kaerock

If you don't know how she flies, or what her actual skill level is, why bother saying anything at all? Let me make the assumptions about you that you have made about her: Based upon your jump numbers, what you fly, how long you've been in the sport versus my having more jumps than you, flying faster than you and have been in the sport longer, you don't have enough jumps to know anything, much less tell anyone what they should be doing. Rather silly assertion, isn't it? You may think I've blown it out of proportion, but this really is the image that is being conveyed when people go off on these Canopy Nazi Diatribes (CND). You are contributing to a massive problem with this forum, making unfounded, highly subjective statements. Statements about what you think strangers should be doing will not help them actually learn, not to mention not answering their question. It will drive people away and seek help from other places thereby lessening the potential this forum has. Perhaps if you don't actually have anything to add to the topic being discussed, read, observe, listen, rather than speak, assert and fumble. So I have a suggestion directed to the general posters. Ask first before you assert based upon profile information. Give people the benefit of the doubt, suggest, don't assert. Greeting people with hostility based upon your personal fears does not help. I'd love to come to this forum and be greeted with intelligent, factual, actual information rather than CNDs. I'm SO tired of people whining about how someone else is going to kill themselves because they haven't followed the same progression as said CDNer. Disagreement is good, progress is made through struggle, but lets stick to the matter at hand, and leave the rants for another forum. Simply: If you have nothing intelligent to add, sit down and shut up, I do it all the time. Toodles! -Rory Merely, that you had apparently downsized quickly based on your skills and MAY be applying your experience to her situation......nothing more than that. I didn't mean to imply at all that the situation is not suitable. I agree with all that. I stated, that I have no idea how she flies at all and I want to very clearly state that I am certainly not the one to judge what canopy is suitable. I merely presented options, not specific canopy choices. I'm just thinking that it sounds a little early, based on the norm. It appears as you quickly downsized as well. I'm just trying to say, just because you downsized quickly, doesn't necessarily mean that she is ready. Of course it doesn't mean she isn't ready either. Nothing more than that. Again, I have NO IDEA how she flies her canopy, just offering an opinion. No offense intended whatsoever. Of course, you know better than I do, I just worry she may be encouraged to downsize before she's ready. Particulary since there was not mention of what she can and cannot do, other than landings that you posted (a small part, albeit the most important part of canopy flight). Finally, she made a statement that indicated she was considering a canopy based on price and convenience. There is no way those should be top considerations for making a canopy choice IMHO. Again, I don't mean to imply that I know....because I don't. Just offering indicators and options. No offense intended. Blues, Nathan You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

To answer your question, You have several options. Down-sizing is one of them. Changing the planiform is another. Many people feel that they can increase the performance of their canopy-time by trying, say, an elliptical canopy if they've been on a relatively square one. I suggest you demo as many canopies as you can at the same size as your current canopy as it will give you a good base upon which to judge these other canopies with. You will run into a problem with Canopy Nazis (as you can see) when trying a higher perfromance canopy at the same size even! Be ready. Some manufacturers put the limitation of minimum jump numbers in order to fly a specific canopy. But the canopies I'm most familiar with that I'd suggest would be a Stiletto, Samurai, Crossfire and such. Try as many as you can! --Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

hey guys, long time, eh? ;> I'm in the market for a pc105 (i'd be getting it but all of the cheap stores are closed for Passover) and assorted accessories. My question is, would anything less than .43 cause too much distortion, like the .3? At what point would the image be too bizzare looking due to the curvature of the lens? I saw the Kenko SGW-05 for $24.95 at bhphotovideo.com, so, why not? I don't think I'd like to spend $200 on one of the titanium dealios. Carlos, you said you were gonna get some of that video to me, I'd love to see how it came out. How about you take some stills with the various lenses you have so we can compare? ;> -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

I actually went and bought a special foot for my Singer 5830 with a channel through the center to help keep lines from slipping when trying to bartack them. I found the best way to do Microline was to use a very short, narrow zigzag. I looked at the way PD did their bartacks on lines and was able to very closely mimic them. They are about 3/4 of an inch long and the threads start and end in the center of the stitch. You start in the center, move forward half way, then back up the entire length of the stitch, then move forward half a length so that the end stitch stops right on the starting stitch. _ | | < - forward ^ V | | start -> | | | |_| This works with a variable width zig-zag and variable length stitch, I imagine the same concept can be applied to a bartack on any other kind of surface. -Rory Dig on the ASCII art, yo. You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

They suck to pack. I HATE them. I will not pack one unless offered money as I usually pack for just my friends and charge a meal. I packed two of them and they were the sloppiest packs I've ever done. thumbs down. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

You might as well do it now. By waiting a few months you won't extend the life of the unit. It's still goes out of service when it is 12 years old, not four years passed whenever the 8 year check was. You should send the unit in for its required check as close to the due date as possible as they test it against all the other units in the same batch (or some such). -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Oooh, I saw Andy jumping a 91 Sinsei last weekend....but he always got down faster than I did so I never go to watch the swoop :< Hopefully I'll be able to actually see it fly this weekend. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

From what I understand about aspect ratio, a larger AR negatively affects openings (spinning), but improves glide. While paragliders have an AR of like 4:1 and something like 30 cells(?), they make a nightmare to deploy at terminal velocity, I imagine. This is why you don't see people jumping out of planes with paraglider canopies. I hear John LeBlanc is/was testing a design that could be deployed at or near terminal. I suppose you can add more cells while retaining a smaller AR, but that'd be kind of pointless, you might as well use one of those 5-cell dealies. I'd love to hop and pop from 14k and do a 30 mile cross-country :> -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

A good idea that I've seen is taking a long piece of PVC tubing, hanging the clamps off of that. This way, to get a straight line, you need less tension on the mount points where the wire would anchor. p.s. try something with a higher aspect ratio so it won't touch the ground when you hang it, you know, for no other reason. ;> -R You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

It was about something that had no business being discussed here. The 'controversy' is solved and over, all is well. The parties involved have come to an understanding of sorts, SoBe is jumping, we are all happy. There is and was no suing, there was just ugliness that has now gone away :> -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

K, I motion to have this thread killed, all is good at the Cloud's Edge. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Things will be even better now, and I am very satisfied with end result :> Ding-Dong the witch(es) is(are) dead, metaphorically of course. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Well, as far as what seems to be going on according to the other thread(s), they won't be operating until the legal/financial/personal/whatever dispute is settled. This probably includes someone not being able to man the phones. Check out the other discussions about it for your healthy dose of FUD. So, my boss doesn't show up today, I finally have a Friday I can ditch and the DZ is closed :< -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Velcro near microline sounds like a fantastic idea. If they want to replace PCs more often because people don't necessarily know better, I'd be weary about their policies. "While we changed your oil we found a problem with your engine, your flux capacitance gel needs to be re-centrifuged and your cog-shaft needs realignment, the bill comes out to $2,345" "Does it really need it?" "Yes" "Oh, okay then" *cha-ching* -R You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

You can get a little wire rack thingy. Mine is very simple, it's like a coaster with a wire hanger with a loop on the top. You should be able to pick one up for five bucks at a fabric store. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

I've never seen any pilotchute shatter, so I'll defer to your more substantial experience :> I've only seen material damaged from snags and such, never from actually blowing up or ripping from the air. I've heard of plenty of canopies blowing up, but I've never actually seen one after the incident. What would you constitute as a difference between a shatter and a tear? The magnitude of the damage? If the two materials were subjected to the exact same wear or snag, then thrown into a +120MPH wind, would the way they fail be significantly different? -Rory You are absolutely incorrect. ZP "shatters" when F111 only "tears". I've seen happen many, many times...but I don't think that has anything to do with why some mfgs. recommend F111 (something I disagree with). Ask youself this: Why would you want the object responsible for getting your canopy out into the air to change over time? F111 wears out and becomes more porous with every jump. How can you expect to get continuity if it's always changing?!? The answer? Buy a new one every couple of hundred jumps...at a cost of about $100. Hmmm...am I missing something here. Do the words "planned obsolescence" mean anything to anyone? If you're worried about line dump (something else I think is pretty much crap - I jump a stowless D-bag), then realize that you don't need at 34" ZP pilot chute! It's more efficient, so it doesn't need to be as big...and it'll be the same every time. With that said, it's not a bad idea to replace your risers and P/C every time you reline your canopy (or at, say, about 600 jumps, if you want to wait). They'll actually go longer than this, but it'd be a shame if you went in because you didn't buy new risers every couple of years. All parts wear out and need to be replaced...but buying something that I know is going to wear out 4 times as fast just doesn't make sense to me! You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

www.para-gear.com, they have a big roll for about $20US, it works perfectly in my Singer 5830 (Home/School use sewing machine) with a heavy-duty needle. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Okay, let me rephrase, the fact that it can happen is very real, but I disagree that ZP PCs are more likely to blow out than F111 PCs. ;> -Rory My brothers pilot chute blew out and was replaced 3 times in about 50 jumps. the 4th seems to be fine. That said, I usually put way more jumps on a pilot chute than I should. My current one has over 1000 jumps on it and I'm almost ready to replace it. He packs his pull-out the exact same way I do. You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Line dump? What about stowless D-bags? Don't those line dump on every deployment? I see them gaining in popularity. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

I think the catastrophic failure bit is a crock of shit. The main difference between the ZP and F111 fabrics is SoarCoat (or Gelvenar). The fabrics themselves should be as equally reliable as I believe they were manufactured the same. I'd venture to say that the ZP is better as the SoarCoat helps protect the fabric even further from weather, abrasion, UV light, etc. One of the primary reasons I've heard of people using F111 pilotchutes is because ZP will tend to wobble a bit during deployment since it must spill air on the sides. The F111 PCs on the other hand, since they are more permeable will tend to let more air pass through, keeping the PC from wobbling since there is less spilage of air. Wobbling can cause the bag to turn or spin, thereby causing line twists. So let's look at it from this point of view: What happens to a cocked ZP pilotchute at +120MPH? The surface area of pc is rather small compared with the kind of load it is trying to decellerate, if you've got a tight pin or locking stows and the pc is unable to extract these things in a swift movement, it will cause it to hang there a bit and wobble. Wobbling can cause the bag to spin, causing line twists. A stabler PC will still extract the pin or lines from the stows, but giving less chance of an unstable d-bag. One, second-hand opinion. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

It's waaaaay to bad you guys didn't get in any jumps. His critiques of your landings are probably just as invaluable as him speaking to you for two days :> Also, being hands on is one of the best ways to learn, putting all of the theory into practice while it's still fresh in your head. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

C) Pull the other riser down while holding down the first riser if you are too high, this slows the turn but maintains the dive. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Those were toggle hooks, too, no?. They looked more like barrel rolls that finished with a nice plane-out. I agree, the most amazing thing I've ever seen, my stomach would clench watching him do those. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

At what point were you trying to pull the other riser down, in mid-turn or during/after your canopy starting planning out? At a certain point, it's a lost cause trying to squeeze more dive out of my Sam105@1.9 if I decide I'm too high too late. Basically I have to ride it down shifting in harness, I'd imagine the pressure would be similar or worse for you. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE

Absolutely not. I can bump end-cells with my gf loading her canopy at 1.0-1.1 while I'm at 1.9. I was actually amazed at the tiny amount of input I needed to hang with her. I wouldn't recommend trying it with a Specter and an elliptical 9-cell though, that'd be a lot of work! If the canopies you're trying it with have generally high-aspect ratios, it shouldn't be difficult at all. -Rory You be the king and I'll overthrow your government. --KRS-ONE