davelepka

Be careful with the word 'forgiving'. Guys have hammered in on much bigger canopies than yours. I'm not saying it's a bad canopy for you to jump. I'm saying not to forget that your canopy isn't forgiving, or nice, or mean or anything. It's a device that relies on the pilot to make it what it is.

The oracle has spoken. He is the chosen one.

There are some people out there who are good canopy pilots at an early stage. They have the right combination of attitude, exposure to good coaching/mentoring, the right level of awareness and perpection, and some luck. These people are OK on more aggressive canopies at higher WL than most. You may even be one of those people (your jump numbers and the apparent respect of your peers seems to support this). As good a canopy pilot as you may be, you sure suck at giving advice. YOU were fine at 1.8 with 300 jumps, and this guy will be too IF he has a PLAN and COACHING. So your assumption is that this guy has all of the qualities listed above (like you) and he will have a plan and coaching, which he may. But if he lacks one (more likely several) of those things, he may not be OK. This is the key point. You're jumping to an awful lot of conclusions in giving your advice, and there's a chance that the recipient only heard, "...blah, blah, you'll be OK, blah, blah..". After I first read your post, I thought that you had too many jumps at a high WL, and had forgotten what it was like in the beginning. Lots of guys will lose respect for a 135, or a WL of 1.5 or 1.6 beacuase they've been jumping a sub 100 at 2.2 for so long, they forget how much that is for a newer pilot. Your problem seems to be that you don't have enough jumps at that WL to give the right advice. You're definatley ahead of the curve, and seemingly doing pretty well. You're the exception. Others aren't like you, and need to be advised accordingly. If you've seen a friend get busted up under a good canopy, you know it's a bad deal for all involved. Imagine now if that guy was following your advice, and got in over his head. What then?

Keep in mind that the canopy and the ground have no idea of your good intentions. No matter how dedicated you think you are, or how safe you plan to be, once you leave the plane, you've got to land what's in your rig. Bad spots, wind shifts or gusts, turbulance, or traffic are all considerations. Choose your equipment based on what you can successfully fly through all of the above situations. Pushing the limits on WL, and skipping sizes when downsizing have been the root cause of many incidents, many with severe/premanent consequenses.

Thats good. At first, in the other thread, you were carefully considering each and every trait of all the canopies, and the different reactions they have to this WL or that. In the end, it's, "Hey, I found a good deal on this one, so this must be the model and size I really want." I always think it's stupid when newbies want to buy the rig they found the best deal on, regardless of it's size or make. Don't worry I know your not a newbie, but you sure are wearing a newbie's uniform.

I know that a canopy with a tear i the top skin will stall sooner than before the tear was present. I also know that many topskin tears are landed, and the jumper has no clue unitl he gets dumped on his ass trying to land. I know that when attempting slow flight in gusty or turbulent conditions, and canopy will stall at a toggle position higher than in stable air. Keep in mind, landing is attempting slow flight. On top of that, I also know that the more a pilot knows about what his canopy can and cannot do will only serve to better his piloting skills, as well as his confidence under canopy. Oh wait, here's another one, lets say you're trying to sink your canopy into a back yard. Deep in your toggles (becasue you need a wrap to stall it), what happens when you get into the wind shadow of those trees by the house? Why do I feel like I'm falling over backwards? I never felt that before, I'll just hold the toggles down and hope for the best.......

Real quick, if you're going with the 7 cell or 21 cell, or whatever you want to call it, why not grab a Velo? If you're looking for bottom-end, it's got it, and I'm at 2.3/2.4. If you're shooting for a lower WL, thats just more bottom end for you.

You're contradicting yourself here, as well as missign a key point. Even if you need a wrap to stall a canopy at altitude, when you want it to, doesn't mean that your canopy cannot stall without a wrap when you don't want it to. If your full arms extension was just a hair away from a stall, completing your flare on the diminishing side of a wind gust (as in airspeed is dropping) can cause a stall to develop. In this case, you may recognize the feeling, and be able to let up slightly, or at least be ready to get dropped on your ass. Without the experience of stalling your canopy, you would not recognize the feeling, and not be prepared for the stall. Any additional experience you can safely gain with your canopy (like a stall at 2000ft+) will only help you. The logic used to determine that stalling a canopy that needs a wrap is a waste of time is flawed.

Bob: Looks like you've been missing alot of work lately Peter. Peter: Well, Bob, I wouldn't say I'm missing it.

I keep seeing refernces to this, and am wondering how this ouwld be possible. Lets say I'm going to do a 180 for my landing, I'll follow roughly the same downwind leg as everyone else, and will simply combine my base and final turns into one manuver. The fact remains that my pattern is identical to everyone elses up to my 180. How is a jumper at 1k going to be confused by this? Lets say I throw a 180 at 500ft. What altitude would expect to see a non-swooper turning onto their base leg? Pretty damn close to 500 ft. Close enough that a jumper at 1k, looking down on the pattern couldn't tell the difference. By the time that jumper sees me combine my base and final turns into one, within 7 or 8 seconds, I'm swooping on the deck, and shutting it down, landing in the same direction as everyone else, after following the same pattern as everyone else. How does that confuse another jumper? How would that jumper have to change their planse based on that scenario? For the record, there is a problem with the landing patterns, and the standards within that pattern. I'm not sure of how to solve it, but it's there. I swoop in the pattern at my home DZ, but I know all the jumpers on the load, pull high enough to account for all the camopies before I swoop, and land in a swooper area. When I'm away from home, I pull even higher, and land last.

PD seemed to get the Katana right on the money the first time out. I can't recall hearing about any problems when that first came out. Of course, if it's PD you're waiting on to release a canopy, take that 4-5 weeks and make it 6 or 8 months.

So let me get this straight, you're considering un-hooking your RSL because you're not sure if mini risers will survive the jumps you will put on them. Thats pretty fucked up. What you want to do in skydiving is surround yourself with layers of safety, so if one peels away, you have another to fall back on. Use an audible altimeter along with a wrist mount, and while you're at it, work on developing your sight picture for 4000ft ish. See how that works? Ask a qualified jumper (there are many out there) to help you remove the nice risers that PD sent you, and replace them with a set of standard risers. Continue to use your RSL as usual. If you ever have any doubts about the capabilities of your equipment, have it repaired or replaced before jumping again. Do not remove additional safety devices in an attempt to 'fix' it.

In that case, it sounds shady.

Is it possible that the DZ rigger was willing to sign and seal the rig to make it legal for the pilot? If the DZ rigger knew and trusted the last rigger who packed the rig, maybe he would consider signing and sealing the rig with the stipulation that it not leave his 'sight' until he had the chance to actually do the re-pack. Just a thought.

OK. Plan on going through AFF, buying gear, juming every weekend, going to boogies, buying more gear, and running out of cash in three or four years. Try it, it's fun.

Quote(a low timer on their 1st 8way) didn't get in and was very low*** If the guy only had 29 jumps, he was not low, the rest of were high. This is my serious face.

Meet #2 of the Ohio CPC was held this past Saturday with 10 competitors. All rounds of competition were completed just after noon, and much like meet #1, our last round of zone accuracy was completed just as a solid layer of low clouds rolled in. The resutls are as follows: 1. Dave Lepka 2. Jim Moss 3. Chris Najoulks 4. Todd Tietze 5. Brandon 'Vern' Alexander 6. Nate Varns 7. Kelly Keeney 8. Mark Timm 9. Dave Roberts 10. Sherry Butcher Dave took first in both Speed and Distance, with first-time competitor Chiris taking the top spot in Zone Accuracy. Vern had the longest swoop in distance (236 ft, into a stiff headwind) and was the only one to have a 100 point run in Zone Accuracy. This meet had far fewer verticals than the first one, and the points spread between first and last place was tight. Special thanks goes out to the staff at Aerohio, and our pilot Tim. Even bigger thnks goes to those who helped the meet run as smoothly as possible: Dean, Steph, Jamie, Hollywood, and Courtney.

Those guys left out a few things. If you're not swooping now, attending the CPC meets to observe and ask questions would be a good idea. Start small, like with double fronts, then progress on to 90's. How quickly to progress is up to the pilot, but in addition to the beneifts of repetition, doing the same type of landing on different days (as-in different waether conditions) will only add to the benefits. If you jump every weekend, plan on spending a few weeks working with doulbe fronts, then 90's and so on. Hold off on setting up entry gates for awhile. They will be another distraction/target at this satge. Work on your accuracy in the beginning by flying a consistant approach, note where you start your turn, and see where you end up. Relate that to the winds for the day, and you can see what you get with type of landing. Again if you jump every weekend, give it a few months of work, and then try some gates. Your timing is good if you want to start now, and compete next year. You should be more than ready for next season. Just remember that a consistant pilot can do very well in the CPC with a solid 90 degree turn for their approach. There's no reason to rush into anything.

Best Bryan Ody story ever: Late night at the DZ. Everyone's drunk. Ody's hair ends up on fire (don't ask how). Someone says, "Dude, your hair is on fire". Ody replies, "So? I'm going to boot camp in the morning, and they're going to cut it all off anyway."

All three times you had the luxury of taking your time in the door, determining your spot, and opening your parachute high enough to fly back to the DZ. Try it next time, it's fun.

I assuming this is after the pilot has given instructions to open the door and jump?

This is why you do this before boarding.

It's more than half of skydiving. Many have pointed out that canopies are 'fun' and that you can have fun at any size. Ignoring the fun factor, keep in mind that your canopy is your vehichle to a safe landing. Many serious incidents have been the result of jumpers flying canopies at a low WL, with intentions of a safe, slow landing, when the circumsatnces of thier jump conspired against them. Changing weather conditions, and/or bad spots have left jumpers in a postion they were not prepared for. Obsatcle strikes, and fixating on getting into the wind have been the downfall of many consrevative jumpers. Don't confuse the need to donwsize and/or swoop with the need to pay attention to your canopy, it's flight characteristics, and your decision making process under canopy. You will be well served to review your outlook on canopy filght, and it's level of importance in your skydiving.

You'll need camera wings as far as the fall rate is concerned. As far as getting a low angle on the tandem, the wings will let you sit up a little steeper, and look a little steeper, while keeping up (down) the fall rate. Also, check to see that your camera is mounted with enough up angle. Some freefly type helmets have the camera mounted either level, or with a slight up angle. Compare this to a Boenhead FTP, or other dedicated camera helmet, and you'll see the angle you need.

QuoteThe attachment is a picture of BK at his best. *** That is a flat out lie. The sunburn picture, or the pope picture are way better than that one. What about the mullet? Are there pictures of that? Edit: I forgot all about his drivers license photo. That pic says it all.