pilotdave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2189 Dave

Had Mac n' cheese for lunch last week or so but i cant remember the last time it was dinner... Not since college. Had a birthday last month to earn 5+ jump tickets (friends bought be a gift certif to my DZ). I think the new price of my rig was higher than the current value of my car. If I sold either one now, they'd probably be somewhat similar. Rig might still be more. Remster seems to be the most laid back moderator on here. I think thats a good thing. Those are all correct, honest answers. What do I win?? EDIT: ugh, just appraised my car at edmunds.com... rig is DEFINITELY worth more. Dave

There's a space in your link. It should be http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2145 Dave

Forget the boogie. If you make it, great. But don't TRY to make it. If you rush, you'll find it much harder to relax and it's hard to learn when you aren't relaxed. Then if you need to repeat a jump, you'll be that much more stressed out about a delay and you'll have an even harder time on the next jumps. July 4 is a long way off, and the season is barely started in much of the county. There'll be a lot of jumping going on between now and then. Relax, take it easy, don't rush things, and you'll probably have your license with time to spare. If not, well, there are many other boogies in your future. Dave

I bought a vest years ago and used to use it on almost every jump unless I was doing a solo. If I was buying another, I'd go with a belt, which I've only worn in the tunnel. A lot of people say belts are more comfortable, but I was always perfectly happy with my vest. The main reason I'd switch is just convenience. You can throw a belt on right before a load after you're all geared up. Gotta take everything off to put a vest on. Might make a big difference if plans suddenly change before boarding. Dave

Oh I love my sabre2 and have no plans to get rid of it any time soon. But I was talking about keeping a PD 9-cell for a short time, not a sabre2. Dave

I went the opposite way. My first canopy was a PD 9-cell, and so were all my student canopies. Didn't try a ZP canopy till my 100th jump, when I demoed a sabre2 in the same size as my main. I never understood why anybody would want to pack a slippery ZP canopy until I landed that thing. I really had no plans to go buy a new canopy (i was just demoing it cause it was free). But then I immediately started demoing to go buy me a ZP canopy. Ended up buying a Sabre2. Still have the PD 9-cell and my old container, which would make a perfectly fine backup rig, but I'm really afraid to try switching back and forth between canopies because the landings are so different. I always found the 9-cell to require a lot of timing to flare well. It would land nice and soft when I flared at just the right height, but I couldn't adjust very well for being too high or too low. Landings werent BAD, just not great. The sabre2 is much easier to land in my opinion... just flare as much as it needs till you touch down. The other big difference is openings. Never really hard, but always firm. No snivel. On the bright side, it opens in a whole lot less altitude than a sabre2. And mine was almost always on heading, unlike my sabre2. Overall I'm very glad I started with the 9-cell. I really think its a great canopy to learn on. It was plenty of fun.... I wasn't at all bored of it when I did upgrade to a sabre2... I just loooooved that sabre2 flare. So jump it, see if you like it, and start saving money for something nicer. It's probably not a canopy you'll want for a really long time, but it's really not a bad first canopy... except that you're already spoiled by the sabre2. Dave

I have two, but they've never both been jumpable at the same time. Just never sold my old rig when I bought a new one. Doubt I'm gonna find a buyer for a black/pink reflex, PD-150, and microraven 120. I might pack it up and use it as a spare rig at some point... probably with a new main though. Don't even want to TRY landing an F111 main after getting spoiled by a Sabre2. Dave

Yeah, I wouldn't put my real email or home address in the whois info if I registered a site. It'd just be a big old spam target. I personally use yahoo as my "real" email address. Many people use hotmail. I don't know what's mentally wrong with those people, but some people do. Dave

I almost had him as a professor. A week before the semester started he got switched to teach another course. Did have him for a week of another class until I switched into another section. Actually that was pretty funny. He had just come out with the latest edition of that book, but the book store hadn't gotten it in yet, so he just handed out copies of the first few chapters of his draft. When the books finally arrived, one student asked him if he knew they were charging $110 for it. He was pretty surprised. I wouldn't go spending $110 to learn about parachute aerodynamics from a book that I doubt even mentions parachutes though. Dave

Ya know, PD couldn't possibly get better advertising than this thread. I swear the original poster is Kolla in disguise! Dave

Having been through the PD demo process twice, I'm guessing there's a good reason why they have you running in circles. It couldn't have been more straight forward for me. My Spectre 135 demo arrived just a few days after I put in the demo order. The Sabre2 135 demo took a little longer since it's so much newer, but I was put on the waiting list and it arrived as expected. What are you trying to demo and what exactly is the issue? From your post it sounds like they don't think you're ready for a certain canopy so you're coming here to cry about it. Tell me there's a better story... Dave

Not in my opinion. They do have more time to wish they could be where they want to be, but less ability to get there. I used to fly a PD-150 loaded at about .85. I'd watch the guys with fast canopies shoot past me, over to the other side of the airport, back around, get where they want to start their swoop, and drop into a hook turn. And all that time I'd be aimed at the landing area, slowly chugging along toward my pattern entry point. If the wind suddenly shifted and I needed to get to the other side of the landing area to start my pattern, I wouldn't be able to like the fast canopies would. Now I jump a slightly higher loaded Sabre2. I am much better able to fly my canopy where I need to be. It's still very slow compared to a lot of other canopies. I still have plenty of traffic passing me. They've got more options than I do. They can widen their pattern and still make it back. They can hold in brakes and fly next to me if they want. More ability to choose where they'll go and how they'll get there. Dave

Even gliders have to give way to hot air balloons. Least maneuverable wins. That doesn't give the balloon pilot the right to hang out at the end of a runway, blocking the approach path. Everyone's gotta use common sense. But I do think faster canopies often have more options than slow canopies, and therefore the slower (and lower) canopies should have the right of way. Dave

What I've always wondered is why has nobody (that I know of) made a cutaway pad with a hole in it (to stick a thumb through for better grip)? Just seems like an easy way to get the best of all the types of cutaway handles. Since I've never seen one, I assume there's a really good reason that it doesn't work like I'd expect. What is the reason? Dave

I was actually assuming that PD's contest wouldn't apply. I really don't know the law, but their contest seems very different from a lottery. Don't have any idea if it makes a difference legally, but it seems like paying $1600 to possibly win $1600 is different from paying $1 to possibly win $1 million. I dunno... I don't see anything wrong with it (and I love my sabre2 so I'd recommend buying one anyway).

FYI: Scott only suggests full stalls for people with non-fully-elliptical canopies. My course only had one person jumping an elliptical and he suggested only doing rear riser stalls or renting another canopy to do toggle stalls. I'm guessing the incident you're talking about was in 1998... the day of my first jump nearby in MD. The DZO got the phone call soon after sunset. Dave

I think those laws are to prevent illegal lotteries, etc. You can't sell tickets for a givaway like that. So they have to give an alternate method to enter the contest...for free. Dave

Ugh. B-2's have independent yaw control. Rudder, spoilerons, etc... canopies don't have any independent yaw control. I'm sure you can get a canopy oscillating in a way that'll get it sideslipping for a finite period of time, but it cannot maintain a sideslip indefinitely like a plane can. Now, how do I sign up for YOUR canopy course where I can learn to do it?! And scrumpot, I don't agree that power is required to sideslip. Sailplanes can slip for crosswind landings too. Dave

Not mine! Dave

Wow...looks pretty sophisticated and complex. Does it fold for easy storage? How much are they at paragear? Dave

The important point here is that canopies are not capable of a sideslip because they lack a rudder. You can't fly a canopy with one "wing" low without turning. Roll and yaw are highly coupled. Kallend is right that unsteady winds will do weird things, but I still don't think jumperconway's advice is generally correct. You can steer into the wind to crab a canopy, but you can't sideslip a canopy. Dave

I don't jump a Xaos-27 79, but my Sabre2 flies level independent of wind direction. Dave

Hmmm.... hadn't noticed that, to be honest...but i'm not going to have it sent back over it! That's interesting. That's exactly how I wanted mine. So I just had them match the trim tape color on the bottom of the reserve flap with the adjacent panels. (Pic at http://www.skydivingmovies.com/vector3/). If I knew they'd have built it like that, I woulda ordered it that way. Does what you got match what you ordered? Dave

Why not? It's been done many times at everything from 182 DZs to big turbine DZs. Guess it depends on how you define "survive." Dave