mattjw916

On F-111 canopies, like the PD 9-cell, that have a lot of jumps on them rolling the nose helps slow the openings down to something bearable. On the vast majority of modern ZP canopies it just isn't necessary, although I have seen it done on various canopies from time to time. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

...yeah get rid of it and buy a modern canopy. [/thread] Yet another "Sabre 1 openings are kicking my ass" thread; that brings the total to what like 1,593 threads on this subject. *sigh* NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

I have a new Rawa/PC1000 setup. With only 30 jumps on it so far here's my initial impression: -very secure -has essentially no snag points -extremely light weight -left-ear audible pocket is too small for an Optima (it pushes on my ear uncomfortably) -hex-key bolt on bottom of camera box is annoying but secure -very slick, low drag helmet that's great for freeflying I bought mine from Aerostore and it was delivered ahead of schedule without any drama. Excellent service. Do a search for more info. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

link to HiPerUSA's website: http://hiperusa.com/ link to the manual for the canopy: http://hiperusa.com/NitroManual.pdf for specific questions PM this guy: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?username=beezyshaw; Awesome canopy IMHO... NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

edit: It's been many years but I still love my Nitrons. I've gone though a 170, 150, and a 135 since I wrote this review originally. I still haven't found anything that beats it in overall performance. They have literally never scared me or spanked me in any way. I definitely can't say the same of most other canopies I've used. My recent canopy history: Sabre2 190, Spectre 190, Safire 175, and Stiletto 150. After about 40 jumps on my brand-new Nitron I have to say I have no significant complaints about this canopy. I've lost some weight recently so I am only loading it at about 1.2 right now but even so it opens, flies, swoops, and lands beautifully. The riser pressure is relatively light and builds up predictably. Recovery arc is longer than a similarly sized "semi-elliptical" canopy making it a very good canopy to learn to swoop with when light to moderately loaded. Just don't go crazy until you wring it out up high first obviously, lest you desire a trip to the ER. I pro-pack the canopy and leave the nose alone, nothing special. I have had no opening issues whatsoever and jump camera 90% of the time as well now and found the openings to be soft and consistent.

My previous Vectran-lined canopy had well over 700 jumps on the suspension lines and went through a couple sets of control lines before I had the entire thing relined. The current lineset has about 200 jumps or so on it but the canopy has been retired to storage at the moment. There were no broken lines at any time AFAIK. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

I've travelled extensively all over the country with my rig as a carry-on without any real problems. I used to put it in another bag by itself but stopped doing that since it just added more time to the process since I had to remove it every time anyway. Usually they insist on doing the bomb residue screening on it but sometimes it makes it through without a second glance. I always carry an extra pull-up cord or two in case I have to open it, but after going through security probably 50 times now with it, I have never been asked to open it. Beware of small planes with limited over head storage though, I had to gate-check it once since people with fat suitcases ate up all the overhead bins. Just be polite, don't volunteer any extra information, and answer their questions as simply as possible and I'd bet you won't have any problems. Wuffos don't know what a parachute looks like anyway. Only once did some moron in the terminal randomly yell, "NICE PARACHUTE DUDE!!!" at me as I was boarding. I just shot him a dirty look, mostly for yelling at me, and boarded the place without acknowledgeing his obvious desire for attention. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

Or perhaps, you fail to grasp that my perspective is simply different than yours because of different experience levels. You don't have to tell me how the jump runs work, or sometimes don't, esp since I was on the Carvair load that had another plane dump a load nearly on top of us providing a nice view of people humming by us in freefall due to the chronic low-pulling that went on there. I did have a protracted conversation with one of Eloy's pilots regarding the patterns the pilots fly, time between loads, etc... which is one of the reasons I felt reasonably safe there. If some moron hits a tent, a parked van, another canopy, or any other immovable object it's not because the landing area isn't sufficiently big. I jumped there nearly every day, all day during the convention and never saw any canopy collisions in the main drag between the tents... on the other hand your buddy Ash can fill you in on the guy that practically took him out on final last year in Eloy. I'm done splitting hairs over this... you don't need to draw me a picture, if your clearance is still up-to-date, I'm sure I can provide some nice overhead imagery that you can analyze with your favorite mensuration program and calculate down to the square inch which landing area is scarier than the other. edit: spelling... NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

Somewhat flawed according to _you_. You are a winguit LO which means you exit at a different time, fly to a specific holding area, and land last generally. You will have a radically different experience with canopy traffic than a freeflier that only jumps in small groups of 2-4 people that exits nearly last on every load with a fall rate triple that of yours. Even as crappy as the spot got towards the end of jumprun at Rantoul, where the few-and-far-between freefliers must exit, I made it back safely without any of the drama that I encountered during the last Holiday Boogie and never felt the need to land on the taxiway or any other hazard there. (DC-3 load notwithstanding). Eloy does have more "outs", but people don't seem to use them effectively and rather pound in downwind on the grass against the pattern than get their jumpsuit dirty in the desert. Once again, that's my observation, you can disagree with it all you want. If you want to discuss it further, introduce yourself during the boogie... I fly an obnoxiously bright orange Nitron... I'll buy you a free beer at the trailer. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

I'm trying to figure out what the point of your argument is... I think we both agree that there are potential dangers at both boogies and at both places people do stupid shit. That's pretty much a given anywhere, even Eloy. I guess we'll find out in a couple weeks how "safe" the Holiday Boogie will be this year... NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

How is that a false statement? Eloy has two decent sized grass fields that are in no way as large as the combined area of the "L" shaped landing area at Rantoul + the swoop pond which is located quite a walk from the main area. Plus you could always land on the other side of the runways if you had too. Both locations' landing areas a flanked by hazards that are equally bad whether they are tents, an RV park, or whatever. I've logged plenty of jumps in both locations and I found Rantoul to have more elbow room under canopy than Eloy during the Holiday Boogie. Maybe that's because Rantoul has more RWers that consistently pull lower than me so I don't have to deal with them... who knows? Both places have landing direction problems from time to time, Eloy's are dealt with more effectively though. My personal observation is that Rantoul isn't half as bad as some people made it out to be. Eloy's south landing area was carnage on every load last year I was on with 2-3 landing directions on average. Even though there's a tetrahedron right there + "follow the first person down" in effect, it still didn't help much. Someone even hit the only tree in the entire state of Arizona that is located near the south landing area. If properly supervised, briefed and mentored I don't see problems with low(er) jump people jumping at either location. I'd rather jump in Eloy personally, but Rantoul is far from the death trap that some people made it out to be before I went and saw for myself. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

A thing to remember about iPods is that their hard drives don't run constantly... they read ahead, fill up the memory, then shut down to increase battery life. Oftentimes when a company lists a max of something it really just means that they have only tested it to the extent that they list in the specs. i.e. they didn't test it to failure. That said, I'm willing to bet that an iPod will work fine at higher alitudes but there is a risk of damage or failure as others have pointed out. The battery will also won't work as effectively in the extreme cold either, obviously. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

I'm partial to my Nikon F100 that I have owned for many years... there's great info here: http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech.htm NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

One nice thing about WFFC versus for example the Eloy Holiday Boogie is that the landing area(s) are much larger. Sure, there are plenty of canopies in the air, but the sky seemed less busy at WFFC than most of the other boogies I have been to because people aren't trying to crowd into tiny landing areas. Eloy has tons of space to land (like the surrounding desert), but people seem compelled to strafe the beer line and collisions have resulted in the past. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

ipod specs: * Operating temperature: 32° to 95° F (0° to 35° C) * Non operating temperature: -4° to 113° F (-20° to 45° C) * Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing * Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3000 m) HP ProLiant DL380G4 server specs: (a very well-engineered/tested server) Operating 10° to 35°C at sea level with an altitude derating of 1.0°C per every 300m (1000ft) above sea level to a maximum of 3000m (10,000ft), no direct sustained sunlight. Maximum rate of change is 10°C/Hr. Storage -30° to 60°C - Maximum rate of change is 20°C/Hr. While hard drives are not constrained by a "rate of change" like a whole server is, the hard drive itself is useless unless the whole computer works... As for the "head crash" thingy, that sounds like BS to me or we'd have a higher percentage rate of failure in the mountains of Colorado then in sunny SoCal. I've never heard anyone cite that statistic anywhere before personally. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen though. I just never heard of it before. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

...then you should know why that is a bad idea; leave data recovery to the professionals. http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/245/1 edit: bad markup... NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

No, a commercial airliner is pressurized to ~6000ft and climate controlled. That's a far cry from 13k and low temps +/- humidity, etc. Someone could always whip out their iPod manual and check the operating ranges but I'm willing to guess that doing it often will lead to premature iPod failure. While cold won't hurt electronics (generally) humidity and temp changes can lead to condensation, which is a killer. edit: I might listen to my iPod on the ride to alt, but there's no way I'd jump with it. I like to hear my audibles... even using it in the plane still has drawbacks imho. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

Sure, but then you have to drive there, drop it off, pay for the sewing and labor, then pick it up. Since I have 0 free time, I just bought one fully assembled and swapped it out myself... a completely quick/painless experience. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

insert "crapple" joke here... NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

Personally, I'd just buy a new full kill line PC bridle, etc... It comes as one complete part assembled by Mirage and for ~$35 bucks extra you can get a custom colored FF or hackey handle if you don't want the plastic toggle thingy. Plus when it shows up it'll take a whopping 5 min to install. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

...what Dumpster said. A 170 is a pretty aggressive choice. That aside, a Sabre2 and Fusion are the same "class" of canopy so it comes down to personal preference. The biggest difference between them is the lines. The Sabre2 has Spectra and the Fusion has Technora (HMA) without any cascades, i.e. there is a separate line from each attachment point to the risers. Sabre2s will generally resell faster and hold their value better than a Fusion but you can buy a new Fusion http://theskydivestore.com/ for much cheaper so there is a trade-off. I've owned Precision, Icarus, and PD canopies and haven't seen any glaring differences in quality, but PD does have the best reputation in this area. Jump both and pick the one you like best. Plus a 190 of either canopy would be easy to sell if you downsize later. There will always be plenty of new skydivers itching to buy it. Nice sig btw... LA Story? NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

totally agree... I don't live driving distance to Eloy anymore either, but I still head down there once a month or so at least. It'll always be my "home" DZ. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

B&H is great... bought my Nikon F100 and a ton of other stuff there over the years Dbuys is good too, I bought my PC1000 from them although they do call you to "verify" the order and try and sell you a bunch of junk you don't need. I haven't had a single problem with either of them. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

I don't think that is a fair statement. No company is perfect, not Sunpath, Aerodyne, Mirage, RI, or anyone else... I have had no problems with Mirage customer service personally and have dealt with them a few times. I know people that have, but were well compensated for the hassle that was caused. What does that say about their customer service? Maybe that no one is perfect, but they do their best. A comment that a 135 is a "big" parachute is pretty silly though. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080

What method do you use to loosen the chest strap while under canopy? I have found that hooking my thumbs under the MLW and pushing them together in front of my chest whilst simultaneously pulling the friction adapter forward loosens it very easily regardless of how tight my chest strap is since you are "unloading" the adapter before you loosen it. I also keep my chest strap very tight since I am tall/thin and the rig wasn't custom made for me. I have had my chest strap get "stuck" before when using a different technique to loosen it but 0 problems after someone showed me a better way to do it. edit: to add that even if your chest strap is max tight, if you exhale as you push on the MLW and pull the adapter it will come loose since you just further unloaded it. NSCR-2376, SCR-15080