maretus

I agree that the chances of getting bridle entangled with carabiners is pretty small but it still is there. On a skydive the risk might be acceptable but on a base enviroment I wouldn't want to take that chance. I thought of a simple solution of replacing the carabiners with standard small rapid links (connectors), that way you would have zero chance of getting anything caught inside the connector. Like the one in picture here http://www.bkreng.com/pcat-gifs/products-small/rapid-connector-link.jpg http://www.ufufreefly.com

Mentoring system is great... In ideal world. In ideal world there are qualified instructors on every DZ who are keen on mentoring new people in sport. In ideal world newbies are keen on seeking for advice and looking for instruction and advice. But too bad that we do not live in ideal world. Reality is that (at least in smaller countries like Finland) there are not qualified canopy flight instructors on every club. And also the reality tends to be that not every newbie has an open mind for looking instruction and advice... And that's why we have to set certain rules and tables and restrict what you can and cannot do. http://www.ufufreefly.com

I know of 3 cases in which a slider down, tailgated canopy has experienced a line over. Can you share anything else about these cases ? What were the objects, altitudes, delays etc ? How did the canopies behave ? What were setups being used (I'd guess for LRM) and what was the outcome ? Did the jumpers in question clear those line overs with tossing the toggle and successfully landing with rears or ? http://www.ufufreefly.com

How have you been Luke ? Long time no see bro. :) I've heard that too and so far with 10 or so deployments the pins are fine. I always check them when I stow my brakes. Too bad that I don't have that many "friendlier slider down objects". :) But I've been thinking about doing it on a skydive since I have a rig that fits my Troll 265. http://www.ufufreefly.com

I'm breaking this off from the slider up tailgate thread since this is a bit different topic but still very interesting indeed to discuss. Jaap Suter wrote : I've been thinking about that pretty much too. I have 74 slider down jumps (out of my total 160) of which last 10 or so I've done with Morpheus WLO toggles and without the line release mod. My reasoning behind doing so is : 1) less rigging to do, less chances of rigging error 2) tailgate pretty effectively reduces the chance of a line over, I've never seen slider down (with tailgate) line over but surely it has happened. Can anybody share their experiences about this issue ? 3) in case of a line over I can still try to clear it with WLO, given that the exit was high enough that allows me enough time to work with it. I know that using LRM probably is faster way to release the steering lines and it could save me a fraction of a second when the time is limited and that is probably the only downside I can think of when jumping this setup. 4) always having the steering lines in same setup (through the slider grommets and guide rings) allows me to always have the same feeling for the canopy, regardless of the jump. Whereas when using the LRM I've noticed that the steering "touch" somewhat changes since steering lines go straight to the tail of the canopy. 5) (edited to add) If I have a break fire during opening and I'm jumping without LRM, I dont lose a toggle since it stays on the guide ring and I can just grab the toggle and release the other break. As in with LRM if a break blows during opening then the toggle is lost and you have to land with rears and/or one rear and one toggle. Now I know that 10 jumps with this setup is far from sufficient amount of drawing any conclusions but I'd still like to discuss this with you guys. Can anyone share their experiences about this issue ? Anyone who has experienced slider down line over with tailgate ? Anyone who has actually used LRM and/or WLO to clear actual line over ? What was the difference using those setups ? What are your general thoughts about WLO in slider down enviroment ? http://www.ufufreefly.com

Rock on Will ! Awesome stuff and huge congratulations from your finnish buddies ! Markus http://www.ufufreefly.com

Double gainer in the Valley with wingsuit ? Respect. Which exit was that ? Which suit ? And most important of all... Where is the video ? :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

This point often gets unnoticed but is very valid. I have two treelandings in BASE enviroment and in both of those occasions it was very handy to be able to cut away the canopy. Also having three rings gives you the option to go for the water if necessary. In popular big wall in Norway or in popular bridge in the States water should always be an option (you dry quicker than you heal) and having a gear that might make you think otherwise is a bad choice of gear for those spots. http://www.ufufreefly.com

I'd guess that most of the newer models have altimeter with 1m accuracy. I use myself X6. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Incorrect. In finland for example all gear used in skydiving must be TSO'd which base gear generally is not. Harness/container systems and reserves need also to be accepted to use by the FAA (Finnish Aeronautical Association) so at least here you cannot just hook a belly mount reserve to you base rig and jump it from AC. http://www.ufufreefly.com

The disciplines above present few problem to become "truly" defined competition disciplines. How do you define "largest flock" ? Large formations, be it FS or FF, have to be preplanned gripped formations. So far I haven't seen large formation flocking going towards building large gripped flocks but more so building tight flocks with no grips. As a ws flyer (to me at least) it makes more sense to build non gripped flock since flocking is all about flying and have you seen flocks of birds taking grips ? Also flying gripped WSformations is very difficult and to my limited experience it limits ones flying somewhat. So to get "largest flock" recognized as a competition discipline we should be able to define what is "flock", should everybody be within 1m of each other ? How is it judgeable then ? Longest time is very much dependent on body structure and making it as an official disicpline would require maybe some weight categories or weight / height ratio categories to get things even to us more big boned birds out there. Longest distance sounds good but it has too few problems. In long jump you have maximum allowed back wind where you can make records, should we make that kinds of rules too to level the parameters of the "longest distance" ever flown ? http://www.ufufreefly.com

I have some (although limited) experience with the Impact in subterminal enviroment. I jumped the suit in famous swiss valley and also did video for another jumper jumping it. My experience was that the inflation of the suit is pretty quick, I cannot give decent comparison to the PF suit since I've only jumped the full PF suit once but both of the suits inflate very quickly and feel that they produce loads of "float" in very early stages of freefall. My experience was that the Impact (like PF suit as well) feels very "floaty" and requires the jumper be very aggressive on his track. I feel that both suits are very easy to fly very close to stall point and get loads of FF time but not get optimal distance. The Impact jacket inflates HUGELY and offers huge amount of lift but you really have to push it and drive it to get it motoring. I would think that somebody with loads of WS BASE experience finds Impact easy to fly since the flying position (and probably the performance as well) feels very similar to beginner / intermediate WS. Overall I find that BM has come up with very interesting product that has totally different design than the PF suit. Both suits surely have loads of performance potential, it's just up to individual choice which product suits ones needs and style of jumping better. http://www.ufufreefly.com

The place is so remote that only reindeers and santa sees you huckin' it and santa is cool with BASE. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

I'll second that, I heard from master Vesa that his progression with only handful of jumps was very nice indeed. Keep up the good work and welcome to the flock dude ! http://www.ufufreefly.com

Just came home yesterday to read the sad news and still I cannot believe he is gone. This is so sad.... That fjord in southwestern Norway will be a different place without Coombesys happy face and huge smile. I cannot believe he won't be there next time I'm going there. Fly forever free mate and see you on the other side ! http://www.ufufreefly.com

It was nice seeing you again Tracy and thanks for being on the radio for us when we hiked up to check out the situation, only to realize that the wind was freakin' blowing. The finnish crew made nice two hikes... Maybe we'll have better luck next time. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Yeah, me too would like to know what the winds were doing at jump time ? I'd say either this jump was performed head wind (which from my point of view is a big no-no for A's) or jumper in question needs to do some serious tuning of his DBS. I'm pretty convinced that with proper wind conditions (back wind exceeding the speed of your canopy brakes stowed) and well tuned DBS the chance of hitting the A is pretty minimal, even with 180 and line twists. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Yeah, that was exactly my thoughts too. Probably if I'm spending a week or two at some big wall site where I'll be doing multiple terminal jumps per day I might be better off with small mesh. Anybody out there with any experience with both original vented Troll and vented DW ? How they compare on openings for example ? http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hahaha ... the terminal wall in Norway? I don't know the numbers, but it have to be at least 15 (many of which have several exit points, of course) terminal walls here... probably more. At least you can't blame me for site naming. :) I probably missed the word "southwestern" from that sentence since for me it is the familiar terminal wall in Norway. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

Thanks for the input. If you'd like to post your experiences after you come back from the valley feel free or just drop me a PM, I would really appreciate it. So far with my unvented Troll (265) I've been using 36" ZP for terminals (Southwestern Norwegian Terminal Wall) and in the Swiss Valley I have used a 38" vented ZP. I'd also like to hear more input from people regarding PC's with similar sized canopies (265 Troll) and terminal / subterminal setups. http://www.ufufreefly.com

Hello all ! I'm in progress on getting myself a new canopy and I have ordered a DW Troll 265 (MDV). What I'd like to hear is opinions or experiences from people regarding that canopy and using fine mesh / large mesh slider. Are people constantly switching to fine mesh when going for full terminals ? Are you using fine mesh also from "near full terminal" ? If so, what is your delay treshold for going to fine mesh ? I'd like to hear site specific setups that you are using from the Swiss Valley for example or from the terminal wall in Norway ? I have been jumping a non vented Troll (265) for now and I have been using a large mesh slider on all my slider up jumps. With that one I haven't experienced any painfully hard openings even on full terminals and jumping with camera but what I've understood is that with MDV Troll that just might be different... So if you have jumped different delays slider up and preferably with camera with vented DW Troll, please share your experiences ! Any info would be appreciated. http://www.ufufreefly.com

That's only because you are a total wimp. :) And dude, a week a go you told me you had 170, you've been pretty busy lately ? But who's counting anyway, give or take 10 right ? :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

As it is pretty cold up here in Finland and you don't want to skydive that much, we decided to gather with few friends to a cottage for a weekend of winter fun involving snowmobiles and canopies. :) Check out the video from : http://koti.mbnet.fi/~flow/virtasalmi.wmv Canopies tried out during the weekend : - Manta 288 - Sabre2 135 - Vengeance 120 - Katana 107 - Velocity 103 - ExtremeFX 88 Now few words for disclaimer though, we do realise that towing skydiving canopies can be very dangerous and therefor do not recommend anyone to try it. If you decide to do it, do it preferably over water and try to think different safety measures (harnesses, cutaway -system for rope etc.). But then again... Doing a 3km "swoop" across the lake is just fun, fun, fun. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

We just did 38m cliff (about 124ft) with non vented canopies over hard earth (or actually over solid ice). We did it PCA'd and had no problem with that one, canopyrides were around 4secs, landing very smoothly with rear risers. Canopies were nonvented troll and good old mojo and heigth was measured with Suunto X6. I'd say that given one jump experience with the subject and assuming that you have good LZ just go for it. :) Needless to say of course that that jump has pretty thin margin for error... p.s we were pretty scared too. :) http://www.ufufreefly.com

I have few jumps (not that many that one could draw any conclusions out of them) under those conditions but haven't noticed any hesitations on those ones. Still I'm very interested on this topic, do you have any idea or speculation about the possible reason for more frequent hesitations when jumping in low temperatures ? http://www.ufufreefly.com