audacium

Omar -- Eduard

I stand corrected, I will edit my post. It is only two rotations, I remembered wrong from my last discussion with Olav. Thanks. -- Eduard

Hello, I own a Boogie-man suit and a Sonic suit. I also jumped a lot a borrowed Bomber freefly suit. All three suits were / are excellent quality, so this would not be the deciding criterion for me. The Boogie-man suit is traditional style (heavy cotton, baggy arms and legs) and is simply very very nice / pretty. You have a lot of choices for a personalized look of your suit. I can highly recommend their suit. The Sonic suit seems to me to represent the future of freefly. It is a "technical" suit for the "technical flying style" of the future (being very precise, quick etc. instead of just zoo-diving). As it is intended to be a technical tool it is less about cool looking, thus less design choices (would also become extremely expensive otherwise as well). I am not interested too much in design, so no problem here. As mentioned by others before - making the suit less baggy overall, put on drag (power to steer and brake) only where needed (i.e. end of arms and legs), make the rest of the suit slick - that was for me a totally new feeling. The flying with this suit is just awesome, no matter whether tracking, headdown etc.. I totally prefer the slick and clean feeling of the Sonic suit to the feeling of my other baggier suit. Does this mean you become a better flyer only with the Sonic suit? No. Does this mean you cannot fly well with traditional style suits? No. But I would choose the new technology. US manufacturers will follow someday, I think. Regarding Sonic vs Matter: No one from the outside will know for sure what happened really, I would reckon. Both Sonic and Matter make very high quality products from what I see and hear, and both suits represent the new technology. To me it seems that Sonic together with Babylon was the original inventor of the "new" style. I like Babylon, so it feels nice to fly a suit that was inspired by them. But the Matrix suit surely works excellent as well from what I hear, and as we do not have any patents on suits yet no one will know for sure who really had the first idea . So, no need for "brand wars". -- Eduard

Well, some might say that Sonic and Babylon have definitely thought first and others followed However, it is very often quite hard to clearly identify the first mover even for an objective spectator...progress is made by building on existing knowledge, in our case obviously some people had a look at RW-suits and how they evolved... Whatever, both suits will work very well, I am sure, and we do not need a brand war...(personally I can only vouch for my excellent Sonic suit though, haven't flown the Matrix) -- Eduard

Well, according to Olav it is two rotations for the AD-A test, one around each axis. You can freely choose which direction each time and which order for the rotations. And regarding doing the test head up: I am pretty sure that at least Omar A. would do this effortless and smiling, as always . That is not to say there are not other people around who are able to do it head up. edited to correct number of rotations (only two and not three) -- Eduard

Stane himself regularly jumps a Troll MDV DW 305 (aside from a 285), so I reckon he has some confidence in it . And Stane being a pretty meticulous person I am absolutely confident he has dialed in all scaling issues that come with upsizing. We talked about bigger vs smaller canopies (e.g. also in terms of opening speed) a while ago and he told me he had made various calculations as well as tests for the really big canopies. As mentioned, he himself is using a 305 (and he is not as heavy as you). -- Eduard

Perigee, I believe. I'd imagine that Adam F. would be the right guy to ask about the process. Yes, from foreign gear the Perigee Pro is legal in Germany (with D-rings for the reserve), so is meanwhile the Zak from Adrenalin. There is also some legal gear from local (i.e. German) manufacturers, but only velcro rigs I believe. There are certain specifications to meet, so above is only a general overview. -- Eduard

Hello. Now, there seem to be some real PHI-suits around. But they seem to be just prototypes. Who has finally received his Phi?? It would be nice to read from more people (who actually ordered) about their experience flying the suit. Thanks, Eduard. -- Eduard

Hi, I am only jumping with freefly puds and prefer them over hackeysacks. The puds are sewn over the whole length so reduced snag potential here. Puds seems preferrable to me as they present less snag hazard than hackeys (in the door, with other jumpers etc.) and I think they are aerodynamically safer, also for fast rotations etc. Have used puds for couple hundred of jumps now (including a lot of wingsuit) and never had a problem on pull time. Also, I would not see why a pud should be harder to pull than a PVC. I agree that a hackey is sometimes easier to grab, but again, if you are not sure then do a couple hundred of practice pull on the ground and you have a good chance of grabbing it right on pull time :). All the best, Eduard. -- Eduard

Hello, Australian friend. I am going to miss you, man. We had beautiful jumps together, and thanks for all the good discussions in Lysebotn, on the trail, and at exit. Rest in peace. -- Eduard

Well, guess I have to tell JC Colclasure then that he does not have the right knowledge about canopies when he shortened my brake lines before continuing my canopy control course in March . It can be even a very good idea to shorten the brake lines, but as always you need the right knowledge. Before one starts working on the brake line length it is a good idea to consult an experienced canopy flyer. You do not need to be able to stall your canopy to get great landings, but there is certainly a point where brake line length can be way too conservative and you are not able to use the canopy's full performance envelope. JC shortened my brake lines about five inches and I still have a hard time stalling the canopy at all. But I can definitely say it has improved my landings tremendously as I have much more control input now if necessary. But then, if you discussed this with an experienced coach and you both think a shortening should be done the idea is about like this: Your brake lines are like the brake pedal in your car. If you sit two meters away from the pedal you will have a hard time braking when necessary resp slow the car down to a complete stop. If you sit too close you will always hit the brakes too hard. So, if your brake lines are too long you cannot give all the possible input to slow the canopy down. How do you find out whether your brake lines are too long: Well, there is no general rule. It depends on many factors, canopy obviously, but also your body, arm length, landings etc. But as an example as discussed in my canopy control course: If you are completely unable to stall the canopy even when holding down for a while or if you need a wrap then the lines _might_ be too long and it could be a good idea to shorten the lines in gentle steps, try out high and see what happens. Now, when shortening the brake lines, a few things need to be kept in mind that put a natural limit on the shortening: 1. When you let the toggles completely up the canopy should be at full glide without any brake input, ie, the tail must not be inhibited at all. Obviously, you will need some slack to ensure this. How much...again...no general rule. 2. Obviously, the feel must be right. Usually the idea is that you can pull down the brake lines completely without stalling the canopy, at least not immediately. A canopy that stalls on chest level is dangerous to fly and land. 3. The brake lines must not be so short that while pulling front risers you simultaneously pull the tail which will cause buffeting and is an undesirable situation. So, talk to an experienced canopy pilot, open high, play around at the stall point, measure the slack in the brake lines at full glide, and if you shorten then shorten in gentle steps. If done properly it will help you get more response from your canopy. And stalling your canopy (preferrably on a large canopy at low wingloadings) is in my eyes one of the things to learn about the canopy. You learn the feel, you learn how to react, and then you will not panick when it happens to you close to the ground. It is a different thing if you fly a higher-performance canopy, some will react unfavorably to a stall and go into line twists etc. But on a beginner canopy this should definitely be tried out, I would say. HTH. -- Eduard

Yes, I would really appreciate. I saw this packjob the first time from Hans in Norway and it makes sense in my eyes. I did not have time to follow Hans through every step though. I guess clamps are mandatory for this packjob? The upward folds will not hold without clamps I reckon... Yeah, the same happened to me at the weekend. Just walked up a mountain with my rig which I happened to take with me, and suddenly I found myself in the air flying towards the talus ... weird Thus, I also need to pack anyway... Thanks, Eduard. -- Eduard

Michael, The Freefly-team Alchemy has developed a noise-cancelling system with which you can communicate in freefall. They are using it for their freefly- and tunnel-training. I did some training and tunnel time with Alaska Jon in March in Perris, and this system works just perfect. So maybe this is another solution to think about. Check out www.raredynamic.com Otherwise your project sounds super fascinating and I am looking forward to hear about your progress. All the best, Eduard. -- Eduard

Tom wrote: If one wants to avoid the possibility of yanking out the yellow cable with a camera, your fingers or whatever during deployment, my rigger has come up with a nice and simple solution. He builds a little system called SuperLock where you simply thread another yellow cable from the other direction through the loop for the three-ring-system and then stow it in the riser where the cut-away-cable comes from. So, in case you yank out the cut-away-cable, there is still the cable from the SuperLock that holds the loop. Look here: http://www.base-jump.de/47782.html (Unfortunately only in German, you can see the system in the third picture.) I do not know whether someone else already came up with this idea before, but it gives me peace of mind against an accidental release. And I thoroughly inspect my three-ring-system each time packing, so for me in sum the advantages of a three-ring-system are bigger than the possible risks. It seems to me extremely reliable when properly maintained. But I do not have any real statistics, so it is too bad that the cause of two failures (which Tom mentioned) is unknown. Jaap wrote: This is a very good point, Jaap, and worth a reminder. But in addtion to being nice with your three-ring-system to me it seems this is a very good reason why to have inverted risers where the loop is much better protected from abuse. You have to be more disciplined for checking because it is somewhat harder to look at. But maybe I am overlooking some inherent problem of inverted risers? (The higher cut-away-forces of inverted against conventional risers do not count, imho.) -- Eduard

Hi veter_, as Tom says, a twist in dead air is indeed possible (luckily for crwper

alanab altichick Basehound BGill Canuck Cpoxon Deuce KrisFlyZ Taz The111 Tonto whatever wildcard451 Zenister audacium I will split my time between freeflying and winguit flying though, but I am looking forward to some nice flocking! -- Eduard

Hm...interesting but wrong statement. So how do you find out what something is worth? What is the difference between what something is worth and what people are paying for? If people pay the price, then obviously it is worth that price for them, isn't it? "Worth" is always personal and subjective. There is _no_ objective or "outside" value that determines what something is worth. For most people, a Cypres is worth the price. These people are not stupid, they just attach a higher value to a Cypres then you obviously do. -- Eduard

That was deeply moving and will leave a lasting impression on me. Thank you for sharing this with us. All the best, Eduard. -- Eduard

Hello Eliz, Thanks very much for your offer to help! I sent you an email right now. All the best, Eduard. -- Eduard

He is freely hanging and not suspended. Just for grammatical clarification - the jumper is freely hanging and suspended from above. He does not touch the ground with his hand or feet. (I could not edit the old post any more) -- Eduard

I do not know, to be sure I have to ask the jumper. But with our packing procedures normally the lines are against the bottom of the container (as most people do it, I reckon), so I would be surprised if he did it differently. Well, that is exactly why a lot of people are very unhappy with the manufacturer's reaction and the investigation: So far they have not produced any solid evidence that the same can happen to other containers. By solid evidence I mean providing pictures like on the website of the jumper with the mal. He is freely hanging and not suspended. If this can be shown the same way for any other container I would be very interested of course. Or rather everybody should be concerned. For my Mirage and my Javelin at least at the moment I do not see how this would be possible. That is the reason why it was posted here by feuergnom: To find out whether this might be a common (to other containers as well) but hidden (to our normal risk assessment) problem. That is what a lot jumpers think, including Omage owners. A lot of people have looked at the flap design, and most found it compelling that the flap design was the cause for this mal. Notice by the way that the manufacturer is not saying that the flap design is ok. He is rather pointing finger at other manufacturers and claiming this can happen with any container. So, implicitly he is admitting that the design is "less than optimal", isn't he? In my eyes this is a very flawed approach because an error is an error, and a design flaw is a design flaw, independent of how many other manufacturer might have the same. In addition they did not produce any solid evidence about the truth of this claim, as mentioned. (edited for spelling) -- Eduard

Alright, I will try to answer all the questions that have been brought up. I talked an hour or so ago to the jumper in question, and I hope I can clarify all issues brought up. At the moment he is busy working at a place where he does not have internet access, so he cannot join in himself. As the discussion is going on here anyway I refrain from posting the answers in the incident forum, even if it might be more appropriate there. Thanks so far to everybody for the input, it is highly appreciated! And please excuse me if I do not quote the relevant poster, we have now several questions from various people, I will just answer these in a possibly logical manner. I will do my best to transmit the information from the jumper to you as exactly as I can. First, regarding the cutaway and pull of the reserve: I think it is best to transmit the jumper's own description. Normal breakoff, tracking away. Stopping before dumping. Activation of main happened in stable belly-to-earth position. Then he noticed the mal, and he immediately began to spin. Remember, it was an elliptical 100sqft canopy. He then tried (a few seconds) to clear the mal by pulling on the risers, but did not manage it. What you can see here in between - something yellow, is not the cutaway cable btw, but his leg and foot with one short yellow marker band (it was a tracking dive I think, we sometimes use these "marker bands" on tracking dives) (I will ask him again on that, why it comes to be seen at all. Did not ask before as I did not have the video in front.) Also it was spinning badly (as can be seen in the video) so he decided to cut away (with right hand). After cutaway with the right hand (well visible in the video) instead of falling free from the main he noticed immediately that the main was still stuck to him. He then went with his left hand for the reserve handle. When touching he noticed that it was not the reserve handle what he was feeling. So he looked down and saw that he had grabbed the D-Ring. (Payback462, you were exactly right) Reason: The snagged line had pulled the container so far around his shoulder that the whole MLW had slid down. So the D-ring suddenly was at the position where you would normally find the reserve handle, and the reserve handle was much further down. He then pulled with his right hand on the left MLW to clear the reserve handle and bring it up. When done he activated the reserve with his left hand. He then waited in a stable belly-to-earth position for the reserve to open. And after a second or so he knew he was in deep shit...The rest should be quite clear from the video I think. Second: Regarding the reserve actication. He prefers to first touch and then look. Others may prefer to first look at the reserve handle and then touch. Anyway, the sliding down of the MLW is what caused the hesitation in activating the reserve. For sure he was NOT trying to stow his cutaway handle. It looks a little bit like this, but first he tried to clear the mal and then he cleared the reserve handle. With the benefit of hindsight he says he could just have pulled the reserve handle directly with his right hand, but obviously it is so much engrained to pull reserve with the left that he first cleared with the right hand and then switched. Third: Regarding usage of a hook knife. Also here with the benefit of hindsight he says a hookknife could have been used. For two reasons he did not use it: First, as this was an unusual mal it was not really part of his automatic emergency procedure to fumble around with the hookknife. He did, what he was trained to do: Mal with the main, not able to solve, cutaway. Second, and this was probably the main reason he did not wait that long, he was in a rapid spin. It remains questionable whether you are able to use a hookknife with such a fast spinning mal at all. But again, should he ever find himself again in such a situation he will probably try to go for the hookknife first, he says now. (edited for spelling) -- Eduard

I would suggest to post ideas about pull sequence, reaction of the skydiver, what he maybe could have done differently etc. in the incident forum (there is already a short thread) and discuss here the pure "flap design issue". -- Eduard

Hello, in March I am going to be in Perris (exact dates not yet known). Manifest told me they do not have an institutional coaching program for a CRW beginner as they would have for beginning freeflyers e.g. They will be happy though to put me in contact with CRW people once I have arrived. Apart from that, I would like to find out who in this forum is coming to Perris regularly or at least in March and has an idea how to get me started in CRW. Any contact and any help is highly appreciated. My goal: For a beginning I would be just happy to get a little insight into CRW and thus broaden my horizon in skydiving. It is not (at least now) that I intend to make it my only discipline, I just want to try out and learn. It seems one learns a lot about his canopy from CRW jumps, so here I am

Normal stows with rubber bands afaik. -- Eduard