murps2000

I have seen people messing with the upper break lines to change the length. That is bad news! It will change the opening characteristic of the canopy.*** It does change the opening charcteristics of the canopy, but not neccesarily for the worse. It, along with another mod at the cascades, dramatically improved the openings of my FX. I was lucky to get good advice from a designer regarding the adjustment, and so I am in agreement with you that people shouldn't just make experiments with upper control line lengths. It could make things worse, as well. They should absolutely consult a designer or test pilot first, and not someone else just because they are a rigger or sales rep. Even then, the advice may not be good. As I said, I was lucky.

I'm curious why showers seem to be involved in the skydiving experience. Do you get dirty up there, or is it from bugs sticking to you? Haha please forgive my ignorance. *** Their really there for washing of beer & pie or other messy baked goods.

And I would enjoy taking your money!!!!!!! Cuz I still have a couple of brand new un-touched still in the bag ones stashed away. *** Care to part with one? I've been satisfied with mine for many years, at least once I found a rigger who could neatly pack it. The pop-top never comes loose between pack jobs, and it's fun to shoot the reserve PC across the room every 120 days. Also, I've yet to find a newer rig with a main PC pouch that I like better. About a thousand jumps on mine and it's still as tight as day one (spandex sucks). I'll take some extra freebags, too, if you've got them.

not having been over 10k i'd get well confused at looking at my alti and seeing 12k more than once no doubt. *** My alti-III stopped at 18K. It wouldn't go past the 6 on the second trip around the dial. Kind of weird seeing a frozen altimeter in freefall. Anyway, the difference in sight picture makes the difference between 12K & 24K pretty obvious.

Not knowing how you stow your excess chest strap when it's tight, I can't say if that's part of the problem when you go to loosen it, but it's something else you could check out. I've got a wide one, too, and sometimes I need to take that excess, and sort of pull up or down on it a little as I'm trying to loosen it at the friction adapter. Somewhere in there is a point at which it seems to free up nicely, and get easier to loosen. Hope that helps.

I know you've been flamed up & down in other threads over this stuff, but I think yours is a pretty good proposal. Some may still slip through the cracks & get messed up after they purchase their x-brace canopy with the ink still wet on their D-license after 500 freefalls. But at least the guy who's got a D with 450 hop & pops doesn't get screwed out of going for what he wants and trying to do it right (Like that guy Rhino, who doesn't seem to post here much, anymore). You can't save everybody, and the boneheads will defy all attempts at keeping them alive regardless of how many rules are in place, or how complicated they are. The only thing I don't like is having to do a night jump to fly a certain WL. I guess those people will have to wait a few hundred more jumps?

Not my wife, but I've taken my girlfriend of two years on several tandems. She's got close to a thousand jumps, brings her handi-cam, and tries to kill us. Gotta love that crazy biotch. She usually gets some great video, particularly of deployment. Oh, and she is definitely a fun tandem to "do".

The skydivers were found 3 to 5 feet deep in the ice/snow (Maxim article). I also heard that one guy died because he suffocated, not from impact - is this true??? 120mph to 0mph in 3-5 feet? Pretty abrupt deceleration, but I'm sure he could have survived till he suffocated if Maxim said so.

Groundspeed, in and of itself, has nothing whatsoever to do with separation in the air.*** I certainly won't argue that point given the lessons in both physics and humility provided me by you, Prof. Kallend, and Billvon, but I do have a question. Since GPS does nothing to provide infromation about jumprun speed relative to the airmass at opening altitude, is there a reasonably accurate way for the avg. jumper on the DZ to calculate required separation without having access to Prof. Kallend's program?

I talked about this with some people who knew about such things and they said a DC2 would be better in my case because it had better ice breakers in the wings. I wanted to fly around like Howard Hughs. *** True. A guy named Ernest Kellog Gann wrote a story about a scary evening he spent as a first officer in a DC2 over the Blue Ridge mountains, with about 4 in. of ice on the airplane. This was back in the early days of airline travel, and it is very entertaining reading. In the story I recall the captain, a man named Hughen, grumbling about the fact that he had drawn a flight in an older DC2 that night, then later stating something to the effect that a DC3 just wouldn't have stayed in the air with the load of ice they were carrying. I believe the short story version is called "Fate is the Hunter".

Is it really normal to have a smaller reserve than main? Does your choice reflect your competence as a pilot with your main, ie HP landings every jump with 500+ jumps or something like that? *** Self-perceptions of competence, perhaps. I've met some people who jump reserves of a size that says they think they're more competent than they really are. Nevertheless, I think it's just that people figure their reserves and mains will fly better together if they're both out at the same time. Personally, I just ask myself what the worst case scenario is in which I'd be worried about the size of my reserve, and two out isn't it. You never know, you might get stuck landing half your reserve one day. Oh, and I also want dacron line on mine.

>I don't pretend to understand why we as a species immediately try >to avoid blame for our actions. Anyone got some insight? Well: 1. We stopped evolving when we started protecting our weakest members (i.e. we developed societies.) Complex societal behaviors like assignment of blame came after that, I think. 2. People at fault are often penalized either directly or indirectly, no matter what the society. Being able to pin the fault on someone else can be a survival mechanism. If you can really convince people you didn't eat all the millet, or let the sheep run away, or kill your wife, you tend to do better in most societies (i.e. you're not punished, jailed or executed.) So we have some innate tendency to be good at it - or, more accurately, people who tend to _not_ be able to deflect blame don't get as much of a chance to reproduce and aren't emulated. *** I cannot recall an instant in which I've ever seen a nail more accurately hit on the head. Society is to blame for blame, and only the blameless survive. Perfect.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In Reply To -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I usually log my jumps after the weekend is done. I put a bit of detail into it, how the exit went, if fall rates were a problem etc and what I can do in the future to improve (sometimes). Everyone tells me I'll stop logging in so much detail when I have more jumps, and they're probably right. Right now it's fun re-reading my log books and remembering paticular jumps. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wonder if that is true for most. I think the line is different for everyone. You won't find any notes in my logbook after AFF, I just didn't find appeal in writing it all out as I couldn't see myself reading it later. *** I think so. It's just a matter of when you quit, though. You just quit earlier than most. A girl with about 350 jumps that I met in my student days told me early on that she logged religiously because she loved going back and reading her book, and having memories of or feelings about certain dives resurface. So I heeded her advice and logged faithfully for quite a while. Up until about 5-600 jumps, anyway. But then I got lazy about it in 2002. Now I reread my old logs and it's just as she said it would be. The older logs evoke memories, and I can even recall certain moments that occurred in freefall. I can pinpoint the exact skydive in 2000 where I got taken out on an eight-way, and decided to quit belly-flying, and start freeflying. Then in 2002, after I got my tandem rating, I just have dates, numbers, and dive types. So I got a little better again last year. I at least would try and write down my tandem passengers name & what they do for a living. Now I go back and forth. Logging sucks, but one day you might be happy you did. Oh, and if you have a cutaway, I'll bet you log that.

A few years ago I went to a boogie at Perris, whipped out my D license, and the guy asks to see my log book. I tell him "It's at home." He called my home DZ to aks them if I was really a skydiver. *** Thanks for the info. I'll bring my book of lies there if I ever go.

Great description of everything that usually goes on during night jumps. I feel I should add that occasionally, as in the case of my first night jump, the shadow actually turns out to be another canopy. In my case, it turned out that somebody who left before me pulled higher than their assigned altitude. I then had to steer away from the lit part of the landing area, as the other jumper was obviously unaware of my presence. I then realized that having car headlights illuminating the landing area makes every other bit of area around it that much darker. Luckily, I had my trusty Spectre190 at the time, so I put her into about 1/3 brakes and got ready. I knew roughly what altitude I was at, because I could still see the cars to use them as a reference, and I had practiced flaring from brakes with that canopy. In spite of the howling uppers, it was dead calm at the surface, so I started moving my legs, and slowly finishing my flare at what I thought was about ten feet. When I felt grass under my shoes, I abruptly finished my flare and stood it up. I think, also, a little luck was involved. I did my second jump later that evening, and did things a little differently. I decided to avoid the headlights altogether (which was where the traffic would be) and set up so that when I'd land, I'd be able to see our windsock (which was illuminated). It was at the perfect height for when I'd need to flare that canopy from full flight, and it worked quite well. I also heard later that sometimes people use a glow stick on about fifteen feet of string that is stowed on there shoe for the skydive, but that they can dangle beneath them under canopy to see when it hit the ground. Next time I do night jumps (intentionally, anyway), I'm going to put a small caving light on each of my shoes. I figure if landing lights are good enough for airplanes, they're good enough for me. Also, if I find a way to put two strings of x-mas lights in parrallel rows facing the wind direction, but away from those damned cars, I'll do that, too. I figure if runway lights are good enough for airplanes, they're good enough for me.

am i correct in thinking i have to tense from my hips down into a solid shape... my legs keep sliding from under me and flopping me on my belly, it's really frustrating...*** I know you posted this a while back, but nobody seemed to answer, so here goes. I don't think that's exactly correct. You should be relaxed top to bottom, but there's a difference between relaxing and going limp. There's a variety of coaching techniques out there, available from a variety of coaches, and they often vary. One that I heard regarding the sit position was that you should be in the position you'd be in as if you were just getting up out of a dining room chair. It seemed to help me as a baseline. You should feel pressure on your feet and bottom of your thighs, as well as your arms. If your feet are popping out behind you, you probably don't have them out in front enough. If you're leaning forward over your knees, and your feet under you a little, by putting your arms to the side or out front a little, you can probably fly pretty stable. Trouble is, you'll backslide like crazy, and your fall rate will increase. But you shouldn't fall on your belly and cork. If you get your feet out front, but then they want pop forward out from under you, you can try bringing your arms back behind a little to help balance. I'm sure real freefly coaches can help or present this info better than I can here, but I hope it helps a little. Regardless of whether you're head up or down, however, you won't really nail it till you become aware of your posture. Once you fly your torso, you can pretty much do whatever you want with your hands & feet. When you can finally sit reasonably stable, think about that. It all becomes fine tuning and minor corrections after that. Good luck.

Rule #1...Don't fucking die! *** Knew you'd be the first to come up with that one! 1) Survive 2)Some good swoops 3) Continue to NOT pull that front riser when I am too low. 4)Some good swoops 5) Make 300 jumps (but no more tandems) 6) Some good swoops 7) Perform a sole to sole dock with my girl 8) Some good swoops 9) Do some good 4-way head down 10) Oh, and some good swoops...

Sorry to hear that - sounds like a story I've heard been told 'round these parts 'bout a guy in GA years back (unless I'm confusing the same person). Traumatized many for a long time - what a shitty thing to do to your friends in the community, but at least he's a peace with his demons now.*** Just curious. Does the version of the story that you heard include reference to a doggie who later got the name "brain-eater"?

Longer is better.*** Only in the adult film industry. Under canopy, it really depends on what you want. Everything is a trade off. Longer risers do give you a longer recovery arc, and a greater potential for airspeed when swooping, but you lose some of the twitchiness of your canopy. In other words, you also gain stability in pitch and roll axes. For some, more stability is undesireable simply due to the fun factor. If you have a canopy with a fairly long recovery arc to begin with, you're not a swoop competitor, and you still like to toss your canopy around like a jet fighter up high, maybe shorter risers are what you want.

I DON'T KNOW WHY, BUT I THINK YOU AND YOUR ANNOYING POSTS RULE! KEEP IT UP, AND SWOOP ON, BROTHER. CANOPIES AND SWOOPING ARE COOL. THAT IS ALL THAT MATTERS. DON'T FORGET THAT. iF JC SEZ IT'S OKAY THEN IT MUST BE. OH, AND FLARE, TOO.

I don't know how it flies and lands at the loading you will demo, but my girlfriend had a 129 that she loaded at 1.3, and she hated it. She would get decent landings with some wind, but it just seemed to drop her when she was trying to shut it down in no wind. So I jumped it (at about 1.75:1) and I can tell you that I loved the way it flew and opened, the riser pressure was a dream, and it was fun to swoop, but yes, my girl was right. It just seemed to lack that special something at the end of the flare. It had a great glide, so I don't know if that was the trade off. I wonder if, due to it's camber, the center of lift is slightly more aft on the airfoil than on other canopies, which, with a flat line trim, seems as though it would provide the good glide ratio, but cause stall at low speed. Maybe it is, but that's pure speculation on my part. Anyway, she got a sabre2 120, and loved it. I jumped that, and I like it much better. It seemed to have many of the good qualities of the safire2, but just not the absolute glide ratio. And it has a wonderful, full flare. It also lands quite nicely on rear risers. I hear great things about Aerodyne's pilot, too, which is in the same class.

I was taught that having a large difference between main and reserve canopy sizes is not recommended.......and is less likely to form a 'stable' flyable 2 out configuration, in comparison to similar sized mains/reserves...... Just a thought based on the clsoing line in your last post ( and the size of your main) *** Yeah, I'm aware of that school of thought, and I've always thought that it was about the dumbest reason to jump with a small reserve. To base the size of my last ditch canopy on when I might have two out? I honestly don't think my main is going to fly well with any reserve, regardless of size, so I'll take the square footage for times like when I'm knocked out, or I have no choice but to dump it into some trash that I got stuck with at low altitude or I can't get rid of. You may not always be able to flare your reserve.

From what I've read on these forums, most people abhor the idea of a canopy transfer, but some still consider it an option. I don't jump with an RSL, 1000' is my absolute in the basement hardeck for a chop, and I will not wait for stability to pull silver at that altitude. Below that, I'll pull the reserve first, and then assess whether I can make the transfer. In some instances, I would agree that you may just want to get as much fabric overhead as possible, and get ready for your best PLF. That's one of the reasons I still jump with a huge reserve.

You didn't happen to have a TI working there that was fired recently, did you? They had one at my DZ back east that pulled a middle of the week job just like that. Cut the lock on the hangar door, too, just the same. Wonder if he's out & up to old tricks...

I don't know, and I wonder if the skydiving public ever will. From what I've gathered from one canopy manufacturer that I spoke with at length, there is a lot about design problems that we have no idea about, and rumors seem to abound. Anyway, enough of thread hijacking. If the originator of this thread is still reading, go with the Jedei.