faulknerwn

Great page. Lots of people don't believe me when I talk about the safety features of the racers. Fashion over function :)

I wouldn't do a full-blown stall but max flare couldn't make it worse..

I think that if I ended up in a downplane so stupid low I couldn't cutaway, I would try to do a deep flare on one of the canopies to drag plane the other. I suspect that that descent rate would be slower than a drag plane. Obviously prevention, and cutting away are better solutions...

Here's a picture of what my additional 3-rings look like. It was done by Jumpshack.

Use the separable d-rings that Paragear sells. The loop to insert them through is permanent, but you can just take the d-rings out when not doing intentional cutaways. That's how my rigs are set up.

I would never advise trying to land a downplane. Ouch! That being said about ten years ago I did a solo downplane on a tertiary-cutaway rig. I downplaned a triathlon 99 and a lightning 113. I can say that the camera guy ( loaded at 1.3?) didnt have the slightest problem staying with me when both sets of brakes were stowed. The descent rate wasn't too crazy. Once brakes were unstowed however, I left him in the dust and sped up incredibly....

I agree on the Racer risers. They are bulletproof. I experimented 10 or so years ago with not setting the brakes on my CRW canopy to see if it opened softer. Despite being a tail-pocket canopy, the openings were slow with line twists every time. I got tired of kicking and went back to stowing my brakes. As far as Firebolts - they open s slow I wouldn't want to slow them down anymore!!!!

Jumpshack modified a few of my rigs with an extra loop in the webbing right below the 'real' 3 ring. I put a separable d-ring in there. I have a simple soft-housing setup which runs from the 2nd 3-rings to a cutaway handle that is on the chest strap. I exit facing the tail with the first main in a d-bag and toss the pilot chute and launch the bag straight out. I've probably done a hundred jumps like this and it works well.

Apple makes a book writing app for the Macintosh and I believe it's free. You can then electronic publish it. You can also sell e books on amazon. Paperback copies are a bit harder.

The best thing I ever did when I was young and skinny was buy some weights. RW went from frustratingly hard to easy in one jump. I know longer had to bend in half just to be able to stay with anyone and then I couldn't move. I learned so much faster and progressed so much faster once I wore the weights and could actually fly relative to people. It was hopeless before that. You should learn how to do RW before you learn to freefly and there are a thousand threads on here about the reasons why.

I agree. I do think people need to make sure and plan procedures for their specific gear. If you have an rsl plan to disconnect it if you have 2-out or are landing in water. If you have a skyhook and have a reserve pc out with a good main for whatever reason ( low pull/aad fire, reserve container ripped after a hard opening, knocked a pin loose on exit or whatever - your procedures might should be different than someone without one. I bet 75 percent of people out there might have never considered how they might should change their plans depending on their particular gear. Know your gear intimately. I'm not saying a skyhook is bad. I'm not saying an rsl is bad. I am saying that in certain situations you need to have different procedures if you have one than if you don't. And the time to think all of that stuff through is on the ground and talking to your rigger and your instructors and learning your gear. The skyhook is a reasonably complicated setup. If you have one and have never seen how it works get your rigger to show you at your next reserve repack at the latest. Understand the pros the cons and learn as much as you can about it both good and bad. Then think about all the possible malfunctions and issues and come up with a plan on the ground. The last place you want to be having to improvise is at a 1000 feet in a sketchy situation after a low pull. Have a plan. Know your gear. So many skydivers have no clue how their gear works. And that can kill you. KNOW YOUR GEAR.

In both cases however, if the people involved had had a standard RSL and not a skyhook, it would have been a non-event which most likely never would have shown up in these forums. People need to read those threads and understand that. Skyhooks can and probably already have saved lives. But the kid in Chicago is alive through sheer luck and it would have been a non-event if he had had a regular RSL. That's what scares me. People should read those threads and learn. Some may still choose to get a Skyhook and some may not. But to me it's critical that you understand all the issues. And things like if I had a skyhook and accidentally pulled low and had an AAD fire to make me tow a reserve pc behind my good main - I'm not sure whether the best plan would be to try and get good grips on my reserve pc to make sure my main doesn't accidentally get disconnected or whether I should cutaway and hope the skyhook gets my reserve to come out in time. Somehow I would want to make extremely certain that the Collins lanyard doesn't turn my main into junk 200 feet off the ground like it did for the Chicago kid. I haven't thought about what to do because I don't have one, but its far more important to come up with a plan for that if you have a Skyhook than if you don't. What can possibly happen is different with a skyhook than a regular rig.

I absolutely love my t4i. Does great in low light.

These 2 threads talk about how a skyhook can screw up a good main. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3331658;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4114143;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread In both cases the Collins lanyard disconnected a main riser. Skyhooks are a far more complicated system than an RSL

Especially with everyone having a crazy snaggable go-pro these days - having several feet of loose line flopping around in your burble can be a very scary thing. I usually leave about 12 inches excess when I pack ( with double stowed lines ) and its been a couple thousand jumps since I last had a line twist. I remember bill booth posting on these forums a couple years ago about all the dangers of leaving a lot of excess lines and the history of why everyone stopped doing that from the free stowed lines days.

I'd agree with that. I made over twice my current salary at a job in the high-tech industry. I skydive now for a living. I could pretty easily get a job again in the 'real world' for 20-50k more than I am making now. Yet I'm still living in a trailer on the dz. I don't particularly want to go back to the 'real world'. If I get injured or physically can't skydive any more, I'll go get a real job with a 401k and health insurance. But I am not in any rush to do so. Quality of life ...

Mine has been working fine for years. Went to the shop once after getting yanked off my feet and slammed into the ground on a high wind day and it broke into 3 pieces! Canon fixed it for $100 and it has continued working fine...

When soft links first came out they were mainly made by riggers in the field and couldn't be take off easily without a pair of scissors. Pd came out with a product that could be taken off and put back on reasonably easily. I suspect Thad where the reusable came from - they are in comparison to the ones originally made which were much more permanent.

How are you testing the launch? Having it on the floor, facing up, or on your back launching horizontally? How are you measuring the pull forces?

That's weird. And I'm surprised they would build a rig for a 181 in a container they list for a 160. And I am 95 percent sure I saw a Tempo 190 on a packing data card I looked at last week.

I had snapshot for about 2 months and then they had me send it back. They cut 30 percent off of my insurance costs. I didn't drive much and not much late at night so it saved me quite a bit. And it doesn't stay there permanently - just a month or two and then you ship it back.

Are you sure about that size? The wings sizing chart here http://www.garlyn.co.nz/wings/Wingsizingchart2.html says that a 12 would be nowhere near as big as yours. What would seem correct from that chart is a w19 The wings w14 on their stock list only holds a 190/176 combo as well - which makes it seem that a size 12 is a bit off. Quite likely because it is an older raven - it probably will have Dacron lines. If so they pack larger than a modern reserve with spectra. So that adds space as well. I would be surprised if a raven 1 181 with Dacron lines didn't have a similar pack volume to a 190 optimum or smart. You wrote in your last post that wings told you 173 which doesn't make sense - it would either be pd 176 or 193. I know the optimums pack smaller than the regular pd reserve, but so do smarts and firebolts. You might also could find a used tempo 190 that would fit in there as well. A 1.1 wingloading on a reserve is not outrageous. They are designed to be more docile than mains and you would most likely find it quite a bit more sluggish than your Pilot if you jump it. Also remember that most likely ( not 100% but most likely) you will have ditched your main when you use the reserve and that will lose 7-8 pounds.

Normally for crw canopies the center 2 lines and sometimes the outside 2 lines are non-cascaded. The rest of the a lines are the same as normal. You are correct in that it does just add a couple of extra lines on the front risers.

I suspect that's its because someone would have to do some additional measuring to figure out the correct b line length. Every triathlon I reline I get Dacron crw lines on and no one blinks an eye. But they already know the measurements for that. You probably can get a Dacron line set with standard cascaded lines without a problem.

Woohoo!