chips26

It doesn't have to be a metal pin to be dependent on it, could just be a straight tab instead. The act of pulling the cat eye through the ring, and then putting the nose of the toggle through the cat eye and into its pocket locks the cat eye(and toggle) to the ring. Even if the toggle comes out of its keeper pocket, the line tension is enough to keep the brakes fully stowed. Since the cat eye has been set under the lower ring the brake settings remained unchanged until you pop the toggles. Contrast that with just putting the toggle nose through the cat eye and into its pocket, laying on top of the ring, then there is nothing to keep anything in place if the toggle comes out of its keepers.

You will fall faster without a suit, but booties are a must in 4 way, and the bigger the better. What you need is a nylon suit and a weight belt. Emphasis on the weight belt.

To me its less about the toggle design and more about the risers. In a two ring setup like the picture above, as well as on Wing's swoop risers, the cat eye goes through the bottom ring, and then the pin or soft toggle portion goes through the cat eye and into the keeper above the bottom ring. All pressure is pulling up on the toggle and the toggle cannot physically come unstowed unless the toggle gets released from the cat eye. The only way to do that is to pull down.

So I was approached and asked to fly video for a team next summer. Never done any VFS camera work before and I'm looking at options for suits. I'm a smaller dude and fly a pretty tight suit in the tunnel and the sky. The rest of the teammates are all bigger dudes (~200+lbs) and fly pretty fast. I'm torn on if I need to get another suit with some more range in the legs or not. Any suggestions?

So I ended up replacing my Fuel with a Tonfly Speed with a small chincup and soft ratchets. Personally I regret the soft ratchets, I will be getting hard ratchets on my next helmet. The chincup takes a couple jumps to get used to, but once its broke in its wonderful, easy to adjust and it really limits the shake if you care about good camera footage. As far as internal vs external audible port, external every time. With the price of helmets these days there is no reason not to have an integrated external audible port. I have had external on both my fuel and my Speed, and I would personally never buy a helmet with internal audible pockets again. They are just so much easier to use and access your audible. I've almost lost my audible several times on the ground with it falling out of my old helmet that had internal ports.

I flew a Pilot 150 loaded at 1.1 and a S3 139 loaded at 1.2. The toggles on the safire 3 are definately alot more tame than the Pilot, but everything is miles ahead. Fronts, Rears, Harness, all more responsive. The brake lines on the S3s come longer than most, I shortened mine an inch (had to do the same on my XF3) and it definately helped with the bottom end of the flare as well as toggle inputs. Other than that, they are both relatively shallow flying canopies. Openings and flare was better on my S3 than my Pilot. Once you get used to the progressiveness of the inputs on the S3 youll never go back to the pilot.

You do 270's on a crossfire 3 at under 400 jumps? No I don't. 90s only right now. I said, I'd move to a smaller canopy when I mastered 270s on it. Long road out right now. I assume you have a dedicated swoop coach you are working with? I do at my local DZ. Also pick alot of other brains wherever I go.

So I bought a brand new Chroma a couple months ago before Elemental went under. When I put batteries in it, the red light flashes indicating that its powered up. But whenever I stick it in my audible port on my helmet and go on a skydive, i get nothing. The damn thing just doesnt light up. Anyone got any suggestions on what to do? Returning it probably no longer an option since the company is now defunct.

I find that the middle finger is all the communication thats needed for people of this type. You choose when to jump, period, and the doorman is pretty much responsible for the safety of everyone on the load in regards to the spot.

I never understood what barrel rolling at the end of a track accomplished. You arent doing anything but wasting valuable time in your track. If you spot someone right on top you of, its too late anyway. What are you going to do? Burn it low and deploy? (bad)

You do 270's on a crossfire 3 at under 400 jumps? No I don't. 90s only right now. I said, I'd move to a smaller canopy when I mastered 270s on it. Long road out right now.

Mine went: 0-20 Nav 240-200 20-27 Sabre 190 27-100 Storm 170 @.94 100-220ish Pilot 150 @ 1.1 220-315 Safire 3 139 @1.2 A couple jumps on a Siletto 135 (borrowed) 315-320 Sabre 2 120 (Borrowed) 320+ Crossfire 3 119 @1.5 A little quick I suppose, but, I think I'm done for awhile, I want to get 270s dialed (havent even started yet) before I go to anything smaller.

I'd jump to a 170 without hesitation, and I'm slightly heavier than you at 145 lbs. At around 30 jumps when I had my own gear I had a Storm 170, that I downsized from a Nav 200 and Sabre 190 (transition rig) from. As others have said, dedicate a few jumps to it at first to get the feel and go from there. At my home DZ we wouldnt even consider putting one of our students that light out on anything bigger than a 200 unless we really had to, ie it was getting used.

They sure have this thing priced well outside any sane persons budget....

Learn to back fly in lower speeds.