frost

Pond looks sick. Course set up looks sweet. Cant wait to swoop there in two weeks. yeehaw!

you and Hansie should have planned for the Spaceland meet! Beek, Pia and I and possibly Sergei are going to be there.

right. LOL you missed my point COMPLETELY. as i have already pointed out, some people are incapable of comprehending simple thoughts expressed online.

aw Dave. that's the nicest thing you've said to me since the last time you called me a commie bastard! I am so touched... Now go polish your high powered rifles! All 15 of them that you keep strictly for home defense and for controlling the pet population. Anyway. Chuck (and the rest of "funny" commentators) - go compete and see how it feels to hit the water, then come back here and make some more witty comments about people that are actually out there doing it and trying to learn something.

there are a few, yes. however, i think a more relevant question is: "is there anyone on this forum who is capable of reading AND comprehending the info before posting their reply?". Judging by some posts (yours respectfully included) i tend to think that the answer is "no".

I saw this video when it was originally posted on Russian skydiving forums. My first reaction was "WOW... I dont think I have seen this much carnage in four years of competing COMBINED!" (that's about 30 comps total). Some of these guys have no business being on 5 foot Open class gates. As a CP judge I'd double yellow flag a few of them, since they repeated their "stunts". And a few of them would get red carded right away, since they were a danger not only to themselves, but also to the spectators. Competing is great, but some folks just need to be sitting on the ground and watching the comp. That being said, there are only one or two comps in Russia per year. But the sport is growing there, which is good to see. It's the same thing US pilots went through. Have you seen Ranch Pond Swoop Nationals from 9-10 years ago?? There was a LOT of splashing back then too. In Russia, there is no training ground, no regional comps like we have here. They have only the Nationals and only in Open class. So some folks that want to compete have to learn any way they can. What's even worse, some of them dont see the safety benefits of the higher 10 foot gates and feel that the best way to learn is to swoop the 5 footers right away. There are a lot of other misconceptions and horribly flawed logic in these new pilots... i dont even want to go into details, you wouldnt believe me anyway. This video only included the bad swoops. Those guys at the end actually did very well in the competition and took top positions. What were they doing showing off at the end? Just to please the crowd, i guess. Why not? What i dont understand is the mentality of the "wanna be-know it all" wonder pilots who fly x-braced canopies @ >2:1 with a total of 300-500 jumps, have latest gear, RDS, long risers, etc.. But there are enough people in the US that follow the same rules Not even hitting the ten foot gates, but at least in style and with latest swoop gear . Some of them dont even compete!! I guess it's very important to look "cool", just like the pros. Skills are secondary?

putting it on my calendar. WTF is with Sundays, man!

4 months later... I am still waiting for my demo. But from a fellow swooper and super duper expert master rigger (official USPA term BTW), basically it's the nicest opening cross braced canopy that will not win any distance records, but is a nice all around swoop wing. Based on that, i was thinking "Neos"-like?

599.924 :) if i could be speechless right now... i would be! This is the first time in my memory that a competitor put up a near perfect score like that. All hail Jay! All hail Jay! Oh, Jay, can you see...

This is a canopy piloting forum not formation skydiving. He posted the correct link.

CJ, interested to hear your opinion on this: 1. From your prior JVX experience, how did the rears seem on the Comp Velo? I heard they are much better compared to the original velocity ("better" being a relative term and more from a point of view of someone who likes the VX/JVX style of rear riser input), but still not as close. 2. I was curious to hear an opinion of a very experienced velo pilot, who, after putting some jumps on the comp velo, did not see a MAJOR improvement/difference between that and an HMA lined/RDS equipped velo. Comp velo with a PC attached flew same as or very similar to a regular velo with PC removed, is what he thought. What did you think? Of course, 8 jumps is not nearly enough to figure out a canopy, but "first impression" is what i am looking for here.

The learning process never ends. The more you learn, the more you know how much you still have to learn. Swooping is definitely NOT the only thing you can do with your canopy. Canopy Piloting (aka swooping), CReW, Accuracy, Ground Launching and Speed Flying are all canopy disciplines and are all fun in their own way. But before you can do advance things with your wing, before doing whatever you deem to be "fun" (I have no idea what you mean by "sliding in your flare" or "jumping in your harness") - you should learn the basics of canopy flight. If you dont know what your canopy can do and how to control it well, sometimes what seems to be "fun" can actually be "dumb". And doing it can lead to deadly results. Some of the examples are: being dragged under your canopy with a pick up truck, doing hard spirals in the air, etc. All of these can lead to injuries and death if you dont know the limits of your skills and your wing. Get canopy coaching from a reputable instructor in your area. You are at a stage when you can greatly benefit from a structured canopy flying seminar or camp.

There are a few very good links in the "Basic and Advanced Canopy flying: educational materials and videos" topic that will lead you in the right direction. All of the exercises listed in those links and in the newer SIM will be helpful and are designed for a gradual progression towards becoming a safe and capable canopy pilot. The key is not to skip steps and not to jump ahead of yourself, just like with the tunnel training.

i cant believe i just wasted 10 minutes reading these last few posts... well not really, i realized after the first few lines that it would be a waste of time, so i stopped. but just a suggestion: why dont the two of you take your supremely logical and highly theoretical and in no way retarded discussion to the PM?

Smart decision to offer both versions of already proven and tested designs, as well as to add the collapse option for those few who may want it. Nothing new as far as basic RDS design though, right? Seems like a straight up copy of existing systems. What is the price range on these?

that's what she said last night too! But yeah, it will be progressively harder to achieve each additional mph, but i dont think it will be impossible. I mean they said it was impossible to bring sexy back... Then GW came on the scene and the rest is history. P.S. what's this talk about the "next generation of parachutes"? You got some inside info?

yep. looks like the unit functioned as designed. Time to make some decisions about your AAD choices? Perhaps they will address this at a later time, but right now Vigil's just not the best choice for the big turn swoopers. But. you're so close to breaking 90 mph... that's just 6 miles below the firing speed of Speed Cypres. Mile-Hi elevation helps achieve these higher speeds, so not unreasonable to think that you and others may be breaking the 96 mph firing speed of Cypres Speed soon enough. Something to keep in mind. SoFPiDaRF - School of Fast Progress in Downsizing and Radical Flying. Because nobody knows your skills better than you.

I remember he posted here the results of the test jumps. That was good testing by Airtec to detect the firing speeds in the turns. But raising the firing speed seems more like a bandaid, rather than a feature. A modification to the existing algorithm. Let's also not forget that there was some controversy about Airtec ignoring this known and documented issue for sometime and that some may say the death of a respected jumper pushed them to make the Cypres 2 Speed rather quickly. I am sure there were great minds at work at all of these companies that evaluated the possibilities and came to various conclusions. Cypres decided to raise the firing speeds - a modification that also carries some drawbacks with it, as they describe in the manual. Argus decided to switch it off completely after opening. I am not sure which one is the best solution, to be honest. On one hand, it's good to have a working AAD until you land - in case you cut away at 2K and then fall to 600 and forget to pull the other handle for some wacky reason it would come in handy. On the other hand, not worrying at all about a possible ticking bomb is a good thing too. Now, Vigil Pro fires at the same speed as a regular Cypres - 35 m/s. that doesnt seem like a "big turn friendly" Swoop mode at all, especially after all the known cases... is there anything else being done by the company to make Vigil AAD more big turn friendly?

An AAD fire/reserve deployment during the recovery dive is not same as AAD fire/reserve deployment during freefall. Thats the thing i want to know! what do these devices have to offer to people that use them and who make big turns. How are they specifically built for them? I use Speed Cypres, but i am not sure it is "specifically designed for" high speed multiple rotation landings... It just raises the firing speed, keeping the rest of the algorithm logic from the regular Cypres (from my understanding of the manual). I dont know much about other devices, but if Argus switches off after deployment, that may be the more "swoop" oriented approach to this issue. What does Vigil have in place? What does Pro mode do? Know your gear - that's key, for sure. Would be great to see a bullet point comparison of these devices "swoop" modes.

Damn, Dan! yeah glad you're OK, buddy!!! Well, looks like modern AADs are behind the current skill level of today's Pro canopy pilots! Not just the "best of the best", like they claimed a year ago. That brings up a few questions right away. 1. Is Vigil, amped up as the swooper friendly AAD, really a swoop safe device? Is ANY AAD really friendly for us at this point? 2. IF it fired at 354 feet... then why did the reserve come out at 10? I tend to believe the eyewitnesses, since we've seen the videos here before where the AAD fired and reserve came out during a level flight. Is there an explanation for that? 3. Personal questions for you - are you happy with the Vigil's explanation? and what are you going to do now? Chose another AAD? Turn it off? I dont think it's an option to turn it off for hop and pops - you swoop on all jumps. It's either an "ALL or NONE" case scenario, no? P.S. go buy a lotto ticket man.

SPAWNmaster, do this. Bookmark this thread. In whatever electronic personal organizer tool you use, set a reminder: On June 19th, 2014 - come back to this thread and re-read your own comments, as well as comments of the people that answered you. Hopefully by that time you will have a good amount of jumps and enough experience to recognize the silliness of this banal and sophomoric debate. From asking advice on your swoops on the internet forums, to finding all the "right" excuses why you're doing what you're doing despite the voice of reason and experience, to thinking that you "MAXED out" your canopy after 200 jumps... everything here is just silly, and hopefully you will see it then. For now, try to attend some proper training courses on canopy piloting. If not immediately available to you, locate an experienced and well respected pilot in your area. Ask him to work with you as much as you can. It's worth traveling and paying for this knowledge - it WILL save your life.

Looking good! "Texas style" pond - BIG! :) I just wish someone (yes, you, Dave) would organize a competition there already! :)

man, what is this conversation about? I am telling you it's soft, but you're trying to convince me it's yellow?? I am not DSE when it comes to knowledge of lens and products, but i know what my eyes see and i've been shooting with HD cameras for 4 years. You can tell me all you want about charts and lines of resolutions... and i will agree with you. but the fact of the matter is: HD footage with SD lens looks better then SD footage with SD lens. On any monitor. Period. There is nothing to argue about.

that's exactly what i thought. who are they going to believe, charts or their lying eyes?