mdrejhon

100 out of 101 built! Everyone got in, but a whacker broke off right before the last person gripped. This was Jump #2 out of 4 planned today for our group. It's no longer as stressful and the formation was finally solid and not wavy. 30 minute call now! We shall nail it on the next jump...

Copy of post made in the DWR thread in Disabled Skydivers area, but also relevant to this thread.

Changes in line trim threw me off when my canopy got relined and my landings were pretty squirrelly for a few jumps (mostly standups, but very unstable flare). It was correct trim, but the flare band was unexpected -- I needed to start the flare about 7 inches below the toggle stops, so I basically prepositioned my hands where the slack disappeared (tail deflection), a tip that I learned. This likely wont apply to you, but it's a 'gotcha' that can come with new canopies, or when a canopy gets relined. However, it does sound like your canopy is out of trim, due to the built in turn. Get that looked into.

Unannounced Pinchecks (without permission). I frequently ask people to check my pins, or they ask if they can check me ("may I?") Nontheless, I've learned to tolerate it if someone gives me an unannounced pin check. So I'm not going to be mad as hell, just prefer I know it's a pin check that someone is giving me.

Middle-left trail plane out of 5, deep diver, third last out of the door, weed whacker slot. Six times. Yes, six 102-way attempts in one day. Catching up for bad weather. Docked 2 times (or was it 3?), I parked 3 times in my slot (ran out of time for my neighbours to dock), and went low once because someone from behind me flew under me. Essentially I've made my slot every single time - No noteworthy violations so far except being a couple degrees off-radial in my stadium, which I've been continuing to refine. It's more sensory overload of a 'breathy, wavy' 102-way attempt that I've got to resist and keep my eye through the center of the base, which is challenging with the sensory overload of over a hundred jumpers floating near you. It is still a new sight to behold. Biggest buildup was about 95 people with me included, there are still people getting low or pairs of people funneling each other due to redzone traffic. I must say these are stressful jumps. Just as 65-ways were starting to become easy, 100-way is a whole new league (of a different ballpark) and it's super stressful, being suddenly thrown as a deep diver for my first 102-way, with 101 other people depending on you to make it a complete formation. I know it's just a camp event, but -- this has been a very stressful day even if I performed well. I'll get used to it. The dives are fun. I used to go low often as a deep diver, which contributes to a large part of the stress, but I avoided that pattern and am gaining more confidence as a deep diver. That is the final frontier for me -- I believe I can now do any slot on the 100way, deep diver being the hardest slot for me. My new slowfall jumpsuit is very handy in this slot. Big stopping power and I'm almost middle of fallrate range when the base starts to get floaty, which is good. I have only jumped my slowfaller jumpsuit 10 times total, so I've had to get used to it new diveslope and fallrate range capabilities in such a hurry. It also make me a very floaty tracker too - by the end of the day, I was almost reaching the outers and floating far above (And to side of) my breakoff team. I was under them early in the day, but I think I've nailed the track in the new slowfaller...

Been at the Perris camp for last weekend and the 100-way camp. We have done several 65-way jumps so far, including three that were nearly complete except for one-outs or broken grip in a loop. I now begin my first 102-way tomorrow. Wish me luck!

My group had four 65-way jumps today, all oxygen jumps from 16 to 16.5K, with the last two of them nearly complete. The very last one was actually complete, except that the whacker from the opposite end of the formation started breaking off just before the last grip in a loop completed! Made my outer slot every time so far. I'm now moved to the 102-way group middle-to-deep diver on middle-left trail plane, slot B17. Can't wait for tomorow.

Congratulations on making it into the 100-ways, you are probably the lowest-jump-numbered person on the Perris 100-ways, with me already almost a hundred jumps ahread. Tunnel time helping you get recurrent? I wonder if my baby Ted is related to yours. 22lbs of lead must be torture during dirt diving in the desert on the scorcher of a day it was.

Wednesday, the day before the 100way camp, was the craziest and scariest skydiving day I've ever had. Wrote about it in the Perris P3 Bigway September 2008 Roll Call Thread.

Not found on my TiVo -- That show doesn't appear to be available in Canada.

Shhhh! Joseph hates being called Joe. New update from the Perris 100-way camp. My group just did a near complete 65-way. All docked, but one grip in a loop was not complete. This time I was in the base. I was wearing 14 lbs of lead pratically half of the day. Some of it dirt-diving out in the desert fully geared up (40lbs total), in a half-black jumpsuit. I think I drank a liter of fluids after every jump. Tomorrow, same formation but I get to fly outside of base. Fun. I think I can do any slot except second-last-out or last-out deep diver on a crowded 23-person Twin Otter. Now the day before the bigway camp was a whopper: Outside of the bigway camp (yesterday), I'm glad I made all my mistakes (Wed) in the regular fun zoo formation loads. You know, those fun formation loads collected by Mark the load organizer. I also believe I made one of my biggest mistakes in my skydiving career (....gulp....landing direction....gulp....) (several apologies were made) (and I mentally bitched at myself for half an hour afterwards too). In addition, on another jump, I got knocked about by a dust devil for 5 seconds at 1800 feet - that gave me a super scare with my Sabre almost collapsing. Perris is famous for dust devils. This was the same jump I had a stuck toggle that took 10 seconds to free (second time it has happened to me in 250+ packjobs), and I successfully freed the toggle just 5 seconds before the dust devil hit me. After I landed, the dust devil was now very dusty when I finally looked back. I realized what I flew through. I did not know it was a dust devil until I landed, since the region at 1800 feet was invisible. It behaved like super-bad turbulence that nearly collapsed my canopy. Up there when it hit me, I immediately looked down and flew far, far, far away from 'heat islands', trying to get away from any turbulence sources I could see. Then on a different jump the same day, I watched someone go down in a reserve, and I landed out with him (he thanked me for being the only guy who landed with him). First time I landed with someone landing under reserve, the sight of a cutaway is unsettling until you find that pearly beautiful white reseserve nearby - then I thought, that was expensive equipment floating down -- keep an eye -- I was half a mile away from the next nearest parachute, so I decided I should land with him, not to bother to try to make it back to Perris' landing area. That was Doc. Yeah, Wednesday was a crazy (and scary) day. Now, I've never, never, never had such a crazy skydiving day like that -- yes all of that happened in one day. A year's worth of scares crammed into one day. Really. Today, Thursday, was a great big way camp day. Nearly everything went right. I'm glad I didn't have another Wednesday today.

They made the color of the English link too hard to see -- I'll be letting them know to put a large "ENGLISH" button there instead. For the lazy: Skyventure Montreal ENGLISH CLICKY For the unemployed: Skyventure Montreal JOB OPENINGS (You may need to be bilingual, be able to speak French too.)

Hi, Is your simulator's control techniques mappable to joystick axises? Can I use two joysticks? Can I map it so that the center of a springy joystick is the full gide position, and pulling to the bottom of the joystick is the full brake position? (Instead of pushing forward, which is counterintuitive because many joysticks "spring" back to the center, so naturally center of joystick probably should be full glide in "feel") So I can use two Flight Simulator style joysticks for toggles for left and right hands, and use the throttle sliders for risers? Hey, one could probably jerryrig a pulley system with fake toggles from the ceiling that shifts an actual joystick a small amount, so one could actually pull rea toggles to control your simulator.

This is when the accuracy technique of finding the non-moving spot, helps. It's very universal: Helps you figure out the amount of brake correction and crosswind correction for crabbing with the most wind penetration.

Corrections of two of my own errors, typed while I was tired. The rest is accurate to canopy coach teachings. For flying downwind part I wrote: I meant "if you intentionally slow your rate of descent as much as possible." since one is responsible for adjusting rate of descent, not the wind. For flying upwind part I wrote: Ooops. I meant "but if I go into full glide, I start slowly drifting forward"

Didn't your AFFI teach you how to do a "wind direction" check under canopy, by watching the ground drift as you test-fly in various directions? That's what I meant, I should have said "wind direction check". It's a basic skill to have, especially when you land out, especially in strong winds in hazardous terrain. The wind direction check allows you to determine whether you need to go into deep brakes or not, because it's often a bad idea (on most canopies) to go into deep brakes flying INTO heavy wind. The reason is deep brakes can cause your canopy to fly slower, which means you won't go forward as much into the wind. A little brakes may help, you just have to find how much. There's a sweet spot of brakes -- too little, too much, you need to watch the ground as you test brakes -- ala Scott Miller course. The reason why there's no exact standard is simply different canopies fly differently. One example of many is some canopies will fly fast forward with slow descent, while others will fly slowly forward with slow descent. These two different canopy will require different brake settings for optimal penetration into a specific wind speed. In some winds, arresting the speed of descent may be more important than the forward speed. That's why flying downwind, the dominant method of getting back is often making your descent as slow as possible. That way, you're letting the strong wind blow you back to the dropzone, by slowing your descent as much as possible. Thus, the deep brake setting on my canopy. However, when flying INTO the wind (upwind), the forward speed may become more important than the descent speed, which means you may want to forget about deep brakes and fly in full glide, because the faster forward speed gives you better penetration into the wind. Going into deep brakes sometimes makes my canopy fly slower than the wind (if it's a strong wind) which means I'm drifting backwards -- but if I go into full brakes, I start slowly drifting forward -- the kind of strong winds where you're barely moving forward. That's the kind of wind that it's a bad idea to fly upwind in deep brakes in. Scott Miller and Brian Germain teaches this. Now, to further top this off... It's not a sudden black-and-white switch somewhere between the 180 degrees. For a specific wind where flying downwind worked best deep brakes and flying upwind the same wind, worked best flying with no brakes.... there's a continuous spectrum of brake settings at every degree of turn in the 180 degrees. (Basically, half brakes while crabbing sideways, might give the most penetration, given this specific wind scenario for the specific canopy). Obviously, in zero wind, you want the flattest glide you can get, which may happen at a specific brake setting (such as three quarters brake), doesn't matter which direction you're going. In light wind, there are situations on my canopy where I get best results doing 1/3 brakes flying upwind, and doing 2/3 brakes flying downwind. So it's not always an easy thing to understand at first. The simplest solution is just to do penetration tests, even repeated on every jump that looks like it might be an 'out' landing. All you need to do is add penetration tests to the good old fashioned wind-direction check. Play with the brake settings until you see the most penetration, using accuracy technique (the point where the ground is not moving away from the center of vision) It's just that many jumpers go into deep brakes no matter which direction the wind is -- when deep brakes often only work best when flying downwind rather than upwind on most canopies. A detail that confuses the heck out of many jumpers.

yjumpinoz: Oh, all 400 people did an amazing job -- it's just that, thanks to things like Skyventure's not yet built, people can rack up "Red Zone" skills faster than ever before with fewer jumps (I have 4.5 hours tunnel time which contributes to this low jumper now being invited to a 100-way). Meaning, it's slightly easier to reach World Team levels than it was before at slightly fewer jumps, thanks to the wind tunnels (utilizing bigway coaches in the tunnel in "red zone" drills) and modern bigway camp training methods. The formation skydives at the 20-to-50 way camp resembles cutouts of the World Team formations, specially designed to train skills that maximizes chances of being in the World Record. During a weather hold, Kate Cooper gave an inspirational speech to all of us being on the World Record. The 100-way was once the world record -- in 1986. Now it's routine. Training methods are still even improving since the World Team 400-way, albiet a little slowly. As for MakeItHappen's story: I'm still surprised at how well I did on my jump #324, recovering from a messed up exit and actually ended up waiting for my dock in the middle of crowded 52-way traffic. I was totally boxed in with waiting people to sides and behind me - parked for the dock signal, then docked approx 15th out of 52. This was a more critical slot to arrive early at. I actually managed to arrive ahead of the person to the side of me. I think I actually enjoy the front float position, something that people dislike, because I find it very easy to slow-fall from that exit type.

Writing from PERRIS... Shout out time! Anyone else from either P3 Big Way Camps? Post here if you were here or will be here! I'm the deaf Canadian skydiver here, with Jan Meyer (MakeItHappen) being my interpretor. I was here in May 2008 (my 49-way). Another amazing experience. Did so much better on this second visit, and did two consecutive 52-way completed formations Sunday, and got my provisional 100-way camp invitation confirmed for next weekend. Yay! I am now between weekends, killing time with a few skydives now and then, probably increasing my jump count by 50 in the shortest time period I've ever done in my life. For those not familiar (new jumpers, etc): The Big Way camps are a gateway to becoming invited in bigways and being invited to the future formation skydive World Record (Project 500). Any 250-jumper with reliable 20-way experience can be set at the beginning of the path to a future world record at these kinds of camps. There are two consecutive Big Way Camp weekends here -- as seen from bigways.com. Some people here for the earlier camp not originally going to the 100-ways, are so inspired by their performance at the 50-way event and extended their vacations to be part of the 100-way they just got invited to. Very few events in the world are equipped to train jumpers for bigways as well as these bigway camps, it is only here that they fling up a complete 100-ways where approximately half of the jumpers has never done their first 100-way -- and two consecutive 100-ways consisting of back-to-back loads -- back in May 2008. Dozens of future World Team members are being born here at this event, many of the organizers for the P3 camps were team leaders in the 2006 record (see www.theworldteam.com), and are actually the people organizing Project 500 -- the next World Record, happening in 2010. Very few events puts your foot into the big way door as closely as this 100-way camp, especially if you are persistent and go to every P3 camp (twice a year), then eventually they're impressed enough with your jumps to begin inviting you to invitationals. Make the 2009 event if you have any remote interest in bigways, it's actually even not too late to be on Project 500 even for a relatively low jumper like me. It's just a little matter of money and interest in it. Many 500 jump RW people with hours of tunnel time, are already much better than many 400-way World Team members. Then one gets a provisional World Record invite that asks you to jump X more times at bigways (like those listed at bigways.com) and you're automatically invited to the World Record. Yes, provisional World Record invites are given out at 500 jumps if you're good enough -- and visiting this and similiar camps several times is one way to get good enough. Even if you're not interested in World Record, the P3 big way camp is an awesome event to go to and will help you be part of a country's or state's little bigway record (and a photo in the newspaper to show your parents!), and a good way to experience Perris for the first time too -- just need 250 jumps and reliable/consistent 20 way experience -- and the training is first class. The camps happen twice a year (spring and fall).

Okay, learning lots -- I think I had a few 100+ feet surfs (if I time it right that my fronts gets gradually ripped out of my hands by 30 feet), so I'm surprised that the Sabre 170 can do that even in light upwind conditions. Am doing double fronts every landing now, even at Perris P3 (light double fronts), as it actually makes landing easier. Two skipped/aborted ones due to simply needing to pay attention to nearby traffic. Also I find I shutdown the canopy faster -- A one-step-forward or two-step-forward zero wind landing is now possible if I flare just right with a very sudden finish-flare motion near the end. Not reliable at doing that yet every single zero wind landing, but Sabre 170 is proving to have healthy safety margin for experimentation so far. Varying the speed of letting go the fronts and aiming the let-go at the point where the dynamic flare is the smoothest possible (no jerky flare motions). Sweet spot seems to be approx 30 ft. Any lower, I start to jab brakes slightly (pre-existing dynamic-flare instinct kicking in) to arrest descent, any higher than 40 feet it feels like a high semi-planeout followed by normal glide and flare. High altitude intentional deep jabs from double fronts show really powerful popups, does not seem to result in high speed stalls - maybe my canopy is mostly immune to that phenomenon. Either way, I never want to get deep into that corner at ground level.

Regardless of what you do, check wind direction from where you are. Different parachutes fly better in different configurations into or away from wind. This detail confuses the heck out of so many jumpers. For example, flying downwind, crosswind, zero wind, or very light upwind works best in varying amounts of brakes on my canopy (usually deep brakes, declining depending of amount of crab away/into wind), but flying against strong upwind works best on my canopy at full glide or even when I pull down my front risers a little (Useful when I am over a treeline and I want to pull in front of the treeline. And this technique is NOT recommended at low altitudes for new jumpers). I can cover huge amounts of distance flying downwind in medium-to-deep brakes, chest strap loosened, and legs up to reduce my body footprint to air drag. Make my parachute BIG (loosened chest strap) but body SMALL (lift knees into my chest).

My helmet light worked fine. It just shone outwards so it's pitch black when I look ahead, and I avoided putting my hands in front of the light. I checked my canopy just by raising my head upwards slightly, so that only the outer dim part of the light fell onto the canopy. I was easily able to illuminate my landing spot too, even though there was already illumination.

Here at P3 where I am at, there were lots of under-30 ladies in the bigway camp training for JFTC. In my two consecutive completed 52-ways this last weekend, I think half of my plane out of three were 20 to 35 years old skydivers. And I got accepted in the 100-way. Can't wait!

That will mean the low one rules. Currently I am at Perris P3 bigway camp, and the LED accessory happened to become damaged (my fault - an accident caused by visor closing in the incorrect position. This will be fixed once I get the replacement $35 accessory). So I'm reverted to my former altitude awarenesss for the last 15 jumps so far. Either way, I've made my decision: I'm adjusting the breakoff altitude alarm on my audible, or setting it at an altitude higher/lower. I may even disable the breakoff alarm (and keep only the pull and flatline alarms) like many people do. My altitude awareness during belly jumps was fine without an audible. On the recent jumps I was able to turn and track right on key. There are already four altimeters: The wrist altimeter (in very standard reliable belly fly position, not a burbleworthy position) The ground (it often causes me me to glance at alti when it's getting close at the bottom of my peripheral vision, remember I'm bellyflying) The internal clock (not 100% reliable, but it's there to tell me to check all the other alti's including my wrist) The breakoff signal from the center. (if there is one, and yes it can be missed, but it's there as a supplement and breakoff altitudes can vary a bit especially if the formation is stable) ...So that makes it four "altimeters" already. Dozens of deafies have gone without audibles for many years anyway... Once my audible is back in service (replacement part for my accidental LED damage). I will probably set a +500 or a -500 (or disable), so that it doesn't subsconsioucly becomes something I immediately key on, but as merely as a signal ... this will preserve my other means of altitude awareness, i.e. interrupting my other altitude awareness at the exact moment of breakoff. I don't want to make my audible cause me get lazy if it's keyed nearly exactly at breakoff altitude. Obviously, the audible becomes more important in freefly -- especially given the different variables that presents (like more difficulty seeing the ground while paying attention to other freefliers, etc). The audible especially becomes useful if I am tracking really far and low (My seeming more-frequent 2500 feet pulls, even down to 2200 feet as an up-and-coming bigway regular), that's way more important than having a breakoff alarm in the audible. If I was doing competition 4-way, I'd enable the breakoff alarm - but a one-point bigway gives plenty of opportunities of altitude awareness. Nontheless, I like my audible. :-)

Glowsticks are tons of fun. Taped them to my jumpsuit with clear tape. And the requisite visibility strobe so others could see me. I used a bright LED headlamp attached to my helmet for visibility, switched on only under canopy (and as a precautionary for an out landing). I didn't want it on my hand or elsewhere, since it would have blinded my night vision... My altimeter was a non-glow, so I turned a glowstick into a braclet and taped it to the front of my alti. (Now I have an Altitrack, which has a built-in light.)

Then someone needs to re-buy the rights from this person/group and build it. I think that's actually how it kinda works.