frenchyflyer

I'm not sure that this analogy transmits the right message: who wouldn't want to drive a Ferrari? or rather, who would think (even if it is true): that Ferrari is probably too much for me to handle I'll buy something else... The thing is: the velocity requires currency: once the freefall is over you need to pay real attention! My opinion is that a Sabre2 would be more suited to his kind of profile (I still jump my Sabre2 at 1.5 and I can make some great swoops with it, plus the riser pressure is less than on my velo). Go with a Sabre2 150, it is not a step back, this canopy can outswoop many others...

Well I've also flown Sabre2s and Xfires in the 1.5 range wingloading and the Xfire felt definitely more twitchy than the Sabre2. I guess AggieDave's proposal is the best with a choice among the Sabre2, Pilot and Safire, these are good swooping canopies (hell, I still like to fly my Sabre2 for swooping) and are also really docile and thus a good choice for, say, wingsuit jumps.

Well, let me think............. a virgin?!?

Hey stu, I'm not replying to you in particular but I had to pick a post to reply to Although I haven't flown the Gin speed-riding canopy, I have flown (speedriding) the skydiving canopy that inspired* this one (Springo 110 from Parachute de France). *: I know that piece of info from one of the few test pilots of the Gin canopy. First and foremost, I think that groundlaunching and speedriding should be considered as two different activities because, well, there are major differences I've used my GLX for speedriding and, although I love how it flies, I must confess that ski launching a non x-braced canopy as the springo110 is a lot easier: The GLX is simply too efficient and wants to fly too soon and too fast. This is a great advantage when foot launching because you have more time to analyze things and you want the canopy to launch as soon as possible; but when ski launching this makes things happen so fast that it becomes a problem: the wing flies so fast that it overtakes you and then you can fuck up your launch really fast: you really have to tame it a lot (e.g. by applying a lot of brakes before going downhill - but then you might take off too soon which is not as pleasant when ski launching as it is when foot launching). I still need to find the proper way to ski-launch my GLX from really steep launchpoints (in no wind or slight downwind conditions). In short, the GLX is definitely more efficient than the Gin in terms of speed (for a given size and wingloading), well, most of you guys can guess this by just looking at the pictures of both. I do love my GLX for speedriding, but I would need a much smaller one than my 125 in order to have as much fun as these guys are having under sub100 canopies: that's the beauty of ski launching: you can have a canopy as small as you want because you can have all the speed you need at take off and when landing. I'm heading off for some more fun speedriding in 10 days and I'm going to get some weight belt to approach the wingloading of the guys I'll be flying with. That's just because I can't afford to order a sub100 GLX canopy... To all the people out there groundlaunching and speedriding: Have fun and be safe, this is a very dangerous sport

Hi there Jim and Duane, Here's Gerard from France. I was refraining from sending you guys emails of "get well soon" because I suspected that Cindy was already receiving too many emails/phone calls.. But now that you're back on the Internet: Get well soon and heal as fast as you can. All my thoughts are with you guys (especially because I haven't yet recovered 100% from my first GLX bite 3 months ago ). Thanks for sharing your story and I can't wait to meet you guys again!!! As we say over here: BON COURAGE!!!

Mee too, it's even weirder, see: I'm driving and there 's no light whatsoever and just when I drive by there comes a flashing light and then nothing; I've always wondered where that came from...

Good one I hadn't noticed.

Wow! I'm not a TM so I can't comment (about landing on rears on a tandem canopy), but that pic looks nice to me (pilot on rears, passenger w/full smile).

Getting that kind of advice from a forum is a bad idea as nobody has seen you fly... However, here goes my point of view: You MIGHT be fine buying a 120 (of the same class, i.e. pilot,safire,sabre2,etc.) but you MUST make some jumps on a 135 (or 129) BEFORE making this decision in order to be absolutely sure that you want to go one more size down. Just demo several canopies of that class in the 130/135 range and THEN make a decision.

Are you for real??? I haven't read the whole thread yet (halfway through) but I think this is the funniest post so far. Good thinking about the bait though ("you're just trying to bait me!") - I was afraid you might fall into the trap. oops, you actually fell for it in your next post... I think there is a trend in homophobic (and/or racist) persons being mostly uneducated ones. Unfortunately some very intelligent people surf on that trend too - though I haven't seen one post here yet... PS: I am not at all attracted to the idea of having sex^^^ (oops what was it you said instead? "pleasure") with someone of the same gender as me. But I am intolerant with intolerant people (yup, I hate myself too). PPS: Excuse my english but this is not my 1st language. I just hope i did less typos than you did: "anis"&"condem" LMAO...

I think that the WL restriction is a good idea (cf. Brian Germain's chart). Now most people who are against it are young jumpers who do not see why they should not be jumping their canopy. So the idea is to let people jump what they currently have (i.e. have all S&TA sign off people in 2006), but from then on, each canopy change must either obey the chart or be approved by some authority (S&TA or canopy coach whichever is available). That way the future participants in our sports will find it normal that they cannot jump at a 1.6 WL at 200 jumps because that's what they've always known as being the rule. We started such a WL restriction in France last year and at least we no longer have 400 jumps wonders killing themselves under a 1.8WL xfire. OK maybe we're only saving one person every 2 or 3 years, but at least we do that (and I'm not counting the number of non-fatal injuries for which we do not have any valid statistics available yet).

Well, that's because none of them was reading dz.com, look at my initial post, it is dated August 30th, shortly after the French bulletin was issued. Well, on a more serious note, I do agree that the FFP lacks some serious skills on communication, maybe they're too shy because of their broken english? But that wouldn't explain why they're also being criticized by French parachutists... On the other hand they have also implemented and enforced a WL restriction (until 600 jumps) which I think was a good thing to minimize the chances of killing ourselves before we fully understand what we're doing, but that's another debate (it's Friday, right?)....

Hi all, The end of the story is now here: Sunpath Service Bulletin SPSB004 The FFP (French equivalent of USPA) wasn't being overzealous after all...

Hey there, popping up this thread because I heard some rumour about the fact that the reserve pilot chute was glued intentionally by someone else? Anyone has any info about this? The good thing coming from that is that we would be back to a 1 year packing cycle in France...

Exactly, event though it looks as the guys were doing nothing, they were actually trying to get to him but they couldn't, that's why they later try with the foot and finally they form a human chain to get to him and lift him just enough to release the pressure on the risers and let him free. In fact both main and reserve risers were caught and the hook so cutting it away without closer inspection would have likely resulted in a fatality. It's quite interesting (as a learning experience) to watch this and determine the best course of action, but it's probably a different story when it actually happens to you (both as the hanger or the next man at the door)...