morris

Thanks a lot!

The lower canopy collapsed on the side of the dock the moment the dock took place, don´t know what caused it. The other side of the canopy kept flying, resulting in ~two fast spins, the upper guys foot still docked. The moment the lower guy was about to cutaway the formation settled back to normal flight and flew pictureperfect - only to realise that the outside A-line had been winded up ~twice around the upper guys ankle. We couldn´t clear that and didn´t like the idea of landing it... What could have caused the collapse? Additional question: Is it important for CRW to have no cascade in the outside A-line (just as the center A-line)? It seems to me to be easier to catch the line if there isn´t a cascade as the angle of the line in relation to the canopy is a different one, closer to the nose of the canopy, easier to reach. Opinions/informations? Final question: Anything special to take care about with stairstepdocks in general? Thanks for any input!

Is it correct that the foot of the upper person catches the outside A-line "coming in" from the front/nose of the canopy, not from the side? We had a nice entanglement yesterday...

"Now the scores are multiplied by 5, divided by 3, and then calculated as a percentage of the best score." Are you sure about this? Because this wouldn´t make sense at all, think about it... can you find the mistake...?

Pia rules! She´s the one!

I just tried to keep it as simple as possible. Of course the higher speed (created by using an RDS or by whatever) will result in more lift. By posting "less lift" (if it comes to downseizing) I was talking about the smaller surface area of the smaller wing, creating less lift at the same given speed. By posting "same lift" (if it comes to using an RDS) I was talking about the same amount of lift at a given (not higher) speed created by the same surface area of the same wing... (as you didn´t downseize, you just added an RDS)...

Hope you´re doing great?! Downseizing: More speed, more dive, less lift. RDS: More speed, more dive, same lift.

Are the risers of the ghost canopy connected to your harness?? Doesn´t look like you are standing "in" the risers, are you??

Does anyone have some pics (or links) of ghostplanes? The link in the "a couple of questions about ghostplanes" thread that showed the nice shots from Denmark isn´t working anymore...

I might be able to give you some input as well even though I´m not loading a given seize as high as Dave does....

Optima

Rickster!

I remember a video of a landing (can´t remember 100% who it was, could have been Stu, very likely someone from Fastrax) with a radar gun being used. The numbers seemed to be very much "jumping" up and down and all over the place like the gun couldn´t deal with the very dynamic and threedimensional type of movement.

Is the trim of the CF steeper? If so, shouldn´t it be flying different?

Hi Saskia, how about a Springo?

Till we get Storms we´ll be trying to compensate for the wrong choice by superior piloting!

Thanks for your fast answer! A few weeks ago we´ve been demoing bigger Storms and loved ´em - but at the moment those canopies are all we got (all our other toys are even way higher loaded). What you are saying about line length makes sense to me, I knew that the problem was caused by not getting air into the nose, I just thought this might be caused by the trim, not the linelength, but you are right for sure. You are saying that it´s easier with the bigger canopy on top. The bigger canopy or the lighter loaded one?? In our configuration the bigger canopy is higher loaded! On the first attempt we had the bigger AND higher loaded canopy on top, on the second attempt we had the smaller and lighter loaded canopy on top. We´ll fly it braked next time! If the front canopy has a lower rate of descent the tendency of the ghost wanting to pop up should be less, right? How much brake input recommended on cut-away? 1/4? 1/2? 3/4?

So yesterday we gave it two tries but none of those worked as intended. First some information about the canopies used. We´ve been flying a Parachute de France Springo 140 loaded 1.7 and a Sabre 120 (1) loaded about 1.5-1.6 (don´t know the exact loading for this one). It might be important to mention that the Springo has a flatter trim than the Sabre. If we are placing the canopies exactly on level in front of each other (in "preparation" of a downplane for example) this isn´t working at all if the flatter trimed canopy is in the back (the canopy will not just behave "like crazy" but even collapse), if the Springo is in the front it flies very stable... In a regular plane it flies smooth not matter which canopy is in the back. 1. On the first attempt I was flying the Springo in the front and we thought I might be a good idea if I would hold on to the center A-lines of the ghost to stay in a more upright bodyposition. After cutting away however this proved to be a bad idea as I kept holding on to the A-lines and by doing so pulled down the center of the nose of the ghostcanopy. (Thinking about it we could have figured this out before.) This resulted in a very(!) wild and bumpy ride and after just a couple of seconds the configuration started to add a serious amount of turn to my excitement (by that time I was already excited enough!) and I did let go off the ghost. 2. On the second attempt we didn´t want to hold on to the A-lines again. Prior to cut-away the pilot of the front canopy was in full flight, no brake input at all, not even the hands on the toggles if I remember correctly, bodypostion neither upright nor horizontal, more or less a "regular" plane (from the point of view of a "nonexpert"). On cutaway the ghost canopy was popping up with very much power! - enough power to send the frontguy into a frontloop through his own lines(!), getting entangled/catching two of the lines with his left foot (left center A and the next front line to the left). His canopy didn´t like this at all and looked pretty bad (pics might be coming soon as we had outside) but fortunatly he was able to clear the lines very fast... Now we need additional advise. Is the choice of canopies wrong? But shouldn´t it be possible with any kind of chute? Would be the right way to do it to hold on to the A-lines by the time of the cut-away and to let go of the A-line the second after? Should the guy who is not cutting away give some brake input? If yes, how much? And just during the cut-away or also later on during the flight?

How do I "release" the ghostcanopy prior to landing with the least risk of an entanglement? Just kick out and hope for the best? We got two reserves here in need for repacks so we might give it two tries on the weekend. Any advice very welcome!

Thanks to everyone at Skydive Houston, the atmosphere and hospitality at your DZ is great! Special thanks to all the helping hands on site, you know who you are! Very special thanks to you, Dave, for making it all happen!

Hans, as there isn´t any video, I´ll describe you how it looked like from my perspective. I´ve been in the main building and thought to myself "Hans is up with the Cessna, let´s have a look". As I went outside spotting the sky I could see you flying the last part of your set-up. To make it all the way to the pond in time for your landing I would have had to run - impossible with the way my foot felt that moment (you know how hard the soil on the other side of the taxiway is, don´t you), so I kept on walking and saw you initiating your turn while I´ve been closing in on the "taxiway-end" of that treeline. During recovery you disappeared from my view due to the trees, I couldn´t see the timed part of your run - but I didn´t miss what this was going to be all about... You flew back into my field of view just after you passed the exit gate at what looked to me like high subsonic speed - I guess we both agree that the runway would have become a problem for granted if you wouldn´t have taken that decision to get this meat missile stopped somehow. From that moment on it looked like some kind of rolling-and-bouncing-triple-somersault hidden in a fast traveling cloud of dust with single arms and legs sticking out of that cloud/being visible once in a while for brief moments - the very best and most extreme single piece of swooping action I´ve ever seen!

How about changing the rules for the 2-way event? 1.Raise the exit altitude and give the competitors a full minute for the first point instead of 30 seconds. Doing so a removable deploymentsystem as used for CanopyPiloting could do the job of removing the bridle and PC. 2.Have two minutes of working time instead of 90 seconds. Doing so (in combination with 1.) could raise the average score of beginner teams quite a lot and therefore be motivating to compete?!

that´s what it was supposed to be

Beat this!

Is mountain-swooping fine ("allowed") as well?