Levin

i'm replying out of order in which you wrote it I screwed up the timeline. I meant to say Skyfest 2003 instead of 2002. I didn't make it to this years Skyfest so I guess it made me think a year off. Okay. If you say you didn't have to sign one then I believe you that you didn't have to sign one. Which leaves me scratching my head and my memory like wtf. Since other people have expressed their disinterest; I guess we're done here. But if you'd like to discuss it further we can thru PM. First off a disclaimer. This is in no way anykind of personal attack. It is not intended as one and I'll try not to make it sound like one. At first glance the thought of a reserve being highly loaded strikes me as a very stupid choice of gear. I find it hard to believe that not one gear manaufacturer will make a custom container designed to fit a properly loaded reserve and a tiny main. But if you are right then that really sucks. In order for you to be able to fly a small canopy you have to use a reserve that greatly increases the chance of you getting killed. With a reserve that small you >will< die if it opens in twist, spins and you are unable to get out of it. And it is very possible that you will be unable to get out of it. I don't see any difference other than some difference in the rate of descent between a PDR loaded at 2.0 and a FX at 2.0 used as a reserve. I don't think anyone would try and use an FX as a reserve. I quickly went thru one other thread clicking profiles and found 4 - 5 people with highly loaded reserves. jeffmullins - Raven Dash-M 109 ft² (1.88 lbs/ft²) Steel - PD Reserve 113 ft² (1.99 lbs/ft²) Spizzzarko - PD Reserve 126 ft² (1.71 lbs/ft²) @ 5000' msl proswooper - PD Reserve 113 ft² (1.73 lbs/ft²) ianmdrennan - PD Reserve 113 ft² (1.72 lbs/ft²) Canuck - PD Reserve 126 ft² (1.63 lbs/ft²) moderate to high loading crewkeith - Raven Dash-M 120 ft² (1.83 lbs/ft²) @ 5000' msl How much demand does there need to be for a manufacturer to make a container for properly sized reserves and tiny mains? How much demand can there be for the JSX yet they are selling those. Do the people jumping these highly loaded reserves fully understand the increased risk of dieing under a malfucntioning reserve? If a manufacturer would make containers for properly loaded reserves with tiny mains then would there be a demand for it from the people that currently have highly loaded reserves or are thinking about getting one? I load my reserve at 1.25 - 1.3 and the most I would consider loading one is 1.5. And thats just because I don't have a cypress. People with a cypress shouldn't be loading a reserve over 1.1. What's the point in having a cypress to save you in case you are knocked unconscious if you aren't going to be able to survive the landing unconscious? Personally I wouldn't want to survive an unconscious landing on a reserve loaded at almost 2.0. Better off dead. Again I ask does the increased risk of likely death on a highly loaded malfunctioning reserve not concern you enough to call to check and see if this type of container is now available? The bottom line is you are at a much greater risk of dieing under a malfunctioning reserve. You have been lucky 3 times just like you've been lucky hundreds of times with your main. IMO, everyone is lucky to a small degree everytime their parachute opens correctly, even though they always open correctly . But what about that one time you are unlucky? Use your reserve? But what if it is your reserve? Then what? RIP Your profile says you mostly do formation skydiving. All of the formation skydivers I know break off lower than what I consider pulling high (4k+, emphasis on +). What do you consider high? Formation skydivers, atleast the ones I know, pull between 2500' - 3500'. Lets assume 3500'. At 3500' you are open around 3000'. After cutaway you are open around 2500'. 2500' does not leave alot of time to deal with a twisted up spinning reserve loaded close to 2.0. If you don't mind sharing I am curious what your canopy progression was and when and how much canopy coaching you got along the way. First off I don't think there is anything wrong with downsizing quickly if you can safely handle it other than the fact that you never fully learn any particular canopy. Your downsizing seems rapid fast. May canopy progression was as follows... Raven 4 - 16 jumps Sabre 150 - 40 jumps Sabre 135 - 160 jumps Sabre and Stiletto - about 15 jumps together demoing canopies Stiletto 107 - 325 jumps Stiletto 97 - about 1/2 dozen jumps demoing canopy Aplha 84 - about 300 jumps currently Fx 74 - 700 jumps, Spectre 120 - 75 jumps and a Raven 2 - 4 jumps After I put about 300 more jumps on my FX74 I plan on getting a FX64-66 before I get a VX. I started getting canopy coaching around 350 jumps from David Armstrong. I got alot of it. Also got some help from Jim Slaton when I had around 500 jumps. I thought I downsized fast but I think you have the record for it. Again there's nothing wrong with that. You obviously can handle it. edit: edit to add crewkeith to the highly loaded list

actually I care. It may not be a forum for unsafe unsmart reserves but it is or is fixing to (after I reply to Bruno) become a thread for one. this reserve issue strikes more interest in me than just about anything I've read in any of these forums. And since it is >only< swoopers jumping these extremely highly loaded reserves then I think this forum and thread pertains.

not so much. that has more to do with the canopy no longer being able to withstand the opening shock and less to do with a mushy flare. In BASE jumping you jump, open parachute, fly the parachute and then land the parachute. In Skydiving you jump, play around in the air, open parachute, fly the parachute and then land the parachute. No they are not the same. The biggest difference is the risk factor, but for the purpose of this topic they are similar enough to make a comparison. More like green apples to red apples. Maybe so but not everyone needs to be so readily giving it. I made all of my student jumps on used up Raven4s which are 282 square feet. I stood them all up except for my first one and that was because my instructor flared me a little high so that he would have a little more time to scream "flare!" in case I brain locked. The used up Raven4s I made my student jumps on had around 1500 jumps on each of them. They flared just fine. I believe your advice is biased because you are against the use of all F111 canopies as you said earlier. Again there is nothing wrong with VampireGirl's canopy. If the problem can be fixed with the canopy she has then she's be better off spending her money on jumps (=more experience) instead of gambling a $1000 - $2000 on another canopy (ZP) when the problem she has may possibly be fixed by a rigger in

Hey VampireGirl. Here's my bit of advice. Throw out everything everybody has said and totally forget it. There is nothing wrong with your canopy. If you are having trouble landing then have a >knowledgable< canopy pilot watch your landing to see if your flare is deflecting the tail. If not then have a rigger adjust your brake settings. Also practice with your flare up high to get a better feel of how your canopy is responding to the input you give it. Even though you have only been able to flare your canopy on landing 73 times, you can do a hop and pop from 13k and practice your flare 73 times in one jump. And to the rest of you that have replied to this thread. If yall do not feel like yall are qualified to give advice then don't give it. Think about the problem this person is having. Little girl on a BASE sized canopy who hasn't really had a good landing yet. And yall tell her to downsize and go with ZP. What's wrong with you people? Spizzzarko is right. And to VampireGirl, when you do decide you want a different canopy and if you aren't completely confident in your landings then don't get another canopy. That's a BASE wingloading and BASE jumpers successfully land themselves in crazy places all the time with F-111 canopies. And if you are still determined to get a ZP canopy then get one the same size as the one you have now. Have your brakes adjusted and you likely won't need a canopy control course to fix your landings.

sorry dude. my 1st offense in this forum. I'll try not to let it happen again.

good for you. a round of golf clap. that's bs. it's because he turned to low and had to stab out hard on a 4.0 canopy to keep from cratering. Not his fault. He was just dialing it in. I've done the same myself only not at that loading so not as dramatic. until now I've never looked at your profile and I don't believe I've seen any of your post even though you have alot of them. Like I said above, I don't check this forum as much as some of the others. that being the case, why don't you talk him into buying a bigger reserve. maybe so

then why the hell did he get it? i remember a discussion like this several years ago on rec.skydiving. There was a very experienced jumper that posted alot. He had a small crossbraced canopy (

I'm pretty sure he's got alot more than that. Okay misses 24 jump wonder 1 year in the sport. During Skyfest 2002 at Skydive Dallas (before your time) he had just gotten that canopy and yes he did have to sign a seperate waiver to jump it there. In fact that canopy and the waiver was quit a topic of discussion at that boogie. Good for him. Very glad to hear it. I hope he never does have a major injury or anybody else for that matter. I do remember him trying to dial that canopy in during the boogie. On one of his jumps he turned low, had to stab out, the canopy collapsed behind him and he busted his butt so hard he almost completely disappeared in the dust cloud he created. All of the landings I watched him make that day (4) made my heart skip a beat and not in a good way. I'm sure 2 years later he has become very skilled with it. Ya know, practice makes perfect. So to sum up what you have just said, miss txblondie, there is a guy named Bruno at Skydive Dallas who's been in the sport for 10 years and has 200 jumps (20 jumps a year average) that jumps a VX55 and the S&TA trust him with completely without having signed a seperate waiver. There's a keyword - blonde!

i don't believe the biplane canopy was intended to be jumped when it was built. I know the line attachment points are tied and not sewn. The canopy was kinda thrown together (years ago) for something new to pull behind a truck on windy days. But one of the Crew dogs at Waller jumped it anyways.

Here's the pictures of the bi-plane canopy being towed by a truck at skydive houston. one of the crew guys jumped the canopy but i don't remember any of the details about the jump. i don't think he landed it bu he may have. the canopy is extremely twitchy and the line attachment points are tied not sewn

and a few more pics from Brit's view edit: i'll post a few pics of the big bi-plane canopy in a little while or tomorrow

Catfish and Brit at Waller. The canopy spun up but Fish reached up the line set and yanked the twist out and it flew very stable backwards. After some adjustment with the brake settings Fish took it on a CRW jump with Eric Butts (Cobalt 120) and Bryan Moffett (Cobalt 85). That was a really cool jump. I videoed but didn't think to take the wide angle lens off. The video and pics from the CRW jump are no good. edit: edit to add text

didn't know he was registered on the forums. i don't read this forum as much. but since you brought it up... i think that wingloading on his reserve is a bad choice. but to each his own. edit: forgot to use the reply /reply buttons

50 loaded at 4.0 Skydive Dallas made him sign a seperate waiver for the canopy

Cobalt 30 Big Bi-Plane canopy I'll post pictures of both later after I find them on video and take stills from them

I think getting kicked of the DZ was a big part of why he quit. He came back a few weeks ago and was talking about getting back into the sport. As for using a reserve just to do it before a repack, the crew dogs do it all the time.

BTW, I accept your apology Brit. That was very good of you to offer it. I can only imagine how excited you were after your punching thru a cloud and seeing your pose for the first time. And I think that is cool how anxious you were to get home and share your experience with everyone. I can understand your embaressment afte posting that it was obvios after so many years in the sport that you just discovered this phenomenon. So again apology accepted and as for fun stuff for new jumpers; keep the good tips coming.

If you are fixing to hit a cloud right after breakoff look down your chest while you are tracking and see which way the other jumpers in your group are tracking. I do this for the first few seconds when tracking away on every jump. If you are going to pull in the cloud then be very attentive to your opening. If it opens on heading then you can continue to fly straight and hopefully will come out of the side of the cloud before the bottom. Flying a canopy down the side of a cloud is pretty cool. If you have to pull in a cloud and you open off heading and are unsure which direction to turn to be back on heading at pull time or if you are unsure where other people are then a slow spiral is best. Try not to spend too long flying around trying to get your slider colapsed and other stuff situated. In the event that the ground is not visible due to a cloud layer it's possible for a group to get out early since they don't know where they are. With a hard fast spiral it's possible to spiral down out of cloud on top of the previous group flying upwind up the line of flight trying to make it back to the DZ. I know after getting out early flying up the line of flight trying to get back is poor common sense, but poor common sense isn't all that uncommon. Also if spiral down out of a cloud, do what brits17 said and try and look up and see the whole you made. Maybe be shaped like a canopy.

Thank you Brit. I accept your apologize. I admit I was hurt at first to think you thought I could be guilty of such an act. I guess for now, all is forgiven. In future I think maybe it best you stayed away from all pots.

41 CANDLES!!!!!! YEAH!! minus BRIT'S 22 CANDLES LEAVES a full pack of candles HAPPY BIRTHDAY TIM!!!!! your Racer is in the mail!

I really liked the pumpkin costume but the leg holes were too big. Mazzy kept getting her legs caught inside and couldn't walk in it. I had to take it back and swap it for Frankenstein.

i've know of and have witnessed several Z1 helmets loose i's visor on a freefly jump. i've not seen or heard of any Sky System helmets loosing a visor, however I know of several including my Factory Diver that have completely come off on a freefly jump. I recommend getting either an open or full face Bonehead helmet. If you have a wide head checkout the Hawkeye.

www.fireflysuits.com check out the 2 piece suits or call 515-280-6691 and ask for Sherry.

Rodney said that when he got his canopy Olav had 3 107's, 3 97's and 2 89's to choose from. He got one of the 97's. He still has it and said he would sell it for cheap. It's small enough to hang on a wall.