freebird185

LOL, Now that is a classic whuffo type response. I'm sorry, I should be nicer. I had one today that I aways get. Wuffo: Do you pack your own chute? -or- My favorite: You mean you've done over 500 tandam jumps!? ............. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

It was in room temp most of the time. Some of the coating did seem sticky like it may have melted and fused together, but I'm not too worried. If it gained some permeability in some spots, I don't think it will hurt performance too much. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

So check this out, I’m gearing up for this coming session of diving. Reserve repack, checking the rig, change Cypress batteries, main repack and what not. I un-stow my Main and it comes out of the bag like a brick. Very much contrary to the usually slip and slide. It did not deform even a millimeter. Granted, the canopy has been in the container for 13 months straight, and my main is a 136 which fits into a container made for a 120. It has very low jumps (13), and it’s American ZP. However, I literally had to peel the thing open. It took a good ten minutes and a lot of effort to peel the thing completely open. Has anyone ever had this experience? And furthermore how long do you think it would have sniveled if I had jumped it without a repack? If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Work? What's Work? As soon as I get some I'll let you know. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Note: People who love Cobalts are usually the people who get the good ones. I was one of them. They fly like a dream. People who don't like them have probably flown a bad one. I am now one of them. That fucker slammed me seriously one day (broke a stering line), and the other openings (now that I have a great opening parachute as a reference) were very mediocre as I look back on it. However, I did have a premature on a very fast solo head down (~170mph) with my old cobalt that opened great. Bottom line: Both of these canopies have opening problems. Buy something that opens and flies great. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Well now that you’ve been properly bashed by five different people, I will say that because you're are even asking this question and that you said "how important it remains to make small incremental steps." you are on the right path for progressing safely. And you don't sound like the type that's going to whip it into the ground tomorrow. I applaud you. HOWEVER, people are setting up for there landings at that altitude, and if you cut me off or collide with me ... I am going to be extremely pissed off!!!!!! You need to think about other people's safety as well as your own. The place for radical maneuvers is up high. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Beautiful description. I've got a 136 Sam at 1.52 wingloading, but take away reserve and Wings container and it'll be somewhat lower. I'm definitely interested in learning this. It seems like a great way to fly the canopy in other aspects besides the swoop. Swooping though, it's tough to beat If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Can you give a description of how the different wing loadings affects the flight? i.e. why can't you go up to 1.8 wing loading? Is it because higher speeds are harder to generate with low level flying, or is it more safety related do to the fact that one has to negotiate obstacles. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Along with "Frankenass" (sick video, by the way), "Out of the Blue" by Team Extreme has a whole section of wipeouts. However they don't show any of the approaches before the crashes. I think this would be an awesome project. I'd definitely buy it, and learn from it. Justin If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Well here's my two cents, I attended the first one on piloting and aerodynamics, but had to leave before the second one. I defiantly learned a lot about the dynamics of useful maneuvers such as the "short toggle stab", and the value of harness turns. The only criticism that I have is that more structure to the course would be good. I noticed a couple of times that you skipped on to a new subject before finishing an old one. You might think about adopting a syllabus for the course. Also, the book did a wonderful (and very thorough) job in discussing swooping techniques. I'm very much looking forward to hear you cover that part in CA next month. Now, how do you get good at swooping again? Oh yeah. Don't Die. Good stuff If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Definatly not the crasiest thing I've heard to do in free fall. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

It's important to note that most people pass out in sustained 9g's. We can handle a lot more if it's less than a few seconds. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Actually wasn’t there an incident some time ago where the jumper had his steering line entangled with the slider garment somehow and he didn’t give a proper flare? I believe he had mini risers, but he was not in the habit of pulling the slider past the toggles. While I don’t like the blind spot that the collapsed slider makes when putting it behind your head, I think if the slider is able to be pulled past the toggles it should be to prevent entanglement, otherwise you should have something to keep the slider from falling past the top of the risers. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

That's just freaking wierd man!! If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Off topic but interested to know why, if you had never done a rear riser landing and you had a canopy that could not flare, you did not chop this and go for silver? Ya, well, the opening shock litererly nocked me senseless. I nearly went unconcious and I my wind was knocked out of me for at least 10 sec. In hind sight I definitly would have went to my reserve, but all I could think at the time was that I never want to go though another opening shock agian. long story short, I flared to high and it was a no wind day with a canopy on the verge of a stall. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

*** At 121 jumps I do "straight in" landings. At my skill level, I would never try any of these things. *** I have 82 jumps on the Sabre 150 now and I feel much more comfortable with it. At my current wingloading 1.25, I really enjoy how responsive the 150 feels. I don't plan on downsizing for a couple hundred jumps. It's worrisome that you are comfortable with your 150, but you refuse to learn some of the techniques mentioned hear. What if you need to use them some day, but you've never tried them before? I personally wish I had learned to land on rear risers before I actually had to do it. I'm out five months with a torn ACL right now, because I botched a rear riser landing after breaking a steering line on a hard opening. I thought I knew how to fly my canopy (a 150 at 1.4wl). I was learning to swoop!!! I'm just glad that I was taught, that I don't know how to fly, with a twisted leg instead of with my life. Now I have a second chance to do it right. Don't learn the way I did. Save yourself and learn to fly. And if you think you can fly, THINK AGAIN. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

How are you able to ensure your slider is totally "open". I have a Cobalt and my slider does not "lock" open. Good point. I can't ensure that the slider was totaly open. I just ment that I know it was not locked in the closed position with the barbs. Maybe we should design something to lock the slider open, and make easliy released somehow. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

This is the main point I was trying to make. I know this canopy opens pretty well most of the time in a track, and I've even opened in a sit and the opening was nice (I had a premature deployment). But if you get one of those random break stuff openings at 160-180mph! Well I couldn't even imagine it. Don't open in a track, even if the manufacture suggests it. It's just not a good idea. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Thanks for clearing that up. Where can I learn about no-stow D-bags? Who makes them? If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Free-bags have locking stows! You must make sure that the locking stows are secure and that the bands are fairly new. If they are not then you may get line dump. It does happen, and it hurts. Don’t take my word for it. Read this from PD. http://performancedesigns.com/docs/hrdopn.pdf If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

Yes, it's the locking stows that matter. I was using a four grommet D-bag with fairly tight stows and at least 2 inches of line at the end of the stow. However, whether or not it takes 10-12lbs of force to pull them out as PD suggests, I do not know. 10-12 lbs is heavier than one might think, and I plan to test this before I get back in the air. Remember micro lines are thin and have less friction than Dracon. The lines may have slipped right out of the stows if the D-bag was pulled hard enough, thus causing line dump. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

First jump on Sunday, the dive goes great. We track away, I clear the air above me, pull my pilot chute, and then WWHHAAMM!!!! The hardest damn opening I’ve ever encountered. The opening shock forced an involuntary grunt from my diaphragm as I was compressed into my harness so much that my throat was resting on my chest strap. My spine was bent forward and compressed so hard that I considered it to be fractured. My breath was forced from my lungs and it took a good 10 sec to start breathing again and correct my hunched back. I corrected my spin with rear riser input and cleared my air space (this is pure habit). After fighting it to fly straight for a while I realized that I had broken my right steering line, and I releases the left brake stow. The canopy flew straight and true after that, but then I had to decide whether to cut away or land on rear risers. At this point the dominating thought was that I NEVER wanted to experience that kind of opening shock ever again. I figured that a 150 (1.4wl) is the smallest I could land with rear risers, so I decided to go for it. Well, with no wind and no toggle flare to slow me down along with the fact that I flared to high and to far for rear riser input I twisted my knee on landing thus tearing my ACL. My mini risers stretched so much that the hard housing’s stitching was pulled away from the riser. And yes I was flying a Cobalt. I don’t mean to attack the Cobalt, but I think there are a lot of people that are under the impression that Cobalts are not susceptible to this kind of thing (I was one of them). And after some searching on this forum I have found that hard openings violent enough to cause gear damage happen on all types of canopies. Even Saber 2’s, a Spectra, and a FX I believe. Until you’ve experienced it yourself I don’t think anyone can appreciate the awesome traumatic force of a hard opening. And I’m not talking about those occasional slammers you get on Sabers every now and then; I’m talking about the kind of openings that brake things. Nothing obvious caused my opening. Locking stows (rubber bands) where in tack upon inspection, my pilot chute is well matched, and the slider was not closed. I think it was cause by some bad packing habits (like waiting to replacing the broken rubber bands and not pushing the slider all the way down to the stops), and bad luck. PD has a good article on how to prevent hard openings with good packing habits. Check it out. http://performancedesigns.com/docs/hrdopn.pdf

Ugly opening - it opened very fast with asymmetric inflation resulting in one line twist that cleared, all while spinning. (Ugly) I've had even uglier openings on my cobalt, but for the most part it opens fine. The used javelin was an incomplete rig. It didn't come with D-bag, risers, or pilot chute. Thus, I had to use my ultra large d-bag. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?

I need a smaller container, because a 150 is just not meant to go into a container made for a 210 for freeflying (a premature deployment finally made me decide to part with 2 grand). So this weekend I tried a used container that usually fits a 120. I'm not about to fly a 120 yet (call me old fashion), so we switched our packed canopies. So this means that I had a 150 cobalt packed in a D-bag made for a 210 stuffed into a small Javelin container, and I had an ugly opening. So my question is do you think that the odd combination of gear had anything to do with the ugly opening? Points to consider. I believe my body position was good. I've had at least 200 jumps on the cobalt, so I've worked through the canopy packing sensitivity. Squeezing the canopy may have messed up the symmetry on the pack job. If we trained monkeys to pack, would you jump their pack jobs?