Spizzzarko

I would suggest that you learn about braked approaches first. This will give you some more necessary survival skills, for when some jackass decides to swoop in the same place and time that your trying to. Once you learn those I would practice front riser use up high. Once you get that down, then I would set up long and out and use double fronts straight in for approach to landing. Why should you land out? There's no real need to be learning how to swoop in a crowded landing area. Also practice making a smotth transition from fronts to risers. (NEVER TAKE YOUR HANDS OUT OF THE TOGGLES) Once you get proficient with that, then you can think about 90's. Again practice up high,watching how much altitude you lose in a 90 degree front riser turn. Set up no lower than the maximum altitude you lost! Do this over and over again. Once you think you are proficient with them, then practice some more. You can practice up high all you want, you only have one chance at the bottom end. Then try 180's using the same method of altitude recognition. It's going to be a totally different sight picture, so you need to practice practice practicepractice practice. Give up free fall, it does you no good any ways, and just practice your turns.... That's all i have to say about that.

Getting old... I don't care about the bugs, frogs, eating spiders, pain... Just getting old.... Maybee I'll be lucky, and go in in a flaming ball of GLORY as I re-enter the atmosphere, it has to be before I get old though. Hopefully people will talk abut it for years to come, and newbies will learn about it from the old hands in the Skydiving History forum!

I have heard of some of the competitive swooper saying to get the biggest canopy possible and to use weight to bring their loading up. More wing means more lift.

IT MIGHT MAKE YOU A LITTLE FLOATY THOUGH... being bulky and all.

Watch out for the head down landings. Low time jumpers, and students tend to see lenses, and ring sights as something they need to touch. That's all I have to say about that.

I dropped by there on my way to nationals ,and found it to be CLOSED!!! It was a thursday afternoon, and I was all heart broken after all that Miami told me about the place.

I gazed into the pond one day (Perris Swoop Sewer Pond), and went into it in my first and subsequently only swoop contest to date. I had a new Odyssy, new 126R, new FX104, and cypress. I turned to low, caught an air blade, ran out of lift, and the princess of the pond reached out and got me. I looked like swamp thing coming out of it. It was slightly embarrasing.

It looks to me that he is intentionally trying to shut the canopy down by creating lift and then sinking it into a small area with the toggles. That can be a very unforgiving technique. Personally I would set up further back and then try to shut it down a little further into the swoop. The rule of thumb is to hold what you got when you are stalled out or to let up just slightly for stall recovery. You really don't want to put it back into full flight. Either way you really don't want to stall your canopy close to the earth.

Mine may have been a fluke. I know PISA was have trouble with them opening hard several years back. Thats when I had mine. I think the were giving out replacement sliders. I never got one, I just went to a stilletto instead. That was just my experience with heat waves. The 150 I jumped wasn't that bad, but I just liked stilletto's better.

He's actually transitioning his forward speed to lift by adding more rears than he needs.

I like to look at the horizon. It gives me a much better idea of altitude. Try it.

I had a Heat Wave 135 and it sucked. I liked the stilleto 135 much better. I Jumped the 150 heat wave and stilleto 150, too. I just liked the stilletto better. The stilletto' opened much better. The hw 135 opened very hard every time. I tried everything to get it to open better, but it didn't.

Hook and swoop saw me stall out my FX on rears. He laughed at me, and I think I might have cried, maybe I didn't, I just don't know.

Your actually deflecting more of the air with rear riser input, but you are creating less drag than if you are using toggles. You are partly right with changing the angle of attack quickly can cause a stall too.

I have stalled out my FX on rears in a swoop. One second I was swooping the next second I was sliding across the earth at a high rate of speed. The rear riser stall is much more sensitive than that of a toggle stall. Try it up high. It's pretty cool. Do a front riser turn and then jam on the rears like you are digging out of the corner. The onset of the stall will be fairly smooth. Once you see your pilot chute go straight up, you are pretty well stalled out. I have landed my VX once completely in rears, but that was on a pretty windy day. Be carefull with the rears, they can be cool , but they can bite you in the ass really quickly. Do everything repeatedly up high, and then when you can do it perfectly up there, do it some more. After you have done it some more then maybee you can think about bringing it down to the dirt. You can also do it on bigger canopy's too, but practice up high. That's all i have to say about that.

RSL's have been hotley debated since there inception. Most camera jumpers chose not to use them, or to disconnect them when they are jumping cameras. The reason being, there is a large amount of junk attached to their craniums. Take for instance, you are filming a tandem jump and you have a spinning malfunction that has wrapped up into your camera. Do you want to instantaniously cut that away? Choice A. Cut away.... The main separates from the rig but is stil entangled with your camera. Your trusty RSL is attached, now you have the chance of a main reserve entanglement. Choice B. Jetteson the helmet and cut away. Now you are back in freefall but you are clear of entanglements. Your reserve is free to deploy, and after having rolled onto your stomache and deploying your reserve, and making several practice flares, you will land in the peas with a perfect tip toe landing. (assuming the gods are on your side that day. I try not to anger them by consuming offerings of beer on a daily basis) RSL's are a hit or miss subject with different jumpers. Personally, I don't like them, but that's just me. I don't feel comfortable unless I have some sort of material out over my head by 3,000'. I jump a smaller canopy so that gives my a cushion of time to deal with problems. I hope this will help you to make a decision about RSL's. That's all I have to say about that.

Hey Ray, What's going on brotha... It was good to see you again at the nationals this year. Are you going to be at the fantasy of Kurt, I mean Flight? I'll be down there with the AF team. It will be a quick trip for us. Thanks for the beers at nationals, and the critique on the landing. If I don't see you at Kurt's Fantasy of flight, maybee I'll see you at Collegiates. Grant

The thing I noticed the most about all of the people in the video was how low they were turning. The best way to get more speed is to start up higher and be smoother. whipping a low turn isn't going to get you any cool points in my book.

Ahhhhh---sooooo great skymaster, I see your point. Conversely, wouldn't having the mod with a shorter e-line give a little more lift by pulling more of the tail down with a rear input? Therefore you would not have to give as great an input to create the desired amount of lift, and less drag would be created, and the swoop, if properly performed, would be longer? Or am I completely missing the point. It has happened before... missing the point that is.

I think it depends on the type of canopy you are using, and the conditions you are encountering. I fly a variety of canopies, and use different techniques on each of them. Some times the technique I used to get back on one jump may be different than the technique I use on a different jump. Take being down wind or up wind for instance. On my Spectre 170 up wind I use brakes, down wind I use rears. On my VX 98 and fx 104 I use rears up wind or down wind. When I jump the pd 300 I use brakes exclusively. The amount of imput I use on the brakes varies on the conditions. Try every thing and see what works for you the best. Don't just blindly do what some one tells you to do, it may not work for you, or it may be flat out wrong. Look at the post about the nipples. Two different instructors saying two different things. That's all I have to say about that.

To: ALL Date: Today From: Spizzzarko Subject: E-Line Modification 1. Have any of you done an e-line modification for cross braced swooping canopies? I'm thinking of doing this to my VX and FX for more rear riser performance. 2. If you have done this, where do you attach the extra line to on the riser? I was thinking it would be attached to the guide ring that keeps the control lines. 3. Also, how much slack, if any, are you putting into the extra line. I was thinking there was no slack so it would pull the tail down immediatly when you put rear riser input in. 4. This was also posted in the gear and rigging forum to see what they have to say about that. 5. That's all I have to say about that. Spizzzarko Rules The World!!!

To: ALL Date: Today From: Spizzzarko Subject: E-Line Modification 1. Have any of you done an e-line modification for cross braced swooping canopies? I'm thinking of doing this to my VX and FX for more rear riser performance. 2. If you have done this, where do you attach the extra line to on the riser? I was thinking it would be attached to the guide ring that keeps the control lines. 3. Also, how much slack, if any, are you putting into the extra line. I was thinking there was no slack so it would pull the tail down immediatly when you put rear riser input in. 4. That's all I have to say about that.

Ray, I still have the 104 FX, but I just got a 98VX in 2 weeks ago. It flys nice up here in Colorado, but I'm still learning it though. My progression with the rear risers is coming along nicely. I'm not sure who they are going to use for coaching (the staff team that is), but I'm filming one of the cadet teams, so I won't be there as early as the staff guys. I'll probably show up the day before registration. We'll have to get together and have a few beers again. Take it easy, and I'll see you there. Grant

Are you still flying that 111 and that 107 you had at nationals last year? Did you ever get that 107 fixed that kept spinning up on you? Are you going to be filming at this years nationals with frost again? Oh, and by the way... There is still some air force test dirt left on that truck of ours. Tkae it easy ray. Grant

Good morning, 1. I'm starting to get into CRW. Here's the hum-dinger of it... I'm using a 104FX (loaded at 2.0), and a 98 VX (loaded at 2.2) as my mains. I have pinned a Stilletto 150 (loaded at 1.3) with the 104. I was at the edge of my controll range and about to fall out of the sky, but we pulled it off none the less. I have routinely done 2 stacks with my 104 and a stilletto 135, but we havn't made it into a bi-plane yet. Just this weekend we did another 2 stack with my 98vx and a 104fx (loaded at 1.8). Are there a lot of people out there doing this with these types of canopy's? If so what problems have you experienced? 2. Let's talk about my approach. I'm setting up a little low and behind the person I'm going to pin, and then slowly hitting the rears to put my center cell on my buddies ass. This seems to work nicely as long as he is out of the brakes and is not turning. What do you guy's think about this approach, and is there a better way to do it? 3. Lines and their cascades. AS you may very well know, these canopies have cascaded lines made of 550lbs Vectran. In one instance the guy I pinned got a little low and got his shoe caught up in the right inside A cascade. He started to kick it around to get it loose, and it caused some turning do to his harness inputs. I flew through it and we got it resolved. I want to start bringing the top person down to me, but I'm worried about the cacades. I'm thinking about changing the two inside A's and B's to non-cascades, and using 1050lbs vectran line for the A's and 550lbs for the B's. Thoughts? 3. Thanks for your time, and your future suggestions. That's all I have to say about that.