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Wow Thats amazing i did not realize our load (2) did that bad, i was coming in on a Nitron 120 loaded at 1.65:1 and landed just before the start of the cars, course after coming in downwind(they pointed the cars in the wrong direction) on a 135 demo when i had 110 jumps it was a piece of cake. Lake Wales was very cool I enjoyed it very much, and the Brit giving the breifing was hilarious. The 3 way full contact sit dive (which they told me afterwords was a full contact dive, Sara is one cool chicka) was the best. The Down plane to about 100 feet was so cool to see. In closeing Night jumps rock, i did my RW night jump when i had 60 jumps, i was on a 8 way that was trying to form a Frisbee, which did except for one person, not me, being just alittle out on his turn. And that with the base funnelling into a headdown on exit

I have a Nitron with the HMA lines, and besides the fact that the lines only start to go significantly out of trim enough to need a reline are there and about 800 jumps, my line bulk with double the lines, is still about half of what Spectra lines are, its insane how tiny the lines are. Jonathan

If its attached to the links already its very easy to attach a canopy to risers, just get all the twist out of the lines then attach the links. Make sure the lines are connected in order ie from most outboard to inner. If you have a cascaded lineset its pretty easy cause you only have 4-5 lines on each link, With a non cascaded continous lineset, your looking at about 8-10 lines coming into your links, at which point i attached by out board to inner, then within that B line before the A, had to do this when my Nitron came and the lines were placed on the links wrong, but it was easy to figure out, i just laid the canopy out in the dorm with nose furthest away from me and started to run up lines and make sure the connections were right. Then set my brake lines to factory spects, course then i had to change them to an inch off factory spects, and now 3 inches off factory spect cause they were deflecting the tail on front riser turns. Jonathan

I wear a Oxygn to Freefly in. My tightening strap has a small snap placed on it so it does not come undone while in freefall. I like it cause its quiet in the air, i can hear my audible very well. And i do not have to remember goggles (one less piece of gear to worry about). The best part is that my Visor never ever fogs up, does get dirty and will prob have to be replaced in about another 150 jumps (250 total or so on each visor). Comfortable and warm and the chin cup will hold it on your head fine, dont need some strap there. Jonathan

Merlin's Pro Competition Suit, Designed for PD Blue Has a better bootie design than anything Tony makes. I wear one of David's Van Grueningen's old PD Blue suits when i fly RW and have found them supierior, course sometimes getting prompt service is very very hard as Christina seems to be very busy. In AFF i used to float alot, not i dont even arch and i fall with the Heaviest of heavies np. Jonathan

Well after level 7, they ask you to normally do a hop n pop from lower altitude (3500 or so) to make sure you wont freak jumping out that low in case of emergency. But after that you are free to jump and do whatever you want, i think the DZ officially said you can only jump with Ds or solos, but you can pretty much jump with any licensed skydiver you want. After 20 jumps if youve met the skills on the profiency card you can apply get your A. Little bit cheaper cause your not paying for 10+ more coached jumps. Jonathan

Skydive Atlanta has live water training at GaTech Pools about every 5-6 months or so, or if there is enough people asking for it. Jonathan

Like ive mentioned in other post the Nitro is a Stiletto class canopy with a very similar planeform. Little less sensitive to harness input, but has more radical toggle turns and Dives alot better, and has many many times more flare. As for the heatwave, aside from Pisa being a cheaper costing canopy, ive seen many people that like the responsiveness of an elliptical but dont want the speed on landing, so they jump a 1.1 or 1:1 wingloading to get a better performance but more forgiveness on landing, the heatwave can perform like this as the Stilletto does. The Nitro makes this alittle harder cause the biggest size is a 150. Id place the nitro closer to a Samarui in performance and above the Stiletto but not by much. Jonathan

Its printed on the Orange lable that should be on the canopies tail right there with Maximum weight on the canopy. Np on the advice, get rid of that stab and you should be fine, just dont psych yourself out. Jonathan

Hey ill be at ASC tommorrow. On thing (not trying to turn this into a ASC vs other GA DZs debate) is that Monroe and Thomaston have alot more regular jumpers. Thomaston is pretty big on freefly where monroe is alot more RW but i hear its getting more interest in FF lately. cant compete with Thomaston on open landings its huge compared to Cedartown, and the packing area is also alot bigger, no walk up the hill to the plane either. I will say one thing against ASC though and that is from the jumpers just off student status that have come to us, they were not taught much through out their AFF course regarding canopy control, how to do full gear checks, packing, and a few other things that were drilled into me at monroe. Of all the Ga DZ, monroe i honestly believe has the best instructors with alot of expirence. Thomaston has the youngest crowd, alot of 19-30 yr olds and lots of partying over the weekends. i live on campus at Tech and have it an hour to asc and monroe, but choose the hour and 15 to thomaston. I encourage you to say with ASC just cause i dont want Ben mad at me for sending a student away, but just make sure you ask alot of specific questions so they dont neglect to tell you things. If you out there tommorrow maybe ill c ya there.

Ok, gonna do this agian, lost my first draft cause IE crashed. Ok to start off i do not have expirence on a Hornet, heard alot of good things about it but never flown it. Anyways the GaTech Parachute club we have 2 Pro 170s (and for everyone else these are nothing like the 9 Cells or 7 Cells that they market) I flew both of them from jumps 13-125. Did not stand up 2 landings, one of those was a night jump i landed with no lights. The openings i think in all those jumps i had 1 firm opening, otherwise very very soft and snively, in the neighborhood of 800 ft but damn dependable, i trashed packed that a few times and came out ok every single time. Normally i would do a std Pro pack, no rolls on the nose, one roll on the tail. The landings ive heard alot of people say it has no flare, and that its a dog of a canopy. Well these are the same ppl i have found that dont like flareing a Safire, and alot learned on F111 canopies or Sabre (dont know if there is a relation just a general observation). Flight Concepts is a Crw dog company. So its not gonna be the easiest flare to learn at first. You CANNOT stab this canopy, itll drop you on your ass, then youll go in whining how this canopy has no flare. Its a long slow flare and finishes deep. I found that to plane out the canopy was to bring down to about mid upper arm. This is serveral inches lower than a typical PD canopy. Then the surf is from there to your hips maybe alittle lower, then finish off. Fly the Canopy to its STALL point, and itll give you a great landing everytime, maybe not a blistering 200 foot swoop, but a nice 50. Ive seen some club members try it out and put it on their ass time and time agian, they are either no flareing fully and decide to land on their ass or run like hell. Or they stab it and the canopy drops them. We also have members right off AFF status flying the Pro 190 flawlessly, and will soon move down to the 170 (or have already due to higher wind days and needing more penetration). My advice is practice flareing up high, feel the canopy point where it starts the plane out, feel the pressure it takes to keep it level and at what point your at when you stall the canopy. Also you mentioned being less forgiving on toggel input, well the Pro is a High performance canopy, it might be a square but there is a reason they put that 100 jump minumum on the lable that everyone ignores, you have to be sysmetrical, and get the leg straps tight. Might consider getting a bigger slider, i know that the ones we have are pretty big. Hope that helps alittle. Im not for either canopy, although i was gonna buy a pro 120 before i decided to get my 120 nitron (cant beat 950 for a brand spanking new elliptical canopy) course the Nitron has so much flare power its insane. I think if i was gonna buy Pisa, it would be a Heatwave, i know a few that swear by them. Jonathan

160. Good place to start i agree as long as you look at all the other variables and just dont write someone off cause they dont have 500 jumps or assume that a person with 1000 jumps knows how to land a high performance canopy. I was just trying to get a more interactive (between the Canopy instructors and yourself) of judgeing current skill level and what is ok and not ok to fly. I agree it does suck alot, and i think if your going to do this you need to be acutely aware of the risk you are taking for enjoyment. And as you said the ground knows no difference in a 1 jump AFF student and a 5000 jump swoop specialist it hurts either way if you screw up. Always understand the true power of that small piece of coated cloth above your head can do to you if you dont stay focused and make good desiscions and know when to not make that last hook turn when you might be alittle low. Jonathan

The three large Ga DZs, Skydive Atlanta, Skydive Monroe, and ASC all do a 7 jump AFF with jump 1 can be your first jump. Skydive Monroe where i learned (1000 dollars for all 7 levels) last winter was 7 jumps then the 1 hopnpop at 5000 and one at 3500 (perferebly spotting out of the cessna) at regular jump ticket price. I stretched my jumps out to the 30 day mark everytime cause i was not going to have enough money to get me to summer if i did them sooner than that, its amazing how you wont fail any levels if you know you do NOT have the money to pay for repeats. Monroe offers S/l too Jonathan

Id like to think that there really cannont be a general rule, the S&TA should be looking to see if people are exceeding thier skill level and offering good invidual advice on a case by case basis if time is available, (s)he is there to provide a safer enviroment for everyone. That said: 1-3 Manta 280 4: Safire 269 5: Safire 219 6: Safire 209 7: Safire 209 8/9: Safire 189 4 jumps on club gear Fury 200s (yuck dont like 7 cell F111) 14 - 120: Pro 170 5 jumps on a Nitro 150 15 jumps on a Nitro 135 including a downwind landing on a night jump (they positioned the cars in the wrong direction) 20 Jumps on a Nitro 120 or Stiletto 120, ordered the Nitro My exit weight is 180-195 its variable based on how much i eat that week at school. Now would i recommend this progression to any of my Friends hell no. Why? cause they did not jump 10 jumps every single weekend for 5 months straight. They dont read everything on canopy flight, they havent read Brian Germains manual, which i have to say is very amazing and quite informative. They dont spend hours talking with the guys that are swooping talking about approach patterns, altitudes, progressions. And they still dont feel the canopy, they keep thinking there is this set way to flare the canopy to land it instead of flying the canopy till it stops. My conclusion is that jump numbers dont account for much, you can have a person with 60 jumps and an hour of tunnel time easily outfly a person with 600 jumps (RW stuff, makeing a point about jump number not landing here), when i had 100 jumps i was giving landing advice to people that had 400 jumps cause they still were not landing right, cause noone bothered to tell them what they told me. Currency, current skill and how much your putting into learning something should be the primary attribute on what your landing. But hey thats just my take on it. Jonathan

The tunnel is great. Get in there with 40 jumps and get some(1 hour) one on one coaching with some of the Open class RW (touch of Magic, airspeed, Knights, PD Blue) you can come out like you have 600 jumps. I went there agian last sat spent 45 minutes in there finishing up refining center point mantis turns and side slides hehe and some knee flying, and doing alot of coaching with my friends, staying in there 30 minutes straight really puts a strain on the arms. Jonathan

Actually the first jump i put on my Javelin NJ (its a pullout) and i misrouted the bridle such that when i pulled it put the tension on the tab the bridle goes through (at the base of the Pilot Chute) instead of the pin, so i it was time to use the reserve. Its a beautiful yellow i might add and opened so softly, but i simply did 2 practice flares, turned onto final and got about a 15 foot surf out of it, its just like landing your main but its F111, 7 square feet smaller than my Main, and the stall point is more shallow but thats a PD thing, im more used to precision and Icarus being deeper. But all in all its a nice landing reserve and gets me down safely. Jonathan

In my last rig, i had a 5 Cell 1982 GQ Securities X2Ten reserve, never had to use it, but i think it would have been interesting. Jonathan

Skydive Williston Home of the UF Falling Gators. Jonathan

Dont stress, Its all what your comfortable with. I am 185 out the door, and i have a PD 113R, its all in what you consider acceptable risk. Relax have fun, stay alert, and go at your own pace. Jonathan C-31802

IE 6.0 on win XP, No Virus Protection (i clean em as i get em), no Norton products, no firewalls, Accept all cookies. And i know about the 6 hour thing, thats not it either. Jonathan

But because youve brought your arms in, youve decreased the amount of surface area your body is presenting therefore you are moving faster. The tighter body position is also alot more stable and gives you more agility when you are moving around reaching for grips. Jonathan

I jump with an Oxygn with contacts, and never ever had single problem (unlike the sit with goggles that my contact popped out of my eye, f*cking my depth perception, amazing how 30 feet looks like 10 feet with vision from just one eye). I bought mine used from an Alumni so i was able to get it for 125, and it does great, course its just a little large such that without the pony tail i think it might slide off, i do think i need new velcro, but i think after 300 jumps on it, thats normal. But no problems with the contacts in the helmet, even when i accidently did not shut it all the way and it popped open as i left the plane.

Does haveing non cascading lines make a difference? ex: Groundzero canopies. Jonathan

ZP better than F111. nine cell better than 7 cell, ellipitcal better than square. Heavily loaded better than lightly loaded on better performance canopies. For landings i found these to be true. If you feel safe on the canopy then continue to jump it. Jonathan

This is when i hit the edit button, no more than say 5 minutes after i post all the way up to the 6 hour mark, its my post i should be able to edit it.