The PD Blog

PD Spotlight: Donna Wagner, the Canopy Whisperer

Ever wanted to know more about what goes on behind the PD walls during the day?  It can be pretty interesting with the many characters and legends (even if only in own mind) that work here.  The PD Blog feels the need to share, so we decided to launch this new feature on the blog to quench the thirst of inquiring minds.

This first time around, the PD Spotlight shines on Donna Wagner, our trusty PMD Supervisor (keep on reading to find out what PMD really stands for).

How long have you been at PD?
For 6 years and to be honest I have never worked at one company for over 3 years. This is a first for me.

How the hell did you end up at PD? Err, we mean….  What brought you here?
This was to be my in-between job after burning out in a Public Relations job previously held.  I was asked if I knew anything about Skydiving and I did know a little as I had spent time on several drop zones. It’s been fun ever since.

Any hidden talents, pet peeves or passions? 
I play Handbells, flute and love music – all kinds.  I think I only have one pet peeve and that is littering our earth. I am passionate about education, for myself and teaching others.  Reading good books and spending time at the beach and doing so at the same time every chance possible!

What is most rewarding about your job? (apart from working with the lovely people in Marketing)
PD is a company that allows me to personally serve the needs of our customers. I really enjoy the interaction with the customers.

What is the toughest part of your job?
Making sure that all of our work goes through in a timely manner. (is she suggesting skydivers can be impatient??)

Have you made a skydive?  If yes, give us the details!
Tandems! I’ve done six total and I really love it, but that adrenalin rush lasts me a long time and only need it once every three years. : )  My favorite Tandem Master is Art Shaffer at Skydive Palatka.

Most bizarre (or funny) canopy problem sent in? 
We had a canopy come in with bikini wax on it!  Determining what it was, and if we were going to remove it was a challenge. By the way, we were not able to get it off (and no, we are not telling you whose canopy it was).  Cats also seem to like canopies, we get lots of requests to wash the canopy to remove kitty tinkle.  PEEYEW!!!

What do people send their canopies in for?
Relines, patches, repairs, new skins, washing, permeability testing and any other issues with the canopies.

What makes Donna tick?
I just enjoy working with people. I Love to laugh but I am very serious about my work.

Why is there a baseball bat next to your desk?
“No Comment”

Suggestions for a proper maintenance routine?
Keep your canopy out of the sun as much as possible - UV rays are not good for parachtues. When packing, take care to orient fabric and lines properly to lessen the likelihood of line burns.  Also, wear a shirt to keep your sweat from getting on the fabric when packing.  The salt in our sweat weakens the fabric over time.  At the end of your jumping day, clear out all of your line twists. When walking back after a jump, pick your canopy up off the ground - don’t drag it through the rocks, grass, dirt etc (prevents snagging of fabric).
Watch your lines closely and reline when the performance starts to diminish or lines look worn or frayed.

What is PMD?
PMD stands for Parachute Maintenance Department. We inspect the canopy, slider, lines and slinks/links for any damage or deficiencies.  We advise the customers on what we see and let them decide what course of actions they would like to take. We do our best to educate our customers on what preventative steps if any,  can be taken.   I highly recommend an inspection before buying a used canopy unless inspected by a trusted rigger.   Oversews, replacing illegible warning labels, old logos, and many other things can be done at no charge to the customer while his or hers canopy is here at PD.  We keep the canopy up to date with any changes that may be available and we are ready to help with any issues the customer may have in the air or on the ground with their canopy.

Many thanks to Donna for taking the time to chat - we hope you enjoyed this mini-tour of PMD.
If you have any other questions about PMD feel free to post a comment and we will do our best to find you an answer!

La Isla de Encanto

PD Factory Team members JC Colclasure and Jonathan Tagle recently held a Canopy control course at the XtremeDivers dropzone during the Puerto Rico Freefall Festival. Those who participated in the course all had good things to say about the experience and felt they had improved their canopy skills. Event organizers Jason Gonzalez and Viviana De Jesus put on a first class event that drew 247 registered skydivers over the week. With the beautiful scenery and great weather the boogie is a natural draw for skydivers, especially wingsuiters. With over 25 wingsuiters in attendance many large and small flocks were flown and  reps from Birdman, Fly Your Body and Tony suits made sure demo suits were available for everyone. Just because the jumping day was over didn't mean the fun was. Jason and Viviana made sure the night time activities were well taken care of by hosting a dinner as well as having a weekend DZ party that provided a live DJ and some of Puerto Rico's fine  adult beverages all night for free. If you didn't make it this year put it on next years list of boogies to attend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Packing Volume

Buying skydiving gear is always fun - both big and small pieces of gear tend to make our eyes light up.  Even a nice looking skydiving t-shirt is a fun purchase!
Some people say skydivers are like kids, so it stands to reason that we enjoy toys. I prefer to say that we are simply in really good touch with our inner child and still know how to play!
When it comes time to buy a rig or canopy, it can be pretty important to fit the canopy properly to the container.  First priority should of course be to make sure you are jumping a canopy that is appropriately sized for your skill level, experience and currency.   Then it is quite important to make sure that your canopy fits into the container safely and securely as well - but thats where it can sometimes get tricky. 
Our best advice is to consult your container manufacturer for recommendations as to what fits where, as until they come out with a "one size holds all" container, we will have to put our gear together with some thought. 
If you are interested in learning more about the mysteries of pack volume and the reason PD is reluctant to simply slap a volume figure on each of our canopies, we have an excellent article on our website that addresses that.  I highly recommend that you check it out.

The picture is courtesy of Norwegian freefly team HELIX, sporting their appropriately sized canopies and Vector Micron containers :)

Waxing Lines

We recently had one of our customers get in touch to ask about waxing lines on new canopies.  He had heard of this practice and wondered if it still applied to modern gear. 
We consulted our VP John LeBlanc, who is pretty much a walking encyclopedia when it comes to gear.  As soon as we brought up the question, John's face lit up because he knew he would get a chance to talk about his Baby Paraplane (a canopy he jumped way back in the day, when PD was barely a twinkle in Bill Coe's eye).
Anyway, turns out that waxing is something that used to be done in the 1970's, but we haven't seen it since then.  It was a bit random at best, where people used different materials in varying quantities, with very mixed results.   Bees wax tends to make things stick together where paraffin wax tends to make them more slippery.  John once tried to wax the lines of his Baby Paraplane (around 1980) and the openings changed from "slow with a little bit of closed end cells" to "full on whackers".   
Lines from PD (both on brand new canopies and when sold as line sets) come with a coating on them and do not need additional treatments.  With that said, we don't recommend waxing or treating the lines on modern gear, especially keeping in mind higher freefall speeds and modern materials/designs.   

UK Skills Camp

HEAT recently ran a skills camp at Netheravon in the UK. The course was run over a weekend and had a range of abilities with participants having between 40 and 1800 jumps. The group was split in half and each had 2 coaches to provide in-depth tuition and debriefing. Despite it being a cold weekend in February the weather had been booked and the skies stayed blue throughout. It was great to see the progression from everyone and this laid down a good foundation for the start of the season.

HEAT Inferno

The High Extreme Aerobatic Team, otherwise known as HEAT, are trying to light the new season up in the UK.  They're kicking it off at Netheravon by hosting an Inferno Canopy Seminar and Flight Coaching weekend during 9-10 Feb.  The UK can often have some cold, wet and miserable weather over the winter period (although it can also have some stunning cold and crisp winter days as well) and many warm weather jumpers hang up their rigs for the festive period.  That can often mean starting the season off slightly uncurrent so our sponsored team is aiming to help keep everyone safe from the outset as well as developing new canopy skills.  To make it a weekend of fun they're also throwing some of the registration money behind the bar and have a bit of party on the Saturday night.  So if you're going to be in UK in early Feb then you might want to go check it out...

Reserve Wing Loading

We received a comment on one of our posts, with a question about Reserve wing loading.  We think this is a very good topic that really deserves it's own post, so we handed the keyboard to Nick Grillet (one of our tour reps) to answer.

Wing loading can be a tricky topic, as many factors come into play when determining the appropriate loading for your canopy (both for main & reserve).   
Meteorological conditions, experience levels, dropzone elevation and surroundings are examples of things that factor in.  PD's R&D department thoroughly tests each reserve size under a wide range of wing loadings to make sure that the canopy performs to satisfaction (and then the rigors of TSO testing are a topic for a whole new blog, if not several!). Based on those tests, we publish a chart with wing loading recommendation for each of our models & sizes. 

As for wing loading in general, it is fairly well known in the skydiving community that the higher the wing loading the more aggressive the canopy flies & turns and more altitude is lost during each turn. Each jumper needs to consider his or her own experience and pick the appropriate size canopy based on that. Keep in mind that if you find yourself under your Reserve, you likely just had an emergency or are currently dealing with one - which might not be the best moment for deep thoughts about equipment selection!
You should also anticipate having to land your reserve away from the main landing area, possibly in a tight situation. Your goal should be to select a reserve that you feel reasonably comfortable with landing in any kinds or direction of winds  as you never know what the situation might bring. 
I'm sure you have heard this before, but erring on the conservative side, may make ALL the difference in whether you walk away safely or not. 
You can demo your PD reserve here and jump it as a main to see for yourself how it flies. Any other information on wing loading compared to experience level can be found on our website, just click on the canopy you jump and view the chart. Pay particular attention to our maximum recommended exit weight for each canopy size and be honest when you evaluate your experience level.
I have tried my best to keep this short but the topic is worthy of long talks, so by all means let us know if any other questions come up.

Stay safe!