deployment altitudes?

[fastphil 0]

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I used to deploy at 2000 for a long time, but after a couple of cypres fires and numerous low pulls, I moved it up to 2500, especially after I got married...

A few years of marital bliss should have you back down below 2 grand... LOL

[lili 0]

I voted for 3500 as my canopy takes a loooong time to open (just how I like it :-) so definitely open by 2500. It also gives me a little time if something isn't quite right to react or assimilate information and hopefully still be open by 2000. Not sure why people would pull at 2000. What is your hard deck then? doesn't give you much time to sort anything out if it is wrong.

Lx

[jakee 1,489]

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On wingsuit jumps I pull lower.

I don't fly wingsuits myself, so I don't know... but it seems like it makes more sense to pull higher with a wingsuit. More potential complications... more time to deal with them?

Am I off base?

No you're not.

I personally am happy opening in my wingsuit at 3k like I do on other jumps (what other jumps?) - but I'm on a Sabre. If and when I downsize to a snivelly canopy with the potential to dive like a Xfire2 then I would certainly take my wingsuit deployment height back up a k or so.

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[MrBrant 0]

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Personally, regularly pulling at 2k5 or lower on a high-performance canopy is risk I don't want. If you're normally open at 1600-1800ft and have a diving twisty thing, the 3-4 seconds it takes to decide that it's unsolvable and it's time to go can put you down at 1000ft.

Well, there's your problem

[DougH 270]

Hey! We all can't be digital thinkers...

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[BillyVance 34]

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I used to deploy at 2000 for a long time, but after a couple of cypres fires and numerous low pulls, I moved it up to 2500, especially after I got married...

A few years of marital bliss should have you back down below 2 grand... LOL

back in those days before marriage I was VERY current, jumping nearly every weekend. Nowadays I'm lucky if I get out to jump at least one day a month. A little safety margin here is warranted.

"Mediocre people don't like high achievers, and high achievers don't like mediocre people." - SIX TIME National Champion coach Nick Saban

[billvon 2,991]

>but it seems like it makes more sense to pull higher with a wingsuit.

I pull 500-1000 feet higher on wingsuit jumps. There's just more to go wrong.

[MarkM 0]

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I don't fly wingsuits myself, so I don't know... but it seems like it makes more sense to pull higher with a wingsuit. More potential complications... more time to deal with them?

Am I off base?

A lot of the possible complications go away if you're jumping a docile canopy or if you're doing it full time enough that things like grabbing wing instead of your hackey aren't that big of a deal. But most of the people I know that are jumping wingsuits full time are probably pulling at normal a altitude for their experience levels.

[MB38 0]

Thanks for all the replies, everyone.

I really don't know what I'm talking about.

[superstu 0]

so i'm just going to throw this out there and see what you guys think.

by looking at the results everyone can see that the majority of skydivers deploy between 3k and 3.5k. however, there are quiet a few people deploying at 2.5k or 2k. and by looking at just some of the profiles of the people who posted (thank you by the way) most of those who stated they pulled below 2.5k are jumping either larger canopies, or lower wingloadings, or both.

now if we have some one on a larger canopy deploying at 2.5 or 2 and we have someone who is on a little pocket rocket of a parachute deploying at 3 or 3.5, where do you think these people are going to meet up? Below 1000' correct?

now how about this, if those same people that deploy at 2 or 2.5 deploy at 3 or even 3.5 and those people flying smaller parachutes open at 3 or 3.5, now where will they meet up? probably between 1000'-1500'. this would most likely allow the jumpers who fly the small, faster parachutes to get out of the air and land first thus creating less of a hazard.

What do you guys think? i think it would be pretty interesting to try out for a weekend and see what it does to the canopy traffic.

Slip Stream Air Sports
Do not go softly, do not go quietly, never back down

[tbrown 26]

I like to pull around 3 grand. If there are more people on the load I'll track to 3 grand and pull somewhere lower, probably 2.5'ish. On organized big stuff, I'll pull where I'm told to pull.

Your humble servant.....Professor Gravity !

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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now how about this, if those same people that deploy at 2 or 2.5 deploy at 3 or even 3.5 and those people flying smaller parachutes open at 3 or 3.5, now where will they meet up?

It depends on exit order and how the pilots fly.

In full-flight a canopy loaded a little over a pound per square foot might descend at 15 feet per second (Paraflite's M1Z limit for 350 pounds under a 308) A small elliptical will dump over 90 feet per second in a turn (measured) and 15 feet per second in deep brakes (because it matches a large canopy's full-flight velocity vector assumed to be comparable to Paraflite's numbers)

If both open at the same time and the small canopy starts manuevering at 3500 feet whilst the large one is at 2000 feet, they'll swap positions somewhat below 1700 feet (it takes a little while for the small parachute to accelerate).

If the small canopy pilot goes into deep brakes he'll be at 1500 feet when the large canopy pilot lands which is a nice place to begin setting up for a high performance landing.

When the big canopy pilot spirals down and the small canopy pilot does not slow down, it screws up the speed differential and they often cross paths below pattern altitude especially when the small canopy pilot opens farther from the drop zone and is saving his altitude to get back from the spot.

I have 200 pounds under 105 square feet and usually land later once the Muppets have gotten out of the way.

[Canuck 0]

I've never understood why people pull higher or lower depending whether they are flat or free flying. I pull between 3 and 3.5 no matter what kind of skydive I do. My breakoff altitude changes depending on what kind of jump I'm doing, and how many people I'm doing it with, but not my pull altitude.

Canuck

[pchapman 279]

For me, pull altitude is largely affected by what the rest of the group is doing.

If I'm doing small way RW with old timers and breaking off at 3500', then I'm probably pulling at no more than 2500'. If I'm in a sitfly or other group wanting to split at 4500', then I've got a little more vertical distance to get good separation. But I don't go tracking off into the sunset, so I'm maybe pulling at 3000'. Might as well pull a little higher if one already has the horizontal separation.

Another influence is that I'm at a piston Cessna DZ, so altitude seems more precious.

There's going to be variation in opening altitudes from jump to jump. So if one were "OK with" 2500', one might still on average pull at 3000'.

As an example of variation, here's a graph from Jumptrack showing a frequency count of my OPENING altitudes by frequency for the last few years. (Protrack of course shows opening alt, not pull alt, which could be 800' higher for my usual fast canopy. Higher openings like tandems are omitted, as are most errors like hop and pops where only the swoop was captured.)

I don't think I'm the most consistent person when it comes to opening alts, as after breakoff I'm going more by feel than trying to hit a particular preferred altitude.