Ron

Telling us your weight without your height is worthless. You could be 195 pounds and 6 feet tall and be normal, or you could be 195 and be two feet tall and be ballistic. As for the suit itself..... Seen them around. Most times the RW suits seem to be worn by budget skydivers. That is not a bad think, just a comment. I can't think of anything negative about the suits. But can't think of any glowing recommendations either. In the end, not that big a deal. I had some real crappy jump suits when I started, even had one made by this woman for 100 bucks. I looked like an idiot, and it didn't fit... But you will buy more than one suit if you jump for any real length of time. I would not break the bank for a suit unless you are a professional. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The safest thing to do is work on landing safe. Anything else is secondary. Now maybe you have the skill to perform impromptu demos on your reserve..... But that is not something I would suggest to people. I have had ~10 reserve rides, PRO rated like you and I could easily land on a pie plate 8-10 times.... I look where my gear is landing while I head to a safe landing area. I knew a guy that would argue that catching a cutaway main under canopy was 'safe' he is now dead. Make no mistake, the best course of action is to work on landing safe. Most DZ's have a system to recover lost gear. Zhills has Robert White - that guy will find any canopy for 100 bucks. Skydive Dallas will send up the Cessna to look for gear. In Clewiston, I'll fly my Citabria to look for gear. Simply put, we will find the gear. That is your prerogative. It is not the best course of action and it is not a course of action I would suggest to anyone. Further, I'd bet that you have enough experience to know how to land your reserve.... If that is the case, then this primer on the basics was not intended for you. The danger is that if you say it is a good idea to chase your main..... People without your skill level might try it, and they might not be able to pull it off. As for the cost of a canopy..... Fuck it. The last thing a person needs to think about in a life and death situation is the cost of the main. This same logic could be used to justify blasting through a hard deck to try and prevent a chop.... It is a bad element to add into an emergency decision tree. And finally, the situation is a factor.... I might land off in Eloy in the middle of a desert, but not bother trying to chase a main in GA where there are trees everywhere. But this was written for the novice. A person who has little experience and may not of had a chop yet. They should be thinking about one thing and one thing only.... Landing safe. They should not be thinking about chasing gear, they should not be worried about the cost of the main. They should be trying to land safe. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I tried to make time to answer this... Didn't happen. I'll type out a quick and dirty test you can run. Flare the canopy fairly quickly. This is a 7 cell F-111, and not a modern canopy with a more dynamic flare. If you flared a modern canopy like you need to flare a 7 cell low aspect F-111 - You would pop back up pretty aggressively. Listen for slowing by listening to the wind. Watch for the canopy to rock you backward. Hard to explain via typing, but under normal canopy flight you are actually a bit behind the center of the canopy kinda like (\). When you flair, you will go from (\) through (I), to (/). Mentally time how long it takes to transition from (\) to (/). This is how long it is going to take to flare. Watch and feel for the stall. The canopy once it gets to (/) will soon stall. You will see the stall by the canopy deflating from the rear center of the canopy. You will feel the canopy slam back and you will feel your self rock forward and start to drop. Take your current canopy up and stall it, you might have to put your hands on the top of the toggles, or even take a wrap of the lines to get the main to stall. Most people have their canopies set up so they will not stall at full flare stroke unless held for a long time. Reserves are not always set up the same way and this is what gets people hurt.... the stall comes quickly and they are dropped on their backs. It is easy to fix a stall, just slowly let up on your toggles till the canopy comes back over head (I). It is better to land in full flight (\) or half breaks (I) than stall. Play with the stall on your canopy (above your decision altitude and stop AT your decision altitude). till you can recognize and recover from a stall. Once you can do that, you should try and get a demo reserve and do the same process. Every time I get into a new airplane, I do a "stall series". I do every type of stall that plane is certified for (Power on, power off, cross-over, cross-under, inverted...etc). It is the only way to know how the plane will react. I do the same with canopies when it is my first jump on them. hope this helps, ask if you have any questions. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

FedEx no longer has an 727's. Most were donated to MX schools. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

ALL canopies will stall and when they do they are pretty much ALL violent and will ALL break you. As a general rule, larger lower wing loaded reserves are harder to stall. But that means very little since they will stall just the same. Any suggestion I give would be pure speculation. I will say that I have flown and landed a PD113 at a 1.8 WL and it has been fine. And I have flown larger reserves that stalled violently at lower wing loads. And as others have mentioned.... Reserves are like the mains of old. When I bought my first rig it had a Raven II main (218 sqft) and it was loaded under 1:1. When I got it, I was told to be very careful because I was jumping a pretty small canopy. Even it would stall very violently if I let it. There is really no replacement for experience. I would strongly suggest getting a demo reserve and flying it. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

OK, so you had your first malfunction and performed well and you are now hanging under your pretty little reserve - Now what? First things first.... Forget about stowing handles, make sure you are not going to collide with anyone and then make sure you are headed to a SAFE landing area. Notice I said "safe" and not "closest to the DZ". Yes, the DZ may be the closest place to land, but you also might be far enough away that you are going to land off. In fact, because you are lower than normal your chances of landing off on your reserve are MUCH greater than on a normal jump. Standard landing off rules apply. Land safe, not close. Next, have you ever flown this canopy before? Have you ever flown a small, 7 cell, low aspect ratio, F-111 canopy? If not, then it might be a damn good idea to do some practice flares. In fact, it might be better to land a bit off in a nice area than try to stretch the glide to the DZ and skip this drill. I have seen numerous people break themselves with a canopy stall 3 feet or less off the ground. I say practice the flare because a buddy just snapped his wrist this weekend after a pretty vanilla chop. Some highly loaded reserves will just collapse and drop the jumper on their ass HARD. This is not something you want to learn when you are 3 feet off the ground. Best defense? Try to jump the reserve you have BEFORE you have to jump it. Some manufacturers will allow you to demo their reserves at events. How about you take a jump or two and learn a life (or wrist/coccyx) saving skill? So practice your flare if you have the time. Better yet, MAKE the time by spending a jump on a demo. What do you do if you don't have the time and were too lazy to take the time to learn this life saving skill and now you are too low to practice a flare before you have to execute it in a manner that might just break you (don't feel bad, I didn't do any of that either, but I did learn on F111 7 cells while I bet most new jumpers have not made one jump on one)? Well, like the rest of this post it is personal opinion.... I'd perform a 1/2 to 3/4 flare and get ready to PLF. If you do stall the canopy, try to raise the toggles up a bit to get the canopy flying again and over your head... And perform the worlds best PLF. Flare to your crotch when under a reserve, NEVER like normal and to your sides and back. Further wild assed opinion.... I am not sponsored by PD, but they are the ONLY reserve I will now own. I have seen and experienced way too many stalls on just about every other brand. Take any and all of this for what it is worth.... But I hate seeing a perfectly good chop and a pretty reserve deployment still end up in a hospital trip because the jumper expected his reserve to flare like his main and was rudely and unceremoniously dumped on his/her ass with a bone crashing thud. It is better to crash a bit forward and down, than stall and fall backwards.... Take a jump and learn how to identify and fix a stall. You are free to ignore any and all of this, I most likely would have if I was a student today.... But it is your wrist/ass on the line not mine. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Take them to the DZ and put them out. I did this with a bunch of boogie t-shirts and the newbies grabbed them up in seconds. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Call the members on the BOD. Tell them that you are upset that they seem to be caving to the demands of an equipment manufacturer. I have called 2, PM'ed one, facebooked two more, and talked in person to one of them. Further, I have an appointment to talk to one more next mth at the nationals. Long story short.... Most think this was the only way to save lives. But the fact they seem so eager to change the BSR's but have close to ZERO inclination to demand better performance from the manufacturers is the point of this whole thread. The only way they are going to start listening to the members is if the members TELL them what they want. In this case the only voice they seem to hear (or care about if you want) is the manufacturers. Change that. Then if after you have talked to them and if you don't like their answer.... Vote them out. Maybe, just maybe, we can get the USPA to support jumpers again. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

What exactly would be my reaction to that? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The USPA asked the PIA for a report back in 2010.... Have you seen that report yet? Three years and no report from the PIA, and the USPA has taken no other action as far as I know. But please, tell us what the USPA has done since 2010 and inform us what the PIA has done since then. Also, give us some insight into what the FAA is doing. You seem to think something is going on that we don't know, so please educate us. Which rigs have this problem? Which reserves take too long to open? THESE are the answers the USPA should be providing... Not changing a BSR to hope the problem goes away. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I'd suggest hop n pops to work on canopy control and to get rid of any door fear from 'low' exits. Think about it.... If the engine quits at 1500 feet the pilot might tell you to get out. If you have never left the door under 5k.... You might wait and that might kill you or someone else. There is plenty of time to learn to do center point turns and freefly.... Work on saving your life early and often. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

They adopted the Tandem medical rule because UPT and Strong wanted them to adopt it. They changed the pull altitudes because the manufacturers wanted it. See a trend? You kinda just proved MY point. A bunch of jumpers wanted a BSR, you didn't get it. The manufacturers wanted a BSR, they got it. Thanks for proving my point. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

FALSE Unless you are now going to claim Ed Scott has nothing to do with the USPA, your claim is false. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The FAA does not require a medical for a flight instructor of a light sport plane (less than 1320 pounds, slower than 138MPH). The FAA does not require a medical for a commercial ballon pilot. The FAA does not require a medical for glider instructors. Know why? Because their organizations fought AGAINST the FAA medical because it was worthless and getting rid of it was in the best interest of their members. In fact the EAA and AOPA are fighting to get rid of the medical for single engine, day, VFR. Why? Because it is in the best interest of the membership. So why does the BOD require it for TI's? Because the manufacturers want it.... And that is the only reason. Who is the USPA supposed to work for again? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Fixed it for you... As for 'old man'. I am 40.... But I have been skydiving for 20 years come Sept. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

The FAA does not require it. In fact they don't require it for commercial ballon pilots, light sport flight instructors, or IIRC glider instructors. This is another example of the BOD following the desires of the manufacturers and not the membership. And THAT has been the point of my post(s) all along. The USPA should represent the jumpers, not the manufacturers. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

There is a difference in taking a calculated risk based on known information and taking a risk based of wrong information. Hypothetical: If I told you your reserve would malfunction 5% of the time, but the actual malfunction rate was 40% of the time... Wouldn't you want to know the real numbers? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

People keep replying to me, I will keep answering. Are you saying I am not allowed to answer when someone asked me a question? Read the threads... I did not make personal stuff and I did not make conspiracy theories. I did see that you removed my first reply to you, and the reply of the other poster who said he did not agree with you either. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Is it better to jump gear that might kill someone? "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

I STARTED the thread and people respond and ask questions TO me. Are you now saying I am not allowed to post in a thread *I* created? You might want to read the thread again... I didn't go personal and I didn't claim a conspiracy. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

It is not about 'forcing' anyone to do anything. It is about the BOD representing jumpers and not manufacturers. AAD companies wanted to raise firing altitudes.... They could of done that without a BSR. But no, instead they influenced the BOD and got what they wanted. They didn't ask the membership, and in the process they put more liability on S&TA's. It is not about 'forcing', it is about educating jumpers which rigs have problems and letting the free market decide. If the USPA released data that pointed out that a brand 'X' container has been involved in 90% of these accidents.... Which rig would you buy? What about one brand of reserve? One brand of AAD? My gripe is not a difficult concept. The BOD carried out the wishes of a manufacturer and not of the jumpers. This is not the first time they have done it.... Reference FAA medicals for Tandem masters. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Nope, try reading again. Start on page 1. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

And there your position screams out. You take my position and claim I am being a conspiracy theorist. Maybe with your personal attacks, YOU should be over in speakers corner.... Seems you have stopped paying attention to the tread *I* started and have been claiming I am a conspiracy theorist quite a long time now. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Never claimed they were. Maybe you should re-read all my posts. I never said they were the bad guys. Try again. This is not the first time the BOD has been a mouth piece for manufacturers.... And with your position, it will not be the last. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334

Flip it. My point is the manufacturers have an undue influence on the BOD. "No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." -- Thomas Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson Papers, 334