skynole

Dude, like I said in a previous post, I think what you are proposing can only be a positive thing! One question though - maybe I missed it or don't remember reading it - but who would "govern" the ballmasters/coaches? Who will administer their qualifications? Will there be (similiar to USPA) "freeflying I/E's"?

Just wanted to say that I've enjoyed reading this thread and Levin and all you guys are on the right track. With freeflying being a mainstream disclipline nowdays, I say the pros definitely outway the cons in what you guys are discussing...especially in the name safety. Progression is a positive thing! Keep the wheels turning...

What's up Scott! This is Brian from Tallahasee. When are you heading back over? Well I just bought a Velocity, so when it arrives you can jump my Stiletto 135 and see what you think. I love it. I've also jumped a Nitron 135 and enjoyed it as well...very similiar flight characteristics to my Stiletto but I felt it had a stronger flare (i.e. more lift). Never jumped XFire but know many people that do and they say pretty much the same thing everyone in this thread is saying. All I can say is demo, demo, demo.

Just this past weekend actually I was jumping w/ a friend who was trying a belly camera mount for the first time. As he is on his rears during his swoop you can clearly see the back of the canopy stall for a second but nothing to laugh at because he quickly recovered with his toggles and stood it up. The canopy pretty much fills up the screen from the belly mount perspective and it's easily to tell what happens. He still had a good deal of speed as he is easing his rears down (not digging by any means...) and you see the tail of the canopy surge under itself for a split-second. I think I might have firewired that footage so if I have it I'll post it. BTW, since this thread kind of went on a tangent, does that mean that no-one has anything to say about the original post I made about bringing this old thread up again....

Yup. I got a 35% certificate and in order to use it you had to place your order directly through PD.

Thanks for everyone's input. Well in Rantoul I was able to demo a couple different X-braces and I ended up ordering a Velocity 103. After talking with several experienced pilots there and talking with the Marketing Rep for PD, who was handling the demos in Rantoul (he use to jump at my home DZ so he could give me a better evaluation on my skill than just what I say), I felt comfortable with my decision, even though I originally was thinking of going a bit bigger. This would put me at a wing loading right around 1.9-2.0. At this wing-loading I get a good combination of speed and distance which is what I am looking for. I felt comfortable flying this canopy in Rantoul...and if you've been to a WFFC you know it "ain't no walk in the park" when it comes to canopy traffic. Rhino - to answer your question, besides the fact that I feel ready to downsize and move on in my canopy progression, I am looking for a safer swooping canopy - let me explain... I have my Stiletto dialed-in pretty descently. I love this canopy, it's taught me A LOT don't get me wrong, but there is one thing I really don't like about it and that's how low you have to initiate your turn. Everytime I am in my turn, even though I know this canopy pretty well by now, I'm always thinking "man this just seems low" even though it's not, because of the Stiletto's shallow recovery arc. You can't adjust dive as nowhere near much as you can on X-brace. I know that with a X-brace though, I'm introducing a significant amount of new-found speed but IMHO I feel that this a better trade-off for MY comfort level under canopy. You can then make the argument that why don't I try a Crossfire or wait till PD releases their Kitana? Both those canopies have longer dive capabilities but I am still staying with ellipticals. To answer that - If I am going to spend the money on a new canopy I'm confident and comfortable enough with my abilities to go ahead and slowly and conservatively start learning X-brace canopies. To me half the fun of skydiving is canopy flight and I want to safely push my abilities in this discipline. Besides, a Crossfire really isn't all that much cheaper than a X-Brace and I'm sure the Kitana won't be either...plus I got 35% off my Velocity! Any and all constructive criticism is welcome.

I wanted to bring up this old thread up again because I have been thinking about this. I agree that loops would be a very bad idea, but like riggerrob mentioned, something along the lines to make the rear risers more "gripper-friendly". Personally, I'm not so concerned about having a different feel so I don't accidentally grab the wrong input (though that is a valid point), but mainly having something placed on the top 1/3 of the rears to make them a little more "gripper-friendly", especially for mini-risers. Does anyone know of any mods that have been done or any plans for mods of this type? Any ideas? Some CReW dogs I know wrap heavy-tape (like Duct or surgical) around a few times at the top third of both their front and rear risers to add bulk for easier gripping. Though, this in particular is something I personally wouldn't consider doing, something along these lines is what I am thinking of.

Just wanted to thank everyone (Asaf, LouDiamond, Frank, etc.) at the Birdman tent for showing me a great time on my first...second and third flights at Rantoul. Never understood the addiction until now!!

Hey Sunnydee, I'll be in Sebastian this weekend, and probably pretty frequently from now on. I'm helping my parents move in to house they just bought...1 mile from the DZ!!!! So I'm sure I'll have come visit my parents all the time. I'd love to make some jumps with ya, but I'm not sure if I'm gonna be able to make it to the DZ this weekend...depends if I get some free time from moving. Maybe I'll see ya this weekend, if not I'm sure I'll run into at some point down there. See ya!

I am not here to bash Icarus...Just share MY experience with them. I ordered a Safire 149 awhile back, custom, and it came in when promised and no problems with the customer service. My gripe is more with the canopy itself. It had a very inconsistent flare. Sometimes it would land fine and other times it slam me and I was doing nothing different. At first I thought it was just me, but after jumping for over a year I knew something was up. Besides, a few other jumpers at my DZ had the same canopy and about half of us were having the same problem of inconsistent flares...and these jumpers had 1000+ jumps so I think they can figure out the flare. Anyway, I ended up selling the canopy and the guy who bought it called a couple weeks later after jumping it several times and asked what I did to this canopy because of it's inconsistency. I told him I didn't do anything but that I experienced the same problems. He ended up sending it back Icarus, who then told him that this canopy was manufactured incorrectly and they ended up doing a Safire2 mod for no charge. Never spoke to the guy since so I don't know if that fixed the problem. As you can imagine, I was kinda pissed off that I bought a brand new canopy, which I jumped for over a year, and it was made wrong from the factory!! Skydiver40TN - Maybe your canopy might have been made incorrectly like mine...so try contacting Icarus and see about getting that Safire2 mod done

This question is for X-braced pilots or equivalent knowledge of X-braced canopies. I've got about 700 jumps, 400 of those on a Stiletto 135 @1.5ish. I'm getting pretty efficient on it...of course I could probably do another 1000 jumps on it and still not master it fully. But I would like to start flying and learning X-braced canopies but I don't want to downsize too much. If I were to get a X-brace, it would probably be a 120...which brings me to my question: I would be loading it at around 1.7, which is not an optimal wing-loading for X-braced from what I understand. 2 or more is preferred. Should I not bother pursuing X-brace flight until I am ready for 2+ wingloading or can I still get a good idea of X-brace flight with that "light" of a wingloading? Thanks in advance for any input.

I use the same method Obi does and it works well...for me. You clench the toggle to the palm of your pinky and ring finger. Then you have your pointer and middle fingers, plus thumbs to fly your front and rear risers...which is a pretty strong grip like Obi said. I have also practiced up high releasing a riser and getting out of the toggles and going for my handles. By just opening up your palm, releasing any grips you have, and just pointing your palms upward and pulling down your hands come free very fast.

I'll be there 4th-10th. SkymonkeyONE, you available to take me on a Birdman flight...preferrably before the rave!

I did a search and couldn't find anything, but I am sure it must have been discussed at some point. Maybe I didn't use the right search criteria.... Anyway, any suggestions with travelling with my camcorder and mini-DV tapes. Doesn't the X-ray machine at the airport security check damage the film inside the tapes? Thanks in advance for your help.

That sucks! First I tried to take it apart and do it myself. The more layers I took off my camera, the more, and tinyer (word?), screws showed up to remove so I just decided to take it to a local electronics repair shop before I got in over my head. They included a full cleaning of the camera so basically it's just like sending it to Sony but cheaper and no shipping involved.

This might a stupid question, but since this will be "not my second" convention I just don't know. Will you guys be located in one of the organizer tents? Are there organizer fees or is that covered by the registration fees? I'd love to make a few jumps with you guys so just want to know where to find you and what the deal is. Thanks...looking forward to it.

CamEye 2 didn't work so I took it in to a local video repair shop. They told me that the LANC port itself was damged - specifically, their were indentations on the metal "receivers" (sorry for the lack of terminology) most likely caused by excessive pressure exerted on the needle. This goes right in line with the posts I've read with damage caused by pressure applied by the D-box on the needle. I'm going to make some mods to my D-box to alleviate this excessive pressure. Well it's going to cost me $183 bucks to fix (better than Sony's flat rate of $216 or something), mainly in labor costs because a new port is only like $13 bucks. Worst of all, I won't have my camera for the next couple of weekends so I won't be able to supplement my jumping!! Anybody out there using a PC style D-box with a Cam-eye, don't make the expensive mistake I did and make mods to not have pressure applied on the needle by the lining of the box, because it will damage it over time.

Yeah I read some other posts (thanks Monkey) and I think I might have damaged the port because it was working fine until last weekend and I have a D-box which might have been putting unnecessary pressure on the needle. I've got the Cam-eye 1 but it worked fine until just last week. I'll give it as try with a friend's Cam-eye 2 and see if it works. Thanks for your guys help.

Hi. My Cam-Eye only works if you jiggle the needle around a bit and hold it in a certain position. I thought it was my Cam-Eye but it works fine on several other cameras so obviously it must be my camera. I suspect that just the LANC connector came loose inside my camera. Anyone else experience this before, and if so, how did you go about fixing it?...Besides sending it to Sony. Thanks.