GroundZero

Jason, Great comments! Currently, market demand drives design. The Xaos-21 is a higher cost canopy due to the number of pieces that need to be connected. A Raven consists of 22 pieces of material. A Xaos-21 is 58 peices (don't hold me to that, I'm at home and not looking at the files.) Because of the complex construction, these canopies carry considerably higher manufacturing costs and retail/street pricing. We have built larger crossbraced canopies. I like to use a Xaos-21 108 for demos. The canopy at lower wingloadings does nice "braked" accuracy approaches, (160 lbs. + 20 lbs gear = 1.66 lb/sq. ft.). We have experimented with wingloadings on x-braced canopies at ~1.0. There is a performance increase. The "scaled" version in the larger size on lighter wingloading has sufficient internal pressures. The problem is that there is virtually no demand for a canopy with a $2200.00 retail price for the jumper that has alternatives for $500-1000 less, that will deliver him(her) comfortably to the ground. Pack volume increase means that you can typically step down 2 sizes, get the same performance with similar pack volume. Simply, how many jumpers that are currently jumping a (insert yout favorite mid-performance larger canopy here) are willing to spend $500+ more to simply get a nice ride down. Things may change in the near future. As I age, (43, sometimes feel like 63, but look like 33!), I DEMAND comfortalbe openings. While other x-braced openings may be "interesting", the newest generation of x-brace leads the industry in, (how do you spell it?), SCHWEEEEET! openings. I feel openings alone will drive x-brace into mainstream skydivers' containers. (Jason, you gotta agree on these openings!) I drive 150 miles every day to and from work. I drive a (very) high milage minivan to work and back. I love to drive (fast), that's why my weekend car is a Maserati. Different applications require different tools. That's why we and other manufacturers offer so many "buttons on our drink machine". Don't be surprised if you see a cross-braced mid-performance canopy in the near future... Chris

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only a few people know it will happen..... but, IT WILL..... Chris

this needs to be cross posted... I believe it to be true... and I am a Gamblin' man... ---------------- from the "talkback" forum... -------------------------------------------------------- "I think someone will land a wingsuit and walk away uninjured in less than 6 years." "Wanna put any money on that?" Oh ye of little faith. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i MUST reply............ "yea... I'm with you... I know WE'LL be landing our Bird-Man Suits in 2008! and you other guys will be standing there watching... hehehehe, they just don't understand what we're doing! I'll put money on that. Chris (6 years would be ...... April 23, 2008) MARK YOUR CALENDARS!"

from the "talkback" forum... -------------------------------------------------------- "I think someone will land a wingsuit and walk away uninjured in less than 6 years." "Wanna put any money on that?" Oh ye of little faith. :-) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ i MUST reply............ "yea... I'm with you... I know WE'LL be landing our Bird-Man Suits in 2008! and you guys will be standing there watching... hehehehe, they just don't understand what we're doing! I'll put money on that. Chris (6 years would be ...... April 23, 2008) MARK YOUR CALENDARS!"

yea... I'll put money on that. Chris (6 years would be ...... April 23, 2008) MARK YOUR CALENDARS!

My thoughts... It will be done in a few years... But remember it has already been done... Remember Burt Lancaster (Gypsy Moths), did it a number of years ago. Others have landed wing suits. The list is long. I think that the future wingsuit landings will be an improvement upon the landings of years past. Chris

just a few more hours.... the sky is building! if you're not bird-manning, you're.... just not! Chris

there we go... talk motor cycles and you've got my attention... it's only 600 cc's but it's everybit of 153 mph with my candy ass sitting on it... 1993! before fuel injection... ya-maha-mama fz... this is a whole new thread! Chris

if money was not an issue.... i'd buy another dodge caravan, (used) and a dc-3, call 39 of my best friends and say "it's a 40 way weekend"... hopefully one of my friends would have jumper cables.... Chris

in dunlap today we reached 89 degrees.... confirmed by the airplane's close proximity to the power lines.... but worth the trip, r-max is fun! Chris

Dan, Saturday looks like a "perfect" day for the cumulus... may be on and off all day with scattered t-storms... just like yesterday! See ya then, Chris

I walked out side for a quick smoke and the sky caught my eye. A thunderstorm was building beyond the ridge. I could see a towering cumulus growing and even heard thunder in the distance. The sight was a first for this season, yes it appears that the summer season is here in Tennessee. I know well the fury of a thunderstorm (even bent an airplane flying through one in my early piloting days). But I love to skirt the power of the rising cumulus. Blame it on my Bird-man suit. It is a magnificant sky as I walk to the parking lot to begin my long drive home. The power of the storm has waned, now it looks peaceful. I have to go back there... Welcome back summer with your gorgeous Cumes! I look forward to flying through your canyons. I love these inviting cumulus. Anyone want to join me? Chris

Viking, HMA, I hear through this forum, was banned from use on paragliders in Germany, (I do not know this to be true, only stated here on this forum), because of UV considerations. The line is well tested in skydiving applications and has an excellent history. ... why don't we use braided stainless steel cable for suspension lines, after all that is used for control cables in aircraft. Look at the advantages this would offer! We would never break a line and would have virtually indefinite life linesets. I like your thinking... Everyone that has a significant number of jumps has experienced a broken line. I have seen broken Dacron, Kevlar, Spectra, Vectran and also HMA. (And some others we have tested and decided not to use.) HMA is an excellent fibre for use in this application. Chris

No one can answer these questions... except for a few of us here and we're keepin' quiet 'til the release date....shhhhh... Coming VERY soon! Chris

WOAA! Easy all you "chicken littles".... the sky ain't falling. I am aware of 2 breaklines that have broken on Synergies, both on opening, and it is both of these canopies that are listed above. These are the same canopies that were listed in the other threads, each time we read a new thread, it sounds like a widespread problem ... kinda something like this: "I read about an airliner that crashed in New York area today because of a rudder problem. Then at lunch, I heard a report about an Airbus A-300 or 320 or something that went in in the U.S. about the same time, also with a rudder problem. Then when I watched the news this evening another one crashed with a rudder problem... this one was an American Airlines. Wow that's 3 today alone!" Not only will I quit flying, I'm moving into a cave 'cause they're gonna be coming down everywhere! RozeAY, After looking at your teammates canopy, we found 4 other c-lines with burns at the same point. These lineburns were caused by friction from the other lines... one c-line burned and broke. This is a malfunction that is usually attributed to a deployment anomoly (possibly through packing.) Experience on HMA line is extensive. Before we began working with the line, a German company, Profile Research, built over 700 canopies using this line. Most are in Europe, many are in other countries around the world. This canopy is currently being marketted as the "Nitro". You may have heard of the canopy as Jalepeno, another version of the same canopy. We are building the same canopy under license as the Nitron. First production canopies (from Precision) with HMA line were delivered in June of 2001. We jumped the canopies with HMA in house for over a year prior to delivering the first customer canopy. I can say confidently that HMA line has hundreds of thousands of jumps, (perhaps one million + jumps). What to expect from HMA line... We use different strength lines in different locations on the canopy. Most of the suspension lines are 160 kg. The outboard suspension lines and upper control lines are 200 kg. and the lower control lines are 430 kg. strength. In this configuration, we have complete linesets last over 1000 jumps. We have also see individual line breaks occur before 1000 jumps. I have experienced two broken lines on my Xaos27-84 at about 50ish jumps (look at my packing and you'll understand that!)... One advantage that may be overlooked is that a broken "continuous" line is not as significant as a broken cascaded line... yes I landed my Xaos with those broken lines. HMA line use on skydiving canopies is well tested. The results are very positive and noticable. Hope you feel a bit more comfortable with this fabulous TINY line. It offers many advantages over other lines, test drive a canopy with HMA and see what it's all about... Chris Martin Precision Aerodynamics, Inc. 423-949-4688 chris@precision.net

no.... and I'll bet my beer belly can whip anybody's out there... Chris

Oh my bad... Chuck will do a great job... didn't make the "moderator" connection... You go Chuck! Chris

febreeze... it'll help and it's safe. hehehehe poor thing! Chris

Yehaa! talk about fun, high speed passes from the casas... at Quincy I did a few of them. The most fun was when we let everyone exit and being last out, our pilot (gracey!) dropped the nose again and was able to slowly push up the airspeed to (i think it was) 206kias... Vne with the tailgate open... That's almost 240 mph! Hoping off the tailgate we got pounded in the chest and I know that our airspeed launched us higher... I know that I (at that point) was flying with a positive rate of climb. One thing should be noted, the Casa was descending so the visual of "above the tail" may have been exaggerated by the descending Casa. So perhaps we can land wingsuits after being L.A.P.E.S.'ed out of the back of high speed aircraft... Sign me up!!! Hehehehehe, gotta love it! Chris

actually i believe there has been a momentary positive rate of climb recorded (don't know where that is, though)... Might check with Jari.. HH, we need a moderator here, My vote's for Jari... pm me for his contact info if you don't have it. Chris

Yehaa! Chris

Sharky, Let me see if I can describe the openings you're experiencing... you toss the pilot chute and (for an instant, you think pilot chute in tow, you feel nothing) then as you check, wham, and she's off to the races... Is that it? The only strange (anything other than Beautiful!) openings during the entire development of the Xaos, to present are openings like I described above. I also had an opening or two like that on the Nitron... then I made the connection... the little tiny HMA line. What you are experiencing is more than likely line dump. You need to double wrap your stows (even if you're using the small rubber bands). Tighten up your stows and I'll bet that will solve it. Let me know, feel free to call if you'd like. Chris Precision Aerodynamics 423-949-4688 chris@precision.net

When Annabelle (my 6 year old) lost her first tooth, I was so excited about extracting it from the "tooth fairy" pillow and saving it forever as a memory of my little girl. Then she REALLY lost it. She had trouble going to sleep that night, crying about losing (misplacing) her first tooth. She had looked all over the house and couldn't find it. Well you know what, the tooth fairy left a dollar under her pillow anyway. I guess the tooth fairy found it. Isn't it silly, we (parents) are excited by the tiniest events in our children's lives. She's since lost two more, I keep telling she needs to improve her brushing technique. Geez, I love my little Annabelle! Chris (I really wish we could've found her first "lost" tooth...)

yes, George, I will need a raise.. That's why you're the boss, you have the best ideas! Chris