SethInMI

That is so cool. Reading that book growing up was one of many inspirations to go into engineering. I still remember one light fore and one aft set so the intersection indicated the correct height. So simple, so effective. Brilliant! It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

A few years ago I wondered about 190 7 cell vs. 170 9 cell packing, and I checked Aerodyne's web site and found (and is still there today): Pack volume for 168 Pilot: 416 cu. Pack volume for 190 Triathlon: 420 cu. (which is a difference of about 1%). Now same manufacterer so same methodology...1% shoud be barely noticeable. But the I5 is listed for 416cu. max, and the manufacturer said don't do it, and I have packed a 190 Tri and a 170 Sabre 2 into a J3 and found the 170 to pack smaller, more than 1% IMHO (Sabre 2 not being a Pilot of course). Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Thanks for the responses. I will just move them back to factory and try it. I have relatively long arms, 73" wingspan, so I think I could still get a good flare out of it, but I see the benefit of having them shorter. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I just got a Sabre 2 canopy with about 140 jumps on it. My rigger and I hooked it up using the brake settings (existing loops) of the previous owner. I jumped it, it flew like the brake lines were too short (bucked alot on front riser turns). I measured the brake lines according to PD instructions and they were about 3.75" too short, chart says 18" for a 170. The line trim chart has an note "Due to development methodology, the finished BK-TOG dimensions may not scale" What does this mean? Can I just move the break line settings to the suggested 18" length, or should I step it out more slowly? Thanks, Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Yeah, Chris is just curious. I am too sometimes, its just as if I asked Peter Solberg how to slide a rally car down a gravel road at some ungodly speed. I am not going to do it, just want some idea of what is involved. Dave said something that backs up what Chris said about larger swooping canopies being better for distance, he said he swoops a slightly larger canopy which is slower but flies farther. Why is that? And what would a 115lbs person have to do to be a competition swooper, and why? Quote from Dave: It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Click for Google Map of Jumpin Jans LZ Great story! It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Anyone remember watching "Alf Tales" on Saturday mornings back in the 80's? It was full of puns and stuff that was probably over the heads of most kids. I remember one show that IIRC featured a villian building these chopping robots called K-Arts. I think the whole show was a setup so the villian could call out "Attention K-Art Choppers!"...back when Kmart was still a big chain. I remember spoofs of Rapunzel and some other fairy tales too. Let's see, what other kids cartoons did I watch? "Gummi Bears" anyone? "Thunder Cats", Smurfs, He-man, X-men. Alot of those were horrible. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

How high is the concepted ramp height? I'm not a base jumper, but I would think that with a base rig and with a fast or no slider and a high enough ramp, he could potentially deploy a parachute at the ramp height, if he missed it. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

This is not a pubic message. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I know what you are sayin', and I'm sayin' give the bad guys a better set of wheels, like a Z06 or something! But it was an old-school moment, just like when the General Lee could never get away from Rosco until it reached that "under construction" bridge. That car horn blowing Dixie, the Knight Rider theme, and Jan Hammer's Miami Vice theme all reside in my head connected to the cars of the shows, the Charger, the TransAm and the Testarossa. That's a sweet sounding motor. I don't see those rear tires lasting long if I could get behind the wheel of that thing. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I am of the generation that watched the original as a kid (35 now), and so I watched this for nostalgia sake. It was terrible. I think they wanted to match the campy sillyness of the original, but I guess I can't watch that level anymore. The first 5-10 seconds of the opening theme was the best part of the show. I can tell I am a car nut because I really had to shake my head when KITT, a Mustang GT500KR with ungodly amounts of horsepower and a perfect robotic driver, could not escape from the bad guys in a Ford Edge crossover. Sigh. I did like Val Kilmer as the voice of KITT. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Has anyone else every seen that question "Have you ever skydived?" on a life insurance form? Although I am getting to middle age, I have no need for more life insurance than my work provides. What would the purpose of a such a question be? Is it, as the Rabbi surmised, really asking "Are you an above-average risk taker who has a higher likelyhood of dieing in some risky activity, being it skydiving or motorcycle riding or climbing a 20 ft ladder to repaint your roof trim?" And what would the change in premiums be for checking yes on such a box? It is a shame that someone who did a jump now thinks of it as a "cheap thrill" that detracts from an appreciation of the subtle and hard won pleasures of life. This guy sounds like a real killjoy. No amusement parks or bicycle rides for his family, its "appreciating the beauty of watching paint dry, the paint you applied". Sheesh. Someone needs to find a Talmud equivalent quote to "Live a little". Btw, it sounds like the good Rabbi did a Static Line jump, not a tandem. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Eule, I noticed you have not logged on in over a month, but here is a link to a kmz I created for Premier Skydiving in Fremont, MI. It is 600k with the image overlay, so I can't attach it. Premier KMZ It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Pops, I replied to Kiki, just to her comment "you would have had to chop it anyway"; it sounded to me like she thought lineovers could never be fixed. Perhaps she saw the suspension line reference that I missed! I guess I should have added her comment or put her name in the post to make that clearer. The OP did the correct thing, he even stated he was going to do a control check, part of which is a flare. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I just (finally) discovered image overlays in google earth, so I thought I would share my DZ with anyone else who cares and didn't know about them. My DZ out in BFE (or Fremont, MI) has a poor satellite photo. I improved it by adding an image overlay from a DZ arial photo. This is pretty easy to do and makes any GPS tracks plotted look better, so if you are into that sort of thing and have a poor DZ sat resolution, make an overlay. The pic I had to work with was shot with a wide angle lens, I tried to correct some of the fisheyeness with CorelDraw, but I was not as successful as I would have liked. Of course an overlay could also be colored to show Farmer McNasties and other areas of note. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

You can clear a lineover. Flare the canopy, then let up on the toggles. The slack in the brake lines will sometimes (often?) allow them to flip around. I have done it once. There is a nice vid of someone clearing theirs in this way on SDM. Obviously with 15jumps, just chopping it is fine, but if you have the altitude, flaring a few times would be a good idea. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I did a few jumps with it yesterday, mounted in my Protec earhole. Similar results to my 1st post; it works well for canopy flight, but not freefall. In freefall, recorded altitude is very erratic (my freefall speed varied from 0 to 900mph) and somtimes even VDOP and number of satellites tracked does not clue in to the validity of the data. My next experiment is to switch back from 5 logs/sec to 1 log/sec and see what happens. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Good article. I did wonder where he got this line from: "[I]Parachutes, for instance, can cost between $5,000 and $10,000.[/I]" 5k+? Tandem rig? I like the line, [I]First, you sign away everything but your soul -- and maybe even that -- on a multipage liability form peppered with such soothing language as "permanently injured" and "death."[/I] " I will never like signing those things. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Take a hiatus. I am not sure if the rental at your dz is per jump or per day, but either way it is not cheap; I assume your $150 is for 3-4 jumps. I know what it is like jump infrequently, (5 years 100 jumps) and jumping like that it is tough to make progress, in either freefall skills or canopy skills. Take a break, save your money, get your own gear. It will fit you better and you will always be able to jump the same canopy, which will make you a better pilot. 5 years in the sport has also taught me that the sky will still be there when you are ready. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

That price sheet got me checking, and a quick search of inflation reveals the inflation rate from 1962 to 2007 is 572% meaning prices have increased by a factor of 5.72. In 2007 dollars a jump to 9,500 in 1962 was $21.45 and to 12,500 was $28.60. To 30k was $57.00. So jump tickets appear to have actually gotten a little cheaper over the years, although a 30k jump for $57.00 would be a good deal now (although you probably would not be required to supply your own O2 gear!) It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I downloaded Mario's java utility, and got it to connect to the QStarz. It could be handy, and looks like it will run on a PocketPC style computer. Like Mark and he said in the other forum, it may be that logging at 2Hz provides a better fix than 5Hz. One note, I realize now that it appears the device is always logging when on, the NAV position just enables bluetooth connection. Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I decided to be a guinea pig and bought the Q-Starz. I wanted a logger for a while, and the high data rate was too tempting. I have only put a few jumps on it, but its going to be another week before I jump again so I thought I would throw up some info now. 5 Hertz logging: I did get the device to log at 5Hz. You have to use another program to set the device to 5Hz, but it does work. You must be moving above at least 10km/hr (I set to 30) to get 5Hz. There are some nice settings for controlling when logging takes place in the software. Off-Log-Nav switch: The device has a nice slide switch with three positions, with obvious meanings. The Nav mode was disappointing in that after a certain amout of time it will go into sleep mode (no GPS fix) if it cannot find a bluetooth device to connect with. This means the setup for a jump must be: 1-2 min prior to jumprun turn from Off to Nav. At the last moment switch from Nav to Log and stow unit. GPS fix does seem to be about 30 sec cold or warm. Size: I could just fit it in the ear opening of my protec, but it squishes my ear enough to make it annoying. Performance: I need to do more jumps to check this out. The attached kmz shows the QStarz doing a poor job in freefall, but the canopy flight is generally pretty good, and very smooth at 5Hz. This was a tracking jump, and the QStarz has some trouble about 1/2 way through, can't fix altitude and just leaves it as it is, so I get an awesome glide ratio at about 7000AGL, then the fun's over and I drop 2000 ft in 2 seconds. Software: The software is usable but crude. The kml export feature clamps altitude to 0 so it is worthless. All log data is exported as one file, and the csv format has some annoying features like putting the height data as "1000 m" instead of just "1000", forcing some work to strip off the " m". The dates in the attached kmz are trashed, I have not got that converted yet. [C/N: I wouldn't buy this yet; I may have a $100 paperweight] Seth It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

Well I will throw my 2 cents in here as well. Unlike some of the other posters in this thread, I read in your post that you have already done several jumps, static line and tandem. I went through the static line program, and my main fear was that I was going to go unstable, pull, get wrapped in my deploying chute and die in a wad of nylon. This fear vanished after my 10 second delay, when I did not go unstable, but instead, like 1,000's of other static line students, I had an normal freefally, deployment, and canopy ride. I think that this is a common fear for starting skydivers, and it is unlikely to happen. Doing some time in a wind tunnel would probably greatly relieve your fear. I am sorry I can't give you exact statistics on total reserve malfunctions or entanglement fatalities, but if you do die skydiving, it is much more likely that you die in a landing mistake. Hopefully someone else will give out some better statisitics. Seth ps. Fill out your profile! At least put in 2 jumps if that is how many you have done, and where you are located. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

This was true for me (one brake line had a few twists, the other had, well, alot). I guess I will have to pay attention to what am doing before I stow, or just run the twists out more often. Seth An for all you twisted people post-whoring it up in my thread, go back to the bonfire! It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".

I just untwisted mine 20 jumps after I untwisted them the last time, on a canopy w/ 50 jumps total, and as I was doing it I wondered, "How does this happen?" I stick the toggles in the keepers on landing, but I thought maybe I rotate a toggle with every jump and it just adds up? I would like to prevent the twisting if I can. Seth ps. I tried a search but I couldn't figure out how to filter out posts about deployment time line twists. It's flare not flair, brakes not breaks, bridle not bridal, "could NOT care less" not "could care less".