Basejumper.com - archive

Just got back from a 260' S a little west of here. I'd seen it done on TV, and had stayed at a Holiday Inn the night before, so decided to go ahead with my first unpacked jumps -- two TARDs on Saturday, two McConkeys on Sunday. Woohoo!



Anyway, we were chatting stalling at the exit point and got to wondering about the whole hands-on-the-rear-risers thing when doing a McConkey. I've seen it a million times, and did it myself, but what is it for? How important is it?

I'm guessing it has to do with heading performance and/or being on your shit that much faster. Am I on the right track?

for what its worth, i have done a few without hands on the risers - and openings were on heading. I suppose you can correct heading faster, plus less possibility of assymetrical exit which can lead to off heading.

My opinion, based on more than 50 each way, is that it matters not at all. It's mostly a psychological prop for the jumper, so you won't grab at air and throw yourself off.

I do think there is some merit to the "French" technique (I call it that because the first time I saw it was on the Soul Flyers video, and as far a I know they were the first guys to do it that way) of holding the toggles in the hands for immediate control. If you try this, be very careful not to pull one down further than the other during the roll.

I've obviously never done one but how about putting your hands through the toggles but holding onto the risers. This would prevent pulling one toggle down farther than the other during the roll but would give you the ability to be "on the toggles" instantly after the roll.

I have a feeling this is how I would do it.

I very nearly went that way, but had this feeling that I'd dislodge a toggle or something and not really be holding onto it. In the end, I just held onto the rear risers near the toggles, which wierded me out less.

Just adding to this, whats the minimum height required to perform one?

 

Tolltaly
Awesome
Rapid
Deployment

The general concensus, as I understand it, is that a TARD opens slightly faster than a static line jump, while a McConkey opens slightly slower. That's certainly been consistent with my experience.

To put more solid numbers to the "slightly slower" bit, my jumps last weekend were done from ~250'. Had I taken as long a canopy ride as I could (I landed on the slope instead), I'd have had maybe 10 seconds, plus or minus, of canopy time. I've seen much more xperienced jumpers take McConkeys somewhat lower, but with the caveat that that'd probably be a terrible place to do your first. I'm inclined to agree.

Awesome, thanks.

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You can huck a tard from 150 and be fine or lucky on or the other but not a tard over. and roll overs I wouldn't do
below 180 but thats just meand I only hold my risers if In doing a Tom Aeilo drop to help it parcaily inflate. but if u dont Already know this stuff practice on something safe
like a building NOT

Hold the canopy in your hands, and toss it into the air, while dropping off underneath it. Done carefully, you can get very fast inflation and good heading results. You can also use this as a way to crank out a huge number of jumps in a short time, because you don't have to pack. TARD is an acronym that stands for "Totally Awesome Rapid Deployment."

There are many variations, among which the most popular is probably the TARD-over (hold a tard and do a front flip over it). You can see a still photo of one of these in NickNitro's "Deployment Stability" thread.

A TARD is not the same as a WAD ("Wild Ass Deployment") a technique pioneered by Mark Hewitt in the 90's, and which involved holding the (almost completely packed) canopy in one hand and pitching it into the airstream.

Be aware that performed improperly, it's possible to create a near total malfunction with a TARD (by inverting the canopy). There's a thread about how this was done, which you can find by searching this forum.




McConkey = Rollover (two equivalent names for the same maneuver--I'm partial to the first name because I was the one who named it that).



That's it. I think there's still a video of this in my Skydivingmovies.com folder, simply entitled "McConkey." If that one's not there any more, you can see the same maneuever in a couple different "McCutaway" videos on the SM.com server (one of them is in my folder, but there are others), which start out that way.

 

never listen to magot, hes always high on drugs

As with all altitude questions, that's pretty relative.

In general, a Rollover/McConkey will open somewhere between a static line and a freefall. But there is massive variation, depending on how you prep and reef the canopy. In the case of the tightest possible prep job, I'd say you're likely to see inflation that's roughly comparable to a well performed ultra low freefall (go and throw).

TARDs open noticeably faster. Again, some of that is dependent on technique, but I've seen successful TARDs allow time for a flare and stand up landing, from the 100 foot range. A typical "lazy" TARD (one basically done so that you don't have to pack, with minimal canopy preparation) will likely be noticeably slower (and with worse heading, which may be more important at very low altitudes) than that.




That varies widely. It can be as simple as grabbing it and tossing it over the edge (very common out here, where people are trying to crank out as many jumps as they can), and as complex as basically doing a complete pack job and carefully lowering it into place.

Every jumper has a different technique, and the degree of care people take with these differs greatly depending on both jumper and object.



That's not a bad method at all. I'd also recommend using a tailgate.