ianmdrennan

No, he's dissing the Industrial Military Complex - totally different than dissing our fine servicemen and woman. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

I dunno, I wasn't there. Hence I said ask Curt.

First, glad you're ok (relatively). A few things (I'm sure you know most, if not all, of these but I'll post it anyway - hopefully for the benefit of others): 1) Any canopy can collapse, some are more prone than others but given the right conditions it can happen to any of us 2) "It was a windy day. About 25 mph winds." ~ This means that, unless you're in the plains, you're very likely going to be affected by object/terrain turbulence. Sometimes far further away than you might think (a 100 ft object can be felt 1000+ feet away). It's also been my experience that high winds like these are almost always gusty. 3) "and i looked up just in time to see the left 2 end cells " ~ never, ever look up at your canopy when stuff like this happens (low to the ground). There is absolutely nothing looking can do. Instead you should be focusing on leveling your wing asap. 4) "This caused the canopy to spin hard to the left. I pulled the right toggle to stop the spin but it kept turning. " ~ I'd highly recommend an aggressive flare. You're far more likely to stop/slow your descent rate and immediately stop the turn. Pretty much at this point you're in damage control, nice landing has likely gone out the window, and you're trying to impact as softly as possible. My money is on unstable air cause by either gust(s), terrain, or objects with the unusually high wind speed. Post the video :) Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Must be easy to dismiss everything as "liberal bias". The Onion, in my experience, takes the piss out of absolutely everyone. Performance Designs Factory Team

Thank god the gas/oil energy companies have everyone's best interests at heart to offset this travesty

Definitely agree with you there. We all get together in the design phase, face to face, to hash out things. Then we scatter and deliver

When I jump my 67 I don't turn on even my speed cypres. Performance Designs Factory Team

Yeah. In my field most of us work best from home (IT). Less distractions, less commute time (which translates to more work time), etc. We've had a lot of success with with remote employees. Every once in a while we have a bad apple, but if you can hold people accountable (as mentioned in the article) those "payroll glitches" tend to work themselves out. Unattended though there's plenty of opportunity for abuse - which signals a management problem to me. In Yahoo's case I'd bet good money that's the problem too. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Yeah - I'd expect most, if not all were ground crew. I'd just ask Curt. He's pretty open about stuff

Yep no margin for error. Really good skills, riding a fine line. Performance Designs Factory Team

I wish that weren't true. I'm constantly amazed at America's tolerance for violence vs sex. Performance Designs Factory Team

I was recommending using the flysight as the GPS logger. It's accurate enough for skydiving

Look at a flysight. It logs gps data to a exportable csv file. We use it a lot for canopy piloting and there are some cool enhancements to the software in the works. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Had another ride on my Optimum 126 today. Absolutely AMAZING canopy that I love far more than the PDR's I had (and those were great too). Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Nonsense. If that were true it wouldn't be available outside of the Factory Team. Performance Designs Factory Team

Yes - and your exact scenario is why I refuse to use them anymore unless it's totally unavoidable. Mine was a little different but essentially they did a similar thing, and then tried to whack me with a bunch of OD fees. They're a bureaucratic nightmare, and a rip off. Performance Designs Factory Team

Anyone else catch this one? Was surprisingly good. Really fun and engaging action movie. Performance Designs Factory Team

hehehehehehe Performance Designs Factory Team

Not relevant, but I love the new avatar. Seems fitting Performance Designs Factory Team

I know at least 1 person still jumping a Batwing

He's been banned from the site for a little while now. Not sure why (I'd guess Speakers Corner though). Since the site doesn't allow multiple accounts, especially for banned people, it's safe to say that "swoopin" won't be posting here in their current form. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Funny how that happened

Incorrect. Openings: Looking at Nick's video compared with my own experiences, they are different. Recovery Arc: Hard to tell - both are definitely long "altitude wise" but optimal timing seems different. Can't say for sure as I've never jumped a Petra. Flare: Very different from watching Nick and Curt to almost identical distance runs back to back. I think it escapes most jumpers on how difficult it is to build a wing like this that is stable and performs as expected. The idea of looking at another design (photo, at a competition, etc) and "Copying it" is borderline laughable. Personally I find it really sad that some people (Rhys aka "swoopin" that would be you that I am referring to) are turning something that is great for the sport as a whole (Peregrine and Petra and the advances they bring) into a misinformed pissing match. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Am I reading this correctly? You've posted something supporting climate change? Performance Designs Factory Team

I posted what someone had said that has first hand knowledge. Maybe I was not clear enough, but it is not hearsay. That story you just posted? That's the definition of hearsay. Hearsay is information gathered by one person from another person concerning some event, condition, or thing of which the first person had no direct experience. You have no direct experience in the matter, you're just passing on third hand information. Fair enough, let's put that aside. Now, look at that photographic comparison that was posted earlier in the thread - what do you say to that? To me, there are major differences in the two wings in that photo. The wing itself is differently shaped, different nose, different line attachments, different tail deflection, different end cells, different tail construction, etc The only similarity I see is that they have a curved nose (different degrees of that it appears) and that they are a form of 9 cell. Having watched the two fly side by side in Klatovy, and Dubai they are also worlds apart in the way they fly too. Both very high performance of course, but definitely different. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team