davelepka

He's a chickenfucker. Alive or KFC, he has no preference.

You were shooting a tandem video? You already got paid. Need more money? Pack your shit up and do another tandem video.

A Dolphin is the container,and yes, a 190 might have been a bit small for you, especially if your landings have been an issue. If the 210 and/or 220 you are jumping is F-111, that may have an effect on your landigns. F-111 fabric loses it's ability to flare with age. Additionally, the WL you would be putting on an F-111 210 or 220 is similar to jumping a ZP 190 (like the Sabre). If you are renting F-111 canopies, opt for a larger one (220 min.). An alternative would be to demo a 210 zp canopy (Sabre, Sabre2, Spectre) and see what you think. Above all, seek some additional training. Current student progressions are short on canopy control info, and you may find that with armed with some additional info, your confidence and performce will improve.

What canopies are you using, and what is your wing loading? What canopies/WL were you using when you had better landings? All of the above aside, take an additional canopy control class. Being in Florida puts you in close proximity to several good schools. Scott Miller comes to mind, I think you can look him up at freedomofflight.tv.

When I had a demo, one of the jumps was a tandem video, and after the landing/interview, the TM pulled me aside and asked if I was OK. He said he saw the opening from under canopy, and it hurt him. It did that one more time, and after that (shitty) landing, I cut it away and left in in the landing area. To be fair, I wasn't using a tiny pilot chute, and I wasn't in a head down track. What a joke. You would think that if PC size was a factor they would send you a PC with a demo. I didn't get a PC. Or risers. Or links. Thats right, no links. It was in a plactic bag with all the lines flyin' free. I guess there is balance in the universe. For every company like PD, there must be a flip side.

I pushed that guy out the plane in 98. He wasn't strong enough to climb into the airstream, so I 'helped'. The guy was all of 90-some pounds, but he did OK, and had a good landing. I looked over his waiver, and it turned out we had the same birthday, although his was 69 years before mine. He also had a picture of himself with Amelia Erhart from when he was a line-boy at some airport somewhere a million years ago. Good times.

You're just not right. I'm sorry. If you want to go fast, that fast has to go somewhere when you want to touch down. The speed turns into lift. Try to do it too quickly, and you will go back up. Do it slowly, and you will plane out. Even if there was a way to stop a canopy quickly, what's going to stop you? Your weight will continue forward, and if the canopy stops, you will swing forward and up in an arc at the end of your lines. How would you handle that? In truth this is what happens when you pop up, as your canopy slows, you come forward and helps to pitch the wing up, where your excess speed comes in and up you go. What is there not to like about swooping? Or even just a 30 ft plane out after a straight in landing? I pray you don't say anything about saftey, becasue eliptical anything isn't the safest route, regardless of your intentions.

You want a canopy to go fast, fine. When it comes time to stop that canopy, that energy has to go somewhere. In the absence of mechanical brakes (disc or drum brakes, grappling hook, etc.), your canopy uses aerodynamic drag to slow down. The amount of drag available is not sufficient to stop the canopy quickly, so it slows it gradually, as you plane out along the ground. Thats why.

You are out of luck. You can't go fast up high, and than slow down for your landing. If you want to go fast, you have to do something with that speed when land. It's called swooping, and it's fun.

This makes sense if your helmet is moving in relation to your goggles. Yes, in that case a helmet mounted sight would be better, as it would 'notify' you of the hemets movements. The caveat to that is that a canera helmet that moves on your head has bigger rpoblems than what type of sight you are using. I learned how to do video with a Newton cross-sight, and after the first 500 jumps was convinced that a ring sight was a must. Than the side-mount mini DV cams came out, and I strapped one to a Gath helmet, with a dot on my goggles, and haven't looked back. I agree, in certain circumstances (300 ways) a ring sight might be a good idea. However, for the casual camera flyer, it's extra stuff they don't need. Keep things as simple as possible, and then take off half the stuff you have left. Less to break, malfunction, snag or loose.

Care to expand on these thoughts? My impression of a sight is that it's a simple reference tool indicating the center of your frame. Be it a sticker or a ring sight, how does it effect ones. ability to keep their head still? Head steady-ness, as well as not looking around or at an alti, in my opinion, just takes practice. For the record, I support the sticker route. I actually use a sharpie to draw a box on my goggles, but that can wait until your helmet is set-up, and you have a couple hundred jumps on it to make sure the box is in the right spot.

Here's a thought. Slow down a notch, put in another 200 jumps, and invest in a small video camera (Sony PC). Jump that camera, and develop some skills (100 jumps). Then, look into upgrading your camera helemt (BH Flat Top) or buying a lighweight still camera (Cannon Rebel) that you can mount on your Pimp Daddy. After you do all that, worry about mounting a 20D.

Me too. I've never met him, but I spoke with a guy who has, and he says that Jonathan is 155 or 160 ish. He would have to be wearing 45 or 50 lbs. of lead to pull that WL.

Do you know how much of that was lead?

Hi, my name is Dan, and I've got my masters in entomology from UCLA. Right now I'm a research assistant on location in Peru. It's pretty exciting stuff, I'm in charge of poking the ants in the eyes before we drop them form a tree. Yeah, I'm livin' the dream.

Day 1: Jump PD canopy, and run into a tree. Day 2: Deciede to buy a cheap replacement at a higher WL. Day 3: Anyone care to guess?

I just popped my Power Racer a week ago, and got full bridle extension. I looked at the PC in comparison to the PC that came with my Infinity. Wow. The Racer PC, pop top and all, fits inside of the Infinity PC.

Stay far away from both Rigger A and Rigger B.

I was thinking more about the 20-some other people in the Otter. Glad they're OK.

Nice. He remembered to turn his camera on, but the pin check got past him. He does get points for filming the plane and his canopy flying off into the sunset, but not enough to offset the pin check thing.

Lossen your chest strap before you jump. If your subterminal opening happens to be on heading, either A) turn off of floght line with your harness, or B) face off flight line before you dump. Stow your slider faster. Problem solved.

Theres a key difference between those three choices. RW and freefly are exclusive of each other (for the most part). On a given jump, you are doing one or the other. While every jump you make is an oppertunity to improve your canopy control skills. If jumpers would see this, they could esentially have two separate events per jump. The freefall, with a dive flow of some sort, and oppertunities to learn, and the canopy ride with it's own learning objectives. It seems that too often jumpers will be so focused on the freefall, that they feel like deployment is the 'end' of their skydive. Sure, they have to navigate and land, but for the most part, the focus and direction they apply to their freefall performance disappears when the slider comes down. It true that a jumper who does high alt. hop n pops will have even more learning oppertunities, but the goals that those individual pilots have are higher than most, and the extra canopy time is required for reaching their performance expectations. Just by being smart, and using your time wisely, you can develop into a fantastic canopy pilot even if you open at 3000 ft on every single jump.

Thats the idea. Even then, 700 on a Velo is pushing it a little. I don't know the guy, but if you figure on a reasonable downsizing progression, with 700 total jumps, how many could he have possibly made on any one in perticular? It may have worked for that guy, but in general, too many younger jumpers are too focused on the gear, like thats going to make a difference as far as what kind of swooper they will become. Learning the right way, through experience, will always trump having the right equipment. Again, take a look at any hot swooper, and if they end up on a borrowed rig, with a Sabre2 at 1.5, they'll throw down some sick shit and not think twice about it. These guys need to lock onto a nice tapered wing, at a safe WL, buy a case or two of Ramen, and spend every dime they have on jumps. Downsizing is expensive, and it takes away from your jump money. Buy a new canopy when the one you have is beat to a pulp, and worth less than the cost of a reline.

Once again, we have some incidents, and some close calls involving lower time jumpers trying to act like higher time jumpers. This applies both to canopy selection as well as what they're trying to do with them. Why is this? A big contributor is wanting to be cool. Many defend their actions, by saying that they are not concerned with the opinions of others (which they prove by ignoring advice, but thats not exactly the same thing), and that they do what the do purely for the love of swooping (which contradicts their unwillingness to listen to the advice of proven swoopers). But lets face it, swooping is one of the coolest things you can do on a DZ because even if you do a solo, everyone sees your swoop. Your freefall skills are only witnessed by the few on your skydive, but your landing is the most public statement you can make. Not to mention it's cool as hell to go fast. So we know that some of the newbies are seeking some acceptence and status on the DZ (even if they won't admit to it). If they were shy, and disliked the attention, they certainly wouldn't put themselves on the swooping stage every load. So their desire for acceptence leads them to take chances. Their desire to fit in superceeds their desire to survive. This is where is gets scary. In skydiving your first priority has always got to be watching your ass. Just leaving the plane, you seriously putting it all on the line. Years of eneventful jumps doesn't change the severity of the basic risk you are taking, all without layering on additional risk after additional risk. My question to these folks is why do you let the fear of being an average performer trump your fear of death or dismemberment? Lets face it, skydivers are a spotty bunch at best. Yeah, there's some nice guys around, and you may meet some geniuinely good folks, but were not talking about the Dali Lamma here. None of these people are worth risking your health or well-being for. (Sorry to everyone) Why not take control of your fear, and move beyond it. Be a canopy geek. It seems like the antithesis of cool, but it will ultimately lead you down the path you're so eager to travel. Spend your jumps carefully progressing through your skills. Take the time to be the master of each before moving on to the next one. Don't let your canopy choice define you. We all know that you can swoop anything, and most marvel when an accomplished swooper lays one down with a 220 Navigator. Define yourself with your actions. Show the world that you are an ace with accuracy. Teach the old guys how to set it down on a dime everytime. Learn to use a double front approach like a $2 whore (sorry ladies). Up-wind, cross-wind, down-wind. Every time, on target, with style. Keep this up, and you will find yourself with 700 or 800 jumps, and a foundation of skills that you can count on. You will downsize, and in short order out swoop those with twice your jumps, but little effort in learning the right way. This swooping is serious business. We all know the #1 danger in skydiving is hitting the ground. Be it with nothing out, a double mal, or botched landing, it's the ground that will hurt you. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave. The results of making a mistake at this satge of a skydive are bad. Really bad. A double femur is a serious trauma. If that doesn't kill you, the complications from infection, surgical mishap, or depression related suicide just might. The effects of a mistake are far reaching, well beyond your world of skydiving, and possibly into the rest of your wheelchair bound life. One final point, I get nothing out posting this. I jump at a DZ where the DZO's are like sharks looking for anyone getting too happy with their canopy before they are ready. Everytime I question that they have maybe gone too far, I remember that we haven't had any incidents of any consequense for a long while. This is not a problem I have to deal with personally. I don't have to see it first hand, but I have in the past, and I have seen the havok it can play on a life. Think about it folks. Take your time, and you'll get your turn. Rush it, and you may never make it. Do you even have to think about it? What would you want your son to do? Your father? Your mother?

Another option would be to mail a tape or DVD to your mentor after each training weekend. It's not as good as a debrief after every jump, but if your mentor is not at your DZ, it's better than nothing.