riddler

That's valid for someone with your experience level - the question was really more directed to a student. I think students will have a much higher chance of pulling out of sequence than an experienced jumper, which is why I think two-handed methods are better for them. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I've never heard this - why is the one-handed method safer on a low loaded square canopy?

There are plenty of more experienced jumpers that were taught the two-handed method. I was taught one at a time, just like you. There is a reason this is taught. The procedure you learned is the safest for a student with your gear. The advantages and disadvantages have been described in other posts. Think about what happens when things go wrong: 1. Two-handed method, one handle at a time. You pull the cutaway, and can't find the reserve. This is most likely because you were not looking at the reserve handle prior to cutaway. At this point, your RSL (if you have one) should activate the reserve. If you don't have one or still can't find that reserve handle, the AAD should eventually fire. No, you can't count on RSL or ADD to save your life, but there is a very high probability they both will. 2. One-handed method, one hand on each handle. You mistakenly pull reserve first, then cutaway - something that is not uncommon in a stressful situation like a malfunction. In this case, the reserve is open and out before the main is released. There is a potential of a main/reserve entanglement, and then neither of your canopies work. What happens if you cutaway after your two canopies become entagled? I believe the entanglement will probably get worse, not better - but that's probably a better question for CReW people This is not to say an entanglement will always occur. I watched a jumper with 100 jumps pull silver first at 1500 feet because he had a long snivel and didn't think he had time to cutaway. His reserve opened fine and then he chopped the main. But the chance of entanglement is significant - he was lucky. Of these two situations, which would you rather have go wrong? I'm surprised that a manufacturer would give someone with 15 jumps a demo rig that didn't have an RSL option at least. But what do I know?

I question and question, and sometimes I just have to give up on trying to understand and go with the flow. Peace.

I think 2001 was prior to introduction of Coach regulations, but I was just starting my skydiving then, so I'm not sure. The 2003 SIM is available on-line now, thanks to Mustard, Jan Meyer and others. And I mis-stated - it's 2.1.E.6.b Ed to add - I am not advocating this - just stating what the USPA regs are.

Damn, I have the munchies Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What about legal ramifications? Seems to me that tandems are more likely to sue a DZ than jumpers. If a lawyer could prove that a tandem canopy was not packed according to manufacturer's recommendations, they might have a solid case for injury - even something minor, like whiplash. I don't know any manufacturers that recommend psycho-packing.

This might help. http://www.skydivingmagazine.com/windtunl.htm A lot of experienced jumpers have been to one or more tunnels. Ask around at your DZ. I've been myself once or twice

For FedEx, if it's under 150 lbs and the max dimension is under 6 feet, it probably won't have to go freight. The nice thing about FedEx is you can insure it and track it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

2003 SIM Section 2-1.6.b All students engaging in group freefall jumps must be accompanied by a by a USPA Coach until the student has obtained a USPA A license. Maybe I'm wrong, but I interpret that to mean that just the opposite of what you said. By group freefall jump, I interpret two or more jumpers, one being a student and one being a coach, or more than two jumpers, but at least one coach in there somewhere. But I do agree with everything you've said here. Heck - there are people without a Coach rating and thousands of jumps that won't jump with me because I'm a 200-something jump wonder. If those guys want to jump with a student, I would definitely encourage the student to do so - and I would surely be a little jealous I also doubt any DZ would prohibit that. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Will you people puleeze post some links? Less lippy, more clicky. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

0101010001101000011001010010000001110011011000010110010000100000011101000110100001101001011011100110011100100000011010010111001100100000010010010010000001100011011011110111010101101100011001000010011101110110011001010010000001110111011100100110100101110100011101000110010101101110001000000110000100100000010010100110000101110110011000010010000001100001011100000111000001101100011001010111010000100000011101000110111100100000011001000110010101100011011011110110010001100101001000000110011001100001011100110111010001100101011100100010000001110100011010000110000101101110001000000111010001101000011001010010000001110100011010010110110101100101001000000110100101110100001000000111010001101111011011110110101100100000011011010110010100100000011101000110111100100000011001100110100101110010011011100110010000100000011101000110100001100101001000000111011101100101011000100010000001110011011010010111010001100101

01101000011101000111010001110000001110100010111100101111011011100110100101100011011010110110001101101001011100110110101101100101001011100110001101101111011011010010111101110100011011110110111101101100011100110010111101100010011010010110111001100001011100100111100100101110011100000110100001110000 Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Borrowed from a good friend

Basil - mmmmm. Take a tomato, cut it in half. Grind up some cashews in a food processor - spread on tomato halves. Cover the top with fresh basil. Eat. You will like. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

From 3500 feet, you have more than 20 seconds before hitting the ground, more than 15 seconds before your Cypres fires. Plenty of time to not only pull but work with a malfunction if one comes up. I suggest to my students to do a poised exit and count to five before pulling. In the first five seconds, you only fall about 400 feet. In seven seconds, 800 feet. Eight-Nine seconds for 1,000 feet. There is plenty of time.

01010010011010010110010001100100011011000110010101110010001000000111011101100001011100110010000001101000011001010111001001100101 I assume we're not using 2's compliment? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I think some states would require the asteroid to hold residence for a year before it could claim it's prize. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

High speed + air entering your goggles from the bottom = definitely bad for contact lenses. I've had goggles blow out from the bottom while in a stand for a long period of time. Lasik is worth the money, IMO, if you can afford it. Short of that, I would say for free-flying, the "bubble" type goggles that wrap around your face don't work that well for me (although I do wear them). I've had much better luck with the goggles where the lenses are completely around your eye - they usually have mirrored or colored surfaces. These seem to stay on better when I'm at high speed. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Definitely inspired by Peyote. I managed to watch the entire thing before I had to get up, run to the bathroom and throw up. Very cool site! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Glad you made it there and are safe. Those rental vans can be unsafe for sure. But no worries - your skydiving family is always here to help! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

See you guys joke, but personally I think it's a shame that many prophets these days work at fast-food establishments. It isn't until long after they die that we recognize them for their true value to society - until then, it's grease burns and minimum wage. Why, if past prophets had lived today, then we would have scriptures that say things like: Thou shall not (insert favorite vice here). Would you like fries with that? and The path to enlightenment may only be achieved by super-sizing your soda. As it is, we may be subject to future religious icons depicting our martyr-of-choice chained to a frosty machine. That's just wrong. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Judging from the fooling around that goes on at most DZs I've been to (yes, I include myself in that mess), coupled with the male/female ratio, I have to conclude that some skydiving women are getting way more than their fair share. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Yearly evaluations were definitely the thing I hated most about working in the corporate world. I quit two jobs spur-of-the-moment because of bad appraisals that I thought were undeserved. At the two largest corporations I worked at, we all had to do a self-evaluation, as well as have an evaluation from 2-4 peers and your direct supervisor (and in one case, a vice president that we never met). After the first year, we realized it was a bad idea to say anything remotely negative about yourself, because your boss, who had no idea what to say or how to say it about you, would add that into his/her appraisal of you and you would soon be stigmatized for this bad trait that you didn't know you possessed. So instead, most people wrote very neutral things about themselves that couldn't be interpreted in any negative way. Of course, I took it all the way and made myself out to look like some sort of higher life form. Phrases such as "unsurpassed", "world-recognized authority", even "god-like" were applied liberally to my self-evaluation. I found that most of my managers were uncomfortable with confrontation and had trouble disagreeing with my statements, even when they were absurd. So my final evaluations were, on the whole, better than average. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I don't think teaching students to spot or move forward and dock is quite the same as nascar driving. These are basic skills that coaches have to demonstrate they can do, and are more than capable of teaching in most cases. Most of what a coach does in free-fall is fall straight down and observe students, then give them tips for improving on the ground. Does that really require an AFF instructor? I've only coached in Colorado, and coaches here aren't considered employees of a DZ - they are usually recommended to students by instructors. There's still a responsibility - an instructor won't recommend a coach that they don't feel is a competent instructor. I do agree with you - right now, the only purpose of the coach rating is a precursor to a future rating. I think that should change. Otherwise, the whole program is nothing more than sending additional money to USPA. If that's the case, we should eliminate the entire program.