sundevil777

What does a hydraulic reefing device look like, how does it work? People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4604224#4604224 People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

You should not trust what I am about to tell you, you should assume I'm completely wrong, or that you shouldn't even be 'armed' with such knowledge at this early point in your training. . I'm going to tell you it anyway, because I would want this info if I were you. Some of it others have already mentioned or you have heard from your instructors. It might help to think of the flare as first smoothly transitioning to level flight with plenty of left over forward speed, let if fly like that for just a small bit, then squeeze that last bit of flare power left over out of it to slow the forward motion. You MUST try this a bunch up high, dedicate a bunch of altitude to getting used to the feeling of what is called a dynamic flare, which is very different from what often happens when students just pull down abruptly without getting a feel for flying the wing. Fortunately student canopies are extra big, so even an abrupt flare can have decent results. A non-abrupt flare/flaring a bit more slowly also allows you to realize that you may have started your flare too early, and allow for adjustments before you pull all the way down. If you get half way through your flare (the first part of the dynamic flare, letting it level off and then pause) and realize you're too high, then just hold that brake position for a while until you get closer to the ground, and then finish the flare. Do NOT let up on the toggles. That will cause the canopy to surge forward and dive down quickly - requires a lot of altitude for the canopy to stop diving. Finishing the flare from a partially braked condition is actually very useful when it is necessary to land in a very tight area, and is often described as "sinking in" your canopy, or an "accuracy approach". When you "sink in" your canopy, you can correct for going long or coming up short of your intended spot by applying a bit more or less toggle input to adjust your angle of descent. The descent of a large canopy in a half to deep brake condition should be slow enough that you can PLF a landing with no flare at the end, just a steady descent rate with less than normal forward speed. A variation of this technique that is more commonly seen is when someone is going long, they might apply some brakes for a short time, but then smoothly go back to full flight with plenty of altitude to spare so that they don't hit the ground while the canopy surges forward (and it does surge dangerously forward, especially if you let the toggles up quickly). Some tandem instructors use this technique to get extra airspeed from the surge for a more effective flare, but you can also kill yourself. I am only advising you learn more about how this "sinking it in" technique is done and why it is useful - DO NOT just try it out yourself at this stage in your jumping career - it deserves serious discussion with an instructor. I think it is reasonable to do some of this stuff at high altitude (after discussion with your instructor). If you do start your flare too early and get the toggles ALL the way down and realize you're too high, what is important is that you don't allow the canopy to stall, which is when the canopy stops making significant lift and you drop like a rock usually with a leaned back orientation (hard to land on your feet - hitting your butt hard, or breaking your wrist/arm as you did). So, if you make the mistake of flaring fully too high, you should realize that you can land in a full flare condition as long as the canopy isn't stalled. Realizing what that 'stall' feels like takes practice (up high) and the need to hover just a bit before that stall point is the only time you should consider letting up just a bit on the toggles when landing (when you realize you're deep in toggles and the canopy has/is stalling). Managing that stall point only requires small adjustments and again should be practiced up high so you know what it really feels like to do it. You can land your canopy while hovering near the stall point with an acceptable rate of descent, and it is MUCH better than letting up a lot on the toggles (surging), or allowing the canopy to stall. The problem is that you may screw up - so don't (yes, I know, easy to say). Many students are not able to reach stall on their large student canopies without wrapping the brake line around their hand. As you jump smaller canopies, it will definitely be possible to stall. All of this stuff is not natural for a new jumper to have thought about, but I think it is worth discussing so that you and others can gain valuable knowledge. As long as you realize that advice you get from the internet might be simply wrong, misinterpreted or misapplied, and you take responsibility to thoroughly review it with your instructors, then you might accelerate your learning curve (a good thing). Be careful out there. Your instructors should be able to discuss these topics with you, but they may also very rightly conclude that it is too much info to take in and process/execute at this stage for you. I may well get flamed for passing on too much advice too early in your training, and probably deserve such flaming, but you've already been hurt when I think this info may have prevented it. Don't mess up! People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

No, they were about 1600 when I bought miy first one in 2002 People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Marion is a long way from where a person would need it to go. SSK is in Lebanon. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Regular rubber bands make sense except for the critical, middle locking stows. And what do you use for the middle locking stows instead? I have a mirage, there are only 3 locking stows... I make my own tubestows and use them for the critical locking stows. My bag has 4, the middle 2 I consider critical and take the most stress. It would be perfect if bands would only break when we might want them to, in order to prevent a bag lock for instance. Bands are far from perfect, and I think they are far too likely to break when I don't want them to, and result in an out of sequence deployment. I think that there are a significant number of hard openings that are the result of the canopy dumping out of the bag early. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

They also break when there is not a reason. The other message that I get from Mr. Sherman's design is that he doesn't trust a d-bag to be held shut by a small number of rubber bands. I think that is wise. To the original poster, consider doing a search, as there are many threads on this subject. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Regular rubber bands make sense except for the critical, middle locking stows. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

They also break easier when you definitely don't want them to break. I think many will use rubber band locking stows even after they have already started to split. They can start to split when just installing a new one on the bag and using it for the first time. I don't think it is wise to use locking stows that have already started to split/fail. It is pretty common to have broken locking stows after a jump. That makes me think they may have broken too early, and then the remaining locking stows are under even more stress. The Racer speedbag design does not rely on just a couple rubber bands to hold the canopy in, and I think that is wise. I know very well that stronger locking stows increase the chance of a bag lock, but I also know very well that it decreases the chance of the canopy dumping out of the dbag early. I'll take that tradeoff and pack with care. [inline stretch.jpg] People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Unless you're a student, adjust the brakes to change that. Being able to slow it down depends a lot on this. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

The Astra can seem to be an attractive option, but it is not. Don't bother going there, you'll regret it. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Everything is top notch here, nothing left to be desired except I wish I lived a lot closer. Even if there are closer dropzones, you won't find a better one than StartSkydiving. Cliff Rubenstein

Isn't that what PD said about the original Sabre? People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Symmetry is vastly overrated! There is no benefit to the symmetry that you think is essential, and no extra strain caused by this perceived asymmetry . Perhaps the "offset" as you see it is just how much each side flap extends toward the centerline of the rig-past the grommet. The position of the grommet with respect to the centerline is a design point that is independent of how much the flap extends past the position of the grommet. Maybe I'm not understanding your point, but when I noticed the same thing on my rig, I thought that it was evidence of a carefully thought out design instead of a problem. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

The handle location should not be related to closing flap sequence. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

I can't remember where I heard this, but I think it is funny. Rap is to music what etch a sketch is to art Yes, I know there are some artists that do amazing things with an etch a sketch. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Because you are wise enough to have a low WL, your canopy still flies well even with such a tear. That is good news. I landed something similar in the lower middle cell, no problem even at a 1.15 WL. Instead of losing trust in the canopy, perhaps try to see it as an affirmation of how much tolerance there is in your canopy. I've never noticed any threads at all talking about Safires getting tears, so it should probably just get an extra thorough inspection along with repair. Maybe the mfg can learn something from it. Maybe they could be convinced to give a break on the price of repair - worth trying. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

30 years ago, we never started a downplane until about that altitude. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Perhaps a little thread drift might help with meaningful conversation. Such as...if you owned/operated a DZ, would you require AADs? I would throw in to the question an assumption that CRW rigs would be exempt. They are usually pretty obvious to spot visually and aren't very versatile that they would be used for other purposes. I think that as a DZO, it would be very tempting to require AADs. I think it likely that a DZO would wish that certain motivating factors that would push them to that decision didn't exist, but in reality they are there. What is the actual experience of DZs that do now require them - has it been really bad for the popularity of it with experienced jumpers? Are any of these DZs that require them in a location where there is nearby competition without the requirement? People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Have you already found this in earlier threads - comparison of forces, I believe that it was provided by UPT (previously called RWS)? I don't know if it is for only one side or both together. I am staying old school and use big rings and risers. Some say that mini risers serve a useful purpose of limiting opening shock forces. I can appreciate that, but would like it to be purposely engineered/designed for that purpose to avoid some of the downsides of having that function as an afterthought. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

They're figuring the jumper's vertical speed to be a little less than 100 km/h. People spending so much time on this thing should be able to get the speed under canopy more accurately than that. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

I jump a large canopy with wide risers, so I don't pull the slider down, and therefore loosening the chest strap is of no value. Just collapse the slider and open the helmet visor after verifying no traffic issue. I release the brakes nearly right away, instead of pulling on risers to make early inputs. If my canopy is sniveling much, that means I'm releasing the brakes before it is completely done opening. I'm very proficient at grabbing the brakes quickly (I like toggles that naturally stay open) and it allows me to turn very quickly. I stow my brakes very carefully with the excess stowed in a way that assures it will stay out of the way until the brake is released. I realize not many do things this way, and that some will say that it is not the best. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Something that small toward the end? Yep, it would. We jump in the last km of atmosphere, a meteorite has a good 100km at least to start the deceleration. A meteorite that, after the burnout part, remains that small, it would decelerate pretty quickly and be at at a normal terminal velocity by the time it is in the part of atmosphere we live in. It simply has a very small inertia, which means it looses speed very fast, the inertia of a "stupid" rock, it doesn't matter where it comes from. And thus it slows down with the exact same characteristics of a rock. Friction, especially when at higher speeds, would be the leading force VS gravity attraction (the opposite is true for a big rock). Of course, different story is for massive meteorites with bigger inertia and with bigger gravity attraction forces, but as far as a rock like that is concerned, I am positive it has to fall at a regular terminal velocity shortly after the initial shocks, even if we accept the "meteorite theory". Yes, after a little research, it seems to be confirmed - the small ones can slow down to normal speeds. I should have checked, but I thought that given their 10 to 70 km/s speeds that they would be through the atmosphere too quickly to slow down. Here's a link to a similar size rock that did more damage to a car than I would think would be done by a rock that size at normal terminal velocity: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Benldmeteorite.jpg People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Well no, truth be said from my perspective: he would have been the unluckiest man to be HIT by a meteorite. :D Not by the time it's so close to earth and it exhausted all the extra speed during the entering into the atmosphere (the part when they "burn") and subsequent descent through it. At this point it would be the exact same speed of a rock of the same size thrown by the aircraft, for example. Terminal speed is not influenced by your past "history" too much. :) When an object is originally moving as fast as a meteorite would be moving, then I am not at all sure that it can be expected that the energy would be "exhausted" as you say. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

My first reaction is that I would have thought it would be moving much faster if it were a meteorite. People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am