Drifter...need infos, please

[anj4de 0]

Hello everybody

I am looking for information on how to build drifters...at my club there are only two other people who have ever jumped a round canopy and they do not know the dimensions and the weight of a drifter any more. Now my buddy and me are slowly getting confident enough to spot ourselves but to be fully able to determine the exit point and to guide the plane to the spot setting drifters is needed...When I was in the Army we used balloons from the ground and calculated the drift by measuring the angle and taking the time after take off...not exactly what we can do nowadays in our DZ. So instructions on how to make drifters would be very welcome.

thanks
Uwe

For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return.

-Leonardo da Vinci

[andrewhilton 1]

22 feet long
10 inches wide
Made of Crepe Paper
We used newspaper at the weighted end - 2 sheets of a 'broadsheet' (ie big) newspaper rolled up seemed to do the trick

You're aiming for something that takes two minutes to descend from 2200 feet. Make one, time it and adjust accordingly.

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

22 feet long
10 inches wide
Made of Crepe Paper
We used newspaper at the weighted end - 2 sheets of a 'broadsheet' (ie big) newspaper rolled up seemed to do the trick

You're aiming for something that takes two minutes to descend from 2200 feet. Make one, time it and adjust accordingly.

I use a paper drinking straw filled with sand...I like your newspaper idea better!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[AirCav 0]

20 feet crepe paper, 10 inches wide, with 3 pieces of of coat hanger wire cut 10 inches long taped to the bottom.

GW685,D3888,C5052,SCS843

[jackwallace 3]

We use to use 3 paper straws filled with salt in the crepe paper. The newspaper sounds great. Anything that will dissolve in the rain.

U only make 2 jumps: the first one for some weird reason and the last one that you lived through. The rest are just filler.
scr 316

[Krip 2]

Quote

20 feet crepe paper, 10 inches wide, with 3 pieces of of coat hanger wire cut 10 inches long taped to the bottom.

Beware when using the metal coat hangers. Cows can eat the "Drifter " WDI includeing the metal parts.

K-RIP

[airtwardo 7]

Quote

20 feet crepe paper, 10 inches wide, with 3 pieces of of coat hanger wire cut 10 inches long taped to the bottom.

Not a good idea to use any metal in them, tears up farm equipment as well as animals...I knew a DZ that used cut up welding rods until they got the bill for fixing a I-H Combine.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[Marisan 0]

Half of a magazine such as Time Magazine rolled tight and taped. This is the weight.
Take two different coloured rolls of crepe paper and cut in half. (Blue and red or blue and yellow used to work well in NZ but adjust for the ground colour where you jump)
Unravel the crepe paper and tape the two different colours together. Tape the weight to one end. (Use a lot of tape)

"S" fold the drifter until it is about one foot long, then roll it and rubber band it.

Throwing: Remember to remove the rubber band (Sounds silly but it happened lots) Also carry two in case the first malfunctions.

When you throw it remember it flies back NOT down so look towards the tail of the AC.

While it is flight NEVER take your eyes off it. If you lose sight of it it is bloody near impossible to re-acquire it.

Two places to throw it:
1/ Throw it over the target. Note where it lands and extend that line from the landing point through the target and an equal distance upwind of the target. This is your opening point (NOT exit point)
2/ Throw it where you think your opening point is and adjust same according to where the drifter lands.

Have fun!

[oldwomanc6 52]

Two places to throw it:
1/ Throw it over the target. Note where it lands and extend that line from the landing point through the target and an equal distance upwind of the target. This is your opening point (NOT exit point)
2/ Throw it where you think your opening point is and adjust same according to where the drifter lands.

Have fun!

This may be implied, but just to state it for those who have never used a WDI, it needs to be thrown at approx. opening altitude, not at exit altitude. Maybe obvious, maybe not

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[obelixtim 150]

Richard, you KNOW Time magazine isn´t correct to use for the weight...

It was 7 pages from a Playboy magazine.....

My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

[lekstrom10k 0]

I totally agree so does Billy Webers family DZ . They had to go to court and eventually lost their DZ because of WDI's in cows. The original length was judged for a non-steerable 24' reserve to drift back safely.I have told people at Tecumseh MI that we got out over the "Big Boy Resturant" in the rag and PC days. Usual answer "WOW thats way out there "Yup

[Krip 2]

Quote

I totally agree so does Billy Webers family DZ . They had to go to court and eventually lost their DZ because of WDI's in cows. The original length was judged for a non-steerable 24' reserve to drift back safely.I have told people at Tecumseh MI that we got out over the "Big Boy Resturant" in the rag and PC days. Usual answer "WOW thats way out there "Yup

Hi 10k

I'm no where near as experienced as you are, but I've spent so much time on rounds trying to hold nto the wind that I thought I needed a rear view mirror.

Even with a WDI most of the time we were getting out way to short. Maybe the Big guy spotting and going out base was trying to tell us something

K-RIP

[skr 1]

And remember that you have to explain
to the pilot what you are trying to do,
and especially what he has to do.

When you throw it the plane has to circle
so that you can keep it in sight until it hits
the ground.

I used yellow crepe paper because it was
easy to see against a green tree background.

The plane has to stay fairly close and you
have to keep your eye on it. If the plane
gets too far away, or you look somewhere
else and then back again it can be hard to
find.

And if the plane banks too much and the
wing blocks your view of it it can also be
hard to find.

And once it hits it's good to get to a place
that's 90 degrees from what the jump
run is going to be so you can get a good view
of where the opening point is (like other land
marks besides just the place where it landed).

The pilot has to fly as if he were the one
watching it and keeping it in sight and
deciding where the opening and exit points
are.

It could be good to do some wind streamer
dirt dives with the pilot.

Trying to make it all happen in real time
with an oblivious pilot is a recipe for jump
stories :-) :-)

Skr

[Marisan 0]

Agree with everything you said Skratch.
It also helps if the pilot continues the climb whilst you are watching the drifter.
Threw one at Scone, NSW AU for a demo at 2,500.
By the time it had landed we were at 1,700. (Don't take your eyes off the drifter even to check your altimeter)

First time he'd ever flown jumpers and he was more nervous than we were.

Ahh the good old days.

[Marisan 0]

Quote

Richard, you KNOW Time magazine isn´t correct to use for the weight...

It was 7 pages from a Playboy magazine.....

I wasn't wasting my seventies porn on no stinking drifter.
Remember this was BEFORE the internet

[Krip 2]

Quote

Agree with everything you said Skratch.
It also helps if the pilot continues the climb whilst you are watching the drifter.
Threw one at Scone, NSW AU for a demo at 2,500.
By the time it had landed we were at 1,700. (Don't take your eyes off the drifter even to check your altimeter)

First time he'd ever flown jumpers and he was more nervous than we were.

Ahh the good old days.

Hi M

Skr is the man
When Skr talks even I shut up and listen. He's that good

OTOH in these modern times of turbo's, exiting at higher altitudes with all kinds of winds in different directions at different altitudes and canopy's that can actually fly up wind.

Wouldn't a WD (wind dummy) be less expensive than a WDI.
Forgot about the demo from 2-3k wrong time for the WD.

K-RIP

[airtwardo 7]

...Threw a pair over St. Louis for a demo jump once, the both landed on a boxcar of a south bound train.

When the pilot asked if I had the 'spot', all I could say through the laughter was~

Yeah...but it keeps getting LONGER!

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[oldwomanc6 52]

And it puts a whole new spin on "Trainspotting"

lisa
WSCR 594
FB 1023
CBDB 9

[Nutz 0]

Quote

Wouldn't a WD (wind dummy) be less expensive than a WDI.

That is what I do. Just send the low jump number people up on the first load and adjust accordingly.

"Don't! Get! Eliminated!"