DrewEckhardt

A few in Colorado, but I wouldn't want to jump there right now. Brrrrr It was in the 60s yesterday and 50s today. I left my fleece on the ground and just wore a short sleeve T-shirt under my jump suit. Of course we still have the biggest problem with West Nile, the flu has killed a few people, and the nice weather isn't enough to make you move here.

I used to weigh 200 pounds out the door and jump a Stiletto 120 (1.67 pounds/square foot). I found that my Fox 245 (.8 pounds/square foot) was somewhat small for the more interesting BASE landing areas. Now I'm 30 pounds lighter and think my Dagger 244/Fox 245 (.67) are just right. If you're serious about getting into BASE early (I would have hurt myself if I started before I had 500 jumps), you really want to be familiar with big, slow F111 seven cells. You also don't want to switch. Skydiving will help develop and maintain an instinctive set of skills (awareness of wind, flying approaches, being relaxed and level at deployment time) that will improve your odds while BASE jumping.

A smaller canopy is going to be coming in at least that fast in full-flight. If you would not be comfortable with that sort of speed landing on a concrete road, between houses, etc. you shouldn't down size and be stuck with that speed.

Over half the landing injuries I've seen (broken femur, tibia, pelvis, spine, wrist, cocyx, sacrum) were on conservative pilots who just got surprised. Some were under surprisingly large canopies (the pelvis+sacrum+L4+cocyx incident happened at less than a pound/square foot). Even people with experience in other high-speed sports (aerobatic planes, motorcycles, etc.) don't know how they're going to react ahead of time. No one knows how small changes in canopy size are going to affect them until they try it (let alone bigger jumps. I know people who've downsized a couple of sizes at once and then found optimum performane after a couple of up-sizes). Be conservative. It's also a lot better to make a conservative (this is relative) canopy go faster when you want than to be stuck with extra speed when things go to hell (fences, trees, being cut-off, landing out, long spots with low turns back into the wind) and people tend to be overwhelmed.

Quote I am aware that there is a point where your brakes actually do cause you to sink in no wind conditions, but if this point is really past 3/4 brakes, wouldn't it be very close to the stall point? I know that on final approach I don't feel comfortable in any deeper than 1/2 brakes. I don't want to risk a stall at 100 feet.Quote I've yet to fly a canopy which stalls unpredictably when given gentle control inputs. Flown that way in no wind conditions, before a parachute stalls completely it'll rock back a bit, you'll slow down perceptably, and have plenty of time before anything nasty happens to lift the toggles a little. Obviously you want to do this high enough that you're in front of the canopy on landing and have time to be flying fast enough to get a comfortable flare, although "high enough" includes a significant portion of final approach. I've gotten a bit too deep on an accuracy approach with both my big seven cells and Samurai 105 - both weren't big deals. Obviously, this is something to play with up high and before you need it. It probably isn't a good idea in gusty wind conditions either, although there more moderate brake applications will bring you down steeper.

This doesn't work on a no-wind day though, right? Which is why I suggested setting up for a small undershoot on a no-wind day and using brakes to flatten your glide path a bit on final, also returning to full flight before landing. EDIT: Well, I guess you can go steeper than full glide on no wind days, but that would require front riser input as opposed to toggle. Right? Wrong. Brakes work fine with no wind or even a slight tail wind, although you only experience the canopy's change in glide ratio while wind makes your approach path change with any difference in the forward component of your velocity. Without too much of a tail wind, pulling the brakes down to just short of stalling will give you the steepest glide you can have without increased airspeed. Decreasing the brake application will make this less pronounced until you're matching your full-flight glide ratio. Try flying anything other than a square seven cell next to people at various wing loadings and you'll find that there's a huge range where you match. Go farther up and the glide will be flatter than full flight. With many canopies (At least the PD Sabre, Stiletto, and Spectre), the flattest glide is obtained with a little brakes (flatter than you can get with rear risers).

The tools you have available under large (I have 244 and 245 seven cells) and small (105 and 120 ellipticals and a 135 square) parachutes are different, although good accuracy is not too difficult under either. With a smaller parachute, you can try to be a little long on your swoop and either kill your speed + lift by sinking and poping up at the end (fly it all the way into the ground if you're not going to over-shoot and expect to land a bit faster) or curve your swoop if you're going to be really long. Bigger (this depends on wing loading) parachutes land well even when you start your flare with a lot of brakes applied. Either way, you can still steepen your glide path on final and return to full flight before landing.

Sure you can. Buy used canopies, from private parties so you don't eat someone's markup, with a few hundred jumps on the lineset so you nor the person you sell them to will need to pay for a reline. By following those simple rules your main will cost no more than $1-$1.50 a jump regardless of how many you go through. Depreciation on used containers is similar. I put less than a hundred jumps on my first canopy, about a dozen on a demo sized between #1 and #2, and not much over a hundred jumps on the next two. Apart from #4 which I kept for skysurf/birdman and #7 which is still real new none have cost me more than that.

I don't think so. At the same size, elliptical canopies have a lower stall speed than squares. Because they're huge and can be landed in a controlled fall even if the wing does stop flying. Scaled down to not much over 100 square feet they wouldn't work for all but the smallest jumpers.

Thanks for the hand. I find this task list interesting and good reference before going down. One question - about accuracy - is it applicable to all wingloads? It's applicable to any canopy you might land out (IOW, all of them). I like a carving 90 degree swoop. If I'm going to overshoot a little, I'll get into a low daffy or pull my legs up to gain ground clearance, sink down, and pop it up to kill my speed at the end. Real long I curve the approach. Short, I'll stay high and fly it until I run out of airspeed. It's pretty easy to be within an inch or two of where you want left/right. Length is harder, although stopping within a 30' diameter circle is not hard when you're familiar with a DZ's visual cues, and when more current my error decreases to a few feet. 1.9 is the highest wing loading I've played with, although I'd expect the same to work going even faster. Full-flight approaches on symetric front risers or straight in work too. I've also done deep brake approaches under my Samurai 105 (currently 1.6) and flared from less than full flight, although returning to full speed here really makes it easier to get a comfortable landing.

If you're going to jump elliptical canopies, you need to be level with the horizon when you open (don't look over a shoulder at the deployment), stay relaxed, fly through the opening, and get on the risers immediately if things don't feel right. Failure to do all of these things will lead to a high number of spinning malfunctions - I chopped 4 in a couple hundred jumps before I got in touch with my elliptical openings. Your Stiletto may be out of trim, although if it flies straight with the brakes pulled down so the catseyes are even with the keeper rings it's probably you. Squares are fairly insensitive to all this, which makes them nice choices for things like wing suit flying.

I really like a long carving 90 or 180. Usually I finish with front risers - I used to save the harness input for use as a trick when I decided I was low and wanted to finish my turn without killing my speed with toggles. Out of curiosity I started playing with finishing using harness input when I still have plenty of altitude. I am pleasantly surprised at how right it feels + the distance I get

4300, 2700, and 2500. You really don't want to subconsciously get in the habit of reacting after it goes of (rather than at the same time), I often don't hear it, and want to break off at 4500 and pull at 3000 (lower decreases my chances of being able to have a fun landing without flying through traffic from earlier groups at pattern altitudes). If some how I manage to remain asleep until 500 feet below where I'd like to have pulled, I want to know about it. With a CYPRES, reaching 1500 feet means it's time to pull your reserve because your reserve will probably deploy anyways and you still have time to save the cutter. Your natural instinct will be to deploy your main....

Usually 12 miles. I've manifested from home and made 20 minute calls without driving much over the speed limit. My other favorite local DZ is 100 miles away, and my best time getting there is about 1:15 in spite of doing an indicated 100-105 MPH once on the interstate.

Play with it on the ground some, and you'll find that even a very tight closing loop doesn't have much resistance. Either a somewhat uncocked pilot chute or a kill line that's shrunk can cause this, even at terminal. It takes even less on sub-terminal deployments.

It'll fly noticeably slower, stall slower, have a stronger flare, and loose less altitude in turns. Apart from control sensitivity it'll be like jumping a parachute between one and two sizes bigger. Colorado is quite dry, Texas isn't. The humidity will make it pack up smaller. If your closing loop wasn't real tight, you might find that you want to shorten it.

It's more natural to roll your shoulders in when you track palms up, and that _really_ flattens you out.

My exit weight used to be 200-205 pounds. With ~195-200 remaining I put 3 rides on my Tempo 150 and 2 on my PD143 (1.3 - 1.4 depending on weight and how you measure) and had good landings at 5000 feet MSL. At the same weight and elevation, I put a few jumps on a PD126R as a main (1.5-1.6). The landings were uneventful, although the loading was clearly beyond optimal, I opted for the PD143 in my next rig. FWIW, the PD's fly a lot better, land better, and have more reinforcing tapes than the Tempos.

I'll take a helicopter, winch, Unimog, inclined railway, boat, or carpool any time. If I want to hike or climb, I'll take some combination of a lighter pack, more food, more water, and climbing gear.

have u actually jumped out of a b-17??? how many of them are flying these days, there cant be many left now? 727 as in the jet? - awsome Yup. My B-17 jump was from the Collings Foundation's B17 "Nine 0 Nine" the last year I went to Quincy (2000?). 727 as in the jet - an Amerijet 727 cargo plane also at Quincy (a couple different years). The same model DB cooper jumped from. Out the back (the Cooper vane was deactivated). With 90 or 100 people on a pass, single file exit, 2 passes.

A small instruction sheet is included with each bag of tube stows. There are three installation methods listed - normal, tighter, and tightest. The tightest method loops the stow through itself twice and works better once the stow stretches a bit, especially with 7-cell canopies.

Either the B-17 (out the bomb bay) or 727.

I started skydiving because it looked fun. I started BASE because it scared me and skydiving no longer did.

I'll be there, probably Thursday-Sunday afternoon.

2 minutes at sea level is not too tough. - A lot of flocking jumps fall faster - Some people can get their fall rate into the high 30s to low 40s (MPH). 40-50 is not atypical. - Yuri has gone 2 minutes on a BASE jump