robap26

100 percent of this particular repo story falls under that disclaimer. We got the script about three weeks before shooting started in June. The cast and crew spent four days filming. They hired a local free fall photographer for the free fall shots and shots inside the plane. Local jumpers were hired as extras and multiple scenarios were shot. I can understand a non-skydiver thinking this is real but come on people, this is entertainment. "Reality" just means it wasn't shot on a set. Bill still has all three Otters as well as the other planes. The first post was right. You can't make a loan payment on a million dollar plane with $15 jump tickets. Bill does, and always will, own all his planes outright.

OK here's the story. I had been gone from Lodi for a while. While I was gone Bill banned all swoop type turns. Nothing greater then a 90 allowed. Bill has said, "no low turns allowed" in the past many times. His rule was: nothing initiated below 500 ft. greater then 90 that takes less then 5 seconds to complete. In the past this has been no problem for those of us doing turns initiated higher. For example, a 270 started at 750ft would be fine. The first day I was back I saw the new signs posted but they stated Bills same old rule. Nothing below 500 ft. greater then 90, faster then 5 seconds. I then assumed my 630 from 1000 ft. would still be fine just like it was in the past. It was my first day back to work. I did the 630 all day. Until a few douche bags decided to run to Bill like children rather then just tell me. At which point, Bill promptly fired me without discussion. The next day I begged for my job back and Bill showed mercy. And now we know. NO TURNS greater then 90. Not at the pond, not on hop&pops, not EVER. So Lodi is no longer a place to train for swooping. Those legendary $5 hop&pops are going to have to go to waste :).

I laughed too Ed. I joined that club last Sat. but only for a day. Back on the board on Mon.

PD has not discontinued the Vengeance. They just stopped advertising it. If you want to order a new one, you can. The Vengeance is a great canopy and could be considered a nice step in a reasonable canopy progression. You will find it to be about equal to your Cobalt in responsiveness. The Ven. actually feels a little less responsive then the same size Cobalt but because you will be downsizing it will feel about the same. The truth is, it's actually just as responsive maybe even more but it's deeper in the input range. The wing will also feel more rigid over your head. The Ven will have more over all range. You'll be able to glide further on rears flying back from those long spots. (doing camera you'll have to get used to that). The full flight angle of attack is steeper then the Cobalt. It may seem like you're running out of altitude too quickly if you don't use the brakes or rears. You will be able to float in deep brakes or let the thing fall out of the sky in full flight. This makes the Ven. great for air-to-air filming. If your wing loading is good (1.8 is Perfect) you will not be able to beat it's range without going to crossbraced. The Ven is a very stable canopy. Most noticeably in turbulent winds. The air locks are not just a gimmick, they actually do work. They help maintain cell pressure and minimize distortion of the air foil. It's stable in deep brakes but does not recover from a stall very nicely so you'll want to learn the limits. The air locks can be a bit annoying when gathering up your canopy after landing. It sometimes wants to stay inflated. You'll learn the tricks to handle it though. The opening are a bit odd. They are not hard but sometimes dive off heading. They don't tend to spin up though. Just dive one way or the other. Most people say theirs has a preferred direction. Like, it tends to always dive to the right for example. Landings are very nice. The Ven will produce more lift and at lower speeds then your Cobalt. This means it will keep flying longer through the landing. Your touch down speed will therefor be less. For swooping I think you will prefer the Ven over your Cobalt. It will dive more in your turn, hold that dive longer and will not have a tendency to over recover. It's longer dive will get it going faster and it's higher lift will keep it swooping longer. When it's right it's beautiful. You just lightly bump the rears and it planes out flat and flies itself. You could let go for the first 40% of your swoop. Again, you will have to go with a crossbraced canopy to get much better.

I started jumping a Vengence 120 loaded at about 1.8 at about the 550 jump range. I got an FX 120 within a 100 jumps. Since it was the same size I didn't really see it as too much of a step. In fact, I didn't like the FX. I felt like it was sluggish compared to my Vengence. And it opened terribly. I had those two canopies for the next 1000 jumps. I jumped the FX only when I had to. It was my back up and I didn't like to use it. At about 1500 jumps I got a Velo 103. I consider that my first true high performance canopy. loading was 2.0. I spent the next 1200 jumps with a pair of 103s before going down to my current 96 Velo. My current wing loading is 2.3 (I have gained a little weight). I have a 90 on order and I believe that will be my last down size. (although I said that about the 103 and the 96). I expect to follow this swooping thing for a few more years and then I will probably start up-sizing.

I would be more then happy to run our district. In fact I offered, but the guy who ran it last year was actually eager to run it again this season. We actually have a great group of people who are excited about competing. Jim mentioned doing this while we were in CO. The people from Norcal said they did not like the idea and the people from Socal also did not like the idea. I don't know about NV and AZ but there is no need to combine the two CA district. All this will do is stop people from competing.

Are you kidding me?!!! The Southwest district is Norcal, Socal, NV & AZ. While Illinois and Indiana are both districts by themselves. This is crap!! Norcal has enough interest to be a district by itself and so does Socal. Norcal had 4 people at the championships this year. How many were there representing Illinois? I think this move will deter a lot of people from competing. Who is going to compete if they have to buy a plane ticket to get to the events? Jim, I think you are making a big mistake, and I am not just saying that because it makes things inconvenient for me. I will still go to the comps even if they are far away but I will be one of the few. If you want to keep your numbers up this is a bad choice.

DAMN!!! I said "nice run man" and you said "yeah but I'm paying for it" and I thought "shut up and take the damn compliment". But you weren't kidding. It was a nice run though. I hope it doesn't hurt as bad as it looks.

Thanks Andy. You're getting good at this... Organizing swoop events... And swooping too I guess

I've got a 103 velo you are welcome to. Just add about 30 more pounds of lead. Seriously... If you want to use it. You should be able to get your line fixed before next weekend.

Hey I just wanted to bring this post back to the top so everyone in NorCal could be reminded how much they want to get their swoop on. Who's going to be there?

I have no idea why someone would NOT want the image stabilizer on during freefall. If you want crappy, shaky footage then by all means, turn it off.

Try Picasa from the folks at Google. It is free and very easy to use. It will yield very good results. If you want to do real technical stuff then PhotoShop is what you need but Picasa will do all the basic stuff and is a nice little photo management program. You can download it free here. http://picasa.google.com/

How realistic is the "build your own" option? Or do we know of someone capable and also friendly to jumpers?

Thanks again Andy for doing such a nice job organizing. I had a great time and learned a ton. Next stop... Colorado. I purchased my airline tickets last night. WHOO HOO!! FYI Delta Airlines $200 Anyone else flying out on Monday want to share a rental car to the DZ?