Pendragon

I guess you can practise half-cartwheels; try and put yourself in the position for a sec or 2 then flip back onto your feet. ...but that's about it. Problem with going head down is that even when you've got it right, it feels wrong at first - and it's very disorientating. You may wish to get some advice from a coach initially; go away and try some things then hit it hard with lots of coaching jumps. From my own experience, it was a pain in the rear end to learn... One other thing - there was a recent article by an experience coach back here in the UK; he was advocating that you spend a season on your feet before going head down. If you're profile is correct, I doubt whether you have much experience. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

The way it was explained to me is that, using your hands, you just put them under tension. I must admit, I found them quite stiff and difficult to bend! -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

How's it going? Like it? Yup, that's right - just pack it. That slider is HUGE! I never pushed the nose in nor pulled the slider out over the nose and it always opened fine for me. Not too brisk - but nowhere near as slow as your experience! -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I don't know about pack volumes, but for comparison I got my Safire2 129 comfortably in my NJ for a while. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Paragliding boots are the most ideal; Hanwags, Crispis (and Salomon do a pair too). You can run in them BASE jumpers use them all the time. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Chris' contact details are publicly available already. Working in the industry, he actually likes random people emailing him about his seminars. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

When taking 2+s handheld, I thought that general practice was to hold the packed PC quite tightly (and not open as for a short, say 1s, delay) to avoid it causing noticeable drag on one side and therefore a turn. Isn't this in essence the same (in terms of how the PC is packed) as going stowed? However, this got me thinking about how the PC enters the airflow in the 2 configurations: on hand-held, the PC is in your hand in front of you, and must therefore enter the air stream in a different manner (from the front and away from any burble?) to reaching behind the container and throwing it from there? My question is therefore: is there any particular issue regarding the going stowed / lazy throw / low airspeed combination that anyone has ever heard of? I'm not speculating on this particular event, just curious since I'm experimenting with short delay stowed jumps. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Paraglider pilots tend to avoid fluorescent colours as they really do absorb UV (that is I suppose the point... ) - unless of course they're sponsored. I've heard that darker colours have more of the silicone coating on them (which should protect the fabric), but since the darker colour may have a tendency to absorb more UV anyway, I don't know how the lifetimes compare. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I learnt to swoop on a Pilot at that wingloading, it was a 150. Oh, it speeds up alright. Take it easy; you can still hurt yourself. I managed to sprain both ankles badly on a 90 degree turn on my pilot150 and was hobbling around for 3 days so don't think for one minute that this is anything other than a serious wingloading. I would start with 45 degree front riser turns as it is very easy to bail (both toggles) or just complete the turn on the toggle should you find yourself a little low. Get those consistantly right on landing THEN move onto 90s. I wouldn't bother too much with double-fronts; all that happens is that you effectively fold the wing and kill the glide; you don't really get anything out of it. The recovery arc is quite shallow on a Pilot, so initiation heights may sound a little low... but they're not that low! Start high; measure the height you lose in the dive until plane out; add 100ft to this and try that. What you will find is that your measurements at altitude will probably be erroneous; the canopy dives then, as it recovers, may gain height - so the measurement you make will be too small (hence adding the additional 100ft when you bring the turn closer to the ground). Even if you end up planing out 100ft too high, don't initiate the turn 100ft lower - you will be too low! Take it in stages, say reduce it by 30ft in this example. See where you end up. When you actually find the right point, you'll see how the canopy has sped up so don't try to up the rotation just because you're not getting any sensation of speed. I did find however that it wasn't worth doing a greater rotation than 180 on the canopy at that wingloading. However, once you've really mastered that (which will probably take 200 jumps or so), then you may be ready for a downsize / change and a repeat of the whole thing again (yup, right from the 45s). I had my Pilot 150 for 350 jumps, of which 250 or so were high performance landings of some description, then I got a Safire2 129. Do seek advice locally though. It is so easy to make mistakes and inadvertantly get into bad habits and hurt yourself - "even at 1.4 on a Pilot". Stay safe,,, -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Asshole. At least we're both on the front cover of Parachutist. Unfortunately the taker of said photo doesn't get to feature himself... It was great being there - flock on dudes!

I also understand from a rigger that pack volume is greater on darker-coloured canopies as more coating is applied. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

What d'ya reckon? 'Phone a friend or ask the audience? -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Chuck Blue took his Velocity out of his wingsuit rig because he felt "it was asking for trouble". He jumps a highly loaded Sabre2 now - and bear in mind he was a Pro swooper. I've got a Safire2 129 @ 1.6 in at the moment; for freeflying I use a Xfire2 109 @ 1.8 (but I haven't chosen to wingsuit with it yet as I'm not experienced enough with it). The comment regarding being familiar with the canopy is, IMHO, correct. I know my Safire2 will behave itself and I don't yet have the same confidence in the Xfire2. However, I do know people who jump Xfire2's at 1.8 in their wingsuit without issue. Personally I think people overcomplicate the issue; once an experienced wingsuit pilot, line-twists should be a thing of the past. For sure, they'll happen every once in a while, but it should be a rare occurrence. For first-timers, a docile canopy is always recommended because the student will be moving to a less familiar pull technique for one and, with the wingsuit amplifying the effect of an asymmetric body position, line twists are highly likely - and potentially severe. Once over this hump though, a lot of these issues should just go away. I'm not really sure what place some of these 7 cells out there have; you sacrifice a lot of performance and yet nice soft opening canopies with good flare (Safire2, Pilot) are out there. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

How exactly do you arrive at that? Canopy size and W/L will affect performance, but not in a linear fashion. Overloading a canopy will result in loss of efficiency. "Underloading" a canopy, although not a problem from a safety point of view with parachutes (paragliders it is a different story), will result in loss of lift from the potential (although the effect may not be dramatic). There is a trade-off between parasitic and induced drag (one increases with airspeed, the other decreases); it must come about that there is an overall minimum, with maximum lift generated at this point as a result. My point would be: why "lightly" load a high-performance canopy when there are less "twitchy", easier handling canopies out there which are designed to give their best performance at the target wing loading? -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

I wouldn't say there's a danger, but like with all the canopies on the list, why would you? Best performance out of a Xfire2 is in the 1.8-2.0 range. It is a serious canopy. You will see people loading them lighter; my personal feeling is that it is purely for vanity. The "I fly a Xfire2 so I can look cool / experienced" kind of approach. At or less than W/L 1.6 lbs/sqft, you might as well stick with a Sabre2 / Safire2 / Pilot etc as the more squirrelly openings of a fully elliptical canopy won't be justified by the small increment of performance you'll be getting. I've heard good things about the Nitro (the Nitron is the copy) - again, why would you want to upsize? I'd demo some, but steer clear of the fully ellipticals until you have some more experience - and the ability to take full advantage of what they have to offer. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Looks an awful lot like a Prodigy to me... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

That's funny. Memory of an elephant. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

James only drives like an Italian. He's actually British... well, from the Midlands anyway. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Sorry, can't make it. I'm stuck in Z-Hills until Tuesday. Flock on, dudes... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Tweetings! We all love you Mike. Great event and I met a bunch of cool people; I'm glad I came over the Atlantic. I'm just going to thank everybody who attended for making it what it was.

You should come over to Europe then. We had a nice few tight 14-ways going at Weston in the UK last summer, just with some people that happened to turn up -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

So you now look like your Avatar then? Glad to hear you're finally converted.

...but there are proven disadvantages. Apparently a skydiver using a very long bridle (I think it was about 12') for a wingsuit jump in Australia experienced a malfunction when the bridle line got caught in one of the cascades. Someone who was there should comment on this though. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Yup, I'm in for wingsuit night jumps (as I'm sure Sam AKA 980 will be ) Besides, I'm already here so can beat you all to the load sheets. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Pity I can't seem to get my hands on it to try out! Nice flying Tristan. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13