crazydiver

It was canopy control, not how far apart his legs were. Now, if he had prepared to have a hard landing and was going to PLF, his legs were too far apart and should have been together and ready to roll. Putting your feet and knees together wont help you fly or land better. Only students are told that so that in case they have a hard landing they can more easily PLF at at least wont have limbs out all over. Same reason they have students flare to their crotch...people pretty much stop doing that when they get some experience. Cheers, Travis

When a person is "sinking in" thier canopy, they aren't in full brakes. He was pretty much in full brakes and you saw what it did to him. Cheers, Travis

You mean planform to planform? No, no, no - It's the platform that gives a canopy a nice long recovery arch Canuck thats funny...I was thinking about throwing the recovery "arch" in there too! Cheers, Travis

You mean planform to planform? Cheers, Travis

Wingsuiting as well. Wuffos like/need gimmicks. I think swooping does the same thing, because wuffos can see it first hand and help them to realize the speed and accuracy involved..they may not understand the skill, but its a start. Freefall is just videos. No one knows what it feels like, no one knows what it takes to do some of those things. Its what is so awesome about this sport, and yet so sad that only a few enjoy it. Cheers, Travis

exactly. Even if TV is showing routine things in skydiving, they usually are going to make it seem more dangerous than it really is...and that's hurting our sport. It could potentially drive away someone who is toying with the idea of doing a tandem, but has safety doubts. Its really a fine line, cuz it would be nice to have our sport televised more often, but at the same time, its all gonna seem pretty crazy for a whuffo. And in all reality...I'm not sure if I really want our sport more popularized..I kind of like the small tight knit group we have. Cheers, Travis

A person can solo jump at age two if they were able and they were not jumping at a USPA dropzone. FAA states nothing of hte sort. USPA can't penalize Mike Mullens for what he did on his personal time at a private place. I seem to remember Melissa and Rook Nelson skydiving as young kids...Roger Nelson eventually became a USPA member and dropzone. Same thing. Not a problem if you aren't taking kids on tandems and aren't at a USPA dropzone. Cheers, Travis

I'm curious as to what some details here are (manufacturer, region) because uspa states a tandem passenger must be 16, and RWS and Strong for sure say that the passenger must be 18. Not sure about stunts and jumpshack. And up until a year or two ago, uspa stated that a passenger must be 18, the only recently changed it to 16. Not flaming, just curious how you got away with it. I know some peeps who have taken kids in other countries htat were so small they duct taped them into harnesses. Cheers, Travis

If people actually begin to send more things in to this show, we are doing a real disfavor to our sport. Spike TV doesn't show successful ground breaking skydives. They show the same type of things that the news shows about us...close calls, deaths, stupid acts...and they will use them as propoganda as such. In our United States culture, for some reason, we have come to a point where there is a positive story on the news here and there, but the majority of it is fateful and tragic acts pertaining to our local residencies. Frequentflyer, i'm not trying to dog on what you are doing, I just want you and everyone else to keep in mind what does make it on TV, especially Spike TV. It may sound like a good deal, but you could say every good thing about our sport, and none of it would make it on the news. There was a fatality at a dropzone four hours away from my dropzone last week and within an hour, a news station was out interviewing people from my dropzone...which is crazy because we had nothing to do with the fatality...they just wanted info about skydiving. The people who were interviewed said only positive things about our sport, but of course, it was edited beyond all recognition. I once saw a program on "hilarious and stupid human acts" and pond swooping was one of them, all they showed was videos of people eating it in various ponds...funny...yes...but not an accurate depiction of swooping. We all know that swooping is a precision sport/art carefully planned and executed that can have dangerous concequences if done wrong, but they showed it as a careless, crazy, and funny to watch act. I just have a feeling that this show on Spike TV is going to be the same way. Think about it before you send in your material...and they better be paying for your footage even if you do send it in or our sport AND the person sending in the footage are getting ripped of! I respect frequentflyer for only sending in material that isn't "crazy or death defying." Thats what the program needs. But please people...these shows get these shananegans from somewhere...and skydivers are some of the only people that I know who have first hand footage of these things...send in positive media footage, or send in nothing at all. Cheers, Travis

Essentially, jumping a smaller canopy will make you feel the bumpiness more because of hte increased speed, but on a different note, smaller canopies have been known to do better in turbulence because they are faster and can sort of "cut through" the air quicker. Dont downsize for this reason, but in all reality, the faster the parachute, the less suceptable it is to turbulence. The speed is also directly related to lift, and therefore you would have more lift when the wind is suddenly changed or taken away (like in turbulence). Cheers, Travis

The airlocked canopies also are still suceptable to turbulance and thermals. An airlocked canopy can and will still get dropped in turbulance, the difference is that the wing is less likely to deform while unpressurised. Cheers, Travis

Had a cutaway on my Samurai 105 this summer on a tandem video. Pretty sure a farmer took it or something, but I never recovered it. Luckily I bought it used, but i lost the free bag as well, so I was about about 1000 bucks. Rats. Cheers, Travis

If your heading through denver, you should swing up Mile Hi way!!! We have a new otter, a king air, and a 206 for the using. Are you familiar with this place? You should at least stop by to say bye! Cheers, Travis

Is this a joke? Of course you can? Its even funnier that you hurt your finger not playing golf, but video golf! Cheers, Travis

He was almost fully flared rediculously high. Perhaps he was overshooting the target or something. I would like to think that the Golden Knights knew how to fly better than that. Of course there could have been extenuating circumstances, but the canopy control on landing is what screwed him. Cheers, Travis

I always tell people that my swoops look tons better with a rolled up sock in the front of my undies! Cheers, Travis

I missed the 17 pack jobs part. Sorry for the confusion. Buy the canopy...its definetly worth the cashola. Cheers, Travis

Since its 13 years old, provided its been packed on a regular schedule, its got 11 packs to go before inspection. Still a few years, but just something to keep in mind when buying. Cheers, Travis

One thing to think about is the number of packjobs and jumps the canopy has. Every 40 repacks and/or every 25 jumps the PD reserve must be sent back to the factory for stregnth testing, permeability testing, and general wear inspecion. If it is getting close to this, keep that in mind. I'm not sure if PD charges anything for the inspection, but either way, you''ll have to send it back to the manufacturer, but if the age doesn't bother you, its a good deal. In my opinion, as long as a parachute passes the ts 108 non destructive pull test and the factory permeability tests and passes all factory inspections, there is no reason to take a canopy out of servce. If it is strong enough, and would land people safely when it was made, its gonna do the trick now, provided it does pass all the tests. Cheers, Travis

I love forums because no one truly understands completely what the person before them said and what the respondant writes. Its the nature of the beast. I will forever continue to read forums, if not for the education, at least for the entertainment. You know what I mean, Grant. Cheers, Travis

Yeah, and what about Lance Armstrong? Somehow I think having less "equipment" down there would make a person better at riding long distances with an banana shaped seat up in their crotch. ;) Cheers, Travis

What type of canopy were you jumping before you went to the crossfire? I have a friend with a 129 and he says its fine. You all should go crossbraced...then talk about riser pressure. THe fx's and vx's get so heavy that most of a carving turn onto final is used with harness. Cheers, Travis

I've seen this posted a few times and wonderd about how this works. If this concept of inputs worked, I should feel my canopy increase in speed and dive more, if while in full flight I just pressed forward into my chest strap and leaned forward as hard as I could. I've tried it, alot, and I cannot feel any difference except this a very uncomfortable way to fly around. Not knocking you at all, but please eloborate a little more on this and anyone else who might be using this technique. I just have a hard time understanding how if we are only connected to our canopies at the two lateral points, how would pivoting weight beneath that point do anything to dive the canopy any harder? I'm not sure, but this sounds to me like all that is going on is you're just presenting less of your surface area to the relative wind you experience in a dive. Wouldn't just drawing your legs up and staying a little smaller under your canopy throughout your maneauver accomplish the same thing? Maybe at my wingloading (1.7)the difference is too small to notice. I absolutely see your point. I felt the same way when I found out about this technique. And in theory...you are correct. Since there is only one attachment point on each side of the body, you would simply pivot under the risers/three rings...however... Think about what happens if you were to lean backwards in a swingset...you would tilt backwards. If you leaned forwards, you would begin to tilt forward. Its the leaning that moves the swing back and forth. Our three rings are not perfectly fluidly moving as a pivot point, they stick a little and are very close to the front of our harnesses. So when we lean forward or back, it has a small effect on the way our weight is positioned under it. We lean forward, the three rings and risers move with us, and so does the canopy (slightly). Essentially, our bodies are "pulling" the canopy further down than if we were leaned back. We are giving the canopy more forward energy by leaning forward just as we would be leaning forward while we are swinging in a swing. Confusing, yes. Best way to understand, try it. Lean forward with all you got. Extend your legs downward and back as well as your arms. This is a dynamic thing. You can't just lean forward and expect the canopy to fly different. Its when you are coming out of your dive that this forward energy will help you. This will not only let you try this up high, but it will reduce your parasitic drag that your body creates. Kind of hard to grasp, but it does help, especially on smaller, heavier loaded canopies. You jump a crossfire 119 at 1.7 so you are pretty heavy loaded yourself. Try it out. Thanks for the question, i didn't feel like you were dissing me. No worries. Cheers, Travis

The front riser pressure on a crossfire isnt all that heavy, however, if you are having trouble getting output from your input, lean in the harness more. Really crank into the turn/dive. One thing that can help is going into partial breaks until directly before you want to initiate the dive. This decreases the load factor on the wing, thus reducing the riser pressure. Leaning forward in the harness while using the harness to turn will also help the canopy to dive a bit more agressively. Cheers, Travis

BJ, Mikie, and Coloradosky(not sure exactly who that is), but hey! its Travis! As complex and shitty as this forum is, its good to hear from ya. I'm gonna come back and visit ya'll over thanksgiving possibly and definetly over winter break. Until then, stay safe and have fun (I know you all do). See you then! God damn I miss Brush weekend fun like hell! Blue Ones, Travis Cheers, Travis