prost

I guess there isn't a lot of training going on out there.

Dan Very bad incident. I was on a intermediate skysurf board. One of the bindings came loose. I tried to ride it down by placing my foot on top of the board. It kicked out to the side and locked in that position. The release must have binded because of the board being twisted to the side. The cutaway would not work. As the 40 something inch board was straight out to my side attached to only one foot it but me in a spin. I was spinning and rotating with the board spinning above me around the outside. The G-forces were unimaginable. I felt myself blacking out. The only think I could hope for was to pull the reserve because the angle of the board made it impossible for counteract, the cutaway for the board would not release, and the throw out would have probably just wrapped around me. I tried to reach in and pull the reserve with my left hand but the G-forces were so strong I could not bring it in. I reached across with my right hand and pulled it just as I was passing out. The next thing I remember, I could barely see because my vision was whited over. As my vision returned and I started coming to my senses I noticed the canopy was spiraling. The lines had passed through the spinning board and three line sets were broken. I was barely able to keep it flying straight. But I managed to land it ok. I had no hope of standing it up because all of the muscles in my left leg were pulled and I had a fractured right foot. After I landed they were able to break the rest of the lines by hand because of the wear on them going through the lines. The canopy was a Raven 1. How it opened i do not know. If I had been flying a 120 I do not think I would have fared the landing so well. I did not hurt anything on landing. Because of this incident i decided to always keep a large reserve for worst case situation. This is why I have a Raven 1 in my rig with an FX99 and my exit weight is 239. William

Concerning the issue of reserve size, I am going to have to disagree with you Dan. While I do not doubt that a jumper with the appropriate canopy skills to fly a 120 sq.ft. canopy should be able to land a 120 reserve, there is another factor to consider. A lot of times when you are under a reserve, a lot of other things are wrong as well. What if you hit your head and are barely concious? What if by the time you get your reserve out you are to low to make it anywhere except right in the middle of the trees? What if you have three broken line sets (I had this happen to me, and I believe I would have severly injurred myself under a 120 reserve. The reserve was in a spin and the oppisite brake had to be pulled almost to the stall point to stop the spin)? For this reason i think you should have a larger reserve than main. William

I am a camera flier and would like to see some kind of requirements. I think it would be safer for everyone. It is a hard decision laying down what the exact requirements should be. I think every new camera flier should work with an experienced camera flier for a while before the are turned lose to film students. William

That has to make you feel better about the nieghborhood.

I don't trust my rig in checked baggage. I would suggest getting extra insurance of you do. I would try tocarry it on in a bag and then if they will not let you have a backup plan. to check it.

Brian does not discount his canopies.

I just flew with my parachute in a carry on bag. They paused the bag when it got to them but did not ask any questions. I decided i would not ask about it and it went fine. I have heard of some people getting a lot of questioning about parachutes, but i think they will not bother you about your cypress if you do not bring it up.

Your canopy only glides farther in brakes if you are going down wind. Try this going into the wind and you will see you glide less.

Paul has some really good tips. I film a little bit of everything but the most common is tandems. The points paul makes about gear safety holds true for every type of video. If you film tandems make sure you learn their gear so You will know if something is wrong. There are to many things to learn For this forum. I would not suggest doing anything untill you talk to an experienced camera flyer first. This will make things a lot safer for you and save you a lot of money in the long run. William

It is a even more fun with a couple of FX's. But I wouldn't really know, I have never done crew on a canopy larger than 100 square feet. William

I guess al of my professors in fluid dynamics and all the other courses I took didn't know crap and you are the authority. Let me restate it...."If all other things are kept a constant, the more forward speed the more lift a wing will have." Yes you can do other things that increase lift. Why do you think it takes more power to fly the plane at extreme slower speeds? If a wing has no forward speed it has no lift no matter what kind of wing you have. I agree that we should not teach newbies that more forward speed will solve there landing problems. Don't teach subjects you don't really know about. William

Quade, while I do agree with you on the points you make about newbies, I want to point out one thing. Addressing the comment you made about "Airspeed equals lift", they were right, the more airspeed the more lift. If a canopy has no airspeed, the canopy has no lift. While I do agree with you that we do not need to teach newbies high speed landings before they learn other skills, we shouldn't teach them false info. William

I thought you were not going to get into the mac/pc debate.

I am not sure if they are really making them yet. They say they are but the last i checked even the big dealers have not seen any yet. I was told order time was 20 weekes.

I just past 100 posts. should there be a pie for that?

yeah I just past 100. There is a guy hear with over 2000.

We need a playoff system. There are a few teams every year that can argue their case for a shot at the national championship.

rounds...you must be sick in the head.

Congrats.

Thanks Chuck.

Vacation....isn't that where you just jump all week instead of work....or is tha like visiting another dropzone?

In regards to your statement about comparing landing your competition cobalt straight in at 2.8 as compared to a stilletto, cobalt or a vengence: I think that statement is a little misleading...how many people jump a COMPETITION Cobalt. Would you land a regular cobalt at that wing loading straight in. I know I have landed a Crossfire straight in at 2.4 to one and had no problems. I always make a point to land straight in the first time I ever jump a canopy. I have not jumped at quite 2.8 but I have landed an FX straight in at 2.6. I do not think 2.8 would be a problem. The competition Cobalt is more of this type of canopy and in my opinion should be compared as such. William

Dan is exactly right. I have never jumped a cobalt, but I have never jumped a canopy I could not land straight in with no riser input. I have jumped up to a 2.6 to one wing loading. It does require more skill the higher you go in wing loading, but if you can not land the canopy straight in you don't need to be jumping it. I have never jumped a cobalt but i have jumped heavily loaded Stillettos, crossfires, FX's, and a few others. Any are capable of landing at over 2 to 1 straight in. I see many people with poor flare technique that causes them to not produce much lift on landing. William

You will pay twice as much with a mac to get half of what you get with a pc. If you want to join the mac clic you must pay. They make it easy if you don't want to have to put in a lot of time learning the system, but you have to pay dearly for it. Any time you upgrade or buy anything for the mac it will cost you a lot more than a pc. As far a s the software availability goes, I have been hearing the same story about it getting better for years. It is not just software that is the problem. Try to go down to best buy and buy another hard drive for your mac. You will see about 20 for pc's and none for the mac. This situation will not change The reason it will not change is two fold. First, 95 percent of the computers out there are not mac and therefore there is not that big of a market. Secondly Apple wants a hand in the profits for everything for macs. This stifles new companies from bringing out new products for the mac. It is interesting that the hardware for pc's will work on systems running linux. The reason they will not run on macs is because apple makes everything specialized to the mac so they can get a profit from everything. Now I know this post will get me a lot of hate replies from the mac cult. The mac love in groups will most likely start plotting against me as soon as the first member reads this. you see mac fans tend to be fanatical and will defend a completely senseless position to the death. William