tfelber

1. I would do my best to save anyone in trouble. 2. I would risk my life to complete #1, but I would not sacrifice myself to do the same. 3. Therefore in support of #2, I could not go below 1500'. That's where the last warning on my two audibles are set and that's where I have to have something over my head. BTW, recognizing that someone is in trouble would be the hard part, hence it is highly unlikely that #1 would happen. Second, not that I want people to start trying it, but from what I've heard and read, a friend of mine was voted Skydiver of the Year in 1996 for just such a heroic act. Here's to you Kevin!!!

The openings are soft as butter and always on heading. My previous canopy, a TurboZX-165, had a fairly long snivel, 800-1000 feet, and then finished quickly. The slider would knock the bumpers down occasionally. The Nitro, I tried the 150 and bought the 135, opens in 400-700 feet but it is nice and smooth and the slider comes down gently. I don't roll the nose or anything. I just release it, push it in a little, quarter the slider and wrap the tail. Packing, this thing is so easy to pack. The material it's made from isn't slippery at all. The Pilot in contrast was a bitch... I tried three times to get it in the bag and finally took it to Packin' Cathy. I actually enjoy packing the Nitro although it packs a little big for a 135. Risers are firm, but stable. No twitchyness. When you pull them down be sure you have plenty of altitude because the Nitro seems very ground hungry. The recovery from a front riser turn is fairly quick and the canopy returns to level flight with little input. The toggles are probably the best feature of this canopy. Pull one down and it will whip you around very quickly. Pull them both down and it flattens out. I haven't tried real hard but it doesn't feel like it will stall. You pull them down and it just flattens out and stays stable. Full flare is about shoulder level with more if you need it. Landings, I jumped all the 150's at Rantoul prior to trying the Nitro 135. It really feels like a 150 when you put on the breaks. The first jump on it I was a little worried because it was the smallest canopy I had flown. As I came through 15-20 feet I felt like I was really moving fast. I kept my head, pulled the toggles, and the canopy planed out and stopped. I took a couple of steps at most. I was sold after one jump. I now have about 17 jumps on it and every time I get to the ground I tell everyone how much I like this canopy. I had my first downwinder two weeks ago and I was haulin'. I pulled on the toggles and the canopy planed out but was still moving quite fast. I surfed it along for about 40 yards and finally went to my butt to try and stay on the grass. I'm sure if I tried it again I could stand it up, I just got a little nervous. I've done a couple of avoidance turns on approach without any issues. I can feel the speed increase as I turn using toggles, but haven't felt out of control at all. Saturday I had a long spot and wasn't sure I would make it back. I kept looking for alternate landing areas but actually made it all the back, landing into the wind. I can't wait to get into a canopy course so I can further understand the capabilities of this remarkable canopy. What else can I say...the Nitro 135 is one great canopy!

To see all my friends...

But this has nothing to do with how fast a person can see something. Reaction time is once you see it how quickly can you respond. Once the image hits your retina, the object is recognized by your brain, your brain tells your muscles to move your finger to push the button, your muscles react, and your finger pushes the button. From an article in StagingLight (a Drag Racing eZine) "Beard's Reaction Time Clinic" "Through experimentation, both in my college physics lab, and with the practice tree, I have determined that human reaction time is roughly .21 seconds, plus or minus several hundredths for individual differences, and human inconsistency." I'm sure there are hundreds more studies in this area... .02 seconds is not reaction time it is how well did I guess at when the light would change. And for this simulation if you just keep pressing the button you can get a very low average.

That is one problem I saw with this test...there's no penalty if you press it early! If it is pressed before the change it should generat a No Result for that attempt.

I got a .01 once and a .02 twice, but that was more guessing when it would light rather than responding to the light... When I waited on the green to show it was .26 consistently...

Male 40 .26

I heard on CNN that the reason for no second medal is because the protest was not filed in time... Well if the protest was not files there would be no discussion AND since the protest wasn't filed in time the point is mute. If you comitted a felony punishable by 4 years in prison yet the statute of limitations had run out before you were found would you go ahead and do the 4 years??? The rules are setup to deal with something like this. Live by the rules or change them!!!

How about a fastest belly flyer contest? With all the hype around hybrids and such we need to find out who can hang. I did about 20 hybrids at WFFC some of them with me flying solo and no hangers. I think I might be the first FF videographer on my belly. Not to mention, it would be a great way for me to find some RW partners...

I am far from a canopy flying expert but I understand your delima. I bought a TurboZX-165 at jump number 120 and I was loading it at 1.37. I had primarily flown a PD-190 prior to that so it was quite a change. Although I found the 165 fairly easy to fly and land, I felt there wasn't enough brakes to slow it down. For the most part I stood up the landing with a few steps, however the few times I got myself in trouble; downwinders or cutoff on approach it was pretty scary. Also when I didn't jump for a couple of months due to various circumstances the landings seemed very fast. Probably the most important thing I've learned about landings so far is NEVER stop flying the canopy. The few times I've been injured; sprained foot, twisted knee, etc. were due to not controlling the canopy until I was standing still. I have just recently taken another giant step. I purchased a new Nitro 135, which I am loading at 1.75, and I just broke 300 jumps at Rantoul. While it is a very aggressive canopy and sometimes I find myself coming in very fast I never stop flying it and I'm really enjoying it. I downwinded it last weekend with about 10 jumps on it, following the first person down's approach in the main landing area at Perris, and there was some apprehension, but no fear. I pulled on the toggles and slid along the ground probably 40 yards/meters and ending up sliding on my butt to slow it down a little quicker. I was excited about trying it again to see if I could stand it up! However, a friend of mine, who jumps every couple of months is loading his Hornet 190 at about 1.25 with 130 jumps, and consistently has problems with his landings. I think part of his problem is depth perception. The other is currency. And finally the wing loading must weigh in. An improvement in any of these areas and I'm sure he would stand up almost every landing. A brief comment on my related experience. I roadraced motorcyles for 8 years and I am very experienced with making subtle changes lap after lap to decrease the time it takes to get around a race track. Racing like skydiving is done very much by the seat of your pants. The smaller change you can make the closer to the limit you can get without crossing over. Under a larger canopy the same input will result in less of a change allowing you to build this muscle in smaller steps.

My wife and I will be in Phoenix this weekend, would you like to hook up Saturday or something? We're going to the Cardinal/Raiders game on Sunday if you're interested. BTW, did you know you two got engaged on my birthday...

Such a shame!!! Condolences to all she touched.

He was on the staff page of your website last time I checked, maybe I miss understood. He has been one hell of a marketing person for you guys whether he was on the payroll or not.

One of the reasons I was coming out was to hang out with my friends from Rantoul last year that didn't make it this year.

I'm not sure from reading the posts regarding Adria incident or from talking with the people that were at the DZ when it happened if she had ever attempted anything more than possibly a 90 degree approach.

Some of the people at the DZ said that she had intended to perform a 270 degree turn prior to getting on the load. They also said that she had not been practice high performance landings and they seemed quite shocked that she had attempted it. This may all be hearsay, but it was more than just a couple of people that mentioned it. For your other question. Prior to the converstion started in the incident forum regarding front riser vs. toggle turns if I was going to try even a 90 degree approach I would have tried it with toggles first for several reasons: 1. I have much more experience using toggles to control the parachute than risers. 2. As I mentioned in a previous post, I felt the recovery from a toggle turn was much more gradual and controllable. 3. Front riser turns seem to be much more ground hungry because I'm pulling the leading edge of the canopy down rather than letting resistance on a corner of the trailing edge induce the turn. 4. Front riser turns require much more energy to start and to maintain. So it would be very easy for me to imagine someone, including myself, attempting a high performance landing using toggles rather than risers had they never had the discussion we are having right now. Many of my friends who are well known swoopers have mentioned riser turns for high performance landings but since I never really considered doing one I never asked why. I went about with my bag of assumptions and could have been severly injured had I stuck with those assumptions and tried such a maneuver!

Very good points! I've noticed up high that the recovery from a toggle turn seems very smooth with me easily being able to tell when I'm no longer diving by the sound of the air rushing by, however with no reference to movement I probably forget to pay attention to my body position in relationship to the canopy. I aslo have a tendancy to use the other toggle to decrease the time it takes for me to return to level flight which if done properly would work out great, but there's a lot more room up high than when you start getting close to the ground and small changes can make a big difference.

Thanks Bill, I wasn't sure how to start a new thread without losing a number of people who had input on these maneuvers. From this conversation I now understand two new facts regarding diving turns: 1. Front risers while being more difficult than toggle turns give you full "flarability" because the toggles are not partially used to initiate the turn. 2. With front riser turns your body swings less and the recovery time is therefore less. Combining these two leads me to believe the time necessary to recover from a bad situation is greatly decreased with front riser turns and controllability is greatly increased by having full toggle input available. One person mentioned that in a turn (and I'm sure we're talking extreme turn) I don't really understand this. It seems to me the load on the canopy would actually increase with the momentum which would make the canopy perform more like a fixed wing and therefore respond quicker to pilot input. I haven't experimented with this yet so I have no direct knowledge only theory. Anyone???

Something happened at Rantoul this year (my 3rd year there)... I've turned into a boogie bitch, a dropzone whore, I'm freaking addicted!!! I keep waking up at home thinking I'm in a big tent with my feet in the grass. (Not kidding!) I've downloaded the "Somewhere over the Rainbow" song and can't get moving in the morning 'til I listen to it. My plans: 8/21-22 Perris 9/18-19 Tallahasse's 10 yr bash 10/1-3 1st Annnual MOAB 12/24-1/2 Holday Boogie I need something for November, maybe the Nationals at Perris. Edited to add: I would seek professional help, but I don't want to be cured!!! Edited again: BTW, did I mention I'm selling my Harley to support my addiction? Anybody in the market for a 2000 Road King?

That was my intention. I was wanting to get it to the folks who can make a difference including DonK and Mayor Neil. Can you assist with this Michael?

I've never jumped at Tallahassee, but they were such fun at Rantoul last year I've already booked my flight for this party...

Just got back from Rantoul with the same thought on my mind see the following: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1203217#1203217 Hope it helps. Feel free to PM me if you have more questions.

I here a lot of complaints involving spots. Out of 34 jumps I made, I landed across the landing runway twice (no big deal), On the soccer field once (my fault), 15 miles away (It was a balloon jump), In the spectator area twice (Once intentionally). The rest of the time I landed in the main landing area. I don't see a problem. I know of one group that left the Casa when the door opened (Prior to the green light) can't blame that on the pilots. I went up in everything out there (third year in a row) and I think most people, including myself, that landed out have no one to fault but themselves. Are there things we can change to make it better, you bet, but given the number of A/C flying and the variations of horizontal and vertical speeds I think the pilots and the controllers did one hell of a job. Thank you for your diligence...you probaly saved several people's lives!!!

I told Neil to install some large fans like the ones in Palm Desert and blow those damn clouds away next year. They could even use them to generate electricity the rest of the year.

I spent quite a bit of time with the bar/band guys between PD and Mirage. I don't think they did very well so I can't imagine they would try it again. It's a good idea to keep that activity centralized in the Entertainment/Food area.