Snowflake
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Everything posted by Snowflake
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Like the man said prctice till you can't stand it anymore. I used to do 5 practices in the shower every day. I still do 3 on the ride up.....arch reach pull. look red grab red look silver grab silver peel and pull red pull silver. I watch people just of student status and they don't even touch their handles on the way up and I just don't understand that it only takes about a minute and you have 15 of those on the ride up, but you only have seconds in freefall JG
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It's Monday and I am in love with this canopy. On Saturday I got to see what this canopy can do when I screw up. Me and Phree do a sit jump and open and were a little long on the spot. I go to collapse the slider and it's haging up on the toggles. I fart around with that instead of turning towards the DZ immediatly, thats mistake#1. I finally get the #$%& slider over the toggle and grab the toggles and here comes mistake#2. I packed the excess brake line on the right side to loose when I grabed the toggle I put 2 fingers through the excess brake line before I released the toggles. I release the toggles and turn towards the dz and get in brakes. Thats when I notice that the brake line is going around my fingers and up through the other side of the toggle and as a bonus the toggle is upside down. I really don't like this situation I need to stay in brakes to make it back but I want to get this toggle fixed. I try to bring my hands together in brakes and undo it but I'm making yself do little turns and it's eating up altitude. Then I get smart and use my teeth to undo it get it undone just high enough to turn into the wind. I start a left hand turn and realize if I dont finish it I'll be running into the side of a building mistake#3.....thats no bueno. It's to late to try and make a right so I'm gonna be taking a downwinder. I start a nice stream of expletives and think oh well. I get to flare height and I am moving at a good clip I think to myself this might hurt I flare and flare and flare (the wind was at least 10 mph and I was moving). Then wonder of wonders I have a run out and I'm standing up and the canopy is still over my head In a slightly stressed situation I was able to stand up a downwinder to me that says a lot more about this canopy and it's performance, then any description of riser pressure, flare power(tons), etc......... Sorry for the long story but as has been said before it's not weather you can land in perfect conditions that count in making choices about your canopy it's can you land in bad situations that really count. To sum up great openings (I need to learn body position though I have a tendency to turn right as the second stage ends). Riser pressure is a lot lighter then my spectre (it's the only thing I can compare it too) front risers now feel like a dive instead of a shallow bank. toggle input is about half of what I give my spectre and did not feel twitchy(like I know what a twitchy canopy feels like?). Flare tons!!!!!! comparing the flare on this canopy to the flare on my Spectre is like comparing apples to oranges, till now all I've ever had is apples but that orange sure did taste good. Peace JG
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did 3 jumps on a Cobalt 150 loaded at 1.4 today. I was a little nervous is this canopy too much for me? etc....well let me say so far it fly's as advertised. I have a little over 100 jumps most of those on a spectre 170 at 1.2. On the first jump I open high around 6k the opening is very different but on heading as the outside cells open I do a quick turn left then right I rear riser the end cells open and I'm flying straigt I collapse the slider and pull it over a toggle I pull it behind my head grab the toggles and flare.....sweeeet full flare is close to around 1/2 of what it is on my Spectre. I pull some 360's and bam I'm down past the other high pullers and the blood is getting cut off by my legstraps .......Oh I like this canopy I line up for final oops I'm going way long.....coming in I have to steer all the way down I flare it's not pretty but I land fine a litttle Texas 2 step but on a very light wind day I'm very happy with the results yes I can land this puppy straight in and no it doesn't feel to fast and the flare is sweet. Second jump I open and notice the 2 stage opening in full effect I look up and it lloks like it's open I grab for the risers and bam I do a 180 (I guess I'll be learning body position during opening) flare out the end cells I have a nice ride down play with ther risers etc...I come in to land straight on again I overshoot by 10-20m flare and this time it's not bad ride the flare out(we won't call it a surf but if I had dropped my foot it would have been) and stadn it up easy no run off.......I'm in love 3rd jump open same 180 thing (okay I need to work on that. I screw up my approach and try to riser 180 I get a little nervous 90 degrees through it and come of the riser I'm 90 off the wind line ....now the test.......I flat turn into the wind and I'm barely gonna cross the runway I get into the wind just in time to set up for flare and I have a SWEET flare drag a toe (holy shit I'm dragging a toe) fly it out and I barely need to take a step on landing. To sum it up at no time did I feel that this canopy was to fast or that I wasn't in control as advertised this newbie had no problems whatsoever flying it in very lightwind conditions. I'm sold and I really haven't gotten to know it yet anyone need a Spectre 170 with 70 or so jumps. I'll update on Sunday and let you know how the rest of the weekend goes JG
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Who's going to the Freefly Comp in San Marcos?
Snowflake replied to FreeflyGoat's topic in Freeflying
you can always leave the dog in the car and let him out on a leash between loads. I know a few people that do that not in the summer though JG -
Excellent post this is information that is so crucial to all skydivers , but especially to beggining skydivers like me. I bought my rig slightly used (17 jumps) it's very nice on the eyes, but it has every option that you mentioned as being unsafe plus no RSL. It has just started bothering me that there is no RSL(what have I been thinking the past year). So I will be adding that. The mini rings are going away when I downsize the same with the spectra lines now that I have that info. One question on the mini rings I'm currently flying a spectre 170 loaded at 1.2:1. What are the chances that I will have a high speed spinning mal and have a hard to impossible cutaway VS if I was flying a Stilleto loaded at 1.6+. Should I be worried enough to change to full size rings before I downsize (which will probably be around the end of the summer). I really wish I had known some of this before I bought my equipment, but now that I do I can make much better choices in the future Thanks a ton JG
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I'm having probs with my PM's so I'll reply here.......I'll be glad to work 2 of the 3 days for the 120 way not sure which 2 days I'll be there yet will know by the end of the month and will let you know then JG
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NTSB statistics compare to Jump Operations 2001
Snowflake replied to diverdriver's topic in Safety and Training
Any speculation as to any possible reasons for such a large discrepancy. Is it possible that because jump planes are taking of and landing so much more per 100k hours then General Aviation? JG -
Well duh......This is a clear case of why one shouldn't post late at night and drunk....thats my excuse and I'm sticking with it JG
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If Atair can make a Canopy that can stand up to a headdown deployment. Why isn't there a 2 stage reserve that can also do the same thing????? JG
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Thanx all ......I must say everyone at Sland was very cool and the vibe seemed very laid back. Levin I ended up going to San Marcos I did a sit with a couple of the local studs(thanx Robert and Chris) and it looks like I need some more solo time. Dave I remember you especially after I gave you packing tips and then found out you had 10 times as many jumps as me(that was kind of embarassing, but you were very nice about it) definitly come to SSM before you leave the country you'll love it. Ann I'll be taking you up on that offer as soon as I learn how to sit and look at someone else without falling over (which hopefully won't take too much longer) Sland ya'll are rockin like Don Dokken......I will be back....with beer even JG
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Now I'm totally bummed. I just got of the phone and the weather doesn't look good....argggggg. I'm finnaly to the point that I'm pretty stable in a sit so I can start doing 2 ways and coach jumps and it looks like the weather is gonna suck all weekend. Thanks for the offer Levin but it looks like mother nature is punishing me for some past misdeeds(sorry everyone else in our area got included) can I get a raincheck on the jumps? JG
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Friday......I'll be back and try getting a couple of coach jumps in JG
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If the otter is gonna be running I'll drive down from Austin......let me know....it's been 2 weeks and I'm jonesin bad JG
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I'm not qualified to speak about safety, but I would choose AFF over SL anytime. I like the thought of having instructors there during freefall I like the fact that my passing a lvl is not dependent on my exiting stable I like the fact that I get more freefall time in one jump with AFF as a SL student would with 10-20 jumps. That being said I went with AFF and had a blast doing it. JG
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I'm not qualified to speak about safety, but I would choose AFF over SL anytime. I like the thought of having instructors there during freefall I like the fact that my passing a lvl is not dependent on my exiting stable I like the fact that I get more freefall time in one jump with AFF as a SL student would with 10-20 jumps. That being said I went with AFF and had a blast doing it. JG
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I had to send back my wings to get new legstrap buckles. It took them 4 days to get it done because they had to wait for buckles to come in. While they had my rig they repacked it, cleaned it, and put new legstraps on it. Kick ass service all the way around. JG JG
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I'm not really qualified to answer but I love putting my foot in my mouth ....it tastes so good. I would say if they are still falling on their back(like me) then give them advice on getting stable and let them go solo so they can get their balance in the sit(I still find it distracting to try and pay attention to somebody flying by me and staying stable....this could just be me). Once their in a stable sit you can go out and see if their backsliding etc....give them advice on that and check to see how it goes then get them to solo working on transitions, when they can transition their ready for real instruction because at that point they aren't spending all their time concentrating on staying stable and can devote some greymatter to flying and not pushing down with their legs. Thats my basic plan my next 10-20 jumps are going to be sit solos work on stability and transitions then start doing coach and 2 way jumps. I'm really interested to see what ya'll think since I'm new to FFing but it seems like a good plan. JG JG
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Thats awesome.....Thanks for the info JG
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What Aggie Dave said......It was good meeting you last weekend sorry we didn't get to jump although with your fall rate the only time we would be together is on exit JG
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Well if Sunrise rigging gets my rig back to me next Thursday like they said they were I'll be there, and since I'm currently unemployed I guess I'll have to jump Thursday-Monday. Should be a hoot(I love saying that) #100 coming up. SSM rocks great people, great atmosphere, indoor packing, and the Purple Tailed Twin Otter. 5 days of skydiving is gonna rock. Blue Ones JG JG
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http://www.spacecat.com/bert/bert.htm An oldie but a goodie I'm still snickering JG
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A question here isn't that getting a bit large in the size difference between main and reserve? JG
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I'm playing with UBB right now and can't seem to find that option and since I don't right code. I'm gonna have to look at threads and see how that runs. What would you migrate too do you have anyother suggestions? JG
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I'm looking at UBB and UBBthreads and I need to know is the ability to lookup skydivers (kind of like an address book) native to wwwthreads/ubbthreads that runs the forum JG
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I've never had my flaps come open that I know of, hell the main flap stays closed during deployment the only time it's open is during pin checks and closing the container. This is my first rig so I don't have a lot to compare it too (rentals and student gear can't come close), but I love my wings JG