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Pilot Emergency Parachute

Dear Neilmick, The planet was divided between metric countries and imperial countries until the United States Army Air Force won the Second World War in 1945. Since the USAF won the war single-handedly, they forced the rest of the planet to fly in feet. A few of those silly communist countries continued measuring altitude in metres, but they slipped out from under the Soviet yoke circa 1990. Sarcasm alert! Please do not tell the USAF anything different as you might damage their delicate egos. My key point is that students should only be asked to learn one system of measurement. If the student has only learned metres in elementary and high school, it is silly to teach them feet when they start skydiving. Telling students to open their main parachutes (aka. "pull handle number 1") at 1,000 metres is easy to remember.

Was that a haiku?

I live and jump in Serbia where we use meters. Pilots use feet (because that's the international convention I guess), but jumpers use meters and have meter altimeters. When a pilot is new with skydiving, you have to make sure you communicate if you're going to 3000 feet or meters :) My 117th jump was in the US where I rented equipment, and guess what, the altimeters are in feet. Before the jump, I converted the few critical altitudes I need (deployment/decision altitude/hard deck/no cutaway) and just watched for those. There's no real reason to do any maths, you're not solving differential equations up there. You have series of altitudes upon which you base your decisions (unless you're swooping for example where you need a bit more precise numbers I guess). For what is worth, you could have them marked as A, B, C, D... on the altimeter and never know how they translate to real world coordinates.

I am. No one in my family is immunocompromised, but people I see at the grocery store may be. And my elderly mother comes over to visit my toddler once a week. I haven't jumped in over seven months and miss it a lot, but right now it just doesn't seem to be worth the risk. (And if anyone wonders why I go the grocery store then, the answer is I need food. I don't need to skydive. I want to skydive.)

This is a really great question; take the answers you read here, put together a picture for yourself, and then use that to talk to your instructor when you get back to the DZ. You might find that you misunderstood something said here because of lack of context, but having an idea before you ask the questions in person means you can get further into the topic before the information starts to fill you up and run out your ears. The biggest difference between a smaller canopy and a larger one of the same kind is that it has shorter lines; that means that you are likely to feel it as more responsive than a larger canopy will feel -- for the same turn, you'll tip farther out, etc. What you gain is greater penetration in (relatively) higher winds. I'm not talking 25mph, just the higher end of winds you're likely to encounter. Penetration means that you're less likely to be landing going backwards. Harder or easier to fly is very relative, and I'd figure your instructors will start you out with an appropriate wingloading. It's much better to make mistakes with a slightly-too-large canopy than a slightly-too-small one; much more room for error. The issue with going to too large is that you're less likely to land close in higher winds, because it takes more skill to hit the right spot with a canopy that's significantly slower (as an oversized one would be). There's an article in the dz.com articles that, while it isn't what you're doing right now, will help to give you some information about canopies and the language around them: Good luck, and enjoy when the time comes! Wendy P.

Is there any reason you can't convert the feet to meters? Continue to follow the USPA rules for altitudes, but work in meters instead? For example, a D license has a minimum pull altitude of 2500 feet. That converts to 762 meters. So call it 775m. I know there are USPA foreign affiliates in other places (and just about everyone but the US uses metric). Makes me wonder how they do it.

Dear iranianjumper, The last thing you want is students fixating on mathematical calculations as they rapidly fall towards the planet. May I suggest reducing confusion by loaning wrist-mounted, metric altimeters to your students? Instructors can wear two altimetres: whatever they like on their wrist along with a metric altimeter on their chest strap. Their student should be able to read an instructor's chest-mounted altimeter if it has a big enough face. If you want to simplify discussions with your pilot. stick an extra metric altimeter to the dash board and ask your pilot to "zero" it before take-off. Your pilot will keep his/her regular altimeter set to feet above sea level because that is what other pilots and air traffic controllers understand. When I used to jump in France and Germany, I still wore my "feet" altimeter and did rough calculations (3 to 1) to confirm that I was "singing from the same sheet of music" as my companions wearing metric altimeters. In the end, it makes little difference whether you pull at 1 kilometre or 3,300 feet or 3,000 feet because the canopy ride lasts about the same number of minutes.

At this point, is anyone else still keeping away from the dropzone? As much as I want to get back to jumping, my partner is high risk and I'd hate to be responsible for making her ill. It doesn't help that a lot of the photos and videos I have seen on social media include jumpers in the packing area not distancing or wearing masks.

Why does following Q instantly make people unable to use full sentences? You don’t sound secret and SPEC OPS when you talk this way. You sound retarded.

Hi Dena. I am also in Arkansas. I don't jump anymore, but I started at 47, so 33 is pretty young. Look into Skydive Fayetteville. It was started by some people that I used to jump with. I hear it's great.

I started at 37. Professor Kallend (a rather prolific poster over in Speaker's Corner) was in his 60s when he started, IIRC. There's only a limited amount of 'book learning' that you can do. Most of it is 'doing'. BASE is a somewhat typical goal. For a newer jumper, it's a ways off. I would suggest you concentrate on the journey more than the goal. You may find that once you get in the sky, something else has a stronger pull (wingsuit, freeflying, competition, coaching/teaching, ect). One thing to focus on that will apply is canopy control. Learn to fly the canopy well and land accurately. Those are important for BASE (and skydiving too).

Depending on where you're located in Arkansas, you may want to check out West Tennessee Skydiving near Memphis. Great place, fast plane, awesome AFF program. I made my first jump at 29 years old. I do wish I had gotten into the sport sooner, but you can still have a great time! There are jumpers in their 70s, 80s, and beyond.