YISkyDive

As some one who started out wanting to swoop, I was a bitch to deal with. At 45 jumps I was doing double fronts, and 100 jumps I was doing 90s, by 150 I put myself in such a corner that I canned my swooping plans- then i became a better canopy pilot. I have an awsome mentor, somebody that I respect as much as my father who is a high number jumper, but has choosen to stay away from swooping. He has guided me well- beating me up when i needed it, and offering feedback and support when i desireved. After putting myself in a dangerous corner which i was in a curled up PLF position to miss the gound- I realized that regaurdless of who you talk to, what they tell you, and when they tell it to you you will never ever listen. You've been told- dont jump your current canopy- yet you still do. You've been told to upsize, yet you will not. You've heard all the things you should do, but the personal belief and right of mind is that you will follow your set path, till a changing experience comes a long and either gives you a good scare, or metal. Both of which are, unfortunetly, involved in learning to swoop. The key to swooping is not making a turn, the canopy, or the recovery arc of the parachute.. that is ALL actually secondary. The key to making yourself a better canopy pilot is to be able to judge when to and when not to swoop.. whether that means not swooping on a praticular landing, or not swooping till you meet a certain standard. Let me put it this way- the worlds best canopy pilot will tell you to A) not swoop now, B) not swoop now under that canopy. Your mind has not become accustomed to low level flight, and turns close to our bouncer.. the earth. It was explained to me, by one of the better canopy pilots I know.. It takes 500 jumps to know A canopy.. It takes 1000 Jumps to Master a canopy. Have you made 500 jumps? Do you know your canopy? Can you explain or better yet fly it in all sorts of diffrent behaviral conditions? I'll let you answer that. In this day and age, the right to break yourself exists freely to all those that choose to follow an aggresive path. I did it. I got lucky... heres why. I work 7 days a week May through September on a busy dropzone. I jump 300 skydives in 6 calander months.. with little to no "working" skydives. I also jumped a 1.07:1 loaded Triathlon.. thats where I learned to read and understand the ground. If I tried to learn swooping under my Diablo 1.3:1 the only thing that would keep me from becoming a statistic would be luck.. and luck has an unfortunte way of balancing itself out.. does the worlds best poker player win every tournement? does the worlds best race car driver win every race? Again, I'll let you answer. The bottom line is, when you think you have the skills to save yourself in a shit out of luck situation.. not only are you blind, ingnortant, and foolish, but you are also dangersous and life threating to yourself and those around you. Remember your skills will not save you- your decisions to make or not to make certain choices will save you- and unfortunetly- wainting to swoop and upsizing is potentially the right choice. The worlds best canopy pilots would probably tell you that. Remember, to Femur is not a verb. Get another canopy, funds permiting. Rent gear if you need to get your skills up- do the downsizing checklist forward and aft. Dont land on rears once and say "I can land on rears!!" I landed on rears 30 times in two weeks to fully learn the feeling and understanding of why and why not things happen. Learn the importance of your canopy forgetting about front risers, swooping, and low level flight. Once you can make the Pees everytime, flying a pattern and not making low turns, then you can open your mind again to swooping. Its a natural progression, you need acruacy to swoop- or your just a WDI when you make your turn. I think you get the point. Take from the people that have spoken to what you will, but The First Person in the world to tell you not to swoop, is also the author of the best canopy control book avaliable. That has to mean something. good luck, and be safe. Remember, the ground is patient, and it will wait for you to make the mistake that your "calm" and "coached" ways may lead you to make one day.

I know this probably doesn’t mean much to the actual 78mph mark.. But on my Neptune on a Diablo 170 loaded at 1.3: 1 I hit 30s to 40mph on aggressive canopy direction transfers [toggles/ harness].. And in 270s up high. I know that on a Front riser 90 (carving) I do about 25mph vertical component. More interestingly though- My father flies a crossfire2 139 loaded at about 1.9: 1 and he has found his max to be 67mph with harness 360. He does not swoop, but he commonly flies with a GPS logger unit and a wrist mount Neptune- The GPS profile of the jump indicates that the 67mph mark was from 1 360 harness turn alone, and he is sure that the second on is still notably faster. I'm at college right now, So i don’t have either the GPS profile or the Neptune profile, but that shows that even a fairly large wing at a decent loading has the ability to get up into redzone territory. When he tests this kind of stuff- He uses the Neptune for a pure vertical component, and a GPS to associate the Neptune’s vertical component with maneuvers- ultimately he has programmed a 3d graph of his freefall / canopy flight in which you can actually run the cursor over his track and see his downward and horizontal speeds. Pretty neat stuff. None of us even thought of the idea of a cypress firing. Until recent event. Oh yeah- The logger unit is Garmain Foretrex GPS logger - placed inside the back of a sidewinder helmet. He and I use diffrent Neptunes with the same update. dave. EDIT to ADD: The harness 360 was prety high as well, I'm not sure but i belive that it was 2000ft AGL and that would mean 2600MSL.

I have never done this- But a rigger I jumped with last year propacked his diablo, but left the slider out, and then put the slider outside of the package- would i ever try it? hell no. He had resonable openings, and loved it, but that was a lightly loaded 150, loaded around 1.25:1. I pack mine for a "positive" opening with the nose halfway out of the pack- and the slider flush not out. Although i stopped crying about the Diablos openings after i endured an instant canopy- my neptune claimed a 50ft opening from the time i pitched to the time I was under a fully flying canopy- I did not move for almost 1,000 feet in the harness, it was painful. I now politely take the 1k snivel.

I would have to agree. On my DZ everyone is a PD fanatic. If you don't jump PD, your canopy aint good. Thankfully, having parents in the sport has given me alternatives to the "mainstream" cool toys.. one of which is my Diablo. My Diablo is a 170 loaded at like 1.25:1 to 1.3: 1 depending on the week. I have roughly 125 jumps on her, and I Love it! It turns much faster than the Sabre2, but it also has a cost of "forgiving" flare power. I have found that with the Diablo it has tought me too flare much better than anyting else that I have jumped. When you hit the sweet spot it surfs very very nicely, when you miss the sweetspot- RUN!. Turns on the Diablo are challenging to learn, but also can make you a well rounded canopy pilot. With the significant oversteer you can use your harness to stop a turn "on heading", use opposite toggle to stop the turn on heading, or let the canopy oversteer onto heading. The turns them selves are pretty fast- I've heard people say some of the fastest on any canopy in the approprate size range. Even the Stiletto turns slower, I have heard. Flat turns are also something I made a point to learn right away, with the steeper trim, and diving turn, if you needed an emergency direction change, on this canpoy you CAN NOT perform an aggressive toggle turn. I have video of toggle turns that where question as riser turn, so learn the flat turns. Its a fun canopy, and a good canopy to prepare yourself for highspeed, higher performance canopies because at a lighter wingloading it teaches you the basics of advanced canopy flight. Sure, you cant whip harness 360s on a dime, like say an X2, but at the same time, you should have enough harness to turn the canopy while you are stowing your slider. Like the other gent said, you love it, or you hate it. I love mine, and when the tiem is correct, I am defentily considering a 150Diablo for when I hold the proper skills to fly it. dave

Haha, 1 succesful ride in PA.. I ride at the outer banks all the time. Much better there. I can boost for the most part, and do basic ariels. Best place to learn is OBX. Miles and miles of shallow water, good wind direction somewhere due to its shape, and most importanly Lots of schools. RealKiteboarding.com is a good place to investiage information. As for kites, a 2 or 4 line trainer is just as good, I taught a kiteboarder that now is pretty good, she learned on a 2 line stunt kite. Then we through her on a 8m^2 in sub 10mph for body dragging, and then we through her on a board in sub 15, and she did well, she road by the end of two weeks downwind 4miles, traversing both directions and doing a great job at launching the kite, riding, and keeping control. If you have the ability check out http://community.flexifoil.com/. all the kiting info you need is there.

I'm an avid kiteboarder... to do it right, you need lessons, you need equipment, and most of all you need time and money. I live in PA and had 1 succesful ride in 6 years, instead I just take trips for riding. Most commonly, Outer Banks. I ride for two weeks straight and then go about riding here and there for ahwile at local beaches. If you want to get into it.. Lesson. A lesson will save a lot of bad and dangerous situations. Over my 6 years, I saved 2 people from being involved in life threating situations. Learn on a trainer, They cost about 100$ and are fun to fly. After a lesson at a good school, remember you are not god, so wear a PFD(personal flotation device) a lot of people decide not to wear em, but when your kite breaks a quarter mile from shore, you'll be very happy. Otherwise, take your time buying gear. Educate yourself on what you need where you will ride. Diffent kites to diffrent things, some water, some land. Some relaunch eaier while others fly faster. Its a lot of fun, but i learned before lessons where avialble and had some good scares. Be safe.

I have a small Gateway flashcard video camera. It was the camera i used to learn on before strapping on my PC-101. The video from it is fine, its resolution i belive is 420 X 420. Its not the best quality, but it is more than enough for a fun toy. Best of all, its only 60 dollars and it can be destroyed without second thought almost. If comparing it to a camera video phone, its much better, if comparing it to a PC 101 or other DV camera its worse. I hope that helps.

haha, its Czech.. and yes a WHOLE post was made of the matter.. thank you.

Hey guys, I have been on a 170 Diablo loaded at 1.28 : 1 for about 10 jumps now. I downsized through a progression of a 190 hornet, 170 sabre2, to a 170 diablo over like 65 jumps or something. On all the other parachutes (210 tri, 190 H, and 170S2) i could not get them to do a harness turn. On the diablo i can get a very fast 90 degree hanress turn, but the turn slows down through a 180 and is virtually non-exsistent after that. Whats the proper technique for a harness turn, and why is my canopy slowing down after gaining speed instead of mainting a rate of turn or accelerating? All of this is done above decsion altitude in the event that something would go wrong. (+ 1600 AGL) thanks guys dave.

I got PCA-ed today! O-well, they got me. Once a 2way turned into a 6 way i know something was up.. and as i felt line stretch i knew it was game over. I put up a fight for a second.. dumped at 9. o well good fun.

I'm really intrested to hear what got thrown down and see a bunch of pics! Hopefully the triple crown will be on the next slaton DVD.. i really wanna see what was thrown down. did anyone make the pipedream? or take all three parts of the triple crown. thanks. -dave

Yah, I really like the Hornet actually. I've jumped it like three times, and if it was still avaliable it would be on my to get list. On the comment of asking the questions before- Its in student gear.. So i am sure its ok to jump prior to doing a detective investigation. I knew it was a nine cell, slighty tappered parachute, so i knew i was pretty sure safe to jump it; with the blessing of my S&TA... some of us like to know more though, beyound our feelings.. such as production place, what happened to the company and so on. On the flies big thing.. I had a good friend that jumped it prior to me. He has 450 jumps on a Diablo 170 loaded 1.55. When he jumped the 190 Hornet he was extrememly suprised how much that flew. It was just his personal opinion and gave me a heads up that is a praticularrly fast parachute. Just a jumpers opinion when i told them i was jumping it. Thanks for the input guys! I did some searches and found out a lot on it. Too bad PISA doesnt exsist and have "cheeper" parachutes on the markt.. from what i can tell.. it was well made. -dave.

Hey guys. What is a Hornet? I jumped one today and it was actually considerably fast to my triathlon. I jumped a Hornet 190, and I regurally jump a Triathlon 210. It just has a much faster turn rate, and dive than the triathlon. Flies and opens nice though, but i cannot find any real information on it. Manufacture recommended wing loadings to jump numbers.. things like that. How does this parachute compare to a Sabre/ Sabre 2.. and does it actually fly small? I've heard that it flies a size smaller than it really is. I was fairly suprised by its performance boost. I expected a little slower. Thanks dave.

That thing produces a REDICULOUS amount of lift! I thought my kiteboard kites did good.... i have a new toy on the christmas wish list. Haha.

I liked gravity pilots alot. It had some major points that could have been improved upon, but also a great step forward from PST2003, and Out of the Blue. I think Jim should "define" segments more. Like the new zeland expedition could have been expanded upon, and interviews could have been put through out the DVD more so than tacked on at the end. If anyone is into kitesurfing.. AWAKE was a great kite board movie that showed diffrent aspects of kitesurfing and kiteboarding through rideing shots and through interviews. I really liked gravity pilots though. It was another step forward and i think i'll watch it many times to come. some of the footage is just amayzing. we'll see what the future of slaton airsports brings- good job Jim. Nice work. dave.

Could you elebroate more on your flyhing experince with this suit? Did you do any collective data? I'm really intrested in this suit , perosnally, and think it may be an ideal choice for someone that has 250 to 300 jumps(meeting and exceeding All recommended guide lines).. and wants to jump a wingsuit a coupla times a month and not use it as a "primary" dsicpline of skydiving. I hjave read bad reviews on it.. but somethings still seem extrememly right with this suit. Id be intrested to hear your opionions in greater details- how are turns/ barrel rolls/ does it beat the CII, or is the GTi having a run for its money. If you had like a neptune or protrack id be intrested to hear your #s, Thanks! Hope you had fun on your flights! -dave.

Hey guys- I rarely post in the BASE forum.. (for obvious reasons) but in my own right I personally like the sport of BASE a lot. I know a few BASE jumpers, and at one point I, myself, would enjoy getting into the sport... but currently my biggest hold back from entering the sport (minus jump number, but i'm not worried about that, because i am going to have [hopefully] 500 by this thanksgiving) is not the risk, but the penalties of illegal activites. Jail, fines, fellony on record could ruin my ability to get a job in the feilds i am looking at getting into. I do not plan on jumping for 2 years (personal maturity thing.. ) but when i do, i do not want to develop a criminal record in the process. I really think that as a whole, a community, leaders should emerge and develope regulation that wouldnt be out of the norm of sensibilty. It happens all the time.. if you take a first timer to Utah.. then obviosully people will speak. If you jump the bridge with skydiving gear (attempt too) people will speak. A USPA style regulation would be EXTREMELY wrong in this sport of will and pure love of freedom, but to lagetimize the sport we need to develope basic platforms and help the community as a whole. A standard operating platform would not be bad for the sport.. It just needs to be headed by people that understand why BASE was and still exsists. And look past providing the indusrty with profits, DZs with more cash flow, and providing more intrsuctors more money.. I think that legal base is extremely important, because as the number of people getting caught rises so will stricter punishments. As it is, if your a college kid and get caught.. kiss the ability of being a teacher, a law enforcement offficer, or FBI good bye with the trespassing felony. This is just an opinion, and understand its just that. I have never felt the freedom of jumping off of a fixed object, but one day, when everything is mentally, morrally, and personally right.. I intend too... but hopefully not at the cost of my future. I want to enjoy the sport freely, and legally, because thats what all other athletes get to do.. why should we not be able to earn that right. -dave.

I have been in the sport 7 years, and yes, i have seen people end up in a bag.. does that mean i should let everyone else too? not in my opinion... you apprently have made up your mind.

Ok guys, come on.. the poor guy is confused, and lost on where his skills are at, but sensless comments are not going to save his life.. they will drive more to prove you wrong, and in so prove himself wrong.. help him out with USEFULL advice, like courses, checklists, books, and progressions more so than "dont get blood" on it. that wont help him. Make it clear to him he needs a reality check, but dont make silly comments that will drive him more... think before you post, help him dont dig his grave for him.

Really quick- is your profile up too date? 2) Before 180s, one should have [at least] 50 consistent double front approches.. 50 - 100 consistent 45- 90 degree approches.. and then maybe you can loook at 180s. If people have talked to you about the "crater" thing, listen. It's not because they want to see you not have fun, its because they want you to be safe, and learn while having fun. altitude wise- (to answer your question) changes dramtically changes between canopy to canopy. People use an accurate altimiter to aid in site picture, which is what pilots use to judge altitude loss.. brian germain's book is a great work that, if serious, about swooping you should pick up and read. he discusses this. i would highly recommend looking to staff on your DZ that execute good swoops for advice, and to heed both their compliments, just as their warnings. stay safe, and enjoy, dave.

the two that are looking at the team are more east of you.. east strousburg and pennridge. we can move to each others DZs at weekends. 1 weekend at pennridge, 1 week at east, and 1 weekend (or saturday) at chmabersburg. PM if intrested.

cool guys, i guess from the looks though, no one uses it intesively for up -high swooping analysis? More or less, that is my goal. To set up, and practice both turns, and on heading realeses and then see if my altitude loss is consistent, or very sparatic. Obviously, conitions have an impact on altitude loss, so only close jumps would have meaningful data.. does anyone use a free ware program that can draw a line in free space, and analyze the actual flight? i found some pay for use software that has 400 times more the features i need if i am gonna get paralog, i just want something that can draw my track and give me a camera to look around at the whole thing. thanks for the input so far guys, dave

Hey guys, I did some homework, and i decided to get a GPS to track my canopy flight, for fun more than anything. Has anybody else played with a GPS and canopy flight? I'm just going to use the logger to record "swoops" up high. See what diffrent types of turns and degrees of turns yeild. I got my foretrex201 today , so i'll test it out as soon as the plane goes up... when ever that will be due to weather coming. Just wondering, bascally, what units and software you guys use. I'm looking into the paralog software, but i also want something with 3D mapping of my canopy flight. Thanks guys, Dave.

HAHAHA, WOW Just remember... He'll get cha in stealth once he gets back! ...

We arent getting them till May 31st, arnt we? Thats what the realse date is any way. I have not gotten an e-mail or tracking number, so i assumed that isnt gonna happen until closer till may 31st. EDIT: but i have watched that trailer tooooo many times in anticipation. (And that wasnt a criticism.. sorry if it sounds like it, that was a question of when those that already ordered are getting them)