Brake Settings (Deep or Shallow)

[skyhive]

Origingally, I was taught "Slider Up, you use shallow brake settings... Slider Down/Off you use deep brake settings." Of my 25 jumps, 20 or 21 being slider up, the rest slider off. The mentality I was taught has worked just fine for me so far.
I have recently been told that you should never use your deep brake settings slider on or off. I wasn't told why, but was just told you shouldn't use your deep brake setting for whatever reason. I understand if they are too deep your canopy can open in a stall, but that wasn't the concern.
Any opinions, advice, or ideas as to why I heard this? Is there certain circumstances where this is or is not true?

[JaapSuter]

Check out Break settings on a Flick for example. - BASE Jumping:: BLiNC Magazine Forums.

[sabre210]

A nugget of advice like this without any qualification is pretty much usless don't you think. Unless this person has a well reasoned compelling argument for not using deep brake settings then i'd stick with conventional wisdom and what the manufacturer who installed those deep brake settings intended.

Reducing the forward speed of the canopy has obvious benefits when facing a solid object after an off heading opening. Faster forward speed means less time before impact, which means less time to react and steer away. Faster forward speed on impact means more breakage of bones, more pain. I think that's hard to dispute.

You need to find out what the thinking behind this advice is.

ian

[Nick_D]

I believe APEX BASE has eliminated the multiple brake setting option on their BASE canopies. Todd said, after all these years, he's found the optimum setting for each canopy. This will also eliminate making the mistake of setting one brake high and the other low. (It happens).

BTW, don't crap if you call APEX in May and hear, "Apex BASE, this is Nick . . ."

I'll be filling in for Karen when she goes abroad for the season.

It'll be just like old times . . .

NickD
BASE 194

[JaapSuter]

I don't know about the other Apex-BR canopies, but the Apex-Vertigo Rock Dragon comes with two brake settings.

Todd said, after all these years, he's found the optimum setting for each canopy.

So according to him, regardless of whether the steering lines go through the slider grommets or not, the same brake setting would be optimal?

Thanks,

Jaap Suter

[Nick_D]

Don't kid yourself. The point is achieving optimal performance for people who know what they are doing.

Don't be too hard on them (the BASE gear manufactures) as I remember when no one knew anything for sure, and I assure you it is much better now . . .

BASE jumping will always have so many variables involved that its always a matter of you becoming intimate with whatever gear you have, and being smart and experienced enough to make it work. No BASE gear manufacturer will ever replace that . . .

Anything less, is like skydiving or something.

NickD
BASE 194

[JaapSuter]

Don't kid yourself.

Huh?

...its always a matter of you becoming intimate with whatever gear you have, and being smart and experienced enough to make it work.

And one way of getting to that point is to ask somebody who went through the process before.

[Nick_D]

>Huh . . .<

Well that's for sure. It just sounded to my ear you wanted it handed to you in a pre-packed rig. I get it now.

NickD
BASE 194

[JaapSuter]

It just sounded to my ear you wanted it handed to you in a pre-packed rig. I get it now.

Sorry for the confusion. English is not my first language (I'm from Holland) so I might cause the occasional confusion.

I am sincerely interested in whether he believes that one factory-brake setting can work for both slider-up and -down jumps, jumper-weight variation aside.

...handed to you in a pre-packed rig...

That would take all the fun out, right ? I just spend the whole weekend skydiving my base-canopy to tune my brake settings, and I'm having two extra sewn on.

[Nick_D]

Some peeps can do so , and I'm sure you are one of them, and that's fine. The majority of new BASE jumpers can't, and that's the rub. That's the dilemma mindful BASE gear manufactures find themselves in . . .

NickD
BASE 194

[Raymond Losli]

Optimal.....Most favorable / Most desirable / One size fits all ???

It's No secret that my basic BASE jump rule of life has always been... "Less is More"
Less amount of variables is safest... "Don't over think it."

You throw around this word .. Optimal.. pretty casually.

It cant be that much trouble to dial in a BASE canopy with 2 Break settings ?

Wow that's really cool and easy. You just Buy it and jump it.
It eliminates the work in learning the Opening flight characteristics of the canopy you bought and own.
The work in finding what is the most favorable, most desirable brake settings that your life depends on.
No hassle, No work, no having to pick out a Bar-Tack pull out a piece of Dacron line and slide another one back in to Fine Tune that Optimal Brake setting.

That's mechanically difficult and pretty scary stuff.

I mean you might have to actually have a some previously acquired mechanical knowledge of a Ram-air Canopy and understand what the length of break-line setting have on a Canopy opening.
Hell you might have to actually have a few hundred skydives before you make a BASE jump.
You might have to move past that point of Minimal amount of knowledge needed to BASE jump.

YOU KNOW ?
That Green, new, naive, blind trust of just...Buy It... tossing the Pilot-Chute out. Opening it up and Swoooop it-in.

No more learning the optimal. The most desirable Set-Up position that you think that your canopy should be in when it Cracks Opens on that shear face object.

It's kinda like buying a safe, comfortable, big old school Bus.
No more work in learning how it works... Don't question it... Just get in and drive it.

Optimal in this case... Sounds a little / General / Mediocre / Generic / Average

but hey. I'm turning into a old, fat, lazy, stupid, bastard... Sigh me up... I'm in.
.
.

[pBASEtobe]

BTW, don't crap if you call APEX in May and hear, "Apex BASE, this is Nick . . ."

I'll have to call just to get a kick out of hearing that.

[Faber]

I believe APEX BASE has eliminated the multiple brake setting option on their BASE canopies. Todd said, after all these years, he's found the optimum setting for each canopy. This will also eliminate making the mistake of setting one brake high and the other low. (It happens).

BTW, don't crap if you call APEX in May and hear, "Apex BASE, this is Nick . . ."

I'll be filling in for Karen when she goes abroad for the season.

It'll be just like old times . . .

NickD
BASE 194

psst actualy they help you...
IF they had 2 brake setting you might had to move both,now you only need to move 1 and make 1-2 more

you should deafently have deeper brake settings for slider off jumps(and slightly shallower for SL/PCA jumps),settings for slider up shouldnt(nearly )mean much as long you dont open in a stall,ofcourse depending how close to objects you are...

[Nick_D]

psst actualy they help you...
IF they had 2 brake setting you might had to move both,now you only need to move 1 and make 1-2 more

you should deafently have deeper brake settings for slider off jumps(and slightly shallower for SL/PCA jumps),settings for slider up shouldnt(nearly )mean much as long you dont open in a stall,ofcourse depending how close to objects you are...

Okay, I suppose, if you think the difference between a successful BASE jump, and the other, is all about brake settings . . .

NickD
BASE194

[Tom Aiello]

...deep brake settings...

It's important to remember that brake settings are "deep" or "shallow" relative to the weight suspended during deployment (i.e. jumper's weight).

The terms "deep" and "shallow" tend to get confusing when you forget that. If you take my gear, and put it in my "shallow" setting, it might actually be "deep" relative to you (because we have presumably have different weights).

I think that what Todd found was that the vast majority of jumpers were too lazy to do the work of customizing their brake settings. In that case, there is little point in having multiple settings, and you may as well just go with the manufacturers (because they're the one with the most general experience with the canopy) best guess.

In my opinion, it's far better to customize your own DBS with a series of test jumps, though. Then practice avoiding object strike with the canopy set in those DBS to be sure they perform as expected.

Customizing your brakes, and most importantly practicing to avoid objects under relatively controlled conditions, regardless of the brake settings you use, is going to come in very handy when (not if--when) you find yourself staring at an object up close and personal just after opening.