38lightning

My longest running flight-related hobby (8 years, less active the last few years due to college eating up my free time) is high-power rocketry. As you may have seen at the test launches, "large" parachutes in the hobby are pretty much always some kind of round (flat, hemispherical, or semi-toroidal). I've seen a couple of other groups fly rockets with steerable ram-airs, and I always figured the tough part would be getting a ram air deployed successfully, as pyrotechnic deployments from a rocket can sometimes be a little bit chaotic. Looking at their deployment test video, it looks like they're separating the payload section and letting it descend a bit under a drogue then using the CYPRES cutter to deploy the ram-air once things have stabilized. Is that correct? Nice work by everyone involved! I can't wait to see video of the system in flight (on a rocket, that is). William "38lightning" Carpenter High-power rocketeer, aerospace enthusiast, engineer

(Apologies in advance for what could be seen as a minor thread hijack, but I think this is better than having two threads at the same time asking very similar questions.) Would tunnel time still be useful even for much less than an hour? I'm looking at doing AFF over the summer and would like to at least get some solo belly flying experience beforehand (never been in a tunnel before, and my only jump experience so far is one tandem). I can spring for 4 minutes with a coach in the tunnel at Eloy right now ($80 is a lot for a college student), but when I start earning money over the summer I would rather spend it on an AFF course than more tunnel time. (Of course, I am open to being convinced otherwise.) William "38lightning" Carpenter High-power rocketeer, aerospace enthusiast, engineer

Not sure how far these introduction threads are supposed to go, but this seems topical. After getting acquainted with a couple local drop zones I picked the one I got a better vibe from and did a tandem today! From sitting at the door up through the first couple seconds of freefall it felt like I had made a mistake, but after that it was calm and enjoyable (even calmed down enough to start getting annoyed at the wind blowing into my nose). Flying under canopy has to be my favorite part, though. Once you start to forget about the feeling of the harness, it's indistinguishable from just floating a few thousand feet in the air (granted you all already know this). If I can get the money to work out, I will definitely be looking at doing at least the first couple AFF jumps over the summer to see what it's like to skydive solo (well, with instructors holding on to you as opposed to strapped to you). Thank you again to the DZ.com community at large for building a great collection of information. Hopefully this won't be my last foray into the sport. William "38lightning" Carpenter High-power rocketeer, aerospace enthusiast, engineer

Thanks, tikl68 and skymama, The stuff I'm worried about is the stuff I can't control (i.e. meteorological stuff). As unlikely of a scenario as I know it is, I can't shake the thought of hitting some kind of canopy collapsing turbulence at an irrecoverable altitude. I just need to convince myself that that can be mitigated to my satisfaction by being careful about the weather and geography I jump in and being hyper-vigilant on final. The fact that the urge to give skydiving a try hasn't gone away after over six months probably indicates that I'll get over that eventually. William "38lightning" Carpenter High-power rocketeer, aerospace enthusiast, engineer

Hello, all, Long time lurker, first time poster. I'm a junior year mechanical engineering student with a concentration on rocket and gas turbine propulsion (rocket engines and jet engines). I joined the forum back in June after an acquaintance's Facebook posts about doing a tandem get me thinking about trying one myself. I like to learn as much as I can about something before actually trying it, and this forum has been a great resource in that regard. I am located in northern Arizona during the academic year. Skydive Red Rocks in Cottonwood is the closest DZ to me, but my school has a skydiving club which jumps with Skydive Phoenix down in Maricopa. Can any of you offer any recommendations between these two DZs? Maybe one of these days I'll push past my last remaining apprehension about jumping (the thought of dust devils scares the living crap out of me) and actually go for it. If/when I do, I'll surely report back. Thanks for some interesting reading over the past several months. Hopefully I'll lose the whuffo status soon enough. Regards, William William "38lightning" Carpenter High-power rocketeer, aerospace enthusiast, engineer