Staso

i jump safire2-149 loaded around 1.4. i love the canopy. very smooth and responsive the same time. opens very soft. too soft as for me. i tried to replace the slider for smaller one, but it'd been taking so long to get it from icarus that i gave up. glide ratio is amazing. it just keeps flying. landing (flare) is a little different from sabre, since there is more range of motion for breaks involved. but i can't say that i don't like it. very short recovery arch and often positive. if i hang on front riser and let go, the canopy flattens itself very quickly. 90 degrees carving tursn should be permormed fairely low because of that and it makes it a little unsafe. 180 are much smoother, canopy loses more altitude and it gives more margin of error. very nice canopy. since i'm gaining weight (bodybuilding) and i'm upsizing myslef, i don't think i will be changing the canopy any time soon. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

well, you can take Pavlov's idea to the next level. audibale is not worse or better then visual altimiter. you can have Pavlov's reaction to visual signal (visuals altimiter) or audible (audible altimiter). how does it make visual alitimiter better ? why do you trust your sight, but don't trust your hearing ? i don't suggest replacing visual altimiters to audible, i just wanna justify audibles. why not make them more useful then just "PULL!" device ? if there is a fear that aidible can malfunction, then one can you two. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

my gf got it 2 or 3 weeks ago. so far so good. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

that's what happend. i loosened it before releasing my brakes, then i after i released the breaks i had to cutaway with my chest strap very loose. now i think i would release my breaks first and then loosen the chest strap. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

you mean you would NOT want it hooked up for speed, right ? stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

thanks. come to thanksgiving boogie! find tall russian dude and tell him you're from dz.com :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i don't know about RSL for speed skydiving. if i have (knock-knock on the wood) premature deployment and RSL is hooked up, i'm not sure what would happen when my main blows up at high speed. but definetely RSL has it's own advantages. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

what about speed skydiving ? i regulary fly at speeds of 250+ mph. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

totally agree, it was my mistake. and i glad that i do weight lifting three days a week :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

yeap, i got the same. mine was manufactured in may 02. i jsut put "2" next to "safire" on the warning label. it's probably illegal thing to do stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i have the third one set at 1.5. it's my - oh shit, i gotta have any canopy out. i hope i never hear it. it happend twice. first when i forgot to turn my dytter and i did in a plane and 1500 alarm actually meant 3500 and another one yesterday when i cutaway and my reserve was opening around 1500. i'd suggest to set it at 1500. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

got my first cutaway yesterday. well, unintentional first, since i got intentional cutaway 3 months ago. jump number 413. speed dive, usual training. broke off at 5K, got flat, slowed down and pulled. usual opening. opened my visor (Z1), loosened my chest strap and collapsed my slider. released my breaks and started spinning right away. i saw there was some knot on my right break line and the line stuck on my toggle. didn't try much to fix it, since double gloves are not big help and i was in the spin. so i said "f$%k it" and just chopped. i had to use to hands to pull cutaway handle since velcro held it pretty tight. i actually pulled top of the pillow and then got my thumb between cables and harness and pulled it all together. it took me probably 3 seconds to find my reserve handle since i let it go when i used to hands to cut. since my chest strap was loosen all the way i couldn't locate reserve right away. funny, while feeling for reserve handle i was thinking "damn, i'm gonna find and pull it, but i'm so glad i had cypress". and now i think it's good idea to loosen the chest strap last. thanks to the good spot, everything landed right next to the landing zone. on the ground it turned out that top of the toggle was too deep in the line loop and loop was actually below the grommet. with some tension after opening it got pretty tight. afterwards i was thinking that i could've spent more time trying to fix it but i kept thinking while dealing with it that that was exactly how people get killed - trying to fix small things too long. another thing is that i don't have visual altimeter - i have two pro-dytter in my helmet and pro-track on my harness. so i wasn't really keen judging my altitude visually and while in spin. i turned out that i opened about 2.5 and was under reserve around 1.5. my main canopy is icarus safire2-149 (wing load - 1.4), reserve - PD-143 (wing load - 1.46). very easy and soft landing. got beer for everybody at dz and huge absolute bottle for my rigger. thanks Brian ! the lesson - pay more attention to breaks stowing. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

Massachusetts Sport Parachute Club - Est. 1959. http://jumptown.com i believe it's first commercial dz in US. stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

zero or not zero wind it shouldn't make any difference. your air speed should be the same. as for downward, i guess you can try to clock it. it's not gonna be very accurate, but it will give you the rough number. it's kinda hard thoug since any maneuvers will change your descent rate. stan -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

my best average is 284 mph. still unofficially ... -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i think we miss my point here :) i don't skydive because it's dangerous, or because it's cool because it's dangerous. my point is that all the feelings and emotions we receive from skydiving are multiplied by danger. and w/o it it would be more plain and less thrilling. wouldn't it ? in this case if it were completely safe it would lose some (not all of it) appeal. as goose941 said it's about dopamine :) watch speed w/o limits on discovery TLC channel this saturday. well, record it, 'cos you're supposed to be jumping !!! :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

he-he :) i do live in boston stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

there was a very good show on TLC channel yesterday. about high speeds and dangerous kinds of sports in general. and why this kind of sports appeal to people. it's gonna be on TV this saturday from 2 till 4 ET i beleive. i think it's worth watching. explains a lot :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

so would you trade it for wind tunnel ? unless you like canopy flying .. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

i haven't been doing much at my work for a couple of weeks now, so i became to lazy. can't type at all :) skydicing forever ! stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

c'mon, when skydicing becomes an official term, i'll be the one who will claim it ! :):):) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

well, that's why i'm doing speed dives :) stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

don't your friends hate you already for talking about skydiving all the tame ? -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

the example with wind tunnel is very good. if it wasn't for danger part, freefalling and going to wind tunnel would be the same, wouldn't it ? some people don't like canopy ride. not me, i love it. but for some who does RW and doesn't like canopy ride, would it make any sense to go skydiving instead of using wind tunnel ? which is safe and cheaper ? stan. -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum

yeah, you got me on that one :) -- it's not about defying gravity; it's how hard you can abuse it. speed skydiving it is ... Speed Skydiving Forum