flycurt

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Posts posted by flycurt

  1. Here's another scam from Eugene37, trying to scam me out of my container. Eugene37 needs to be very careful who he scams in the future. Scam the wrong person and they might come after him with, say, an Axe...
    flycurt

    Eugene white Mar 3 at 5:05 AM
    To
    Curt Swanson
    Message body
    Thanks for your response
    I don't have pay pal account the
    payment we issue by check kindly bear with me because we just relocate
    to PUERTO RICO due to nature of my work, I have reputable shipping
    company that will handle the pick up when you receive the check and
    cleared in your account you can get back to me with your name,address
    and cell phone.
    looking forward to read from you soon.


  3. Excellent suit, a few people have them at my DZ. They said they received quick service, thought the suit was of great quality, flew nicely and good customer service. From my inspection the suit appears to be built very well. I don't have one yet, but that will be my next suit.


  4. BASE! Thanks to everyone on the dive you all kicked ass!. It was a great experience and a helluva good time. Special thanks to Brandon Chouinard and Jon McCollum for the event organizing, it had a great Vibe! And I really appreciated not being a beer drinking loser!
    Jager-bombs will kick your ass, ka-boom!


  6. Quote

    Quote

    Got Video?

    Yes, we have tons of video, I've made a video called "Stack Tracking", I will let you know when I figure out how to post it on skydivingmovies.com. We will try feet first tracking, I'le let you know how it goes.
    Thanks



    Excellent, I don't have any of my video right now, not in the country but I'll put some up when I get back as well. SkydivingMovies is a great site. I put some FF up there not too long ago, it was relatively easy to do.

    Definately try the tracking techique, I was at Summer/Swoop Fest at Chicago in '05 and went on a tracking dive with Shaylen Allman. I was right above him when he rotated into the feet first position and I was hooked. It took me a few attempts but got it down. It does take some time to get your forward speed going but it's all part of the fun.


  8. Got Video?

    Tracking is such an underdeveloped flight technique. I FF organized at Perris for many years and we usually put up a sunset tracking dive. Not only can everyone take part, but if organized properly most every skill level can too.

    But many people just didn't think there was any point to it and "where was the fun in tracking for an entire skydive?" Amazing.

    I was usually able to convince most people who were reluctant, or "didn't know how to track", that it was a survival skill that they should work on, which is true. But once I was able to get them out the door, I could count on most of them to join me on later track jumps. Even have people come up to me during the day and ask if I would organize a tracking dive.

    Here is a fun tracking technique to try. On your back but, going feet first, with arms outstretched over your head. Get it down before leading a large group. Start on your back like normal and get some forward speed going, then a quick 180 in the horiz. plane. Feet flat, toes pointed, shins at about a 45, arch hard from your knees to you hands, looking straight up. It's good to have someone on their belly directly above you to give you heading cues and a sense of how well you are doing relative to what their body is doing. It's similar to a sitfly with maximun forward movement.

    Let us know what you think.


  9. Quote

    People smash themselves both ways. Toggle and riser.

    Both are tools. Both have different applications and different responses on different canopies.

    You shouldn't turn low regardless of the technique used, and any turn too low indicates an error in judgement that should be acnowledged by the pilot whether or not they got away with it.

    You should strive to understand and fly your canopy within it's full control range using all of it's inputs.

    The most dangerous part of the landing is the person in the harness. It's what YOU do that deternines the outcome. Not what technique you use.

    t



    Hey smoke diver,
    Everyone has good answers here and good information as well, but your question is somewhat "loaded" and I don't mean that you loaded it. It's just that toggle or riser input will give you different reactions, and therefore have different applications.

    That being said Tonto's response to your question is the one that I would say covers the question best.

    Your next move should be to seek qualified canopy coaching. Brian Germain's course, Flight-1 Essential skills course, a Pro-qualified PST competitor, or a CPC organizer. I would consider anyone from here a qualified Canopy Piloting coach.

    Good Luck!


  10. I hear you there, insurance really is a must in this sport. Just watching your video, the landing looks normal, nothing radical, or fast but yet a double fracture, just like that. Makes you want to say, "how did that happen?" I'll bet it was more of a surprise that it happened, than when it actually happened. Well, maybe for a brief moment anyway.

    I would have been crying for my mama.


  16. Quote

    i believe the technical term is 'drafting'
    not that ive ever watched 'days of thunder'



    Did you know that Rubbin',....is Racin'?


  17. Every now and then, one of these invincible guys comes along and for some reason they get it into their head that they can handle a high performance canopy. And make no mistake a Crossfire loaded above 1.5 is high performance.

    You and others will warn him about the mistake he is making and he will have many excuses, I mean reasons why it's okay for him to be on such a wing so early in his soon to be short skydiving career.

    Truth is he is really showing his inexperience by taking a ride on such a canopy at that w/l-ing considering his experience. Also, he may ultimately do just fine and never have a problem, chances are slim but it's possible. But once you have expressed your concern to him, if he doesn't listen and continues to go about his own program, then you should have a clear conscience.

    The problem comes in when he begins to recommend to others, who will come later, that going to a higher performance canopy is no big deal and that he did it without any problems. Now if that person he advises gets hurt or worse, this is where his poor judgment comes full circle.

    The best way to deal with people like this is to advise and see what happens. If they continue on their own unsafe path, you can bet that there will be other areas they will take the same attitude in like doing whatever he feels like when in the air or under canopy.

    What I've seen happen in the past, is the offending jumper was basically approached by all the experienced jumpers at the DZ and when they continued to go about their own program, they were effectively isolated. No one jumped with him, except a couple other who had the same attitude. Using peer pressure is about the only 'tool' you will have to persuade them.

    But sooner or later, they will get themselves into a situation that their experience can't handle and they will have a life changing experience. Just as our 'guy' did, now he walks with a cane after 3+ years of therapy and will never live without pain again. By the way he doctored a log book to get a canopy he knew he wouldn't be allowed to demo after a gear dealer refused to sell him the canopy he wanted.

    Ask your friend:
    - Why is he in such a hurry?
    - What guidelines he considered to make such a choice?
    - What was his canopy progression?
    - Has he followed all the recommendations in the SIM for canopy progression and training?

    Other than that, there really isn't anything you can do. I'll be looking for his incident report soon enough.
    Good Luck
    BSBD!


  23. Hey Chief -

    Do what you want, but I would recommend developing your belly, back, and sitfly skills first. Considering the jump experience in your profile, you are a big guy and are still a good ways away from flying on your head. Here are a few reasons.

    1. Safety, safety, safety. I recommend using a crawl, walk, run mindset. Don't be in a hurry to master FF-ing. This is an advanced form of skydiving and you need more than your basic skills to learn and master it.

    2. You need solid sitfly skills to fall back on during you HD attempts, just like you should have solid belly flying skills to fall back on when learning to sitfly. The main reason for this is heading control, because of safety, safety, safety.

    3. Heading control. if you can't control you heading, you could slide under or over jumpers that exit before of after you. It is typical for newer FF-ers to laterally slide as they gain stability. This become extremely dangerous near deployment time if you are unaware of you position in the sky. A 90 degree heading offset from jump run is imperative, also adding a 2-3 more seconds of separation time to your exit will give you an extra margin of safety.

    4. When learning how to FF, your goal should not be to stay in your particular orientation for the entire jump. This could again put you and other jumpers into a dangerous situation. I recommend when learning to SF, a jumper exit in a sit and work your stability for 5- 10 seconds, then regardless of how stable you think you are, rotate to your belly. At this point you take a moment to scan the airspace above, below and around you. This will put you into your most familiar body position and help you gain back your composure. Now check heading and altitude, and if all is clear front or back flip back into your SF and repeat 5-10 seconds of SF stability, then back to your belly again. Eventually, as you gain experience and confidence, you can add more time to you SF, until finally you are in SF for the entire jump. This same technique can be used when learning to fly HD, except now you go to your SF instead of you belly. This will keep you and others safe, while helping you learn to FF a bit quicker.

    5. You might ask yourself, well when is a good time to transition to learning HD? Once you are able to fall neutral (minimal sliding) in a SF for the entire jump, a 2-way with an experienced FF-er can tell you this, you should begin to work basic SF skills. These would consist of fall rate control (SF body positions, backfly to stand) and transitions in all 3 planes, in both directions and 2 basic docks. Hand to foot and feet to knee docks. Once you can perform these basic techniques during an entire jump you are ready for HD.

    6. You also need a proper tracking technique, (a sky survival skill), tracking dives are a great way to develop this skill. You must be able to maximize your separation at break-off.

    Quote

    I just finished reading some about how to learn flying headdown. I'm going to start training seriously to achive my goal, witch is: Being able to stay in headdown position from exit to separation altitude and manage to observe my altimiter. This i want to accomplish before reaching jump number 100(I'm on 72 jumps now)



    Lastly, your comment here is what really concerns me. Reading about FF is good, but there is no substitute for proper coaching from a qualified FF coach. I think what I explained earlier should dispell what you stated here. But more importantly, the video of yourself learning to FF is an invaluable tool you can fall back on before heading to the DZ. Use your log book and write down everything you experienced during a day of jumping and revisit your video and logbook before each new day of jumping. Visualization is also a great tool for those days that you can't get to the DZ.

    I know there is alot here, but it is just the tip of the iceberg. Also, don't do anything bigger than 2-ways, 2-ways, 2-ways, for at least 50-100 jumps. Your learning curve will go way up disciplining yourself to do this. You need to take it slow and while being safe make sure you have fun learning how to FF.

    Good Luck and Blue Skies!


  24. If a new record was set we would have read about it here. But if they were only doing 1 or 2 jumps a day, unlikely that they made it. But, you never know, 'til you know. Hope for the best, expect the worst.