RichM

I jump a Crossfire 119 at 1.5:1 and one of my first few jumps familiarisation routine was a straight in landing on 3/4 brakes, just to see how it behaves. I expected nothing at flare time and found myself hanging 5ft off the deck when it generated lift at the flare. I held the flare on and it very gently put me down. I agree that high speed landings are not a required part of high performance canopies.
Btw, I do this so that I know what to expect if I am ever forced to land like this.
Rich M

Does you comment relate specifically to the above incident, or is it generally the case that kit is rated at 120 knots. If the latter then in general are rigs made for flat flyers only, and not freeflyers? Is the kit industry that far behind the requirements of todays skydivers? I hope you're about to explain where I have got it all wrong :)
Rich M

Bill, please could you explain what limits you are referring to here?

Sounds like a trip to Hinton is in order this summer. Tim, what format does your schooling take and what are the costs? Also, what are the costs at Hinton come to think of it :)
My email is [email protected], regular dz is Headcorn and sometimes to be found Sibson.
Rich M

A guy who jumps at my local DZ related a recent canopy demo jump he had done. This guy, let's call him T, has 400+ jumps on Sabres, and about the last 100 on a Sabre 150.
He took an opportunity to demo a Crossfire 129. I can't say he never got advice on flying this canopy, T is the kind of guy who will nod his head but not listen to a word offered.
T is last out of the load (a Turbolet 410) in a small freefly group so he is deeper than the rest of the load. After normal breakoff and track, he is surprised to find that this Crossfire takes longer to open than a Sabre (Crossfire about 1000ft, Sabre more like 500-700ft).
Now he is low, but not wanting to walk back from an off landing, or look stupid, he flies back as far as he can get. After a while he realises he won't make it back but has it too late to find a good landing area, the only available thin one has electricity lines and hedges. T splats in missing all the major hazards, but could only do a downwind landing - as he said any attempt to turn would have put him in a hazard. He seems unaware that it would also probably injure him quite severly. Fortunately T was unhurt.
I tried to talk to T but he doesn't listen.
Basic mistakes that I advise anyone to avoid making:
Always talk to people about new kit, find out what is likely to be different to your current kit. Ask advise on a plan to follow on the first fews jumps to ensure a safe and enjoyable transition.
When jumping a new canopy do a few solo's, save your concentration for the canopy. When jumping a new canopy, open high, at least 4000ft, and spend some time familiarising yourself with the flare and stall points for this canopy. You will need to know them in about 3990ft time.
At any time, do not try to make it back at all costs. At 1000ft you are either definitely and obviously going to make it back, or if this is not the case then plan for and fly an off landing now. 1000ft leaves plenty of time to find suitable fields, spot and assess hazards, select a final landing area and set the landing up for it. Like taking a plane around on a deep spot, making a safe off landing is a sign of skydiving maturity.
Have fun, take care, don't be a statistic to be like T
Rich M

Also, lets not forget that it has only been in recent years that freeflying has achieved a large following (the ratio is irrelevant). The soft reserve pad reduces the chances of accidental premature reserve deployment, which is dangerous anyway let alone at 180mph.
Rich M

A quick note on folding under, I notice that one company out there is stiffening the reserve pilliw with a plastic sheet insert to help prevent exactly this. I recall who atm.
Rich M

Erm, apologies for hijacking the initial thread. Thanks for the good tip SkydiveMonkey.
RichM
*I blame the beer - I've not had enough yet!"

I jump a Racer NOS. I asked Jumpshack if they would sell me a reserve pad and they said no. I asked them why (albeit in a slight provocative way) and am waiting for a reply. I don't think I will get one now. So without John's permission (sorry John, but in the interests of furthering my understanding) I reproduce the short email chain below. Please feel free to add.
NB: since this email chain I have thought further and realize that there is a difference in operation between the two handles in a standard rig. The cutaway pad is constant pressure during the loaded part of the pull, whereas the reserve handle has spare cable and when the slack gets taken up and the cable starts being pulled there is already momentum in the action and an impact happens (Impacts are good for breaking high initial friction). However I believe there is a design factor which says you should never get more than 22lbs of pull on the cutaway (and certainly Jumpshack iterated this several times to me in conversation), and certainly in the UK reserve handle pull force must be measured by the reserve packer and must not exceed 22lbs. So the forces are the same(ish), but the deployments are different.
Email chain:
Do Jumpshack do a reserve pillow to replace the reserve handle on a Racer Elite, d.o.m. Jan 2001? I checked your parts catalog, but can’t find reserve handles there at all.
No, We don't make a Reserve Pillow type replacement handle for the Racer Elite. What the sport doesn't need is a reserve ripcord which is harder to grab and pull. We do however make a red metal cutaway handle and lanyard which is easier to grasp and pull than the pillow.
Reserve Ripcords are located in our on-line catalog at: http://www.jumpshack.com/webcatalog/default.asp?ProductID=161&SectionID=PART&CategoryID=21
Thanks for your swift response, although of course I wanted a pillow. Increasing numbers of freefliers are jumping reserve pillows. I understand this is to reduce the danger of accidental reserve deployment due to collisions, in freefly it is much more likely that the colliding surface will be a chest. I recognize that this makes the job of deploying the reserve slightly more difficult than if a handle was present. So we have a balance of two safety issues. As a 100% freeflyer I feel that for me personally there is greater risk of premature accidental reserve deployment than from failing to pull a reserve pillow. I tend to this opinion based on my jump numbers (450, last 350 freefly) and that I have heard of several instances of accidental premature reserve deployment by limbs/objects catching in the reserve handle, whereas I have not heard of any instances of failure to grip and activate a cut away pillow. I jump a Cypres too, I know we do not rely on electro-mechanical units to save our lives, but it does reduce the risk of no canopy at all.
I welcome your very informed opinion, but I reserve the right to not make it my own :)
Email chain end.
Rich M

Perhaps shift a little weight to the outside legstrap as you initiate the turn.
Do you mean outside? Wouldn't that work against your control input? Am I swooping wrong at the moment? :)
Rich M

Good on yer mate. Stick at it and you'll get it soon enough :)
Rich M

Just to play devils advocate, should you have a regimen of compulsory checks and something goers wrong, it could be argued that the checker was partially to blame, and is open to litigation for negligence. Then we rapidly end up with extra premiums on our insurance and possibly insuring skydiving into the realms of the rich and fabulously rich only.
I actually agree with gear checks, but I don't agree with compulsion.
Rich M

Thanks Quade - impressive photo too. Are there any other clues to tell when this sort of uneven thermal activity may be happening? All the DZs I jump here in UK are grass, and it would be nice to be able to spot symptoms before the plastic chair gets picked up and starts spinning like something out of The Omen (happened last year on an unusually hot Saturday - strangely enough I didn't swoop anymore that day).
Rich M

D - I agree with you, take responsibility for your own actions. You cannot rely on a check to spot mistakes, and should never abdicate responsibilty for your own safety to someone else. However, most of us make mistakes from time to time and it doesn't hurt to get a second opinion. I am very thorough when putting on gear, but I still did this wrong. I also double check myself on the way to altitude, and would probably have spotted my chest strap then, except it had already been spotted on the ground.
A second check should compliment your own procedures not challenge them for authority.
Rich M

Keep at it Edd. It's perfectly normal to be scared shitless jumping out of a plane, we all were at the beginning, and it takes a little time to get used to it - some do it faster than others. Gently rocking back and forth is not normally a problem, and it happens to everyone. If you're rocking more than gently then relaxing will help. Try taking a big breath and a long sigh in the door before you go, it worked for me.
Rich M

nac - just to clarify, a UK jumper must be briefed, tested and cleared with a signature in their logbook before they can conduct flightline checks. But we don't actually stress this to students so there are probably unqualified people doing the checks because someone asked them too and they didn't know to say no - I always ask if someone is cleared to check kit if I don't know them - then I only get caught out if they down right lie.
I also heard the camera man exit with with no rig story. Truth or myth I don't know. But a scary thought.
Rich M

Hmm, this happens to me a lot. I bought my racer new last year and have about 150 jumps on it. If the chest strap wasn't turned and sown at the end I would be very concerned. Should I be concerned anyway?
Rich M

On the brighter side, a good friend of mine who is also flexible can do 178mph flat and only 166mph head down (not so stable). He has some awesome footage of two freeflyers in head down in a stable dock on his bell-to-earth position.
Keep at it, as said before it's your instructors responsibility to stay with you at this point. That may involve them wearing lead and putting you in a baggy freefly jumpsuit, but thet's their problem.
Have fun :)
Rich M

We do "anal" pretty well :/ There are pro's and con's to our nanny approach, but it's hard to challenge our safety procedures. While our compulsory gear check can be a pain, it only takes a minute and on every nth iteration it spots and corrects something that could be serious. It also repeatedly causes consideration on the correct way to kit up and certainly helps our own personal thoroughness.
Even so, I've also mis-routed a chest strap once while in a hurry. But spotted on the compulsory check.
Rich M

You will probably get bored of 190. But that will happen after it has first exhilirated you, then provided you with many many fun jumps. If the container was made for a 190 (the canopy it has in it now) then at a later date you can sell the 190 and put a 170 in that container. Have a good talk with your CCI about this and about your prospective new purchase.
You won't be anywhere near as bored under a 190 than you would be in a hosptial.
Rich M
Rich M

Be wary of trusting your eyes. I jump at various dropzones in the uk. When I shift from a dz in an area with small fields to a dz where the local fields are large I often get groundrush for the first few jumps as the ground seems so much closer. Conversely when I swap back I find that at 2500ft I feel I should have at least 5 more seconds and wonder if the alti is telling the truth - it is.
Depth perception is also compromised by health/hangover state, amount of light (sunny, cloudy, dusk), colour and cleanliness of goggles. And probably many more. I know you are using your alti and not your eyes to judge when to pull, and please keep doing that.
On the main topic altimeters come in both visual and audible versions. Audible versions do not provide as much information as they have only off-on settings at a few heights but require no movement to be aware of (unless they've detached from your helmet!), whereas visuals give an analogue display, and the brain can use multiple point references to this to estimate how long you have left to do something.
Just my 2p worth
Rich M

It's worth keeping an eye on the Swoop and Canopy Control forum. Most of the posts notionally concern swooping, which is a very advanced and potentially dangerous canopy landing skill. Due to this however, the margins for error are much slimmer than normal landings and so the focus on landing skill is very high.
Bear in mind that most posters are highly experienced, and their choice of canopy and size is made after making mistakes on bigger things that put you down with a large margin for error.
Rich M

Thanks for the further info, just one small obvious hole in my knowledge now - what is the correlation between mercury and millibars. All forecasting that I get is in millibars.
Many thanks Quade. I look forward to the thermals (dust devils) post. Dust devils are an obvious stopper to swooping, but are there any other indications that conditions are less than ideal for yanking on the front riser? I noted an earlier post about buffeting, any others?
Rich M

Quade,
Thanks for the info. I have a question though - you have shown how the density altitude changes for varying altitude, and also for varying temperature, but how does the maths go for varying pressure?
Rich M

There is no wind and no noise - its scary and great fun. I love them.
The no wind means you will have no air pressure to push against for the first 5 seconds or so. In this time you can't get stable or track away. So don't launch a 4 way from 3000ft!
Also be ware that as the balloon drifts with the wind, it will have a much lower ground speed than an aircraft. In 5 knots of wind it is hardly moving. If there is more than 1 group there isa danger the second group will jump right on top of te first. It's worth waiting till group 1 are down before group 2 exit.
Have fun, take care
Rich M