larsrulz

SHOCKER! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I am assuming you are talking about the mesh segments (as opposed to the hole at the appex)...they do give a small amount of forward drive, ~3 mph on the round I jumped. Like others have said, the hole at the appex is because a round without a hole would be terribly unstable (it would constantly vary where it dumps the air from). I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Preempting this with a "I'm not a rigger" warning, but I have a good deal of experience with degradation of polymeric materials, such as canopies, and I'm working towards a rigger's rating slowly. Given your reserve should be in your rig (or stored in a non-humid, indoor environment) the vast majority of the time, it shouldn't really matter, but white would be damaged the least by UV rays when in use. Both my rigers told me that color does not matter, so I ordered a nice red reserve! As long as your reserve can be easily distinguishable from a main canopy (aside from no pilot chute); the dye itself does not alter how the material acts. Having seen a number of people experience hard landings under reserves that are much too small, one thing many people fail to realize is that a reserve canopy does not act like most mains. The fact that is in made of F1-11 as opposed to ZP means that you will get much much less lift that an equally sized main. Given that one doesn't get much experience on their reserve; having a smaller reserve than main could mean that one has a less than ideal landing under their reserve. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Got a rum and coke in hand as I type! Well actually, I had to put it down to type. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Them Vengeances will do that to you. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I do not know what AADs they use in Switzerland, but the majority of US DZs use Cypres AAD. If this is the case, then all you need to know is that if you are below 750 feet (~230 m) and you are going faster than 78 mph (~125 km/hr) then the cypres will activate. There are some complexities to the student version if that is what your dropzone uses, but basically the device records the air pressure on the ground when it is turned on. It then knows what altitude it is at by detecting the air pressure in freefall. When you get too low, the cypres will activate and open your reserve canopy. If you wish to know more, you can either ask your instructor or check here and find the user manual. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

About 1/4 from the right side, just to the right of the TPGPOST building, and close to the top, almost exactly one full screen down (zoomed all the way in) from the skyline. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I was talking to my S&TA yesterday, and he knew of two females that had broken their spines on landing (I'm guessing just a vertabrae or something) and proceeded to undue their chest strap and roll out of their rig. The sad thing is that I'm sure I would be worried about getting my rig cut off too! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Greensburg has an excellent group of instructors, so stick with what they say. I assume these are the people you mean when you say your DZ people, and not just random jumpers. If the radioman is an instructor you trust, then I'm sure his recommendation is a good one. For reference, I was deciding between a 170 at 1.1 and 190 and 1.0 (sabre) when I had 25 jumps. I was perfectly happy with the 190 I got and learned to get plenty of performance out of it. Although when I downsized I jumped from a 190 to 10 or so jumps on a sabre2 170 then to my current samurai 150, so I'm probably a bad person to recommend canopies. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I don't think so, some people just "have it" and some people don't. I think coordination and reaction time certainly have some correlation with whether someone has it, but not overall athleticism. There are certainly enough smokers at my dropzone that I'm sure would fall over and die if they had to run an 8-minute mile, yet they beat the crap out of me in the sky anyday. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

This is lots of fun...it's like an episode of kids say the darndest things. Quade (big surprise) and Pilotdave have it down. Vorticity is always made whenever a wing produces lift. In straight and level flight, vorticity doesn't change. It doesn't matter if you are 2 feet over the ground or 200, vorticity is the same. What vorticity does is induce downwash (little rotors off the wingtips). As a wing approaches the ground, the ground, in effect, imparts an upwash on the wing, which in total sees less downwash so hence, less drag. I would imagine that the vast majority of the drag on a canopy is skin friction as opposed to induced drag, so ground effect would be negligible. As for a wing-over, the canopy's orientation would produce the vorticies in a different way, so the ground effect would not hold. For instance, a vertical tail close to the ground would not actually be under ground effect, so the wing needs to be parallel (or the closer to parallel it is the better) to the ground. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Just like every other line on your canopy, slinks can go out of trim. Something to keep in mind. I currently use rapid links, and plan to do the same with my new rig that is in the works. People trying to claim difference in weight are quite humorous. Take the change out of your pocket, and you're to the same weight! I will agree that they are stronger, but the difference is quite small considering how much load they can take. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I can't figure out if that is a control input issue, or if it is an Airbus-type FUBAR with software algorithms. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Yahoo SBC DSL at 1024/256 (I actually get closer to about 384/256) for $26.99 per month. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

There is an ever so slight chance that if you were to improperly shutdown a general aviation aircraft (never heard of this before, but it is possible) that bumping the prop could cause fuel that is currently in the cylinder to fire, but this would require the pilot to have left the mags on and improperly shut down the aircraft. Those with more practical pilot experience will probably have a better answer than this though. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

There are a couple reasons this didn't happen: a) It was going fast; the slower a plane, the larger the vortices. b) It wasn't very heavy; the heavier a plane, the larger the vortices. c) Trailing vortices (wake turbulence) occur at the wing tips and move straight down, so as long as the jumper didn't move over to the flight path of the fighter, then he wouldn't have come in contact with the vorticity downwash. Had he been that close to a 747 coming in to land, then he certainly could have been effected at that distance, but collapse from a small aircraft is very, very unlikely unless you actually get in its wake. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

You may not, but I do. Too tight is infinitely better than just a tad too loose. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Just for reference, cut-in laterals have been known to bruise kidneys because of how they push into the sides of your back. Not that I have more experience then all the guys here, but my rig is moderate size (holds a 150) without cut-in laterals and my rig fits great. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

If you're just gonna critisize, then don't say anything. I believe that the majority of linetwists are caused by bad body position. Second to that would be not leaving enough lines in the packtray, as the d-bag will then leave cocked. So, I would recommend that you focus on body position during deployment. I jumped one of those skymaster 230s during my days as a student, so I had my fair share of line twists on one. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

1) The 3-ring will in fact reduce cutaway force. The mechanics of it prove such. It basically allows one to have mini-rings while still having the low cutaway force of standard rings. 3) (Warning personal opinion) Fully Articulate harnesses are only really necessary for rounded people. Hip rings are certainly nice, but chest rings aren't necessary when the chest strap does not have to go out around ones chest considerably. Personally, I think you should compare the G3 instead of the G4. The primary G4 improvements are cut-in laterals (aka kidney bruisers) and the backpad (only used during that 60 seconds of freefall that you won't even notice; the weight of the rig isn't on your back during either the plane ride or canopy ride). I personally have a Mirage G3 and love it. The customer serivce at Mirage is second to none. Hit up Justin and he'll hook you up with a real nice rig! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

The best way, imo, to prevent a premature deployment from turning into a horseshoe is to use Brain Germain's pilot chute packing technique, which can be found here. Having once watched a horseshoe malfunction during a student jump; I sure as hell don't want one myself. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

My rigger doesn't drink, so we buy him a couple cases of Diet Dr. Pepper, since he goes through about a case a day...although I have yet to have to... I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Sorry to hijack the thread for a moment, but... Bill, do you put numbers before your downsize checklist (i.e. don't even worry about downsizing to 1.1 until you have 350 jumps, and then don't downsize until you can complete the checklist), or do you believe a more current and advanced pilot could handle 1.35 at 350 jumps as long as they properly downsized properly through 1.1 and 1.2? Also, I have heard varying opinions at my dropzone, so what jump number to people put on jumping a fully elliptical canopy? I would certainly hope it is a factor in the downsizing decision, so how much does it affect? If it's assumed someone with 300 jumps can safely jump a 1.3, then does that correspond to an elliptical at 1.1 or is there a higher minimum jump number to go fully elliptical? Of note, I still fly my sabre 190 barge at 1.0, so I'm not trying to justify some personal agenda, just curious of opinions as an up and coming instructor. I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

I paid for my Coach rating and am planning to pay for my SL rating and I don't/won't get paid for training jumps. I enjoy working with students and the free jump is enough payment for me! I actually got $15 to do a refresher course once, but I didn't know until I finished up and someone walked up to give me the money...I told them to keep it and jumped on the next load! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF

Nutz is right, a protec will protect your head a lot better than a full-face or fancy freefly helmet. I haven't seen a Freezr, but I have seen most other helmets, and coming from a mechanics background, I can tell you that none would take any reasonable amount of impact strike (obviously not a fall from altitude, but a canopy stall at 15' would surely make the helmet next to useless, while a protec would actually help). When it comes down to it, helmets are most useful against riser slap or a kick to the head in freefall (or other such contact). The only disadvantage of a half-shell is that that much less (yours ears in particular) is protected...so something to think about! I got a strong urge to fly, but I got no where to fly to. -PF