craddock

I could cover much more ground with my old 107 stiletto in brakes then I could with rear risers.(with the wind) I have took it on cross countries as far as 16 miles from 9000' I have spent a lot of time flying brakes and rear risers and I feel that brakes are the best upwind. J

You might be ok if you land it awake and you fly a small stiletto as a main.It's the landing after you are knocked out on that will get you. Just for the record I am currently flying mains loaded at anywhere from 2.2 to 2.6 lbs/sqft and I do not have a AAD. J

I have to second that. They Rock!! Also to Tim and Henry. Thanks guys. Bummed out I lost my cool Wings bottle cooler this weekend. Think I had one to many!! Seriously though- if you are in the market for a new rig check them out! Josh

"buy" that is btw I have a PD106 on the way and I am far from overloading it at 185 exit. It is all about landing it though so it is best not to load a reserve that high. Josh

If you are overloading your reserve chances are you are too FAT or to Cheap to but a good reserve. There are some exceptions with a few big men. Josh

I love the static line program!! I did my first four way (5points) on my 14th jump(+5 static lines) at a fraction of the cost of AFF. That jump cost me $15 for a total of $425 at that point. No way in hell would I go AFF. That was a couple of years ago so it. It would cost an extra $150 these days. Unfortunately that is a very special DZ and there are very few places like that to learn. When we had a low cloud ceiling I did like 12 jumps from 2500 feet one day. Most AFF students would never get out of the plane that low with the jumps I had then. Everybody learns at a different rate, but I know that I would not have benefited in any way by going AFF. In my case it would have hurt me because what it comes down to is that WHERE you learn is far more important than HOW you learn. JH

I have demoed plenty of canopies including the Cobalt 95 without filling out or signing anything. These include the highest performance canopies that all of the major manufacturers have to offer(with the exception of the VX which I will probably take a chance and buy). To be fair, some of these were at boogies that normally do not require paperwork, but both the samurai(awesome canopy; but the smallest one they make is a 95) and the Cobalt(also a very nice canopy) were given to me outside of a boogie without paperwork. As much as I liked the Cobalt, I did not buy one. I have purchased an canopy since then and am looking to purchase a different one. Alan is very fair with his comments on this topic. I have seen several canopies purchased in the last few months that would have been Cobalts if only things would have been different. Blue Skies, J One more note- I found myself having to deploy my FX85 this weekend at a very high rate of speed. I had no choice and was expecting to get punished because of it, but to my suprise it was a beautiful painless opening. Now I will admit that I have been slammed under this canopy when I have let someone else pack it and even my own pack job when I was careless with the slippery new thing. I have learned how to make it open slow. I also did not buy this canopy for its opening characteristics. On the other hand, my first few jumps on the Cobalt were very uncomfortable. It was not until I hardly rolled the tail and starting deploying at a high speed that I got to appreciate the openings. I had to learn how to speed the openings up! At that point I can say it is an amazing canopy as far as openings are concerned. I would not however want to find my self at a low altitude on an rw jump without having time to build up a tremendous amount of speed under a Cobalt. Still if you are buying on opening characteristics, this canopy will most likely meet your needs. Edited by craddock on 5/1/01 07:33 PM.

%#^^%$&$%*&!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just how will it save you money in the long run? I went static line and did my first 4 way on my 16th jump I think. Got five points on that dive. Of course that had a lot to do with were I learned and who I was jumping with. I could never have afforded to have finished the AFF program at that point. If I had to do it over again I would not change a thing regardless of money. But some DZ's only offer one disipline(plus tandem), and in that case there may be a big difference in WHERE you learn. I do not believe I could have learned at a better DZ for many reasons. This is important. Bigger is not always better! But again I must ask, how do you think AFF will save you money? I can not see it unless they charge outrageously for staticline which I guess is not that hard to believe today. C

Couple things to ad. First, as far as the green line is concerned, neither of my pilot chutes even have a window. If you cock the pilot chute then it is cocked. You can tell if it is cocked with your eyes closed. Just take some time to look at how it actually works and it will solve all your confusion and worries. Second I have seen several people deploy with uncocked pilot chutes. You will have a pilot chute hesitation, but unless you have a extremely tight closing loop it will eventually pull the pin. Nobody I know has had a mal. because of this. A good friend of mine went of the bridge with his pilot chute uncocked. He swears he cocked it(sort of shoots my "if you cock it it's cocked" theory down the drain) but there is video to prove it was not cocked. Blues, c

Your are talking about a seven cell f111 compared to a nine cell zp. Do you think I should try to find an 85 sq ft reserve to match my main? How many times have you jumped your reserve. Some people demo them, but a lot of people never jump them until they need to. At that point their may be a lot of factors that would make it more apealing to have more fabric over their head. Even more so as a novice jumper. c

I watched a someone break their back in November at SDC. He had only jumped out of a 182 until that day and was not prepared for all the traffic even though he was warned about it and was confident that he was ready for it. C

I agree with Grasshopper. Why do you want the Batwing? Not that I consider it high peformance from what I have seen of it , but I watch a jumper I knew break his back under a big sabre. I am afraid of what would have happened if he would have attempted that low avoidance turn under an eliptical. It is very important to learn LOW TURNS. Learn them before you call yourself a very good canopy pilot. I consider myself a very good canopy pilot and was doing low turns before I was of student status. Now I certainly don't encourge other to take the route I did(I am at a different DZ now so my students don't know which is a very good thing), but my point is that you need to be able to fly your canopy in all situations. The sabre is a very good canopy and will allow you to do that. So again the question is : Why do you want to change canopies? C

Better get in the habit of making sure your brakes are set properly now before you downsize. Having a brake unstowed on opening can be a very dangerous ordeal. Having a few in one weekend clearly indicates that you are doing something wrong. Even one in a weekend would indicate that you are doing something wrong. I am not sure what you mean by tucking into your riser covers as I have know idea what kind of rig you are jumping, but it is clearly a bad idea. Like you said, you are retarded. It's not your fault. C

Grasshopper wrote: keep in mind when you buy canopy designs (such as safire or cobalt)verylong, quirks may exist that have not been exposed yet. before everyone else starts the hatefull responses, let me remind them of the nova (it got recalled when too many people died or got hurt when they collapse in turbulance) Well while I agree with your theory on newer desgns, I don't see how you can consider the Cobalt a new design. That airfoil has been proven over the last couple years. C

Another secret is to pull it down in front of you and hold it with your chin. The Jedei came with velcroe and this is much easier and faster then messing with that.

All this discussion on where(how) to stow your excess brake line and I can not offer any advice. I don't even stow mine. c

You Are wondering where the brakes are? Oh boy!! I have about a dozen jumps on a 95 at 2lb/1ft. The brakes are exactly where one would expect them to be. C.