garyharbird

Any one know whats up with the out of the blue dvd? Its starting to get a little ridiculous now. Seems that the company who are making this dvd are very unprofessional. I hope it comes soon. Gary Harbird

Any more news on the video of shanons 400ft swoop???? Gary Harbird

Jimbo, I don't totally agree with your statement. First of all I front riser turn, But I have a different view on toggle hooking than you. With the highly loaded canopies today it is not unusual for a canopy to have a negative dive arc, which leads me to believe that the canopy will keep diving, So what does it matter if you start you turn with a front riser or toggle they will both dive, especially if you crank it, actually a front riser turn makes the canopy more susceptible to turbulence, so a toggle hook could actually be safer if executed right. I like to do carving turn its more efficient for me at my wing loading, and i feel i generate more speed this way. But I know there are people out there who like to crank hooks. Just my 2 cents Gary Harbird

For me it has to be flying my canopy. Theres nothing better, I wish I could be under canopy at 1500ft with my slider behind my neck, my chest strap loosened and my toogles in my hands. Nohing compares to flying my velocity, a long carving turn and planeing out just inches above the ground doing 50mph+. Its the best feeling out there. Gary Harbird

I wouldn't be worried about a steering line breaking while you are turning you can deal with that on back risers. But if your brake lines are as bad as you make out, and you are performing high performance landiing, (corect me if your not) which i guess you are because you profile says your jumping a 100sq ft canopy, i would be more concerned about landing and a toggle braking. I Have heard to many reports of people getting hurt or killed with toggles breaking on landing. If i was you i wouldn't jump that canopy until you brake lines are fixed. Safe jumps Gary Harbird

I jump velocity 84s loaded at 2.2 and get good openings, on heading but they shake. I have experienced what you are talking about, but only on the bigger velocities the 111, 103, 96, but when i got down to the 90 and the 84s the openings became more on heading, so maybe you light wing loading has something to do with it? My 0.2 cents Gary Harbird

Anyone know whats up with the out of the blue DVD, since we are now in mid april and still no sign of the video, does any one have any information on likely relase date, or is this just another video that will never be released? Gary Harbird

I have 2 new Velocity 84s loaded at 2.2 and on one of my canopies I have been getting end cell closure on opening, but not on the other canopy. Packing I just flake the canopy, quarter the slider and fold 3 cell on each side inwards but not in to the center cell and the openings have been fine. I jumped an fx before the velocity and never had end cell closure and other velocities I have jumped also don't have this problem. Just wanting to know if anyone else is experiencing this?

Well I just read the forum and watched Kelly’s video I saw an attempted 540 and then the 90 degree turn and I think that maybe Kelly should have done a 270 or 360, as he says early in the posts he only has 15 jumps on this canopy, that’s not many jumps to be performing a maneuver as the one he did. With only 15 jumps under this canopy he can't really know it too well, I don’t know what size fx you were jumping before Kelly, but I have recently purchased 2 velocity 84s and there is no way I will be trying to pull 540s and 720s, Just keep it simple and for the first 50 jumps I will be concentrating on learning the canopies, I went from and icarus fx 104 which I jumped for my last 1000 jumps and feel that I mastered well. Also you have to remember whose watching you, there are jumpers and students with less jumps and less experience out there who look up too us, and we need to set a good example. Also I saw you where not wearing any sort of head protection and with the high performance canopies that we are jumping, the need for some sort of head protection is a must. As an AFF I and Tandem I, I believe that we should be setting a good example to the low time jumpers, they see us jumping with out helmets and cranking 540s and 720s and think that they can do it. Then we see people learning to swoop and think this is the norm, and we end up reading about them in the incident report. I'm not saying that 540s and 720s should be band but if you are gonna do them make sure you have built up to them and know your canopy. I bet that chuck blue was not pulling 540s and 720s with only 15 jumps under his new velocities. So just keep it simple and safe. Set good examples to other jumpers, and hopefully we can make this a safer sport. Too many people get killed each year attempting maneuvers they are not skilled enough to be doing. Blues skies Safe landings Gary Harbird