rogue108

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I'd ditch him. he sounds like loser, but old habits are hard to break. Its hard to let go especially when you want to feel wanted, but sometimes it has to get harder before it get easier. Chances he is going to continue walking all over you. "I can see you but you can't see me. I'll never let you get away with skipping by me. And with all you built, it will crumble fast. While your still breaking hearts, I'm plotting a place to hide your bones."

about 3,500K or so. It when the ground references really begin to pick up

about $2.21 worth of carbon and some other trace minerals

I too can vouch for the existance of an airlocked crossbrace prototype. I saw it being tested at Z-Hills when I was in Florida. It is going to be one of Brian Germain's Big Air Sportz canopies

All it that means is its time to change positions. Just keep on changing positions until everyone is done and the bed looks like a glazed donut.

Even though I didn't know him personally, its sad to lose such a familar face at the dropzone. Hope he is doing well... Andrew

I've seen it done in videos a couple of times

I never said anything about Z-hills being bad. I just said it was in the middle of nowhere, at least what I consider in the middle of nowhere. I have never been to Eloy or Coolidge and they could even be more remote. I just said it was in the town and DZ aren't close to anything, its no reflection about the dropzone. Damn....people can be so annoying

First off Z-hills is in the middle of nowhere. Its about 2 or 3 miles into town and its a real tiny town of retired people so there isn't really much to do other than skydive. I don't think there is even a hotel nearby. Your best bet is probably tent camping if you want to stay near the action. The closest city is Tampa which is about a 30 min drive to Z-hills. The DZ is pretty self-contained. They have snack bar and bar on site. There are lots of good belly flying organizers for all skill levels. There weren't too many freefliers there and the ones that were there were doing pretty advanced stuff like ball jumps. There is definitely more flat flying than freeflying going on. They have three Super Otters during the winter season and jumps are $17 to 13,500. I would just call them to get more info about the Mardi Gras boogie. HTH Also don't land out in the swamp...gators, big bugs, and mud

Wahhh....Wahhh....Cry me a friggin river. Its true the rules aren't perfect, but they are the rules. The rules are there to protect you and the DZ. It sucks you couldn't jump, but it happens. Deal

I don't understand all these low experience jumpers trying to rush into surf machines. There is terrifiying trend of rapid downsizing. Speed doesn't make you better swooper, but it can get you hurt. As I have been told by several pro swoopers. Its more about technique and having your canopy dialed in. Once you have wringed every last bit of performance out of it then you should proceed. My $0.02

200 some odd jumps... and you are already jumping a highly loaded eliptical canopy. Now with only 60 jumps on your high performance eliptical you want to got to a tri-brace Velocity. Its that progression a little fast? A velocity is like a high experience level canopy. There isn't much room for error. This doesn't sound like the best idea, but hell its your life your body. Speed Kills...Be Safe

Its too bad that you broke your tibia. You were doing so well when I saw you at Z-Hills two weeks ago. I hope you feel better soon. Its good to see you are in good spirits. BTW...The Germain's are such great people

I should be at Freezefest. How many people is the record?

I would find a new rigger. If a rigger is that closed minded how would he keep up with all the new information and gear. Its probably time for a change.

I have been told its about being able to stay with your subject like glue. So I would worry more about being able to stay relative with an other individual before worrying about the actual spaceball. I have seen individuals train buy using a freefly instructor as the ball. The student would have to stay close to the instructor like a spaceball. They would also have to transition around the instructor and dock on him/her like a spaceball. When you get that good travel to a DZ that allows spaceballs and has ballmasters. HTH.

I haven't flown either canopy, so I can't give an accurate comparsion, but a I have heard several individuals complain about the Safires lack of flare power. They also say the Safire opens nice and soft. I haven't heard too much about the Sabre2 yet to say anything about it. The only thing I have heard is that its similar to a classic Sabre with lighter toggle and riser pressure and better openings. About the Cobalt. I found my Cobalt 170 demo to be pretty docile when I loaded it at 1.2. It seemed to have excellent glide and a nice strong flare. A friend of mine who flies a Safire 189 tried my Cobalt 170 demo and found them very similar in turns and toggle and riser pressure. Probably due to Safire being smaller than listed the sizing. The only difference he found was that the Cobalt was a whole lot stronger in the flare.

Rob, that was an excellent response. I now know why eliptical canopies are more efficient and have different turn rates as compare to square canopies. Now my question...What are the effects of just tapering the leading edge, trailing edge or both edges? How do manufactures decide on how much tapering to use? How does it affect flight, turning, openings?

I packed my Javalin for a while with the lines facing the backpad and the bridle facing up. I did this because the canopy I was packing fit so tightly I could barely rotate the bag without making a mess of the lines. Now I rotate bag with the lines facing the bottom. It just gives me a cleaner pack job with my smaller canopy. I didn't have any problems with deployment using either method. However, I would stick with manufacturers recommendations just to be safe.

MonkeyClaw is a good choice. Professional, Safe, Experienced. I did coached jumps with them. They also have Heath Richardson of the ex-Psycho Cirkus as a coach. He is am amazing freeflier and canopy pilot.

Its possible to swoop any canopy. Swooping is more technique than canopy. Canopy and wing loading help, but I believe you should know how to fly a "larger" canopy before moving to a heavier wing loading. I have been able to get more distance out of my regular Sabre loaded at 1.2 just by getting advice from my local swooper Heath Richardson.

There is doubt that what we do is high-risk and there is no guarantee that any gear will save my life or not malfunction. However, I would like to believe that there is some basic standard of safety we can ascribe to. Is it unrealistic to believe that a canopy has been test jumped and put through its paces before it is released. Maybe I am being unrealistic. Your right most people have one rig and some people depend on their gear for a living. I would personally rather have my canopy grounded and jump or work another day, than take that risk. People can do whatever they want. I just don't believe that Icarus is being forth right about the issue and I would like to see people I know jumping Crossfires be alive. This is just my opinion and it doesn't seem to be popular to express your opinions around here. Later...

WTF is Icarus thinking. "As main canopies are not subject to TSO requirements, the user ultimately assumes responsibility" That statement instills a lot of confidence. So what they are saying is they can release whatever piece of crap they want and if it doesn't work its my fault because I bought it. I would like to believe that there is an assumption that a product is safe before someone sells it to me. I would also like to think that Icarus is ethical enough not place the blame on the end user if there is something wrong with their canopies. All their bulletins just seem to shift the burden of responsibility around, but has yet to state what is exactly wrong and what they are going to do "affected" canopies. This doesn't put seem to put much confidence in my book.

Space Balls aren't really made by any particular company. They are usually made by the jumpers to match their fall rate and their type of flying. The space balls are usually weighted tennis balls with fabric tails. Unless your skills are good you can kill or hurt some or something with one. Remember this ball is traveling as fast as you are and if you can't catch it, the results could be diasterous. Technically ball jumps are only "legal" by people who have Atmospheric Dolphin (AD) licenses. Even then not many dropzones will allow it, because it can be so dangerous. Like Phreezone said if you can't do it without thinking about you need to get instuction to jump with a space ball.