Tonto

Hi. I moved this to general Skydiving discussions as you clearly never read the guidelines when you posted this in incidents. t It's the year of the Pig.

0.73 is lightly loaded. The case you answered to, most advised wing loadings around 1.1 - 1.2. Do you think a wing loading of 1.1 - 1.2 is dangerously light? t It's the year of the Pig.

So what was your wing loading? t It's the year of the Pig.

I think so. I've moved the thread to safety and training. t It's the year of the Pig.

Hey! (I've attached Jonathan for anyone who wants to read it..) I think you'd do fine! Try on as many suits as you can to see which one will work best for you. I was flying alongside an S-Fly base this past weekend, and it flew WAY beyond my expectations. it has a central wing cut away position and is suitable for a 1st flight. Have you had to modify your cutaway and reserve handles at all? t It's the year of the Pig.

Not in the last 21 years.. I think that everyone should have a degree of residial flexibility. If one performs a task that will take them outside of those limits prior to them being warm, then perhaps a warm-up is required, but otherwise not. t It's the year of the Pig.

Tracking competitions are won or lost on ground distance travelled. t It's the year of the Pig.

Pretty much the same in South Africa. We had one at our DZ, and he's gone. Out of the sport. t It's the year of the Pig.

"Breakoff" is not one specific course in my opinion. The breakoff from a head down dive brings with it a lot of airspeed and energy which is very easily converted into forward speed, like a car going from the end of a long straight into a sweeping corner. Breakoff from a 4 way is almost certainly a drag race from a standing start. Breakoff from a big way is more like pulling off a starting grid when the lights change. You can't just run into the car in front of you if it's slower. Tracking dives are more like FS. Speed dives and distance dives are different again. When I run or compete in a tracking competition, distance rounds are always into the wind, to negate the effect the slow fallers get from the "carry" of the wind, like a canopy would get on a bit of brake. In fact - this is exactly like a canopy flight. You don't get flattest glide and greatest penetration in the same canopy. Gravity is our only engine. Speed is our only friend. You cannot freewheel fast down a flat hill. t It's the year of the Pig.

Yes, just like for Formula 1 there is one thing considered good, but it would suck in the Paris-Dakar, right? As I said - Horses for courses. t It's the year of the Pig.

I don't understand your question. (s) If people are just as arched as they were turning points, they are not tracking - and so cannot be accused of poor tracking. Of course there is a "good" tracking position... but good for what? The only requirement for small groups is seperation. If they're not wrapping on opening - they're doing OK. It's all about the margins. You want some, but not so much to put you in with the group following. It also helps to have enough awareness to know what direction line of flight was - and not to fly your canopy down line of flight either - but that's another subject. t It's the year of the Pig.

While tracking remains an important survival skill, this is a horses for courses argument. Generally FF's look good because they have higher airspeed to work with. FS jumpers, especially 4 way, sometimes have 100's or even 1000's of dives together and know their team members charecteristics and canopy behavior pretty well, and so don't feel the need to escape those random "seek and destroy" openings the rest of us are randomly afraid of. There is no such thing as a "good" tracking position. Much like flying a wingsuit, there is tracking for distance and tracking for time, and the body positions are different and produce different results. As Robi says, Gravity is our only engine, speed is our only friend. The 90mph vertical speed tracks offer little ground speed. They are good for the inner waves of big ways and their slow fall rate prevents them catching the group (or groups) in front. The crusifix track was developed to SLOW DOWN the inner waves and prevent them building too much airspeed and using that to inadvertantly get below the wave ahead. The 150 mph ground speed tracks REQUIRE 150 MPH vertical speeds to be attained, and you don't get those speeds on a 5 second track. Most 4 ways shouldn't be using either of these. For them, acceleration is a greater requirment than speed or time because theirs is only a 6 second race. It's the difference between a drag race and the land speed record. Different designs for different challenges. A 4 way break off should be started with a backslide superpositioning to a track position on the turn. Increasing fall rate is NOT a negative if it provides the hill for the jumper to slide down. Remember, if you could somehow slow your fall rate to zero, your forward speed would also be zero, cos you'd have no engine - like a surfer on a waveless sea. As the wave provides the energy for the surfer, so the air provides us with our energy. It's all about how you use the energy you have. t It's the year of the Pig.

I'm sure you'll manage... It would be great to see you there! t It's the year of the Pig.

French speaking GF is the way to go - especially if there's snow outside. No, you can't borrow mine either. t It's the year of the Pig.

Seriously, what amazed me is how so many different types of suits and a bunch of different body types can all fly together with a bit of practice. We're really short of PF suits down here, and the 1 Sugarglider and 2 GS-1's is because the suits are locally made. Simon's super floaty breakoff procedure amazed me on the SG and GS-1! I was zipped out of my suit and stowing my slider before he was deploying alongside sometimes - and that from a breakoff at 4500 and a pull around 3000ft! Although I was in a borrowed S3, (S3-S is in production..) I still love the oportunities those long dives and hard brakes at the end allow. You need to work on back flying that PHI, so we can get cool pics of us chasing you down! Something to work on.. even if you're going Skiing in December! (Yuppie!) t It's the year of the Pig.

yes... I enjoyed it too... but not so much it made me stiff! Bwhahaha! t It's the year of the Pig.

Comfort is a relative term. When someone says something is as comfortable as... whatever.. you need to think about what they have expereinced in their past. For me, when I wear my G3 or my G4, I can't really feel the difference the padded back pad or the elasticated lumbar support gives, but I'm sure others can. Compared to the B4's and front mounted reserves I started out on, I cannot make a comparison, but the description given is a good one. t It's the year of the Pig.

I can't recall ever being taught how to climb out of a car, and yet I manage it effortlessly now because I have developed my own technique over the years, and I practice often. I think that's the key. The more we do, the less we need to be taught. When I give the BMI course, I'll ask my student to cut their wings away. If they do so and experience no problems, I don't teach them how. If they struggle, we'll figure something out between us. Personally, I use the Bicep curl. The mere fact that I can get my knuckles to my nose and the ends of my cable only go as high as my armpits means this ensures all the cable will be out of the suit. I've had no strength issues with this, but I've never done it in freefall. Since I was never taught by a BMI (Because there was no BMI within 6000 miles) I had only the flight manual to go on, and it worked for me. t It's the year of the Pig.

We do them the same way but we don't dress funny. One of the things I was taught as an instructor was to look for ways people will misunderstand you. While "arms" may be very clear to you when thinking upper arm, the forearms, wrists and hands are immesurably closer until the wings actually release, after which their positioning is somewhat academic.. I watched a sack race at a primary school once. 30 kids, each with a sack. Teacher says, "When I blow my whistle, I want everyone to jump into their sacks and race to the line." Whistle blows. 29 kids jump in feet 1st and start to hop to the line. One kid pulls the sack over his head and races to the line, winning easily, because the sacs were thin enough to mostly see through. The winner had never heard of a sack race before. When I chatted to him afterwards (He was 6) he thought it was dumb to have a race if you were going to slow yourself down, so the head first made perfect sense to him. The Jumping Jack presents several problems WRT cutting away wings. 1. WAY less arm strength. 2. Depending on the suit and the build of the jumper - that move may NOT release the last (or last few tabs) as the movement may be limited by the wingspan of the suit. 3. It AGAIN exposes those troublesome wings to the airflow - which may be the very reason the jumper wants to be rid of them. 4. It will almost certainly result in one wing being released sooner than the other if 1. is an issue, resulting in further issues if 3 was the reason. I do beleive that everyone who jumps a wingsuit should practice their wing cutaway sequence, and to ensure their planned sequence is operational for their gear, strength etc. We practice other emergency drills, right? What's the cost here? 100% real, cos you're in your gear, under canopy, and the confidence of knowing what you do (or what you teach) actually works. I do mine whenever I know I'm taking the suit off, which is usually every second weekend or so when AFF gets busy and I need my back to back. t It's the year of the Pig.

Not sure who taught you that, but as Scott said it won't work. In case you didn't understand the other description, think "jumping jack", as opposed to bicep curl. My Birdman flight manual says... "To cut away the wings, simply grab the handles and pull them up towards your head." That is contrary to what both you and Scott are saying. A "Jumping jack" will not bring your hands towards your head. I've been teaching the "Bicep curl" to all my students and none have had any difficulty cutting the wings away apart from PJ, who (on a PHI) was pulling the cables AROUND the fablic loop - which resulted in it being torn off and that was the cause of the hard pull. t It's the year of the Pig.

Agreed. I've only ever used F-111 kill line pilot chutes - at least for the past 3700 dives anyway. If they go out of calibration quicker, I have not noticed - and if they do - recalibrate them. Where's the deadly in that? t It's the year of the Pig.

Please do a search on this, or read the incident thread in the post above in this thread. t It's the year of the Pig.

And off to gear and rigging we go... It's the year of the Pig.

I suck... I still have more jumps than posts... t It's the year of the Pig.