Rebecca-Berlin

April 2009

Hello Riggers, Can someone tell me when my reserve expires? Reserve: TEMPO 150, DOM 4.96, 0 jumps Thanks!

Please post a pic of your new Symbiosis suit when you get it and let us know if you are happy with it! I don't know anyone in Germany with a Symbiosis suit.

Thanks, everyone. Right now our team is going through some personnel changes, but as soon as it is clear who is staying and who is going, then I will know who has the fastest fall rate and can check their body position (assuming that that person will join me in the tunnel or that next season we will have a camera man willing to fly level with us once, for this purpose). Since the skydive season in Germany is slowly coming to an end, all freefly questions will be mutating into tunnel questions during the winter months. So I may not be able to determine our optimal fall rate until next spring. But at least now I have a lot of information to pass on to the team mate who always says "Arch! Arch!" before boarding the plane.

@coticj: So what did you end up getting?

Wow! So we need to be 16 mph faster! In kmh that's 25, bringing our desired speed up to 207 kmh. Woohoo!

Does anyone know what fall rate the top teams have?

I use a ProTrack in my helmet. I never thought about asking each team member to show me their ProTrack after the dive, but I assume we would each have the same speed on it.

My 4-way team is averaging 192 kmh. Is this a good fall rate? Our Center Out seems to think this is too slow, but I'm good with it.

First of all, I have to admit, that I, too, put on my booties BEFORE walking to the plane. And since my Bevsuit Booties have no side zippers, I also land with them on and then walk back through the grass and sledge and dirt. So the thin leather bottoms did not last long. I now have a second (cotton-front) jumpsuit from Rainbow and am on the verge of ordering a third jumpsuit from Tony Suits (new team, new colors), but I think I will still send back my original Bev Suit to get the booties redone. Fourty dollars is a good deal. Some of the spandex looks worse for wear too. I like my Bev Suit colors and it is my fast (nylon-front) jumpsuit for flying in the base of big-ways. Thanks for all the advice!!!

Wow, my Bevsuit booties are falling apart too. I thought I would have to chuck the suit altogether. Can I really just send it back in to get re-bootied? Also my Bevsuit booties don't have zippers, as do my new Rainbow suit booties. Can Bevsuit redo the booties and add zippers? How much does this cost? (Am attaching pic of my 3-year old Bevsuit)

We had our final 16-way PAC training of the year last weekend. 2 of the three ladies on the team are now floaters. We have 4 floaters and our camera-person outside and the other 12 inside. Now that I have a floater position, I basically just back off, wait for the base to stop funneling, then dock on (no cartwheels). Since I am not the coach, I don't think it is my job to tell the divers to exit parallel to the wing instead of down and left. But the concept is spot on. There is a lot of (frantic) pushing from the inside, to get out as fast as possible. We think that is what is destabilizing the base, which is made up of four bulky experienced skydivers. 4 lined-up divers had major bruises on thighs and calves (calfs?) at the end of the weekend. After shuffeling forward, they weren't able to make the last step to dive out, and slammed into the floor/bottom door edge instead. Also, we broke off training Sunday at noon due to rain. Next spring the adventure continues.

Nope I'm the one in blue and yellow. But that does look odd at the door, doesn't it?

Great Pics! Here's another one.. Photo by Mirko Schmidt

Here are 2 pics from our last training. The aerial photographer was Mirko Schmidt.

Hi feeble mind, Yes, last week when up high i practiced flaring more than once with each canopy. I found the stall point was way later on the bigger ones. But, as I said, right now I can only practice the flares and stalls on the Quadra V-Tec, which I will be flying till the season is over in October. I have not done any hop-n-pops with Pilots. But I think I will begin next season with hop-n-pops and flare evaluation. It is too late now to contact the mfg about demoing a pilot next week at the RW course. And my favorite rigger (el duderino) gives a canopy course at the beginning of each season, so I will make a point to travel to his dropzone in April and talk to him about all this and let him watch me land. He usually films all landings and talks to the students about what he/they see. @jakee: I am sorry that what I say sounds scary. I am trying to be safe. But I do notice that here in Germany there seems to be a lot less canopy demoing then in the US. The rigger at the DZ I am going to next week said Aerodyne was "there" July 12/13 and will be "there" again August 30/31 (I am at a competition elsewhere then). So I guess Aerodyne doesn't just send the canopies, they send a dealer who brings the canopies and talks about them. I think they tend to pick events where there will be lots of jumpers at one time. On Aug 30/31 there is a 16 way competition.

Well, it turns out they have no demo canopies at the dropzone where I'll be taking the RW course next week. The rigger only has 2 canopies for sale, a 132 and 120, which are far too small for me. That means that the rest of the season I'll be jumping the Quadra V-Tec 190. I can play around with different flare speeds on that. Or I can rent a Pilot 188 or 168 at my home dropzone to try them out more extensively, but it is a little expensive, as you pay per jump. Basically I will be buying a canopy that I haven't jumped much at all. I guess if I hate it once I get it, I could just try to resell it and buy one from another company (Sabre, Spectre, Safire, Lotus, Nrg, Silhouette). But I am hopeful that I will love the Pilot. I think that once the Pilot actually arrives, I should just sign up for a canopy control course and learn to get the most out of it.

I did a canopy course last year where the teacher taught us to keep the toggles all the way as of about 70 meters, count to 5 and then slowly flare all the way down to the knees. I would be guessing that the low flare point on the Pilot means that the flare needs to be faster, of course this runs the risk that the full brake point may be a few feet above ground if the flare is too soon.

Our DZ just bought the PAC this year, replacing a rented Cessna Caravan. I don't think they'll be buying a new airplane again soon.

I sooo agree. I hope to stay as the rear floater in this team. With 3 floaters in front of me there is virtually no wind, and I have lots of time to get a strong grip with my right hand, put my right foot in the little tiny spot left for me in the door and hang low till the set-up is ready to jump. I talked to the girl whose ear cartilage was ripped on the exit (she is on antibiotics till it heals) and she thinks she'll be ok if she is the front diver in the second row. She is buying a full-face helmet now. We think the divers behind us may have pushed us to the left. If the back of the plane jolted upwards after the first 7 jumped then we would have been thrown to the right. But our pilot is great and I don't think he went into a dive as we exited. By the way, I got the numbers wrong. There is only enough space for 2 divers, not 3, in the PAC. So it's 4 out the door (plus video), 2 divers in the first row, 2 in the second, and 8 lined up behind us to run out single file. I have heard a few stories now about dislocated shoulders on bigways. I think 16 will be my limit for awhile.

Lots of points to respond to. First of all, yes, I should have done more jumps on each canopy. Saturday I did 3 jumps on the Quadra then one on the Pilot 168. Sunday I did 3 on the Pilot 168, then one on the Pilot 188 then one on the Quadra. So I guess I should have just stayed with one canopy for the entire day on each day. I am doing a week-long RW camp next week and could ask the rigger there if he has demos I can try out. I did do practice flares on each while at about 700 meters up, and I did 360 turns and measured the descent on each turn. The Quadra took the longest, then the Pilot 188 and the snappiest was the 168. I guess I didn't quite get the flare points right on the pilots. But the Quadra flare point was all the way down at the bottom. (I actually asked the rigger if the lines were longer because the jumper who owned the Quadra was tall and I am short.) About the opening altitude question, that is a problem. I had gotten used to pulling higher because the Safire took so long to open. I swear both Pilots and the Quadra opened faster, which I liked. It makes me feel safe. The coach said if I don't track far enough and open at 1100 meters, then someone might be tracking above me while my canopy is opening, just because there are 15 others tracking at the same time. He wants me to track farther and open at 900 so as not to endanger the others on the team, which I understand. On the other hand my ex-AFF teacher warns me to have the canopy open at 900 so I can decide by 800 if I want to cut away and then do the actual cutaway by 500 meters if there is a malfunction. I guess the 16-way coach and the AFF teacher haven't talked to each other about this issue.

When I said 8 at the door I meant 5 floaters and 3 divers.

We did 9 jumps with 16 divers and a video man this weekend. One jump we even had 16 divers and 2 cameramen (but the plane was so packed full no one could fasten their seat belts because we could not move.) For some reason on Saturday, no one got hurt going out the door, but on Sunday it seemed like after the initial exit of the 8 at the door the plane must have bounced up, leaving the 2 next divers to be rammed to the left as the last 7 ran past and dove out. The line-up was five floaters, including the video man, 3 divers in the first row, 2 in the second and the rest madly running out one by one. This is the second weekend of 16-way training with the pac. The first was in June and the next one will be in September. After being thrown against the door yesterday, today my left shoulder hurts and I can't turn my head to the right. The girl whose ear split open during her collison with the door then changed from a leather cap to a full-face helmet for the next dive, but called it quits at 4 pm, because of the trauma.

METERS!! not feet

After 2 days of training 16-way jumps out of a PAC 750XL, I now sit at home with a pack of frozen french fries pressed against my neck. I was thrown against the left side of the door during an exit and now have a huge red swollen lump under my left ear where my neck connected with the plastic door guard. I paused, stunned after this happened and the next diver shoved my right shoulder forward to send me spinning out. Even though I thought my neck was bleeding I still managed to find the base, and dock on for one point. After this jump I changed from front diver in the second row to rear floater and did much better. But the girl who was rear diver was thrown against the door and tore her left ear. It hurt so much she did not exit, but rather stayed in the plane with the pilot and landed bleeding profusely. She thought she may have hurt her ear-drum, which she luckily didn't. Has anyone out there successfully done 16-way training out of a PAC 750XL? If so, what is your exit line-up?