speedy

Maybe true but it's all put in a dramatic way. I've been in lots of situations where unless I take some positive action I will be dead. Downhill skiing or simpley driving my car. If I am doing a 100 mph and do not respond the conditions around me I may die. People die in cars because they fall asleep at the wheel. You can do everything right in skydiving and still die. True, but as we have seen, lying on a beach sunning yourself can be fatal. When I jump out of an aircraft, to be sure I am going to die, I have to actively do nothing. I would find that very hard to do. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I know of a case where the ADD did not fail, however once it had fired there was a slight delay before the reserve opened. Probably the pilot chute got caught in the burble. Sadly this delay was enough to cause a fatal impact. There was a post recently where a tandem cypres switched itself of during the climb to altitude. If the terrain where you are jumping has hills, you might no be high enough for the AAD to save you. The only trust I put in my AAD is that it will not fire when I do not want it to. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

The PC-6 has no memory stick and no DV-in, although my PC6 does have DV-in because a friend hacked it for me.

4 reserves in 1500 jumps. 1 was broken lines 3 were spinning mals All on sub 100 sqft canopies. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

If I knew what I was really like I would be able to answer the question. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I find it utterly amazing that anyone would even want to consider the above Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

But it will happen to me, I can feel it coming. On loads of jumps these days I get scared shitless. I keep assessing the risks and the enjoyment and come to the conclusion it just not worth it. The I do a jump and the adrenalin kicks in and.. hey!! Let's do another. But one day, it will all go wrong Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Sorry to confuse you but... When I swoop I am not following the normal DZ pattern. That's O.K. because the swoopers have the landing area to themselves. We get more or less our own drop run. If I am not swooping I follow the normal landing pattern. I do not swoop on every jump. There is no separate landing area for swoopers and to swoop with all the other traffic around is not something I will do. Now back to my point, I use a left hand turn for the 270 turn because the gates are set up for that. It's all to do with wind and where we are allowed to fly the canopy. Our DZ is right next to a busy road. Hooking over the road is great fun but it scares the motorists and may cause an accident. We rarely have no wind days and generally set up for a cross wind landing. The gates are set up so the best approach is against the wind with a left hand 270. We do sometimes land with the wind and then of course you can switch to a right hand turn. I ramble, but the direction of the turn has more to do with the prevailing winds, DZ surrounding, what sort of jump run run etc. rather than a preference from me. I can do both left and right Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Just as a side note..... I test my cypres on every jump and it has passed the test over 1500 times already. It has never fired when it was not supposed to. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Yes is was risky to make that statement. I jumped at a DZ where we had to turn it on before every jump to adjust for the difference in height from the "taxiway" and the landing area. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I always do left handed turns with a 270 turn when swooping because the gates are set up for that. If I land in the pattern, then I do the left handed turns because that is the DZ policy. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Maybe such dropzones should put a bit of thought into why there are student cypres's out there. Even the new vigil has a student mode. Cypres in student mode may pop the reserve higher than an expert cypres, or it may not. If the student is at terminal, it will fire at the same height as an expert. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Adding weight does start to put your bones and muscles under more pressure than they are used to. (i.e. just your body weight) Just my 2 cents worth. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Emphasis mine. Maybe a neptune can help here but my alti is not going to help at all. Just a tap on the cover might change it's reading by 300 ft. It's just not accurate enough. A 45° front riser turn on a Sabre 150 is not going give any useful readings on most analoge Alti's. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Now that is exactly what I wanted to say a few posts back. Thanks for putting it into the right words. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

The reason why someone with 300 jumps should not be under a velocity is not because it's cross braced. You could put some cross bracing in a PD210 but I would not fly any faster. The packing volume would be huge though Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

If you want to compete then I guess it is more or less required. How often does a non cross braced win a competition? If you only want to swoop at your DZ for fun there are other canopys that are great for swooping. One I had some fun with was the R.A.G.E from Paratec. Awsome swoops, fantastic openings. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

There are other canopies to buy when "getting into" swooping. The velocity is for pilots who are already swooping well under their current wing and want the next step. OK, I'll rephrase what I was trying to say. How about this. I would only recommend buying the velocity if you want to use it for swooping. I was really only trying to offer my opinion of the canopy and not what qualifications you need to fly it. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Ahh, Vigil can help you there. It will tell you the air pressure when you switch it on You can then make a note of the pressure in your log book. You want know if it has changed? Easy, switch your vigil off and then back on and it will tell you the new air pressure. It it's changed more than 10 mbar switch it off and then........ Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I jump a velo 90 loaded at 1.9 to 2.2 to 1. The reason for the range in wingload is because I jump with varying amounts of lead depending on what I want to achieve. The first Velo I jumped was 111 sqft. After landing I went to the demo guy and told him it flew like shit. Perhaps an over exageration, but I did not like it. Then he offered me a 96 to jump. It was then I knew that I wanted the canopy. But not the 96 , the 90. Although you can load them lighter, I would not bother. The Velocity is very different to any other canopy I have jumped. With my limited experience (only 400 jumps on a velo) I would say do not buy it unless you want to get into swooping. The are other canopys on the market more suitable for people who don't want to swoop. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Firstly I am a velocity jumper and none of your poll options fitted my canopy. My openings are soft but not predictable. Sometimes they want to head off in a direction where I don't want to go There are a number of people on my DZ that jump sabre 2's and I have never heard them complain of hard openings. In fact the last complaint I heard from a sabre 2 jumper was that it sniveled too long. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I have only jumped once at Carolina Sky Sports and that was over 3 years ago. I can't remember the exit order they were using at the time but I do remember the jump run they were using. CSS was using a crosswind jump run, which means you have less of a problem with freefall drift and can put free fliers out first. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Exit order for my dropzone (generally): 1st Large to small belly groups 2nd large to small freefly groups 3rd solo freefly 4th extra seperation time then solo belly fliers who are warned to pull a little higher (they may have a long spot) 5th AFF 6th Tandems 7th wingsuits 8th the pilot if something goes wrong CRW can take their pick, Generally either 1st or last( but before the pilot). There may be exceptions to this exit order. Prof Kallend also explains situations where you may want to change things. Why do we do this? Because we have studied Kallend's stuff. It's the easiest way to achieve the seperation needed and to get everyone out in one drop run. It does not matter how much experience someone has, the physics remain the same. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

I am curious as to why the vigil should be switch off and back on again if the ground level air pressure changes by more than 10 mbars. Maybe this is not a big problem as such pressure changes during the course of the day are not possible. Any weather experts out there? Looking at the cypres user guide, it seems that cypres can cope with air pressure changes on the ground. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl

Anyone pulling right out of the door can go 1st or last or any where they want. They can only cause a problems for other people pulling out of the door or if they some how don't pull. CRW will either go 1st or last. Depending on wind. Dave Fallschirmsport Marl