low-drag risers at terminal speed? I know a couple of people do around the DZ, but I thought I would ask for more opinions. I am putting a full RDS setup together and I needed an extra set of risers anyway, so I got them low-drag because why not, I just want to know if they need to be used *strictly* subterminal or I can take them on regular jumps (which I don't do much anyway but would like to get back into), granted of course that the full RDS is switched to a slider-only rds for the freefall jump. I tried to search the forum, but oddly enough this wasn't discussed or at least I couldn't find any topic. Ideas? Opinions? Thank you so much! I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I was taught to do the same. However, even if that worked, one thing is to do that when you're about to go underwater, another is to do that in front of everybody on an airplane load. I mean, after all peeing in your jumpsuit probably also helps keeping you warm and cozy but I wouldn't really recommend it as a skydiving technique. LoL I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Because otherwise I either swim or get a zero, or both. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I've always had issues with a fogging visor. I have found that cleaning it really well with rubbing alcohol and a soft cotton cloth works like a dream (fogging is typical much worse if the surface has dirt or oils on it - even a little). I know some manufacturers limit what they consider acceptable cleaning products, but whatever. I use what works. Keep some cleaning supplies in your gear bag and re-clean at the first sign of fogging. I keep a bottle of this and use it occasionally (and sparingly) when I start to notice fogging. On my BH Aero it's not an issue, beside my last ~500 jumps were hop and pop with open faces, so I haven't used in a while but when I was doing RW only and I had an older Oxygin, I remember being happy with it. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0012Q2S4W/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1 I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Mine was probably around jump 4-500. A knot tied around the slider (either the excess line tangled around it, but the more I think about it, it was probably my packing error), slider came down and canopy was turning, I managed to fly above the DZ by grabbing the lines above the slider (Thank you Greg W. ;) ) and tried a few practice flares. For the most part I could either fly straight or flare but not both, not consistently at least, so I decided to chop. I was debating whether to land it or not, but I reached my decision altitude and I still wasn't sure that it was safe to land the canopy. My main feeling, once I decided I was going through with the EPs: I really can't believe I am cutting away because of this stupid bullshit...well, here we go. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

When I started, I wanted to become a badass RW competitor. I did hours of tunnel, hundreds of jumps mainly focused on 4-Way. Even tried to start a team, which didn't last long. I thought RW was the "safest" of all competitive disciplines, I didn't want anything to do with swooping or wingsuiting. Then I touched my front-risers and turned to the dark side. Now I have several hundreds of hop and pops, haven't been in freefall in more than a year and I have been using all my money and time to travel to canopy piloting competitions and swoop camps. So no, I did not become the kind of skydiver I thought I would etc etc etc. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

All these accidents involve an A-380 as the culprit. I'm wondering if it doesn't create a wake turbulence that is somewhat much worse than you'd expect, even after counting the fact that it is the biggest and heaviest commercial airliner out there, and normal distances don't work well when an A380 is involved. I wonder if when they introduced the B747, way back when, they had similar issues with air traffic and wake turbulence that they didn't anticipate. Or maybe your text focuses only on issues created by the A380, but they're in general a much more common occurrence involving other big airliners too? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

While I agree that PD loading chart is conservative, I'd be very careful in disregarding the "expert" and "maximum" WL on the chart from the people who built the canopy. I didn't say not to do it. I just said to be careful and to "read the manual", it's a fair warning because the hybrid construction usually desires a lower WL than you'd expect on ZP canopies. That's it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Just be careful with loading a Silhouette over 1 to 1, even with numbers that we would consider "conservative" on a complete ZP construction. If you were a little over 1 with a 230, a 190 would already put you over the MAXIMUM W.L. as per PD specs, even a 210 would put you in the "Expert" range. Sooo, yeah, designs involving F-111 don't really like WL over 1:1. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Ah! Dammit! Those are cleaner than mines! I am jealous! :) If you're already coming from a bigger KA and you're into training for swooping specifically, than you know exactly what to expect. I thought this was your first "advanced" canopy, hence the warning, but if you already fly a katana then you shouldn't have too much problems adapting. Yes, it's pretty easy to handle cross winds with the Katana, it's quite reactive to small harness inputs so it's really a no brainer in those conditions. At the same time it's stable enough of a platform that I don't feel small involuntary harness inputs induce too much problems like they would on a more rigid xbraced. What I will work on next is actually learning to carve the landing to run a speed course, if you see my video I failed both times because I never tried to carve a swoop so I had no idea about the proper technique. Depending on how that goes, learning that on the katana will probably be the last thing I want to do, before considering a velo. No reason to complicate things for me now. :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Borrow it from a wingsuiter friend. Flysights are awesome tiny little devices, super helpful and useful but I honestly think they are the last thing you want to buy if you don't have your basic gear yet. Alternatively, and arguably a more "useful" purchase for a beginner, N3 also gives you canopy descent speeds. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Not exactly what you're asking for, but some of the information in this great video (actual numbers, not guesses!) are very close to answer what you ask, or at least give you a good idea. https://youtu.be/anAPO0xqnZE I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Right. You need to actively fly the opening. It all boils down to using a mix of harness inputs and rear riser to control the opening. I pack very trashy and I probably have had only one or two line twists out of more than 250 jumps on my katana. In your video you never got on rears during the opening, which basically means you were never really in control of it. You were being flown by whatever the Nylon Gods decided to give you that day. The first line twist came out of the bag so whatever, but second line twist could have been avoided if you had been a little more ahead of your game and took control of the canopy sooner. No worries though, it comes with practice and now it's muscle memory for me. If you're interested, I think Greg Windmiller covers this specifically during one of his canopy classes, there's a lot that one can do during an opening to avoid problems, so if he has a class near you and you want to learn how to better fly an opening, among all other things he teaches, he's the Man. ;) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

That's exactly the wing I have now at the same wingloading. All the canopy coaches I talked to agree it's a great wing to learn proper swooping before going to an x-braced. Sure, I personally don't consider it a great "all around wing" (it is *really* steep, really, steep), but I use it to learn how to swoop (working on 270s) and it treated me very well so far. If you have a canopy instructor you often work with, double check with them, they might give you the best input but, generally speaking, it's the perfect canopy for the direction you seem to be going. To give you an idea, this is how it flew this weekend: even with a relatively clumsy pilot like me (as I said, I'm working on it! So much to learn!) that thing certainly can dive and cover some distance. During my routine fuck-ups I certainly was happy to be on a katana rather than a velo! Just be careful, depending on where you come from, it can be a demanding wing so be ready to put some hard and serious work with her and don't underestimate it or be complacent because "it's not cross braced!". https://youtu.be/5lZUUFZazkU I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Nothing to do with that. It's actually the opposite, those wings are "too" pressurized, so they deform, in this case I'd imagine that the pressurization "pushes" the top and bottom skin far apart, as in the wing becomes "thicker" then it is at trim speed. Now, without getting in a long discussion, let's just say we know that for swooping a "thin" wing is more performing. Having the ribs made of sail material, i.e. less elastic that ZP, will keep the wing "thin" during the overpressurization of a swoop. Not sure how much of this effect is measurable and how much is advertisement, for that I'd have to see actual CFDs and numbers, which of course I don't have, but the physics behind it is at least sound. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Yup, right, that was assuming that the smaller canopy was "going faster", I see that might not be necessarily true - since it depends on WL. However in 0 winds, changing WL will not change the glide in relation to the ground too much. It will when considering winds, though, for the reasons I was explaining in the part you quoted. Yes, I think we're saying the same thing basically! :D I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.