gus

Dude, it's difficult to really work on your position and control when you've only got the bottom 1 or 2k of your dive to practice. Get yourself on some dedicated tracking dives and your skills will increase drastically. You may get smoked on the first few jumps but soon enough you'll be right there with the rabbit and you'll be amazed at how bad your tracking used to be. Tracking is a survival skill and is well worth practicing. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Have you tried turning with both front risers? Start by pulling both down by the same amount (so you're diving but not turning) then initiate the turn by letting up on one or pulling the other some more. This has the advantage of (1) keeping the turn at 90 degreees whilst (2) diving the canopy for a longer period of time and therefore building up more speed. As always: be careful, practice high, allow for the extra altitude required, seek qualified advice, cross your fingers, say a prayer, etc etc Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

You boys are funny. I would very strongly supspect that Chris is joking . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

2:50 from 15k down to 3k. S3, 6 ft 1, 170 lbs. My arms nearly fell off. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

To you guys that are saying "it works great", what exactly do you mean? Were you having problems without some kind of slider up tail gate? Is you slider up tail gate making a positive difference to the 'quality' of your openings? Or do you just mean "it hasn't mal'd on me yet" . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

About me: 900 jumps in 4.5 years. Owned 2 Spectres (150,135), then a Sabre2 (120) before my Crossfire2 (99). I load it about 1.7. Have also flown: student Mantas, Paratec Quadra, PD 9 cell, PD Sabre, PD Stiletto, PD Vengeance, Atair Troll. 150+ jumps on my Crossfire2. Openings: very consistent in the time/altitude they take to open, I'd say it takes 500 or 600 feet. 'Hunts' a little during inflation but not massively. Pretty sensitive to my terrible body position. If I really make the effort to concentrate on my body position during opening it's beautiful. I've had twists a handful of times and it's been very well behaved whilst I'll kick them out. I'm not really in to the whole 'steer your openings' thing, I think your likely to do more harm than good, so I just let it get on with it which it does just fine. Flight: Have done some close flight with a Stiletto 150 (@ ~1.5) and found it pretty easy to fly next to one another, although I was deeper in to brakes as you might expect. Glide seems pretty comparable to most other canopies out there, maybe slightly better than average. I've certainly made it back from some spots where I thought I wouldn't. Toggle turns are a hoot and chew up altitude pretty quick. Seems very stable in flight. Recovered very well when my mate grabbed my bridle at 7k and folded the thing in half! Landings: This is where it's at. I'm starting my carving 180 turns a little under 500 feet at the moment. I'm still a bit inconsistent but when I get it right this thing will generate a *lot* of speed and will let you swoop a fair old distance. The flare is a little different to the PD canopies I've owned but once you get used to it it's plenty powerful and it'll happily set you down gently on a nil wind day. My only complaint might be the front riser pressure which starts off nice enough but seems to build quite quickly. If I come out of my 180 too high it can be a real struggle to hold both front risers down for more than four or five seconds. I haven't really played with the rear risers on landing so can't comment on that. Overall: Wonderful! A real joy to fly. I can't wait to move on to 270 approaches and unleash some of the real power of this canopy. Gus

A bit like this? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Thanks Craig! The way I was imagining doing it I'd have the tail pocket facing up in the container (as in my BASE container), do you think that makes any difference? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

The BPA ops manual defines the minimum opening height for "Intermediate and Experienced Parachutists" as 2000 ft. Not sure whether that means initiating the deployment at 2k or having an open canopy at 2k. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Don't get too excited, I'm not planning on smoking it down super low - but jumping the Troll should give me an extra 1k of freefall, ie 2k rather than 3k. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Do you even know what a slider is? Hehehe, thanks for the tip dude. Mainly it's so I can fly the wingsuit lower than I would dare with my xf2. If I'm going to pay £35 for 5k I'm sure as hell going to eek out as much freefall as possible! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

D'oh, I did do a search, promise! I even posted in that thread . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I started a thread in the BASE forum about freepacking in to a skydiving container then I realised that you crew dawgs are probably the best people to ask. If you have any advice the thread's here. Thanks, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

We have a helicopter coming to the dz next week and I thought it would be fun to put my Troll in to a skydiving container and do some wingsuit jumps. If I freepack the canopy in there, is there anything I need to be careful of? Or is it just a case of making 1 more fold in the canopy to get it in? Thanks, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Hehehe, that's what I was looking for . I don't generally jump alone but I have done a couple of times. For me, jumping solo definitely gives me something that jumping with other people doesn't. For want of a better word it gives a feeling of 'oneness', I don't really know how to describe it. A special kind of satisfaction, I suppose it's the independence of it all. One time in particular I was sat on top of an A waiting for some activity to die down on the ground, it was a warm summer evening and someone started letting off fireworks in the distance. It was awesome, I just sat there chilling out, watching the fireworks, thinking about how lucky I was to be in such an unusual and amazing situation. After about half and hour things had quietened down on the ground and the fireworks had finished so I got up and jumped. It was pretty cool . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I see what you're saying but......if you blindly hooked at 150 ft on a new canopy just because that's what you're used to then maybe you shouldn't be swooping. Skills learnt on canopy A do not become wasted on canopy B just because the flight characteristics are different. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I thought one of the points of the R.A.G.E. is that it has a thinner than normal airfoil, is that not the case? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Is that the standard exit altitude now or was that just for shits and giggles? I'm trying to get some time off work so I can come out and swoop your pond with Brian. Hopefully see you soon mate. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I only met Duane a coulpe of times but he was instantly likeable. A genuinely good guy. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Hey man, there's no piccy! We had a blast at Hibs, had some nice close flying going on and a couple of flights tantalisingly close to 3 mins . Shame the Sibson/Hibs weekends co-incided . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I have a feeling that Sward Sports no longer exists. Try contacting Simon Ward (sward AT skyventure DOT co DOT uk). Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Most likely up at Hibs with you boys, showing off my S3 whilst it's still shiny and new

1) Steve Newman 2) Langar 3) ~1500 jumps 4) Bullet Freefly School 5) There pretty much every weekend 6) Contact via dz 7) £40 last time I bought tickets 8) Includes video 9) Sponsored by PdF Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I know there's a wingsuit weekend at Hibs but someone just told me there's also one at Sibson and that Jari's going to be there. Is that right? Are they both at the same weekend? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Quade, I've often thought I'd like to jump a belly mount with my wingsuit. Do you mind telling us what what wrong with the ones you didn't like and what was right with the one you liked? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com