Cacophony

You should always do as planned during a skydive. Your friend should have tracked if he said he was going to track. On a 2 way its not that huge of a deal that he didn't, simply a matter of principle. Sounds like you got a good wakeup call. Perhaps you should buy an audible? They help a whole lot and they wont let you forget your altitude.

Yep. I even use the burble to help stay close to a formation when I'm shooting 4 way video. I don't recommend it unless you know how the team flies and have experimented with it a lot! Trying to dock on a freefly formation is hard. When you throw belly fliers in the mix it makes it even harder. Normally on freefly jumps, in a vertical position there isn't much of a burble due to the orientation of flight. So when you put belly fliers in there its a whole different ball game. You have to be more accurate which takes some time getting used to. Perhaps the person or persons in question should get in some more practice before they attempt to dock on a hybrid again.

I think he had 6-8 rigs. Team Fasttrax loaned them to him for his efforts.

Hey. I shot her video! Kewl.

I don't know.... Jay Stokes is pretty hard core. I know Jay fairly well and he is sure that 600 can be done. I even think he is going to try it within the next year or two. Don't quote me on that though.

I'll let you know when I have one.

I actually had an unstowed brake line on a vector 3 this weekend. I've had about 6 this year alone. I had the factory toggles from RWS for this rig. I believe that it has to do with the riser cover and the excess brake line snagging it during opening. I know of a few other people that have had this very similar problem on this rig. Make sure you tightly secure all excess brake line and that it is pulled nice and tight through the guide ring. This helped me to get rid of the problem. (Side note, the unstowed brake line I had this weekend was on the same rig, but after I had sold it. It was packed by someone else with their canopy.) Never once have I cut away my main canopy due to an unstowed brake line or line twists and I jump a Stiletto 135. I'm sure you made the right decision, but if you pull on time you should have a solid 10 seconds until your hard deck under severe line twists. That should give you plenty of time to assess the situation.

Just got my new Infinity set up this weekend. Thanks for the awesome service Kelly. I'll probably order another one from you here in a few months!! Already have a few new potential buyers as well.

Perception is what really counts when it comes to canopy sizes. Like everyone has already said, you should probably try something in between a 270 and a 170 for a bit. Its not that you couldn't handle a 170 because you would be loading it too high, its that your perception of speed is way off from what a 170 will give you. Wing loading is the biggest deciding factor on performance (of course there are a lot of other factors too). The design of the wing only increases that. Think about it like this........ You can kill yourself on any canopy very easily. The smaller you go the easier it is to do. If you go to a canopy that is too fast for you to mentally process there is no way you can handle a situation you are not used to. You should max out every canopy you jump before proceeding to a small size and allow your senses to adjust to handling things at a much faster pace. I went from a PD230 to a Sabre 170. It was a huge huge difference. Take advice from the people that can actually watch you land and be careful. Shattering a femur is not fun!!!!!

I liked it for doing hop'n pops out of. It has its flaws but for an airplane designed specifically for skydiving, I think they did a good job. I like all the handles inside. I didn't get a chance to check out the camera step, or any step for that matter, because I never rode it above 3,000'.

After nearly hitting the tail of our caravan this past weekend it seems to me that the PAC 750 is definately not a good airplane to exit without a "cut". In my case I was just being stupid and I wasn't paying attention and I exited facing the wind without a cut. Video is pretty crazy. There are a few things I don't understand about that 750 if it was designed for skydiving like why the exhaust for the engine is on the left side. It really sucks if you have to stand there for a minute getting blasted by jet fumes. I know its a engineering thing and way over my head. Just a practicle observation though.

My deepest condolences. Its a sad sad day when one loses a camera. I haven't been down that road yet, but I know that the clock is ticking. Thats why I use a D-Box. Sorry about your loss.

This year rocked. I had a lot of fun doing tons of hop'n pops. I'd have to say my highlight was making out in the party tent for a few hours, heh. Skydiving was good too. Things got a little crazy Thursday night didn't they?

If I'm thinking correctly the move is called a wingover. Here is a video of Heath Richardson doing a similar swoop over dry gound. http://www.performancedesigns.com/pdzone/video2.asp?team=flight1&category=swoop&videoID=15

Preach it brotha. I still get in one of those every now and then. One of the best survival skills you can have. I've known way too many people that hurt themselves simply because they didn't do one.

As if you know what you are talking about Kelly, heh. J/K!!!! Looking forward to getting my Infinity soon. Talk to you later.

Are there a lot of dropzones that use this technique? It doesn't seem like that would teach anyone how to judge their flare correctly because they are constantly looking out towards the horizon. Plus, student canopies don't have as powerful of a flare as a typical sport canopy because of the low wingloading and basic design. It requires a deeper flare to get it to slow down.

That sucks. I assume the person you are describing was tracking belly to earth? Gotta love those loose brake lines. I've had a few unstowed brake lines this year. Good thing I only load my canopy at 1.4!! Does this person stow their excess line or just leave it hang? I sounds like the excess was snagged on something and pulled the brake line out. A foot is a bit more than if the toggle was stowed properly.

Hmmmm. Not sure about that. It might be your chipset on your motherboard. Are you playing the clips on your monitor or through your camera onto a broadcast monitor? Are the transitions rendered or is it before you render? What version of premiere?

Hmmmmm. That doesn't sound natural. You are going to have to re-phrase that or something. Elaborate maybe?

I don't agree with that. Its not the fact that you are doing a full flare, its more of how you flare. Students seem to have a tendency, whether its because they are taught or its how they do it, to flare in one fast big motion. A slower more progressive flare will reduce the likely-hood of your canopy popping up. The problem is that if you teach that to a student they probably won't flare at all or very little. Definately talk to some instructors at your DZ and have them help you with some good flaring techniques. We here at the forums can give you some advice but we can't see your landings. Your instructors can and will be able to provide more insight into your skills. PLF!!!!

As stated on pg. 10 of the Australian Parachute Federation's document "High Performance Canopy Handling Manual" http://www.apf.asn.au/apf_services/publications.asp Since almost all canopies are rigged with the A and B lines on the front riser, pulling one riser down does not smoothly change the camber of the wing in the same way as pulling on a toggle. After only a few centimetres of movement a noticeable "step" is induced in the aerofoil and this can have a couple of very undesirable effects. Initially it can cause the airflow over the canopy to separate from the canopy surface causing the canopy to bounce and buck. If more deformation is applied then there is a real possibility that the top surface of the canopy could be pulled down and exposed to the airflow. This would cause that half of the canopy to immediately tuck under (nose roll). Some canopies are more prone to this than others but turbulence could make this happen to any canopy. This is why turbulence and front risering is not a good combination.

Tell that to some of those old hardcore accuracy guys out there, heh. Thats great to hear its nothing too bad. Practice those PLF's!!

But you can't knot it around the ring doing it like that. You have to loop it around the line above the ring, and then pull it through. Thats a lot of work and I don't really see how its possible after opening unless you were actually trying to knot it. I'm pretty much satisfied that I did it when I stowed the brakes. Grabbing it through the excess would only make an annoying knot in the line.

I think it just looks so twisted because at that point it was blowing in the wind. I straightened my brake lines about 10 jumps ago. Actually, I do let go of my toggles after I land and before I stow them because I always record my landings and I have to get ready for a tandem or AFF to land. Sometimes I just don't stow them in the field unless I have a little extra time. I guess its possible that it looped above the ring and I pulled it through itself, and then stowed it like normal without even noticing, as well as the guy who packed it not noticing. It just seems like such a stretch, but hey, it happened.