sagan

Note that when I was at a similar spot, Icarus was a great mfg if you plan to buy new. In my case I found a used Safire2 159 which was a perfect size. Yes that's right, Icarus made in between sizes. They still may if you ask them. Might be something to consider.

It will not fit well and definitely not if it's being packed by someone fairly new to packing (you really do get better with time and pack jobs size and times decrease quite dramatically sometimes). I have an i3 with an optimum 143 (which is very tight but fits) and for a main a 135 is about as much as you can hope to get in there unless its a zpx or some other hybrid or older canopy with microline/hma. You state the reserve is a 120 so it will be a bit softer but not significantly so I believe. Could you make it work in a pinch like a demo, trying a main out for a jump or two? Sure but it wouldn't be worth the aggravation over any stretch of time. As for what you fly that's for you and your trusted advisers to decide. The comments made already about main and reserve sum up most relevant thoughts IMO. -Patrick

Ditto --- all those costs are not small and many of them like insurance are paid up front, sometimes well before you have an actual product that can produce revenue. If you were sitting there in your lab potentially with employees on the payroll, a building, insurance, etc, etc, and you were just starting out I'd say that you'd more than be entitled to the rewards if it DOES work out. Of course you don't start with all that but with the type of device we are talking about, the control and quality process is expensive no matter how efficient you are on day 1 and even if you can do it cheaply it requires a tremendous amount of discipline (translate not a 9-5 job in terms of hours). Remember also that by using his own money (a substantial amount) he was risking potentially his career and life savings. I'm not sure how much personal capital he had beyond the investment but when you have that much money, what is the motivation for that person to want to part with it? This is especially true when you get into the sums where it starts equalizing 10-15 years of a "normal" salary. Obviously there's passion that drives someone to want to invest and do this but that only goes so far and for so long. You would be amazed at the Gross Margins of most consumer products especially retail items like clothing. They have to be massive. All that said -- What I've found in my business career is that this "discrepancy" which has been pointed out here between unit cost and sometimes even overall cost and revenue is what allows for new companies to come into existence and compete with the big dogs. Have an amazing T Shirt idea and can produce the shirt at roughly the same cost as any major brand and are willing and able to sell the shirt for $10 vs $25 for the big dogs? Yes of course it'll work. Then at some point where that company becomes so large and has other obligations beyond just 100% customer focused, say insurance, people's payrolls, or even complex debt covenants with banks and investors and that same company will quickly find it now needs $15 or even $20 to survive where before $10 was content. Before they know it they are the big dogs. And with that said I go through business plan after business plan where those basic concepts aren't understood or considered. The math on unit and hard costs is all correct but then the rosy "sales" projections or inability to see that there are setbacks with most new ideas (what happens if the development took 2 years vs 1, what's if the TSO is rejected the first time, etc?) most plans typically fall apart. To be honest I'm amazed at how many vendors there are in a fairly small community such as skydiving and more so I'm amazed at generally regardless of product or manufacturer how well most things are put together (besides jumpsuits, I really have a bone to pick with jumpsuits why can't anyone use e-thread!!! Bar tack the sucker if you have to. And how come it seems like out of the 20 jumpsuit orders I've seen go through in the last 3 years regardless of measure and re-measurement on the first try it doesn't fit! grrr ) -Patrick

Yep - more than you think... vs an east coast dropzone I've worn through linesets in SoCal about 1.5-2x as fast. With HMA and Vectran it's been especially noticeable to me and I've jumped both for a number of years now. The dust/dirt we have out here is like sandpaper. I'm getting to the point where I'm putting down the canopy in a clump of grass that looks clean but obviously if you are swooping and playing in the pond that's not nearly as feasible. -Patrick

There's no need to do a full repack to inspect the cutter. Opening the reserve (pin) and pulling the reserve out of the freebag are two different things. Talk to your rigger that did the repack and ask if he can do the inspection for you. It doesn't mean when he closes it that you get an extra 180 days, your repack is still the repack. To my knowledge the practice of opening the reserve but not repacking isn't uncommon for things like replacing the battery or reseating a poptop which isn't neat. So back to my original point -- talk to your rigger. -Patrick

4 Pieces of Advice: 1) Keep jumping -- experience will come, ground education is important but at the end of the day, go jump, you'll get better you won't be able to help it. You'll develop a FEELING and that's not something anyone can coach. 2) Learn the couple of basic safety necessities and stop trying to understand finer points, that will come by itself. Off the top of my head: track / clear airspace, pull, deal with opening/issues, watch out for others and plan your traffic, land and flare in any condition (cross, down, into wind) 3) As far as sashaying, being in brakes, etc, that's the first advance after understanding 1 and 2. Flying a basic square pattern is important as it is predictable and gives you and others outs. The best airplane pilots I've seen do this very same thing, doesn't matter that you are in a plane or a canopy or a glider or whatever. The best initial piece of advice that was given to me by the late Wyatt Drewes was to think of a landing pattern as a biq square vs the traditional rectangle. This means instead of a long downwind, skinny base, and medium final you have a long downwind, medium base, and medium final. In that setup you can then shorten or lengthen your base by taking a slightly longer angle on the turn to the base based on what you feel and see. By doing that you avoid low turns, reacting vs proactive flying, and you become predictable for everyone else. Has worked for me, bless his soul and it freed me from the "be at this place at 1500', this place at 1000', this place at 500' and anything other than that you'll be off" which is how you have to start as a student. 4) Find an accomplished local jumper that knows you that you can ask more detailed questions to. The fact is none of us know you and although academically these forums are fine your circumstances are unique and generally best addressed by someone that knows and sees you day in day out at the DZ. But back to #1 -- Keep jumping :) Good luck! -Patrick

The best way I found to gauge my skills is to jump with someone very experienced that is a known good tracker. Talk to them about what they do and have them track with you as a tracking group at breakoff. if you do a 2 way even better than you can just go track. If part of a larger group, break a bit higher (i.e let everyone know you are doing this) and track with that person. On the ground that person should be able to give you good feedback. The key to all this is find someone very experienced noting that experienced and talented and instructor are all different categories. FYI -- there is such a thing as tracking too fast, too far. Find someone that does big ways to explain this to you. I've also seen people track back into other groups. That said most people don't have that problem. Regardless forward, side to side, and backwards awareness is a must and a glance up during your wave off is a good habit to get into although some find it physically troubling to be able to do that and keep track of everything else. If you talk to freeflyers you'll get info about barrel rolls etc. while that technique is fine it's a more advanced technique and generally more suited to when you freefly. Tracking on your back sounds like a great idea until the one time you lose altitude awareness and end up with a cypress fire or worse (its happened). There did that get you more confused? :) -Patrick

Sped up my Katana and Safire by simply not shoving the nose so far into the middle of the canopy and not "rolling" the tail aggressively, i.e. 2-3 turns. To slow down, roll more aggressively. -Patrick

Bought a viso2 to have a dedicated digital visual altimeter now that I'm starting to fly more aggressive landings. The device works flawless and I like the fact that you can see the time/date and jump numbers for any given day very quickly. The device is loaded with features but unlike my optima which seems easier to use, accessing the features is a little harder. I still wish the device came in an aluminum frame with a dedicated hard quartz face but aside from that I can't think of too many additional features that would be nice on the device.

forgot to add -- how canopies are measured is different from mfg to mfg and aerodyne and pd for one measure differently meaning the pilot 150 will probably feel bigger vs a sabre2 150... not sure on the measuring of the zp.exe. If the canopy feels a twitch faster that's probably it though. -Patrick

The most noticeable thing will probably be that assuming you haven't just relined your old canopy, a new sabre2 properly trimmed will glide better. -Patrick

Same here, no issues but it is a little tight but ok even with aad. -Patrick

This all sounds strange.. the few people I know that have dealt with EG have had great success. He travels around in his van, sewing machine, and jumpsuits so I could see why you may not got instant responses via email. Have you tried calling? -Patrick

I was disappointed in my unit because in the ads it looks like it has a backlight. Aside from this it also had a durability issue. The plastic lens piece popped out on more than one occasion. I had no issues with it when used as an audible but I also did get a few of the strange things mentioned by others here. One ride as climbing out I noticed it said something like ERR. Overall I wasn't impressed but others may have a different opinion. -Patrick

That's assuming you don't have a pocket on your jumpsuit or an instrument glove. If you are used to wearing gloves the instrument glove works very well. -Patrick