RichLees

cool! how far are you from Copenhagen?

I've been conservative and opened the reserve every time I've taken a bath and the water has never got into the reserve fabric. The lines have been wet and the free-bag and pilot chute have been damp, but the reserve hasn't. That said, I tend to get out rather swim around. I don't mean that I stopped jumping to check the reserve - I mean I checked the reserve at the end of the day/weekend/soon after to avoid damp/rot. If you're in for longer, the progress of the water through the mass of material could make for slow/asymmetric/dangerous openings IMO. Anything that potentially slows my reserve or makes it asymmetric is bad news. Swim faster, young jedi

pros - it allows your hands more freedom to reach the tops of the rear risers for planing out - the brake lines are out of the way! cons - PD's advice is not to use the main SLinks because it causes line wear as the brake line rubs cross the suspension lines. I guess that implies a separate SLink for the brake line ring

UK Nationals & Open 24-26 July @ Dunkeswell, Devon, UK

Castelnau-Magnoac in south of France its the only pond I've seen big, snowy mountains reflected in - see pic

Those openings look my terminal openings on VC90 with removable slider. I pitch at 125-130mph and WL 2.9. Subterminal openings are sweet, but terminal ones are killing me. Put a VE channel slider on and all is good cept slider gets in the way esp when planing out. Guess that's why removable slider says no to terminal and channel slider doesn't say no.

I think DocPop's other point is equally valid: body pitch can be achieved through rear riser input which trims the canopy

Dubai International SL #2 - Jan 26 FLCPA #1 Feb 8-9 Z-Hills Dubai International SL #3 - Feb 23 FLCPA #2 Mar 15-16 Z-Hills Dubai International SL #4 - Mar 30 FLCPA #3 APR 5-6 Raeford NC Australian Nationals - April 16-21 FLCPA #4 APR 26-27 The Farm Duabi International SL #5 - Apr 27 FLCPA #5 May 17-18 Z-Hills USPA Nationals May 21-23 Z-Hills (Practice days May 19-20) Danish Nationals Open 7.th of June - 9.th of June NJFK UK & Irish Nationals & Open (prob) 18-20 July @ Dunkeswell Pink Open, Klatovy CZ, 14-17 August

Pitch the pilot chute into the propwash. Works a treat on LET. Instant line stretch on your back!

Subject to reaching firing speed, the Expert protects down to 180 ft and Speed down to 330 ft

you should have taken a downwinder - then you'd have been expecting to land at 40mph ;-)

my peak speed occurs around 200feet which is well below the minimum operational height of 330 feet for the Cypres Speed

I got 41.7m/s repeatedly on an Airtech datalogger (same kit as the Cypres) and 95mph on a pair of Visos. ie they all gave the same answer within a couple of percent. I did some rough sums to check the time, speed and acceleration made some sense and they weren't daft. vertical acceleration of 0.8g for much of the dive and higher vertical deceleration as you slingshot into the swoop. when extra aggressive, I got 105mph, but I was on a monstrously whopping huge 103

I got a Viso2 in order to see the playback and I plotted the data in Excel to make sense of it. Doing the same turn repeatedly, I got consistent results with peak vertical speed around 140 feet on a Katana 150 loaded at 1.7 on a 270 degree turn. Doing the same turn higher up, I got higher speeds (makes sense!). Get a Viso 2! As much as the WL, the wing type and turn type + technique determine how fast a dive speed you can achieve. The Cypres Speed does 2 critical things (maybe more!) - it raises the activation speed and it raises the height at which it says "you're on your own, now!" This is because the height that you reach peak velocity goes up with faster, longer-diving canopies. (Its working window is from 750 down to 330 feet rather than 750 down to 180 feet.

I use HMA 500 on a Velo 103, loaded at 2.6. at my weight, nuts to HMA300. I use Vectran 750 on the controls. I mostly deploy around 5-7 seconds ie sub-terminal. our ZA gravel is very sharp so I try to ensure the canopy doesn't settle on it. each jumping day, I look for fraying along the length (particularly top and bottom) of the lines and around the brake-setting hole on the control lines. I find the control and outer A-lines fray fastest. there's plenty of polishing at the slink, but no fraying of the line or slinks. I've never flown a lineset to failure, but my gut says that fraying is probably visible around 50% life and I replace the lines around 75%. I would stop if I found "necking" or thinning of the line. I've never been told the lines are dangerously frayed (well, not by riggers) but they've always agreed its time to change them. I haven't had BIG differences in openings on new lines so maybe I replace them earlier than those that do, but I thought HMA was meant to be dimensionally stable till it snaps. ie I thought you had to replace preemptively rather than when your openings go to shit (mine are only really good if I trash-pack)