thrillseek

I have close to 400 jumps on a crossfire loaded at about 1.35 or so, and I have had the most fun with this canopy! I am constantly impressed with the crossfire's versatility. I have managed to jump tight Demo's with it, play around with CRW, Long fast Swoops,I have made it back from LONG spots with this canopy, have jumped camera with nice soft openings...the list goes on and on. On a scale of 1 to 10, I give the Crossfire a 9. That being said, I have been surprised by

Wow!! This brings to mind a young man in Ohio that couldn't land on the DZ for like, his first 30 jumps or so...they even gave him a catchy name...wrong-day....wrong-play...something like that... I heard through the grapevine that he removed his head from his fourth point of contact and turned out to be a great skydiver...guess there's hope for all of us!

1. If you had a malfunction, how difficult would it have been to chop with the additional twist in the risers? Food for thought. 2. Once you have a good canopy overhead, you ought not mess around putting additional stresses and strains on equipment...I mean, the attaching points are just not designed for that.

I'll just say this...at the risk of embarassment...I had 3, count em' THREE malfunctions in my first 100 jumps. See, I seemed to think that you could just shove it in the bag, or "trash pack" it and everything would be fine...I was under the misguided belief that they are just "designed to open"....Uhh yeah...and well, that's only true to a small extent. After chop #3 (and the DZ-wide assertion that I was going to be the next fatality{nice, huh?}), I decided to take a packing course. The guys (and girls) at Lake Wales were a huge, HUGE help. I realized right away that malfunctions are mostly a result of piss-poor packing skills. Obviously, there are other un-forseen things like line quality, material failures, body position, crew wraps, etc. that cause malfunctions, but with proper care, regular rigger inspections, and proper flying skills, the risk is greatly minimized. My biggest advice to newbies out there is to take as much packing advice as you can get, and avoid someone's latest, greatest packing method...stick to the proven techniques and your chances of a malfunction will drop significantly.

Last year, at Rantoul...No shit, there i was...on my fir$t birdman jump...all was well until i deployed and actually felt the steering line break during deployment...very odd experience. Anyway, I did a quick check on the rest of the canopy (eliptical, loaded at 1.6), found it to be ok, and LEANED with all i was worth to correct the induced turn while i unzipped my suit. Once that was all done, I looked down and saw the traffic had made me a perfect hole to go through to get to the tandem landing area. Looking at the alti-2 i saw my hard deck (1300') approaching. I made my choice. I was going to land it with the rears. So, leaning seemingly half out of my harness, i flew that thing across the field and landed it safely with risers. At this point i think i had 190 jumps. I'll just say this: Everyone should be able to land a canopy with risers, just as we would hope that your pilot can land the plane with no gear if needs be. Give it a little time up high to decide, make your decision and stick with it. No sense in thinking "should'ves" at 800 ft.

yeah swoopers rule, however, we all need to look out for one another. If the 2 groups could be segregated by loads or landing areas, we'd all be safer. Again, just my $.02

The idea isn't to punish people for being low-timers. Separating the two groups is akin to keeping the fox away from the hens...neither is right or wrong, they're just doing what they do. Foxes eat hens like swoopers fly fast...Hens mill around like people doing s-turns. Facts of life. I would think it is much easier to "put them in separate pens" than it is to try to either speed up the hens or slow down the foxes. Ok, i'm feeling pretty eloquent here...i'm sure someone will just love to rip on this one

students are easier to control anyway...either or, ya know?? Perhaps have a student landing area and enforce it. The idea is to control air traffic safely, not to diss people for their methods of landing...We are seeing way too many accidents or near misses due to inability to control our traffic. Anyone have any solutions?

granted. But if we can cut the risk by 50%, haven't we done ourselves a huge service??

Just a thought, but i have seen the "LOOK THOUSAND" cause the jumper to de-arch, because they are bent forward looking at or for the pull out. Muscle memory is everything. I spent the week prior to my first clear and pull practicing in bed in an arched position....but never mind my sex life....everyone sleeps with their rig, right?? lol

Dave, That's definately a part of it, people doing their patterns properly. That really pisses me off when someone either does an opposite pattern, or skips one of the elements of it, whether downwind, base, or final. Regardless, the issue here, as it has been since high performance landings have gained popularity, is swoopers vs. conservative landers. 2 Landing areas is not only a good idea, but also the safest way we have to mediate the risk posed by 2 different styles of canopy flight. Safety first, right?

OK, here's my opinion. It is ONLY my opinion, but good advice nonetheless...Let the flames begin... Too often we are hearing of collisions due to one swooper and one conservative landing pattern. Understandably, everyone wants to avoid a long walk back to the packing area, but when you have people in unpredictable patterns mingling with others doing downwind, base, and final, problems are GOING to arise. It's just common sense to predict this. SO, Every DZ should have an alternate landing area for either swoopers, or conservatives. Period. End of story. If they don't have the space for this, then they should outlaw hook turns. It sucks for me to say that, but it'll save lives. Personally, i'd rather walk an additional 500 ft than end up cutting off or colliding with someone else. I'd say it's about time for people to start taking more responsibility for the lives of their peers. Skydiving is fun, but it's serious fun.

IN my first 100 jumps, i had 3 cutaways, earning me the title as captian cutaway around the dz. The first was jump #8, and was a huge eye opener. (Student gear--Manta 288 that managed a wicked spinning mal somehow...no evidence when inspected on the ground) the 2nd was jump #30-something (line over that was my own fault for poor packing skills on a Sabre 210. {as a side note, the bigger sabres have an extra steering line that is longer that normal and is prone to want to go line over--these NEED to be stowed carefully so that they stay out of your way during deployment}) Cutaway #3 was jump #90-something...same canopy, same problem. After this one, i bought an eliptical canopy and have had no problems since. I will never go back to squares again...The eliptical canopies are just safer in my opinion(less likely to have issues like line over when packed properly) Just my $.02, but elipticals are the way to go, as long as they aren't overloaded for the experience level, they are perfectly safe and not a dangerous choice.

Jumped into Panama while in the Army. Pro: Cool to exit @ 1,250 ft over water and land on solid ground. Con: Getting drug all the way across the LZ by a freakin' T-10

Work: Where people go, usually dressed, to look busy and earn jump $$