rking12

These things also have a climb rate over 3000 ft a minute! Sad part is, unless you are military you can't jump these in the US.

There is a common theme in the incident reports. Visiting jumper… Many of the bad things that happen are to people visiting a DZ. There is huge lesson to be learned here. If you are visiting a DZ take your time. Learn what you need to a head of time about the DZ and be safe and conservative until you know the area. Sit out a load or two and watch locals land. If you see visiting jumpers at your DZ take the time to show them aerial photos, talk about outs and obstacles, explain common wind conditions such as rotors from trees or buildings or a common wind shift during the day. On the way to altitude show them what they need to know about outs. You might not become a statistic or you might save someone’s life. None of us can live long enough to make all the mistakes ourselves. You MUST learn from others.

Everyone has said all the great stuff about Spectres and I agree. I have several hundred camera jumps on one loaded about 1.7 to 1 and it flew wonderful through them all. I did learn quickly to keep those brakes stowed on long spots. They get fairly ground hungry when you let the brakes go!

It is a very simple mod on the Heatwave. He does not make any trim adjustments. He sews some small triangles of fabric on the nose that partially close off the nose cells and make the front look more like a crossbraced (best way I can describe it) canopy. It reduces the size of the nose openings and reduces drag creating the higher performance. If you are interested you really should talk to Joe. He is a great guy and will help you understand the process. To the best of my knowledge the only canopies he does this too are Heatwaves, Alphas and Cobalts at this time.

Time in sport... We have all heard the term. Just hanging out at the DZ is a huge learning experience. You get to watch all types of people land, fly their canopies watch videos and learn. It all ads up. So no DZ should try to run people off if they think they aren't making enough jumps. Especially the new folks. I encourage all the newbies to come watch if you don't have the cash. Hang out and learn. Nothing wrong with being able to pack as you get off student status. Drink beer at the end of the day and enjoy ALL the reason we jump...

I have two Heatwave 150s. Both my son's have Heatwave 150s. Needless to say we really like these canopies. I load mine fairly heavily at a little over 1.7 to one. They turn and dive hard. The controls are very smooth, they do require a little more input but it makes the canopy feel very solid and not twitchy. The toggle pressure is not hard at all. I have a freind with a Vengence 150 that flew my Heatwave and he said it dove harder and longer than his Vengence. I sent both of mine off to Joe Bennett in Monroe and let him put the H-Mod on them. All I can say is WOW! This mod really works! The most wonderful openings I have ever had (I have about 250 jumps on a Spectre) on heading and smooth, turns and dives harder than ever, swoops better and still has tons of flair. It made it much higher performance with no bad side affects that I can find. Even with the cost of the Mod this is a reasonably priced canopy that performs! My son got one a little larger than he knew he would want when he got used to it and just plans on sending it in for the Mod when he is ready for some more performance. Cheap way to downsize...

One of the best ever is to go out to the end of the step, get a hold of the strut swing your feet up and catch your toes on the leading edge of the wing. The wind will hold your toes against the wing until you decide to straighten your toes and fall off backwards. You want to be past all the steps and stuff you might hit. We call it the Batman... This is hard if you are not in shape. Skinny people seem to have the best luck.

I have always said Lisa was the best reason in the world to buy from Square One. Beside having the sexist voice in the world she gives great advice and great customer service. Glad they know a great employee when they see one!! Have fun flying that new canopy!

No Cypress... Wear a helmet always, and fly like you don't have a Cypress. A little caution can be a great thing! Have fun with that new rig!

Watch a video called Bali High and I will bet you would like to try it. Soon as I saw it I started trying to make reservations to go paraglide. It looks totally awesome! You won't believe the "Bow Ties" These people do with their canopies in the video!

Ammonia is good for grass stains. After this treatment you might also try some OxyClean. It has worked wonders at our DZ.

I forgot to ask... What kind of plane?

You may know one of our local residents at Lexington Texas, Tom Bryant... He is teaching school there now. He used to jump up in your neck of the woods.

I could name it but it might Incriminate me...

I have over 300 wonderful camera jumps on a Spectre with 800 to 1000 foot snivels on all of them. I have seen (thankfully it didn't happen to me) two Spectres blow up on opening. I would call that hard... Neither canopy had ever opened hard before that. After examination the only thing we could find might have been a combination of tube stows or rubber bands. Seven cell canopies have fewer lines and smaller line bundles. This means really small rubber bands to ensure smooth release. I had the exact opposite effect when I went back to a nine cell. Rubberbands would hold the larger bundle of lines and cause line twists. Changed bands and fixed it...

I like them too but if you want an articulated rig you can forget them. No one will put them on the articulated rigs. :-(

I have dislocated my shoulder 3 times in freefall. After I had to land the first one in a lot of pain I learned to land my canopy with one hand. Put both toggles in one hand and you can steer, flair and land very effectively. Depending on your strength you might have to find a canopy with light toggle pressure. Also want to look for something fairly docile. If the gear people can hook you up with a safe rig, the canopy control should not be a terrible issue. Good Luck!

Thanks! It was a great jump! I got to see my boss in a way many will never see him! Scared to death! He loved it! He was a great sport, brought beer for the Tandem Master and me. Your boss will love it!

Here is a picture of my BOSS just two weeks ago doing his first tandem. I shoot the picture, my buddy bhale doing the driving...

Good advice to listen to Lisa. She gives good solid advice from experience. Here are a few things of my own that you should consider before flying different canopies. Can you land wherever you want to in any conditions (Accuracy) on what you have today? Do you stand up every landing in any conditions on what you jump today? Have you jumped this canopy in the worst conditions you can imagine? (These vary, It can be wind, no wind, turbulence, we all have our own preferences.) When you can do all that you should feel comfortable going down a reasonable (20 or so square feet) amount. make a few jumps till you can accomplish all the same above and then move on. Get good advice from someone on your DZ. Have a good canopy pilot watch you fly and land your canopy and help you. Above all BE SAFE!

Standard business practice is to use 2080 hours for a full time person. This assumes they will be paid for a two week vacation. You did right just multiplying your hours, just figure out what Uncle Sam gets (Probably 17 to 25% depending on your W-2) and you know how much you make.

I had almost the same experience with Phil Boyer. I thanked him too for all the good information about GA. I too will join. Part of the reason is they have 400,000 members to our 35,000. They have horsepower lobbying. I also told him it would be good if a lot of the General Aviation organizations would join forces and have a GA council so to speak. We are too fragmented. We have pilots, skydivers, ballonist, hangliders, gliders and some I am sure I have missed. We all have separate organizations and little to no communication. All of us combined would have much greater power...It would be worth it for each of us to pay a little more for this communication.

Sorry I didn't mean to say anyone or anything was in the way. Just wanted folks to think about how things can change during a competition compared to normal every day operations. Seems like swoop competitions are having major accidents we don't see everyday on the DZ. Were there ambulances at any of the others? Anyone know? I raced motorcycles for years. We never started a race without the ambulance on the scene. It could save lives... Sorry, this is about Chris and we need to put this somewhere else...

This was very sad. He hit just across form the swoop ditch from me. It looked like he simply misjudged his altitude as he started his hook turn. He hit incredibly hard as you can imagine. There were some wonderful people there instantly giving aid and gently supporting him in the water. He was conscience and talking through it all. He is tough! They had a back board and neck brace but the sad part is only the ambulance can call for an airlift. It seemed to take forever for them to get there and then we had to wait on the helicopter. Seems like 20 minutes or so just for the ambulance but it might as well have been hours, we were all on pins and needles. To me it addressed a very important issue. Have an ambulance on the DZ if you are having swoop competition! No blame on anyone but we have learned a lesson. Competition changes everything. All of a sudden we have all kinds of spectators and new obstacles not to mention they are going to push just a little harder. Lots of Prayers for Chris. If whomever opened the bank account will open a PayPal account it would be very easy for us to contribute. Maybe a helpchris@dropzone.com e-mail address to send the money too?

I just got a new Hawkeye and I love it. I have a Bonehead which sounds just like yours with a TRV11. I put a PC-9 on my Hawkeye. I think the padding quality inside is far better than Bonehead. It comes predrilled for an articulated mount so you don't have to guess or be scared to drill. The flat mount on the side has very few snag points. It has two internal Dytter pockets but I fill one up mounting my Cam-Eye (drill a 5/8 hole and it snaps right in place). The chin cup is great and very low profile. Good product, good company to deal with...