parachutist

Tomorrow night's dinner was awesome 1 day in advance. Thanks for the fantastic meal! Chris

Also I suggest putting your rig's data card in a sealed zip-lock bag before swooping the pond, cause some ink's probably going to run and some cards get tattered after wet/dry/wet/dry cycles. Ian: I'm looking forward to reading your post about pond swooping cause I keep drinking the one in Z-hills =p

Hi Ana, I've been scouting for a 160 in good shape, with the correct line set, ... I finally just decided to go ahead & order a new one. With prices that people have been asking for used 160's, it's actually not much more to buy new, & then get whatever color scheme you like. Good luck to your peer whatever he decides :) Chris

Thanks, K! It's been a nice relaxed weekend so far. I'll see you soon =] Chris

Here's a link to a track from The Supervillains: http://www.funjump.com/files/3822427_4be1bdcb.mp3 See you in about an hour

Here are a couple video clips from the Thanksgiving CReW camp in Z-hills: 3-way downplane formation, 7.3 megs. I suggest saving to your system before playing http://www.funjump.com/videos/3way-downplane-zhills-11-26-06.wmv Slightly larger formation, 7.2 megs http://www.funjump.com/videos/crw-zhills-11-26-06.wmv

I thought I was going to get a little more surf out of that Lightning, but no. Into the pond I went. Maybe next time

The really fun part is watching people trying to put them back together =]

I'd say a 16-way broken into 4x 4-ways... then put those 4-ways back together into 2x 8-way boxes What do you think?

Agreed.

This makes me think that you don't yet really understand how a PLF is supposed to work. Your knees are great shock absorbers, but it sounds like you totally bypassed them and went straight to solid body parts. When PLFíng you don't want to try to support yourself with your legs, but use them in the collapsing-to-ground process. They'll take some of that force without breaking anything if done right.

Going by your profile (no jumps listed) I wanted to make sure you're not getting in over your head. Friends of mine have been injured by hard openings, so I encourage using the right gear, packing method, & body position for the intended deployment speed. Chris W

What are you intending to do with this skydiving rig housing a BASE canopy? The setup you're describing with mesh slider, free-stowed lines, and a BASE canopy would be a painful experience if deployed at terminal velocity. Even sub-terminal deployment out of some types of aircraft would hurt. I suggest if you're putting together a skydiving rig, then throw a few more $$ in and get a skydiving parachute to go with it. You can find some big old F111's in the classifieds for cheap. Chris W

And none of the headache-producing strobe effects like you see in the techno swoop DVD's. PD actually shows entire approach, swoop, and landing (or crashing) in portions of these videos. Nicely done Chris

sanity check: who can put aside 3 weeks for that? I certainly can't. 10 days is already a stretch for me. Right now I'm working on the air skills at my home DZ doing RW. When I feel ready then I'll go though one of the 10 day courses.

Here are some still shots from that same boogie at PCB. All of these were taken from a hotel room balcony the diamond coming in for landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030959.jpg http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030960.jpg Kirk & Lynn flying a bi-plane. http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020871.jpg Mike Fedak & myself http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020924.jpg http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020925.jpg both bi-planes coming in for landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5031019.jpg Chris

B-lines are good for: - When you're flying a wing in a formation, keeping the outside of your wing back while you're waiting to get locked up. Once you're locked up you can ease up on the line. Always be ready to go to front riser or quick brake snap if needed though (like if the formation takes a hard hit on the other side and it comes through to you in a wave... in these cases the B line by itself will likely not keep your wing back) B lines are a lot easier on the arms than front risers, and in some cases the B line is more effective because it can actually stall the left side of the canopy briefly. - When you're in echelon (waiting for your slot in the formation) and you're a little high, B line sashays can help you go down to your slot without taking up much space zig-zagging (brake toggle sashays tend to take up more space and descend slower than when using B lines) 2:1 and front risers are good for (I put these in the same category because they both do the same thing - pull on front risers): - Approaching your slot in the formation from above and behind. Front risers increase your descent rate and your forward speed. B lines would increase your descent rate but would slow you down. - When the person aboive you is shaking a leg or yelling "Get Heavy", you should pull one or both front risers (depending on the formation and which slot you're in) so that you can add the weight that the other jumper is looking for. B lines wouldn't be appropriate for this Those are some of the uses I've found so far. Chris

If you can reach above the top of your risers then you don't need any modifications. Just look up at your canopy and follow the left outisde 'B' line with your eyes from its attachment point on the canopy down to the link on your left front riser. Reach up with your left hand and put a few fingers around this line as high as possible and pull out/down. That will make you turn/dive left. You can play with right and left this way to see what effect it has, see if you like it. Pulling down on both at same time makes your canop fly slower forward and sink faster Chris

Any estimate on when that'll be resolved? Chris

"Toggles together" is a good habit, not a crutch. A couple benefits: 1) if you need to PLF then your arms are in close and less likely to get broken. 2) When a low-timer is being distracted by the approaching earth at 10 feet... the hands stay together and the flare is even (instead of reaching for the ground and breaking a wrist) Jumpers can take this good habit and still learn to do braked turns when they're ready Chris

It's not just a matter of the alti being a snag point. If you have lines around your wrist/hand, the alti presents a lump that could easily prevent you from freeing your hand. It's kindof like your thumb though: It's there and it sticks out a bit, but you just need to wiggle it to get it out of the way Chris

I leave at least 18". It's not a problem, as long as you S-fold the extra line into the bottom of the container neatly. Don't try using circles.. they call that the coils-of-death because they cause tension knots... but S-folds work great. With my CRW canopy I only use 1 stow... right by the canopy. The rest of the line is S-folded into a little pocket. No issues. Also your reserve has most of the line S-folded instead of being stowed. S-folds are reliable. And yes, even if you do everything right you may still get a line twist or two sometimes (not very often though, with most canopies). Chris

Russ, I understand the ease of looking down to see the alti... but anytime that I've been in a wrap so far (maybe 4 out of 1200 CRW jumps), at least one of the jumpers involved has been able to use their hands and call out altitudes, So that part hasn't really concerned me as much as the danger of a chest mount causing internal body damage. Different experiences leading to different choices, I guess... I learned after you guys figured out a lot of the do's and don'ts, so most of the potential wraps in my CRW career thus far have been stopped before they developed - either stopped by me or by whoever the other jumper was. Mainly thanks to your CRW generation I haven't been deep in the shit yet. :) Chris

How could you get something caught on this (see photo)? There are no lips for a Dacron line to get under. Do you know of any possible issues with the Neptune hand mount, or are you just going by the standard advice from years back: "no altis on wrist"? As for the sewn-onto-glove method of attachment, I stole that idea from Steve Sassetti. There were 2 of us in the 85-way with that type of Neptune config, and it works well. Worst case scenario with that one: Even if a line got caught under it, the stitches would tear through the plastic and I may lose the Neptune. Oh well. Chris

After the services for Q today I drove to Jumptown to see what his home DZ was like. I was planning to just stop by and see the place, maybe meet some people. Then I started talking to some and watching the airplane and decided I ought to go ahead & jump. The staff at Jumptown had a student rig they let me use.. along with jumpsuit/alti/goggles. Bubbles and I did a 2-way RW jump from the twin otter & had fun. Then some talk started about CRW. I didn't bring a rig or a Lightning, but amazingly the DZ has a Lightning 160. They let me put that into the student rig and four of us did a couple of 2-way fun rotation formations on the sunset load. What a beautiful area around Jumptowm! I enjoyed the seat by the door while the plane was climbing because I could take in the vivid colors of the countryside on the way to altitude. I can see why Q enjoyed the DZ so much. Chris