remko

To add to Wendy's excellent explanation, another reason for the high/orbiting jumper to cut away first is that he is usually the one that went through the lines and is holding the knot. Once he cuts away chances are that the whole thing clears. Having said that, attached are two of my exciting moments in CReW. Can you work out where I am? I had to dig these up and scan them in for the occasion, since they are not quite releasable to the public... If you want more ask Wendy for a copy of her WrapDVD. Imagine how much adrenaline is in those pictures :-) -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

I wear my alti on an elastic band on the upper arm. Hook knives, I pack a large one on my chest strap, a small one on the leg strap and a small one in the riser cover under the 3-ring release. The one instance I had to use a knife I had it strapped onto a little flotation device which I was wearing on my chest strap. A bridle lassoed around it with a cute lady hanging below. Took some effort but I finally got it out. My advice, the less stuff sticking out the better! -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

First thing that pop's into my mind, if safety is your concern that money is much better spent on a tertiary reserve. The tertiary reserve is for CReW dogs what the AAD is for freefallers. Keep in mind that the AAD is only relevant during your clear and pull. The only thing I can think off that could go wrong is when you hit your head while you exit. I think the modern devices are reliable enough that they don't activate prematurely, although there have been concerns about using radio's. Maybe in an extreme downplane at low altitude, but I don't consider that `your everyday CReW'. I had one and used it because it was there anyway. It just expired and I'm not getting a new one. -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

It worked before, it works now... -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Eward Slot is making an effort to get all those covered in dust tucked away in the attic Lighnings in the Netherlands onto the market again and has set up a web site for it: http://home.hetnet.nl/~kuiper1968/index.html If you have it or want it, you know were to go now. -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

I take that offer! You are talking about an 18-way bi-plane diamond right? By the way, here's the kite: http://cluebox.org/~remko/crew/damme/index.html.files/9.html (we learn from the picture that nr. 5 and 6 should fly it light with some toggle or rear riser). -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Well, in europe a new shoe is usually more expensive than a repack, ask Brian As long as the canopy doesn't get dumped in the swamps and someone follows the freebag right? By the way, I wear low cuts with ankle protection and haven't lost a shoe yet. I took off Hermans shoe in a downplane once but managed to catch it after juggling it around for a while. I gave it back to him so he didn't have to land in the snow on his sock. I sprained my ankle once in a 2-stack landing because my pilot got stuck with the tongue of his low cut shoe behind a line. That's why you will want to buy shoes with short tongues or just cut them off. Yeahaa! -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Oh what a nice dive. We (in order: Gerben, Sander, Peter, Herman, myself and Eward) were at a little Dutch holiday boogie over in Germany and had such a beautiful multi point skydive: 1 6 1 6 2 3 4 5 2 3 4 5 4 5 3 4 6 5 2 3 6 2 1 1 Collums Kite Wedge Box We anticipated the Collums might give us trouble in case the docks were not simultaneous, but I could just park my canopy against Sander's back while waiting for number 4 to arrive. No problem at all, nice stable formation too. Transitions were nice, almost in place. 1, 2 and 3 were 160's. 4, 5 and 6 143's. All similar wing load. Beautiful balanced dive, responsible for the smile that is still on my face.

Well, you will need at least one buddy anyway. Doing crew on your own gets old really fast. Here's an article I wrote in 2002. yes, your question has been asked before http://cluebox.org/~remko/writings/crew_dock.html -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Now I am really curious. You know I still feel a bit guilty for buying away Pat's 143 in front of your nose. And it's ripped to pieces now I had a close encounter with one of my german friends in empuria during a sunset beach jump. So after that cleared I had to pull the left toggle all the way down to half brakes just to fly straight. Took me a few minutes to figure out what caused it. The top part of the third cell was ripped from the nose to the middle. So I'm thinking I'm not landing this rag. But I'm hanging around 6 grand close to the beach over the water and I know if I cut away that cute 143 is going to drift right over the city of Empuria. Then I think if I cut away low enough it wouldn't be so bad and drop onto the beach. But to do this it would be kind of nice if I were like stable with both hands already on the handles and not spinning down in a spiral. So I fumble a bit until I manage to stow the left toggle back in half brakes. Imagine me hanging under that chute in a spiral with the brake line in my mouth trying to stow it. So now I'm hanging there, flying straight with the cut-away pillow in one hand and the D-ring in the other, getting ready for my first reserve ride, thinking about how low I should pull this thing off so the crowd on the beach will get a good show. And then suddenly I realize that the wind in my hair is a very soft comfortable slow breeze. I do some practice rear riser turns and flares and think maybe I can land this rag. So I did. Landed it into the sand and walked away to celebrate Jackson's 3000th jump. Maybe I shouldn't PWI

Give me a hint Kevin, what are you referring to? I thought these camp fire gatherings were all very peaceful in Lake Wales... Greetings, Remko -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

It IS required to buy beer!

She was afraid to land on her recovering leg, so she decided to land on her butt... auwtch :-( -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

[I assume this is a formation of two diamonds on top of each other where the point of the upper diamond is also the pilot of the lower diamond] Has anyone flown anything like this? How big? Asymmetric? Pictures? Would like to hear more info, war stories, etc... -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

I know you can fling around a 2-stack almost like flying solo doing rotations and the like (that's a lot of fun), but the other day I thought about changing the characteristics of a 2-way to do the maneuvering. A stack is sinkier and faster than a bi-plane. Here's what we did... First we build a simple 4-stack. #4 planes up into #3, then #2 drops the grip on #3. #3 moves his bi-plane out to the side and floats up on the 2-stack. Then transitions back to a stack and #1 docks on it. Sounds easy? Try it! Some tips. The bottom of the plane should `fly' it with rear risers throughout the whole maneuver. The timing of when to drop back in a stack is important. Don't go too high. The stack is not only sinkier but also faster. This can be solved by slowly turning away from it, or they have to slow it down with brakes but then they loose some of the sink as well. Somewhere during the maneuvering #3 looses sight of #1 so he will have to go on heading. Stay close! After two of these do a singleton rotation so the others can pilot one as well. Have fun! -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

And I say that `everyone' should be taken very literally. That includes you crewdogs/dogettes that were on the bench, and the boogie jumpers too. Without you it would have been impossible to build the 85-way. You deserve just as much recognition as the rest of us Thanks for being on the team! Cheers

I had an awesome time over there. Planning to write `Approaching the Big-way 2'. Hope to see a lot of you dogs/dogess in Empuria Spain end of may. Here's an easy to brouwse `who was in the team' page: http://www.cluebox.org/~remko/wr/people/index.html (missing a few). -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Have you looked here? http://cfworldrecord.com/2005/2005Announce.html -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

That's a good rule of thumb. But I was talking about the grip itself. In the first example a wrong grip was taken, and held, causing the canopy to deflate and collapse. It's good to try and move a canopy that is behind you to the outside by grabbing whatever you can and pulling it away from behind you and pushing it to the outside. That's helping it move in a direction it should go. But don't `fixate' it. That is bad. Give it room to maneuver. In the second example a canopy that is moving up is being held down. The hand is hardpointing it, the end cell is being fixated. That is bad. If it is going up give it room to go up, by lifting your hand. If you can't reach that high let it go, holding it will make things worse. If you can take a leg grip you can let it slide up even further. The docker should `fly' the canopy back down, using front riser or cross control, slowly, so that it won't pull on the receiver once it settles. That will cause trouble at the other side of the formation. Once it is stable it can be handed out to the outer receiver. Remember, a neutral grip is anywhere between the ankle and the knee with zero tension. Light is above the knee and heavy is on the foot with tension. -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

No, that was about catching a locker as a wing. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1282493

This happened to me on the Marl selection camp for the CFWR2005. It wasn't more than a small inconvenience, but I have seen it cause trouble before and it could cause a lot of trouble in a `big' big-way. I came in to dock as a wing (#11) but got a little high in the final stage. I also ended up a little bit too far to the inside. While I was correcting for this mistake the receiver reached behind him and got hold of one of my lines, of course with the good intention to salvage this dock. The result however, was that from this point on I was unable to fly my canopy because he was `hardpointing' it. He held a line with one hand somewhere close to the center cell and was unable to walk it out quickly. Then the left half of my canopy entered the burble of his locker and started to deflate and collapse. I screamed `Drop me! Drop me!' and after a short while he let go. From the moment he took one of my lines with a firm grip, he `took control' of my canopy. He literally left me hanging. The tension that developed later when my canopy collapsed could have caused trouble on the other side of the diamond. If you are on the receiving end of a bad dock, don't accept it, give the guy a chance to fix things. Another example of hardpointing I saw some time ago. The docker was a locker who came in quite nicely but floated up a little after the grip was taken. In this situation the receiver held down the endcell of the docker. When you do this the other side of the canopy will still fly up and create a `bank angle' into the formation, resulting in sideways movement. This can shift the whole side of a formation or wrap the person hardpointing the canopy. You can easily accept a dock like this if you give the canopy room to move up. Fly safe! -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

You are saying that the `sky' is always above us, as seen from the earth, and that we need an aircraft to enter it, to be able to dive into it. That's an interesting observation. -------- sky: The expanse of air over any given point on the earth; the upper atmosphere as seen from the earth's surface. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition -------- So: BASE-jumpers are not skydivers, but they can be free-fallers. They are parachutists if they jump a round and canopy pilots if they jump a non-rigid wing. Aircraft-jumpers are skydivers, free-fallers, parachutists if they jump a round and canopy pilots if they jump a non-rigid wing. -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

www.dictionary.com is your friend! -------------------------------------- 1 entry found for BASE jump: A parachute jump from high structures and precipitous earth formations, typically from heights of 305 meters (1,000 feet) or less. [b(uilding) + a(ntenna tower) + s(pan)1 + e(arth) + jump.]BASE-jump v. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition 1 entry found for base jumping: The extreme sport of parachuting from the tops of very tall manmade or natural objects Etymology: BASE is acronym for building, antenna, span, earth Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6) --------------------------------------- 2 entries found for skydiving: To jump and fall freely from an airplane, performing various maneuvers before pulling the ripcord of a parachute. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition OR: skydiving: Performing acrobatics in free fall before pulling the ripcord of a parachute Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University ----------------------------------------------------------------------- parachute: Rescue equipment consisting of a device that fills with air and retards your fall. parachuting Descent with a parachute; "he had done a lot of parachuting in the army" [syn: jump] Source: WordNet ® 2.0, © 2003 Princeton University par·a·chute: 1. An apparatus used to retard free fall from an aircraft, consisting of a light, usually hemispherical canopy attached by cords to a harness and worn or stored folded until deployed in descent. 2. Any of various similar unpowered devices that are used for retarding free-speeding or free-falling motion. par·a·chut·ed, par·a·chut·ing, par·a·chutes: To drop (supplies or troops, for example) by means of a parachute. To descend by means of a parachute. [French : para(sol), parasol; see parasol + chute, fall; see chute.]para·chutic adj. para·chutist or para·chuter n. Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition ------------------------------------ 1 entry found for paraglide: To pilot a large parafoil aircraft from the harness, to pilot a paraglider Etymology: para- `dropped by parachute' + glide Source: Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6) ================================================================= Here comes my interpretaion :-) Skydiving is only the free-fall part of a jump, not necessarily from an aircraft. `Diving trough the sky'. The `dive' in there suggests `headfirst' but can also just mean `submerged' (in air). Parachuting is the part of the jump that you are actually under a parachute, again, not necessarily originating from an aircraft, although it is suggested, depending on the source. Interesting to note is that a parachute is a drag device and a parafoil a non-rigid wing. So flying a square canopy is not `parachuting' (falling under a parasol). Bottom line is, we all JUMP, FALL or FLY (without and with parafoil or parachute) and LAND (even the paragliders) does it really matter in what discipline? PS: This was a linguistic approach, anybody feels like diving into the legal interpretation? -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Did you try "wingload wing load" ? It's all there... -- Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

Here you can see: http://www.cluebox.org/~remko/movies/kotta_med_kontroll.mov (I have this on my machine but I can't remember where I got this from originally. It is sometimes off-line during nighttime in europe)