davelepka

I've seen a rare, giant white idiot running around my neighborhood. Does that count?

Fuck your plans. You want a plan? Jump what you have, and learn to fly a fast, fun parachute (your ceossfire). You spent enough time getting your hands on one, now just fly the thing, and stop thinking about other canopies. Jump the x-fire until your good at it. When you can land it upwind and downwind, straight in or with a swoop, and you always end up where you want to be, and setting down softly. Thats every jump. When you can do that 200 or 300 times in a row, THEN, see what out there, and demo some stuff. Your skills and perceptions at that tiem will be far different than they are now. Add to that any new canopies or line trims that will come out between nwo and then, and you can see how much of your time you're wasting. Spend it jumping. The money that you can lose on canopies? Spend that jumping as well.

By who? Someone with experience jumping with swoop cords and wings? Keep your brakes stowed until you're ready to give your full attention to flying your canopy. Otherwise, keep them stowed, and your canopy flying slow while you monkey with your jumpsuit. As someone pointed out, make sure you unstow them above decision altitude in case you have a stuck toggle or whatever.

What's your deal? Are you trying to keep things light, simple and low profile? You've got alot to learn....

Hey, go with the flow. Really. Don't buck the system, or think that you're special. If you're that special, you'll be jumping for the rest of your life, and end up with 20,000 jumps. We'll all see how special you are in time. Skydivers are generally not easy to corral, or easy to keep out of trouble. On the odd chance that most jumpers agree that something is a bad idea, what you have on your hands is a genuine bad idea. Besides, if you should end up maimed or in a wheelchair for the rest of your life, how stupid will you feel then?

Maybe so, but she makes a good pot roast. Be sure to thank her for me.

Get a Sabre2 120, be careful and have fun.

I think about this one all the time, and I can't figure out any way to make it work that's not crazy complicated, and has at least 100 ways to fail. Oh, and getting an adjustable angle of attack to survive an opening is another trick. I think it will take some new riser technology at the minnimum. Addtionally, handling and stall characteristics will vary along with the angle of attack, so the learnign curve should be fun for the first couple of years. Overall though, if you could maintain the shape of the entire wing, and dial out some angle to get back from a long spot, crank it back up for a steep dive and approach, and the flatten it out again for the swoop, you could way fast and way far.

Thats the one, right there. That's the real next step.

I was on parents laptop (its a Dell), and when I was online, the text was all too huge to fit on the page the way it's supposed to. So I did the trick with holding Ctrl, and scrolling the mouse, and it resized nicely. The problem was, that when I went to another page, the text was big again, and then on another page, the text was even smaller then I had set it for. What's the deal?

I'm not even sure they need replacing when I get a reline, I just do it. I still have the old ones, and they look fine. I would use them on another canopy, or as a replacement if I needed it and there wasn't a new set laying around. I been jumping Slinks since they first came out, and have never had any issues at all. Truthfully, writing this post is the most thought I have put into them in the last five years. Maybe six.

Are you making your own?

Inspect them on a regular basis, and if they look fine, they are. I switch mine out when I get a reline. Seems to work for me.

Do you own any mini-DV tapes? If so, those would be your existing mini-DV tapes. Sony is saying you can use those tapes in the new cameras to record stuff in high def.

Just be careful with the cables and such. Don't pull on them, bend them, or let them get kinked in anyway. Don't force anything, and if it isn't going smoothly, think about stopping, and taking it to a rigger. Thats if you want to save the Cypress. If it's timed out, or so close that nobody will ever jump, then pull on it, and bend the cables, then throw it across the room, followed by repeated blows with a hammer.

Zoom in with your .42. Or just buy a .45, and if it ends up being too wide, zoom in with that. If it's too narrow, back up, and shoot it anyway.

I don't think you're thinking this through. Lets say you want to dump at 3.5. If you're smart, you begin your pull sequence closer to 4, so by the time your main PC is out, it's 3.5. If you're like almost everyone, else, you start the pull sequence at 3.5, which has your PC coming out closer to 3. How long do you think it will take you to realize you have a PC in tow? Four seconds? Six seconds? Lets estimate 4 or 5 seconds for you to relaize what happening, and that you need to go to the reserve. Now lets figure three seconds to get the reserve handle and pull it. More like 7 seconds if you also pull the (useless) cutaway handle. OK, without pulling the cutaway, if everything goes down smoothly, you're looking at 7 or 8 seconds from the main PC launch around 3, and the reserve PC launch, which by my math, puts you smoking through 2k, and thats if everything goes well. IF you second guess the PC in tow, or are slow on the uptake, 2k turns into 1700ft. If you have a hard tiem finding or pulling the reserve ripcord, 1700ft beomes 1400ft. Remember, these are PC launch altitudes, subtract 300 feet to see when you'll have an open canopy (provided all that goes well). Those are all low ass altitiudes to just be gettng a canopy over your head. Lets not forget the still packed main, which could deploy alongside the reserve (sometimes dumping the reserve lossens the main pack job, and can contribute to clearing a PC in tow). If I had a two out, I'd want the most altitiude possible in order to try and configure it for a safe landing, aka not a downplane. If the main and reserve should have problems, I'd again want all sorts of altittude to work on it before impact. See what I mean by just pull the fucking handle?

Let me make one other point. A PC in tow sucks ass, and yes, you may have en entanglement with the main PC, or if the PC in tow clears as the reserve deploys, your main could deploy as well, and now you have a two out. You can avoid all this by paying attention to your gear. Proper maintneence, and gear checks are essential. As a newer jumper you may be renting gear, or using a packer. In either case, do a comeplete and extensive gear check before puttiing on a rig you didn't pack. Make sure you know the correct closing sequence and bridle routing for every rig you jump so you can accurately check those items.

The post was just too long for ME to read, and I'm a lazy fuck who thinks I know it all anyway. I agree 100% that avoiding traffic situations is the way to go, but too often those just starting out aren't ready to dedicate hop n pops, or high pulls toward having a free and clear airspace. The points that made are valid on every jump. Even if you're not going to swoop, traffic management is a key area of safe canopy flight. I'm not trying to subtract from your efforts here, I'm trying to add to them.

Oh yeah, how much control over your body position do you think you're going to have when you have to pull a chest mounted ripcord with your left hand? When was the last time you did that?

How about this, just pull the sliver handle ASAP, and save your life. In a high speed mal like this, don't fuck around, just pull the handle. A PC hesitation is a minor problem at best, they usually clear themselves. If not, you'll most likey want to see why nothing is happening back there, and when you look over your shoulder, bingo, you just cleared it. There are times where skydiving is technical and percise. Then there are high speed mals, where pulling your handles is always job one. Simple as that.

I'll be honest, that post is too long for me to read. I do have two points that fit the title of the thread, so if they were covered in the mega-post, then I'll be repeating them, but they're important, so it's OK. Regarding traffic, and flying in and around the pattern, if you are jumping a HP canopy, loaded up over 1.7 or 1.8 ish, fly all of your pattern and set up in deep brakes. There are debates about the optimum speed for starting a swoop, but this isn't about the five seconds before you throw your turn, this about the time just before that. By flying in deep brakes, you give yourself more time to watch for traffic, and set up your swoop. Additionally, you end up flying a speed closer to that of the other canopies in the pattern, which allows you to better integrate yourself into the mix. Regarding managing traffic, when you're trying to work yourself into the pattern (which is essentially what you're doing, even though you'll enter the pattern from above and doing 70 mph) you're bound to have other canopies on final as well. The thing to remember is this - If you have a canopy below you and on final approach (straight in) that canopy can only fly to limited area in relation to it's current position. If you ensure that your path will never cross into this area, and then fly that path, you'll never have a collision. Even if the other pilot turns directly toward your path, and flies at max glide, they'll run out of alititude before they can run into you. None of this changes the fact that you have to be diligent with watching what others (as well as yourself) are doing. You can't ever control what the other guy will do, so you leave yourself open if you count on them to perform in a certain way. By keeping them out of range during the critical low altitiude portion of the canopy ride, you can ease your workload with respect to that canopy, and shift your focus to keeping an eye out for the guy you didn't see unitl after you starting diving as hard and as fast as you could. As much as it sucks, that guy is out there somewhere.

***For under 500 US$ I am willing to try it, irrespective of your opinion of the camera. So the question remains: whom might I contact to have a custom helmet made for it? *** Just a thought, you can find used sony mini dv cams, proven in freefall, for around $500 or less on e-bay. Additionally, there are already helmets and camera boxes designed around these cams, so you'll save the money by not having something 'custom-built'. Besides, when the camera does shit the bed, your custom helmet becomes useless. Not to mention the Cameyes and other indicator lights available, along with the ability to fire-wire videos back and forth with other jumpers. If you still want to go your way, call Bonehead Composites in California, or get in touch with Wes at Rim World Video in Florida, he's probably the best guy for one-off custom stuff. Good luck.

The biggest problem you're going to have is in fitting the suits in the beginning. Every suit that comes back for adjustments costs you money, and makes your cust, bit 100% happy. They might like the corrected suit alot, but they'll also tell all their firends about the poor fit upon delivery. Unless you have extensive experience with textiles, specifically pattern making, or you have worked for a big jumpsuit mfg for several years stealing secrets, it would be a tough market to break into. Starting small, just doing local customers as a part time job would be a good start.

First off, all camera helmets are custom made to a degree. You're not going to find anything off the shelf that you can just put on and jump. They all need a few tweaks to suit your needs. Second, if thats a hard-drive type camera, forget it. The drive doesn't like the altitude or the abuse from skydiving. Furthermore, even if HD cams were useful in skydiving, that thing you want isn't a Sony, and liek it or not, Sonys are the only cams that last up in the sky.