cessna54tango

you know after my first base jump at bd04 i said that was fun but not for me too scary but now that our good buddy maggot is offering this class maybe ill take him up on it. and its even better, i didnt want to get all this base gear so last time we all used skydiving gear but now since he is offering unpacked jumps as an option maybe he can teach me how to tard and roll over my cha-hos! then i can swoop the shit outta the river! thanks maggot, where do i sign up?

ha, you beat me you bastard, after reading his first post i was thinking wait till this guy tries a cha-hos 27! then it will be fuck me pink and purple

heres a funny story, not exactly related but kind of. while "steering my cha-hos" on opening last weekend i popped one of my breakes out. my buddy and i were doing a 10k hop and pop to play around a bit. we both have rds and as i was spinning out of the sky i kept it relativly slow with opposite leg. it was more of a spiral then. well i was still going down past him and didnt want to take the rds off and stow it while spinning down so i reached up and played with the toggle and reset the break. was pretty funny. i guess i wouldnt try this from 3k though.

i think its time to clean the belly huh? maybe that will be fridays project while i change the tires. evil you should come with me then ill dump you out at the dz on the way back. those are some good shots. you should post one of those good ones from in flight. later smizzo

yea but the other thing is that you need 2 hands to remove it. my first "homemade" rds was this way. you need to hold the slider with one hand then pull the cutwaway cables with the other. then reel it in. joes and mels you just grab the handle and pull it all off in one motion then reel the junk in. i think its much faster. but yea it did open nice.

hard to tell this when your pc and junk is stowed in your pouch like a real swooper

heres a good one i learned landing a plane years ago and it works equally well for landing a canopy. when you are on your final approach pick a point on the ground in front of you thats not moving. if this point start moving up and away from you you will land before this point. if it starts sinking and going below you you will overshoot. the trick is to pick a point that you can see is not moving and not fixate on it or you will hit it, but not as a landing! hope it didnt come out wrong its alot easier to demonstrate. let me know if you understand. seeming as you can hit the dz, which is good, and you are off radio the instructors must think you are doing something right. but this idea of looking for the point thats not moving on the ground works for all wind levels. the stronger the headwind though the lower the point will be..... more twards your feet. ok see ya

he was joking about that, but now you gave the sick bastard food for thought. nick lets chop those babys off this week! and if it doesnt work out we can sew on pink ones to match your purple alpha!

so im under the impression that mels and joes are the same thing. i have used theirs on my old xf2 for about 250 jumps and now on my xaos for about 20 jumps. i think theirs are the greatest. i do have an idea of what type of metal ring you refer to as i was going to have our machine shop make them for him..... but it seems he had a lower bid anyways, they are perfect, the rings that is. deburred and polished nicely so they will not harm the lines at all. just think of how bad brass grommets are on lines after they wear, and those are on stock sliders!

how does the jvx open with one, i heard it was like shizzle

ok, take them off then ill think about jumping it. but now at least youre on the right track with the rds. speaking of rds, evil here made me a slick little elastic pouch on the back of my bag to put the rds lines in instead of shoving them in the bag with the canopy. not sure if it makes a difference but it looks pretty cute

when you pull down a front riser and do a toggle turn they both induce speed on landing. the difference is, that fronts are cleaner and also when you pull down a front riser you are building speed and when you release it you will slow down.... generally. on a toggle turn you are going at normal speed then when you whip a toggle you speed up. you can see the problem close to the ground. so in my opinion fronts are "safer" and besides toggle turns are so lame.

yea, but thats not the rds' fault. remember that stability thing at pull time nick?

ah, yea, my bad your right. anyways, well thats what it is.

any of you guys jump an excaliber? on of the guys at our dz has one and we bring it out on special occasion. its pretty cool. it has 3 sets of risers ( not tripple risers). one to each line set. its a 200 sf 21 or 23 cell i forget f111. it is the best flying f111 canopy ive flown. turns are made best not by toggles but by yanking on the center risers. funny stuff. also the pilot chute is attached to the slider and goes through a hole in the center of the canopy. so when you pack the thing and you take the slider up, you pull this pilot chute line through the top of the canopy and pack it. also the lines on this bastard are loooong. its like the canopy is a mile away from you. so the pilot chute line is that long also, its funny when you deploy. you pitch, wait a moment, wait a little longer, then wait just a hair more then look back to make sure the pc isnt on your back then wait just a little more then it snags teh bag off. good stuff. awesome swooping the thing, you just need to make sure you grab the right set of risers when going for rears smizo

oh yea, and no bullshit it was around 600 ft, damn i wish we had that on video. yea it was down wind though so i guess it didnt count that was fastttttt

nick, youre hilarious, nice shots, especially of me! cause you know thats all that matters!

nothing special, planing out 83 xaos 27. just put the rds on today. got to get some pics wed night.

we have a 200 foot bridge in the middle of a highly populated and traveled town. it goes right over the town for the pa turnpike. at least 3 people take the plunge a year onto the road below. one guy missed a bunch of highschool kids walking to burger king by 5 feet. just this past fall the turnpike comission put up a "jumper fence". it was never BASEd.

xf2 - xbraced. noice. just got rid of my xf2 for a xaos and love it! the xf2 was a great canopy the boys at icarus know their stuff. would have got a vx but didnt like the openings and riser pressure. i jumped a xaos 78 for a few weekends while my 83 was being built and my xf2 was sold

hey mel, care to expand on the "new project" smizo

hey, i had one on my old xf2 and it made a big difference. you were asking for 9 cell performance. one thought is since it removes drag from the pilot chute pulling back on the canopy it allows it to dive more resulting in a longer recovery arc and more speed. just what ive found with about 300 jumps on the xf2 with it.

nice to see that a cha-hos won.

do it all the time. no problems. joe benette system. i tuck my lines in the bag with the canopy.

oh yea, mine has the tape and grommets that go on the lines not the new stainless rings joe sells now. no difference in operation but just the stainless look nicer. i have had no problems with any of the tapes snagging or anything like that, has anyone else had a problem with the tape and grommet setup? smizo