raymod2

The 2011 USPA Skydiver's Competition Manual indicates that you must have at least 500 high performance landings to compete in Advanced and 1000 high performance landings to compete in Open.

I've got no problem flying competition rounds in a Cessna 182. We did that at the Last Big Splash and I thought it ran very smoothly. But I have trouble believing the choice of aircraft is a major contributor to rising costs. It would be nice to know what are the requirements for submitting a bid. Also, does anyone have a copy of the Z-Hills bid that was accepted for 2013? What will be the cost of registration? There are some active swoopers that I haven't seen at Nationals lately and I also suspect that rising costs are one reason they have quit going.

Has anyone else noticed that the cost of attending the USPA Nationals of Canopy Piloting keeps going up every year? Here is what I have paid over the last 6 years: 2007 (Skydive Chicago): $237 ($120 registration, $13 jumps) (25 open competitors) 2008 (Mile Hi Skydiving): $324 ($180 registration, $16 jumps) (41 open competitors) 2009 (Skydive Spaceland): $287 ($170 registration, $13 jumps) (50 open competitors) 2010 (Skydive Spaceland): $416 ($200 registration, $24 jumps) (36 open competitors) 2011 (Skydive Spaceland): $416 ($200 registration, $24 jumps) (33 open competitors) 2012 (Skydive The Farm): $460 ($280 registration, $20 jumps) (41 open competitors) I understand there is a bid process but I also understand that the host DZ always loses money. So it makes me wonder: where is all the money going?

..fixing the dates for the USPA Nationals FLCPA Meet #1 / Zephyrhills, FL / Jan 21–22 Australian Canopy Piloting Nationals/Sydney Skydivers/Feb 8-12 ISM Meet #1 / Perris Valley, CA / Feb 18 FLCPA Meet #2 / Zephyrhills, FL / Mar 3–4 NCCPA Meet #2 / Skydive Sacramento / Mar 17–18 Canopy Piloting Training Series Event Three @ Raeford Parachute Center, Nort Carolina March 23-25 FLCPA Meet #3 / Skydive The Farm- Rockmart, GA / Apr 14-15 ISM Meet #3 (NorCal) /Skydive Sacramento / Apr 21-22 FLCPA Meet #4 / Raeford Parachute Center, NC / May 5-6 Danish open nationals (Denmark) cp-danmark.dk May 17-20 BlackMountain CPC (Belgium) / Zwartberg, Belgium / May 17-20 NCCPA Meet #4 (NorCal) / Skydive Sacramento / May 19-20 Kiev open Cup / DZ Borodyanka Ukraine / May 24-27 OPEN DUTCH NATIONALS / Blauwestad Netherlands / May 31 - June 3rd FLCPA Meet #5 / Skydive The Farm, GA / June 9-10 USPA 2012 CP National Championships / Skydive The Farm, GA / June 13-16 Ukraine Nationals / DZ Borodyanka Kiev Ukraine / 28 June - 01 July British & German Nationals / RAPA Germany / 28 June - 01 July Norwegian Nationals / Voss, Norway / June 25 - July 01 Italian Swoop Open / Bologna, Italy / Aug 15-19 (free bus/shuttle A/R from Bologna AIRPORT to DZ, 25minuts) Paraskuf 3rd CUP / DZ Borodyanka Kiev Ukraine / Aug 22-26 Pink Open / Klatovy, Czech Republik / Aug 24-26(moved bec. of X games trial) French Open / Castelnau Swoop contest (France) / Sept.28-30 World Championships 2012 / Dubai UAE / Nov.28-Dec.9

I've had rounds where I rolled out too deep and started climbing before I got to the entry gate which resulted in a vertical. So, yes, it will make it more challenging to have multiple gates in distance. However, I don't think that will be very effective in limiting overall distance.

+1 +2. Also, a little common sense regarding the distance course length requirements. Nobody is going to go 700 feet at sea level. They can tweak the rules to account for different altitudes.

For the math to work you need to keep the duration of flight the same even if that means flying backwards for part of the swoop. However, this is a moot point. I think you will find it very hard to fly backwards under a competition wing within competition wind limits. Even if you pull off that trick I doubt you will go back more than a few feet so the difference will be negligible.

Here are some numbers to give you an idea of how much a tailwind helps (and how much a headwind hurts): Nick's record-breaking run lasted about 8.5 seconds from entry gate to touchdown (estimated from the video). The wind speed (according to Morris) was 6.7 m/s (22.0 ft/s). Multiplying 8.5 and 22.0 gives 187 feet which is the extra distance that the wind contributed. The same run under different wind conditions is shown below: 6.7 m/s tailwind (actual run) = 730 ft 0 m/s wind (hypothetical) = 543 ft 6.7 m/s headwind (hypothetical) = 356 ft These numbers assume that (1) the wind speed stayed constant during the swoop and (2) the wind direction was a true downwind with no crosswind component.

Congrats to Nick Batsch and Jonathan Tagle. Jonathan beat the world distance record with a run of 195.65 meters (642 ft). Nick beat the world distance record FOUR times during this meet with runs of 222.45m (730 ft), 184.35m (605 ft), 204.70m (672 ft), and 220.34m (723 ft).

Do you think switching from an HDR-HC3 to an HDR-CX130 would result in a loss or gain in video quality? The HC3 has an older 1/3" CCD and the CX130 has a newer 1/4" CCD.

Yeah, the OIS topic has already been covered so I didn't bring it up. For ground based video it is probably an improvement. I guess USB is probably slower than FireWire but can't you just pull the SD card for faster copies to your PC? Also is there anything preventing you from using an SD card writer to copy video to another camera? Overall, I don't see much progress in the last five years unless video quality has improved. It sounds like 2 steps forward and 2 steps back. Is that the general consensus?

I bought an HDR-HC3 about five years ago. So what has changed since then? It looks like the comparable model is the HDR-CX700. Viewfinder, remote, 1/3" CCD, 10x optical zoom, $1300 retail. The only noticeable differences I can see are removal of the tape transport in favor of SD card storage (should be cheaper to manufacture) and support for 1080p in addition to 1080i (easy to do with the faster processors available today). Am I missing anything? It's also interesting to note that the lower tier (HDR-CX130) has 30x optical zoom while the upper tier (HDR-CX700) still only has 10x optical zoom.

The new pond in Dubai used a blue liner and it looked really nice. Like a giant swimming pool. It was the nicest pond I've ever swooped. Seeing the markers from above was not a problem.

For what it's worth I have about 1000 jumps on my JVX 90 and I have never had a malfunction on it. I don't watch my openings and I have no video of them.

I suggest giving the FlySight a try. I've seen very good accuracy here in Longmont, CO and the altitude is never off by more than 10 feet or so.

Was that you Bedrin? It was a nice looking run and it looks like you got the best time on that round (2.909 seconds).

Jim Slaton has the freestyle scores posted on his site: http://www.canopypiloting.com/latest-news/2011-dubai-cp-event-40-000

The team selection was done by Larry Hill at Skydive Arizona. He used the rankings from the 2010 USPA Nationals. I don't know what is the difference between "USA CP" and "USA CP TEAM" but it looks like the latter contains the top 4 pilots. It looks like a mistake that my name is there and it is probably because I was selected to replace Tom Dellibac. Based on the Nationals results it should be Kevin Love.

Vimes, when comparing different types of canopies you need to be careful about sizes. A 79 JVX is not comparable to a 79 Velo. The JVX "flies bigger" so it is more like a Velo 84 or a Velo 90. I suspect the JFX sizes align better with the Velo sizes since they are both 7-cell designs.

(+ = pattern entry, * = initiation point) J pattern: ---------------+ | | *----- Z pattern: +--------------- | | *-----

For swoops landing into the wind fly a "J" pattern. For swoops landing downwind fly a "Z" pattern. In both cases you enter your pattern *upwind* of your initiation point. If you try to fly a "J" pattern (student pattern) for a downwind swoop you are going to have a very hard time judging it and you will often find yourself arriving at your initiation point too low because you are fighting the wind. You also need to move the initiation point based on the wind speed and direction because you will drift during your turn. The drift will be more severe in stronger winds and with a higher turn.

22 years? I thought snowboarding was a passing fad, like skateboarding. There's not much difference between snowboarding and sledding if you think about it.

This type of response has always annoyed me. Reducing drag will increase your swoop distance no matter how good you are. So the answer to your question is yes.

JumpeRod: Your instincts are correct. It's pretty much common knowledge among swoopers that the Stiletto is not a good tool for swooping. I jumped one briefly during my canopy progression (Sabre 150->Stiletto 120->Crossfire 119). I remember liking the downsize but not liking the flight characteristics (ie. the short recovery arc). If you are eyeing a Velocity sometime in your future I recommend you pass over the Stiletto.

I disagree with a lot of what you said, Dave. If you pop up during a swoop you should not go into a dive to return to the ground. You should provide a good amount of toggle input during that final descent so that it is done gradually with minimal vertical speed. You should also save some flare for just before touchdown. During a canopy competition many pilots choose to land on their ass to add a few feet to their distance. It is quite possible to stand up your landing after a pop-up and I have done it myself many times, even in zero wind.