ptwob231

If you can twist your upperbody, how much of an impact does that make on the packjob since it looks like the tray goes from shoulders to the back of your knees / how careful do you need to be after its all buttoned up to not cause a serious malf / canopy damage?

i dunno. I figured ripstop would be a bit more reliable fabric. as far as inflation goes, it seems to work alot like an f111 canopy. yeah its breathable, but it stays pressurized the whole time so i don't think it makes any difference

I made a pair of pants modeled after atle's smoke pants out of walmart grade ripstop nylon rainpants. i reinforced all the seams with binding tape and made mid thigh inlets using some 5"x5" cordura patches with 4 #3 grommets in each patch. I've used them for tracking at the dz with excellent results as far as track distance and inflation. I'll post pics shortly. (added) I also sewed on belt loops made of bindtape and use a leather belt to prevent them from ending up around my ankles.

I'm home from colorado for the holidays and looking to play. Does anyone know of some good A's around the fox cities or within a few hours drive from Oshkosh. Thanks Beer ps - references available

I got a chance to try on a fullface the was correctly sized and found that i did not like it. It was comfortable and protective enough but i get the feeling that on a slider down/off jump that the extended jaw protection was too long and came to a point and would drill me in the collarbone/chest. maybe in the future i'll look into modifying one but for now its not necessary. As far as the wake model, its a hard bit to find in colorado so i ended up going with a classic halfshell. thanks for the advice. By the way, I picked up a killer set of FOX 911 knee/shin guards. they were pricy (75) but are hard core protection with no real impaction on range of motion and weigh near nothing. Look for them at a local mountain bike/bmx/freeride shop. hastas and luegos

Has anyone tried this particular model of pro-tec? It looks a bit more secure and sturdy than some of the other models. check it out at www.pro-tec.net in the water section. I'm down to deciding between it and the Ace Fullface. Any helpful opinions would be appreciated. Thanks.

i'm not a base jumper, but i made a pair of these. i listed how i built them in the general skydiving forum if you wanna check that out (Title: Smoke Pants). I put the intakes an inch to either side of the crotch though because with a baggy pair where the crotch hangs almost to your knees, it gives them a clean path for inflation rather than blowing the intakes up against your legs. I also used #3 grommets on some cordura patches for holes.

I read about the BASE innovation of smoke pants to improve tracking from objects so I decided to make a pair and see how they worked for skydiving. Atle is the real innovater of this design but I made a few modifications to help improve durability since skydives, in general, produce high airspeeds and longer durations. The original design by Atle calls for one pair of heavy duty rain pants (buy them at a walmart or wherever - $20) sealed off at the cuffs of the legs and the waist and four cigarette burn size holes on either side of the crotch. Its imporatant that the crotch hangs down near the knees so that theres lots of space for the pants to inflate. I bought a ripstop nylon pair made by stearns at walmart and reinforced the seams with 3/4" binding tape and put bungee cord around the cuffs to make a seal at the ankles. I only pulled the cuffs half way up my foot and then put shoes on over them so that they stuck down around my heels. I used a leather belt to seal off the waist. For the smoke holes, I put 5"x5" patches of cordura on the inside and outside of the pants about an inch to either side of the crotch. Then I punched four size 3 grommets in each of the patches for intakes. The design held strong for all three jumps I did with them on Saturday with no sign of wear. If Atle has any other suggestions I hope he can post them here:). As far as performance, I dont have a protrack so i don't have my downward speed but it was slower than usual and my dives were approximately 5 or 10 seconds longer than a normal tracking dive from 11000', pulling at 3500'. Horizontal speed was f-in fast and covering a lot more ground. The biggest thing I found was to spread my feet about a foot or a foot and a half apart to get better inflation. I'll try to post pics this week and get some speeds next weekend. Thanks Smokeman for the sweet invention! Hope this was helpful.

Anybody jump the smaller framed styles like the demora or stealth? If so how do they work in the high wind? If you jump gatorz at all please let me know what type of frame, i got a sick deal where i can get them cheap, but don't know which model to choose. Thanks!

You talkin about Jay's layback into the water where he dipped his head in and stood it back up...almost made it out...toight!

Where is the future of swooping headed? Olympic, Commercial, fans, crowd base, etc

as a spectator i'd have to say chow or not you guys all put on a great show for those of us in the other events going on and the wuffos just looking at the museum. i actually had to cattleprod my 4way to the plane a few times because they got caught up watching the comp

most comps i've seen people are sliding them out anyways

Perhaps a look at manufacturer recommendations may help. PD obviously puts a ton of R&D into designing a canopy, I'm sure somewhere someone has taken some aero classes and crunched some max glide numbers to plan out the planform for the canopy. This would mean somewhere along the way they'd have to have a specified loading to design around. What do you think? beer

So heres a new twist on the Ve vs VX vs Xaos 27 vs. anything else on the face of the earth: When it comes to competitions such as the world cup, is it the canopy that gives the pilot the edge or the pilot that gives the canopy the edge? or look at it this way: If Heath were jumping a VX would he still have won? Or would Clint Clawson have beat him on a Ve? just food for thought beer