groundrush87

I was just getting my Strong rating towards the beginning of the year when I was in FL for a while. I stopped by the Strong factory to pick up a package needed for the tandem course, and while I was there I was given a tour of the whole place by the helpful staff. During the tour we stopped by the R&D or engineering department upstairs. Ted was there and I was introduced to him. I talked to him for about 10 or 15 minutes, and was very impressed and privileged to meet him. He's definitely brought the sport a very long way. I'm very sorry that he has passed... my condolences to his friends and family. Blue Skies Mr. Strong!

Ok I'll admit I didn't do a very thorough search through the forums, but I did do a brief one about this topic and saw that the last post was in 2007... so here goes; What is everyone currently using for their stills lens for tandems? I'm particularly interested in those folks using canon bodies, but I'm still very interested in other brands as well. Thanks for any input!

To me drawing on my limited experience flying planes I know that we as pilots pitch for airspeed, use throttle for altitude, and use flaps for extra lift. Two of those apply to a parachute. To me it seems that using rears is the equivelant of changing the angle of attack of the wing to a higher pitch in relation to the relative wind thereby lowering the airspeed increasing drag and decreasing lift when in straight and level flight (not the same as when rears are used planing out on a swoop). Using the toggles on the other hand would seem to provide greater lift and allow us to travel farther in the upwind long spot situation. I guess I'd have to say I'm more of a toggle guy when it comes to this issue... but I certainly am not claiming to be an expert by any means though.

Those of you that want your Neos to open well watch this vid and prepare for a long snivel and a beautiful opening from the center out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_83SvolUEg

I meant to say I get great,,, but really long/soft openings on mine by split rolling the nose into the center cell as a previous poster mentioned for old sabres. You all might try it out if you wish, i think it works well and causes the canopy to have only one way of pressurizing, which is from the center out. Here is a youtube link explaining what I mean. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b049yxyUlUU http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_83SvolUEg Try those vids out. Put a couple of jumps on your neos' after packing that way and see what you think.

Same great openings here. Split rolled nose and put in center cell like someone previously mentioned for the sabre gives a reaallyy long snivel. Thinking about trying it without.

After researching the Crossfire2, Katana, and Mamba I took a gamble and bought a NEOS second hand. I wanted a canopy that had the openings of a Crossfire2 the dive of a Katana and the efficiency/distance of the Mamba, and I think the Neos is the canopy that has all of the positive traits of the above listed canopies and few negative traits. The openings are very soft when packed appropriately, but you need to be on your best behavior body position-wise. The front riser pressure is very soft and the canopy dives a lot with the oversteer typical in elliptical canopies. The rear riser pressure is a bit firm, but not bad. The flare is better than any canopy I've flown, with toggle pressure firmer than that found in non-crossbraced canopies. The center 3-cells crossbracing does increase the pack volume a bit. My container is cut for a 107, and my NEOS 99 is probably the maximum amount of fabric that can fit in there and still fit well. I would say the Neos 99 packs up like a xfire2 109 probably. Overall its a very good high-performance canopy, and I look forward to learning a lot with it.

Sometimes I like to Psycho-pack because I like to lay the canopy down oriented nose to the sky and split-roll the nose like on a slider up base jump. I roll the four right and left cells tight and to the outside exposing only the center cell. I then quarter the slider well, but at that point once I get to the part where I would normally roll it up I flip it back over nose to earth and bag it like a normal pro pack. With this type of pack and a good body position I haven't had anything but soft on heading openings even with ellipticals but maybe I'm just overtly superstitious about my packing methods... I don't break out an iron though... I actually am a little more of a trash packer than anything, its just the dressing of the nose and the quartering of the slider psychopack style that I am particular about.... but most of the time i bag it like a pro-pack.

My wife owned a racer at one point and it was garbage IMO. There are those out there that like them though and think they are a diamond in the rough, just like dolphins. For me, there is a reason everyone else jumps javs, icons, vecor3 microns, and mirages...because they are safe and work. That's why they are the most popular.

Chris Dixon is an instructor down there. He just won 3rd place in freefly at the world meet in russia

The Pilot is advertised by Aerodyne as a type of do-it-all canopy, and although many skydivers have become weary over unsubstantiated claims such as these this canopy comes very close to being that all purpose canopy everyone would like to find. If you evaluate what your needs are and determine that quality openings, predictability, and exeptional performance within its class are what your looking for, then this would be an excellent canopy to consider. I got a good deal on a Pilot 111 recently and managed to use it for a weekend so far. I load the canopy at about 1.5, and I managed to put about 15 jumps on it from friday through sunday. I did a few fun jumps with it, and then used it mostly while I was doing work filming tandem students. The openings were very good with a variety of pack ranging from your traditional pro pack, to psycho packs, and my own personal blend of pro packing and psycho packing where I begin the pack like a psycho pack and put the canopy in the bag like a traditional pro pack. Either way it seems that as long as you flake it somewhat, dress the nose according to your personal preference, and do a good job quartering the slider the Pilot will do a good job opening for you without some of those spankers that many of us have unfortunately experienced. My back and neck were very thankful for not having to suffer some of the spicier openings my Sabre2 120 gave me. I'm loading mine a little higher, so the canopy felt a lot more rigid and responsive than I would imagine one that was more lightly loaded would. Even though it flies with a much higher performance with an increased wing load the Pilot still maintains its predictability, which leads me to believe that it is perfect when loaded as a transition canopy to some of the more high performance ellipticals. Overall the controls, both toggles and risers, felt like they required a firmer input. That being said the input required was firm but very little if that makes sense. When I used my front risers it was a firm feeling to pull down my riser but when I pulled it down about an inch and a half the canopy was in a full spiraling dive. With smooth, small, firm inputs you get large predictable outputs. Using a little rear riser I was able to get back from some really long spots. One spot, unfortunately, was way to long and I had to land off (my fault for not looking before leaping). Thankfully the Pilot had a predictable control range and I was easily able to land it in some lady's front yard without getting into trees or power-lines. The flare is powerful and predictable, making this canopy relatively stress free at landing time. The Pilot does have a shorter recovery arc, which may be off putting to some who want a swooping canopy. But, those who are ready to swoop already know that swooping is about being able to fly any canopy to its maximum performance envelope. And as a result of that the Pilot can get respectable swoops in the right hands. If your looking for something that flies like a velocity though, then you should probably buy a velocity. Overall, good canopy, does what it's supposed to do. It's stress free, good value, ZPX is cool. The colored packing tabs make life easy. Go get one, you won't be disappointed.

Oh Dave... gotta love ya buddy. Take a peek at John 8:7 when ya get a chance.

Hey guys, I did a brief search on here for this topic... but I certainly didn't waste much time, so forgive me if I'm asking for something that has been talked about before. I recently started working at my local dropzone as a videographer for tandems, and when I go to dub their videos for them and put music in the background it has become strikingly apparent to me how little I know about bands and music in general. I know I like listening to the radio in the car, and that's about it. Of course when I hear songs I recognize the tune and know whether I like it or whether I think its lame, but I couldn't tell you what the name of it is to save my life. In an effort to help reduce my learning curve by spending hours listening to different music that would be appropriate for tandem vids and memorizing the names could you all copy and past the titles and bands that you end up using the most when your working on vids for tandems so that I can set up a music library, and a playlist on my computer that will generally work well when I'm in a hurry looking for music to put on the dvd's that I'm dubbing so I can go ahead and worry about making sure my rig gets packed, interviewing the next student, making the next load etc... I would just ask some of the other camera flyers there but I don't want to always mooch music off their computer, or bogart their iPod when they are in a hurry and have shiz to take care of too. Thanks in advance for the help guys. -Bsbd

I tried this place out a couple of months ago after moving to Alabama, and quickly found this one to be my favorite. When I showed up after politely checking my credientials I was able to get on as many loads as I wanted to without any waiting around. By now I'm sure that I'm spoiled with the King Air that gets to altitude in no time flat. After hours gatherings with them are fun, and are also family friendly. You surely don't see alcohol induced projectile vomiting here after hours like you might see at other places. The people here are very safety concious without feeling the need to be skygods that look down their nose at you if you aren't wearing a screaming tight color coordinated RW suit while doing "cat paws" in the air with your eyes closed on the ride to altitude. Humor aside, there are skilled jumpers here willing to help you with your RW skills, free flying, CRW, Wingsuiting, Swooping, Skysurfing, or whatever your particular flavor happens to be. As a side note, common sense would probably tell you that if you go there without your license, your logbook, your reserve packing data card, or any reliable reference that can confirm your credentials they probably aren't going to risk the safety of the other jumpers there by letting you maverick around all over the sky. Not even if you tell them that you have a friend of a friend who let you jump out of their plane 3 weeks ago...Sorry. If your a normal skydiver, that enjoys skydiving with cool people and is at least safety concious enough to bring your license, log book, and reserve card, then you will love this place. Otherwise, your better off finding a non-USPA affiliated dz and trying out the new extreme sport of super-skydiving...where you just jump without the parachute cuz its way cooler that way.

Hey there folks. I'm working towards my rigging certificate under the supervision of a Senior Rigger and a Master Rigger at my dropzone and at my house I would like to make something to help me hang up reserves and mains so that I can inspect them more easily. I've seen it done at some of the rigging lofts in bigger dropzones. Most of the time I've seen it done via a long piece of wood or PVC pipe with clamps screwed onto it and rope or string on either side that goes up to a pulley on the ceiling. I was hoping some of you out there that use these in your rigging lofts might take a picture of the design that has worked best for you and share it, so that I can get a good idea of the best way to go about it instead of wasting time and energy on something that turns out to be a piece of garbage.