CanuckInUSA

Myself and three other people should be flying into TFs in a Twin Comanche sometime Sunday afternoon and we'll be there for a few days. We're going to miss some of the action of course, but we should be there for the 2nd half. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Works for me. It'll grow back right? Hey I've got my own swoop road rash to deal with in my right forearm this morning. So if it does get infected (I'm thinking it won't right now), I too will need some Jack and a saw. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Just know that a Sabre 170 is very capable of being a high performance canopy (with all the good and bad which comes with high performance flight). Sure my Velo is like driving a Ferrari. But one can still make mistakes with a Buick as well. I know what a Sabre(2) 170 is capable of doing because I made several hundred jumps with one a couple of years ago. Make no mistake that this can be a high performance canopy and a canopy which can kill or mame you. I would highly recommend that you at the very minimum buy Mr. Germain's book and if possible talk to a credible canopy control coach or an experienced swooper (someone with thousands of jumps not your local 'X' number of jumps beer line wonder) who's willing to work with you. Dedicate jumps towards canopy control. Sure you can play with your fronts up high, but don't forget to practice the slow flight characteristics as well. But until you've spent more time learning your canopy up high and building experience, you really are nothing more than a test pilot by inducing speed low to the ground. And test pilots don't always live. Oh and just to prove that guys like myself are human and capable of making mistakes. I came close to taking out a judge in a CPC swoop comp today in one of those "really hot approaches" you refered to earlier. My leg actually did hit his body, but luckily all that happened was minor injuries to both of us and I was able to continue to complete (albeit with some pain and less confidence). It could have been much worse and hopefully I learned a huge lesson (time will tell) in all of this. Swooping is a lot of fun. But it's not safe and it requires knowledge, experience (only obtained by jumping a lot and being current) and skill (maybe a little luck as well). Don't be a test pilot. Learn to become a canopy pilot. But becoming a canopy pilot does take time. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

0:28:1 No humps ... 28 jumps (oh my weekends are long weekends every weekend ever since I became unemployed last month). Beer paid in full for my 1000th jump made last Thursday. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

What no mention of my stellar performance during the "Garrett Accuracy" event. I'm still disappointed that I wasn't awarded max points for what I did on that jump. Actually in all seriousness, this was a scary incident and I'm happy that both Garrett and myself walked away from it without any serious injuries (I am in pain and I'm sure Garrett is as well). Hopefully a lesson was learned by myself (abort when I mess up my gate alignment during my turn and take a zero ... I mean I got a zero anyway) and this incident definitely messed with whatever confidence I had and I was never able to really produce a nice clean run all day long. But congrats to those who did fly clean and special congrats to Grant for that bad ass 402 foot swoop. He was like the energizer bunny, he just kept going and going. Thanks for another fun swoop comp Jason (and the people of Mile-Hi). I'm bummed about my own performance today and my confidence did suffer. But I will get back on the horse in a few days and continue practicing. I figure any issues I have competing now shouldn't be there 10,000 jumps from now. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

The setup is more than just altitude. The setup requires you to get yourself and your canopy into a certain area of sky, jump after jump no matter what variable weather conditions you experience and air traffic you encounter. It's not easy reading the weather and not crashing into your fellow skydiver (or worse ... the ground). Knowing how to setup for a swoop is all about knowing the slow flight characteristics of your canopy. Plus a lot of what you ask has to do with the wingloading, density altitude, type of canopy and canopy control. One must learn the performance envelope of a canopy before one starts swooping low to the ground. To skip this step is to fly by "trial and error" and error has a way of messing people up very fast. Every jump is different. It's all about knowing how to control your canopy and the only way to do this is through experience. Learning to swoop takes hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of ... well hopefully you get the picture. I'm no canopy nazi. If you want to swoop, cool!!! But at your jump experience, you are rolling the dice. You may survive, but that will depend on what you do tomorrow. If you want to become a swooper: 1) Become educated in canopy control from credible coaches. 2) Dedicate jumps towards learning canopy control. 3) Learn the slow flight characteristics of your canopy before you start seeking speed. 4) Put hundreds and hundreds of jumps on larger canopies before you downsize to the next smaller size and don't make huge downsizing steps or canopy type steps. 5) Be patient. To skip any one of these steps makes you a test pilot, rolling the dice with your life. I haven't been in the sport all that long and I did downsize more aggressive than many would have recommended. But I have always been current. I have been formally trained in canopy control on more than one occasion and I started off swooping large canopies putting hundreds of jumps on each canopy and I never made huge downsizing steps before I got to where I currently am and who knows where swooping will take me. It could be fame, it could be mediocracy or maybe the grave. Anyone of us could mess yourselves up swooping one day. Never said this shit was easy nor safe. But at least I've survived this long (1000+ jumps) without a serious injury and it's because I recognized that skipping steps towards becoming a swooper wasn't a wise move. Be smart dude. Swooping rocks, but it's very unforgiving. Unless you're ready to pound out a shit load of jumps in a short period of time, you really should back off on inducing speed until you've learned the slow flight characteristics of your parachute. Oh but there's nothing stopping you right now from learning how to fly your parachute ... and fly it fast. Just do it up high before you bring it low to ground. Instead of asking us what altitude you should setup at, you should have learned the performance envelop of your canopy first. But that takes education, experience and patience. I've got no problem with you wanting to be a swooper. The next step is up to you. Do you want to be a swooper or a test pilot? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Actually Colin that Devil wingsuit balloon jump has been the most incredible jump I've made to date. Even better than some of my "E"s which were also super special. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yup that's them. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Yesterday's spark plug problems were nothing compared to today with no fuel at the DZ and a gazillion tandems and AFFs taking up every slot so far. Four hours and counting and load three hasn't even left the ground. So much for trying to get some training runs in today. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

A lot will depend on the wingloading, density altitude, location, overall size of canopy, style of canopy, weight, body position, speed of the skydiver at deployment time etc, etc, etc. But a student canopy is going to eat up less altitude opening than something like my canopy would. My canopy eats up altitude faster than you'd believe. Learn the gear you jump, but also don't forget. It's a parachute, it wants to open!!! We just never said it would open on heading or anything like that. This is not an easy question to answer without risking getting flamed here. It's a personal thing. But one must know their limits and experience levels before one tries to really test what you're asking. For sure, know where you're going to land by the time you're 1000 feet AGL under canopy. Don't be one of those people who got messed up thinking they could make it back, or don't be one of those people who tried to recover from a canopy malfunction that wasn't recoverable. Trust your reserve. Learn how to use it. Learn your gear. It's a parachute. It wants to open!!! You already know the answer. Learn how to complete your flares. If your gear is really preventing yourself from doing this, then get new, more modern gear. But learning to complete your flare is the key to any nice landing. Of course we never said this stuff was easy. I like to execute something similar to a baseball slide when I'm hauling ass going too fast to run it out. It's not the perfect method, but it does save my spine. PLFs have their time and their place. PLFs are necessary when you're coming towards the ground vertically. But sliding is a good method to learn (please don't try this method until you build more experience in the sport) when you're hauling ass horizontally across the ground. Just watch out with your spine. You don't want to come down too hard on that. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Large skydivers have big challenges just as the small peeps have. It's those average sized skydivers that piss me off. They have no idea what it's like to be a big guy or a small girl and trying to match fall rates with others. But there are two ways to overcome these issues. The easiest method (and recommended for you right now) is to dress for success. If you're a big person, wear a baggy jumpsuit. If you're a small person wear a jumpsuit with little drag. And in time, your skill and experience will be elevated and you WILL learn how to fly your body in order to slow down or speed up. But that takes time and patience. So dress for success and wear the appropriate jumpsuit for your body type. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I am a swooper and I don't want to get hurt. Skydiving is not safe. There may be more dangerous activities out there, but skydiving will never be a safe activity. We'll always find new ways to mess ourselves up. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I would like to thank Julien, Sarah, Jay, Patrick and Brad for joining myself earlier today for my 1000th skydive which turned out to be a fun 6-way freefly. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Ya but that cheating bastard sold me his old Velo 103 canopy complete with his old customized brake settings (it's fast I tell you). Hmmm ... I'm flying the very same wing that won our last CPC event. Is it the pilot or the wing? Time will tell. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Hey Ian I learned a few things today. A good setup in wind is ultra important. But I also learned that I need go for it while swooping into a head wind (I actually held back several times today trying to finess it into the zone accuracy landing areas in a head wind). Anyway I was hoping to get some no-wind zone accuracy practice in today and it was only on my last jump (sunset load) where I could do it (I landed in zone 2). So it's not like I didn't learn anything today. It's just that I was frustrated earlier in the day when things didn't go as I wanted them to go. But (maybe this is a blessing), I mean if I was all dialed in today, I could get complaicent and what would I need to work on tomorrow? At least I know I've got somethings to work on. And as far as beating you is concerned, well I need to crack our top five first. That's pretty obvious. But don't count us CO peeps out. We're pretty competitive at the moment and our top five (who ever they are) will have the home court advantage (we're used to swooping in this thin air of ours) come September. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

If you're serious about becoming a competitive swooper do three things: 1) Seek qualified coaching. 2) Be patient. 3) Get some entry gates set up at your DZ. The CPC is ultra cool for those of us who have the luxury of jumping where the CPC is available, but it really comes down to practice, practice and well practice. I wouldn't be where I am today (which is pretty much nowhere) if it wasn't for the fact that entry gates have been setup at my DZ for a while now. Hitting the entry gates is NOT easy. It takes practice. But swooping into a big open field is boring now that I've been hitting gates for the last few hundred jumps. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Well you'll be happy to know that my training hasn't gone as I would have liked it to go today. Not only has there been a pretty strong 10+ mph head wind into the course making what I wanted to do with ZA irrelevant. But the airplane has malfunctioned a couple of times as well. Oh well, hopefully tomorrow will go better. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Maybe it's just me, but the course looks about 5 feet or so wider than our course here in CO. But it could just be my eyes and the pics playing tricks on me. Also, we've got 10 foot high noodles surrounding our course not wind blades. But the winds blades do show the cross-wind the TX competitors had to deal with during this comp. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

You really don't want me hanging around the DZ this summer do you? BTW ... I'm going to be practicing some zone accuracy today and if I get the hang of it ("if" being the key word), you guys are in deep "do-do's" this weekend. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I had one of those company wide meetings back in the late 90s while I was working at a company in Colorado Springs. Needless to say the jewish employees and non-christian employees weren't too happy when the CEO forced everyone to pray for his guidance as company CEO. Oh and God/Jesus didn't do squat for this company. Their doors were closed within months of this meeting. When you've got a bad business plan, no amount of religion is going to fix it. Oh and Kelel01 you can quit this job and come join me/us here at the DZ all summer long. I plan to do my fair share of jumping this summer during this current unemployment stint of mine. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

To eliminate one of the two canopies from coming out and dumping me on my ass with it. Yes sure the reserve is still vulnerable, but at least my main won't kill me. Where's the harm in eliminating one risk? Oh or is this a "you should always be safe no matter what thread". And if that's the case I better give up skydiving, riding my motorcycle, swooping, BASE jumping, Ground Launching, Skiing, Mountain bike riding, mountaineering, rock climbing, etc, etc, etc. Oh what the heck maybe I should give up living my life to it's fullest because it's obviously not safe. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Then I'm going to get dumped on my ass on the highway in front of cars and maybe just maybe I'll never need to worry about making that mistake again right? I don't always ride my bike to the DZ and lately I've been keeping my rig at the DZ if I know I'm going to be riding. But there are the occasional times (like yesterday) when I find myself on my bike with my rig. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened. It's just another risk versus reward scenario. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Congrats ... and now the real learning begins. Plus we're looking forward to your next Milestones (such as joining the triple digit club). Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

Good catch. Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

I disconnected my 3-rings today. I rode my motorcycle to the DZ with my rig on my back and thought that it would be a good idea to disconnect the canopy from the rig. So does that count as maintenance? Try not to worry about the things you have no control over