NeedToJump

I was in the tunnel a few weeks ago with Nancy from Ouragan Suits and Chris Ash was there taking pictures of us. The pictures came out really nice so I figured I'd post some of them up here. I'm in the blue suit that says "Ari", Nancy is in the purple suit that says "Nancy" Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

The one that will be the reason when I decide to downsize is "I want more speed/performance but cannot wring anything more out of my current canopy" meaning that I have flown it to it's limit. Before that occurs I will not be downsizing. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Yes, there are certain things that you cannot do in the tunnel like tracking, standing or a really fast HD. You can practice how to do them in tunnel but do not get the full effect. Yes, if you can fly relative in the tunnel than you can fly relative in freefall. Most time in the tunnel is either spent solo or flying relative so that is exactly what you are practicing. Flying in the tunnel (the SkyVenture Orlando one at least) is not the same as freefall. The air is not as "clean," The airspeed will change slightly while you are flying and it is also affected by weather conditions. There is "dead air" near the walls in the tunnel and putting multiple people inside the tunnel changes the airflow. I pretty much learned how to fly head down in the tunnel. I have about 50 HD jumps in the air and have been on a succesful 9 way (that I dove to) as well as multi-point 4 ways all due to the tunnel. The biggest difference that I found between the tunnel and the sky was my point of reference - I had none in the sky. I was used to the walls in the tunnel and would rely on them for reference. I was strange when I started doing HD jumps in the air with no walls. When I was close to people it was fine but if we got separated I'd fly like crap. Those are the kinds of things that you can only really work on in the air. Hope that helped, feel free to PM me if you have any tunnel specific questions not related to this thread.

I check my visual altimeter on every jump. I also check the horizon and use my internal clock. A friend of mine almost went in for replying on an audible. Both jumpers had an audible but for some reason neither one went off and neither jumper checked their alti. They were very involved in the dive and weren't paying much attention to the horizon or anything else. I don't recall exactly how it heppend, but they ended up pulling at just under 1000 feet (and went straight to main because it is more natural than going to reserve.) Both jumpers are very experienced with more than 2000 jumps each. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Some people downsize aggressively with low jump numbers and are fine. Others break themselves and worse yet for some. You're already at a 1.2 wingloading (according to your profile) which is a very aggressive W/L for your jump numbers. If you are planning on downsizing further than I think the only thing that you be told is "OMG WTF are you thinking?" Think of all the risks involved. With a smaller canopy you have less time to react and it will bite harder. The added speed might be fun, but is that fun worth the added risk of possibly breaking yourself and never being able to walk again? At your jump numbers there is no way you could possibly have wrung all the perfornance out of your canopy. Talk to your instructors who have seen you fly your canopy. Take a canopy control course and listen to what the coach tells you. There is a reason that so many people say "OMG WTF are you thinking?", think about it... Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Congratulations Kristi! 2 jumps, wow, how in the world did you do that? Now come back down to Florida and jump!

In the wind tunnel (at least the SkyVenture wind tunnels) you have to follow a progression. You need to show control on your belly before they'll let you get on your back, you need to show control on your back before sitting and need to show control sitting before you can start HD on the net. They do this so that you have positions you can bail to. If you are learning to sit fly in there without knowing how to back fly and you lean back too far guess what - you're on your back. If you don't know how to back fly this could be a dangerous situation as the wind speeds are high and the walls are hard. Everything is even more critical with HD since small movements create a lot of motion and everything happens very fast. When you start flying HD in there you start on the net with a tunnel instructor holding on to you. There are only a few tunnel coaches who can do this so if you're planning on flying HD in there make sure they know in advance so they can have the proper staff there for you. As you show that you are in control they will let go with one hand and move to the side to minimize the effect of their burble on your flying. Once you show control that way they will let go of you and you can start working on lifting yourself up off the net and flying. Flying HD in the tunnel takes a lot of time ($$$) and patience. It is done this way for your safety. This does not eliminate the risks but does a good job of minimizing them. There are a lot of people who have hurt / broken themselves trying to fly HD in the tunnel. I hope this clears some things up for you

Yup, I absolutely love my baby and I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have about it in a PM

Agreed Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

LOL, yup, same story except I didn't get in trouble doing it. I also used to climb trees and see how high I could jump out of them without getting hurt. Needless to say I got hurt a lot but luckily never broke anything. I consider jumping from airplanes with a parachute much safer than what I used to do Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I personally would not recommend that to anyone unless the person has practiced rear riser landings and feels comfortable with them. As far as the original question goes I would agree with what Ian said. If it's fairly steerable but not landable then I'd try to get it over the dropzone and cutaway around 3K. If it's complete crap then I'd chop it right there. My first cutaway was from a CRW entanglement at around 5500 feet. I cutaway right there, no need to wait. It all depends on the situation, but generally the higher up I am the more time I'll take to try to get the canopy flying. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Ian, I agree with what you're saying. I think that most canopies are very forgiving of the way you pack but not as forgiving of your body position. I'll take it a step further and say (from my observation) that I don't think it's necessarily body position at pull time but just after and during the opening. I think most of us are pretty symetrical and stable during pull time, but then as the canopy starts opening (and lifts us UP as all the whuffos know ) the we are uneven in the harness and that this seems to be the main cause of off heading openings. I know when I am wearing my bootie suit that sometime right after I pull as I am transitioning from belly to Earth to a vertical orientation that I'll put down one leg faster than the other and that bootie will catch a lot more air and start to turn me. I've found that if as soon as the canopy starts coming out if I go directly into a standing position and make an effort to force my weight to be even in the harness that I get really nice, consistent on-heading openings. Just my observations. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I've been jumping for about 2 years now and have about 925 jumps and I'd guess 50ish hours of wind tunnel time (although a lot of those hours are coaching in there now.) I basically dropped my life in New York to move down to Florida this past October to pursue skydiving. Yeah, you could say that I'm addicted to everything about this sport

A bunch of people that I've spoken to today (myself included) have been having really f***ed up dreams for the past few nights. Maybe there's something going around... Personally if I had a dream like the one described I think I'd just do what I do normally and try not to let it affect me. If it's true then it's true and there's nothing you can do about. If it's not then it won't happen. Either way there's no way to know and I'd try not to let it change anything. It might be a way of suggesting to reassess your life. One of those "if you were to die tomorrow would you be satisfied with your life?" Just a thought, I'd say don't worry about it

What is the incentive for any of the really great tunnel flyers who are not current SkyVenture employees to compete in Advanced? Ex-employees or the big name tunnel coaches who are not employed by SkyVenture? Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I believe Lake Wales is planning on building a swoop pond if they get the bid for the IPC world cup... Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I have been featured as an international, premiere soloist (on trombone) I went to college for 5 semesters, had two declared majors and could have declared 2 minors (I was taking all the classes but didn't want to make it official), had a 3.9 GPA and over 130 credits when I decided to dropout for skydiving Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

I gave up rock climbing, skiing and snowboarding, living up north, college and life as a professional musician Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Ron Just because I'm sure he's expecting someone to say that and I don't want to disappoint him Now come out to DeLand and jump with us Ron! Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Cool, I'll see you at all of those ones. That's ok, most of the fun jumps I make are freeflying anyway - 4-way, freeflying or swooping. You should come down April 3 for the 20 way HD dives, should be fun. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Cool, let me know when you'll be down here. We'll have to actually jump together next time too

I don't know about officially, but Kolla's been telling me to go up there that weekend for what she has been calling the Kolla Boogie. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

The only helmet I have is a Z1 which I use for belly and freefly. The only times I've ever had it open are when I haven't closed it properly in which case I close it during freefall and it's fine. I've never had the visor open a few inches when going to belly like you describe though. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

Do you mean 3.5 hours before the average student starts doing HD on the net or 3.5 hours before being able to fly HD in there? Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com

No problem here either and it definitely was not cached on my machine. Wind Tunnel and Skydiving Coach http://www.ariperelman.com