bofh

Because for me it doesn't need to be calibrated before every jump and it logs the jumps. I also like the fact that it can't be recalibrated when bumping into someone. By flipping it over, one will also see the altitude down to 10m interval which is pretty handy when landing (but that stopped working when I started to jump a small enough canopy and the wind speed pulled it straight out). Its also quite nice to see the min, max and average FF speeds as well as FF-time and deployment altitude with a simple turning of the altimeter, compared to taking the dytter out of the helmet. When I used to jump with two helmets, I often forgot to move one of the dytters between the helmets, but the altimeter was always with me, so no missed jumps in its log. The only drawback is that one has to change batteries now and then.

Did you set it to STUdent mode? I have a little older version of the software in mine, but the only time it has failed to record the freefall (with correct settings) is when the pilot decided to do some zero-g flying. As for balloon jumps, all of my balloon flights have been quite fast up to 100m and the Altitrack has started just fine.

Have you jumped the PD-R and opened it up with the same speed? It opens quite fast too. The Optimum opens a bit slower at higher speed. Icarus don't recommend much of a loading on these reserves, max 1.3 I believe.

I've only jumped mine twice (a 149, loaded at around 1.2). It opened good (sub-terminal), had a really short recovery arc, I couldn't turn it much by leaning in the harness and I could not stall it by normal toggle input. The first landing was a bit exciting, I landed 400 meters before a forrest, it was pretty windy and quite a bit of turbulence. The canopy kept its shape nicely even if we were being thrown around. The second landing was on a no wind day and I landed right next to the freebag and I knew were to pick up the main. But both flights were mostly some quick control checks followed by hanging in deep breaks waiting for the freebag and canopy to land... As far as construction goes, I've not inspected it in detail. There were lines and they were attached to some fabric with some reinforcement and there were some slider on it as well...

Skyshop makes some http://www.skyshop.se/swoopbyxor-descr.html that were a bit cheaper than most others I've seen. They've got cordura on the knees, behind and there's some tailbone protection in them as well. One can order them full length with either velcro or some elastics to keep them down or one can get them in capri style. One can also choose slim, normal or loose fit. Mine are the full length, slim version with velcro and they are quite warm, which I don't mind here in sweden in the autumn nor early spring.

One more thing; ask for a longer chest-strap if you ever intend to loosen it up during canopy flight. Its really short otherwise.

I've used Adidas Elevation Climacool for a couple of years: http://sportrx.com/order.asp?product_id=AD18 You can change the lenses and there are quite a few different lenses for it. I mostly use clear lenses for jumping and tinted lenses when using them as sunglasses. I lost the foam part once when hurrying from one balloon jump to the next and had the goggles hanging around the neck, so I bought a new one. The foam part has now started to come loose at the nose though. Quite nice, but you have to pay extra for having to advertise the brand....

Has there been any experiments with different H/C for canopy flight? Or is the market just too small for specialized CP H/C that no company wants to spend R&D money on it?

I've made a little program for OS X that produced this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRvy66PRoiY My program takes a GPX file and produces a quicktime video of the altimeter. I then used iMovie to blend it into the movie. iMovie sucks at this, some transitions stop working etc. This video only produced one frame per second for the altimeter. It would be rather easy to make more frames per second to have a smoother dial. Since I can't use Photoshop/GIMP the image of the altimeter wasn't so good looking either... I was also going to make a Grand Theft Auto style map, but the license requirements for the map data prevents that in many cases... Google and Microsoft requires that their logo is shown in the image, Open Street Map requires that the movie is shared with a CC-Share-Alike license. So I kind of lost interest in it, but perhaps after OSM changes their licensing I'll finish that.

Feeding the troll here, but what do you think is better with the infinity?

I've had two cutaways this year. The first cutaway was because of a tension knot. I had pulled high (2500m) and the main flew pretty well so I flew to the DZ and cut away at 1500m, tested the new canopy (an Icarus Reserve [email protected]), then hung in breaks and followed the main and freebag. I had to abort that at around 200 meters and flew to a suitable landing area instead. The second time was also at high altitude after an accelerating, diving linetwist. This time I hung in breaks and waited for the canopy and freebag to land before I landed next to the freebag. If it had been a high speed malfunction, I would probably have landed first and then stood at the ground looking for the freebag and canopy. Like others have said, it all depends on the environment, how high one is and how comfortable one feels with the reserve. With a much smaller reserve I would have chosen to land at the DZ, after seeing two different incidents where people stall their overloaded reserves.

I'm ordained and wants the number square root of 2 (√2).

The new rules about canopy size came in 2001 or 2002. There were plenty of HP canopies before that. The HP- and swooping-rules came out in 2007 and the study material came out a year later (so it was not implemented at all DZs). Not to say that there were no local rules against it before, but often at a lower jump number and without any required course. There have been plenty of landing injuries after those rules too. I don't think one can compare USA to Sweden without considering a lot of other factors as well. We only do 80.000-100.000 jumps per year. We have fewer, larger airplanes, thus fewer jumpers in the air. The four biggest DZs have one Twin-Otter, one Beaver, one Caravan and one PAC750XSTOL. The biggest DZs have rather large landing areas compared to many busy DZs in the USA. All the raining keeps the ground soft, which has prevented a few swooping injuries that I've witnessed.

I know two different people who have had totals due to being unable to get the PC out of the Wings cordura BOC. I've seen that happen with spandex BOCs too on other brands. A bad packjob is a bad packjob. The first time I replaced the spandex on my Javelin was not because it was worn out, but because it had been torn open from getting stuck on something in the plane.

Its great to have a knife in the mudflap and I had previously had a rigger add it to my javelin for $5... So no, I don't think the mudflap knife pocket is worth $35 when one can buy a quality knife and have a local rigger put it there for the same amount (or less).

No, it is only the orange knife that is banned and that's what I got with my Wings. Speaking of Wings, does anyone have a picture of their "Swoop Riser Option" ? I send them a mail about it but never got an answer.

Don't spend any money on the knife. I think I spent more than $20 on it and got a crappy, plastic knife that became illegal in Sweden a little while later. I replaced it on arrival with a knife that doesn't break upon use... I got the cordura pouch and freefly pod and I really like them. The freefly pod could have had a stiffener in it to make it faster to pack, but once in place it stays there until pull time. I also got a yellow and black rig, which looked great until I aborted my hook-turn and landed in muddy water...

I only leave 1 to 2 feet, I'll increase that. I also don't roll the tail much, only to keep it together when putting the canopy down. Thanks!

I've got a Wings container with the birdman options (the corners are open and longer bridle). I've made a couple of hundred jumps on my Wings with crossfires and sometimes I've noticed some line twists as the bag is moving up, only to have them unwind while the canopy was streaming. This year I switched to a FX-94 and almost every hop & pop resulted in line twists, so I stopped doing them... I've also had a few line twists when deploying at higher speeds. When deploying in a track, I've had good openings. I guess it can be me having a bad body position or not packing as neatly as the canopy wants to be packed, but could it simply be that the bag gets caught by one side flap and it is moving down (towards the feet) on the other side, thus getting a spin when deploying in stable belly to earth position?

I would not order the knife to the Wings container. It was one of those crappy plastic knifes sold at a higher price. I installed a real knife before I made a single jump with it. I would also have less yellow on the container. I might also have bought the cut-in-laterals. The reserve would today be a PD Optima 143 instead of the Icarus Reserve 149. Nothing wrong with the current reserve except for its size (only landed it once though).

Do you really have to pay custom charges when sending stuff across the boarder for maintenance? That has got to be the first bad thing I've heard about Canada.

I don't know anything about this device more than a quick reading of their site, but... the device has both accelerometers and gyroscopes in it, so it may provide better acceleration information than a plain GPS receiver. With 10Hz logging it is better than most GPS receivers too. Not in 3D.

I have two different ones.

I got most of my canopies from a dealer and its the dealer that buys them from one of the companies. Which one doesn't really matter to me since the canopies still fly the same. On the other hand, I think they should improve their communication with their customers. I ordered my first new canopy, got quoted a 12 week delivery and 4 weeks later it arrived in the mail together with a 10 day invoice... Not a problem for me, but I can imagine other people having some problems raising the funds for the new canopy in the beginning of January. On the other hand, I guess the dealer could have prolonged the invoice period if needed. The next canopies were delivered two weeks later than the quoted delivery date, making it a bit harder to get it smuggled to Sweden since my friends had already left the USA. My forth Icarus canopy was bought unused from a friend that grew tired of waiting for it, the delivery date was prolonged to six months.

I've applied pressure to mine (one from a bonehead pimp daddy) and can't notice much of an increase in the pressure required to open it, but I've not tested it while on the head. Is it because it digs into the chin?