lintern 1 #1 June 21, 2004 I am in the process of purchasing my first rig and would like some advice. The container is a Wings and is practically new - its only done around 10 to 20 jumps. The main is an Icarus Safire 2 size 145 and is practically new with around 30 jumps. The reserve is a Techno 155, 2 years old I think? I don’t think its been used? The cypress is 10 years old so only has 2 years left on it. I am a small/medium build at 5 foot 6 inches. I weigh 10 stone (65kg, 140 pounds). I have been jumping for 2 years now. For the first 18 months I did 68 RAPS jumps but struggled to get past 3 second delays (very long story!). This year I changed to AFF which I successfully passed so I now have my A licence. To date I have done 106 jumps being made up of: - 68 RAPS jumps (10 of those were 3 second delays) - 9 AFF jumps (1 extra refresher level) - 10 consolidation jumps - 19 solo freefall jumps The student rigs on both RAPS and AFF were mainly a Skymaster or Manta 280. Since gaining my A licence I have downsized to a 235, a 210, a 190 and just lately a 150 and 145. Having spent so long on RAPS I have been doing good stand up landings for some time now and lately I have also been getting more and more accurate, even on the 190, 210 and 235 canopy's. With an estimated 20 pounds added to my body weight to get my exit weight, my wing loading works out at 1.1 (160 pounds / 145 square foot). My questions are: 1) Will I be OK on this size of canopy? I had a hard, fast landing on the 145 Safire and turned slightly right into the ground when flaring. I jumped a friends 150 Merit and also had a hard, fast landing. Yet I have jumped a 135 Sabre (unknowingly - I won't go into details!) and did a good stand up landing. 2) Can the reserve soft pad be changed to a D handle? I would prefer this, especially since it took me 2 attempts to cutaway when I had my first mal on RAPS because I forgot to peel the cut away pad ! 3) When I jumped my friends Merit 150 I had really bad twists and I almost came close to chopping it - luckily I managed to stop the twists going too far up towards the canopy. The person who had packed it is highly experienced and people suggested that I may have turned slightly on the pull causing the bag to twist - but I thought I stayed on heading when I pulled? I've never had twists on freefall before, only occasionally on RAPS. But now I’m worried that if it was me that caused the twists I may have got away with it on the bigger canopy’s but not this smaller 150 canopy. I didn’t get twists on the 145 Safire when I test jumped it, nor on any other of the canopy’s I downsized to. Could it have been me or the packing? Its not likely to happen on this rig I am buying will it? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mr2mk1g 10 #2 June 21, 2004 The Wings is a good container. It should not factor into this. Is it a very tight fit on the main or could you put something bigger into it for a while? Your canopy progression scares the hell out of me. There's little consistency meaning you've never had the opportunity to learn any one canopy before moving on. On the positive side, the wing loading is not that high, and the saffire II is not super aggressive... it is lightly elliptical though... I'm not sure how a CCI would look on someone with only 19 solo's jumping it. I know you've done a shit load of RAPS jumps, but those canopies are designed a world apart from this one, and literally twice the size. Talk to instructors and to your CCI. Don't just say you have 100 jumps, but really tell them about your canopy progression and what sort of jumps you’ve done. Tell them about how well you landed your recent canopies. And please don't downsize again till you are reliably landing your current canopy in a safe and controlled manner. I don't get how people can possibly say: "oh... I messed that landing up and it hurt like hell... I think I'm ready for something smaller now". Why downsize when you have yet to even master your current canopy size? 1. Ask a CCI/instructor who has seen you fly. 2. Yes easily and quite cheaply. Talk to your local rigger. 3. Body position on deployment is the most likely cause. Downsizing and changing from a merit to a saffire II will only make these twists easier to produce and far more difficult to deal with. Please think about practicing your basic freefall skills before introducing this sort of risk. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yoink 321 #3 June 21, 2004 solid advice... I have to admit curiosity as to how you'accidently' jumped a 135? That must have been interesting when you did your canopy check... 1 thousand 2 thousand 3 thousand 4 thousand check can... fuck me! Where's the rest of my parachute?! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ianmdrennan 2 #4 June 21, 2004 QuoteI have to admit curiosity as to how you'accidently' jumped a 135? I've seen an instructor with 3 identical looking rigs (2 with Vengence 150's and 1 with a Velo 103) accidently give the 103 to a jumper looking to jump the 150. Scary part is that the jumper was experienced enough (200+ jumps) to be able to tell the difference between a 150, etc but had NO FRIGGIN IDEA that he had a small x-brace above his head. Guess he never looked up . He did land it just fine though. Glad he never made any turns low to the ground. There was also a case where a studen in Deland took a 96 for a spin because the rig has the same colorings as their student gear (or something like that). It happens, just fortunately not a lot Blues, IanPerformance Designs Factory Team Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
yoink 321 #5 June 21, 2004 QuoteQuoteI have to admit curiosity as to how you'accidently' jumped a 135? There was also a case where a studen in Deland took a 96 for a spin because the rig has the same colorings as their student gear (or something like that). Blues, Ian BWAHAHAHH! brilliant... Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Remster 30 #6 June 21, 2004 QuoteBWAHAHAHH! brilliant... I think he was visiting in florida and jumps at my DZ... Either that, or there's another one who's done the same thing! lol As far as the original question, Talk to your CCI and experienced instructors at the DZ. They know you a lot more then we do. Smaller people very often have this big step down in size they are put in front of when switching from student equipment. It is a big step, so make sure you take it correctly.Remster Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mr2mk1g 10 #7 June 21, 2004 I just wanted to add to my comments lest I completely demoralise you with your recent purchase. My thoughts were (for what little they're worth at my low level) that it's a very good buy for a first rig and you've got yourself a really nice bit of kit that will last you for a good couple of hundred jumps... just take a little time getting onto that canopy and do it in a safe and sensible manner with the help and advice of instructors and your CCI. That and bow to more knowledgable advice than mine. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Snowflake 0 #8 June 21, 2004 Quote -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Quote -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I have to admit curiosity as to how you'accidently' jumped a 135? -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- There was also a case where a studen in Deland took a 96 for a spin because the rig has the same colorings as their student gear (or something like that). Blues, Ian I was borrowing one of the vidiots rigs that had a Cobalt 150. I was given a rig by #@%. I asked him 3 times was he sure this was the right rig he said yes. I dump from a track and bam instant .....and I do mean instant stilleto 107....stood it up no prob though. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
