dragon2

Or the BM people just flab their mouth more ciel bleu, Saskia

I'd chop, if I were unsure if I could land it without getting hurt. About damaging loaned gear, well, again, it's only money... Sure I'd feel bad, but the owner would feel bad too if I had really hurt myself to protect a piece of gear (which would then be damaged too, most likely). It just wouldn't enter my decision process, I guess. I would really really not like cutting away my helmet with 2 camera's, but, if it's gotta go it's gotta go. If I thought I could land a mal (I thought I did once, on a crw jump, but I cleared the stuck brake at 5.5k so didn't have to really decide yet) without getting hurt, I would. Anything else, see-ya. ciel bleu, Saskia

I wouldn't. Well, maybe in the back of my head... Heh heh my last chop is on video. After I'm under my reserve you can clearly hear me call something This was related to the costs (in this case, repack only, my gear is insured besides I didn't lose anything). But, my life is worth more then my main and handles! And then some... ciel bleu, Saskia

Well yeah, but what I meant is that there is a big difference whether you jump with or without a big snag hazard on your head. ciel bleu, Saskia

From what I was told (by a very very experienced camera guy): You want to be absolutely sure you're stable if you deploy your reserve. If you have your helmet still on (ie it wasn't entangled with your main so you didn't need to get rid of it), and you're unstable when you pull your reserve, you risk getting the reserve entangled with your helmet! Therefore you need to chop, make sure you're stable, then pull silver. And that's why you should disconnect your RSL when jumping camera. ciel bleu, Saskia

Right, sorry! Although, copyrighted or not, here in Holland you have the right to make 1 (one) copy of each DVD you own, for yourself, for back-up purposes. So, not all copying is illegal, at least over here. ciel bleu, Saskia

There's 3 kinds of Triathlons: 1) the regular one (easy to find 2nd hand, btw). great for freefall, general all purpose canopy, good for first canopy. can be used for casual crw (2 stack, stuff like that) but if it has microlines that's a problem. has cascaded lines and no retractable pilot chute and has a slider/bag. the slow openings are a bit of a disadvantage for crw. 2) the competition crw tri. has reinforced nose, a retractable pilot chute and non-cascaded centerlines. opens HARD so can't be used for freefall. usually no regular slider but a mesh one or a spider. usually jumped freepacked (without a bag). used for serious crw. 3) the hybrid tri. a regular tri but with a couple of crw-friendly mods, like a retractable pilot chute. can be used for freefall (opens real slow) but if you do mostly freefall it's recommended to replace the retractable bridle with a standard one. you probably have to buy a canopy like this new. anyway, if you're serious about crw, look at what the other crw jumpers at your dz are jumping. if they jump lightnings for instance, you're better off getting a lightning too. also look at matching wingloads. a spectre or reg. tri can be used for a bit of crw but if you're in anyway serious I think you'll like a real crw canopy better. a hybrid might be cool if you can't afford 2 canopies or just really like tri's. a real crw canopy packs big tho, because of the lines and reinforcement. ie my lightning 126 can't fit into my atom 00 which has held a zp/f111 170 main and a zp 150, but both with microlines. also, look around in the crw forum... ciel bleu, Saskia

Yep seen it, yep go get it ciel bleu, Saskia

Andyman, can you clarify why it is that you don't recommend these for people who rely on instruments of altitude awareness, please? Well personally I have trouble reading the altitude on my suunto altimax in freefall. You have to turn your hand just right and avoid reflections. Under canopy I can read it but then I hardly ever watch it anyway (except for a high h&p, CRW etc)... Then again I don't like digital numbers anyway I prefer analog. I just use my watch when I don't expect to be jumping (going along when taking a plane to another dz, just shooting exit pics, stuff like that)... ciel bleu, Saskia

See this thread:http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=616295#616295 ciel bleu, Saskia

That's what I did, on my first c&p. I got stuck on dummy pulls, so I got 'kicked out of the plane' for a 5 sec delay. Made it 4 but it worked! After that, did the freefall progression. Learned the diving exit and after that the floaters exit which came in handy for the c&p I still had to do to get my A. Not sure it's real standard, but, whatever works, ya know ciel bleu, Saskia

Dunno about the quality. But from a jumper's point of view, I doubt this will work. Any burner must be held somewhat still to work right. You can't, in freefall ciel bleu, Saskia

A3 should be no problem for a 6 megapixel reflex camera. I've seen pics that big from last years CReW record jumps, definitely okay. Although the lenses used are way better then the standard lens in the Rebel kit. Haven't printed any myself yet, haven't really made that much pics with my 300D (Rebel) yet. But last year I made a > A3 size poster with cutouts from D30 pics (only 3 meg), the poster looks really okay, if I do say so myself If you plan on selling those pics, I'd invest in a good lens for your camera. Makes all the difference... ciel bleu, Saskia

I jumped with sit suits for a while, when I had about your jump # I think. You have to look out at deployment time a bit; I found I had to compensate for a slight turn when going for my hackey. I suggest you do a couple dummy pulls the first jump, always a smart idea when jumping with new stuff anyway. ciel bleu, Saskia

Got 4 reserves in 440 jumps. First: FXC fire (student gear, had about 50 jumps, 230 main, 253R) with 2 out at 2000 ft, ended in downplane at 1000 ft, chopped it. Deployment system was ripcord (BOC). FXC may have need to be reset or maybe I was too low (well I was, anyway, esp for an FXC). Second: Spinning Safire 135, line got caught on slider-collapse-tab. Deployment BOC, container Atom 00. Main was packed by me and 2 others (had some probs getting it bagged). Reserve repack was 2 weeks old Icarus confirmed they had heard of this problem before(too long slider tabs), and had redesigned their sliders. Thanx a lot guys Had mine fixed immediately after... Third: intentional. Fourth: lineover on a borrowed Sabre 135 (the rest was my own gear), was packed by packer. Lineover wasn't the steering line (haven't figured out which line it was but it's on video). 4 weeks after the repack/intentional.... That repack was about 6 weeks ago now Nice average, 1 in 100, and none of them happened doing CReW ciel bleu, Saskia

I have the stereo plug already, and I haven't noticed the problem you're talking about. The camera is just slower then my D30 was, but not THAT slow after the first 4 pics. I have my camera at the DZ, I'll time it this weekend... ciel bleu, Saskia

How about the reserve bridle? My rigger told me a reserve bridle is about the same length as the lines of your reserve. I jump a 128 reserve, no clue as to how long those lines are/how long the bridle is. Also I'm a little concerned about the pilot chute being springloaded in general, combined with a wingsuit. Say you have to pull your reserve at terminal. Would you do anything different on opening? Anybody here HAD a terminal reserve ride with a wingsuit? How did it go? Also, I find that on my last 10 BM jumps or so (I have about 20) I don't have line twists (or slammers) on my spectre anymore. I slow down more, pull up my knees slightly and voila, nice opening, no more twists and no more slammers. But the BM manual says to keep your legs extended? BTW I jump an unmodified Atom classic. It has high corners and I can't rotate the bag in it. Main bridle is also standard (I think about 2m). I jump a classic suit now, have a classic II on order. ciel bleu, Saskia

EF (or AF, for not-canon-lenses) are the autofocus lenses that fit on EOS camera's. FD is manual-only and is for canon's older non-EOS camera's. ciel bleu, Saskia

This one looked pretty warm to me! ciel bleu, Saskia

Agreed.... If I see something I think is wrong, either on the plane or on the ground, I point it out. sometimes I'm wrong, and it's totally okay, sometimes it's not and I get thanked. However our DZ's student gear is off limits to everybody except to instructors. Yet sometimes I see somebody fix something that doesn't need to be fixed: yeah I suppose it's okay to close riser flaps in the plane, but don't close the main flap because on these rigs they should remain open. Often jumpers don't know that and close them for a student, unasked and unannounced. Might cause a hard pull on these rigs.... If I saw something seriously wrong on jumprun, yeah i would act, and I hope anybody would, regardless of consent. For the rest, don't touch my gear unless asked, and I won't touch yours unless asked ciel bleu, Saskia

Heh heh I just did my first solo night jump this weekend (did a tandem night jump last year). I always had very bad night vision but since I had my eyes lasered this problem seems mostly to have gone away. Tried to arrange a tandem this year too tho, but couldn't. Then thought, well, if I grab a 230 student canopy I should be alright even if I don't flare at all. Too bad, too much wind. So I ended up going by myself, on my own spectre 135. Didn't see the village (Teuge), nor the airfield (not to mention the lit T) at all from the airplane. Nor in freefall, and not under canopy! I knew roughly where to fly to, but I never did find out where exactly it was I landed! Never been there in my life...... At 2000 ft I was over some houses/trees, so I got the hell out of there. Picked a nice field near a road but got blown backwards over it at

Hmm weird, I jump a Lightning 126 sequential. If I put extra links on the RR I kinda HAVE to wear 4 or 5 kg of lead to land it decently straight in, esp. with no wind. I seldom FR, I should get that down sometime tho, for these situations. But on a no-wind day I can land my seq Lightning (without extra links) straight in without crashing too hard (ie my ankles sting a bit after like 5 jumps in a row landing on the grass). I jumped a rotation Lighting (126) for the first time last week, no lead, man that lands way better! I always say, if people say a Lightning is hard to land: well, if I can do it, how hard can it be? But then, I usually jump 7 cells, so I'm used to them. The only canopy I could not land decently was a Diamant 160. I have only 3 jumps on one, with 4 kg of lead and on a hot no-wind day. First jump: crash. Second: hey! I'm standing up?! Third: ouch. Definitely NOT my canopy. I should learn to hook one of those But I must admit, first time CRw jumpers are fun to watch.... Over here you have to do 5 CRW jumps for your C. Meaning most jumpers who do their first CRW jumps are jumping a Stiletto or the like. Fun to watch them land a Lightning for the first time Although some manage just fine... ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm my profile gets interesting this way, since I crammed 2 rigs in the entry fields..... Maybe you could put in some more fields, for adding more rigs? There's got to be more people who jump at least 2 different rigs (or mains), ie for back-to-back, CF, BM... ciel bleu, Saskia

You can certainly jump a fun-CFcanopy for a first main, like a Spectre, Omega, Triathlon. Some older models were (used as) CF canopies too, like Cruislites. You can pick those up cheap if you really have no $$$. Newer competition CF canopies are a no-no for freefall, and are a b*tch to land. But there are guys who jump bigger F111 or F111/ZP Lightnings with bag and slider as a regular main and like 'em. So it IS doable should you come across such a canopy. But they still are more difficult to land then say a Spectre. A good canopy for both more-than-casual CF AND freefall is a hybrid Triathlon (meaning a ZP Tri but with CF mods), but you might want to change the retractable pilot chute for a regular one if you only freefall, makes for less mals, and makes for less potential canopy damage. But so far I haven't seen many of these canopies on the 2nd hand market. Should you decide to get a CF main, ask a rigger if you're not sure it can handle terminal (or rather, if YOU'll be happy with a terminal opening). There's a lot of CF/semi-CF canopies around, some might work... Personally I don't find the CF canopies I've jumped hard to land, except for the Diamant. I like 7 cells, and these CF canopies are even more stable in turbulence then regular 7 cells... ciel bleu, Saskia

So Johan, think we can buzz them next time?? The aerobatics plane did, so we birdpeople can too heh heh