DutchSkyCam

Asuming a C-182 here, since procedures on 182 and 205, 206, 207 differ... I jumpmastered students in the states and I was ALWAYS facing the student... In the Netherlands I am a SL jumpmaster and I always face my students (C-182 and C-206) I'm sitting next to the pilot facing rear, the students are facing rear as well, but they turn about 2 minutes before jumprun and sit on their knees On first jumps: 1 Student on each run, later on 2 or even 3... If you would be sitting behind the student, these are the factors that come in my mind... 1) How do you "guide" a (nervous?) student out the door? 2) How would you drop 3 students? Do they have to crawl past you after the previous student jumped? 3) Would you let a (careless) student near the pilot controls (throttle, flaps, mixture or even the closed door)? 4) How is the student gonna look into the JM's eyes... (and the JM in the students eyes) 5) Jumpmaster has to really look out for the static line, no (left) arm on the ground... (OK, this can be overcome) Am I getting it right that USPA mandates this procedure? Sorry, Just confused, Barry.

Since everyone is posting photo's of chows... Here is my worst landing (1999 @ skydive houston), landed (sort of soft) on the dry...

Question is: Can a Cypres fire on a high performance dive... Answer: A far as I know there has NEVER been a documented cypres fire during a swoop attempt... (don't believe airtec??? If it happened it would have been posted on this forum, the incidents forum, rec.skydiving and lots of other places... WE WOULD HAVE KNOWN). Note: As I understand, most (if not any) swoopers loading their canopies above (say) 2.7 don't have a cypres installed but it has been tested in a fannypack... (they never got it to fire)... Airtec acknowledges that -now, or in the close future- they cannot guarantee a cypres wil not fire in an extreme dive... Make up your own mind, You should be safe up to a wingload of 2.5 (and even higher on larger canopies)... I load my Velocity 103 @ 2.35, the flatline on my pro-dytter goes off at most (if not all) of my landings. I set-up/start my 180/270 deg. swoops between 500 and 700 ft... I have jumped without a Cypres for years, I just installed on again because I don't believe I will descent over 78 mph in a swoop... Barry

What are the major brand of gear in the states? Javelin, Mirage, Vector, Teardrop, etc... What are the major brands of gear in Europe? Javelin, Aton, Vector, Mirage, etc... Most reputable US brands are JTSO'ed... Or 80% of the European skydivers would breach regulations, since they are jumping -above mentioned- US gear. Barry

Is someone going to watch this? http://www.kirotv.com/news/1979634/detail.html I cannot receive US television in the Netherlands, but I am curious (and not too happy about it, if it is what it sound like) Barry

Damn it is so difficult... Telling people it is dangerous, while swooping hard, looking for new swooping challenges and going to the limits myself... Do as I say, don't do as I do... As a jumpmaster I overhear students saying they want to land the way I do. I try to grab the opportunity to teach them basic canopy control. For the students: "Before you attempt high speed landings, you should know how to come out of a turn fast (I mean stopping the turn) and how low-turns are to be made safely (flat turns)... In ANY condition..." To all the "anti downsizing canopy nazis": #1, They wil try to make high performance landings anyway, we might as wel give 'em the informtion they need to do it the right way. #2, If you are against -us- swooping. I wil NEVER force -nor advice- anyone to buy a small canopy. If someone (say < 200 jumps) asks for my oppinion, I will advise a wingload of 1.1 to 1.3. (No matter how good you are, you cannot be ready for what's comming when loading it anything higher)... If you want to jump a lightly loaded parachute I RESPECT that... (note the capital's)

Needless to say that a Cypress is something completely different than an RSL!!! An AAD wil not help you after a low cutaway (which you should never do, but some others do em anyway) An RSL wil not help if you don't pull anything yourself. (I always pull, yeah, right, some others didn't) Make an informed decission, but few people have an excuse NOT to use an AAD and an RSL... Just cameramen, SkySurfers an CReW Jumpers have an excuse to leave the RSL unconnected. When in a spinning mal on a highly loaded canopy, you may want to take a few seconds to get stable (if you have the time -and altitude awareness-), but remember that the spinning mode on those canopies burns altitude FAST and can screw-up your altitude awareness!!!, maybe an RSL can save you, or it can kill you... I think that in a serious spin, the Cypres wil fire before the RSL becomes a life-saving factor (and you better cutaway first!!!) I cannot think of any reason not to use an AAD... (I know, made about 750 jumps without AAD, but there is a Cypres in my rig now!!!, hope I don't splash while swooping the pond (or the North Sea...)).

If you jump 2:1 @ 200 jumps... I will NOT be WATCHING the landings. If you jump 1.3:1 @ 200 jumps... I am willing to HELP you with landings.

I think they mean a COE-D (pronounce: Co-Dee)

Whoo, that's a bold statement... if one in 120.000 jumps ends in a dubble-mal... Statistics would look a lot different than thay do now. Maybe packing (folding the parachute) can be the same, although everyone knows that pro-packing gives you a higher chance of line-over malfunctions. which part of the malfunctions are to blame on packing error? Twist because of bad body position, Totals because of uncocked pilot, Broken lines, damaged parachute, On a 7 cell, square parachute that is rarely used and properly packed jou simply have a better chance of a good opening than on a 800 jump, no-reline, X-braced canopy loaded at 2.5.

Brian, Since the word bracing is used in two different ways and most people are just talking about one aspect of bracing I wanted to know how both relate in this design (pure theory). I am not saying the Onyx is worse nor saying it is better. I would like to fly one and find out. I also mentioned I am not an expert, was just trying to explain the way I uderstand X-bracing MYSELF. Just draw a cross section (spanwise) of the parachute and draw the way forces are distributed. In the Onyx there is no direct way of bracing the non-loadbearing rib. I have never seen an Onyx fly (that is only partially true). On the first message in this tread they attached three photo's. Count the ribs from the topview (36) and count the ribs from the bottomview (18). I don't know what conclusion to draw from that information. at least not what it will do to performance. Finally, You are right, packing volume is also an issue. You are right, I have no supporting data, but since no supporting data is provided and this thread looks like a big marketing story of the parachute... Leaves me with little room to make supported conclusions. (But i explained quite clear how I came to the conclusion, (did I draw a conclusion???)). I need a new parachute before April and I was looking for either an FX, Velocity or XAos. Then this canopy came up. looks interesting. when can it be flown? Barry.

I'm not an expert, but too many people are just guessing around... Please don't draw conclusions until you have read the whole message. a 7 cell has 8 line groups (you know what I mean) a 9 cell has 10 line groups (

Fatalities on tandems are rare, landing injuries are more common... (just to let you know, injuries are not mentioned so far...) Normally the TM (and I am a TM) blames the injury on the passenger (and, ehh, well, pfff, they should have lifted their legs higher)... But... etc, etc, etc.... There is probably another TM or TI to explain better, since my english is getting worse and worse since I left the states in 1999, and have already had a few beers before writing this... Barry (350 Tandemjumps, no injuries so far) and BTW ehhhh, what's a PHT?

You've got GUTS... (jumping rounds for 500 jumps I mean)... But I still think a big change in size/perfomance is the big killer here... But you seem to do alright... Keep your head up and be carefull (in all conditions)...