crotalus01

I got a Safire 189 after my Sabre broke 9 lines on deployment. I rolled the nose for the first 8 or so jumps on it (packing the same as my Sabre), and it had the worst off heading spinning openings - to the point I thought something was wrong with the canopy. Finally someone suggested I not roll the nose, and every jump since then it has not been an issue, nice on heading openings. One thing I have noticed about the Safire (mine at any rate) is that tends to open really hard when subterminal. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Dead horse, meet whip.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I have been all over Asia, and your best bet would be Japan. Thailand and Laos both have the occasional boogie but nothing I am aware of as far as a "regular" dropzone. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

That shirt (or a variant) is still made, I bought one two years ago. Black tee with Sport on top, Death on bottom and a skull with wings in the center. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

The PD Vengeance is (or so PD says) the highest aspect ratio canopy they ever produced. It flies to the ground with a quickness. I did a jump with a Vengeance 170 (1.4 wl) where I opened at 14000', and landed before an A license holder who exited before me and opened at 5000'. And that was with very little spiraling on my part. My buddy I jumped with was flying a Niton 135 loaded at 1.5 and I left him in the dust at full flight... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Give it a break, will ya? Nobody is lumping all young jumpers into any category. Still, you cannot ignore the fact that most of the landing incidents do not involve "old timers". Some do, but most don't. Swoop if you must. But if you choose to swoop... Be current. Be current on your canopy. Be as conservative as you can. Follow a sensible progression. Be sure that your swooping does not put others in jeopardy. I'll be sad if you get hurt. But I won't say "I told you so" if you have followed a reasonable course. Because sometimes, shit happens. Does anyone have the stats on swooping/landing incidents? From what I have seen in the Incidents forum over the last few years (at least for fatalities), the incidents are far more for 1000+ jumpers than newer jumpers. Of the multiple incidents I have personally seen only 1 was a jumper with less than 1000 jumps. Also wondering how many incidents there have been of newer jumpers taking out someone else due to flying a wing they were not ready for. The Bob Hollar incident is the one most pointed to but as Kallend pointed out Danny was hardly a newer jumper. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

LOL....I have been all over Asia and the closest I know of would be in Japan. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Main - 189 Reserve - 218 As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Isn't DC super restricted airspace (especially since 9/11)? Seems like I recall fighters getting scrambled a few years ago because some puddle jumper strayed into their airspace by mistake - I seriously doubt they would allow jumpers, much less the aircraft to jump from, over that area... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I have done it when my car was down, and its a really really bad idea. I stuffed my hackey all the way into the BOC for the ride, but that is almost as bad as riding with your rig on - it can lead to you forgetting to pull it back out if you are in a hurry for a load, which could lead to a total malfunction. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

You would need your A license and your own gear before you left for Asia as there are very very few places that I know of where you could complete AFF in Asia (Japan maybe). I have been all over Asia and have seen virtually no dropzones. Notable exceptions are annual boogies held in Thailand and Laos, and there are dropzones in Japan and I believe Malaysia (wouldnt swear to it though). As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Tandems count towards your freefall time and towards your license. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

That guy must be dreaming if he thinks he is gonna get anywhere near the $800 mark for that setup, unless he finds a real sucker. As for old (80s) rigs, I know a few people who still jump them and they seem to work fine for belly flying (with some mods like BOC and tuck tabs to replace worn velcro). A guy at Skyfest this year was jumping a Wonderhog that was one of the first produced by Relative Workshop (now UPT). As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Generally speaking, do I want my w/l to be about the same as now - 1.3ish? If so I should be looking for a 190 - 170 or somewhere in between. Also is any 7 cell generally okay? I have friends who love their Spectres... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Never thought about that, and I have a friend that I am pretty sure would buy it from me for what I paid for it -Thanks

I would love to get a Lightning, the problem is not just money but that I also need something I can use for normal freefall - I am NOT taking a Lightning to terminal! I have a Vengeance 170 that I have about 20 jumps on, but I have decided to wait to fly it again for at least another 200 or so jumps - I never had a problem with it, I can do most of Bill Vons downsize checklist with it, and my instructors told me I would be fine flying it (and I do love it!) but I know for a fact that it is beyond my skillset if the shit hit the fan. I only have Saturdays off from my job so travel is pretty much out, plus the $$ issue. I am kind of stuck with what I have. I am going to make it as CRW friendly as I can until I can afford a CRW camp and/or canopy. If that means I am limited to doing 2 stacks until then, then I guess I will get really good at docks/rotations :) Edit to add thanks for all the info and advice! As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

44 views and no advice? Surely someone has some advice for me. Obviously i am not going to be docking on my buddy and doing 2 stacks forever - should I let him dock on me next? Try and do a side by side? I want to keep it relatively simple and as safe as possible until I have the $$$ to refit my canopy to be more CRW friendly - currently I am flying a Safire 189 with microline, my buddy is flying a F-111 220 with Dacron. Both have trailing PCs. I am having my rigger install 2 to 1s on my risers in the next month so I can use my front risers more effectively. A retractable PC and dacron lines are my next mod. Any suggestions (other than CRW camp, no money or vacation time for that - have to learn where I am with what I have).... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Curious if there is a recommended learning progression for CRW? I recently started doing 2 stacks with an experienced friend, with me docking on him. Super fun and I dont see myself getting tired of it anytime soon, but I am already wanting to learn more - where should I go from here? Thanks. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I would hazard to guess the Sabre 1 based solely on its tendency to slam the shit out of you on any given opening. I absolutely loved flying my Sabre 190 but I finally retired it after several brutal openings. The final straw was one that broke 9 lines, tore the bottom skin, ripped a cell and ripped 2 attachment points off. And that was with an oversized slider that PD sent me, and very very meticulous packing. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Sure, that's why you set the standard for jumper B, and jumper A has to 'suffer' by jumping out an airplane with a bigger canopy then they think is cool. What a shame. I'm not suggesting any numbers. I only have 5000 jumps, 15 years in the sport, and have never designed a canopy. I defer to Brian Germains WL chart because he has 10,000+ jumps, 20 years in the sport, a degree in aeronautical engineering, and has designed several very successful canopies. He created the chart several years ago with the intention of it becoming the standard to follow. Let's face it, someone somewhere has to come up with the numbers. There will be no sign from above, or act of congress, at some level a person, or persons, will have to sit down and say, 'This is the deal'. It's interesting how I, with my experience and qualifications giving me every right to be head-strong, realize the benefit of defering to a person, Brian Germain, who is clearly my superior in these matters, yet you, with little to fall back on would suggest it outrageous that I would be the one to generate the numbers to follow, despite the superiority of my qualifications to yours. I never suggested or implied that anything was outrageous, I simply asked a question. You ask in one sentence "what is safe and unsafe" (as in what I consider safe someone else may consider not safe), then in another you say a w/l BSR would keep people at a "reasonable" wingloading. If safe and unsafe cannot be determined across the board, then how can a "reasonable" wingload? How would you react if, instead of a wingload BSR, USPA and the manufacturers simply decided that they would no longer produce any parachutes smaller than, say, a 150? I personally think Dr Kallend and Robin have the right idea if anything is to be done. And you still did not address the fact that most of the incidents I have read in the last few years have been up jumpers that would not have been affected by a BSR to begin with... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Dave, I think you kinda shoot your own argument ion the foot when first you say "What is unsafe and what is not?" And a couple of paragraphs later you say "Does it guarantee that every jumper will spend some time on a conservative wing at a reasonable loading? Yes." Who decides what is a reasonable loading? You? Kinda stands to reason that what is reasonable for Student A might not be reasonable for Student B. I think that is the crux of Dr Kallends argument against jump numbers being the sole determining factor. The other issue I see with your argument is you say you are wanting to prevent collisions, etc (non-fatal) and at the same time admit there is no compilation of data on these incidents. Possible that it is up-jumpers that would not be affected by a BSR that are causing these problems to begin with? Of all the near misses and low turn impacts I have seen, only 1 (ONE) was a "low time" jumper (2 years in sport 300 jumps on a Niton 170)... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Again I ask what would happen to people who currently exceed the WL if a BSR was passed? Would they be grandfathered in? Also, if there was an opt-out (the S&TA could waiver a person based on observed skill), would it still be the same shitstorm it currently is on here when someone has been signed off to jump a canopy the majority of jumpers here disagree with based on jump numbers? I personally have never jumped a canopy that was not specifically recommended to me by my instructors, but that does not seem to be good enough for the DZ.com crowd... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

A question - IF a wingload BSR was passed, what would be the effect on jumpers who have been exceeding it prior to the passage? Would they be grandfathered like the D license holders who had 200ish jumps when the D requirement became 500? As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Why open at 8K when you can open at 14K instead? Thats almost twice the flying time (depending on what you do of course). I try and do a 14K hop-n-pop at least twice a month in the summer (often one a week). As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Figures. 3rd world DZs seem to drift in and out of operation - I tried to find a DZ in Morocco a few years ago and never did, even following the directions provided on their website. Same thing for Israel... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...