rigging65

$600 for two squares and a container that fits is a great deal. Use it for a season, save up money for another rig and re-evaluate next winter. Even if you turn the Falcon into a car cover after a year, it's still a great deal for a first rig! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Most DZs will teach S-turns on final above 100 feet. Here's the key to S-turns: An S-turn is a 90 degree turn, so it's going to take you off the wind line, it also means you're technically out of the pattern, so be sure you've checked to the side you're turning to, including above and below you before you turn. Once you make a 90 degree turn, let it fly for a few seconds, keeping one eye on your target, and another looking out for other jumpers in the air. Then turn yourself 90 degrees back onto the wind line and re-check for distance and penetration. You should never turn your back on your target...if you do, you're doing something wrong...and very dangerous! If you need to bleed off more altitude, simply do the same thing, but going the other way (keeping you from flying outside the edge of the field). Here's what most students screw up when doing this: The term 'S-turn' is a bit deceiving. It's not a gentle swaying turn making an S path in the air (we call that a "gentle sashe"...although I can't spell it), it's a good, positive 90 degree turn, followed by another good, positive 90 degree turn back onto the wind line. The other issue students often have with S-turns, is how to judge where you're actually going to land in the field. Some people use the "45 degree rule", but what you're really concerned about is landing in the field and not taking too long to determine if you're going to make it or not, right? For some people the 45 degree rule just takes too long to work well. Just concentrate on getting into the field first. With more experience, you can fine tune where you land in the field. A quick and easy way to judge if you're going to overshoot is by simply looking at the far edge of the field as you're flying towards it. If it's not moving, or is moving towards you, you need to do some S-turns. If it's moving away from you, you're going to land in the field. This is something that's important in doing S-turns, for a few reasons. First, you need to do this right as you turn onto final, so you've got time to execute your S-turns before your no-turn deck (ours is 100 ft.). Another reason for learning this technique is that you can use it later on to refine your accuracy by doing the same thing on a given target, then refining your approach...but you might want to wait until you get more comfortable getting into the field first. Accuracy is something that is sadly overlooked by many new jumpers. If you have any illusions of doing DEMOS, flying HP canopies, jumping at any DZ with a tight(er) landing area, or simply downsizing some day, you'd better learn to refine you're accuracy now! It just gets harder the faster you're flying and the faster you're coming out of the air, so learn it now. Find a canopy coach and work on it! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Sure, you can mis-route the bridle, hang it up on the corner of a stiffener, have the bridle half-hitch the envelope closed.... You hope it would speed up your actions. It may or may not, but the fact is, when you concentrate on something (like finding a handle that's hidden for some reason, or just really being intent on doing everything right) you may be less than "totally altitude aware". At 120 mph at 1500', that's not good. And let's not forget that when you "speed up your actions" you don't always hold a nice body position...especially if you're using two hands to cutaway with. If you start tumbling as you cutaway, you may be deploying your reserve through your legs, or over your shoulder, or who knows where. More than one person has died as a result of deploying their reserve and tumbling into it (or the trailing pc behind you). If you take the cutawy out of the process, you're more likely to get the reserve out while you're still relatively stable...thus increasing your odds of survival. We're not talking about rocket-science here. If you train up to handle given situations, and train up well, you're going to perform well when the time comes to use it. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Depends on how the horse-shoe started. Of course you want to try and free the pc first (we teach two attempts), but then you've simply got to suck it up, cutaway and hope it just wasn't your day to go... That's what I think is most scary about this mal...even if you follow the procedure, you're only hoping it's going to work. I also teach CReW camps, and this is the thing that scares most folks learning to do CReW. There are simply no "given" procedures for many CReW mals...you have to think each one out and make a decision based on the position(s) your in and what's above and below you. And even then, it may or may not work. Freefallers really like the idea that there is a given, set procedure for everything...what they don't all realize, is that sometimes the mal you're given doesn't have a cut and dry answer to it. Again, I jump a pull-out because it helps reduce pc in tow and horse-shoe. I want the deck stacked as much in my favor as I can get it. End of story.

Absolutely, so why not teach them well on the ground with a procedure that is more likely to keep them out of trouble (going straight to the reserve on a pc in tow)? If you teach it well, they WILL do it when the time comes. If you half-ass your instruction, then they might be confused and execute the wrong procedure...there are no bad students, only bad teachers. It's a waste of time to cutaway in a pc in tow...and what happens if their cutaway handle is rolled under/they can't find it/they dip their head to look for it/ they pull both hands in to reach for it...the list goes on. What I'm getting at is that, in freefall, a less experienced jumper might not keep stability while they're doing all this moving around...not to mention the time they're wasting as they're cruising along at 120 mph. Students tend to have less spacial awareness during a skydive, so they may not understand how much time they're wasting. IMO, If you're not confident that your student knows their emergency procedures and is smart enough/well taught to make the skydive, then you have no business putting them out of a plane. Keep teaching until they know it...burn it into their little brains...it may save their life later on. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Why can I see every AFF/I in California going to jail because of this? "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

IMO a Horse-Shoe is a the worst mal out there...there is often little you can do to reduce it once it's started, and your remaining options are less than appealing. I'm not trying to undermine the severity of a pc in tow, but stats show that punching out your reserve past it is probably going to work. Since that too scares me, I jump a pull-out, which greatly reduces the odds of both of those malfunctions. just my 2 cents on it.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

You're best to stay at one DZ until you get done with student status (at least) and better to stay there until you get your "A" lic. It's hard to learn if you keep changing systems and instructors. You may want to call or visit each DZ first and then make a decision as to where you want to learn. Remember, you get what you pay for when it comes to instruction! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

That's a pretty big generalization. On a large canopy, a premature break toggle release may try to take the slider back up the lines (which is what I assume you mean by a "mal" seeing as how losing a break toggle is not a mal - the canopy is still functioning properly), but I don't think it's going to have much success. Considering the span and cord of a given BASE canopy (since you mostly see fly-away toggles in BASE) I have doubts that the drag created from a dacron line in 20+/- mph of wind is going to take a slider back up lines that are under tension and at extension. Now, I may give you that if the break fired during slider-up deployment (while the slider was still against the canopy stops) that you might have a problem...but how often does that happen? If the slider has already come down and knocked the break loose, it's going to be a few feet above your head, you can pump it back down with a rear riser flare. Of course, if you're jumping slider down or off, all of this is irrelevant. I'm not aware of anyone that jumps an HP with fly-away toggles on every jump...I couldn't see why you would...but that's a whole other story. Surely you could create a mal on a highly wingloaded pocket-rocket with this scenario...but then, just about anything that goes wrong on one of those is a termianl failing! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Yeah, but look at the statistics out there. Basically, all the tests PD did showed that two canopies out almost always opens into something stable. Whereas, allowing lines to go limp after being under some pressure (as in, a now inflating main that has already been cutaway) leaves a lot of spaghetti floating around near your reserve. Unordered lines, flowing freely, seem to have a far greater chance of causing an entanglement than does a second canopy opeing under line tension in an orderly manner. Of course, this is all based off the test work of one company...but they seem to have a pretty good track record when it comes to canopy testing. As for myself personally, I tend to evaluate each problem based on it's own situation and make my decisions based on that. This is NOT the way I teach my students, but I spend enough time around gear and skydiving (like every single day) that I feel in-tune enough to work out my canopy problems without using too much of a formula. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Ah yes, this thread again... We teach to put out the reserve straight away on anything where your container isn't open and you haven't slowed down or changed body orientation. That's how we define a "Total". The reason is simply that you don't want to waste time while at terminal. Another reason is that if the main does fall out of the container after the reserve inflates, you'd like to have control of it. Most two-outs stabilize themselves and aren't a problem on deployment, but if you've already cutaway your main, the risers may slide up the reserve's lines and choke it off or somehow foul the good canopy. As we teach it, you'd want to have control of the situation so that you can make the call as to what you're going to land under...one or two canopies. I'm actually in favor of teaching to always cutaway from a simplicity standpoint, but I've never liked the idea of teaching one thing to students and another thing to up-jumpers. Most people tend to revert to their initial training under stress, so why not teach it correctly and thoroughly the first time? Just my 2 cents... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Sounds like you found a canopy model you like, so why not stick with it? If it's been serving you well thus far, you shouldn't need to change it. Yes, most 9-cells will fly a little flatter and longer than a 7-cell, but there is some argument about which gets better penetration into the wind. Certainly, the 7-cell class of canopies (lower aspect ratio) is more stable in turbulence, and, as a general rule, open nicer (not always, but mostly). There are pros and cons to both, it's all up to what you're looking for and what you like to fly. If you like the Spectre you're on, why not try a 135 Spectre? If you want something with more pizzazz (nice word use) I might suggest a Diablo 135. I know there are several used 135 Diablos out there, as you can no longer get them new. As a matter of fact, I think we have one or two ourselves at Action Air (save your flames, I'm presenting information, not selling products). Regardless, it's a great canopy and you might think about giving it a shot. By sticking with a 7-cell planform (Diablo) you're going to be mostly familiar with how to fly it, but it'll have a bit more zip with the tapered trailing edge. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Something to remember Matt: Even the most perfectly packed parachutes sometimes fail to open correctly. You may have done a perfect job packing and your buddy screwed up his body position at deployment time...it may have been your packing...it was probably just dumb luck...who knows, and it really doesn't matter! It's just the law of averages man, if you keep jumping, you WILL have a mal. Simple as that. Don't sweat it, everybody lived. Buy beer for the guy and move on. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

No, they don't. "Fly-away" toggles act exactly the same as any other toggle set up until you unstow them. Once you pop them loose, they are no longer attached to the risers, so if you let go of them, they simply "fly-away" and trail behind you. The idea being that if youline over a steering line, you pop your breaks and let them go, thus clearing the line over and letting you land the canopy on risers.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

To be realistic, you only need hard housings where the cable goes around a bend. This is the only place where you're going to see any real deformation of the soft housing, so it's really the only place you need to worry about it. In my Talon, I had a hard housing around the yoke (as that was always the place most prone to crumpling upon trying to cutaway with soft housings). Everything else was soft and it was never a problem to deal with. I did intentionally misroute the cable outside the housing one time to test it...it was a real bitch to get the cables to cutaway. The whole yoke just crumpled in on you. The scary part was, you kept pulling cable out of the Handle end, but it never cleared the left 3-ring loop. Soon you ended up almost out to arm extension with the left riser still in place. RI put a plastic tube into the backpad that you're supposed to route the cable through to eliminate this, but if you don't do it before you close the reserve top flap it's a real pain to get it to route through. The simple fix was to use the type III loop they provided and install the short hard housing...problem solved! Beyond that, capped metal cable channel inserts are a great idea for any set of risers. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

The third-legs I have are removable in the sense that they can be converted between standard risers and Trips...I suppose you could set them up like BASE risers (ie- totally free break lines) but I think this would be a mistake. Properly designed third-legs will allow the break line to essentially 'float' freely without restraint from the risers in any way. As has been said, they can be built using suspension line for the third-leg, and you might not pick that up in a pic (I haven't seen the page 17 pic). I couldn't see a reason to leave your breaks totally detached on an HP main...if you dropped a toggle, you'd be forced to land on rear risers as it would fly away on you (like "fly away" toggles on a BASE setup). Which brings up another point. The only reason BASE toggles/break lines are designed the way they are is to allow you to clear a line over caused by the break line (longest line, most common to get a line-over with). Of course, after clearing the line over, you're now forced to land on rear riser...which isn't such a big deal on a 280 sq. ft. canopy (ok, unless you're trying to put it into a back yard or something). Without seeing it, I'd bet that the Trips the guy is using has suspension line as the third-leg and it just didn't show up in the pic. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Ok, point taken All I'm saying, is that I don't believe that money is the root of the problem. If someone wants something, they tend to find a way to make it work. I just think that a large portion of the sport has been lulled into a false sense of security about the gear we currently use. Kind of that whole "it can't happen to me, I've got a new and that's the latest advancement in the market!" Everyone needs to remember that you are effectively committing suicide EVERY time you get out of an airplane at altitude, until you decide to do something to stop it at pull time. Focus, people. THIS IS NOT A SAFE SPORT. We make it safer every year, but it is NOT safe. If there is gear out there that can make it even safer than it is now, why wouldn't you take advantage of it? Unless you feel it can't happen to you, or that making another jump is more important than saving the money to invest in safer equipment so that you can jump for years to come.... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

First off, if you're a new jumper and only making 5-6 jumps a month, you're not very current and you might have to consider the fact that this sport may just be too expensive for you to stay in (I know this isn't you Lisa, I'm just making a point). As for everyone else out there. If you're spending only $100 a month on skydiving (which I have doubts about) than maybe it's going to take you two winters to pay for a Cypres. Again, it's not a matter of cost, it's a matter of discipline. I just want to be sure everyone is clear on the fact that I'm not saying you must have a Cypres to jump (in fact, I think it's a pretty sad state how many jumpers flat out refuse to jump without an AAD, ever). But, if you want one and you're whining about not being able to afford it, I think there are other issues at work. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Get online and check out Galls. I'm not sure what the link is, but they supply EMS/Fire fields with a lot of gear. They have several different bags that come completely stocked. The basic First Responder bag, IMO, isn't quite good enough for a DZ setting. The next level up (which is pretty much an EMT-B bag without O2) is what we've got. It's filled out with everything we wanted. The next level up has O2, but other than that is overkill. This is kind of a one-stop shop to get set up, from there you can customize it as needed. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Assuming jump tickets are $18 each, if you make 5 jumps a day, twice a week (10 per weekend), you only need to stop jumping for three weeks to pay for a used unit at about $500. Seeing as how a majority of jumpers in the country can't jump 12 months out of the year, taking at least a month off is almost mandatory during some time of the year...usually more, so if you don't make 10 jumps a weekend you're covered here as well. Batteries will only cost you about 6 jumps. So take a day off once every two years. Within this scope, it seems expense isn't really the issue, it's the person's inability to be disciplined and not spend that money for a month. I'm not saying you should have an AAD or not, that's a personal choice, but don't argue cost...argue that you're not disciplined enough not to spend the money your not using for jumps. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

That's an excellent idea, but it never hurts to gain knowledge and get some ideas to talk over with your instructor. Pendulum effect is most greatly effected by the length of the lines, not the mass at the end (within reason). If you have a light weight on a short string and a heavy weight on a long string, which one moves faster from point A to point B? The answer is the short string, it's simply got less distance to travel (again, within reason), and this is a larger factor in determining turn rate than is wing loading. A heavier mass will move along the path faster than a lighter mass, given the path is the same length...but now we're talking apples and oranges (ie - we're not talking about pure pendulum effect with equal wingloadings anymore). What you (should be) concerned with is A) At what ground speed and I comfortable? (and can I get away with screwing up and not get killed) and B) How much control range do I need in my steering lines to be comfortable (this is where a smaller canopy can give you trouble, as the lines are shorter and yadda yadda yadda). Since 7-cell canopies (like Spectres and Synergys) tend to have a longer control range by design, they tend to be more forgiving in the smaller sizes. This is because it takes more input to get the desired result, so it gives you a less "touchy" canopy. 7-cell vs. 9-cell is a whole separate argument. One that I encourage to ask questions about and learn more about, but it's beyond the scope of your question to go further with it. Ask people you trust...Instructors and Riggers are great, but ask more than one...and work your way down at a comfortable pace. Remember, you're skydiving to have fun, not to see how fast you can downsize! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Something else you should keep in mind about smaller canopies... they have shorter lines. Shorter lines = faster pendulum effect (which is the effect of swinging out from under the canopy when turning). Since you get out there faster (as you have a shorter distance to go) your turn rate on a given canopy will be faster than on the same model canopy, loaded the same, but bigger. People are often told they should start on a canopy loaded at about 1.1, but that often puts light jumpers on a 120 or smaller, and they simply aren't comfortable there. It's generally not the ground speed from wing loading, it's that you don't feel like you have control of the canopy...mostly because the rate of turn is fast, so it makes controlling it touchy. In very general terms, heavier people will tend to have problems with ground speed before they run into rate-of-turn problems, whereas lighter people will tend to run into over-control problems before over-speed problems. What all this equals out to for you, is that you may be best suited to a canopy that's loaded even lighter than 1.0. The only real concern about loading this light is that you have to be very conscience of what the winds are doing...lightly loaded (under 1.0) can have you flying backwards in winds that wouldn't give other jumpers any problems. "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Throw-out bridles are longer so that you can throw them away from you (and your burble), give them some room to "unpack" and inflate (just outside the burble) then let them have enough force to pull the pin and lift the bag out...popping the pin takes extra force. A longer bridle allows the pc to get a strong anchor point and generate more force. Pull-outs, on the other hand, are generally inflated as they are drug into the wind (due to the fact that the pud is attached to the pc base, not the appex), so they don't need the extra long bridle to "unpack" themselves, then inflate. Plus, you're holding them into the wind in the proper orientation, so you're helping them inflate (as opposed to a throw-out, where it has to right itself then inflate). Add to it that you're opening the container (something I love about them), so all they need to do is lift the bag out...thus they require less force than a throw-out does. It's all about initial orientation, rate of inflation, and how much work the pc has to do... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Action Air Parachutes is looking to hire a full time rigger to work in the busiest loft in Northern California. Starting immediately. Our loft does more repacks than any other in the area, as well as handling a bulk of the major repair work for the surrounding DZs. This is an 8-5 position with a hourly wage and available benefits. If you're interested, contact us at sales@actionair.com or at 1-888-772-2846. Pay commensurate with experience. Not a qualified rigger, but still interested in the job? We're willing to train the right person... "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."

Umm, I hate to say it, but 7-8 year old gear has almost no value...at least not in the California market. Of course, other parts of the country are different, but we can't hardly give away an 8 year old rig. At best, you might hold $200-$300 value for each item...maybe. To be honest, older rigs that are bigger (190-230) tend to sell better. Folks just off student status are often looking for something cheap to get in the air with...but even with that said, we pretty much can't sell an F111 main to anyone anymore. Are CA jumpers spoiled? Probably. But that's the market we work in! "...and once you had tasted flight, you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward. For there you have been, and there you long to return..."