plastic

Good article, craig is one of the best top dockers around.

why not, as long as you have somebody experienced to teach you, but it is not normally one of the first skills you would learn, but there is no reason not to get into it early, especially if you get the chance to do a lot of 2-way jumps. when i first started often there were only two of us on the dz so it was an ideal opportunity, beside we soon got bored with 2-way rotations and downplanes. plastic

Sorry remko, I thought a canopy was hardpointed when a person takes a grip on it so it can no longer be manouvered by the person flying it. Are you saying that only a wing can be hardpointed and not a locker. Although the general theme seems to be the same, wait for the canopy to be docked in the correct place before taking a grip. I do remember the discussions we had about wings catching lockers though. plastic

I disagree, get the top guy to do the work. The problem with the bottom guy moving from presenting one end cell to presenting the other is that when you move the canopy behind the top jumper you will catch a lot of body burble which will cause you to drop down so even on rear riser you have to move slowly, where as the top jumper will be able to move a lot quicker. Although i was only a 4-way sequential competitor and don't do competition 2-way it seems that the best 2-way teams will be the ones with the best top dockers, this was always the case in 4-way. Top docking is the top skill to have and i would suggest you work very hard on this, it may slow you down in the beginning but in the end you will be a much faster and more versatile crw jumper. regards plastic

Indeed, i seem to remember being in a wrap in spain last year caused when a world champion (not to mention world record holder and organiser)hardpointed a canopy. I also seem to remember that resulted in wendy leaving her canopy in a swamp somewhere in spain. Despite at the time "minding her own business" on the other side of the formation. plastic

nice photos, hope the 3-way wrap didn't get the cameraman as well! plastic

I should have known mike would not have stopped with 4-way dds. I still have the footage, just dont have my own web site to upload it to. Plastic

Well ok, although it may not really be as dramatic as it sounds, better to see it especially from above. Remember that at the time we were supposed to be sequential training but mike used to like to throw in something different now and again. It goes like this, take a normal 4-way diamond, then as opposed to the normal competition grip for the wings, with the inside leg around outside a line you actually move in front of the end cell with the outside leg around the outside a line and the inside leg around the next a line in, this makes the formation a lot more solid (it used to be a legal grip in competition a few years ago). Then to start the spiral, you decide which way you are going to go and the wing who will be on the inside of the turn puts on outside riser and the pilot increases the brake level on the side easing in to the turn, then you just let the speed build up until, eventually somebody will scream, and you really can build up some speed. Now this is not overly difficult to do, the trick is what to do next. I have heard of people who do a count and starburst it in the turn, which looks impressive. We used to prefer to stop it, which is done by the pilot calling that he is stopping the spiral, the wing on the outside puts on outside riser, as the pilot eases out of the turn the inside wing can start letting up on the riser until the turn has almost stopped and then the outside wing can also ease up on the riser, the trick as with starting the turn is to do it slowly and gently letting the momentum of the turn bleed itself off. So of course at our nationals the following year, we also did 8-way speed with a rotation team, the last round was the wedge, we completed and held for the 5 seconds for the score, we then let go of the bottom locks and row 3 wings, i looked down and we were directly over the dz control (where of course the chief judge was) then i heard the pilot shout down "double grips" and i though i know whats coming now, so we threw in the "diamond death spiral" right over the chief judges head with the other 4 team members and the videoman all spiralling after us not having a clue what we were up to. Suffice to say the chief judge nearly had kittens and the quote we heard later was "what the f*cking hell are those f*cking idiots doing. don't they know this is supposed to be serious f*cking competition" He was contemplating throwing us out of the competition, but we then pointed out that that was the last round and that the competition was over anyway. That was back in 1998/99 things have moved on since and many more wild things have been done but that is one of the many reasons why i have such fond memories of our time being coached by mike lewis. Regards Plastic

It was about 900ft when mike docked 8th but we only got out at 3000 to do a kite but of course pin and base had to make a complete hash of things and take over 1000ft to get together with everybody else sat behind them waiting and looking at the ground getting closer. I also remember in the early days of sequential training when mike was coaching us at z-hills showing us how to do gaff to boomerang at 2000ft, in them days we were using radios, i heard alan fielding say to mike don't you think we are getting a bit low for this (as on the previous attempt at this block we had a cutaway) mikes reply was "dont worry alan god will look after us" to which alan replied "he might look after you but I am a sinner" That was before mike taught us the "Diamond Death Spiral" but that is another story. plastic

Most of the big way guys use pd's sequential trim, in fact it is a requirement for the world record, as i believe it was for the last one. I have about 2" to 3" of slack in the brake lines, I also use large togles, as was mentioned in a previous post this is so when you pull down on the front risers you dont apply brakes was well, which negates the effect of the front riser, makes you tired and gives you big biceps. plastic

Thats right, feet below the slider is not necessary as there is (sorry should) be very little tension in the formation. Docking presenting the lines with forward and a little upwards momentum is the key here, a hard docking with downwards or sideways momentum can stretch the formation out, but even if that happens remember the head does not have to be below the canopy as when doing the plane in 8-way speed, so you will not bust but it does mean the next guy to rotate will have further to go. Another tip, when the pilot is sliding up, dont rush and start sliding up until the guy who has just left the top is clear, i have seen some nasty wraps when the top guy clips the canopy or even pilot chute when he leaves the top and stalls the formation out. Also, yes i have had problems with my riser covers catching on the canopy above when "sliding up" that was due to the shape of the riser cover "tuck tabs" a new rig solved that problem but another option is to leave the riser covers tucked in and lay the main risers over the top of them. I also believe that it may be possible to buy a rig without main riser covers (this is a just for crw rig) but i cannot for the life of me remember where i saw this or who made it. plastic

ok, the triathlons must have bee the same colours as the lightnings they were using in eloy so i assumed that they were still jumping the lightnings. i did hear about gavin, sad news but nice to hear lyle is back at it again. was hoping to take 8-way team to russia (we trained there this summer) but the fai may drop the event, and even if they dont we are having some political issues with our association in england. plastic

Yes, i remember alan had talked them into buying diamants, which was good because my 8-way team have 3 of the old blue and yellow lightnings (i jump one myself). Personally for a sequential environment i think a wing loading of about 1.5 would be as high as you need to go until you reach a very high level of skill. The very high wing loading is used to loose height very quickly, ie rotations and getting from aircraft to formation doing 8-way speed. This is not as much issue with 2-way as you will be exiting very close together, so not much height to loose there (also 30 second rule, loads for 2 way) and the transitions are only 1 canopy height so not much distance there. The problem initially on the 2-way transitions would probably be that you loose too much height and go low rather than not loose enough height. Personally i think a triathlon 120 loaded to about 1.5 should be good enough for you for many jumps. If you have any specific questions feel free to pm me. regards plastic

What happened to the canadian team? last time i saw them was spain 2001. Then they were jumping lightning 126's if they are jumping triathlons now what happened to the lightnings? does lyle still do crw? plastic

Calle, I seem to remember that you had a sequential team in sweden because my old team mate alan fielding was coaching them. He said they were progressing really well until a girl on the team had a bad landing and broke her leg. Does this team still jump? plastic

After talking to vincent arnoux (i think this is how you spell his name) he told me that the diamant is manufactured in sizes other than 160 (our former seq team coach vincent ferrer one of the designers of the diamant had a diamant 210), but the 160 seems to be the only one that lands and flies properly. they are not a production canopy but are made to order. plastic

The russians only finished 3rd at the last world meet! most people would be very pleased to reach this very high standard. although i do see your point. this is from them not even having a sequential team compete in 1998. keep an eye on them they are working hard on sequential at the moment and expect to see them continue to improve. as 2-way is new at world level the scores will be interesting at the world cup in eloy. plastic

The us sequential team are using the new pd 106 crw canopy that is not for sale to the general public as yet, so i am told. The russian team (denis dodonov was coaching us this summer) who are world champions in rotation (since 1998) and now 8-way all use triathlons, i believe 120 for 8-way and 99 for rotation. The sequential team who won bronze at the world meet also use triathlons but i am not sure what size but probably 120. Previously when i was on uk sequential team we used the diamant 160 but they are now considered too big and even the french seq team downsized to the rubis (previously the rubis was used for rotation and 8-way, was about 140 size). Hope this helps. plastic

Yes, perfectly true remko. I should have explained that comment a bit better. Big formations have to be properly engineered and balanced as people often have to fly a slot for quite some time while the formation builds. There is no "better to be light or heavy" it needs to be right. My comments were meant more for more normal crw jumps, meaning 9-way or smaller, or more likely 4-way seq or 8-way speed, which is normal for us in England as we have very few crw jumpers over here, big ways don't happen over here. regards plastic

I totally agree with what remko says. My preference would be to use links. I never do crw with lead if i can avoid it. wearing 10lbs of lead in a belt around your waist is not quite the same as being 10lbs heavier, whereby the weight would be more evenly distributed. This can make the canopy behave differently, not to mention the physical discomfort especially if your are team training doing 8 or more jumps a day. Wearing weights on the shoulders can be a problem also as if you are not careful can cause you to go very flat on exit which can lead to whiplash on opening. One other thought, i always found it to be better to be one of the heavier wing loadings rather than lighter. sure you have more performance on the formation but one you become experienced and get used to this you will find it physically easier and more forgiving to have that little bit of extra performance should you need to chase a formation rather than be the lighter guy who is always on the front risers. Remember it is not just docking on a formation but you also have to fly your slot once you get there, if you have spent a lot of time front risering to get down to a formation you may still need your strength to keep your canopy down when you arrive. As always though, the more experienced you get the easier it all becomes. regards plastic

Hi andre, I only do 8-way these days. we did not start really as a team just more a group that i was coaching. we lost a team member with a broken leg 3 weeks before we went to russia so we had our videoman jumping with us (pd smith, you may remember him from indonesia/eloy) and we had denis dodonov coaching and doing video and also another member of his team sergei also on video as we tended to do the 8-way and then break into 2 4-ways each with a videoman. the idea of the week was to do some 8-way but also skills as well and also just for the fun of doing crw from an mi-8. progress was made during the week but the quickest sort of times was 70/80 secondss, so still a long way to go. we won't be competing at our nationals as they are being held over a week this year as opposed to weekends in recent years and nobody has enough leave left to do the full week. one of the women on my team is also on a rotations team but their team leader is in the military and has been sent to iraq for most of this year so they have not really been training. last year they were scoring 8/9 and had been hoping to improve on that this year. there are no other rotation/8-way teams in any form of serious training. we have a new sequential team that may be competing at the world meet in russia next year but that is about it on the competition front. you may be interested to know that the russians dont bother training for rotations now as they got up to scoring 23 and figured they couldn't go much faster. regards mark

Hi andre, check out www.omniskore.com they have up to date scores. only sequential so far tho. regards plastic

no, this team was called skytribe. british rotations team 1994-1996. competed at world meet in indonesia 1996, then split up. The team camera man pd smith now jumps with cenobites 8-way speed team. spotty bowles now lives in the usa and jumps at cross keys. the others are no longer active crw jumpers. I did read about a team called bad wrap who i believe jumped at the us nationals some time ago, until they lived up to their name and had to withdraw from the competition. plastic

yes, we have met, when you were passing through in 99 you turned up at netheravon i was on team-x with fielding and marshall, left after world meet in 2001. it just confused me when you talked of attending world meets, but you location in your profile says europe\croatia and i thought i knew most of the european competitors. it is all clear now. also nice to know what past competitors are up to these days as the number of people at competitions seems to decline year on year. regards plastic

this is to tvpb, what team did you used to compete on. i wonder if we have met. i was on uk squential in eloy 1998 and uk seq/rot in spain 2001. plastic