jerry81

I felt it was slightly easier to stow the lines on a bag with the stows on the cover...in my experience, the top changes shape much less than the sides of the bag while you're stowing the lines/putting the bag in the container, which means less chance of lines going slack or slipping out of the stows. But I'm no authority on these things.

And that is how the conservative right like to report stuff they don't agree with. Other than that, I'm perfectly willing to believe that play is as realistic as "inbedded" journalism...not so.

Well, who'd guess...apparently cool pictures of birdmen on the ground are possible, after all.

I had an out landing that left me sore (but luckily unbroken) for three days this saturday...what happened was exactly what I described- I hit the ground, bounced and flew the canopy, superman-style, for some 10 feet more before coming down again and rolling to a stop. My horizontal speed wasn't gone entirely, but my vertical speed did not seem to diminish at all when I started flaring (if anything, I'd say it may have even increased, but I can't be certain of that). Funny thing is, there were no obstacles close by, although there were hills and trees further off and the wind was quite strong and a bit gusty at that. All in all it was quite an unpleasant experience that I'd like to avoid in the future (possibly with some method other than not jumping in such conditions)

How often do you blink in freefall? A lot of the times when I lost a contact, it was because enough tears have welled up in my eye to wash it out when I finally blinked. This used to happen a lot when I was skiing, but keeping my eyes a bit less open and blinking a lot to keep the tears flowing out of them really helped. Also, I can usually feel when a lense is starting to float on the tears and squeezing that eye shut for a moment or two will more often than not help reseat it back. As for goggles- make sure they're really tight and cover any holes through which wind could blow directly. But sometimes you might still have to work your eyes to keep a contact in. Sucks, but overall I think it still beats wearing glasses.

Which, if I understand this all correctly, also means the canopy will respond differently to flaring during the time it takes it to regain its normal airspeed, right? So if you're just above the height where you'd usually start flaring in certain conditions, and you catch a lull, you'll probably hit the ground wondering what happened to the flare unless you react real fast. Or will you hit it no matter what you do?

Please tell me this is from The Onion or something...

I hear you can get him stuck, well, inside Rudolf. But I'm always 10-20 meters short. (316's my best so far)

About a month ago a student at our dz cracked two vertebrae after his reserve inflated at ~50' and the canopies downplaned. Telesis container and a situation such as you describe. I guess this usually doesn't happen, but it should be noted as a possibility.

Thanks for sharing the experience. I just recently started a thread on sub-terminal openings, but I never considered the possibility of a baglock due to double wraps. (never do them, so it didn't enter my mind) On that subject- how different is your opening if you don't double stow the last two rubber bands? Just curious.

On that, I agree. Sometimes paying for treatment is the better option. On the other hand, skydivers here can happily femur themselves, knowing there will be no hospital bills to eat up precious jump money.

Got that one too

I'd be voting for "Works fine for me" if you had included that option for those weird non-Americans who actually enjoy such benefits.

Best of luck to you! A friend of mine did something similar this summer- we were just getting drunk after a nice jumping day, and someone I think mentioned how he hasn't had a cigarette in a couple of years. My friend looked at me and said "Keep this for me, I'm quitting" as he handed me his freshly opened pack. Well, noone took him seriously that evening and during the next few days I'd tease him with the pack he gave me, but eventually we used those cigarettes for nobler purposes and the last time I spoke to him, he was still clean. Hope it goes good for you too. Btw, watch your weight. Quitting smoking can cause your wingloading to go up.

update; I actually got to jump my new Voodoo today.

Yes. I can lift the lower end up an inch or two before the pin is extracted. Is that a problem? Anyway, given the weight of the rig, this puts the force neede to extract the pin somewhere below 10lbs. A 26" pc should probably work fine even at very low speeds.

The main pin protection on my Wings never comes open on deployment: its not supposed to unless you pack wrong. The bridle will pull the pin out under the side of the flap and you only have to open the cover for packing. I'm aware of that. But the force needed to extract the pin is greater with the flap closed- at least on my current rig. I just checked and I don't even need a fishing scale to tell the difference. When that pc in tow occured, both my vertical and horizontal speed were quite low as I pulled. So the closed flap could have been a factor, although I don't know how much force a 26" pc generates at different airspeeds, so I can't back this assumption with any hard data. I'm sure this has been measured before, so if anyone knows where such information can be found, I'd be very grateful.

May I be the first aspiring young freeflyer to say this; Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!! First I miss Woodstock, and now the Friflaj Festival? This sucks!

The pc in tow happened on a Wings and the closed pin cover was suggested as a possible reason. As for my Voodoo, pulling the bag out with the bridle showed that a line would sometimes snag momentarily on one stiffener corner (had a rigger look it over and do a minor fix) and that the riser covers don't open very easily. As I said, I haven't jumped it yet (I'm beginning to suspect there's a curse on it), so I don't know if this affects "real" openings. (Very likely it doesn't, but I have time to make up bad situations)

In my inexperienced opinion, landing in a moderate downwind can be a whole lot of fun, but, as you said, learning the basics of swooping is probably easier and safer when you're landing into the wind. However, I agree with George that you should also do an occasional downwind (and crosswind) landing to learn how it feels.

no Cypres=no problem

As I already said, An-2 exits can come very close to balloon or chopper jumps. I've already had one close call that might have been prevented by doing one of the things I mentioned, or perhaps something else I didn't think of. (And before someone brings it up, the pc was fully cocked on that jump.) Other than that, keep the replies coming.

Well, the plane I do most of my low-altitude jumps from is an Antonov 2...and I read somewhere that a low-speed stall is almost impossible on that thing. I've done so many nearly dead air exits from it that I must say I'm beginning to believe that.

Well, I haven't jumped in three weeks, which means my every other thought is about skydiving (that, and I just tried to flag down a chopper that's been circling above my house for the last hour, which probably means I'm losing it). A day ago, I read a reply by Sky1 that made me think about hop&pops and really low jumps and how one should prepare their equipment for them. So I'd like to know if I'm right in assuming this: -riser covers are better left open on such jumps.(?) (Brought up by Skymonkey in Superbandz thread) One reference for this would be short-delay base jumps. Also, my personal opinion, based on the tightness of said covers on my Voodoo, is that I'm much more likely to get a normal, on-heading sub-terminal deployment if I leave them open. -main pin cover flap also better left open. (?)This is an advice I received after describing my near-cutaway on a hop&pop where I got a pc in tow, several linetwists and a nice view of the sky as my canopy spun towards the ground. (got it flying straight and kicked out before 1500', but it was unpleasant nonetheless.) -slider grommets not pushed all the way to the stops.(?) I'd think about this only on a low jump, when a nice snivel is definitely unwanted. Like if I manage to find a guy with a balloon willing to drop me from 2000' for free, or actually hitch a ride on that helicopter, but they don't have time to climb all the way to 3k. (Both cases, I'd probably go for it ) Most of the time, I don't have a problem with pulling a bit lower to get sufficient speed, but sometimes a hop&pop needs to be exactly that. I've already learned a few tricks that make my openings slower, now I'm interested in learning those that make it faster, but still reliable. (I'm flying a moderately loaded elliptical) Please comment on my assumptions and feel free to add to them or make corrections as you see fit.

Isn't a cf2 one of the most "radical" elliptical non-crossbraced canopies out there? From what I've read, I'd say it performs better than both the Cobalt and the Stiletto, but I wasn't entirely convinced it'd make a good first elliptical. (At least not for me, someone with 600 jumps might feel different.) As for Atair's customer service- the one we get here is outstanding. Too bad about you Americans...