fergs

So is this cliff 4000' or 2000' - I've seen both numbers mentioned in the past.

I'm interested to hear what other do regarding their Reserve Static Line (RSL). Do you leave it connected, or do you disconnect for your wingsuit jumps?

House burning down Procedures: 1. Grab your rig and get it outside into safety. 2. Go back inside and get the computer out. 3. anything else? Oh yeah, better get the wife and kids out too.

Interested to hear what everyone does with their RSL, and reasoning for same - connected or disconnected for wingsuit jumps.

Doug, where in the M/East are you? I'm in Saudi ... Have taken gear on and off aircraft into and out of this part of the world for 20 odd years - never had a problem. But always a first time (touch wood - flying w gear Bahrain to UAE next week). Can you make next weekend, 9, 10 Jan to Umm Al Quwayn in UAE - there's a new Caravan for us to play with ... Cheers, fergs (also APF)

Mark, no worries, point taken about describing in a way others will understand. I guess most jumpers today don't even know what we're talking about when describing rounds .... showing our age? fergs

Mark, Did you blow the gore before the water landing? Or was it following a previous water jump when it hadn't been dried out? A blown gore on a 7-TU is nothing like a torn rib on a ram-air canopy. The old rounds had gores removed to give the limited drive that they had. Rate of decent wasn't really increased noticably by removing more material. I chopped parts of panels out of my Double-T to turbo-charge it into a 7-TU. I fooled myself into thinking the 7-TU gave more drive .... But decent rate was the same - fast!! On the other hand, the last time I tore a rib on a sabre, the result was NOTICIBLE! Anyhow, I digress .... Your comment that dampness affects canopies may indeed have merit. As I posted previously, I've jumped damp canopies 10 or 20 times - never with any noticible difference, apart from starting with a damp canopy and landing with a dry one. So I think we'd all be interested in hearing from anyone who can shed scientific light on the subject. Blue Skies, fergs

Hey Carla, you are doing the right thing by jumping a borrowed 170 first. My only comment is that you owe it to yourself to also try out a Spectre - preferably a 190 first, so you can compare to the canopy you've been jumping til now. Then try a 170 along with the 170 Sabre so you can compare the two. I did around a thousand jumps on a Sabre - then changed to a Spectre a couple years ago. The Spectre is a really nice canopy - does everything well - and for a skydiver with thousands of jumps in front of you - it does a few things exceptionally. The openings are really sweet (I have psycho packed it from new). That should be important for you as your confidence in yourself should never be damaged by that once-in-a-hundred slammer of an opening. You just won't see that with a properly packed Spectre. The landings are soft, predictible in all wind conditions, and forgiving if you mis-time your flare a bit. This also helps with your confidence. In flight, it's still a zippy canopy. You can even do a conventional accuracy approach on this canopy using deep brakes and be able to have impressive pin-point accuracy. Oh yeah, it also packs smnaller than a same sized 9 cell. No, I don't work for PD - but I have owned and jumped many many canopies over the past 30 years. When I was an instructor a couple of lifetimes ago, I came to the realisation that a good canopy, with correct training, had a great deal to do with confidence and skill building. Sabre is a good canopy. For me, Spectre is better. So go find a Spectre to try. Blue Skies, fergs

Mark, sorry to hear you saw damage from a wet canopy. What happened? fergs

I've made many water jumps over the years and also had canopies get wet or damp in rain, dew, snow, etc., Quite seriously, if anything less than completely sodden, go jump it. Dries out fastest and easiest that way. If really wet, couple jumps may be needed. Never noticed any different opening charactaristics with wet canopies ... Blue Skies, fergs

My original Mirage, 1985 vintage, had press-studs on the riser covers. It was a great rig - and I only retired it 4 years ago. New gear .... G3 of course.

I've got a G3 and have been psycho packing a sabre and spectre into it since new (4 years). Previous container was an older Mirage - and also psychoed into it for ages. But neither psycho or propack will fit well into a tight container unless you pack it flat/wide and distribute eavenly in the bag. Don't bunch it up in the middle. Get the corners filled well. That being said, psycho, at least for me is the only way to pack. It packs faster, easier and fantastic consistant openings - always on heading and always soft. Why use any other method? But what would I know ... I've only been packing since the 60's, when NOONE knew what they were doing anyhow!!!!!!! Blue Skies, fergs

David, Yes, you should certainly regard yourself as an experimantal jumper when doing anything outside the manufacturers standards. This goes for the way you land it to the way you pack it. As such, psycho for a PD canopy is experimental ... But, as you have been psycho packing for some years now anyhow, you should be able to accept whatever benefits this packing method gives you against the manufacturers recommendations. For me, psycho is the only way to pack. Packing is a breeze - openings are always the same and sweet as anything. Less time on packing means more jumps a day. It goes into the bag easily having been rolled logically into the tootsie roll. The opening sequence is just the reverse of the packing sequence, so openings are a delight. I cannot remember either an off heading or hard opening ever since I started psycho! But I accept that either may happen at some time. I continue to carry a reserve for the same reason. No parachute or packing method is 100% perfect. And a reserve in its' container makes a better pillow to lean my head on during the climb to altitude .... Yes, a 6 to 9 inch bridle extension is a good thing. It simply puts bridle inside the deployment bag so the attachment point in top of the canopy need not be distorted and pulled out of the roll any more than necessary. One end of the bridle is attached to the canopy attachment point, the other to the "bottom" end of the pilot chute bridle. I've been psycho packing for many years now and have never had any burns on the canopy. I think i gave Tallies a bridle extension in a packing seminar I did last year. So he may indeed have one you could bribe out of him, as he mentioned. I have no sewing facilities these days, so cannot offer to make you an extension. But someone like paragear or rigging adventures will be able to make something up for you. I look foreward to seeing your new oddessy when it comes. I've heard they are almost as nice as a Mirage ..... (looking forward to the debate that statement creates too). You made a good choice with the Spectre - no debate there ..... Blue skies, fergs

Hilly, you're still a bloody legend!! So are we to accept that you invented Tandem? OK, I'm convinced ... Incidentally, I was in Oz for a few days last week - called in to Wilton wednesday arvo as I was driving up to Syd from Cbr to fly out - only to find no one around and all aircraft tied down. Disappointing. May be back in MArch or April - will make it on a weekend day that time... fergs

Yep, I gotem all too .... heheheh Blue Skies, fergs

I made my first jump in 1973 in Papua New Guinea. On the same load, my instructor had a brand new paraplane - and believe me, he was more nervous than I on that load. His was made by EFA, a French parachute manufacturer, as opposed to Para Flite, who made the US versions. The two guys in New Guinea who ended up with paraplanes always maintained that the french model was superior to the US one - but that belief was probably a product of the fact that they never actually saw or jumped a Para Flite one. So after 20 jumps on a 7TU, I went to paracomander, UT15, Thunderbow, reefed stratostar, slider stratostar x 2, paracloud x 2, cruisair, pegasus, X-210, Raven x 2, Sabre, and now a Spectre. So I think I've experienced the evolution of canopies over the past 30 years or so. At the time my first strato star arrived in the post, there were no longer any square canopy pilots left in the country. So I had to try to work out how to pack the baby from the manual. Remember, all the terminology was new. I remember distinctly reading something like "...flake the canopy by going from high point to high point ...". Huh?!!!!! what the heck was a "high point"? The strats came with their own taylor made little containers, so that had to be installed on my harness too. This container had special locking stows to put the 15 miles of reefing line into. Anyhow, it opened, much to everyones amazement. 70 or 80 jumps later I was on vacation in the US. I busted my femur at Antioch in California after the canopy repacked itself at 100' or so . Soon thereafter the manuals started warning about something they called a "gust induced stall". I guess that's what caught me by surprise and gave me the rough landing. Ironically, another guy on the load (you still out there, Larry?) had a malfunction, cutaway and was riding an unmodified 24' flat reserve. I thought I should land near him as he was sure to be injured. Yep, you guessed it, he didn't even end up with bruises, despite the 30 mph winds that day ..... no, there's no moral to the story - we still should follow down people we think are or may be injured. The shorter lined strat with slider was a different machine altogether. Gone were complicated pack jobs - and performance improved too. Before jumping squares, my Thunderbow was my favourite canopy. For those who have never seen one - it was triangular, with a huge arrow pointing foreward (so we knew which way we were flying ...hahaha). Mine was all black, with red arrow - very classy!! The T-bow (all cool thunderbow jumpers called them a T-bow) opened with the nose - the front pointy end - semi collapsed. You had to get it up to full drive with a quarter brakes. And the T-bow could actually be flown in reverse quite easily and stable. SO whatever you happen to be jumping today, stay fun, keep smiling and be safe. Blue Skies, fergs

Fraser, Wow, what a great video!!! My 14 year old came in to see what all the noise was about - and being the son of a long time jumper has seen every skydiving video under the sun (and is usually indifferent to them). Well on your vid he freaked out just as I had. He's insisting on taking a copy to school to show. So congratulations, a great job and thanks for doing all the hard work putting it together!!! Unfortunately, i have yet to make a wingsuit jump. But I have a GTi on order and am looking forward to jumping it soon. Problem is I live in the middle east and so oportunities to skydive are limited. But we have a mini boogie in early december for 4 days at a DZ in UAE. So I'll bust my boiler to try and make 10 or so jumps a day - all on the GTi. Thanks again for a great video!! fergs

David, OK, learn some swooping - but also make lots of skydives. Try to outdo my total the year I was at the Kanya boogie - 54 in the week. Plus I had time out for diving, sailing and relaxing. The trick is to use the local kenyan military packers - they're great and cheap by european/US standards. If you go on a sunset dhow sailing trip, watch out for the sundowner coctails .... Blue Skies, fergs

My Spectre is my 15th main canopy in the last 28 years. Immediate previous canopy was a Sabre, which I had for 7 or 8 hundred jumps. After around 150 jumps on the Spectre I'm still delighted with it. But all the reports of 600 to 1000' openings certainly aren't the experience I'm having. I've pstcho packed it from jump #1 and every opening is identical ... it comes out of the deployment bag, breaths for an instant, then opens softly and right on heading. 3 to 400' seems to be the distance from pitching the pilot chute to fully inflated. Psycho packing is the only way to go!!! Plus I spend less than half the time as others at DZ's in the packing area - it's a fast pack-job.... I'd describe this canopy as very good at all it does. Would I buy another one? Probably (but I'll have to wait til the present one wears out first!!). Stay safe and learn to Psycho Pack!!! fergs