freeflyguy

I have Jumped and am buying one at 2.1. The only thing i might be able to say about a wing loading that light, is they like to be loaded. Hah, youve heard that before. I am no help. I wouldn't go so far as to say it would be docile at that wing loading, but it wouldn't be hard to fly. The thing may be though, they do seemed to be trimmed down quite a bit, so you still may come out of the sky quicker than you are used too. I would also wonder about opening, and whether or not it would open slower or faster with a lighter load. I would tend to think slower, but that is a guess. It is hard to pass up the deal on them though, Have fun.

Danceing in the moonlight in my birthday suit at the very top of a tower of a suspension bridge 2/3rds the size of the Golden Gate. Aww, what a view... http://www.ohwy.com/wa/t/tacnarbr.htm

Gin Blossoms said it best "This night never happened If it's allright with you Not a word of our weakness So much as a clue ...Wash away my weekend Shatter my sight C'mon sweet amnesia You're needed here tonight ...This night never happened If it's allright with you Another for the collection Of things we didn't do..." Whitewash. Cool tune

I have just had one. A baglock, so terminal. I don't really think it was much more than 4 seconds from the time I pitched my main pilot chute, determined that wasn't going to work, and was under a good reserve. I say that, because time slows way down in a situation like that, and it was all very quick. I even paused a second (I am sure way less than a second) after I cutaway. But I do remember, immediately after I started pulling my reserve, I was slammed, and hanging under a good reserve. Faster than fast, and I didn't even mind. :)

Happy for you Saddly, we don't fit the new FAA guidlines. Class "B" airspace starts at 6K over our DZ. You can't fly under, over, or in class "B" for VFR. Hmm. There are rumors we may skip off IFR to Canada in the Otter this weekend though. Impromptu boogie. Cool.

Don't worry too much. The FAA is letting it back, slowly. They just let the cropdusters go again this afternoon. So they are conscious of economic issues. But security issues first Check out WWW.FAA.Gov. They update it all the time.

My opinion, First thing is VERY good tight new gear with an audible and Cypress. If you don't have it, don't do it. That's me. One friend of mine broke her arm on a premature in a sit, another came close to the same thing. Also two cypress fires in the last couple of weeks that I have seen. So don't skimp on the gear and alt. awareness issues. Then be a skydiver. Not a freeflyer are RW only. You have all kinds of time to be in the sport. I like RW a lot too. So it is nice when I put on the bumper suit, the RW guys laugh, then I fly my slot anyway. It is all good. Seems to me so many people want to run before they can walk. I don't beleive in a 'wasted' jump learning. Beyond that. Some type of coaching is very important. Paid or not. You will need people to see what you are doing and correct obvious things. If you try to do it before you have too many jumps, you will spend some of your time on that jump worrying about being in the air, and not enough of the time concentrating on the new skill. That is why I say be patient. 2-ways are good to learn. When you get a little better. If you can safely lurk a 2-way. That is staying on the same level with them, and you all knowing what to do if you cork, it will help a lot too. I spent many many freefly jumps in a stand, because that was all I could do to keep my speed up. But that helped too. Just fly, be safe, be patient, and have a ball.

I'll chime in too. My D license is there. Also, the girl in a sit on page 14 is DZ.Com'er', I bought my safire from her, here in the classifieds.

I have close to 300 jumps on my safire at 1.5, and still love it. It doesn't have any opening issues, has never whacked me. Almost always opens on heading. Surfs and flys nice. The landing thing that people talk about isn't that big of a deal. I think what a lot of that is, is that people with short control range canopies get under a safire, and don't flare it all the way down. If you landed a stiletto like that, you would bowtie it and end up on your butt. It is just different, not bad. So it would be a nice choice with good resale when you are done with it. I think the only thing anybody could possible say bad about the sabre 2 is that it is new, and doesn't have a proven track record. I doubt it has issues though. PD has been doing it for a long time. Have fun.

Ah, you can't say non cascades ARE bad. It is just something they are trying. Precision didn't use them at Perris, because George didn't have the super small lines yet, and they did cause more drag. But they did have them at the Ranch last week and Andy F. tore it up on a noncascaded Xaos and got second place. Besides the XAOS isn't really in production yet, close but not quite, they are just pushing the envelope of design, and seeing what comes of it. btw, Those spaghetti size lines are supposed to be rated at 700 pounds.

I can't imagine not deploying the reserve after chopping the main. If I pull one handle, I will automatically pull the other. I didn't even have to think about it. On mine, I looked at the baglock, went for both pillows, gave them both a confirmation squeeze and then pulled one, then the other. I had practiced that a million times, so I didn't have to think about it, when I actually had to do it. The thing didn't even really scare me. No time for that. It was probably not more than 4 or 5 seconds from the time I pitched my main out to the time I made all my decisions and was under a good reserve. Practice that stuff. You will need it. You know, come to think of it, a couple weeks ago, I was sitting across from Andy Farrington on the Otter, he has 6000 jumps. He did a practice cutaway handle check. You never have to much experience to practice saving you life.

I just thought I would mention today to you all. I skipped work because we were going to do a fly around Mount Saint Helens, with the Golden Nights tandem team that have been jumping with us the last couple of weeks. Cool, then jump into a little airport, have the otter pick us up and then jump back into Kapowsin. That didn't work, fog. So first load was at 12 or so. To make a short story short. We had a nice 4 way freefly, broke off, then I noticed we were out a ways so I pitched at a about 3500 or so. Had a little tug, but not a good one, so I looked up to a nicely spinning D-bag and a pretty green inflated pilot chute. That was all I needed to know. Chopped it. I had enough altitude that I watched it go into the trees Then I scared some horses as a landed in their pasture. All was well. Found my still bagged canopy and free bag, and got a ride back to the DZ. Lessons learned. Yes, I do know what those extra handles are for, my first cutaway. I think the problem was either a triple stow on one of the locking stows, or I was a bit sloppy with my lines. Probably the latter. Other thing is that my tempo 150 has a pretty healthy left hand turn built into it. I have heard of that with them before, so if you have one, be conscious of it. Other than that, nice day, 4 more jumps and I am home and happy. So is my rigger, Mikey, His save, so he gets the Jack Daniels.

Don't let touching the front risers scare you. Grab a handful and pull. Just do it up high. Play with it, and see what it will do for you. It is very safe, and your canopy won't get whacko because of it. If you don't have dive loops, grab some, and then rotate your wrist with it. It will tend to slip less If you are talking about landing, or building speed with risers, that is a different ball game. If you are at the point where you are thinking of doing that, of course talk to some folks, but there are also some very good high performance flight manuals out there. One is the Australian parachute foundation, or something. It explains a lot about what a parachute is doing and how to land it safely. As well as a progression to learning riser turn landings. One thing I like is they say, 'We don't reccomend or endorse high speed landings, but if you are going to do it, this is how you should learn...' People are going to do it, so learn to do it right, or don't. Never get complacent and think you have everything covered either. That will hurt, in time. We all know that.

Ya, I saw this girl before her jump. The Jumpmaster was rehersing Mal procedures with her. She DIDN'T find the cutaway handle at first. But looked at her shoulder. On the jump she apparently found it easy enough. They are making her go through first jump course again, if she comes back. Another guy a couple months ago was so proud of himself for cutting away the same nasty "slider came all the way down" malfunction. When he was picked up (after landing in the trees on his reserve) He was all gloaty. He was asked "Well, where is the slider supposed to be on a good canopy?". He thought a second then went "Ah hell, whoops!" I do understand though. Brain fade on those first couple jumps is just about a given. Just hope it doesn't last that long. Preferabley not more than a second or two after you leave the plane.

I just wanted to warn everybody about the dangerous slider malfunction I saw a student have yesterday. Scary, but the slider actually came down the lines after the parachute opened. Happily she cut that nasty parachute away. Problem was, the slider came down on the reserve too. Such a scary sport :)

I pyschopak. One thing, even Icarus doens't reccomend it for some of their canopies, like the Crossfire. I think that has to do with it has a very slow opening anyway. So if your canopy is very snivelly to begin with, you may not want to do it. There is no sense in having 1000 foot openings. That can get dangerous if you get yourself into a low pull situation. I like it though, easy to get in the bag, and very consistant, and it is what Icarus reccomends for the safire. But all in all, like someone said, it really is just a propak, with a twist. Don't let the name scare you.

NaH, I just feel like you did before when I felt that way.

You could always just bag the AFF idea, and find a good DZ that offers a good static line class. It gets you jumping, and the training is also good, and effective, with less money up front.

Part if their bad press came from Reflex not seating the grommits properly on the closing flaps. Leaving a gap big enough to snag a line, which has caused a Mal that couldn't be cut away, with obvious sad, documented results. Make sure you check that out, or better, have a rigger go through it. One that is familiar with their shortcomings. Other than that, they seem decent and tight enough.

I have to chime in for the home team. If it is built for you, it will likely be real comfortable. I am partial to an infinity. They are built at my DZ. One thing I can say about them, is that anyone that has ever had one custom built has nothing but praise for how they fit. That and if it doesn't fit quite right, Velocity Sports is cool enough to make it right, just because of "that little thing". Safe rigs too.

Skymonkey says it well. Tight on the bottom, baggy on top for for sit practice is probably where you want to start. The zip off leg thing though. I bought a cool pair of pants with zip off legs, and drawstrings on the cuffs. They worked great, until I went into a stand and blew the zippers up. It was funny, under canopy I had two pant legs down around my feet. Automatic shorts. Plus, those zippers hit right at my knees when I pack. Ow. I was at lost Prarie a couple weeks ago. Nice sleepy 182 DZ in a rad setting. But I don't think anybody will be sleeping around there the next week, wish I could go.

Me, James Eidson, "big time" Painting contractor, with excursions into buying and selling stuff. I prefer dressing up in blue tights, red underwear, a cape and a big "S" on my chest, then jumping out of a marginally good aircraft and landing at a school for the mentally disabled. Not much money in that, but you know...

I pyscho my safire all the time. I am a beleiver. Very consistant openings. I don't treat the nose at all, just let it hang pull the tail around and roll away. But like they say every canopy is different. carry on

I'm from Kapow too. We do all sorts of dumb skydiver games. Monday a bunch of us decided it might be kind of fun to try and parasail a cruise light behind a boat. Didn't work out so well. But it was funny. You are also more than welcome to crash into the pond, just not too hard. Sunday we had a big way two raft dive. Didnt work out so well either, oh well. How about a birdman flying next to a canopy loaded at a little over 4.0?. Rodeo a headdown for you? Practice tandem sidespins(well not really, but rodeo sidespins)? Then you could also be normal too. That goes over pretty good.

I had a similar thing. I did my first demo into a golf course the other day. The other two guys were more experienced than me, and normally fly smaller mains than I. They decided to use larger mains for that jump. I almost got peer pressured into doing the same. But after talking to the S&TA and the organizer of the thing. I stuck with my familiar canopy. I was first out of the Cessna, since I was loaded a bit higher than them. Had to change landing plans under canopy, because they moved the target as I was exiting. OH well. I still stuck the landing right where I wanted it and all was well. They other two guys, One almost floated into the crowd, but just stopped short, and the other did fine. But the point is the same as your story, they jumped unfamiliar mains, and it made things a little sketchy for them. But all was well and fun, with no Broken butt blues to talk about.