freeflyguy

That was a good laugh for me this morning. I know Rina pretty well myself. (Now I am really laughing) She's my girlfriend. I'm James, wore a michigan suit, white with flames. I won the hitnchug Friday, took 4th on Sunday, and just generally had a kick but time at the Jack Off this year. j

Hi Rhonda I think I might be on your flight too Alaska Air, 5pm. Coming back Monday at 5 pm though. Should be a kick. james

I don't mean to get you back on the subject or anything. But Yah, I am registered for the JOTP, and the peckerhead looks like it would be fun. Except for the "creative" bribeing. I lose.

I agree with you Phree. Like I said, just land it normal, and don't quit flying until after the parachute does. I got blasted by a huge crosswind gust one time. It was fun. It was a very windy day, I was in the middle of a nice swoop, into the wind, and this gust just blows me 40 or 50 feet sideways. Yahoo!!! Sketchy, but still one very memorable landing. Just keep flying till it stops, everytime, and you are doing as good as you can with what you got.

Somebody else could explain it better than me, but basically, yes, it takes longer to recover. (this is the part others can explain, but..) The toggle turn will swing you out to the side more than a riser. Besides that, if you are using the toggle to turn, it is also your brake, and means to recover from a dive. So you are allready using half of your recovery ability. Sort of. What you will end up with is having to turn lower with less safety margin and a turn that builds less speed. With a front riser, you will turn higher, build more speed (since you are not braking one side of the canopy) and have a greater safety margin. That all ends up in a longer swoop, which is the goal anyway :)

Getting somebody good that can watch you and know how you fly is best. Beyond that, swooping isn't as much rocket science as some people seem to think. Basically what you do is land your parachute normally. Hah. At least that is the end result. Your goal should be to land where you want everytime, accuracy. Finish the flair, and stand it up. If you are good at that, you would probably start with a little double front risers to build a little speed. Get good at that, accuracy, watching traffic, finishing the flair, etc... Then gradually you would start with one front riser, no more than 5 or ten degree of turn at first. Keep landing good and normal. But in the end, the parachute stops flying at the same speed, high speed landing or straight in slow. So work at it progressively. Couple other things. Stay away from toggle turns to build speed. Also make sure your brake lines are long enough to not deflect your tail when you give it front riser. Besides that, don't crash. J

I can't tell you how happy you guys all are makeing me, to have the rigger I do.

Feedback. Looks tough. My thoughts is you will end up having a lot of people do 3 ways that will never get to jump with people that are better, because the better freefliers would get bored doing all that stuff. The alternative, is pay somebody to jump with you 50 or 100 times till you could do all that. But that gets spendy. Nice intentions, but I doubt it will work for the masses.

Ya, I helped Andy Farrington ground launch a Xaos 100 off a 7000 foot snow covered mountain a couple weeks ago. he didn't do much in the carve department, but the 1 mile long swoop over the ground looked pretty cool. Not for the faint of heart though.

Yah, good post Mark J

dude, sorry, I have the experience, canopy and training. But I am on the wrong coast for a road trip. Look for me in the next pro meet. I will be the guy in last place, but I will be there. j ps, or I might just tear it up. Oh Yeah!!!

Yah Clay, you are right. But also, if somebody says they had a nice "carve" it might also mean, orbitting on your head or doing a big turn on your canopy surf. We skydivers dont' seem to have a large vocabulary

Hi. I hate that, you have been around for 6 months and I don't think I have met you. Sorry. Introduce yourself next time you are at Kapow. I usually wear a white freefly suit with orange and yellow flames. Name is James, but they call me Cash Money.

Ya, smaller rubber bands. My bag is set up now so I don't even have to double stow. Though that "likely" wouldn't cause a problem. j

One Bag lock a couple hundred jumps ago this summer. I was throwing out a bit high anyway, we were a ways from the dz. I threw it out, thought, "that doesn't feel right" I looked up to a pretty green pilot chute, and spinning d bag. It didn't take any more time than that to know I needed a reserve. I scared some horses as I landed in their pasture. But not a bad ride, and I was able to watch my main and freebag land in the trees. So it was easy enough to get back. I think the cause of the baglock was I had some long rubber bands, and I trippled stowed one of the locking stows. I don't do that anymore.

Jack Shameless advertising. But it is a very cool boogie. I will try to make it, but haven't registered yet. james

When you're ready, don't hesitate to ask. Thing too is, you can land at the pond if you like. Don't think you have to follow our typical slogans of "Go big or go home" and "If it's worth doing, it's worth overdoing". When there is a swoop load, just land over there. As long as everybody knows, you can hang in brakes, and start getting used to the sight picture. Land on the shore, or purposely set up so you go over the water, but land long. Then, all eyes are on you too. Whether you like it or not, people will help you improve your technique. As far as the wet canopy, ahh, mine has been bathed a couple times, but as long as you dry it good before you repack it, it shouldn't hurt it. I also have to agree with Dan on the Eliptical thing. With a safire, you can scarcely tell a difference from a sabre, it is just a little quicker turning. A stilleto is a different animal though. I don't know much about a cobalt, but the eliptical"ness" of a sabre2 or safire has little to do with the danger factor. Wingloading is more the key. But still, you can make your present canopy smoke, with a little more training and attention to accuracy and what is going on with it. Oh, last thing. It isn't really called swimming lessons, it is more appropriately called 'skipping lessons' :) Not that I want to do that anymore. J

Hey Lee! Don't hesitate to ask me to watch your landings. Or ask for pointers. Especially if you are thinking of downsizing. There are a couple of safires out there to try too. Brian has a 149. But if you want to downsize, start asking questions, and get some of us to watch your landings. Then, just suck it up and come to the pond. There is no reason you couldn't get a lot more our of you canopy, before you downsize. From what I have seen you do good anyway. But free coaching is nice too. j

oh. wrong forum..

That was pretty cool. Today I went snow skiing with Andy Farrington and his family. Andy is getting ready for the blade competition where they are going to swoop down a ski hill. So... We helped him ground launch his xaos 100 off a 7000 foot mountain, double black diamond run. So cool. He did that run 3 times, then we went to the bowl on the back side and he made it to the bottom of that chairlift too, about 2800 down the mountain. Not for the faint of heart. But It was a kick watching him swoop in among the skiers. We even had permision from the mountain. That would be an awesome swoop comp to watch.

I did it off a ten foot tall dock into a lake, last January. Brrr. I don't know if it is true, but I heard it is only a requirement of the D license now. But hearsay. Whether or not you get actual "wet" training. There is no reason why you couldn't get the briefing, then give yourself time to think about it.

It might be better if the book hit you. ***continue reading in normal careless manner***

It only twists the wing, changing the AOA on basically one side. If you don't see, either re-read my post, or hit the books.

I just thought of another reason why I am not a fan of spending too much attention on looking at who is above you. Have you ever been comeing down an aisle in a store, walking toward somebody? As they are walking toward you, you both are sort of looking at each other, but not really, you don't know which way he is going, nor he you. You then walk into each other. In the middle of a giant fricken' aisle. If only one person was looking he would have gotten himself out of the way, instead of both second guessing what the other is going to do. See my point? With that in mind, track straight, and don't dump high. You won't confuse anyone above you that way. That's just me though.

That's really a tough one. Best thing is to talk about it, and make sure you know the peoples habits that are on the jump with you. Some like to swoop out of the head down, This will put them much lower than someone that just goes flat and tracks. So although the jump may have all been on one level, it quickly goes to many level's. One thing to consider, though, the low person has the right of way. So turning and looking up has really limited benefits. What are going to do, not pull? Of course it is not a bad habit though, if you are not too low, you can burn it down and away from a higher jumper. My point with that, though, is the higher jumper should be more concerned with who is below, he can see it better, turn and get out of the way. Besides if he is the higher level jumper, but he has the habit of looking up, he may not see what is below. I know people that alway go low, then say, 'the lower jumper has the right away.' While that is true, there is an etiquette thing, if you are always making people change to your style, that isn't nice, and can be dangerous. Anyway, the main point is try to learn what the people on your jump are going to do, and that includes when and how they plan on breaking off.