Basejumper.com - archive

Blackjack 280, 180lb jumper, does fine mesh slider and 38’’ PC sound reasonable for terminal jumps on a two piece? Skydiving with flysight shows I am slowing to under 100mph on deployment.

38 should be fine.

Jumping that combination personally I would probably use a 32, but I'm probably pulling higher than you, too.

I prefer fine mesh sliders with the Blackjack. But again, as an old guy, I tend to pull a bit higher.

Thanks Tom, I'll be pulling plenty high. If I'm filming my openings, is there anything to watch out for that would indicate PC too big for my deployment speeds? Or is it more just total time from pitch to inflation and how hard it feels?

Deformation of the pack job immediately after extraction, or slow inflation. How hard it feels is a really poor indicator. In general, the issue is that excessive snatch force can deform the pack job so much that it creates problems with the opening. That's more likely to give you slower openings (as the canopy un-fucks itself) than faster ones.

Speed from extraction to line stretch (if it's obviously slow) can be an indicator of too small a PC, but at terminal it's likely to be super fast with almost anything.

BlackJack has strong openings and the fine mesh is a must have I think in slider up terminal velocity.
For the PC I would also take the 38, it's an heavy canopy. 36 would do the job also fine, I would not go for a smaller than that.
PC size has to be chosen on the speed at opening and the canopy weight.
If you are not "flaring" (lower your speed) before pitching go for 36, 38 if you do.

Thank you Antoine that confirms my choices, 38 and fine mesh, I flare and seem to be about 100mph at deployment.

You may want to work on the flare a bit. 100 mph is a very high speed. (quite close to terminal WS speed)

EDIT: I checked my data and I'm at around 40 mph

I'm talking two piece tracking suit, and total speed not horizontal or vertical component, what do you deploy at 40mph on?

Sorry, I thought you meant WS. My bad :)