benlangfeld

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Everything posted by benlangfeld

  1. Hello all! I live in Rio de Janeiro, and a local manufacturer has recently released a set of sport canopies (http://www.verticaldoponto.com.br/paraquedas-esportivos.html) after having being focussed for 28 years on military gear. I would like to try their products at some stage, particularly to support local manufacturing (all other sport rigs in Brazil are imported) but am unsure of what particular issues I should consider regarding a new model canopy that hasn't been on the market long. What factors do you all take into account when a new canopy is released, particularly from an unfamiliar manufacturer?
  2. Probably sufficient problems to wish you had been unconscious in the fireball of the impacting aircraft instead...
  3. In my experience, the best way to "get over" the anxiety is to just focus on other things. Throw yourself into AFF (next week is better than June if you can make it work), stop doing tandems which just give you more opportunity to find things to worry about, study everything, and exit a moving aircraft as often as possible. I did AFF over 3 days. If I had slept better the week before (work related) or was fitter I could have done it in 2. There was no time to be anxious. Since jump 10 I've been perfectly relaxed through climb and exit, and I attribute that to lack of opportunity to invent things to be worried about.
  4. It is my understanding that these things are compatible at most DZs. At my home DZ, the door doesn't get opened until jump run (except for a few inches when someone breaks wind) and seatbelts are off at 1500ft.
  5. He’s that kind of tool who does an AFF jump just so he can brag about how close he supposedly got to death, not because he actually has any interest in the sport; utterly unbearable waste of bandwidth that he is.
  6. That is explained and demonstrated specifically in this video: http://www.skydivemag.com/article/tip-tuesday?fwd=1
  7. Maybe I’m missing something, but you appear to be making a huge assumption when you say that a good freefly skydiver with a fake rig on can’t fly in the tunnel well. You’re basing this whole discussion on that supposed fact without ever demonstrating it. Maybe it’s true, but the way you’re wording it sounds very strange.
  8. You've got a definite malfunction there Don't look at it before checking your rig.
  9. One possible reason: ease of resale. If your rig has an in-date/serviced Cypress or Vigil, no-one would think twice about it. With an m2, some people will pass over your ad, or at least be a lot more cautious about it. That is not a comment on the quality of the m2 as a product, which several people say is fine, but simply an apparent market reality.
  10. Indeed this is the scenario, and the best mount I’ve seen is http://www.chutingstar.com/grellfab-gopro-kiss-front-helmet-mount. Being in view, any possible snags will be easier to resolve than when you can’t see them, the mount is secured with rubber bands which will break with sufficient force from a snag, and if they don’t, there’s a bright red cut-away handle right in front of your face which will send the camera a mile away pretty quick. Again, no intent of actually mounting a camera without a C, but the more I know about the subject now, the more I’ll know at that time and thus the safer it’ll be, compared to ignoring the topic until 200 jumps and slapping on a sticky mount camera without a second thought.
  11. Do you mean like this? https://www.aon2.co.uk/x2
  12. Renting. I only discovered it was a firebolt after those 7 jumps. Scared me when I found out it’s definitely not a beginners canopy.
  13. I’m a total novice and apparently shouldn’t be flying one, but I’ve done 7 jumps on a Firebolt 210 loaded at 0.85 and my observation in comparison with two larger student canopies is that the snivel is very long (I thought I had a malfunction on the first of those jumps) and the slider tends to get stuck for a moment about a foot above the risers, sometimes requiring a pull on rears to get it down.
  14. Dude, I said eventually. A helmet will last me at least 400 jumps. I have no intention of ignoring the SIM recommendations, no need to jump down my throat.
  15. My main motivation for an impending KISS purchase is that I'd like to be able to wear my glasses behind the visor to be able to see the wind sock from higher up. That and (eventually) a chin-mount for a camera make it seem worthwhile. The style factor is really neither here nor there for me, anything new and clean that fits perfectly would satisfy that.
  16. Indeed, that was my reaction when I looked up the canopy after the first reply. I don't really understand the difference very well, but I have heard that elliptical canopies are typically an advanced tool. That said, I've been managing to fly it just fine, so I guess the size is compensating. Is it something I should be worried about? Should I ask for a more basic canopy? Or since I'm loading it at < 1 and flying conservatively then is it ok to stick with? If I do stick with it, is there anything I need to pay more attention to with this type of canopy than with a "square"?
  17. Since getting my A license, I've been renting a rig which my instructor says is a 210sqft canopy, but isn't sure what model. From the photos here, is anyone able to identify the model? It's in a Wings Classic W14 and is a snug fit, but not super tight. The packing card says the main was a Safire 179 but it has been changed since then. Photos: https://gist.github.com/benlangfeld/6c0e5a22c3914ddd4f5b20fbf23688b6
  18. I've only been in the sport 2 months and already seen one leg injury including an ambulance ride and one "landing" into the side of a house. For anyone else reading, I found those at http://www.bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf. Very interesting, and seems to confirm that a 190 is reasonable around B license time. I'll rule out very little at this stage, but swooping is something that is almost certainly not on the cards. That's for people far bolder than I; I won't take my chances.
  19. Ah, I see. I had one landing on the edge of a taxiway in these circumstances (the 260sqft student rig), almost completely vertical. I scratched the last jump of the day because Murphy says it would have been worse, not better.
  20. I'm curious, what circumstances would those be, and in what way would it be unsafe? That's attractive to me. Being able to play with it and still have a good chance of making it through the weekend sounds just about ideal. I don't want to be getting too close to the canopy's tolerance for foolishness.
  21. I fully expect that, and my concern is really just it being a shorter period than that. If it's going to take only 6 months to be desperate to downsize, maybe hanging on and renting is better. If I'm still going to be enjoying it in a year or two, it's probably worth it.
  22. I absolutely intend to buy a used rig. The question is really whether I should buy this one now, or wait another 25-50 jumps and buy a smaller one.
  23. Hello all! I'm looking for a little advice on my first rig purchase after having just received my A license. I weigh approximately 75kg / 165lbs out of the shower. Through AFF and up to jump #20 I jumped a typical 260sqft student rig. Obviously I was desperate to get good enough to move off this, mostly because it was heavy and uncomfortable in the aircraft. Jumps #21-#25 I used a 230sqft main though I'm not sure what model; the container was slightly smaller, but the main difference was my landings immediately got better with the more powerful flare, so I enjoyed this change. Jumps #26 and #27 were with a 210sqft main, which I think was a Sabre2, but I won't know for sure until I check this weekend; this was in a much more modern Wings Classic articulated container with boat-loads of leg padding and I sort of fell in love with it, though I made mistakes with my concern that the smaller canopy would sink more, coming in for landing on a tighter pattern and had trouble landing in the area on both jumps, but I figure it just takes some getting used to and more careful observation of ground speed higher up to adjust the pattern properly. At these numbers, this last rig is at approximately a 0.88 wing loading. My instructor is convinced that eventually I'll want to get down to 135 or 150, and that by B-license time I'll be looking for a 170 (1.09). I hear most people talking about wanting to downsize as much as possible. My last landing scared me a little because I flared a little too hard (being used to flying a jumbo for 20 jumps) and almost stalled the canopy at about 10ft, let the toggles up just a little and flared again for a graceless but painless landing, which I realise was more about luck than skill. I have previously broken my femur skiing when I failed to recognise the effects of getting tired at the end of the day without letting up on speed and I have no interest in repeating the experience. I know that mistakes happen regardless of skill, generally in a very short time, and I would like to fly a canopy that is just fun enough while tolerating these mistakes and injuring at most my ego, which I can cope with. I also figure the photography maxim (a good photographer can make a masterpiece with a disposable camera, a novice can make a mess with a 5D) applies similarly, and that piloting skill is probably a bigger factor in performance than the canopy itself. All that said, my question is this: is my instructor right? If I were to buy this rig, or one like it, would I hate it after 20 more jumps and regret the purchase, on the fast track to a 150sqft canopy like everyone else, or is it a good medium term investment? Compared to renting, I think I would break even in approximately 180 jumps, and I believe the container would tolerate downsizing from the 210 to a 190. My hope is that this strategy would last me through to ~300-400 jumps, at which point I could consider buying a brand new rig and maybe downsizing a little further to a 170/150. I figure in terms of container size/weight I can make up for this size by eventually buying a Pulse. What do you think? Am I being too conservative? What are the downsides to flying a canopy more lightly loaded than most people seem to want? What will I miss out on by flying something relatively large?