morris

Lines...

PM is coming...

Yes the lines are cut in the grass.... Once it is all set and done maintainance isn´t really that much of an issue (from what I can tell you so far). By far the most difficult part is the beginning and the first two or three trims. You need to decide first exactly(!) where you wanna have your entry gate. The course runs 90° to the imaginary line between the two "pylons" that mark the gate, right? So, if that "imaginary line" isn´t chosen very well and you "draw" your courselines 90° to that line, you´ll end up not where you wanted to end up once you are 500ft down the course. I´d recommend to start with the coursemarkers only and to use ropes to get them exactly in line. Finish one outsideline of the course completely (not cutting gras yet, just putting the coursemarkers in place) before you even start with the second one. While setting the coursemarker of "line 1" the only coursemarker of "line 2" that already is in place is the one of the entry gate. Doing the second one (second line) you should check at least every 100ft that the distance between the two lines is still exactly 10m. Otherwise it can easily happen that down the course you´ll end up "being wider" (or having the lines to close together but that is unlikely because if it slowly gets from 10m to 8m you´ll realise that - sooner or later - but if it gets from 10m to 12m you´ll almost not notice that before you are done and take the measurements, so take the measurements regular while you are setting up the second line of coursemarkers). Now you got all your markers in place for the distance course. Don´t add anything additional to it at this point like a pond or a carving course! (Trust me!) Now the cutting starts. Cut the grass on the inside(!) of the course markers not on the outside, otherwise the course will look from the air wider that it actually is. (The coursemarkers also don´t belong in the middle of the cutted lines, they belong on the outside of the cutted line. If they would be in the center of the lines the course would once again look to wide from on top and maintainance later on would be way more difficult because you´d have to remove the coursemarkers every time.) Do the very first cut in a way that the remaining grass is still pretty long. Once you are done with that first cut and look down your 550ft (or whatever) lines you can spot very easy where you need to do slight adjustments. Do the second cut as short as possible. (The shorter the better, shorter grass gets less sunlight and grows slower.) Now that you are done with the seond line, have a beer! In the beginning the grass will be "a bit mad with you" because it doesn´t really like that you´ve cutted it that short. Therefore it will "grow as mad". Show the grass you are in charge and cut it - two or three days later - a second time. Sortly after that, even a third time. Now you´ll notice that the growing really slows down. With every cut your lines will get "straighter and straighter" as you do slight adjustments every time. From now on it is easy. The farmer (or whoever) usually cuts the grass three times a year. Get in touch with him and tell him to leave you a message like a week before he is cutting. This way you only have to remove the coursemarkers three times per year and - important - have time to cut your lines before the farmers cuts - having the grass in your lines short by that time. The first time you remove the markers, place some kind of bright, clearly visible plastic into the wholes of the markers (into the ground), just the top ~2 inch of the plastic being visible. So you can put the markers back in place very fast. In general: If you have a lot of rain you´ll need to cut more often and if the grass around your lines is short (just been cutted by the farmer) you also need to cut more often. I just had the situation with the "cutting farmer" for the first time and cutted it before and after he did his job. Average maintainance during "normal use" is - depending on how perfect you want it to look - one cut every two to four weeks. Those cuts don´t take much time at all, I do it all myself. It is enough to show up half an hour earlier to do it. Get back to me before you add a pond or a carving course, especially the last one is a bit tough. The pic from above I posted is outdated now, some adjustments have been made, I´ll post an updated "final version"...

Hi Pia, I´ve added the accuracy zones, have a look... The start of zone 1 isn´t visible in that picture. (Brian: Thanks, excellent idea, I did them with the "south-african-distance" from the shoreline of the imaginary pond.) The carving course isn´t set up on those pictures, wait for video to come...

And: I don´t think it costs the (plane)operator 15.- before he even gets the plane into the air. Maybe he is just telling you it would be like that... The DZ I´m most familiar with in the states is DeLand (I can highly recommend that place). Have a look at Bobs prices (the owner) and keep in mind that it is not a tandem-factory (where the tandems can "sponsor" the rest of the jumps) but first of all a team place. Not even talking about the team-discounts, I´d say the jump-prices (at that particular DZ) are very very reasonable and fair. The hnp-price in DeLand is 15.- and it wouldn´t be 15.- if the slot would cost the owner 15.- before even take off and without the expensive fuel. Worst case szenario is very likely that it´s 15.- with the fuel included, don´t you think so?

Lucky for us (the Europeans) it is different over here. (If we think about the Euro for us being the same as the Dollar for you...) The price to full altitude for a single ticket without any discounts (team, many jumps, whatever) ranges at most places from 25-27 (=more expensive than in the states), the average price for a hnp is about 15 (=cheaper than in the states). If you are doing a lot of jumps you can get it for 12. Therefore hnps are more or less half the price of full altitude and you can save a lot of money or make twice the amount of jumps...

Is it possible that there is a mistake on the website? The site is saying about zone accuracy that it´s going to be 19m from the last watergate to the shoreline and 5m from the shoreline to the start of zone 1. As far as I know the distance from the last watergate to the shoreline is since 2008 specified in the rules and has to be 8m, not more, not less (that was different in the past). The distance from the shoreline to the start of zone 1 would be ok being 5m because the rules say now that it has to be between 5m and 11m (the only variable left in the rules now). Please let me know if I´m wrong or if the website is wrong...

From reading stuff like the posts for "Swooping in Lodi", listening to stories I´ve been told from different places and from what I know myself from some DZs, it seems like it´s getting more and more difficult to be able to do hop´n´pops - at least in/at some places or at least for reasonable prizes. I´m not posting this under/in "Swooping in Lodi" cause I think it´s a way to important issue to be related just to one place/DZ. Questions are why this is? And, even way more important, what can we do about it? I believe that most DZ-owners think they are loosing money if the are selling h´n´p-tickets. They believe they could be selling those slots for/as full altitude rides, making more money. I think they are wrong! In my opinion this "DZ-owners-theory" just holds true in very rare situations (if at all). Those are the days where a DZ has way more request for slots than aircraft-capacity. This happens - at most places - just a few days per year. In any other situation hop´n´pops are ADDITIONAL tickets sold, I´m very sure about this. I´ve been doing a lot of teamvideo for many years, now I´m almost out of it. I still keep on jumping a lot. If it wouldn´t be for CP and h´n´ps I wouldn´t be doing so and very likely really slow down. This is not just because of my personal love for CP, it´s due to the prices as well. If my discipline of choice would require full altitude - as it does for the vast majority of jumpers - I would be far far away from doing the same jumpnumbers - it just wouldn´t be worth the money (at least for me). There aren´t that many persons out there who don´t have to take care about prices at all and therefore it´s very likely that I´m not the only one who thinks about how much he (or she) gets out of/for his/her money. Swoopers are paying way more money per feet of altitude and are therefore the best business a DZ can have!! The best that could happen to a DZ (besides tandems and students, we´re talking about licensed jumpers here) would be "swoopers-only". They could fly at least twice the amount of loads (compared to full alti) and ask for way more than half the price per slot, right? In "DZs-reality" those "hnp-only-loads" aren´t flown that many times. Owners will argue that take off takes the most fuel. How about the rate of climb above 10000ft MSL?? Owners will argue they need to give us an extra pass. 1. We don´t really need an extra pass do we? Just throw us out "somewhere over the area", you don´t even have to reduce the power, this gives us faster openings. 2. How about the better rate of climb if you throw out a few persons as long as you´r flying in dense air and keep on going with the same rate of climb all the way up with the now lighter aircraft? Maybe it would be nice/a good idea to 1. discuss my arguments here and then 2. add some more arguments to it. Wouldn´t it be nice to have a list of arguments with an answer to every "con" a DZ-owner might come up with as a final result here? Everyone of us could use that list if needed... P.S.: To the "tandem-factories": We not only cut the waiting time for your passengers and visitors (in?)between (sorry, I´m not a native speaker is it "between" or "inbetween"?) the action taking place (landings) in half. In addition we provide the way better show - take this for granted! Morris

Just in case you´r coming to Germany... If you are looking for a pond you´ll need to go to Fehrbellin, close to Berlin, or to Bad Lippspringe, operated by the british Army. In case your travelling down south you might be interested to check out this place, my "private training site"... It´s called Günzburg and it´s located north and close to the highway from Stuttgart to Munich, almost right in the middle/half way. Prizes for hop´n´pops are starting from 12 Euro on (depending on the amount of jumps you´r doing). They are flying with two Cessna 206 turbines and during "normal" weeks (if there is no special event) they are operating 4 days per week, the weekend and wednesday afternoon. There are many many little lakes around the DZ- that close by - that you can be dropped above and swoop´em on regular loads. (In Germany you don´t need a special permission if it´s within 2 nautical miles around the DZ.) At one of those lakes the are getting white sand out of the underground making for a very nice beach... On the landing area of the DZ itself you´ll find a swoopcourse that allows you distances of about 170m-175m (560ft-575ft) in BOTH directions before you start getting into trouble/closing in on a target. One of those directions is not as well prepared as the other one, but even though it will take you over the beerline, you´r allowed to do so/chose the other direction (if your a swooper) if you prefer that direction for whatever reason. There are about 30 coursemarkers on the course, most of them 5ft. You´ll find the official FAI 75°, 70m, SpeedCarving course. It´s located in a way that you can pratice left- and righthand carves. Around the entrygate you´ll see the outline of the pond of this years CP-WPC in SouthAfrica (that part wasn´t that difficult to do because they´ll "only" have the new minimum wide of 15m by a length of 90m). Like the line of the entrygate itself the other three water gates are visible as well and so are important distances, some additional ones (not visible on the picture) are marked by coursemarkers only. Therefore it´s very easy after landing to tell very exact how far you´ve been going even if you don´t take the time to check you "landingmark" in the grass with the measuringtape at the outsideline of the course. The airfieldelevation is 1457ft MSL and it seems to be a good place to "go big" as the course - that´s just been finished the way it is right now last week - already saw a run to almost exactly 153m/502ft (in very good conditions, 6knots+, straight downwind)... If you´r in the area and thingking about passing by, drop me a line. And if you´r piahenzi you´r considered VIP :-)

Detailed infos please, especially about the winds, thanks! On the video you can see a blade for a moment and the downwind looks pretts strong, I´d like to know how strong it was and if it was coming straight or at an angle.

Like a racing car will take more fuel per mile than the one you´r using for your daily business, a "hot" canopy will take more altitude - the power doesn´t come for free - physics... (and the Katana is "hot" for sure and by the way an excellent canopy in my opinion).

jdfreefly: I think "eyes only" can be very dangerous, how dangerous might be/is depending on the type of turn your doing, the higher you start from the more difficult it is to judge the altitude by "eyes only", don´t you think so? In general: I think the "perfect solution" is - like always - inbetween the two extremes "eyes only" and "swoop by beeps only". The device(s) should be used to avoid that your "totally wrong", the "final decisions" should be taken by the pilot....

Frost: I agree with your opinion, for pilots that are not very very experienced and able to adjust to the situation at hand it might present a serious danger to rely on devices (only) and/or to swoop by "beeps".

I use an analog wristmounted altimeter for the very first/very high part of the canopy ride. As it gets serious Optima is taking over. I recommend to chose the altitude for the very final "beep" a bit too high so that you don´t have to start your turn in a hurry and/or almost immediatly. In general, I´ve you arrive - for whatever reason a bit too low - at your "turnpoint" (don´t know how you native speaker call it) you know that your lower and it´s pretty easy to compensate for that, wouldn´t you agree? I mean "compensate" from a safety point of view, of course your loosing power... I don´t know what kind of accident happened I just believe that most accidents would not take place if the pilot goes every time he (or she) has the slightest doubt for toggles immediatly. What I wanna say is that I think that the dangerous part is how you act if you start your recovery arc (too) low. The "high part" is not the problem, if you initiate a bit too low, just turn faster. Conclusion: It´s not about what kind off device you´r using, it´s how you react during the bottom part. Setting-up to close and keep on diving for the gate in a desperate try to make it is way more dangerous than starting a bit low... Thoughts on this?

It happened to me. Doing video and being lazy I left my brakes stowed till ~1300ft. The moment I unstowed them I ended up having the left toggle in my hand - disconnected from the brake line. No fun at a loading of 2.5....

keep in mind that longer risers allow more aggressive front inputs, asking for long(er) brake lines to avoid tail deflection causing canopy buffeting...

go for the same size! and if it´s not possible to do so (for whatever reason) you better use a larger RDS than one that is smaller than the original slider - don´t take the chance of an ultrahard opening - no fun at all...

To me it also looks like Parachute de France...

I got another example showing how difficult it is to approach canopy flight with math. A while ago I went pretty deep into the theory of line drag (at least for someone who hasn´t studied the topic), back then I also posted something about it here. I don´t wanna write it all again, so here´s a short version of what happened. The problem ahead was to calculate the difference in linedrag between HMA500 and HMA300 lines. Finally we got all what it took to do this kind of calculation, at least for round lines (and as you know a lot of linetypes are not round and to calulate those is almost impossible cause they are moving all the time at least a little bit, even if they would be shaped like a teardrop - this has been tested on paragliders). We found out about so called "reynolds number" (check it out yourself) and that (for example) half the diameter isn´t half the drag cause the thinner you go the more (percentage of) turbulent (high drag) airflow is created and less and less laminar (low drag) airflow goes around the line(s). The final conclusions were that there is an advantage in drag using thinner lines (no surprise) but this advantage was supposed to be very very little (by the answers the math provided). "Real" jumping proved the math being wrong! The difference in drag was way more than it would have had to be! How could that be? The answer was that every line is creating turbulent airflow all the other lines that "travel behind" (B,C,D,...) have to fly through. Therefore the calculations where useless except for the A-lines. Now you can imagine that if you change just the location of the lineattachment points or the location of a linecascade this already affects the overall linedrag by changing the percentages of turbulent airflow in every "location"...

I just would have liked to add that the opinion - about what the optimal wingloading is - changed over the years and in general went up and up and up. The reason for this is very likely (besides the weight restriction rules) that the skills of the pilots got better and better as well. I remember back in ~2001 the "perfect" wingloading for distance was about 2.05, with Shannon swooping far with a velo 103. For speed it was about 2.2 back then. Now at the 2007 WorldCup the top competitors chose loadings of about 2.7(!) for distance(!) in crosswind conditions. Depending on the competitors weight this resulted in canopies choices form 79 to 90 to achieve those loadings. If I remember correct, out of 57 competitors only ~3 flew a +100sqft canopy (Velo103) and those have been the heaviest guys in the field.

Make it happen in between early August and mid September and I´ll fly in from Europe...

What I´d like to do would be a "distance-only-competition" (with weight restrictions). Every competitors would be allowed to do as many jumps as he wants all weekend long, only the longest single run of each competitor counts. And - to make it "perfect" - we´d go downwind all the time, if the wind is changing we go opposite way as well, that would be awesome.

quick recovery by your standards, but your not used to a safire2 189

I wouldn´t recommend the Katana for you. I agree with what AggieDave is saying (Velocity minus, highest performing non cross braced...). You´d have to deal with a WAY longer recovery arc! Better be careful...

Thanks!!