Acceptable winds on a 1000'A?

[baseninja]

I don't have a lot of experience on terminal A's, but I am looking for those that do...

We were climbing and doing TP drops every 200ish feet. It looked good until we got to 400, when it was splitting the wire like crazy... We were going to take 5-6 secs off from the top, but weren't happy with the way the winds are at the opening height. Since it was a sunrise load, we didn't want to climb to the top, and couldn't afford to wait at the top with the sunrise coming, just to see the winds down the wire at 1k, so we climbed down at 400, which sucked pretty bad...

So the question: What is your acceptable wind direction and speed from a terminal or near-terminal A? Even if it light or heavy down the wire, can you track enough in 5-6 secs to be "safe"? What about no/light winds?

Thanks,

[bps]

As a general rule of thumb, it's difficult to track far enough in a 5 to 6 second delay to safely overcome a strong wind that is down the wire. Knowing what you posted here, it sounds like you and your buddy made a very good decision.

If I'm able to take a 9 or 10 second delay, I feel that I can out-track any kind of wind (within reason). But no matter the situation, you must ask yourself: What happens if I get a 90 towards the wire with line twists? Will I have time to get out of it? I can assure you that "caca occurs" and you must always be prepared to deal with it. Always give yourself this margin and your chances of surviving go up dramatically.

Tracking is an art. I'm of the opinion that we have not reached our top-end when it comes to tracking. In general, Europeans are years ahead of Americans -- mainly because the better portion of their jumps are slider-up whereas most Americans are far more proficient in the slider-down environment. It's all about what you are surrounded by.

With practice and a desire for continual improvement, you can track quite far on a 6 second delay. However, make no mistake about it, strong winds down the wire are tough to overcome when you open in the wrong direction, no matter how good you are.

Nice job in your decision making process; I'm willing to bet that even though you didn't jump, your experience level has been raised dramatically.

Bryan