nicknitro71

#62 I believe. Memento Audere Semper 903

Lay off my psychedelic jungle camos and my '87 Fury Memento Audere Semper 903

I've told you not to pop that purple pill I gave you and look at yourself in the mirror but you never listen! Memento Audere Semper 903

Maggot advised me that although stable at deployment my style just was not cool enough. So he gave me few hints and now I am very cool and if I may add even decent looking at deployment. The only problem is that I really do not feel very stable anymore (see pic). Any advices would be greatly appreciated. Memento Audere Semper 903

Is that one of my pack jobs? Memento Audere Semper 903

This one concerns Aerodyne soft links and Tempos. PD slinks are TSO, the Tempo is TSO. It's up to the rigger to determine the compatibility of components. Just because let's say a container manufacture did their drop testing and taken the pictures for the manual using a X reserve, it does not mean that you cannot put any other TSO reserves in it other than the X. I installed PD slinks on Tempos and Ravens to name a few. If your rigger thinks that the Tempo and PD slinks are not compatible get the Aerodyne soft links. I do like soft links over metal rapide links. . Memento Audere Semper 903

Yes, both their soft links and the PD slinks. Memento Audere Semper 903

http://www.basewiki.com/ Hey I see you are jumping a Viper. Is it out for sale yet? How you like it? Memento Audere Semper 903

NOICE I am with you that with a solid launch and a good track the separation will be there. People do multiple ways off the ISTW doing funky exits, playing around, pulling higher, and such and this ends up in not much separation...the why? You know why Memento Audere Semper 903

I just finished assembling an band new I4 with a Smart 135 and Pilot 140. Even though everything is very stiff and slippery, all the components went in with no sweat to my surprise. I could definitely put a Smart 150 in but not anything bigger than that. The reserve free bag is by far the best designed free bag I have ever worked with. It has an internal fabric channel between the grommets so the t-botkin is not needed. The lines pocket is a really neat design. It opens like a BASE canopy tail pocket and it has elastic (not rubber bands) line keepers. I really liked it. The lines are stowed nice and neatly. A really great feature. I liked the reserve pilot chute, both the construction and the fact that it has a big opening so no .22 cleaning rod is needed to thread the pull up cord. The AAD routing is also pretty neat and does not leave anything exposed into the pack tray like the older Icon. The internal coating of the reserve tray is very thick and looks very durable. Closing the reserve flaps was no sweat and the pack looked nice (sometimes a rare thing on the very first pack job. I tried to stuff the bag evenly like you would do with a Vector rather that stuffing the ears as much as possible like a Javelin for instance. It seems it worked out quite well. I'd give the reserve system an A, I really could not find anything that either it did not make much sense or I personally did not like. The main risers are pretty cool too. The toggles seem a solid design and the front riser loop are the best I've seen thus far. Made from the same webbing as the rest of the risers, they are sewn in such that they are always open. They scream for "hook it!". Of course the mini-force rings are pretty cool too. By the way all the hardware comes standard SS. The cutaway handle has a hard stiffener in and it feels beefy, another nice touch. The d-bag of the main canopy I did not like it much. First the stow are on the sides and not on the top flap like other designs, a minor thing, it takes me 10 minutes to add stows on top. The PC bridle is sewn into the container hence the d-bag-bridle-PC are one unit. I'm not too keen about his design. Also the kill line is embedded in the bridle inside the d-bag. This makes the bridle to accordion fold itself when the PC is cocked. I do not like this, it adds bulk and can spring back. So overall I did not like the d-bag system. Another thing I found a bit annoying is the slot of the riser cover tuck tabs. It is directly underneath the reserve risers and makes closing the tabs a bit of a pain. If it was let's say 1/4" out it would be much easier to close the risers. I bet as everything softens up it'll be easier to close them up. The internal riser covers I really did not like. Care must be taken in order to avoid folds and wrinkles. A solution would be just to get rid of them (I am not a big fan of internal covers) or make them much stiffer. On the good side the I4 comes standard with cut-in laterals and the harness does fit like a glove. I like the leg strap design and webbing (I guess they changed the webbing construction to address some issues). The hook knife is really neat (not the same .50 plastic knife) and it has its own internal pocket inside the mud flap. All the stitching, reinforcements, bartacks are top notch. Overall I am very impressed with the Icon. There are few things (no rig is perfect by the way!) that could be improved but this is a solid rig without any major flaws and loaded with features that come standard. And it's the most rigger friendly rig I have ever worked with.

Jaap this is a very interesting topic. I am of the idea that if a non-vented canopy opens without going into a stall with slider up and DBS then the setting is too shallow. As for the SBS...There is one thing to keep in mind. On slider up jumps, it is possible to correct the heading while the slider is still descending. If a too deep SBS is used, this correction can cause the canopy to stall at least until the slider is all way down leaving more slack to the break lines but this defeats the purpose of trying to correct the heading as soon as possible. Also a too deep SBS can be more of an issue in heading characteristics than a too shallow SBS in slider up jumps. I am with you that a properly tuned SBS can be a life saver. I am thinking about the ISTW where the ~6 sec FF does not leave you much time for a big separation. A 180 there can make the day very interesting. Bottom line is that I think it is much harder to tune in the SBS than the DBS... Memento Audere Semper 903

Maggot will love one! Super Ravens also open noticeably better than Ravens in slider down jumps. No matter what everyone says, SRs are decent BASE canopies. The Fury is an excellent airfoil and one of the best 7-cell ever made. I have one (ugliest colors known to man: pink and burgundy!). The thing is attached to a Warp III harness-only for un-packed/d-bag jumps only. The Fury has a swallower angle of incidence than a SR so I bet that's the reason why SRs open cleaner slider down. As mentioned by Tim, the Fury has a longer control range and IMO a better flare than a S Raven II. Both are very well constructed (not the original Raven). Both are TSO reserves. The Fury (220) will pack a bit bigger than a SR II. Furys came standard with Dacron lines but I saw few with Spectra from the factory. Furies are still made both as main and reserve and now you can get one with z-po upper. Memento Audere Semper 903

NOICE! Problem is if I don't dope myself, Maggot is going to tear me apart! Or maybe I just drop some LSD in his coffee before the competition; that'll make it for an interesting day! Few more rules... Landing target. This serves three purposes: accuracy under canopy, avoiding landing close to the base of the climb out, and everyone will start the climb-out from the same location. Swoop should be considered not in term of "distance"(pain in the ass to set up the gates, measuring distance and such) but more in term of hook turns (front risers only), let say a 90 will subtract you 1 minute, a 180 2 minutes, and so forth. Aerials...You must give extra points for aerials... So you can have: aerial -1min (3 gainers = -3 min), on heading opening -1, 90 swoop -1, hitting the target -1, stand up -1, and so forth. Here is how it could work. You made 20 jumps. The average climb-out is 10 minutes/jump without any points. You have -30 minutes in stuff so that equals to 3 extra jumps hence the grand total is 23 jumps. Memento Audere Semper 903

Nice one Memento Audere Semper 903

Maggot once told me that just because someone sucks dicks once in a while it does not mean he's gay! Memento Audere Semper 903

Sam, try to be there from 12-18 of this month...if you promise to be nice I'll bring the Maggot with me. GATTY, Are you gay? It's OK if you are don't get me wrong. Even though I'm as straight as an arrow people think I'm gay because I lived in San Francisco for 5 years and because I like purple. Go figure. By the way, nice avatar. Memento Audere Semper 903

You have mentioned you'd like a slower flying canopy. I'd start with the WL. Both of the WLs you mentioned are on the "top end" by today's standard. Things seem to go in opposite direction than in SD when it comes to WL and BASE canopies. Try to get your hands on a canopy that you will be loading it at .65 as a starting point. The BJ is an Ace with the valves. The biggest differences between the Ace and other platforms are the angle of incidence and the length of the lines. The Ace is trimmed pretty steep, I think it's actually one of the steepest among BASE canopies. This is a good trait for the openings. On the other hand, it won't glide as far, sometimes this can also be a good trait. Also the canopy will have a larger vertical velocity than a canopy trimmed shallower. This can be a problem in a no-flare situation because vertical speed hurts more than horizontal speed. The lines being so long I think they are responsible, at least in part, for its great flare in all modes. The con of having such a long lines is the recovery arc of the canopy that is going to be more negative than, let's say, a Fox or Flik of the same size. This translates in possible problems if you make a low and aggressive turn close to the ground. A Fox or Flik will recover faster and give you less "pendulum" effect than an Ace. Another problem is doing rollovers because you have to jump with a greater force in order to keep line tension. IMHO, a good canopy pilot, let's say someone with several HP landings, will enjoy more an Ace or BJ due to its more negative recovery arc, steeper trim, and more responsiveness to front risers. Said that both of these canopies might put you in more delicate situations if you do not stay on top of the game. Tom, please take it further... Memento Audere Semper 903

How does it go...can you sing it?...I don't have the DVD! Memento Audere Semper 903

As far as I can tell, yes Logically it makes sense to me and again so good so far! Memento Audere Semper 903

Well said Tom. I just would like to add something. IMHO, another good reason to always use the primary stow is to retard tail inflation. I am of the idea that the more, well to some extent, the tail is retarded (pun intended ) the better the opening is. The primary stow keeps the tail centered and trapped until the lines are free. By then the nose is ahead in the inflation process. I also pack by trapping the tail and upper center cell as much as I can. So instead of wrapping the center cell around the pack job I just roll it around itself. Then I fold the ends of the stabilizers 90 degrees up and finally completely trap the tail with the "big" three folds. I use it for both slider up and down and so far so good. I started using this method for packing reserves too. As for the rubber band...I got a Prodigy 175 (older school CRW stuff). The "thing" has a tail pocket and a primary stow, of course it's free-bagged. Well, ever since I started to use a medium size tube stows the openings have been more on-heading. I switched back to a medium tan rubber band and I saw a degeneration in the heading department with both one or two wraps! So now I use it on all by BASE canopies as well. Again thus far thus good. The above could be all placebo

Jaap, First don't be so hard with yourself, there is no reason for it. Second, everyone fucks up: The man with the biggest balls will acknowledge it; the one with small balls will shut up; and the one with no balls will deny it and be hypocritical about it (the damn vast majority). You are here with not a scratch on your body telling us the story...you must have done something right...being protective gear, being positive thinking, being predicting ahead, being knowing what to do and not what to do when the shit hit the fan. God damn bravo on this one! Memento Audere Semper 903

I remember that jump...220A? More like 280A! Do you also want to mention the roll-over 180 off the 240S? Memento Audere Semper 903

Don't you know none of the DZ.commers makes any mistakes? Here are couple of mine (actually the same twice): Local 280A strongish tail winds. I jump downwind, that means a 180 turn to make it to the primary LZ (smallish anyhow), open, on-heading, I'm cruising down wind much more than I predicted, I make a 90, the canopy is sliding a lot, now I'm low over the trees. Decision time: try to make a hard 90 risking to pound in or do nothing and go for the trees...I did nothing and went for the trees. Lesson learned: none (read next). Local 240S. Strong tail wind...decide to free-fall it with tail winds. I jump, open on-heading right over the trees and land on top of one, not enough altitude to clear it or to do anything for that matter. 1st lesson learned: be careful with tail winds when opening right over trees. 2nd lesson learned: I'm a slow learner, should have learned lesson 1 after the first tree landing. 3rd lesson learned: should've done a rear floater into the wind. 4th lesson learned: chain saws and Banks rock Memento Audere Semper 903

Next time use skies, snowboards are getting out of style You also might be runnig out of lives Memento Audere Semper 903

Medium size tube stow on all my jumps. Memento Audere Semper 903