Fast

I have sirius and love that too... I think the bottom line is that you can be happy with either service. Both are leaps and bounds better than radio. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

yeah I have seen that before. I just don't know how it is much different than any other type of reaching through the lines that can happen when releasing your brakes. There is no "trulock" if you don't use the stows on the back and the pin, at that point its just another riser. If you do use it and have a brake fire though, it sure wont suck as bad. edit: I think there was a whole thread about this not too long ago, cause I remember saying something like, "If you don't take the time to look up at your toggles when you release them you're being stupid" And a partial solution to using the trulocks if you have longer line is to keep the majority of the excess above the stows on the back so that when you are reaching up to grab the toggle it is less likely that your hand will go through the bottom of the loop. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I agree. I have worked with a bunch of people that were unable to get back up from being low. Teaching them to "superman" legs out and arms out (and learning how to control where they are going while doing it) has made a big difference. Furthermore, time always has to be spent on teaching them how to not go low in the first place. Dressing for the dive, flying a slot that is right for your limitations (though now and then pushing them is good) and being proactive not reactive in making sure to "stay" in the dive goes a long way towards not having to get back up from being low. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

All of the stuff they said and also, up high in clear airspace you need to work on using all the control inputs of the canopy. You need to practice grabbing fronts, transitioning from fronts to toggles w/o dropping the toggles and also how to dig out quickly. That would be a quick drop of the fronts to jamming the brakes down. It is pretty important to be able to do all those things. When you do start working on it you need to also do a lot of double front approaches. They don't seem like they do a whole lot, but they do and they teach a lot of basic skills. You need to spend quite a bit of time considering outs before you start into turns as well. Also learn how to pick an out on the fly. Furthermore, you are asking this questions pretty prematurely. You aren't even close to read with the jump numbers you have. Make sure you take your time or you WILL get hurt. Get a local mentor to work with at the very least. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

It would be great to know what that is! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I have had only bad luck with any dell laptop that I have had for work. I only buy thinkpads now for the attorneys I work for. We have about 5 of them and haven't really had any problems. I personally have a thinkpad that I have had since I started college, that I bought used, that is STILL running as a linux server since I retired it from everyday use. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Pretty fair numbers. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I don't think I would have cutaway my helmet. The problems he had were, hard opening resulting in a brake fire which may have contributed to the line twists, or might have not. If my head is pinned down I'm gonna start trying to kick out of line twists, its the only thing that is gonna pin my head down like that. Keep checking altitude and work it out or cut away my main. Once the line twists are out then it is just a matter of popping the other brake. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Go do it! Have fun, pay attention and listen to your instructors!

I started learning to swoop on a Saber2 170 @ 1.3. I didn't start learning to swoop till I had around 150 jumps on that canopy though. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I don't even know what the most I have done in a day is. For the most part I have yet to hit an upper limit on what my body will let me do. Then again I am only 25, so a young punk by many peoples standards. I also don't pack for myself on days like that and I think that makes a huge difference. I have yet to run out of "fun" for a day too. I don't always have fun when I am working hard, but just like doing RW or freeflying doesn't ever really get borring. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Hi! The thing that I have a problem with is how much you are jumping. You mentioned that you make like 2 jumps a month? I don't think anyone making so few jumps over such a great period of time should be downsizing at all. There isn't really a good reason for you to and there are plenty of reasons that you should stick with a larger canopy. You aren't making enough jumps to become familiar with what you are jumping. You are at most maintaining the skill level you have and any learning that you are doing is really stunted by the long period of time between jumps. This doesn't make for a lot of progression and it should be the main reason that you are worried about changing to a smaller, faster and less forgiving canopy. You are likely to make more mistakes given that you aren't as comfortable. I would consider finding something a bit more reasonable. I don't know you so I can't say for sure but in all, I think you would be better off and have more fun overall with your skydiving if you were less worried about your gear. Thanks for reading! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Karl's a cool dude too!

Me too, but I have just kept doing it as much as I can and its getting better. Practice practice practice. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Haha nice caption. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

See attached. Edit to add: pretty sure it is, but still funny? ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I don't think I register on this scale... ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Here is a non-tiny version of the completed thing. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Good luck, I hope things work out for you

When I first jumped a 107 I was amazed at the tiniest of things that would make the canopy not fly straight. That had been after doing some jumps on mostly 135s and 120s. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Hey, thanks for the personal attack. I was waiting for it to come, knew it was only a matter of time. No where in my post did I say it was OK to do it. But I also didn't say it wasn't. Is that the problem you had with it? I don't know this guy any different from who I know you claim to be. I was trying to put a post out there that wasn't attacking him and would at least make him think a little bit more about what exactly it means. So to call me an idiot for trying to get another person to think more about what they are doing is a bit misguided in my opinion. I know a guy at my dz who came on here and was like, "I'm downsizing to this" and everyone basically said, "you will be dead in a year" and didn't give shit for constructive thinking or anything along that lines. Well, he didn't die, but at some point he fucked up an ankle and then finally realized that people might have been right, at least for him. I have gone back and forth with a jumper at my dz in the past about his excessive downsizing and he really didn't give a shit what I had to say cause I took the "you're going to get hurt or die" approach. People who downsize like that, don't listen to attacks. So I have given up bothering to do it. Hackish seems to have a reasonable sense of what he was doing coming on here. He had to know he was going to take shit for this thread, I almost wonder if it was on purpose. None the less, the point I was trying to make with my post was that he should know better than to take too much risk. He should also know better than to ask about downsizing advice on the internet. He should know that his instructors at his dz that know his skills are the ones that can give adequate advice. Finally, he should know that if he doesn't know all the things I just said, then he ought to not be downsizing anyways. Thats my $.10 ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Cypress2 without a doubt. No maintenance checks on the vigil is a con for me. Vigil is still too new and has too many bugs for me to be comfortable with it. I like the way the cypress behaves. The vigil is almost too fire happy for me. It is a statistically low chance that I will actually need my cypress and it is an even more statisticly low chance that it doesn't fire when it is supposed to. There is some possibility that the cypress will misfire, but that chance seems to be higher on the vigil, given that it seems they would rather have them fire than not fire. (re, pressurized aircraft) ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I agree with the ask your instructors part. I don't have any of the "other" experience that kallend has but I was jumping a 170 by jump 20. I weighed between 185 and 195 depending on the day back then. I did sprain an ankle landing though! I put like 400 jumps on the 170 then 400 on a 150 then 400 on a 139 and I have a couple hundred on my velocity 103 now. There was my progression. Understand that more risk is involved with higher wingloading. You are more likely to get hurt or killed. I got lucky a few times, you might not! You might learn slower too. All up to you what are willing to accept and your DZ as to what they are willing to let you do! Just try to not get hurt, ya? Edit to clarify, since people are probably gonna get pissy at me over that post and cause I have somewhat come out on the "you're an idot for downsizing fence" in the past. I am not suggesting that you downsize. Only that you evaluate how much risk you are willing to accept. That is a big part of this sport. Don't forget about all the people who have to deal with shit if you do in fact make a bad decision. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The math is pretty simple; a 10 pound camera helmet will "weigh" 50 pounds in a 5G crash. I certainly would never consider 5G to be the upper limit on a crash though. The normal aircraft seats are designed to survive up to 9G (crap assed bench seating we typically see in a Twin Otter; your guess is as good as mine says maybe 4G) and the human body may survive up to 20G if aligned normally (which it won't be in a skydiving aircraft accident). Beyond 20G body parts have a tendancy to depart the body. Wearing your camera helmet in a crash is simply asking for your neck to be broken. Holding it in your hands is futile and it will smash into someone else. Securing it with a seat belt is your best option, but the chest strap is a reasonable compromise, in my opinion. I agree. I have filmed a couple different take offs with a light plane and my camera attached to a seat belt. Since then I just use all canned takeoffs in my tandem videos and I secure my helmet to my chest strap. I don't like the weight on my neck really at all. I do what I can to not wear the helmet as much as I can. The worst that is going to happen on my chest strap is that the camera bashes me in the face. Thats my risk to take in a crash and I see it as a lesser risk to having my neck tore off. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I listened to it when it was Art Bell ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka