Polorutz

Hiya guys. I've started head down in the tunnel and can fly close to other jumpers no problems. Most of my friends at the DZ can only sitfly though so I end up using them as reference. Problem is, I almost always end up low no matter how big I make my daffy. I've seen video of Olav Zipzer head down with belly flyers so I know it's possible, any tips?

And trusting your rears!

Angle dives, being able to fly next to people.

Champu, thank you very much for your post, that's the kind of information I was after. To all of you out there with more experience, what have YOU decided? I'm leaning towards trying to get the safest mount I can and keeping the Mard hooked up.

Ok, I understand the gopro is not low profile, the newer hero 3 mounts have flush sides that I think make it a bit harder for snags to happen but I understand it could still happen. What I want to understand is which kinds of malfunction warrant having the RSL disconnected. I would assume anything that has the main risers or lines tangled up in the camera, you wouldn't want to deploy your reserve into a streaming main without falling clear. Are there other types of situation where the RSL is a bad idea?

Hi guys. I live in France where rules are a bit different and they allow you to jump a camera after you have 100 jumps. I have no particular need to jump a camera at the moment but I might want to do it in the future and I want to understand what the main issues are before deciding whether it's something I want to do or not. Some of the guys around my experience level are starting to jump gopros and the main guys at the DZ always make a big deal about having the RSL disconnected before going to the plane. I understand the need to do this if you have a huge camera with lots of snag points but is it really necessary for a helmet with a cutaway and a low profile gopro? I have a skyhook in my rig and I quite like knowing that when I chop, odds are I'll be under my reserve before I can blink, I wouldn't want to give this up if I can so basically, can you explain to me the pros and cons about jumping say a cookie fuel with a cutaway system and a good mount hero 3 when it comes to having the RSL connected or not? Thanks!! -Polo

Guys, thank you very much for your inputs. I have bought a pulse 170 and am loading it at 1.0 / 1.1 depending on how many donuts I eat that week. I am comfortable with it and plan to stay with this canopy for a long time to come. I've done a canopy course with Flight-1 and the instructor agreed that 1.4 is about as much as you want to load a canopy for wind purposes. I plan to downsize to a 150 in maybe 300 or so jumps after I have experienced the 170 in all wind conditions. After that I plan to stay on the 150 forever or until I change my mind about high perf landings which I don't think I will. Once again thanks for the comments.

Wow, thanks guys some pretty good info in all the replies!

Hi guys! I've been doing some tracking jumps as part of my fun jumping and I want to get better at them. In my DZ unfortunately I don't think there are many people who are good enough to teach the newer dearched tracking position, everyone's doing the old school delta track. Do you guys have any videos or tutorials for the basic position? I can find a bunch of atmo videos but they're already from people who are doing a lot of advanced stuff, mostly almost head down, I'm more interested in the real basic stuff. How to go up, down, slower, faster, etc... I want to do a beginner angles camp but there's nothing near me atm, possibly will do something like that next year in a planned holiday, but until then, anything you think might be useful?

ANything that isn't easily confused with "tracking" or another established term in the sport. I don't know how "tracing" made any sort of sense in the first place, actually. To trace, according to the dictionary when used as a verb, is "to follow a course, trail". Hence, tracing makes sense because you do a course in the sky that one can follow... maybe?

Pablo, I regularly do spirals and digging out of turns without releasing the in-the-turn toggle as practice for the situation you're describing. I also do front-riser turns and I thoroughly explore my canopy's handling characteristics and will continue to do so. I do this well above 2500' and clear of traffic, after that it's the be predictable game for me.

Thanks for your reply Joellercoaster, that's round about what I was thinking. What is the difference then regarding wind penetration when you fly at 1.3 WL compared to a higher loading?

Hi guys. I'm an inexperienced skydiver getting to grips with Canopy Flying and all that entails. My question is this: If I do not want to swoop or hook turn close to the ground, what is a good wingloading to have in order to have good control authority in the flare and stability in winds? Basically, I do not want to swoop or hook turn, I want to be able to fly well in full flight and give myself a good forward speed to be able to fly in windier days. I am currently flying a pulse 190 and plan on staying on that size for the time being, I weigh 165 lbs and adding 25 lbs for gear I'm roughly loaded at 1.0. When the wind picks up to 15 knots or so it starts becoming a bit of a pain to get forward speed. I don't think I want to go too small but I do want to be able to jump in windier days so long as it's not too gusty. Any ideas?

I was trying to explain the situation in a concise manner. Profile drag is part of parasite drag, I just wanted to differentiate between drag that increases with airspeed (all parasite drag) and just form drag. It's been a while since I've reviewed these concepts so might have gotten the terms wrong but the logic still works.

I'm not a swooper but I'm a pilot with a physics background. In sport skydiving the only thing producing lift is your parachute, unlike in airplanes where the fuselage can come into play. Therefore, when you reduce drag in the system as a whole, you aren't really changing the amount of lift the aerofoil is producing, what you are doing is removing drag for that aerofoil to fight against. When you're in full flight, except in phases of acceleration, the aerodynamic forces on your system are in balance, if you were to accelerate, the parasite drag would increase with speed, which would eventually lead the system back to its original balanced speed. Imagine you instantly change the lines in flight, now your system is no longer in balance because you have less drag, what happens then is that the system accelerates until the point where the speed itself causes enough drag to stop the acceleration. It's useful to know that there are 2 types of drag, profile drag and parasite drag. Profile drag is the one you're thinking about when changing lines, presenting less surface to the airflow, etc... Parasite drag is proportional to the airspeed, the faster you go, the more drag you will create. Think of it as dragging your hand through water in a pool, the faster you move your hand, the more force you'll feel push against it. EDIT: To answer your question, reducing profile drag by changing your lines means both a higher airspeed for full flight as well as a reduction in drag overall. What this means is that most definitely your gate speed will be higher, and due to the drag being lowered a bit, the rate at which that speed bleeds off during the swoop is lessened to a degree, so you'll fly farther too.