JustAcro Dbag

by jimrooney

A couple years ago, I got one of JustAcro's excellent Dbags.
Thanks Pal... I love it!

I've been using it pretty regularly ever since.
I have an other Romanian made Dbag, but I nearly always grab my JustAcro one. It's just designed so well. It packs easier and it's cleaner/simpler than any other design I've seen. My friends have other versions. Frankly I don't like theirs.... some are the old "stuff it up into the bag" style. What a pain.
I even had to add safetys to the Romanian one.

I've added a velcro-on center strip to mine that I can use for very large gliders. I'll post pics if I can figure out how. I like it cuz most of the time I don't need it and since I've not touched the actual bag, it's not fudged things up. If I need it, I just velcro it in place. I drop with everything from speedwings to acro wings to all manner of normal gliders. I can drop with everything, the strip just makes packing large serial wings easier.

Here's some youtube vids...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQtQUgHdj5E
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgMwiny9wH0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ogybqlf3ing

Latest Comments

by jimrooney

Just search for Jim Rooney in Queenstown New Zealand.
I'm the only one ;)

I'll send ya even easier info by PM
Jim

by Extremepilot

I was with a cousin of mine today, well traveled..and he was going on and on the same way about the same things...THE most beautiful place on the planet. I know enough to know that it's one of the extreme sports capitals too! I'm totally down for a visit. Post some pics on Facebook...are you on ??
hope you're healing too...
Kent

by jimrooney

I'm in Queenstown.
It's in the "Southern Alps" and is one of the most scenic places on the planet... it's obnoxiously beautiful here. And just a stone's throw away is Milford Sound in the Fiords, which makes even this place look ugly.

The really cool bit though is the level of crazy here is pretty damn high. In the summer, there's generally a bunch of guys base jumping out of tandem gliders to land on the beach so they can get to the bar and hang out with the acro pilots who also just landed on the beach. And that's just the flying people. You should meet the "Canyon Swing" mentalists. They make me look sane and rational.

Anyway... ra ra ra... I could go on for hours.
Jim

by Extremepilot

Ok cool..because I've always wanted to see New Zealand! hahahah. I have many places that I gotta see before I die and N.Z. is one of them. Where are you there?

Kent

by jimrooney

Nice one :)

Thanks for the invite, but I'm in New Zealand for the foreseeable future.

Jim

by Extremepilot

ok..that's pretty much exactly how I'd want it packed as it seems that would naturally be the way for it to come out flying as soon as possible. Hmmm pretty cool. Nice job explaining it in a way that even I could understand too dude haha. ARe you out in SoCal anytime soon?? or not so soon? Look me up if you are. I"m gonna be doing some flying in Gourdon, FR mid and late Sept...then some more in S.E. Wales late Sept and early Oct too, but after that I'll be around in Torrey again. Are you on Facebook? Find me okey dokey?
thanks again for the info Jim

Kent

by jimrooney

Yeah, a skydiving canopy should work out very well. :)

And hell, if you're doing over the falls launches and skydiving, you're well past the need for the "be cautious" warnings.

I think someone posted some packing details up here ages ago. Might be worth a sniff around. I forget if he did the accordion pack or not. I like that style since it's very resistant to getting cravats, where as flaking things like a skydiving rig seems a bit more prone to it.

Think of it like standing the glider on it's tail with the lines tight and accordion folding it all into the middle... Stack the A's and B's just like you'd stack the leading edge mylar. The front half gets packed all nice and neat, split in half and laid flat with the nose exposed. The rear half you just stuff any which way as you lay the front half on top of it. One of the things I like is that the lines all come together and the tips of the glider naturally want to enclose them like a borrito... hard to get a stuck tip when the tip's the outside shell of the pack job ;)

Anyway
Have fun man.
Jim

by Extremepilot

thanks JIm, good info...they sound like a blast, Im gonna use my skydiving canopy...a Pilot 188 should work easy enough...we have an ultralight, and this will be fun, we do "over the falls " launches from the hot air balloon.

great info
thanks a lot and hope you heal fast.

Kent

by jimrooney

Derp derp. I'll get this sorted one day

by jimrooney

Wait... found the problem... gotta hit the "reply" button.... not just start typing in the nice little box... sorry for all the confusion :)

That handy link over on the right will get you pointed in the right direction ;)
http://www.justacro.com/justacro-d-bag-course

It is a blast.
It can go very badly very quickly as well... be very comfortable with the idea of throwing your reserve first ;)
The big one to look out for IMHO is cravats.
A good pack job goes a long way towards preventing this.

Having someone "show you the way" is the way to go.
Even if you have to travel a bit to get to someone, it's priceless info.

If you can get your hands on, or if you have, a speedwing, they are great wings for first Dbags.
Use a normal harness so you have a reserve obviously.
The easiest dbags I do are with speedwings.
It takes me a good 1/2 hour to 45 min to pack a serial wing.
It takes me 5 min to pack a speedwing... they're just so much easier.

Expect to spend hours packing when you first start.
Packing and opening on the ground and repacking.
Line tension knots suck as well... be anal about your lines being stowed neatly ;)

Have a lot more height than you need for your first one.
Remember, a real failure scenario is... stuck tip -> (hard) spin spiral -> reserve.
Even a mild failure involves full stalling out.
So you need to have the height to do all this stuff.

Tandems are (way) easier to dbag off than ultralights. Though ultralights can give you heaps of height for safety.
I prefer the sorta-concertina-pack to the sorta-skydive-pack. YMMV

There's my quick and dirty.
Again, finding someone that knows how is huge.

Jim
Yeah, I'm a bit of an internet junkie.
I'm also nursing a skiing injury, so I've got some time on my hands.

by Extremepilot

Hey Jim,

man you're everywhere on every forum dude.

hey I think I 'm gonna get a dbad...they look like a blast and I'll def use it. Any other suggestions??

thanks?

what do they cost approx?

thanks
kent
torrey pines GPort