John_Scher

Down-hill mountain bike helmets offer a reasonable balance of size, weight and protection. They only fall short on impact ratings when compared to unacceptably big and bulky motorcycle helmets. The Full Bravo Carbon from Six Six One looks like a good, low cost bet although it felt a bit flimsy to me. Jaap will no doubt disagree. Here in Kenya we have settled on the D2 Bomber from Troy Lee Designs which appears to be the reference helmet in downhill mountain biking. They are exceptionally well made, reasonably light but somewhat expensive. Then again a good proportion of serious injuries and death are as a result of head injuries so how expensive is that? From my limited stand point (40 base jumps) I suggest that a quality full face helmet is essential as is quality armour and boots John

If you are jumping a 260ft plus canopy and wear Hanwags, body armour, knee pads, fanny pack etc you need to add at least 27 pounds to your naked body weight. If you are additionally jumping a PF track suit, camera, VHF radio, jacket/rain gear, Mariaposa type back pack, empty water container etc you need to add around 29 to 31 pounds to your naked body weight. The "add 20 pounds for gear" that we often hear is only true for small canopies and clothes only; none of the above necessary items included. Having recently read a wee bit on this subject I understand that canopies do not scale exactly therefore we should load-up larger canopies more so than smaller canopies so as to obtain similar performance. Thus using a guide line loading of 0.7 pounds per foot for all sizes of canopy may not be the best solution. "Rays" table (take your naked body weight and add 100 to determine your optimum mid size canopy) may be more appropriate as it does take into account scaling and does incrementally apply more loading to larger canopies. John

It depends on the specific canopy and manufacturer. It also depends on the jumper. Short, fat guys like me are going to need to push the toggles up more and/or use a canopy with 5 control lines. In some cases, pushing the toggles up will cause a tail deflection (i.e. you'll never be able to get the canopy into full flight, even with your arms pushed up as far as they can reach--beyond the toggle placement on the risers). This is generally quite rare, though, since it implies very short arms. John, are you doing your testing in a slider down (i.e. no guide rings) configuration? Tom, I used a slider up configuration for the microlight test jump and noted that if I pulled the toggles down more than two to three inches the tail would start to deflect. The toggles were in the "as shipped" position. To my limited experience, this is normal and to be expected. I have since raised the toggle position by two inches as I wasn't getting deep enough into the control stroke when slider off. You and I discussed this elsewhere. In this current thread I noted that no one was discussing the fact that raising the toggles more than two or so inches from the "as shipped" mark will impact upon the ability of the canopy to fly at full drive in a slider up configuration as the toggles will now hit the guide rings sooner than before. This I believe is generally true however you had mentioned some time ago in a long lost thread that you seldom find yourself flying in full drive but more often fly with some degree of brakes, therefore even if the canopy is inhibited it possibly doesn't matter to some folks. Needless to say on a windy day or when in need of gaining maximum distance to the LZ, full drive is preferable.

Surely that depends on how much slack there is already in the braklines, before you move the toggles? Gus, From the few canopies that I have jumped for the specific purpose of changing the toggle setting from the manufacturers "as shipped" setting, I have noted that beyond two or more inches starts to deflect the tail. I have just recently jumped a microlight for the purpose of assessing the toggle setting on my new BJ280 and this is exactly what I found. I am however, really not at all knowledgeable on this subject so...

Toggle placement, like brake settings and tailgate location, ought to be customized for each jumper/canopy combination. Tom, Is it not true that moving the toggles up more than two or so inches on a slider up configuration will prevent the canopy from flying on full drive as the toggles will hit the guide ring and the tail will be deflected downards?

Dexterbase, On the assumption that you have now rammed into a few things at home and possibly elsewhere would you kindly advise what you now think about the D-Raptor from Dainese.

Tom & Manship, Thank you for the advice

I have less than 40 Base jumps (1700 sky dives) so any comments I make are from this limited standpoint. I have made approximately 30 jumps on an ACE 260 @ 0.74 and the rest on a BJ 280/ZP @ 0.69. The Ace is excellent but I wanted to upsize and at the same time get vents. The BJ @ 0.69 has sufficient forward speed but sinking it in nil winds is impossible and it severely lacks flare power. All of my jumps have been slider off and I think the problem is I'm not getting deep enough into the control stroke as my arms are too short for this size canopy. Either this or the vents are allowing too much outflow. I must admit I'm quite worried about it. I contacted Asylum and they authorised me to reduce the lower brake line length by two inches ie raise the toggle by two inches. I have not had a chance to jump this configuration but will advise accordingly. I have in the past jumped quite a few other large canopies (mainly skydiving canopies) and must say I am very impressed with the quality, glide and general performance of both the Ace and BJ. I just hope I can get this sink/flare thing sorted out.

Tom A, Many Happy Returns from All in Kenya

Lou Diamond, Thank you for the lengthy and informative reply.

Dear Mr Lou Diamond, I appreciate that you are not neccessarily qualified in the field of protective helmets however in your opinion would an Optik or other similar helmet benefit as much from an Aero upgrade as would a Protec?