dragon2

Yeah, I know, that's what you said. Harm says not, tho. And he's the one I gotta listen to. Maybe not everything is clear yet, for everybody. Sure isn't for me... ciel bleu, Saskia

No you'd be cat IV because of your WL and canopy type, for which you'd need 50 jumps more. The point is that smaller chutes at a conservative WL are faster than larger chutes at that same WL. I get that. Only I didn't think my Spectre 150 at 1:1 at 75 jumps was all that big a deal....... not allowed anymore. And I am definitely not the lightest girl at our DZ. I know 2 girls who got a 120 for a first canopy (triathlon, sabre), both at a WL < 1. ciel bleu, Saskia

And nobody could so far explain to me why you now need 100 jumps to jump a Triathlon, but you can jump a Spectre/Silhouette and stuff with 25 jumps and you can even start out on a Sabre???? I also think you don't need 100 jumps for a PA chute or a Lightning, either... Personally I really do think 500 jumps for a Stiletto and stuff is okay, for most people. But I think the easier canopy list can use some work. ciel bleu, Saskia

Paul, How's this: I have 266 jumps (cat III). I jump a safire (cat III). It's 135 sqft (cat IV). My WL is 1.18 (cat III). Now what? Does this place me in cat III or IV? I presume I can jump say a safire 120 without changing categories. What if: I want to jump a cat IV chute (Stiletto 120, or bigger)? Am I changing categories or not? ciel bleu, Saskia

Because the merit is a hybrid, it packs much smaller than a zp 170. Therefore a J2 won't be a problem. If you like your merit, I'd say stay with it. As for harder landings on a 7 cell, hmmm, I got my first canopy (a 7 cell spectre) *because* it was so easy to land. It is different, yes, and maybe a bit less flare, but I think just about everybody can land a spectre/triathlon. I personally found the merit much harder to land, couldn't get it to *quit flying so fast*. Ran out a lot of landings As for forgiveness, dunno, I think the merit is a really fast canopy compared to say spectre/triathlon/original sabre. I also don't like the fast openings (ouch) and the french toggle range (short, too twitchy for me), but those are preferences. ciel bleu, Saskia

I second that. ciel bleu, Saskia

The Netherlands too... Peter, do we have to wear one for a (planned) water jump? The BVR says nothing about that I believe, so the answer would be, Yes? ciel bleu, Saskia

I suppose responding "Golf is for pussies." would have gotten you fired? Ehm hard to say... All of the top guys at our company play golf......... Might indeed be a bad career move I do think it is for pussies tho ciel bleu, Saskia

I get hassled a lot. Mainly because I was sick a lot for almost a year, about 3 years back. At the end of that year I was told not to get sick again during December. Like that is something I can do much about...... Anyways they later tried blaming *my skydiving* . But I only started doing that when I was feeling better!! Reaction: Eh. Oh. No excuses, and no explanation of why skydiving would cause me to be sleepy/feverish for almost a year! My boss, a year later, very serious and practically shouting: Well you can see can't you that your skydiving causes a lot of raised eyebrows!! You should take up golf!! I never had to call in sick because of skydiving. However, some colleagues of mine have had various skiing accidents, and broken bones from other sport accidents. But that is acceptable. ciel bleu, Saskia

Do a search for the differences between 9 and 7 cells. For instance I found: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=249783#249783 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=20294#20294 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=92115#92115 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=340204#340204 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=156309#156309 As for what canopy to buy, and what size, you can do a search for that as well. But most importantly, *ask your own instructors*. ciel bleu, Saskia

RW: ~118 mph Sit: ~134 mph Stand: ~158 mph These speeds are without any lead. Max according to pro-track is something like 163 mph standing. I know, I'm a featherweight Dunno my hd speed yet, working on it ciel bleu, Saskia

On our DZ, if you are a member (EUR 100/yr) you get 1 EUR off every jump, no matter the altitude (we jump from 3.5k/5k/7k/9k/12.5k). You also can get 10% discount at the bar, get a EUR 2,50 discount on sleeping arrangements, and you get EUR 990 on your account if you pay EUR 900 up front. If you are in a team which is comprised of (mostly) club members, and commit to a certain number of training jumps/yr, you can get a larger discount. ciel bleu, Saskia

Whoohoo, that's our plane.... (the one on the right) ciel bleu, Saskia

Well I did, once. Sorta. Was on the sunset load. Sun was still up, sorta. Plenty of light. Fell through a thin layer of industrial haze at about 4000 ft. Pulled. Man it was dark all of a sudden! I'm pretty much nightblind. Not so much at night but twilight is esp. hard. This landing was hard.... ciel bleu, Saskia

What I heard: > 1000 jumps But, like I said, all this is grapevine. I don't even know the guy. ciel bleu, Saskia

Second/third hand info: This guy is an experienced jumper. His pull-out was stuck. He cut away. He couldn't locate his reserve handle. He apperently had just changed gear. His old rig had a metal ripcord. His new rig has a pillow. He apparently kept searching for metal instead of fabric... Cypres saved him. He was only the first who had a reserve ride at our DZ that day... ciel bleu, Saskia

Oh and my name is Saskia Enough with the Dragon/Dragan/ .... ciel bleu, Saskia

Eh what point? I never stalled the reserve. Couldn't, with the lines that long and not taking a wrap. What I was told was to hold it in brakes for 10 secs, not stall it for 10 secs. My main and reserve are actually the same size (since it's a safire 1 and not a safire 2). I've flown a lot of 7 cells. Also square ones. I know how to land them. In fact this is my first 9 cell canopy. Well yeah. On a main, I would've. On my reserve, I assume the lines are the length they are for a reason. I don't think you are supposed to stall a reserve unless to maybe clear a lineover or something. Am I a wuss for not wanting to stall it? It's my reserve. I could flare it (up high). Maybe there was more flare in it. But my instructor said they explicitly don't encourage people to wrap their lines on a reserve. I didn't. And I'm positive that I could've landed it alright if I didn't have to compensate for the turn. ciel bleu, Saskia

No I don't. I am rethinking, yeah. But not all that many people I know have them. So all I know about them, I've read here. I thought that my wingloading wasn't high enough to warrant them. Maybe not true. Then again, I did manage to chop alright. Oh well I'll talk to my rigger next weekend. ciel bleu, Saskia

Yeah this is what I will do in the future, should it happen again. I did hold the toggles down for a bit, just not long enough. I´ve mostly jumped spectres, tri´s and lightnings (about 175 jumps on 7 cells total). And can land all of those pretty well. I believe if I had had a fully flying reserve I could´ve landed it fairly well. Also on one this old? (1994) I´ve never flown F111 besides mantas. Don´t really know the difference. This flew okay tho. ciel bleu, Saskia

Parachutes de France Transfair, 128 sqft, 1,21:1 Thing was, I wasn´t stalling it. Didn´t dare to. Just extended my arms as far as they would go, didn´t wrap the lines. Well yeah, it flew fine, apart from that end cell, which I meant by ´not flying right´. I´m used to square/tapered 7 cells, albeit zp ones, and this one wasn´t bad at all. Well he has seen a lineover on a tandem reserve. He just had never seen a closed end cell like this. Why´s that freaky? I´d be more freaked if this happened all the time... Well, I thought at first it must´ve been a lineover. But the possibility exist that it was a released toggle. In that case, looking up at my canopy during the first slight turning would maybe have allowed me to release the other toggle. Usually I never look up, I´m looking around for traffic. Which in this case, being a h&p, wasn´t really necessary. Also I was halfway expecting an off heading opening (I´m not practising h&p´s for nothing), so I thought," bummer, am I not symmetrical then??? Thought I was!" Not sure if a realeased toggle would cause it to spin up like it did; my brakes are set really really short so I can´t even stow the slack because there´s hardly any. I only have about 12 cm lower brake line, I estimate. Or less. ciel bleu, Saskia

I´m also glad I made it in one piece It was made by Parachutes de France. It is a pre-Techno, so to speak. On my Safire 135 (if you count it a being 135 sqft: 1,14:1 On my reserve (and on my main if you count it as being about 128 sqft): 1,21:1 Because I wanna be a CREW camera person. Working on my hoppnpops right now. Do that all the time. Maybe. But if I cut away from say a stuck toggle, my velocity wouln´t have been much higher. Isnt a reserve supposed to open regardless??? Which one, main or reserve? Reserve: no idea. Main: A Very big F111 one. Just got it for 2 jumps. Makes my Safire open almost twice as fast (ie not 1000 ft anymore). ciel bleu, Saskia

Had my 2nd reserve ride yesterday. My first on my own gear, which had (of course) had its repack last week. Jumped from 5000 ft, did about 5 secs, pulled. My Safire opened with a slowish 120° turn to the left, then in a heartbeat the risers spun up, pinning my head to my chest. I was thrown just about horizontally then. Chopped it. Hello pretty little babyblue reserve. Eh, my reserve is also turning?! My right end cell refused to open. So I pumped. And I pumped. And I pumped again, thinking, well you (...) cell, (...) open!!! I pumped for like 2000 ft. No good. Didn´t dare take a wrap on the lines for fear of stalling it. So I had to fly/land it while compensating, which meant my right toggle at less than handle-hight. So not much flare left. Botched the landing Prepared to plf. Tried to flare a bit, but flared unevenly, pulling me over to the left. I fell really hard, flat out, on my face, on the frozen ground Can anyone say: plf???!!.... Lucky I wore a hard helmet (a freefly helmet), and lots of thick thermal clothing. Nothing broken

Up to yesterday, I only had one cutaway, a dual square (due to fxc fire) on student canopies. They behaved for a while, but decided to downplane at 1000 ft. So see ya. As of yesterday, I can add a spinning mal to this fortunately small list. And yeah, I realised fast that I had to cutaway alright ; I was thrown about horizontally by my canopy, with my head pinned to my chest by my risers. So, see ya........... ciel bleu, Saskia

Hmm this is something I've started to do. Not intentionally but since I spend so much time at the landing zone taking pics of jumpers & driving the van anyway, I often happen to get nice pics of students and/or tandems as well. I used to go easy on those pics, still do for jumpers. I only email em tho, as-is, or burn a cd or get them printed. Don't print them myself. I quit emailing around for free tho, too much work and too expensive a camera (Canon D30). I only charge EUR 2,- per emailed pic right now (about $2). I sell them to tandem passengers who wouldn't cough up the money for video, they don't seem to want to pay much more. Students may, tho. I also trade a lot (well, most) of pics for packjobs (yeah I know, I'm lazy... ) ciel bleu, Saskia