ianmdrennan

Hey Folks, Sorry I guess I got my WhirlyBall facts wrong DOH! Seems that there is no Whirleyball (officially) in the cards this year - sorry to disappoint some of ya. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

I'm pretty sure Eric is handling all the whirley ball stuff - drop him an email and he'll get you all the good info

Ok folks, Salsa John really needs a ride to the DZ on Friday afternoon (he arrives at noon). I can get him back to the airport after the boogie but can someone help get him to Skydive Atlanta? Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Chris, That is one TERRIFYING thought We're down to just needing the camera flyer...please for the love of god...help Chris stay out of spandex!! Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Ok so Travis, Tom and I just got screwed by our 4th (and they were supposed to bring camera too) so if anyone is looking for a pickup 4 way vrw team for Friday please let us know. We need 1 flyer and 1 camera person......bueller.....bueller? Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

A perfectly reasonable progression for someone with 900 jumps at a 1.4 loading IMO (assuming you've been diligent in your learning). I think you'll really enjoy the KA. I'd still like to try out the Aerodyne Mamba too. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Actually Paul and I have flown side by side on a 90 velo (stock) and a 92 JVX. We had no problems whatsoever flying together. In fact I remember Paul on his jvx and Brian (on a stock 103 velo) doing a nice synch'd landing together too. Performance Designs Factory Team

Isaiah, Paul Roussow and myself will be organizing a few HP canopy flocking dives for those qualified

Horizontally healthy? Yeah you're right in that we're talking about the CPC but there are going to be restrictions in the Pro category too (and I was surprised at how many people at this years CPC finals could quite easily compete in the Pro category and do well) - but granted that's not the point. Seriously though I do agree with you on a lot of levels. My resistance is that I believe whatever mechanism is put in place should be fair - that's all. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Next time Kaz is up there tell her you said she can't wear weights when she's competing using your theories. Somehow I don't think she'll like it. It's easy to say not to wear weights when you load a 120 vx at 2.29 lbs/ft² I'm not against reasonable limits, but I think saying you can wear however much you want is just as bad as saying you can't wear any at all. You just flip the unbalance. The idea is supposed to be leveling the playing field. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Absolutely not. It is unfair to expect 2 good pilots, one without weights loading at 1.8 and another loading at 2.2 without weights on the same canopy to compete as equals. I know there was some talk about a max loading for a category (someone even mentioned that in this thread). That'd be a far better way to go IMO. I can't see more than 2 categories being viable though (and even that is stretching it) - we just don't have enough people in competitions at this stage. Simply stripping out weights is definitely not the answer. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

back to the issue of weights.... Well - I'm not so sure it's quite that simple. While ideally I'd have no issues with them being removed from the CPC it begins to raise other questions. 1) What do we do with the huge dude loading up a velo 90 at 2.4? 2) What do we do with the small woman (and yes there are some and next year will be MORE) loading a velo 90 at 1.5? 3) Where do the regulation limits stop? For example HMA isn't commonplace (yet) but is available on the JVX. RDS Systems are dime a dozen now (and will soon be a factory option) so why should that be regulated? Etc, etc. 4) Does this encourage people to downsize more to increase their loading? Yes a bigger wing loaded highly yields a better result than a small wing loaded highly (and even then trust me there are exceptions but that's outside of this scope for now) but a smaller wing loaded higher will outperform the low loaded bigger wing. In theory I agree with what you are proposing regarding the CPC weights BUT it'd be grossly unfair to a number of people to do so on a simple weights/no weights basis. It's a catch 22 and not as easy as a solution as people on either side would believe it to be. I am interested to see how the WSA handles this. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Definitely sounds interesting. Please keep us posted on details, requirements, prizes and schedule. Blues. Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Yeah - thanks for proving my point. Performance Designs Factory Team

Ya know - instead of you all bitching about everything (believe it or not that is not what dz.com is intended for) why don't you contact Roger personally via phone or email. I've always found him to be upfront and approachable. Even if you don't get the answer you want maybe you can get at least an answer you understand. No wonder I barely post here anymore - it's nothing more than a bitch fest 99% of the time Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

That is awesome! He did a great job in Colorado. I really want to try and make this event but it's not looking great right now .....I need a job that gives me more vacation days!! Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

well my bad then, sorry! Sounds like you're doing a good job then. I could spend all day talking with you about how to improve your accuracy by using a good pattern but it's cumbersome and long to explain here in text. Instead I'll give you the uber simplied version. Fly your pattern. Try and have have fixed altitudes (preferred is maybe a better word) for 1) leaving your holding area to run your downwind 2) your base leg turn off of your downwind 3) your final turn off of your base. If you overshoot start by finding out how much you overshot by and moving your Final turn (3) back the appropriate amount in relation to your target. Then on the next jump fix the place over the ground for turn (2) (in relation to your target - don't use fixed obstacles for reference) and finally the 3rd jump to fix the entry to your downwind point (1). The idea should always be to change as little as possible on the approach so that you can figure out what worked/didn't work. If you change too much you'll never know. Anyway, hope this helps in some way. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Play time should STOP at 2000 and above. Any lower spiralling/playing and you're getting in other peoples patterns. Some patterns start as high (or higher) than 1800 feet. If you want to play - make dedicated hop n pops or high altitude pulls where exploring your canopy is the goal. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Yes there is. Eric Deren is organizing it for Friday afternoon I believe Chris Cowden is looking for a team to join us with

Yes. Until Colorado I had never considered turning off my cypres doing my regular turn with regular (2.2) loading. When I saw the chart I was quite shocked at how much faster it was. My thought is now, that in ultra high elevations at least, I'll be keeping my cypres off when loading up and doing 270's or more. I then decided to load up at my home dz (with my cypres off) to just under 2.5 and do 450 degree turns to see what my descent rate would be. It never went above 64mph according to my neptune and even then was a short spike. I will be testing 270's this weekend but I expect the speed to be a good 5-10 mph slower.. I'll also throw out a couple of 630's for shits and giggles to see what they return loaded @ 2.4+ My expectation is that I will be below cypress firing speeds (according to how the neptune reads them as John Kallend has a valid point) at my home dz for all but the most extreme cases (2.5+ with more than 630 degree turns). At higher elevations though, where the air is thinner and the pilot is capable of generating greater descent rates I'd exercise a lot more caution. Of course this is hardly a scientific approach but it's the best I've got given my tools and access to data. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Using Paralog and my neptune mounted in my helmet. I get vertical descent readings anywhere from 50-63 mph at my home dz on a velo 90 loaded from 2.2 to 2.4. The highest it has ever shown was 73 mph (with no plateau so there was still acceleration) loaded @ 2.2 on a velo 90 while at the CPC finals in CO. The turns are 270's. Blues, Ian Performance Designs Factory Team

Glad the review helped

I'm at work right now. Will try and post some tonight

So a little while back I commented in Wrongway's thread that I'd write a review of out teams Matter Proconcept Suits once we'd had some chance to spend some time under them and abusing them

I posted this in Gear and Rigging, but after seeing TDogs post I figured this was a good response (and overdue on my part) So a little while back I commented in Wrongway's thread that I'd write a review of out teams Matter Proconcept Suits once we'd had some chance to spend some time under them and abusing them