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)...

Exactly, the idea was probably to have all the Odysseys used in France scrutinized to check whether any other anomaly could be detected, and that's also probably the reason why the repack cycle is back to 6 months: to have riggers examine the coating more frequently. The only thing that I would have done differently is that I would have replaced a whole packing by just the opening of the reserve, checking of the coating and reclosing - leaving the actual full packing cycle of one year.

Yup I had read about the traceability stuff, my remark was more about the conditions that led to the "melting" of the coating, i.e. Sunpath would first have to get hold of a sample from the same roll that was used for the faulty one, and try to reproduce the behaviour; if they do that while another sample does not "melt" then ok, they have identified a faulty roll. I was just skeptical about their ability to reproduce it. That leads me to the following question: does (or should) every manufacturer keep a sample of each roll that they used to build their rigs?

Thanks Rob! Now that sounds quite impossible for Sunpath to track this problem down... Too bad cause I'll have to repack my containers every 6 months instead of 1 year (ok , ok that's still better than your 120 days over there )...

That was also my first reaction: "The flap was sticky? Then the owner must have stored its rig (manufactured in 2002) in less than perfect (humid, cold?) conditions" Especially because I have 2 Odysseys, one manufactured in 2001 and one in 2005 and have had no problems with either (I'm French and not British by the way). Then with the number of Odysseys being used around the world I found it hard to believe that such a problem could happen without being detected earlier. Then after discussing with some riggers, I have been told exactly what riggermick explained, i.e. that it has already happened in the past that some coating would not meet the specs and become sticky under specific conditions. I guess this is why the French Association has been kind of overzealous and has decided to force the inspection of ALL the Odysseys until Sunpath determines which (if any) serial numbers are impacted. By posting this, I just wanted to check whether anything similar had been detected in the US; and I also wanted people/rigger handling Odyssey manufactured around the time of this one (SN 02028 DOM July 2002) to have a closer look to any possible signs of deterioration of the flap coating...

The French Parachutist Association (FFP) issued the following security notice: http://www.ffp.asso.fr/CatTechnique/FS%20JAVELIN%20ODYSSEY.pdf That means that all Javelin Odyssey are grounded in France until the following test is performed by a rigger: pop the reserve and close it back. It also means that the packing cycle for J.O. is reduced back to 6 months (in France the reserve packing cycle had recently been increased to 1 year). I cannot find any info about this problem anywhere else than in France, does someone know whether Sunpath is investigating or even aware of this? Here's a rough summary (excuse my english): While about to repack a Javelin Odyssey rig, the rigger experienced the following malfunction (on the ground): The spring-loaded pilot chute failed to clear the rig, the top of the pilot chute was stuck with the lower reserve flap while the base of the spring remained pushed against the reserve pack job. After manually pulling out the pilot chute, it separated from the lower reserve flap in 2-3 seconds. The rigger then noticed that the inside of the flap was a bit sticky.

Well I am sorry if this is news to you but that sounds like a fairly racist statement... If you really look at history and how our nations got rich, you might not be so proud of it after all....

Wonder if other 'yet-to-experience-a-cutaway' skydivers feel this way as well. Especially those with over 1,000 jumps to their name. ltdiver I do not yet qualify for the 1,000 jumps; but I am also a bit scared while waiting to have my first cutaway (900+ jumps so far). I almost always jump my own pack jobs (I'm quite sure this helps) as I don't make a living by skydiving. Also, to reply to another question: I think that students are slightly more likely to experience a mal than a 100+ jumps person with their own gear because they do not always pack the same rig and they are less proficient at packing. Plus they may not be extra stable at pull-time (=> sometimes severe line twists)..

I have to agree with him: The Sabre2 is a really good canopy that you can learn tons of swooping skills with. I have tried the Katana-120 but have not been impressed with it. Well, sure, it's very responsive to command inputs (like the stilleto is) but this is definitely not something that I like in a canopy. I haven't been able to put my hands on a demo Xfire2 though, so I can't speak for those. With my Sabre2-120 I can outswoop many people flying a Katana-120, because I have taken the time to learn the swooping skills on my Sabre2 rather than racing to downsize to a more HP canopy... I'm betting there's tons of stuff you can still learn on your Sabre2, be patient...

I have to second that: The only way you should be moving out of the way is...... DOWN Going left or right will result in a 50/50% chance of getting hit. I you lay down flat, the jumper just has to bend its knees a little to avoid you. That said, I think a good rule of thumb is to only swoop by people that know you very well, I always hate to be swooped by someone which I haven't seen yet demonstrate some good canopy skills. Swooping a wufo is asking for trouble in my opinion... Now, back to the important question as I cannot see the vid from the link posted above, what is the name of this vid on skydivingMovies? Thanks, GoingHome.

I would also suggest the Sabre2 or the Pilot, you can really learn a lot of stuff with these canopies. They also tend to recover on their own if you initiate your turn too high, but if you have the skills you can learn how to prevent that from happening. These will be a much smarter choice than something like the Katana which would actually hinder your progression...