parachutist

Use of rear risers does not slow down your forward speed much at all before the canopy stalls. that's why swoopers land using their rear risers, then transfer to brake toggles. A poster explaining your 3 main canopy controls and their effects: http://www.funjump.com/photos/Canopy_Controls.jpg Chris

FCI's Rage is fun to fly and cheaper than a X-fire 2. I've not flown a X-Fire 2 so I'm unsure how their flight compares. Rage's glide angle is steeper than Stiletto, but not as steep as FX/VX. Also recovery arc is a good bit longer than Stiletto, but shorter than FX/VX loaded similarly. Chris

First off, it says "Bare Minimun exp. suggested" and it's just a rough draft. =] Secondly, if training is mandatory then it will be a moot point because they will have the education. Most people did not attend detailed canopy control classes. Education is what's missing. At jump #200 I attended a week-long canopy control seminar and it worked wonders on my understanding of canopy flight. Most jumpers do not bother to get such training... I believe that making it an integral part of their training will improve things greatly, both for the 300+ and the 1,000+ jumpers. Chris

That's what some are saying. Others, such as myself, are pointing out the fact that many 1,000+ experience jumpers are hooking it into the ground, trees, buildings, and other jumpers. To me, this means that it's not as simple as setting a scale for wing loading. People need to be taught how to fly a canopy and how to land it as safely as possible under any circumstances. I've always thought it would be a good idea to add an intentional off landing to the AFF course... if a Farmer McFriendly could be located nearby. Force people to learn how to identify fences and power lines from high altitude and force them to learn how to deal with surprises at low altitudes. Seeing it on paper in a classroom is completely different from seeing it while you're descending toward it =] I lean toward the idea of a mandatory canopy control course, with no wing loading restrictions imposed. After someone attends such a course and is made aware of the risks involved with highly loaded canopies... that person will have been provided with the pertinent information. I believe that people who choose to ignore this info at 200 jumps are the same people who will disregard it after 500. So the wing loading restriction idea appears to me to be unnecessary red tape. I think it would be better to teach people from jump #1, rather than sit on them til they got a 'D' license. I think recommended wing loading is a good idea, but it doesn't need to be a BSR. I think a simple chart, such as the one listed below, published in the next USPA SIM would be sufficient: http://www.funjump.com/photos/Wing_Load_Chart.jpg Chris

It was pretty much fully recovered. I was a bit cross wind and it recovered HARD because of the stiff wind. Then I got into the "Bermuda Triangle" as they call it here and got sucked into the ground. This does sound like typical pendulum effect scenario: recover from a dive high and then canopy must fly downward again, whether just by letting it fly or by getting into front risers. Your body has swung forward under the canopy as it recovered; then as you start to dive again your body begins to swing back, but the canopy isn't really in a dive yet. You get little flare at this point, whether you're in clean or turbulent air.. try it up high. If the problem you experienced was only turbulence, then usually you will feel bumps. With the issue I described above you really don't get any bumps until you hit the ground, and that's more like a *thud* =] Chris

This part makes me wonder if you may have experienced the pendulum effect instead of turbulence: did the canopy start to plane out when you bled off some speed? If you come out of a diving turn high, and then try to go back into a dive, you'll have a brief period of time during which the canopy has negligible flare. Here's a poster I made up describing some sources of turbulence: http://www.funjump.com/photos/Turbulence_Diagram.jpg Chris

Nathaniel is being logical here, not foolish. He's pointing out the fact that you should be providing data to back up your claims. Jumpers with 10x Nathaniel's experience have pounded in hard.... recently. The numbers don't mean wisdom and he's right to look for more evidence than "I have more jumps than you". Chris

Ditto. I flew 2,500 miles a couple years ago to attend one of Team Extreme's swoop seminars and it was well worth the travel. Chris

Your 1.3 max wing loading for a C License holder is also unreasonably low. That is your definition of a fact? Does the fabric envelop them and suffocate them to death? Make some sense with your statements please. A more realitsic sentence would read: "People who make poor decisions while flying canopies of any size can easily kill themselves." This is a more factual statement. Chris

You might try calling Skydive Atlanta... they put together a coach course whenever several people are interested. Chris

Well there are Stacks and there are Planes. For a Stack, obviously there is no need to use cross connectors because your feet will not be anywhere near the cross connectors (mounted at top of risers). In a stack, your feet will be up at the area where suspension lines connect to the canopy. For a Plane your feet will be down at the level of the slider (of the person who docked on you). In this case, cross connectors are useful because you can just hook your feet under them and you will remain in place. If you did not have cross connectors while piloting a bi-plane, and you make a turn, you will de-plane (the bottom person will get slung out away from you). In a Plane, if the person below you is holding onto your feet, then it simulates cross connectors... the bottom person can hold you in place. This works great for small Planes (Bi-planes, Tri-planes) but there is a problem with this idea when you get several canopies into a Plane: You want the participants of the Plane to be able to use their controls. If their hands are busy holding onto the feet of the people above them, then they will not be able to use their controls. So in this case cross connectors are very useful. Chris

>How are the openings Soft and more squirelly than Xaos-21... it wants to turn >flight Very easy to fly, very predictable. shorter recovery arc than FX, VX, Xaos-21 >glide shallow glide... easy to get back from a long spot even when heavily loaded >riser pressure light front riser pressure, rear riser pressure is average >landings Landings are easy for straight-in approach with no riser input, or for high performance landings. Plenty of flare is available. >What are you loading them at 2.45

I discovered last week that they are not really skydiving friendly... I bought a Rider's Rage helmet and used it for the mandatory helmet rule at Panama City Beach swoop competition. When nearing terminal velocity while wearing a Rider's Rage helmet, it would start lifting and rolling back (even when chin strap is pretty tight). I asked a couple people if this was a standard issue and one told me that Jay had modified his, adding a chin cup. It sounds like a good fix idea, but I haven't tried it yet. Chris

You can learn a great deal about canopy flight doing CReW, and I have some CReW canopies out at Thomaston, ready to use. If you want to try it out, just send me an e-mail and we can schedule a day for it. CReW is a good prerequisite to high performance landings because it can teach you how to use all of your main controls (front risers, rear risers, brake toggles). Also you will learn to understand a stall... how to stall your canopy intentionally and how to avoid stalling it when you need it to fly. Chris

Ok, I didn't realize there had been more than 1, most of the time I was busy getting onto a load. Ok, the announcer was saying they'd cut away, I was wondering what sort of harness they were using. A Summit security guard told me that 2 people had jumped off the crane next door to the Summit (not next to the Spinnaker) & subsequently got evicted from the hotel. Was this a different BASE jump he was telling me about, or the same one? Chris

Just wondering if anyone got some video of this demo that they could post online: Some friends and I were hanging out at the PCB manifest, waiting for the bus call... and the announcer says basically: "Two guys are going to cut away from a parasail as it flies by the Spinnaker, and they're going to deploy their parachutes". Sure enough, the parasail comes by in front of the Spinnaker, being pulled by a boat, (not very high... maybe 500 ft.?) and we see one guy deploy his PC, then his chute comes out of the bag and inflates... then he cuts away from the parasail. There was one more guy attached to that parasail and he cut away, flipped & rolled a little it looked like... then deployed his PC. It looked like his canopy was fully inflated at about 100 ft above the water. Quite a show. If anyone has video they could post, please do. Chris

I don't think the word "solid" describes a Gath helmet very well. It's a thin piece of plastic. It'll help keep your hair from getting blown around and it'll probably cut down on wind noise a bit... but when that helmet hits soemthing solid, it will protect your head about as well as a cardboard box would. read some reviews here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/gear/review.cgi?ID=137 Chris

Track 1 off this album: http://membres.lycos.fr/luke2/lyrics/depeche_music.html Chris W

By the way, here's a pic of you swooping the course during the PCB 2003 Advanced class comp, Ramon: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P4290760.jpg Chris

It was a great weekend at PCB with several CReW Dogs. My girlfriend, Barbara, took pictures from our hotel room balcony as the Dogs flew formations in front of the hotel. Click on the links below to view the photos. Our packing area on the hotel lawn: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020869.jpg Kirk VanZandt and Lyn Hannah flying a Bi-Plane formation in front of hotel window: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020871.jpg Mike Paolin piloting a 3-stack that's carrying Keith MacBeth as a drag plane: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020914.jpg Mike Fedak and Chris Warnock flying a Bi-Plane formation in front of hotel window: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020924.jpg Mike Fedak and Chris Warnock breaking the formation to land: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5020925.jpg Mike Paolin piloting a 4-way diamond with Kevin Keenan, Eric French, and Bill Clement, about 75 ft above the beach, Bryan Scott trailing shooting video: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030959.jpg Mike Paolin's 4-way breaking down for landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030960.jpg PD's 4-way high performance canopy pilots doing a show for the crowd at low altitude, with completed 8-way CRW Box seen high above in the background: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030989.jpg PD's 4-way team completing their maneuver and landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5030990.jpg VanZandt/Hannah and Fedak/Warnock Bi-planes coming in for landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5031019.jpg Mike Paolin bringing the same group in for yet another 4-way diamond landing: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5031020.jpg VanZandt/Hannah Bi-Plane as seen from below: http://www.funjump.com/photos/PCB_2003/P5041033.jpg

Nah, I'll just adapt =] Last night they announced the Pro meet results at the Spinnaker, but I missed most of that (dinner), and I could not find a printed list, so I do not have the results for you... sorry =\ Chris

I'm down here at PCB right now, we're currently on weather hold. I don't think any Pro scores from any events have been posted yet... I was told they were waiting til all rounds were complete before posting those, so hopefully they'll be up by tomorrow morning & I'll relay those. As far as the advanced class scoring is concerned, the only other 2 placing results I know of are Anders and myself tied for #8, so: Advanced results 1. Danny Koons (kicked ass) 2. Mike Meyers (also kicked ass) 3. Luther Kurtz 4. Ramon Rionda (me) 5. Kyle ???? 6. Diveout from DZ com 7. ------ 8. Chris Warnock 8. Anders It was good to meet you & compete with you Ramon, congrats on scoring so well. There were some talented canopy pilots in this meet

Chrest strap is a great place for it: It's at center of your body so if you have a broken arm, if one arm is tied up in lines, or if one hand is holding trim to stop you from spinning... you can still reach that knife easily with the other hand. And then if both arms are broken you can reach it with your teeth and slash those lines (ok maybe that's taking it a bit too far... heh.. might look good on video for an escapist scenario though) Chris

Different types of line cause different amounts of drag. Dacron (thick line) produces a good bit more drag than Spectra (smaller diameter line), and Spectra produces more drag than HMA (really thin lines). So flight performance of the canopy is affected by how much drag its lines are creating during flight. Chris

Disadvantages I have experienced with Velcro: 1) Velcro has prickly parts that grab onto material other than just velcro and this means that over time Velcro will end up tearing fabrics and lines that touch it. So your rig ends up having "hairy" parts where the velcro was rubbing it. 2) Velcro wears out fast. If you have velcro tabs on your riser covers, those velcro pieces will need to be replaced every 100 jumps, or fewer. Advantages to velcro: 1) It's quick and easy Chris