TracyS

I too; call "bullshit." You can poo poo the fact that your packer/friend/co-owner missed something to spare the relationship, but that won't save your life. Your packer needs remedial training. BIGUN, You're welcome to call "bullshit" if you want. I'm not trying to spare a relationship. The packer acknowledged that they should have caught it. Me beating up on them about it isn't going to make the situation any better. As far as my responsibility goes, it IS my responsibility. If I choose to delegate that task to a packer, that is my prerogative, but it doesn't change the fact that it is my equipment, my life and therefore MY responsibility. Coming from a military aviation background, I am compelled to try to look at something like objectively and acknowledge whether there is anything I did that contributed to it or could have done to prevent it. I missed it and so did the packer. I can't absolve my own part in this because I'd rather pay a packer $6.00 for a pack job. I can guarantee my packer does a good job, but is also human. Thanks for your input , I do appreciate it even if I disagree with you. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

You have proven you can handle the responsibility. Consider getting an RSL. I cut away under a stable but unsteerable canopy and was fully inflated AND slowed back down under my reserve in 330 feet. Thanks for the input. I am going to give some thought to getting an RSL. I do see a value to having one but I also see what I perceive to be some downside. Some food for thought for me. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

A line check is part of a pack job, and the packer should be doing one every time. The other stuff (brakes/slider/PC) are nice, but also part of a pack job and no packer should be closing a rig without those things being done or checked. Now if you drop your rig off with nothing done and all twisted up, you're not going to popular with the packers, and you'[re rig will get packed past every time, but all of those things must be done 100%, and 100% of the time. As far as you're concerned, get an RSL. Your rig is open, and now is a great time to have one installed. This time you had the altitude for what you thought was a 'short' delay, and while it was short, note how quickly you drop away from the main. You may want that extra altitude one day, and an RSL will most likely give that to you. Thanks for the input. I will consider getting an RSL. Not attempting to rationalize not having one but just clarifying, I chose to wait a second or two before pulling. I had a hand on each handle and could have done a quick one the the other. Your advice, as always, is good advice and I'll give it some thought. Although I see the value of an RSL, I have some reservations about having an RSL under a spinning line twist or some other situations that make me feel better about not having it. I know it puts the burden on me to get that reserve punched out, but even with an RSL, the burden is still on me to deploy it too. I'm quite certain any S&TA or instructor or anyone else for that matter would give me untold crap if I had a cutaway and came back with my reserve cable untouched. 100% of the time, I stow my brakes and un-collapse my slider and slide it up as I coil the lines to pick up my canopy in the field, bring my rig in and lay it down neatly, walk the lines and shake out my canopy to lay it out neatly on the carpet. I figure I have a vested interest in doing all of these things even though it's a part of the pack job. I also figure it'll keep me in my packer's good graces. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

She did a good job of keeping her cool. She and I have talked a lot about me jumping and we look at it like any other sporting activity. I figure that it's not a matter of IF I will get hurt while skydiving but a matter of WHEN and to what extent. Might be a twisted ankle or my be death. Those are the risk we all choose to take while doing this. She has seen several people have cutaways and come back from them just fine in our brief time in skydiving. Because of that, she was confident that I would deal with it and didn't feel a need to panic. She did say that she was holding her breath when it happened. I was very proud of how she didn't over react. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Hellis, Thanks for the feedback. The line was below the slider. Since the packer and I both always walk the lines and neither of us saw it then, it's possible that it happened the way you speculate. The packer owned it also, but I take full responsibility for it. It's my gear and ultimately, my responsibility. I will still use the same packer without any reservation. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Yes, that's what I thought it was when I looked up at it. I didn't catch it when laid it down for the packer. I always stow my brakes, un-collapse the slider and walk the lines even though I use a packer because I figure it's ultimately my responsibility, not the packer. The packer does/checks those things also and felt bad for not catching either, but it was 100% my mistake. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Yep, it sure did work! Awesome, BigSteve did my repack and saved me from having an even worse day. Yes, steady hand from the wife. ( doesn't hurt that the camera has some sort of steady setting either ) Correct, no RSL. Bought rig used and it didn't have an RSL. Puts the responsibility entirely on me. I'm ok with that. Yes, I had a handle in each hand. Took a slight delay to be sure I was clear of the main. I think I did go head down. First time, so I guess I'll have to do it a few more times to get the hang of it.

Had a very fun jump with Andrew Dibble, Young Ahn and Bruce Crawford. On opening, had about 5 or 6 line twist that I started kicking out of. No big deal. As I kicked out of the last twist, the slider was still about 3 feet out of my reach with a line coming down from the right side of the canopy and over to the left riser with the canopy in a slow left hand turn. Left the brakes stowed and tried to counter the left turn with right rear riser input. Still kept turning. Tried grabbing the right rear riser with both hands and pulling and it seemed to stop the turn but I didn't feel it could be safely controlled with me having to keep both hands on the one riser just to try to fly straight, so I chopped it. Searched the woods where I thought they went down but was unable to find the main or the free bag. All in all a pretty "interesting" experience. Not at all frightening, just something to be dealt with. Definitely a different sensation as I chopped the main and fell away. I did manage to hang on to both my cutaway and my reserve cables. ( of course, the two least expensive parts to replace ) Wife caught the cutaway on video, so here it is for anyone to view. http://youtu.be/kuBCPt_ZyZc Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Don't be a tease, any ideas what changes they are making. Are they finally gonna do something about a Go Pro mount? Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

1 person understands me...how i think...how i put perspectives in a different way. No joke, but I'm touched and it hit me straight in the chest like 2 tons of bricks. I love you man (as in a brotherly love or comrade)

ChrisD, I beg to differ with your opinion that Goonies Kid is looking out for the OP's best interest. There is nothing in his first post that has the slightest hint of being helpful and comes across as just another smartass trying to feel good about himself by putting someone else down when they asked an honest question. As to my listing who is worth reading and who is not. You might want to go back and do a little basic reading. I simply listed, for the OP, some of the people that I have noticed giving real help, based on experience. I also indicated that there are many others that also give help without trying to belittle someone. I never indicated anyone that was not worth reading, but instead suggested to the OP to ignore the smartass comments and focus on the people that are offering real help. What's wrong, get your panties in a bunch because you weren't on the list? As for your not needing your responses "rated", well, it's a forum cupcake. When you post something, you open yourself up to response and critique. Don't like it, don't post. You seem to forget that forums exist for the exchange of information AND debate. As to your comment about someone being a scammer, I haven't seen anything on this thread that would indicate that someone is trying to run a scam on anyone. Maybe you're searching for a different word, not sure. Keep trying. Edited for misspelled word. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Welcome to the forums AND to skydiving. You'll quickly learn on here, just like any other forums, that there are certain individuals who rarely give any useful advice and just want to talk shit when they have nothing of value to add to the conversation. It's how they feel good about themselves for some reason. The best you can do with those individuals is to ignor them and focus on the responses that offer valuable info. You've already gotten some good responses and there will probably be more to follow. Some of the people on here that will offer you good advice, based on years of experience and an interest in your safety and long life in the sport are: Popsjumper DSE Davelepka Skymama Billvon Airtwardo NWFlyer And many others. Spend some time reading through older threads and you'll begin to see which people are offering good advice based on REAL experience. A word of warning though. If you ask a question, don't expect any of these folks to give you the answer you want to hear. They are gonna shoot straight with you. If you ask a question that you should know better than asking, i.e. "is it ok to fly a camera at 50 jumps?", or "I have 75 jumps and am ready to start swooping, any guidance?" Stand by, you're probably not gonna like some of the responses you get. If you ask good honest questions that show you are truly trying to learn and improve your knowledge, these folks will offer you a wealth of information. Don't try to go too fast as far as downsizing goes. Thoroughly learn the canopy you start with. Take a canopy course such as those from Flight-1 or Brian Germain. My advice, with my vast experience of about 80 jumps, would be to look for used gear with a main somewhere in the 190 Sq ft size. Also the model of canopy is important. As a starting point, you might consider going to Performance Designs website and reading the descriptions of the different models of canopies to get an idea what model canopy might be a good starting point. http://www.performancedesigns.com/products.asp Used gear can be a really great way to get started, but be cautious before parting with your money. Have the gear sent to your rigger for independent inspection before you pay for it. Once you've sent your money, you may have little or no recourse if the rig doesn't fit or isn't everything it was described to be. Read other post on here regarding purchase of used gear and you will find a lot of valuable advice and some horror stories of people that didn't exercise due diligence and got burned. I bought a used rig off of the classifieds here on dropzone.com and went through the process of having it sent to my dz to be inspected. Everything was exactly as advertised and I got a great rig with exactly the kind and size of canopy I was wanting. I paid the seller once I got the ok from my rigger and have been very happy with my purchase. The money saved buying used instead of new has allowed me to make more jumps and pay for a couple of canopy courses, furthering my education in skydiving. Blue Skies Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNyWzOU3RxE Just making it clicky for you. Congrats! Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Andy, Glad to hear that you're home now. Hope to see you at The Farm soon. Really nice to read that PD is going above and beyond in their efforts to get you another canopy. Heal up and get back in the air. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Tetrahedron, With respect to your original question, if you read all of the responses here, even though the majority of responses are responding to Joey's attitude, you'll get your answer too. Your seeing what people think of young jumper with cameras and the DZ's that allow it. You yourself responded to Joey and then most do the responses are in support of your position. Your thread did kind of hijacked but stayed pretty much on topic unless I misunderstood your question. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Agreed, hence the picture at the bottom of my previous post. I'm done responding to him. Have a good one. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

You're a legend in your own mind. There's a reason you don't let teenagers use the radio when they are learning to drive. It's a distraction. There's a reason it's against the law to text and drive. It's a distraction. Ever see a woman putting on make up as she's driving and swerving on the road. It's a distraction. Ever see a man shaving while driving and looking in the mirror as he swerves on the road. It's a distraction. The only thing people are advocating is that you wait until you have more experience before adding the distraction of a camera so that you don't endanger yourself, or others. Since they aren't telling you what you want to hear, you want to demand statistics. I doubt you would argue that it would be safe to allow a first time AFF jumper to exit the aircraft with no instructors present, but can you show me any statistics to PROVE that it would be unsafe? No, it's just common sense. Just like this. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Joey, please take it from another "kid" in this sport, we don't "deserve the same respect as everyone else. Respect has to be earned and you are not conducting yourself in a way that earns it. I have a whole 63 jumps to my credit and have not felt any disdain or lack of respect from the "older" jumpers here or at my DZ. Quite the opposite, I have experienced nothing but respect from the older jumpers here and at my DZ because I have an open mind and am here to learn. I can promise you that many of the "older" jumpers that I am learning from are quite a bit younger than I am in actual age, but they have far more experience than I do and are looking out for my safety. You can bet your ass I want to strap a camera on and go get some cool videos of my own, but I'll wait the minimum of 200 jumps or longer because I'm more interested in my safety and,more importantly, the safety of others around me. Filter out the criticism and harsh words you're reading and get to the underlying message. People are trying to tell you that you're wanting to do things that are unsafe to you and others around you. They're not trying to hold you back. I hope this isn't falling on deaf ears. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Hey, nice letter Sarah read at the fundraiser. Glad your funny bone wasn't broken in your fall. Now heal up and get your ass back out to the farm! We miss seeing you out there. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Nice looking rig bro! Hope you have a long happy jumping career with it. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

If I may add to what you've been given by the more experienced folks, one of the reasons to practice stalling your current canopy and any new canopy that you move to, is to figure out where in the toggle stroke you start to get into the stall parameters of your canopy ( is it with the toggles buried all the way down to your crotch or just below the belt line ). That way, when you're flying around in brakes or doing your flare and the toggles start to move into that area, you know that you might be close to the stall configuration. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Dude!, As I suggested before, why don't we just let this die where it is and let the OP get on with getting useful input instead of having his thread hijacked with irrelevant pissing back and forth. I'm done. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

pchapman, thanks. I am going through the B license requirements right now and recently went through a Flight-1 canopy course. It was a lot of fun and as part of the course, we had to go up and do riser stalls and then toggle stalls. To pass the course, we had to completely stall the canopy to the point of it folding back on itself. Wow!, that was quite a ride! Part of what is being taught is that every time you go to a new canopy, you should go back to the basics to see how the new canopy performs, such as where the stall point on that particular canopy is, and how it behaves in the stall and recovery. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

You still miss the obvious point that your original commentary to me was unnecessary. You offered your input to the OP as did I. Your input may have had more relevance, in fact I believe it did. Your reply to me did nothing to answer his question and was simply a smartass comment to someone else who dared to offer input that you saw as inferior to yours. I did not set out to start a pissing contest with you. Let the OP take whatever he finds of value from the input that is offered. As I said, my apologies for posting in the same thread as you. I was clearly in the wrong. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Nothing wrong with my reading comprehension. You wrote "Personally, I think they're both necessary things to experience and learn how to recognize, but I'm still a youngin' " Do you somehow think that, or anything else in your post was not stuff the OP, with 3200 jumps, did not already know? It was you who chose to respond to my post with your commentary. You should have just kept your fingers to yourself and let the OP take whatever was of value from either of our post. If you're going to start pointing out the obvious, you should make sure that your own post was truly of value to the conversation. Why don't we just let this die here and now so that the OP can get some feedback from people with more experience than either of us. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.