adamT

+1 to this. They are very good.

Nothing will last forever but compared to the marketed tongue and bite switches i've seen the blow switches might as well last forever. Through my carrier i've averaged 500-700 jumps on my bite switches, about 1 a year for me. Several of the people I know have put over 8000 on the same old blow switch, one has over 10. 8000, most skydivers will never do that many jumps total no less photo jumps. The only other system i've heard of coming close to those numbers is a tongue switch mounted on the chin cup that you poke with your tongue without putting the switch in your mouth. My next switch is finally going to be a blow switch. I was planning on trying these guys product but now im a little concerned with the shifty marketing practices. Especially the adds on peoples facebook, i really hate that kind of thing.

Dig that exit shot, nice launch!

Your probably also being confused by the slope of the recovery relative to the ground, which will be steeper shallower depending on upwind or downwind. Just like the take off that seemed climb faster into the wind. Or if your flying your rc in an area with vertical terrain creating rising and falling air then there is a lot more going on that this discussion isn't aimed at.

This is the greatest dz.com thread in a long time. Lets keep this alive forever. Who is going to be the next troll/amateur physicist/aviator to step up and prove these guys wrong with their personal experiences. I know inertia is a tough thing to wrap the head around but pick up a text book, or search the interwebs. And if you ever manage to find yourself in a fixed wing aircraft at 0mph in its airmass i hope you have some altitude on your side or an appropriately designed parachute. I really hope this has all been troll fodder, but im entertained either way.

Ever worry about them trying to hold on to the strut as you leave and injuring their shoulders? Maybe you have them keep their arms crossed or on their harness, just going by what i see in that pic.

A couple from years ago.

I agree with most of that, and it can easily be gone over in 5mins on the ground and then again in review on the ride up. As it should be. I strongly disagree with showing first time students where the emergency handles are and a giving out a few lines about how they are used. Not a big jump in logic to have a student decide that free fall has been going on too long and that there is a problem and they need to pull that handle behind them on the left because they remember something about it being used in an emergency. Hopefully you aren't releasing the drogue at that point. That's just one scenario. There are many paths that could end in tears if a student gets a hold of those at a bad time. Its your job to protect those handles, do yourself a favor, don't draw attention to them. Even training the drogue release increases risk if there is outside video in the mix. Even students who are properly trained sometimes pull handles early, in the tandem world and the aff world. Its all a balance of info of course. But i do believe that in some places a little bit of info adds more risk then it eliminates.

Proper instruction for flying and landing a parachute takes hours. That's not to speak of proper instruction for emergency procedures. There isn't a dz on this planet that spends more then 20 mins "teaching" first time tandem students, ill give ya 30min to be generous. In that time frame the best i think you will do with the vast majority of tandem customers is confuse them and make them more tense, increasing their likely hood of killing their instructor or making their life more difficult. All the videos and group ground briefings come down to pure cya. It is important to make the first timer feel include in the jump, that is your job. Along with keeping them as relaxed as possible so they can enjoy that new world as much as possible. The full FJC barley scratches the surface on how to survive solo in the skydiving environment. That's not what the first time tandem student signed on for, at most places they have that option as well, if they wish.

Personal preferance really, and that preferance will vary with customers just like it varries between jumpers. I find the .3 to be too narrow for a handcam. It's too constricted, a wider lens gives a better feeling of the vastness of their jump. It also helps make the inevitable instability of handcam less noticable. I'm not a fan of the distortion but I accept it as necessary evil to get the field of view I want. I agree vignette is unaceptable on a paid video, same withe pieces of the helmet of jumpers face in outside video. I think handcam is horrible for freefall compared to quality outside vid. Allthough after opening handcam wins, until landing that is. But I understand it's need and think it's an important option. In the end though we know that the student is going to be as happy as can be as long as they can see themselvs falling though the sky on vid. They usually don't know any better or have anything to compare it to, so even if it looks like crap to us they still love it. That's not say we shouldn't make the best product possible.

1. Start learning to skydive. 2. Spend as much time as possible at the dz. 3. Learn to pack for hire 4. Work your ass off on the mat. 5. Welcome to bum life, you'll figure it out from there. Its worked for a good number of us.

I'm still confused about the "90s are safer but almost as fast", angle? It's the speed that kills, specifically the vertical speed. You can't have the horizontal speed without first building the vertical. So where is the extra safty? Learning a bigger turn is an increased period of risk, but I think once you have the turn down it is less risky then a larger turn due to more control and more options. Which may be negated by the extra speed. So maybe they are equal in terms of the imposibble to measure metric of safty :p

It's easy to see that turns over 90 can be a bigger risk when done in a pattern with non high performance pilots. I don't belive by themselves they are safer. As has already been said in this thread you have alot less time for correction in a 90 degree turn. Those winning 90s were done by people I've competed with several times, to me their 90s looked alot less contolled and safe then their normal comp turn(although still impressive for what you had to work with). To argue that you can get as just as much speed from a small turn and be safer doesn't add up. It's that speed that allows you to slam yourself into the ground and die. To maximize the speed of a small turn is alot of comittment at the top and the bottom. There is a small amount time between those points. With a large turn there is more time between the initiation and the release, more time to adjust so the relese can be at the proper point in space. Of course you have to work up to that level, there are no short cuts but there are reasons we fly the way we fly. I belive swooping gets a bit safer at the level of big turns and loadings over 2.0. As long as you are honest with yourself that you are flying consistantly at that level and you have your limits and don't cross them. As far as radar guns go i'm not too worried about what they say. They are inacurate at best. This is from my experiance at varrious events, I don't know what method and gun was used in Lodi. I've been told I was going 81 on a run that I know wasn't that powerful and then clocked in the 60s on a run with alot more mustard, at the same event. Regardless I think it's great they setup a comp out there in Lodi. Looked like fun and I would of gone if I was out there at the time. Way to rip it up and not brake bills rules.

I'd also like to add the the paragliding development cycle is much faster then ours. The major manufactures refresh their entire line every 2 to 3 years. There are also more wing manufactures in their world then the skydiving industry. All though It is alot cheaper to send people up a hill to fly all day to test new ideas then burn a bunch of dead dinosaurs. They also don't seem to be as caught up in the liability trap that skydiving companies use as an excuse not to bring new tech to the market. The ram air wing may have started in skydiving but they don't wait on us to advance the tech. In just a few years their speed flying wings have gone from almost straight copies of stilettos and sprigos to cross braced wings in a variety of plan forms and line trim/lengths to suit several different styles of flying.

You can't get anywhere near the terminal velocity of a canopy loaded over 2.0 with a 90, no mater how hard you try. You can get some speed but you are barely scratching a swooping canopy's potential. Its really is a shame, 5$ freakin hop and pops, what a waste. I hope he changes his mind some day, but this rule seems to be sticking around for while.

For what its worth i've had a strike to the lens take the lens mount off of a pc105. This was with metal step rings. I still use mental step rings with my cx100 though.

I like the speed of the decent though. Covering that 700 vertical feet in 15 secs or so is exhilarating. Im open to trying the speed wings of course but they aren't going to provide that fall line feeling of just screaming down the slope, at least it doesn't seem that way. Its like the different style of ski races, do you want a bunch of smaller turns at slower speeds or larger turns at faster speeds. Its the swooper in me i guess. I like working the risers and body position. With the mobility in the sitting harness and riser i can achieve some pretty flat glides with steep skydiving style wings. The way i see it if i want to stay aloft i grab the paraglider. Maybe my opinion will all change when i finally get to try some paragliding speed wings. From watching though they don't look like they provide exactly what i like. Im excited to find out though.

Its best there with a straight off shore, right out of the west. The lines to the right and the bowl are ok with a northwest wind, but not too much north. I preferred flying there in light wind anyway. The first and last of the three in the link were with just enough wind at the top to keep the canopy over head while walking forward.

Kick ass stuff, i love it. Where is the site next to the bridge? feel free to pm me. The wing in my vid is a PD spire 10m, a velocity modded for foot launch really. I have a lot of flights on 120-135 GLXs as well. I haven't gotten to try the speed stuff from the paragliding side yet. Looking forward to it though.

A little taste of my preferred flying style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoPVpyNUNUc A paragliding style seated harness is very important to me. So much more comfortable and versatile compared to a hanging harness.

With all types of skydiving out of larger aircraft we rely on big sky little me to keep us safe more then any of us want to admit. It is pretty scary when you think about it.

Good luck everyone, kick some ass. Really wish i could be there. adam

Just realized that its not D at the picnic table, its me and Steph. Im riding Shatalov's coat tails to fame :P

I hear ya, it sucks to get hosed by the wind. In reality though i think you just have to accept it as part of competing in an outdoor sport. Correct me if im wrong but i don't think any other sport deals with it any differently then us, that is setting an upper limit and just going with it in anything lower. Skiing, golf come to mind as quick examples. Using an formula to assign a handicap/bonus seems like it will be impossibly complicated because its not just speed its direction. Plus its ever changing. I don't see it being possible to quantify a run with a cross/head start with a cross/down end compared to the opposite scenario. Its just too variable. The location of the anemometers, even if they are at the start and end of the course, won't tell you what the pilot was dealing with as they roll out of their turn and through recovery. Poor organizers already work hard to round up enough judging staff. I think the new speed formula is complicated enough. The wind is just something your going to have to become friends with. Get in tight with the wind gods. I like to use beer and silly dances leading up to comp day. Keeps me entertained anyway.

It certainly isn't in a high energy state after that maneuver. I think its kind of cool though, that you worked on it enough to be able to bring it that low. Not something i think ill ever add to my skill set, but cool none the less.