parachutist

Hi Mark, This past weekend out at Thomaston I modified the brake lines on my canopy to make it open faster... I was tired of the constantly seeking. What I did was move the brake toggle stow points 4" up the lower brake lines. My goal was opposite of what you're looking for, but I think we could try moving the brake toggle stow point down a bit on your Stiletto to see how that affects your openings. If you're interested let me know. I like messing with stuff... hehehe =] Chris

New to CReW? If you're interested in trying out CRW but have little or no experience, the Dublin boogie is a good chance to get your feet wet. prerequisites: - must have a USPA class A license Just let me know in advance (either reply to this message or send me an e-mail: [email protected] ) and I can furnish an appropriately sized CRW canopy for you to use (1.0 - 1.2 wing loading) You'll do some 1 on 1 CRW dives with an experienced CRW dog coach. It's great fun and a useful learning experience. cost: just cover your lift ticket + $5.00 per jump canopy maintenance fee. Chris Warnock

How far did she pull that one toggle in? It helps to practice this method on a rainy day inside a hangar: practice by pulling in one brake toggle, then reeling the brake line in hand over hand, then when you get to the end of the brake line, grab the fabric that it's attached to... and start reeling that in hand over hand. Very quickly you have the entire canopy wadded up in your lap, and that certainly won't drag anyone =] With a little practice in the hangar & practice after landings you can get really fast with this. Some of the ability to do this in windy conditions requires understanding how to grab a bare line and how to pull it without it just sliding through your hand. That takes some practice, but I think the experience is worth the time. Chris W

March 19-21 in Dublin, GA. Currently a Caravan is booked, upgrade to an Otter is expected. Accommodations: Camping on the airport, or hotels nearby. Where the heck is Dublin? click here: http://maps.yahoo.com/maps_result?ed=M7tNO.p_0TqT&csz=dublin%2C+ga&country=us All CReW dogs are welcome to this event to show off some formations to the locals: The city of Dublin has a huge St.Patricks Celebration and along with airport management has met this idea with enthusiasm.The E.A.A. will be holding a fly-in on Sat. and giving plane rides to kids so there will be alot of spectators out that day. To sign up, just send an e-mail to me (Chris Warnock): [email protected] or to Nina Tharp: [email protected] Hope to see you there!

Hey that'd be interesting, Bob. I haven't done one of those ghost pullout stunts yet... first time GO BIG I'm still on the fence with this issue. I don't think there's enough evidence to warrant a decision about which would be more dangerous... CRW with AAD's or CRW without. Very few CRW dogs wear modern AAD's... so there has been very little opportunity for the downside of CRW with an AAD to present itself. Is it myth or reality? I still CRW without an AAD whenever I have the choice. Show me the data =] Chris W.

I think you're right... graphic depictions of reality could make some people more aware of their fragility. One guy had an idea similar to yours after his own injury: http://www.deadmike.com/ He is very open about what he remembers about the incident, and about what a long road recovery has been. Chris

How about a JPEG?

I'm pretty sure that line length is the only variable there; So the differentials between A-B, A-C, A-D should be the same for a 160 Sequential 8.5 ft., 160 Sequential 9 ft., 160 Sequential 9.5 ft., etc. I would go to the source for a Rotation line trim chart: call PD and ask for Robin. She's very helpful & if she doesn't have the info on hand I'm sure she'll connect you to the right person. There is one available online for Sequential, along with instructions for how to measure correctly at: http://www.cfworldrecord.com/canopyinfo.htm I do not know of one currently available for Rotation. If you acquire one of these, please scan it or type it up and post it so I can grab a copy =] Chris W

Yesterday we completed (3) separate 64-way diamonds successfully. Most of the people were the same in each of those diamonds, but about ~15 new people were rotated into each new formation. One of the 64-way diamonds had an illegal grip, so only 2 of them were actual world records. Today we broke that record with a new record of 65, and tomorrow our goal is to create a 70-way. There are some pictures of the 64-way diamonds available online at: http://www.cfworldrecord.com

Oops, I didn't realize that turbulence was part of this equation. I thought it was a straightforward question about whether not pressure would increase Right, I don't think that double fronts through turbulent conditions near the ground would be such a great idea. Letting the canopy go to full flight is the advice I've always gotten & it seems like the best idea in turbulent conditions. Chris

Basically anything that increases your air speed will, in turn, increase the pressure inside your ram-air canopy. It's just like a wind sock: the higher the wind speed, then the more air is getting shoved inside. The resulting higher pressure inside the wind sock will make the wind sock stand out more. Another analogy: close your mouth and blow a little, inflating your cheeks. Blow a little bit harder and you will feel the additional pressure.

Already showing their X-mas spirit? Chris W

During the swoop a jumper picks up a lot of speed. After the jumper planes out, inertia carries the jumper forward, retaining a lot of the speed that was generated during the dive. If the jumper drops off 15 lbs., he's dropping off mass and therefore will have less inertia. So I believe his canopy will now slow down quicker than if he'd kept that 15 lbs. on board. Chris

Well there's a prerequisite to doing front riser turns down low, and that's doing straight-in approaches using double fronts down low. At your experience level (if 75 jumps is correct) you haven't yet made enough jumps to have mastered the basics of landing using only brake toggles (even if you are extraordinary canopy pilot material), so give it more time and at least double your # of jumps before even attempting a straight-in front riser approach. It's important to learn the basics first, and that does not mean learn how to land your canopy exactly where you want most of the time, but how to land it there every time, gracefully. Also by giving it more time before adding front riser input down low, you'll have that much more time to experiment with your risers up high (above 2k ft.), doing some drills: - double front riser dive, then flare - double front riser dive, see how long you can hold it, then flare. - double front riser dive, then let go of the front risers quickly and see what happens (no brake toggle input) - double front riser dive, then ease the front risers out slowly and see how this is different from above Have fun & don't rush anything

That's the approach I started out with a few years ago and I think it's very useful because you can fit into the normal traffic pattern with everyone else. Anytime that I'm unsure about the traffic around me... uncomfortable about the idea of a 180 or 270 because there are too many people on approach at the same time... I'll do the basic left hand landing pattern, with the last 90 degree left turn being front riser. Turning a little high and then maintaining the speed with double fronts is a good practice too. It keeps you out of the corner.

Idunno, it sounds kindof silly to me when referring to canopy flight. The only time you could have a power band under a parachute would be if it were a powered chute. The origin of "power band" is a graphical depiction (that looks like a band) of power produced by an internal combustion engine at various engine speeds. Go ask any motorcycle enthusiast and he'll be able to tell you all about the difference between a smooth power band and a spiky power band. Here are some power bands to look at, along with soem descriptions: http://www.se-r.net/car_info/dyno/ I don't think "power band" describes canopy flight very well. It's funny how catchy the term is though... some people just love it. A friend of mine once convinced a newbie motorcyclist that he needed to buy a carbon fibre power band to make his engine really perform. This guy was skeptical about the "Check your blinker fluid regularly" advice, but he ate up the "buy a power band" idea. Chris

Jeff Cornelius [email protected]

Similar to other removeable soft links, the only time that this setup would be prone to coming apart would be after installing it, before the first jump. This risk is eliminated as soon as you grab the line group in one hand and the riser in the other and pull (Part of the installation procedure for any soft link). This adds enough pressure to set everything in place. It's not going to come apart if it has been installed correctly. This soft link setup does not need to be monitored any more than any other system. I would check it after the first jump to make sure that everything has been set properly, as I would with other soft link, but that is the extent of my concern for their installation. I still think you'd look at this setup differently if you had one in your hands, and I have an envelope here with your name on it

Hi Ziggy

Riggerrob, Here are some pictures of the final version of Flight Concepts' soft link. It's very unlikely for this streamlined shape to catch lines: The knot system forms an upside-down cone that will shed a vast majority of potential line snags. I've been using this setup with my Xaos-27 for the last 100 jumps with no problems. After the first jump these soft links were set in their proper positions with the knot inside the riser so that there was no need for tacking them in place. overview of riser setup, fully assembled: http://www.funjump.com/FCI_softlink/DSC00180.jpg closeup of soft link setup, fully assembled: http://www.funjump.com/FCI_softlink/DSC00181.jpg soft link rotated 90 degrees to show knot system: http://www.funjump.com/FCI_softlink/DSC00183.jpg same as above, with a dime added for size perspective: http://www.funjump.com/FCI_softlink/DSC00184.jpg soft link disassembly: http://www.funjump.com/FCI_softlink/DSC00185.jpg Chris Warnock

These are the ones that I use... the knots are smaller than the barb used on any other soft link I've seen (such as metal rings or PD's fabric patch). It would be very difficult to catch a brake line on one of these knots. There was a prototype version of Flight Concept's link that was made out of dacron, so the knot on this link was large for obvious reasons, however, the set of these links that I use is constructed from 1000 lb spectra and therefore the knot is relatively small. Honestly I think you'd have to make a concerted effort to get a brake line to catch on these soft links. Maybe you have a set of the original dacron links? My freefall rig is at the DZ, but I'll take some pictures of the soft link setup this weekend to illustrate just how difficult it would be to catch a brake line on it & I'll post links to those pics here. Chris

Actually the chest mount altimeter struck him in the throat, not the sternum. Quote from http://www.skydivingfatalities.info: ========== begin quote ========== 29/04/2000 Lexington, MO MAL,LAND,BIZ 29 119 N/? Description: After a main malfunction, this jumper had a normal cutaway and reserve pull. On landing, he fell forward and his chest mount altimeter hit him in the center of his throat; the landing was also hard enough to chip the outside of his femer by his knee. The neck injury cut off his air supply and he suffocated. He was jumping an older 5-cell Swift Plus reserve which is rated for 210lbs. His exit weight was 209. It seems likely that he made a low turn before landing in order to have generated enough speed to cause these injuries. He landed somewhat near his main and freebag, so he may have been following those down. Lessons:This is also a relatively bizarre accident, so other than better PLF or landing technique, I'm not sure what else to suggest. The Swift Plus is an older reserve with flight characteristics which are probably much different than modern main canopies. ========== end quote ========== I've been jumping with a chest mount altimeter for hundreds of jumps with no concerns about such an injury. The one annoyance I've had with my chest mount altimeter was a few months ago when I had to cut away during a CRW jump: I chopped and then reached for the reserve handle and the chest mount had moved over to the left side, blocking my view of the reserve handle. This was just an annoyance because I knew where the handle was... but it's nice to be able to see everything important =] An alternative to chest mount & wrist mount that I noticed a fellow CRW jumper wearing: On the leg of his jumpsuit he has a clear vinyl pocket with a zipper at the top... he slides his wrist-mount altimeter in and zips it up. There's nothing to catch on lines, etc. & he can just look down and see his altimeter mounted on the front of his upper leg.

Some canopies require lots more force to pull down the front risers than other canopies do. With some of these canopies I really don't think it's possible to have a comfortable pull with a typical dive loop. There are some custom mods you could do to the dive loop to make it more comfortable, but that adds bulk & can be a good bit of trial & error. Chris

edit: Had my prices off a bit... I still think the Dolphins are a good bit cheaper when you add up the typcial options that go with a wings or infinity rig Chris

Use of rear risers does not slow down your forward speed much at all before the canopy stalls. that's why swoopers land using their rear risers, then transfer to brake toggles. A poster explaining your 3 main canopy controls and their effects: http://www.funjump.com/photos/Canopy_Controls.jpg Chris