bofh

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Posts posted by bofh

  1. theonlyski


    Well, they may have to pay royalties on the magnetic riser covers, so instead of making a big deal of it, they're just letting people who pay attention know they can get them.



    That surely is included in the price for the option.
    It seems they don't advertise many of their options on their home page. Perhaps they don't think it is worth it?

  2. hjumper33

    If you really look at the fatality list for it relative to the time its been around and the number of people doing it, its one of the most dangerous things out there. I dont care what wing you fly, or the conditions you fly in, if you are close to the ground for long enough, eventually youre going to hit it, and probably pretty hard.



    I think a lot of it has to do with people not knowing enough about moving air. There are people coming from a skiing background knowing almost nothing and there are people coming from a skydiving background knowing not much more. Its too bad the fatality list doesn't cover the victims' experience.

    There is also the same problem we see in wingsuit base and swooping, the desire to do all the cool things the experienced people do, but without the skills. Flying really small wings, doing maneuvers near the ground, swooping, flying without outs and so on.

  3. westcoastSD

    Quote


    Base jumping came from parachuting.... Speed flying cme from parachuting...



    You don't think products made for each discipline has evolved since then and have become better at their respective application?

    Quote


    Put a speed wing like a nano or similar next to a para glider and then next to a stiletto... then tell me what is more similar?



    There's more to it than the size and looking similar. Last time I checked the parachutes were optimized for being able to open in freefall, having inlets optimized for that and a construction that survives the forces involved.

    A speed wing is optimized for being easy to launch which is important when the wind is high at a start where being dragged is dangerous. A speed wing is also optimized to recover quicker if it collapses in turbulence as well.

  5. erdnarob


    After the first stow, placing the d-bag near the container avoid you to drag it when using no packing mat
    Personnaly I prefer to place the container on a packing mat and drag the whole thing.



    Why drag it when you can put the bag between your knees and walk towards the container?

  6. Quagmirian


    Recently, I have been doing a lot of 'thinking'. While I am very happy with the performance of the brown thing, I think I can do better, particularly in the flare department. I have redesigned my ribs with smaller nose inlets and smoother profiles, in an effort for better glide and flare power.



    Have you seen Ozone's patent for SharkNose? It would be interesting to see how that concept would work on a parachute:
    http://downloads.flyozone.com/pdf/PG/ozone_shark_nose_en.pdf

  7. BMFin

    I have never flown speedriding canopies, but from the videos I have seen I recall the rear risers have been constructed so that they are made much easier to operate. Perhaps someone could tell us more about those?



    I've never found the rear risers to be hard to operate on my skydiving canopies and I've not noticed them being made easier to operate on my speed wing (a Skate). Perhaps you're thinking about trim systems that most speed wings have? That is not something you change in the middle of the landing. I don't think many people use the rears for input on speed wings at all, unless doing some acro move.

  8. I noticed my legstraps had got a bit fuzzy at the rings after about 100 jumps. I took a look and noticed there were some hot-knife cut material that had got a tiny, sharp edge on it. We removed that and they stopped becoming more fuzzy.

  9. SkymonkeyONE

    I ALWAYS pull my slider down over my brakes before I remove it. I have NEVER in TEN YEARS had my rings "fly up" my risers or cover my dive loops. I find it odd that people talk about that happening.



    Different types of rings perhaps? My rings are normal slider rings, with two tiny loops attached to them. Really light weight compared to some of the specialized rings for other RDS sliders.

  10. sooperswooper


    And if there is a difference is it noticeable?



    My old crossfire2 129 packed about as large as my Safire2 119.
    My Scirocco-77 (9-cell crossbraced, with 4 mini-cells in the three middle cells) packed about as large as a Crossfire2 109.

    So of these canopies a crossfire2-120 would pack the smallest.

    I demod a Storm 135 once. I don't remember how it filled my container, but my container doesn't fit anything packing larger than the crossfire2-129, so it packs smaller than the crossfire at least.

  11. I put the slink hats on to keep the rings up. Without, if I didn't pull them down they would sometimes fall down on their own, blocking the front handles. If I did pull them down, they would sometimes fly up. I also didn't want to have to pull them down over the brakes. For me they don't interfer with the brake lines when sitting at top.

  12. Quote


    After demoing the Scirocco last fall, I started to question my self on this issue. Made one jump with no pulling on the risers and had some horrible linetwists. Someone with more experience on the canopy told me that the Scirocco requires you to pull on the risers on the opening. Even the manual says this.



    The openings are quite long if I don't pull on the rears, but it does open after a while. I spoke to the manufacturer about it and they said it was because of my longer risers (25") and they do recommend a specific size for each canopy size.

    I always control the openings with the rears on my Scirocco. I've had one major line twist with it when I missed one of the risers and still started to pull for some stupid reason, but I managed to kick it out. The turn was so fast that I managed to hit myself in the head. I've also had a few minor linetwists when the bag or risers has snagged something (uneven opening of the riser covers perhaps?), but I can't blame the canopy for that. When I'm current the canopy opens straight for me, when I'm not it turns around 90 degrees during opening. I don't find it worse than my old X-modded VX or the few velo jumps I've made. But I guess it depends on the WL and size.

  13. Quote

    Obviously canopy type, pilot skill, altitude density, type of turn, and a host of variables all come into play, ...



    Quote


    The more experience I get the more I think an AAD isn't a good idea. My short time in the sport I have already seen one manufacture go under. They have killed people. They have saved people too, but no one can answer my question apparently and that doesn't exactly give me much confidence.



    I think you have already answered your own question with regards to why people don't want to answer you, there are just too many variables. Even if one can say that under 1.0WL, you can't activate a brand X AAD and over 4.0 its hard not to activate a brand Y AAD, what good does that information do for you if you were between those wingloadings or jumping a brand Z AAD?

    If you want to know how close you are to the risk zone, make a couple of good jumps with a GPS logger and look at the peek speeds and where they are and compare it to the AADs manual. If you are still in doubt, send the graphs to the manufacturer and ask them. I'm sure there is someone at your DZ that has a flysight and can help you turn the data into a graph via one of the many programs used for that, someone with a wingsuit is a good bet.

    The statistics says that an AAD lowers the risks more than it increases it so I don't see why you think it is a bad idea?

    Quote


    I realize a guy on a 136 at 1.5 is probably far from firing the damn thing but no one can say who is close to firing one either and I don't want to find out the hard way.



    Have you tried asking the AAD manufacturer and what did they say?

  17. Quote

    I would like to slow my openings on my jvx 86 all zp material...at terminal it opens like a freight train...sub terminal are not so bad but really positive...the openings have been on heading...any input?...thanks



    You have checked that it has the right size slider?
    It has happened before that canopies are delivered with the wrong size slider (or it being turned 90 degrees).

  18. Quote

    Quote

    They take responsibility away from the buyer.



    Not at all.

    There's a difference between stacking the odds against an incident vs pretending like an incident won't happen because of the criteria.

    The bottom line is that not everyone is going to be happy but EVERYONE has an avenue to get one. Whether they do or not is up to them.

    Ian



    Yes, I expressed myself a bit poorly there. What I meant is that PD does assume some responsibility in choosing who will have the opportunity to buy the canopy. The buyer can of course decline to buy it if approached.

  19. Quote


    I don't like the Formula 1 or NASCAR analogy as there are no amateur teams in either of those sports.



    Its also a rather bad analogy from a technical point of view as those cars are designed according to specific race rules that not only prevent the ultimate performance, but also make the cars harder to drive. Street legal cars with more power are available for anyone with enough cash and they can be driven by your average millionaire.


    But it is an interesting move by PD. They take responsibility away from the buyer. So what happens when someone still dies under a peregrine? Is there a happy lawyer that claim they encouraged the jumper to get a too fast canopy by approaching him with the offer? Or that they were negligent when they didn't use the same power to prevent someone from buying a velo?

  20. Quote


    Let's say the new canopy is 10% better then the Comp Velo. That might not seem like alot, but when you're out at the far end of the performance spectrum, the gains are harder to come by, so 10% would be a good step up.

    So you have a canopy that's 10% better, so unless you can get 90% or better out of the new canopy, you might as well just fly a Comp Velo, and keep working toward that 100%. Unless you're already maxed on the Comp Velo, a faster canopy is just a waste of fabric.



    So lets say you could fly 100m on your comp velo in some weather, but you only go 90m. With the peregrine you could go 110m, but since you are not so skilled you only fly it at 90% and get 99m. So without improving your skills at all you get 9 meters longer. Is that really such a waste of fabric? Can't you keep improving your skills on the peregrine or do you stop improving once you change canopy? If you just improve 1% you would get further when you ever could with the comp velo in this imaginary scenario. Would that be a waste of fabric?

    If we follow your reasoning to the absurd, why should anyone fly a comp velo or even a velo? I doubt very few people has flown any canopy at 100%, least of all many times in a row, so perhaps we should all stay on a navigator or perhaps the good old manta? No?

  21. Quote

    I like my risers with "regular" mini rings, but with PdF style toggles, long enough so I don't have my arrms bent when grabbing the top of the riser



    I don't like PdF's risers, but their toggle mounting is the best!

    I got myself a pair of vector 25" risers with Louie Loops and had chuting star do the "russian mod" on them - installing PdF style toggles (from Paraavis) and I'm really happy with them.

    See http://www.chutingstar.com/info/paraavis-pin-toggles for more info (check under the expert advice).