skydivinmartin

The Alpha is a 9 cell elliptical, just like the Stiletto. Very similar flight characteristics with line twists. If you didn't care for the Stiletto, maybe stick with a Sabre 2 or Safire for skysurfing? I don't skysurf myself, but the few I've seen tend to use a more conservative canopy. Martin

I have never attended the boogie, but I have spoken with some guys that attended two years ago. The accomodations (Air Force barracks) were not good - lots of problems with the bathroom, people had to go get hotel rooms. Not much jumping either, maybe 10 to 12 in one week. Anyway, this is what I heard. You get what you pay for? Perhaps they have made improvements in organization since. Martin

I thought their were two alpha canopies. The Icarus Alpha, and the Atair Alpha. The latter was made with Gelvenor ZP and their was a 134 model - not the same as the Icarus, although both are 9 cell ellipticals. I saw an Icarus Alpha a few years ago, and it was not made of Gelvenor. Anyone know? Martin

I have 150 or so jumps on a 135 loaded at around 1.6. Had line twists maybe 3 times, never more than 2 twists, never spun on me. And these were last season before I had it relined. Pretty fast canopy, dives nice, not too twitchy in the harness. I've always thought the Viper makes a nice, first elliptical canopy. Martin

Is your main canopy the one the Wings main tray was designed for, or have you downsized? My Wings has the pud handle, which stows very tightly under the right side flap - I have to jam it in with a few fingers providing some leverage. (my container was built specifically for my current main canopy) No problem sitflying with this setup. Martin

Hi guys, Thanks to Quade and others for the replies to my post - the Gyron and Wescam websites were cool. I asked Joe Jennings about the footage, and yup, it was mostly shot from a helicopter-mounted Gyron system. As for the depth of field, Joe said that they can dive the helicopter to chase the subject, but "most of the work is done through the lens". He was not more specific than that; the masters don't give up their trade secrets easily, I guess. Martin

Hello camera guys, I was watching Joe Jennings' "Good Stuff" with some friends last weekend. We can't figure out some of the footage - when the subject is shot from above and appears to be really close to the ground. (wingsuit footage, Greg Gasson under canopy, chuteless; and an RW bigway) I believe it was shot with a "stabilized camera", but I'm not sure what that is. (in the army, we had a stabilized gunsight on our Bradley Fighting Vehicle, although it broke down a fair bit and I never really understood how it worked). How do they get such incredible depth of field? Does the camera aircraft dive after the subject in freefall, or remain at altitude with the exit aircraft and track the subject all the way down? I believe they used a helicopter for Adrian Nichols' world record tracking dive, but how about to film freefall from exit at 13,500' all the way down to deployment? One of my friends thinks the footage is an illusion, that the background was added later - doubt it. Anyway, I tried a search on this forum for some info, but no luck. Anyone out there know how they shoot such footage? Thanks, Martin

I jump a Viper 135 which I recently had relined. It flies nicely but the openings are on the hard side, and that is with a pocket installed on all four sides of the slider by the previous owner. In addition, the end cells tend to be lazy on opening. Also, my Viper was manufactured in 1995, and I have noticed that on later Vipers, Atair added spanwise reinforcing tape across the A line attachment points. (perhaps there were problems due to opening shock?) So, if you are looking to pick up a cheap elliptical (which is partly why I bought the canopy myself), maybe try and find one manufactured after 1997 or so. If you've got the cash, I'd recommend the Cobalt. I'm told the openings are great, and if you just look at a Cobalt in flight, it's a much smoother, more aerodynamic wing than the Viper. Martin

With "older" canopies, you would a difference of 15 to 20 square feet per canopy size - for example, Sabre 107, 120, 135, 150, 170 and so on. The latest "extreme" canopies such as the Velocity seem to space the sizing much more closely: 79, 84, 90, 96, 103 and so on. Anyone know why they bother scaling the canopies down so closely together? Is there really so much of a difference in performance between six square feet (for the same skydiver)? Thanks, Martin

Guys, Thanks for your responses - Dan, I appreciate your detailed comments. Actually, I didn't mean to suggest that my old 170 Sabre (I now jump a Viper 135, an earlier elliptical design from Atair, "the Cobalt guys") opened badly. In fact, my Sabre only opened hard when I did ignorant things like forgetting to flare after tracking or not flaring after a faster jump such as sit flying, or on my (attempted) wingsuit jump. Otherwise, the canopy opened nicely all the time (I put 250 jumps on it. I am surprised when I hear so many people complain of Sabre openings. The slider was stock and I did not bother to roll the nose, either. Then again, all of those Sabre-bashers out there must know something about their canopies that I didn't know about mine... Martin

I have a question for any wingsuit pilots out there. I demo jumped a Birdman suit once and had a pretty hard opening. The pull technique that Birdman recommends is to pull your arms and legs into a tight track, hands the bottom of your main tray, pull symetrically and then pull your arms back in to keep flat tracking during deployment. I was rather tense when I pulled (I buffeted for most of my flight) and basically went into a head down delta when I pulled - KAPOW! (fast opening from by Sabre, unpleasant sensation in neck followed) I have heard that some wingsuit flyers are using a different pull technique (legs tucked in, feet to your ass with arm wings collapsed, arching head to stay "head up"), which is supposed to work well enough (although you obviously stop flying during the pull sequence), but appears to be at odds with the technique described (rather briefly) in the Birdman flight manual. Any wingsuit jocks out there have any comments on deployment technique? Is it very difficult to learn? I figure that if you have the pull technique down, learning to fly the suit would be a lot less stressful. Thanks, Martin