3mpire

me: "oh this should be interesting..." me: ...reads... me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UkJehlr1tEw

If you close your eyes on the step of a 182 you can pretend you're jumping out of anything. True story.

100% agreement. ONly thing I'd add for the OP is that you should do some hop and pops on your current main to get an idea of what that would feel like. Make note of your alt when you leave, clear the plane, deploy, and then make note of your alt so you know what to expect. Something to keep in mind with subterminal openings is that youre not falling straight down, you are going to have some forward throw from the airplane. So you will travel further than your altitude loss because you're not going straight down. however you're also not going that fast, so after you pitch, you should fully expect to feel the deployment take a longer time. I'd describe it as "mushy" and "lazy". Do a bunch of those until you feel perfectly comfortable with the altitude loss and the deployment characteristics. That said i'm on board with the rest of the advice--if you're getting out low go straight to silver. Not only will you open faster, but considering you're not going to have much exit separation, I wouldn't want to be sniveling down into other canopies that might already be deployed below me.

That's interesting, John, thanks for the education. It makes sense when you think of radar for what it really is--microwaves. I knew that modern radar systems are processed before display, but wasn't sure how. It makes sense that non-moving ground clutter would be defined as things that don't have lateral speed. Though that makes me wonder if the squirrel suits with aluminized mylar on the arms might make a little blip

I'm assuming you mean the amputee skydiving team, not the 1978 concept album by styx

I read the following today: Which got me to thinking... how big of a formation do you need to have before you might show up on ATC radar? Does modern radar technology filter out this kind of "noise" or does a sunset load 15 way RW jump show up on radar as a big meatball?

pretty cool--congrats to everyone who put that together!

But be aware if you are a very odd size and you buy new, expect it to be hard to then later sell your very odd size rig should you want to move on from it.

I've been jumping for just over four years, married for 6 months to a non-jumper, and have a 2 year old son. So suffice to say I can relate to where you're coming from. I can't speak to your case as I don't know you, but I can tell you that I have taken on extra work to bring in money to pay for all jumping/gear/tunnel expenses. I only jump at the DZ twice a month (i.e. every other weekend for 1 day only). I am lucky to have a wind tunnel near by, though, so a few times a month (or sometimes every week) I'll go down there after work to get some team training in. The way we make it work is that any time I get to myself has to be balanced out with reciprocal free time for my wife. So say I fly tunnel Thursday evening and jump load 1 to sunset saturday, Friday night my wife goes out with her friends, and sunday morning I'm flipping pancakes and taking my son to the park while my wife spends time with her friends. It works for us, but that's because the question of me not jumping at all isn't on the table, so for us it's a matter of balance. Not really trying to give you any specific advice, just trying to show you that it can be done, and it doesn't have to be an all or nothing type deal.

$40k USD and you still have to pay more for extra alt

nobody has mentioned this yet: the amount of time you fly in a session/day really is dependent on what you're working on. I can fly 15 minutes of 4way FS, take thirty minutes off to debrief, and fly another 15 minutes and feel fine. One 15 minute session working on my sit and stick a fork in me I'm done. A big part of that is your physical fitness level overall (which I'm working on) but the larger point that applies here is that the difference in effort you put into belly flying at 62% and sit flying at 75% is real. So when you're trying to figure out your budget and how to plan your time, you should be aggressive to get the max gain but not bite off more than you can chew to the point that you spend the last 15 min of your block on your back with spaghetti arms because you're maxed out. If you're just starting out in the tunnel maybe a big up front focus on belly flying and basic back flying would be worth it with later weekly 15s once you get to sit transitions and whatnot. You never told us what your goals in the tunnel are, but I'm assuming you're looking for the FF progression. Just something to think about.

I have jumped there--that's actually where I chopped the cobalt. Got my money back shortly after getting home and got a different canopy and haven't looked back

I had 13 jumps on a cobalt and in that time frame went through one set of risers, two break lines, and 1 cut away. What can I say.

Any recommendation on a good tape measure that doesn't cost too much?

Councilman made a comment that a modern main can take up to 1000 feet to open, wstcstcmtr cracked a joke that a sabre1 opens fast (with less altitude loss), and I cracked a joke that a demon cobalt would open even faster. lighten up francis.

Thanks folks! My team mate has the Rhythm spreadsheet and spent a few hours putting that together--I was so impressed I thought I'd ask to see if any other teams or individuals had undergone a similar process that might be a bit different. It's really interesting to take all the data and start to analyze--but I'm a bit of a data nerd so maybe I get more excited about that kind of stuff

Does anyone out there have any mechanisms (spread sheets, computer programs, etc.) for measuring 4way team performance? We've been working a lot this past winter and summer as a team, and we've amassed enough jumps and tunnel sessions to have a data set big enough that I'd like to see what we can learn from it. If there is already a proven way to crunch these numbers, i'm interested in learning more if anyone out there is interested in sharing. thanks!!

or a cobalt if you're, you know, serious about wanting to experience a hard opening in it's purest form....

I can't think of any reason why the German engineers might be a little slow at work lately.... /worldcup if anything, i'd rather they take their time getting over their hangover before they check off my AAD

if you're doing something like sharing rental cars or hotel rooms, make sure to get people to pay you up front for their share. even if up-front means they put money on your account at the dz when you're signing waivers on the first day. they won't be good for it by the end of the trip

weatherflow looks like the beez neez to me -- I always have my phone and it won't take up much room in the gear bag. i'm sold!

Holy moly! About 10x the budget but a good lesson on what the accuracy/range you get for the money. As a longer term thing I could just troll eBay and Craigslist to find a deal

I'd like to have a wind meter in my gear bag so I can take responsibility for myself on questionable wind days. I don't like having to ask someone else what the winds are doing (though if you have to ask more than once maybe that's all you need to know to stand down!) That aside, anyone have one they swear by? Doesn't need to do anything fancy, but it would be nice to have one that shows average speed as well as peak (gusts) Was looking at this one on amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005DF9VUC/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_AhSWtb0V3RTE6

Absolutely--that's a fair point. I wasn't speaking about individuals, and I suppose there is an implicit value judgement in what I said that isn't fair. Everyone has different motives and reasons for speaking out publicly or choosing to take a personal stand based on morality without then putting the other party on blast. It is more of a general observation, I suppose, that many high profile people support the DZ and an unknown and comparatively quiet number don't. Personally, I can't keep an opinion to myself if I think something isn't right. It doesn't always win friends, and sometimes you're the only one publicly taking the other side, but it's just how I'm wired. I don't hold it against people if that's not how they operate

that's cool, but also a bummer--nobody is ashamed to be on the cover of a magazine or in a tv commercial jumping from their planes or covered in their logos, but others are ashamed or unwilling to say they WON'T do so because they don't want to lend legitimacy to a country that has such human rights baggage.