BrianSGermain

Good for you. Patience is a virtue of the survivor. + Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Remember that the slower your airspeed, the more you will need to move the toggles in order to alter the pitch enough to level off. If you are going really slowly, it may never level off completely, but it's better than slamming into an object at high-speed. Consider practicing high-speed level-flight turns in order to shorten your swoop distance. By carving the wing at a high angle of attack, you will induce more drag and therefore shorten your swoop distance. I call this the "Hockey Stop" technique. It is dangerous in the wrong hands, but has saved my butt many times. The best part is, you don't have to fly slowly on approach. Going slow on cross-braced canopies can be deadly in turbulence, as the aperature at the leading edge is so small and the pitch-stability so weak. Airspeed and positive "G" are the only things keeping the system intact. This becomes very salient stuff when considering an off-field landing in a turbulent area. And there is no substitute for a good PLF technique, pulling high when necessary, and good spotting abilities to avoid such issues. A good pilot has good skills. A great one avoids being forced to use them. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I was on a Samurai 105 before going to the Sensei 91. I found the transition between these two designs quite easy, but the initiation altitude and apporach technique changed, requiring some conscious attention. I am very happy with the switch, but the Samurai is definitely more nimble than any cross-braced canopy out there. I miss that sometimes.

A stall is the result of exceeding the maximum angle of attack. This is not a function of airspeed at all. Turn inputs that involve a reduction of the angle of attack will not result in a stall. That comes from tail input. For instance, if you apply a single toggle with a great deal of energy, a high-speed stall is possible on that side of the wing. Front riser input will not cause an increase in the angle of attack. If you are referring to any deformation as a "stall", any aggressive maneuver can cause a problem. Changes of direction should always be fluid and slow enough to provide the system adequate time to remain coordinated with respect to the relative wind. The smaller the canopy, the greater the possibility the pilot will have the strength to destabilize the parachute. Caress the air into cooperation rather than ordering it around like beast of burden. It can bite you... + Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

There are several variables that control the recovery arc. In general, the dive of a canopy is determined by the amount of drag it produces in relation to the amount of body drag exhibited by the suspended load. If the wing produces a great deal of drag, due to its shape, trim or angle of attack, it will forcibly strive to remain above the jumper. This creates a short recovery arc. Line length also contributes to the frequency of the pitch axis oscillations, including deliberate reduction in the pitch angle. In other words, the further the suspended load is from the wing, the longer it will take for the system to recover to static glide ratio. This does not mean that all short lined canopies have short recovery arcs and vice-versa, however, as confounding variables such as wing loading have a significant impact on the issue. Cross-braced canopies are designed to have very little drag, are trimmed fairly steep, and typically have long lines. It is important to note that the way in which you perform your diving turn has a very siginificant effect on the amount of altitude lost. A canopy with a "short" recovery arc can be made to dive for a long time by maintaining the ROLL angle on approach. Most of us have experienced a high plane-out when in double front risers, because the canopy's lift overcomes our physical strength. If however, we delay our arrival at the final approach heading, and keep our roll angle until the correct altitude, and "lifty" canopy will dive all the way to the ground. This dies not mean that you must start lower, it just means that you have to turn slower by adding the other front riser as well. This keeps the "lift" vector from lining up in opposition to "weight" vector, and thus prevents a spike of the "G's" in the system. The parachute will keep diving because the lift is tilted. The pilot will always be the most important variable of the system. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Does that mean that I could be your daddy... QUIT PULLING YOUR SISTER'S HAIR!!! Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Regarding the use of TWO altimeters: "The man that with one watch always knows what time it is; The man with two is never sure". Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I think that would be extremely cool. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I used to be one of them. I have been doing high speed approaches since 1987, and have had to adapt my techniques to the newer canopies. Since they allow for a much higher initiation altitude, I didn't find my consistency until I began setting up using instruments. . . Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Airspeed, Airspeed Airspeed. It is important to understand that your wing's stall speed increases dramatically with roll angle. This is due to the increased "load factor". Since your wing is required to fly at a higher angle of attack to prevent descent, the "G" loading increases. This results in the tendecy for the wing to stall out prematurely in a banked configuration. If you wait too long to begin your bank, you will run out of airspeed and eat it. Go fast into the entry. Really fast. Another consideration is the recovery technique. Someone previously mentioned that he recovers the wing to it's overhead position by simply pulling the opposite toggle. If you are close to the ground, this will result in a descent into the ground at high speed. It is essential that you LIFT yourself out of the carve with both toggles before recovering the roll axis. This provides the necessarry altitude to reduce your bank angle to zero for the landing. Lastly, I just want to point out that you do not want to "Nail" anything. A good carve is a smooth manuever. If the crowd is cringing and looking away, you are not doing it correctly. It should be a graceful transition in and out of the bank. I suggest practicing the process up high as much as you can. Anticipation of the feeling is important to relieving your stress level, which is of course the most significant inhibitor of performance. If you are freaked out, you will not be graceful. Not to mention, you no longer have access to the data stored in your longterm memory, nor the functioning the neocortex, which is what separates us from the animals. Adrenalin is inversely proportional to intelligence. . . Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

We haven't found and significant correlation between riser length and opening characteristics. The frequency of line-twists seems to be married more to bag stability on deploment. "Bag wobble" and spin seem to be the source of most line-twists. Insufficient pilot chute drag, and or excessive line-stow extraction force is the greatest correlate in that department. In other words, if your pilot chute is wimpy, the bag will lift slowly. This tends to be less stable and more likely to experience a heading change in the process of reaching full line-stretch. Likewise, if your elastics require significant force to extract the stows, the bag will have a greater frequency of "wobble" and rotation. Keep in mind that the closing stows must keep the parachute in the bag until full line extension. The non-locking stows, however, should be light enough to allow the bag to ascend unimpeded. This idea is contrary to the traditional belief that the speed at which the bag ascends has a correlation to opening speed. This has proven not to be the case. Again, the parachute must remain in the bag until the lines are fully extended, but the rest of the deploment must be swift and unhindered. This is the same proven concept as the reserve freebag. Freestow main bags are making a comeback, and the R&D is showing very impressive results in this area. The last significant factor in the genesis of line twists is the fit of the deployment bag in the container. If the bag is too big for the main pack tray, the significant forces required for extraction can increase the frequency of bag instability and rotation. I recently demoed a canopy from a competitor that had a bag too large for my container. The canopy was correctly sized for my rig, but the inflated canopy inside the bag made the fit rather snug. Although I pointed this out to the representative, they seemed to blow me off in this regard. Had I not been an experienced test pilot, I never would have been able to kick out of the many line twists that ensued from the unstable bag deployment. That would not have been good fo their sales. I know this has strayed from the riser length question, and for that I appologize. I just wanted to utilize this opportunity to address the issue of line twists as completely as possible. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

My experience is that the confirmation of a properly calibrated altimeter can provide the confidence to really get the canopy diving. The type is not all that important, and long as it is in a location that allows you to keep your eyes on the changing environment. That's why I love my Alti II chest mount. When you are initiating the turn at a high altitude, it is very difficult to be consisent with the height of your initiation. The trap that often befalls swoopers is the profound trust they have in their visual accuity. Most folks don't even know their altitude of initiation, just the visual experience of it, which changes with the wind conditions. If you make a long radius, high initiation turn for landing, the altimeter can be the difference between going big and merely eeking the turn around because you are underconfident with the altitude of initiation. Once you have initiated the dive, however, the eyes are your only hope. The visual experience of the "Destination Point" is your most valuable feedback data once the dive is initiated. Flying your canopy to a shallow, powerful entry angle is a function of making your sight picture match your mental model of the perfect approach for that particular wind condition. Can you imagine an airplane pilot entering the pattern on visual data alone? Wholly ego, batman! It just isn't done, because instruments create a more consistent result that human senses. It is time to begin thinking of ourselves as pilots, and let go of the old ideas made solid by too many years of "parachute flight" rather than "flight". Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I'm not sure. If TK invites me to do a camp, I would be happy to show up. I am traveling all over these days, and my base isn't in Z-Hills anymore. When I go "home", it is to Upstate New York. There's more to do up there for someone like me. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Actually, I have no reason to believe that at all. I accidentally hit "reply", without typing anything. That's just my tag line... Opps. Sorry. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I have not flown this design as yet, although Stephan has been bugging me to try it for quite some time. I did play with a single cell in front of a fan for several hours at the last Symposium. It's so hard to make a judgement on an idea without testing it extensively. That's how I arrived at the conclusion that the "Germain-Style" Airlock is what I wanted to take to the market. You can't glance at an idea and know everything about it. Stephan always has my best wishes with his inventions. I hope to see this new idea fly, so I can further evaluate it myself. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

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Gosh, that kind of thing could end the swoop meets forever. We need better crowd control than this. We need better self control than this. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

There are many schools of thought on the topic of walking in wind with an airlock canopy. Although many methods work well, there is one way that has tested well in most conditions. Here are the steps: 1) As soon as you are on the ground, release one toggle. This will send the canopy into a turn. As you do this, lean your body weight upwind to tension the lines. This will quicken the response to your input. 2) When the canopy if facing the ground, let go of the remaining toggle. This allows the canopy to fly into the ground. 3) Take a step forward toward the parachute. The canopy will then float on its back, with the nose facing you. There will be little or no drag at this point, which allows you to stand still for a minute and rest from your jump. 4) Do not stow your toggles or push the slider back up just yet. The cupping action of stowed toggles will increase the drag of the canopy, and pushing the slider up in this configuration will form an inflated wall that will be hard to walk with. 5) When you are ready to walk in, separate your front risers from the back risers. Pull the front risers away from the canopy, so as to tension only the nose of the parachute. 6) Next, grab all of your lines in this offset configuration and push the slider back up to the canopy and loop the lines in one hand. By tensioning the leading edge only, you end up changing the shape of the wing from a wall into a tube. Tubes have less drag because the air passes right through them. 7) Flipping the nose of the canopy to the top seems to help keep the air from re-entering the wing. Without a constant influx of air, the pressure in the wing will gradually drop as the outside air presses against the inflated mass. By the time you reach the packing area, most of the air should be out of the wing. I sincerely hope that this information is helpful for all our members of the Airlock Family. Perhaps this knowledge will dispel some of the preconceived notions about airlock canopies, and help to break down the barriers standing in the way of making the choice to go with airlocks. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Airlocking a tandem is a very real possibility. We have build rather large airlock canopies before, and really liked the results. The secrets to walking in with an airlock canopy are going to be a topic in a new post in this forum. It is an important issue, one that may help remove barriers folks may have built between them and the purchase of a valved canopy. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Airlock tandem is a recurrent thought I have had for a while. It will be an expensive research program, and that is prohibitive. The biggest argument against that kind of project is the walk back in. Specific techniques must be developed for getting a 400 sf airlock canopy under control in windy conditions. Perhaps we'll see something like that in the future. I certainly haven't ruled out the possibility. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I don't think that is a fair statement. Open cell canopies can remain stable in some pretty nasty turbulence. They have a proven track record. They don't seal off the nose completely, however. Therefore they must be flown accordingly. In general, a parachute maintains stability through the maintanence of two things: line tension and airfoil shape. This can be controlled to a large degree by that actions of the pilot. If the canopy pilot maintains airspeed and positive "g's" throughout the flight, there can be a reasonable expectation that things will end well. The purpose of airlocks is to enhance this safety margin by reducing that rate of change of internal pressure in the wing. This gives the wing ample opportunity to fly through bad air, as well as providing the pilot time to react. If you allow the wing to surge forward and go to zero "g's", you are seriously opening the door for a collapse. If the wing is completely open at the leading edge, it can immediately dump the air pressure, and fall into an unstable flight mode before the pilot has a chance to react. I am not making this stuff up. Airlocked canopies have been in the air for 9 1/2 years, and still nobody has died from a collapse that I know of. That is a great number of data points. Further supportive evidance lies in the obserations of countless skydivers that report that they flew through nasty air while the open cell canopy next to them whiped out. I still believe that airlock canopies are the way of the future. The fact that the designers are still learning to implement the technology is a big limiting factor. The other limitation of the proliferation of this common sense technology is the beliefs of the pilots. If you get away with doing things as you always have, you naturally assume that you are on the right path. It may be, however, that you have been luckier than you thought. Time will tell. I know that airlocks are only one part of the solution. Flying technique is something that takes time to trickle down, but it must. We must survive, because we are, quite simply, the coolest people in the world. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

I recognize your assumption, and you are incorrect. Airlocks did not cause the opening issues experienced by the Vengeance. The parachute did that all by itself. {Proof of this lies in the fact that the Samurai and Jedei canopies open very nicely, both of which have the Airlock System). Careful not to form a prejudice to something that might save your life. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Very glad you had fun this weekend, I know I did (even when the DZO pantzed me). If you get a chance, I'd love for you to demo a Lotus. It is remarkably similar to the Sabre II, but it has Airlocks as well. I didn't copy it, the Lotus came out first... Nice meeting you! Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

We have not found a signifiant correlation bewteen proper oversews and canopy performance or longevity. The big issue remains attention to match-marks and accuracy of the loaded stitch row. In that capacity, PD has been doing fine as far as we can tell. Again, we have not had a built in turn at all. That is a very good sign. I know other manufacturers have not done so well in this regard. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com

Helmets good. Bumping head, bad. Instructional Videos:www.AdventureWisdom.com Keynote Speaking:www.TranscendingFEAR.com Canopies and Courses:www.BIGAIRSPORTZ.com