Pendragon

The requirements are slightly different, but an S&TA at a US DZ can help you. Make sure you have signed logs of all your jumps, with what you did in freefall (WARP levels etc) and how far you landed from a target (if you've been doing any accuracy). The USPA "A" licence card can be filled out from those details if you wish to convert. I actually jumped straight to a USPA "D" during a couple of days when I couldn't jump; it was just a matter of filling out the forms. I'm not sure how it stands if you're an American citizen, but I could always just purchase USPA membership (either full or temporary) and jump on my BPA licence providing it was current (backed up by BPA membership). Personally, I would get your USPA licence (yes, it will be a different number), and stop paying the BPA. I would keep the BPA FAI booklet though; you should be able to use it if you come back. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

You need to have a flying canopy above your head by 2,000 ft in accordance with BPA rules. For most people, that means pulling by 2,700 - 3,000ft at the latest, depending on canopy. USPA defines it differently, and gives pull altitudes. I recall this is 2,000 ft for D licence holders! -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I agree - doing 1,000 jumps over 15 years doesn't make you anywhere near as competent as someone who manages that in 2. You get good in this game by repetition, and changing things a little at a time. People should be careful in not allowing jealous feelings (being overtaken, outskilled etc by someone who wasn't even a skydiver that long ago) to cloud their judgment. If the party in question has a questionable attitude to the sport - ie, doesn't have any fear, limited boundaries, doesn't put the groundwork in - then that's a separate issue, Time / jump numbers are "red-herrings" - only what people do and say is any marker of competency. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Try doing a 270 / 540 on a crossbraced out in the desert with scrub / holes and everything else out there. The desert there is only good for "landing off" - i.e. conservative, straight-in approaches. The suggestion doesn't solve anything unfortunately. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Also, once under canopy, people fly away from their opening point. Hopefully not along the line of flight, but people get disorientated. Not good if you're out after a flat flying group but opening just before them. The time elapsed between a freeflyer and a flat flyer group opening, if the former gets out first, is easily enough to ensure horizontal separation, with the freeflyer's canopy well out of the way. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I know about that too. If you ask, you'll find out there wasn't exactly huge agreement. I never put forth that freeflyers always jump smaller canopies as a cornerstone of my argument, just that it can be a factor. The cornerstone of my arguement is that, by putting freeflyers out after flat flyers, you have many more people opening at the same time on a level. Other issue; you've got inexperienced freeflyers on a load. Drift arguement only works with more experienced groups that can actually fall down the tube. Since when were groups of inexperienced freeflyers capable of that? Consider this then: don't you think that its equally dangerous passing someone in freefall, especially when one group isn't exactly still? -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Didn't say it doesn't happen. Here we go... Let's just take 1 freeflyer and 1 flat flyer. First spends 45s in freefall from 13k ft; the flat flyer 1 min. So, an additional 15s is spent in the moving airmass by the flat flyer. Let's say the airmass is moving at 45 knots. Now, it's highly unlikely that the winds aloft (i.e. for jump run) are going either at the same rate or even in the same direction all the way down... but let's assume that for now as a worst case. So, aircraft runs in at 90 knots (for arguments sake) - which is pretty slow. BTW - ground speed is irrelevant. So in 7s, the equivalent distance would have been covered in the aircraft that would, at most, ever get covered by the freefall drift. If you were in an aircraft that was that slow, you'd notice, and probably not get out too soon - and likely leave 10s anyway. Also, if you've got a 4-way getting out after a freeflyer, I doubt they could do it too quickly anyway, preferring to get ready. So, why is it then in all the time I've got out before 4-ways I've never seen anyone remotely close to me in the sky, yet going out after them I've seen big ways pull after me, lower than me and fly their canopies in my pattern? I should add that of course no-one spends that amount of time in strong upper winds. If people ever look at a meterological forecast they'd see how there can be several layers, with the wind blowing at different strengths and in different directions, so it's always going to be less than the extreme case. Lastly, maybe because we have a more traditional way of doing this this side of the pond, but you are more likely to find smaller canopies on the backs of freeflyers over here - maybe because to become one, you have to be a flat flyer first. We all speak from our own experiences. Funnily enough, when dropping to do hop-n-pops, most wouldn't dream of putting the light-loaded canopies out before the highly loaded ones. So why do we do it so often and cause congestion at other times? So back to the issue at hand - why don't we think more about canopy congestion in the determination of exit order? -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Your point made me think of something. Let's go through the exit order thing again. Freeflyers are the ones most likely to have the smaller, swooping canopies (I'm talking statistics here). By putting freeflyers out 2nd, which seems to be policy in the US but opposite of what is generally done in the UK, 2 things happen: 1) Faster-falling freeflyers exiting shortly after the belly-flying groups "catch-up" with the flat flyers, putting many more people on the same level independent of their wingloadings, and 2) You have smaller, "faster-falling" canopies opening after bigger ones, giving another chance for the airspace to become even more conjested Talk is always about horizontal separation and freefall drift. Absolute codswallop/claptrap/baloney! For sure, freefall drift does exist - I'm not denying that. It's just that it has limited impact (providing exit separations are adequate - my impression is that people frequently take too long in the door anyway!). For it to become an issue, you need 30+ knot uppers... and many skydivers are not jumping in those conditions. I'm sorry, but I do believe that the policies of certain DZs with regard to exit order have created serious issues with canopy traffic in order to avert a theoretical risk, and that canopy traffic is a contributing factor in all this. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I'm sure you'll hear this from others (and it is the standard line for obvious reasons): Don't go head down too early. You will: 1) Drift up and down the line of flight, across other groups because you're actually in a steep track, not head down 2) If you form bigger groups, it's quite likely you'll lose control at some point. "Corking" is highly dangerous as the closing speeds are much higher. Head down can easily be 180 mph; you're looking at 50+ mph closing speeds - and people have suffered internal injuries through collision. Most coaches I've known recommend doing at least a whole season sit/stand before moving to head down. Avoid it for now. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Hi Dan, Go to Z-Hills. Matt keeps going on about the big cumulus clouds. Find Omar... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

He had to ring someone twice once to ask them how to hold the D-bag for a "student" that was to make their first jump on it (we overheard him at the bar...) -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Sounds familiar -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

If you have 3,000 jumps, I'm sure Velocity openings are sweet. If you're closer to 1,000, they suck big time. Once open, they fly beautifully. Xaos 21, from all that I've heard of and seen, has the nicest openings. Just to note, the Velocity (although like a 7-cell) is not a low aspect ratio canopy: it's 2.68-2.71 (depending on size), which is between a Stiletto and a Katana, and way above a typical 7-cell aspect ratio of 2.1-2.2 for reserves and crew canopies -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Seriously though, polls often chuck out broadly the right answer; you just have to remember that it's usually only those with extreme views that respond, with the (usually large) moderate majority failing to speak... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Safire2 is good, as is the Pilot. Sabre2 will likely feel more aggressive at the same wingloading on front risers -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Could you elaborate? I would have thought (being a 7-cell planform) that the Xaos 21 would have better openening characteristics... but I haven't flown either. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Which route did you take? (not that there's any easy ones!) -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Funny thing is, this sort of thing happened well before youtube existed: there was a Japanese guy >10 years ago that filmed himself doing well over 200 mph that got caught in a similar fashion... I found a link to the infamous footage: he even focuses in on the speedo throughout. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6651839178783831483&q=F40 I think it would be reasonable to consider this man as a muppet. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

You have way too much knowledge about Columbians, and Columbia. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Maybe a side issue: everyone has different approaches to initiating the turn. Personally I make a half-braked approach (or something around there) which is more to help get into the right 3D space than anything else. At the initiation point, I slowly pull the riser down, whilst simultaneously putting a lot of harness lean in; this is the same for doing a 270 on my Safire2, Xfire2 or Velo. Smooth input is key for me. At the roll-out stage (so it's finished diving) I push the rears apart - the surge of speed you get on the Xfire2 the first time I did that was cool! The reason why I wrote this? Isn't the key to safety when swooping to make predictable "cookie cutter" (as all the American coaches I've had like to call it ) turns? Surely the more complicated you make it, the more difficult it is to reproduce the turn? Not Dave in particular, but some people - when I hear how they describe how they initiate - it all sounds so complicated... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

No, people are not addicted to online video. Well, not directly anyway. They're just addicted to the incessant gossip that the medium can provide; just like this, or other, forums. Some people only care to see another taken down, ridiculed or whatever. Others are too busy jumping or getting on with their busy lives to care. Occasionally, it's important. If someone stands up and tries to be a "public" face for BASE, then it affects all of us, and should be critiqued... but that's about it. It's late and I'm about to talk garbage... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Yuri's chart, 4th one down; classic aerofoil section of a hang glider (and also good for a wingsuit) - the importance of stability in flight for flexwings can't be emphasised enough. If you don't have superb pitch stability (quite common with a lot of wingsuit pilots) then the wing won't develop much lift anyway. The more you push out, the finer the stability point becomes; ultimately the limit of suit performance is us! -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Cool! Don't get me wrong; practising with risers and all the available controls of your canopy up high is essential. I was just trying to point out that you should be well dialed in to a particular landing (whatever that might be) before complicating it with extra speed, recovery arcs etc... Sounds like you're going about it the right sort of way. Just don't ever scare yourself. If you do, at least have the common sense to reign-in on whatever you were doing. It's all been said a thousand times I'm sure... and it'll be said a few trillion times yet! -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

You've got less than 200 landings. You shouldn't seek to accelerate them just yet. Make sure you can do flat turns and land crosswind before experimenting with depressurizing your canopy and using front risers. You need these skills as much as anything else. How else are you going to land if you need to abort a high performance landing? (too late to setup, someone enters the airspace you're going to need, someone cuts you up...) -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Didn't Robi got close to that number last year (on THE good day)... (scary fast packer that man!) -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13