marcin
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Everything posted by marcin
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I have Speed 2000 reserve in my rig. I test jumped the 120 (@ 1.8) before I bought the 135. It flew well, the landing with 120 was acceptable. I think 135 packs close (slightly bigger perhaps) then my girlfriend's Tempo 120 , so you could consider a container size for that. Marcin
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Pro track also works with CR2032 batteries. They are the same size, except that the diameter is slightly less. Much cheaper, easy to get. It worked for me for a couple of hundred jumps now. Marcin
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If you plan to make a few hundred jumps in your RW suit and later want to make some more serious 4way, then second grippers can be very, very useful in some tight exits. Marcin
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I think cobalt is not best opening when packed traditionally. As PZ said, no pushing of nose in, no excessive rolling of tail (barely none), slider not even quartered and you will love it if you resist the temptation to even touch the risers and sit still in the harness. I was shown this techniques from a Cobalt guy (I jump Atair Impulse - same opening) and it really worked. The faster I went the softer the opening was. M.
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My girlfriend jumped a BT 50 for a year or two. VERY BAD openings, crispy turns but overall an old design. Wouldnt recommend. m.
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Saw one in flight used by Skandinavian jumper. She had around 1000 jumps, so hardly a beginner, but the thing just didnt want to surf/plane out. She crash landed all the time. I wasnt impressed by the glide or flying of this Spark,r eally. However, Performance Variables (or Atair on their behalf) makes Contrail,which is one of the best flying 9 cell elipticals I saw. Faster than Stiletto but very smooth and with excellent glide! Very much like Impulse/Cobalt or the (S-African) Hurricane that also pretty much impressed me.
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On a bigger belly formation loads we normally have a few people in the centre do staged openings in place. This reduces the number of trackers in the same airspace. For the center people it really doesnt make much sense to track anywhere far. Just make sure you do not dump all at the same time and allow for the potential malfunctions (and cutaway) of the person opening before you. marcin
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If you transit into headdown and start tracking away you may hit somebody behind your back, although you will avoid hitting somebody in front of you (like that tubediver). On the other hand I saw a hard collision on a big way sit, when one jumpers dytter bipped a second earlier, he transitioned to back (so he only saw the airspace above but not behind him), started to track on his back and impacted with a person 15 feet behind him (it took him a second to get to that person, so there was no time to avoid the collision). What I do is a 360 degree turn, check the airspace above and below me and track on my back or belly/head depending where the others are. While checking the airspace I maintain the same fallrate as to not cork out. I've recently heard that a good way to track from a big way is to turn on your head a 180 degrees from the center and track away in a slight back track. This way you see where you go, but it takes practice if you are used to "regular" tracking. marcin
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[I don't recall cobalt's deflating at low altitude though] Cobalts are not crossbraced (meaning not with closed nose). I'd be slightly worried of a canopy with x-brace (or with otherwise closed nose) AND no-crossports. marcin.
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Really great lenses. Excellent clarity, colours, no distortion.
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This is the argument some people use. But while deinflation happens with the nose fully open (hence air gets out relatively easily), the reinflation has to deal with a collapsed cell having only small opening a the nose (so air can only reenter from neighbouring cells). So perhaps a turbulence, that would result in a quick collapse and reinflation on a say Sabre, remaining almost unnoticed, with an x-braced at low alti results in an unrecoverable malfunction. Thats why I would be rather worried of a combination of closed nose and no-crossport construction (Atair experimented with no-crossports in endcells?). This is my personal concern, growing as I read all those reports of incidents or accidents with collapsing x-braced, but this can as well be all bullshit in the light of some scientific research. marcin
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One thing that I dislike about X-braced, but also about X-fire is the reduced and partially covered inlets at the nose of the canopy. I do not claim scientifical arguments here, but I believe such a canopy should be more sensitive to turbulence in a way, that when it deinflates it collapses immediately and folds over because reinflation is more difficult. Just my feeling. Marcin
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I put about 70 jumps on Springo loaded at 1.7-1.8. It was with the large slider (which they introduced a few years after the canopy was thrown to the market) and it was one of the best opening canopies I ever jumped. Front risers light indeed but it didnt dive like, say, my Atair Impulse or PdF's BT Pro. Never had problems with flaring it and got pretty nice surfs. I jumped Stiletto, Sabre, Impulse, BT Pro, Nitro, Heatwave, Paratec Fundango, X-Wing etc., and Springo wasnt the most difficult canopy to handle, in fact it was quite intuitive after a few jumps. Marcin
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Just got mine (0.3 from Max), havent jumped it yet, but just tried on the ground and compared to my old HAMA 0.45. Appears to distort the picture less, comprehenses about 15% (my guess) more image and I felt it was brighter as well. With a zoom on produces similar effect to 0.45 and 0.42, but again brighter and less distortion. I really like it and cant wait to try it out! I think it is an ideal (superior) alternative to the traditional wide-angle, and it is also so low profile, you can barely notice it on my PC. m.
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"I tested Ninja (94) for 1.85...Ninja is not ground hungry" The Ninjas I watched are flown at 2.2-2.3. Our national RW team jumps them since last summer, so there is a lot of feedback available (I still have to fly one - hope soon). This would explain the difference in your experiance of "ground-hungriness". I guess every canopy at that loading is ground hungry in a hard turn (not in braked flight though). It requires toggle input to come out of dive. Fabric quality - I meant the "wears out" not like the toilet paper does after intensive usage:). But, after 300-400 jumps it looks and feels much more poroseus (I could actually easily blow the air through some oder pieces) and worn out, then, say, the fabric used by PD. There are plenty of French parachutes here since the RW team is sponsored by PdF and everybody wants a canopy like the big guys'. I jumped a few Merits, BT-Pro's and Springos. marcin
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"...once you are hit by a laser, it's all over.." So it is pretty much useless then against laser? Marcin (minime)
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Springo is very similar to Stiletto but flaring is slightly different , I think it is slightly less twitchy. The ones with big slider opened just great. Ninja! is a cross braced, at high loading very responsive and ground hungry, but in brakes you can make it back from any distance - it glides so well. It packs REAL BIG - an 85 Ninja! packs basically like 120 Springo. One thing about French parachutes - the fabric they make it from wears out after about 300-400 jumps, but are very easy to pack, and the fabric feels thinner then say PD's (hence smaller pack volumes). Ninja appeared to be made from stronger (more slippery also) fabric. marcin
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I saw a Sabre 170 getting into line twists at about 60 feet after toggle turn. The guy was above a building unable to turn and it looked quite scary. Somehow the large Sabres appeared to be prone to line twists...(?) Marcin
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I use a radar detector here in Europe (brought it from USA). Do you think they work against laser (most sneaky and long range)? The ultrathin laser beam has to hit the small sensor on the RD, to be detected (unlike with wide spread radar waves) which is pretty unlikely, never worked for me... marcin
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Just saw an amateur video of the accident, showed on our TV. Two guys descending on round parachutes above a river and close to a bridge (pulled by motorboats?). The victim separated from the parachute (cut away) at approx. 60 feet but seemed to be sliding down on some rope, then he hit the side of bridge and fell into the water. At least that what I saw from that quite remote and poor quality footage. Really sad, looked (and was commented) as trivial misjudgement. marcin
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AMD 900 Thunderbird running on 1.2 GHz 512 RAM 90 GB HD (60+30) Ulead MediaStudio Pro 6.0 m.
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Thanks. I just had mine done (it was surprisingly fast) and it cost 190 Euro (170 USD), which I thought was rather high. But you seem to confirm this... While searching for the German Cypres website (which I couldnt find) I found a short study on Cypres power consumption by Gary Peek (?), dealing with the question "switch on and forget" or "switch on and off after jumps. I does consume power even if left on the ground, but I am not technical enough to interpret the data, though. Marcin.
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How much does it cost to have the 4 year Cypres check (incl. battery replacement) with shipping etc. within Europe and in the US? marcin
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Another very pleased Larson & Brusgaard customer
marcin replied to klingeme's topic in Gear and Rigging
They are indeed incredible. When the LCD display on my brand new ProTrack crashed (I think I smashed it with my altimeter in freefall - one of the reasons I dont like externally mounted beepers) they replaced it (the Pro Track) free of charge and shipped it to me in a week. Plus they just have the best product IMO. m. -
Depends if you talk about the old BT ot the BT Pro. The old one opened hard and had a tendency to be tricky in hookturns (reacted slowly to brake input). The Pro (comparable in performance to Stiletto) was very sensitive, "nervous" to toggle inputs and weight shift in harness, with a good glide after swoop but steeper glide in full flight than Stiletto. It was more snappy in turns also. It used to open hectically with ocasional hard ones, but with the large slider it was OK. Its been replaced by Springo, more similar to Stiletto. Whichever it is not recommended for beginners. M.