RichM

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

Billvon, I am starting to learn to be an instructore in the UK. Here we do 1 hand on each handle. You argumrng is very persuavive. Are there disadvantages to the 2 hands techinique, all things usually being a compromise, etc? Rich M

Erm, I didn't post this to this thread. *confused* Rich M

Scary stuff, lot's of opinions. I will relate a simple and regular occurance. I normally jump at Headcorn in Kent, UK. The field in Kent are small. I know then, they look nice. I know how big they should be when I deploy. I also jump at Sibson, UK. Much bigger fields in that part of the UK. I get groundrush at 4000ft on the first jump. I often deploy early. When I start jumping Headcorn again... I think my alti is riding high. I would not take an eyeball altitude meaurement on merit yet (I have only 450 jumps, so maybe after a period of time/experience at a given DZ I would, can't tell yet). Visual altimeters are analog devices, you can look at them anytime for an update on altitude. Audibles gives you altitude at 3 distinct and exclusive stages. AFAIK top belly flyers fly with at least one visiual, and top freeflyers fly with two or more audibles. I know what I will be doing for the foreseeable future. Rich M

I agree. Taking a plane around can be a very daunting decision. I recently made that call after the official JM got out and his group spent ages in the door before they left. I knew the only sensible thing was to take it around, but that didn't stop me feeling scared about taking the responsibility. I asked 2 other groups not leave whie I took it around. Everyone landed on the DZ. The consequences happened extremely quickly. The next day I was made jumpmaster for the first lift, and for several more lifts that day. This was not stretching my experience, but I think now the CCI respects me for that decision and trusts me with more than he did before that situation. Rich M 1 jump older than I was last jump

In my short week or so as a dropzone.com member I am awed by the quality and quantity of information that is available here. Quite a few highly experienced skydivers regularly contribute here passing on your hard earned experience. From these forums I am learning things that might have taken me years to realise on my own. I could point out several examples, but that might laud some contributors and miss others which I would hate to do. So simply, Thanks. I am a safer skydiver because of the this forum and all of it's contributors. Rich M

Heh, that's the strange thing. Our local freefly coach also jumps a 119 Crossfire but loaded at 1.8, and he says he (nearly) always gets stable consistent on heading openings. Hence my search for an answer :) maybe he's just a jammy git, or a fibber ;P Rich M

I'll try each suggestion, one at a time, and let you know what happens. Thanks for the input. Rich M

Used - ex Icarus demo canopy that was on the recall list and has had the trim done by Icarus. I estimate it's done 150 jumps My previous 200 jumps were made on a Sabre 120, with very predictable openings. I'm pretty confident that it's not me. I had to change my pack job to get this slippery beast in the bag - I use a half psycho pack variation now - normal propack (nose left alone, pushed to middle of bundle, front of slider pulled forward, 6 wraps in the tail) then instead of S folding I roll the top 3/4 of the pack with just the stabiliser end back folded into bag (so that the whole thing looks like a 2 in section but with more curl at the top of the 2). Although I'm not sure this would cause a weird inflation. The spanky opening has got me thinking about brake line lengths, something I read about in a post here recently (can't find it now) and I wonder if lengthening my brakes may help the openings. I've watched Swoop and thoroughly enjoyed it :) The openings I'm getting are not an issue as the Crossfire has shown no tendency at all to turn a dive into a spinning mal. I believe it has improved my canopy control and awareness through those first few seconds of canopy iride - I'm right there in control on the rear risers before it's even flying now, and am gaining (potentially) valuable experience in dealing the nasty off-heading openings on a canopy that plays nice here. If this is just a characteristic of Crossfires then no problemo. I'll just be very careful on big ways to avoid cuddling people at 2000 :) Rich M

I recently started jumping a 119 Crossfire at 1.5:1 and I'm getting some very squirrely openings. I wonder if anyone here can suggest some ideas. The first stage if all fine and dandy, but the inflation is weird. The outer 3 cells on each side inflate first, and then the middle inflates, but by now it's hunting left and right and nearly always dives off. A couple of days ago I forgot to stow the brakes for the first time ever, and god it spanked me. My neck will take a week or so to recover properly. But, it did open absolutely on heading, with full inflation acroos the canopy (albeit instantaneously). I'm inclined to play with fast release of the brakes to see if it will cause the canopy to inflate more predictably. But I wondered if any here has experienced and cured the same symptoms, and if so how? TYIA Rich M

Thanks for the info guys. Chuck, does the head forward arms back style improve the surf? From my above thinking the rear risers in this position would not be spread apart so the rear of the caniopy wouldn't be flattened, and with the rear risers pulled back and down wouldn't that actually pull the rear of the canopy down but in effect deflect the rear of the canopy up? (I'm struggling to visualize this one, my poor brain

I am learning to swoop - have done about 200 swoops, mostly on a Sabre 120, but recently swapped to a Crossfire 119 (and love it). I bought the Pond Swoop 2001 video and watched it several times. Sadly I can't really work out the finer details of what the best swoopers are doing with the canopy and risers/toggles. But I did notice that a lot of them flared with the toggles out wide almost at arm stretch. This clearly induces the rear risers apart quite significantly and I figure this has 2 effects on the canopy by shifting the position of the the attachment links. a) The links are lower thus pulling the C & D lines down and causing the rear half of the canopy to deflect down. I figure from my simple brain that this would add to the lift but produce less drag than just using the tail, so result in a slightly longer swoop. b) With the link being pulled apart the rear half of the canopy will be flattened out a little. Again my simple brain suggests this would result in more lift being generated straight up, improving the effeciency of the flare and so longer swoops. Can some of you swoop monsters (no offence intended) comment on my observations, add further info, suggest alternatives, correct my assumptions, just straight laugh at my pathetic attempts at thinking :) Cheers, bsbd Rich M