jerry81

Not only that...coming from a Vector student/Sigma dropzone, I can say it's a very welcome side-effect of the Skyhook that you only need to find the big main canopy to have one of your "workrigs" back in circulation in a matter of hours/next day instead of searching for a small freebag or having to wait for spare parts to arrive (we keep extra handles, but not many freebags around).

Regarding deployment- don't you think you should be keeping your legs stretched out more as well? Unless you've been falling in that position for long enough to bleed off your forward movements, the bag will be coming out of your container at an angle, which means it could possibly hit your feet on its way...and wingsuit flying is fun enough without adding linetwists to it.

I would at least draw similar parallels as him. To illustrate: a few weeks ago a guy at our dz who has about 70 jumps bought a Phantom. I couldn't prevent him from jumping it and even if I would, he'd just take it to another dz or jump it from his private plane over some lonely beach or something. So I did the next best thing and gave him a briefing and flew with him so he had video of his jump to work with as well. He did pretty good and considering his background (hang-gliding, paragliding, pilot...) I'd even put his ability to deal with emergencies above average. BUT Two jumps later he went to fly with another friend and I went with them to video again. Although the plan was very simple and I was flying on his right just where I told him I would be, he never even checked to see I was there or acknowledged in any way that he's aware of me- he was too focused on the other person. Also, on other jumps, even though his position was OK and I could keep eye contact, his face had that tense look that tells you someone is on the limit of sensory overload in free fall. So yeah, while it might not be the same stress or risk level as a 50-way formation, even simple flocking can be too much for someone whose air awareness is not developed enough yet. So as far as numbers go, I'd say that there's people around below the recommended minimum who are capable with proper guidance of flying the suit and handling it when things go wrong, but when left alone (as will inevitably happen, whether it's another dz, a boogie or just their decision) are also more likely to get in over their heads.

Not just try...do not use the official exchange rate (credit cards, ATMs) if in Venezuela, period. Parallel (street) rate gets you more than twice at the moment, so if you pay cash, the AFP course (2 tandems + 7 AFF levels, 10 jumps total) at Skydive Venezuela will cost you about 1000$.

The length of the steering lines from the canopy to the cat's eye (the loop for blocking the brakes) shouldn't be changed- it's set by the manufacturer for what works best on opening. On the other hand, a lot of canopies come from the factory with the brakelines too short- if you need them longer, add only below the cat's eye (on some canopies it's possible to only replace the line below it, on others the cat's eye is a piece of line fingertrapped into the steering line so the whole piece from the cascades down needs to be replaced, but making sure the locking loop stays in the same place). Best way to go about determining the proper length is to leave enough line below the loop, make a temporary knot to attach the toggles, jump it and see how it flies. When you're happy with the result, fingertrap the excess inside the brakeline, which will allow you to take some more out later should you need to (like after a few hundred jumps when the lines have shrunk a bit).

I was actually just wondering if there's any downsides to having a full-face on a tandem jump that I haven't thought of yet. Using a helmet was not even an issue- I prefer to wear one regardless of the aircraft/exit type or other factors.

Main reason? I normally jump a tailgate (An-28) and exit facing the rear with a backflip. You take extra care to just step out with little or no rotation and let the wind flip you, but I've seen our most experienced TI (16 years in sport, 3000+ tandems) open up the back of his head when he hit the edge. Plus, head protection is kinda cool...

I just bought a full-face mtb helmet for BASE...pretty low profile, about the same size as your average rw helmet, and now I'm considering wearing it with tandems as well. It doesn't have a visor so I'm not particularly worried about communication problems. On one hand, I like having my face protected, on the other, a full-face helmet still sticks out more than just my bare chin and I definitely don't want passengers to be hitting their heads on it (under normal circumstances, that is). Right now I'm using my ff helmet which has a built-on camera box...don't like that too much. Experiences and other pros/cons very welcome.

I found sorz great for everything except headdown- after a few jumps when the airflow started peeling them up off my face I switched to flex-z...600 jumps on those so far without a problem. YMMV, of course.

Yeah, we do that, although with large groups it's either free jumps for the person who brought them or group discount for the tandems, but not both.

Try getting to the wheel on the ground a few times if you have a chance, just to see how you go about doing it. Then in the air, simply take a death grip on the window frame with your left hand (start at the front, not the back of the door), get one foot on the wheel (make sure the pilot knows to lock the brake) and push forward into the propwash until you reach the strut with your other hand. From there on it should be easy. It's not extremely hard, even with no step outside. In fact, I'd say a lot of it is your mind telling you you're gonna fall off. I like this exit for videos because it gives you a wider shot of the door, plus it leaves more room for the pair to get out (I assume you're shooting tandems, but if it's AFF they'll be even happier about it).

Most people I know just cut them off an old pair of risers. You can also order a pair of stainless 3/4" rings from Paragear or another skydiving store. Although I did get some shit from my friends for going through all that trouble when I did it...

Just make sure the lines don't cross (the outmost linegroup on the canopy should be the outmost on the link and so on) or have any twists in them. That's about all there is to it.

I say it's a 21-cell crossbraced canopy. The nose looks very much like a Velocity, that's why I'd like to know how it performs compared to one. But I guess there's not much chance of getting an X-1 in the ~100 sq.ft. range down to S. America to try out any time real soon, is there?

But for the fact that we don't fly an Otter, I would have asked you if you jump at my DZ... Thanks for this! I'll translate it and put it up outside manifest. Perhaps humor will go further than repeating the same things each load...

Well, now I'm really interested in how it flies compared to a Velo... And just to confirm something: this was developed by Atair USA, right? Or was Stane involved as well?

I'd say the most common pc size on sport rigs is 26" or so (ZP or F-111). Bigger gear (i.e. student rigs)- bigger pilot chutes. Black and white (and maybe grey) seem to be the most common colors (or at least that's what I remember from when I was packing).

A few months ago I replaced the lines on my Demon with a 'competition' lineset (from the manufacturer. I had also been toying with the idea of making a new lineset myself and doing a few adjustments to it (I had the original trim chart), but buying from the manufacturer was cheaper, faster and safer. The performance of the canopy changed a lot, most noticeably the recovery arc (longer) and bottom-end flare. I measured the new lines when I was installing them and I can tell you the changes were much more than just lengthening the rear or the outward line groups...much more, basically, than what I would have come up with without studying canopy design extensively.

The Demon is quite a different beast with the competition lineset installed. I've been jumping other canopies as well, but this one should keep me happy until I can get my hands on a Velo 103 [drool]...

This was last month...one of my last swoops on the pond before it dried up. Photos by Simone Pollera.

Giancarlo has somewhere in the vicinity of 6000 jumps (and 50+ hours of tunnel). I'll check about putting the footage online.

Huge congrats to Giancarlo Trimarchi who just passed the test (2 spaceballs, six transitions) here at Skydive Venezuela and became the fourth person in the world to get the Atmosphere Dolphin D license!! Regardless of what anyone thinks about the AD licensing system, it's a freaking hardcore achievement and we will be celebrating it heavily tonight...

Takes about 10-15 minutes to make a new one out of Cypres cord. Just make sure when you're fingertrapping to run the cord for the free end loop through at least halfway through its length before you do the no-sewing trick, as it leaves a bit of a bump in the line that doesn't go very smoothly through the closing loop after you've packed.

I have seen two cameras ripped off the helmets in the last three months. One was a top-mounted digital still caught by the risers of a departing main, the other was a side-mounted (badly, at that) video camera that came off after a riser strike. First person was about ready to release his helmet but the camera mount gave out faster, second person just got very lucky...cause there was also this fatality about a year ago, where the most probable cause for main/reserve entanglement was determined to have been a riser hanging up on the camera mount after cutaway. No release system on the helmet and an extremely experienced skydiver. That's three that I know of in the last 12 months...

There was a thread or two with pics about this here already...seems that the Wings freefly handle allows you to experience a floating pud mal without needing to switch to pull-out. Different manufacturers take different approaches to pillow handles and I've seen them attached with a piece of binding tape on Atoms as well, but nothing as long as what Wings rigs seem to have.