Westerly

Exactly two of these cannot be reduced to zero simply. No, not a single one of those can be reduced to zero except the seatbelts. That's like saying you could make a half-court shot 100% of the time if you're good enough. Yea, but no one is just like no one is infallible to making mistakes skydiving, no matter how experienced, knowledge and safety-driven they are. Also, other skydivers can make a mistake and even if you're completely perfect in every way, their actions can kill you. As a result, every one of those things on your list could happen to anyone who ever has or ever will skydive (except the seatbelt thing). The risk can be reduced or increased drastically depending on the skydiver's commitment to safety, but the risks cannot ever be eliminated entirely.

I don't have the technical expertise to make it happen. Nor do I want to take on the expense of such an undertaking for the organization. There are actual people at USPA who get paid actual salaries to have this knowledge and expertise. Elijah Florio (Director of Communications) and Jen Sharp (Director of Information Technology) would come to mind, or an underling. However, staff only operate within the directions of the BOD and the Executive Director, so it would still need to come from the top. (Not trying to throw those two under the bus, they are great individuals and work very hard, just showing that there are people already at USPA who probably CAN do this.) top The expense could literally be as little as zero. I've seen BOD meetings broadcasted via an iPhone. Is it the best and most professional solution? No. Probably not something you might want for a BOD meeting at Microsoft. But it works fine in an pinch and even a simple external webcam and mic connected to a computer (which are about $30), is good enough to cover the basics of what's been said. Increase your budget a bit more to $500 and you can actually get a reasonable 1080p 60fps camera and two external mics and speakers which is more than good enough for a small gathering of 15 - 20 people conducting an informal meeting for skydivers.

Why not just wrap the top skin without folding it? That's what I do when I pack. I leave the nose out, and I dont wrap the tail whatsoever. I just wrap it around the canopy and then lay it on the ground. Then when it comes out of the bag, regardless of whether the air is pushing on the bottom of the cocoon or trying to strip the fabric off, there is really not much to hold it in place since the tail is not wrapped at all.

HUD does not need to be complex, it can be just a semitransparent mirror or two mirrors reflecting the smartwatch's screen which is mounted on the helmet out of the way. There are cheap products ($3-10) for smartphones that do the same: For a smartwatch with 1.4" screen, the whole thing can be quite compact. You should definitely go skydiving with the device on that dude's head. Make sure it looks exactly like what's shown in the pic.

Haha, this is awesome, thanks! That looks similar to what PD recommends for packing the Horizon. They state to leave a small mouth open at the tip of the cocoon.

Why dont you just email John LeBlanc and ask him what he thinks?

How does a non-collapsible PC keep the lines straight? Both a collapsible and non-collapsible PC will be fully inflated until the canopy is completely out of the bag. The lines in your video dident look any more 'all over the place' any more than a standard belly jump. Slowing down the video, the lines were most chaotic right after a stow released them, suggesting a semi-stowless bag would be of greater benefit to prevent that.

Why do you recommend this method for WS jumps but not standard terminal jumps? If the cone hiding the slider from the wind is the issue, the cone is still wrapped around the slider on belly jumps too you know.

Not for tandems - Australia is 12 months for Certificate Class B holders and above only. Students, Novices (Certificate Class A), Tandems and pilot rigs are 6 month repack cycles. That's weird. Why? Do reserves on rigs jumped by novices and tandems open with more error than those jumped by experienced jumpers? The reserve pack interval should have nothing to do with who's jumping it. That's entirely an equipment factor and not a factor of skill or currency.

Slider is actually much easier to control when grommets are exposed. Just keep pushing the grommets all the way by reaching them with fingers while closing the flap with the first rubber band. They are not going anywhere. Again, this disclaimer applies: Another side benefit of this pack job is that it saves, perhaps, a couple of hundred of feet of unnecessary towing of the cocoon, as the opening is more "definite", immediate - you "fall" on the inflated slider, so the initial tug on the shoulders, before main inflation starts, is more definite. Not hard, just more "concrete". Many people died because they didn't have those couple of hundred of feet, because they were unnecessarily "falling into pillows" on opening. And another benefit is heading performance. When you fall on a quartered, inflated slider, it sets the firm heading which is maintained through the opening as long as the steering through the opening is even. And another benefit is no linetwists. Like... gone! Because canopy doesn't have time to spin around as a dancing cocoon. I've been packing like this for years and hundreds of jumps (before switching to skydiving my BASE canopy full time), it works like a charm. First shared it 5 years ago, no one is interested. It's ok, I'm used to it. People need The Authority (John le Blanc, Brian Germain, etc.) to tell them something, not some random guy, and not their own logical thinking. PS. The video of cocoon hesitation above is from 2009, me flying in Phantom-1. That's when I had the 'Eureka!' moment, and started packing with slider exposed. BOOM! Problem solved. If this method is so fantastic and fixes everything, why are you the only person who uses it? I am sure PD and Squirrel has seen this method before. Anyway, I tried your method of leaving the slider grommets fully exposed. I did 7 WS jumps today and tried it on all of them. I dident notice any difference from how I normally pack. It dident open any faster from what I could tell and it certainly dident open any more on heading than it normally does (which is usually not on heading at all).

You could spend two days and just work on landings and canopy progression. Go do 20 hop and pops over the weekend and that might help and get you the most of your rental money.

Yes, it is "ok" to do this. It is what most people do when ordering new gear these days. And most container manufacturers will recommend this combo if you ask them. Generally when they call it "full" that is your warning not to go any larger. If you are a new packer and you have a new main canopy to pack into it you will wish you had a larger container. I've seen many people in this situation just give up and hire a packer, at least until the canopy is broken in. If possible give yourself a break and avoid the "full" container. But it is not unsafe to fill it to the top end of the recommendation. If in doubt consult Aerodyne. My question here is this: if your reserve isnt stuffed to “full” could you get away with one size bigger than “full” in the main tray. For example: a vector v349 with an OP193 (which manufacturer says is “standard” not “full”) would it be unsafe or damage the container putting a Sabre 2 190(which is one size bigger than ”full”) in it for

Yea, right, which is why half the DZs out there do unsafe stuff, right? Skydivers have been killed from DZOs who conducted improper/ non-existent aircraft maintenance. Guess what, the companies are still around. Yep, they got sued, but it dident matter. That is what insurance is for. A DZO is not going to care that much if they get sued. Their insurance picks up the tab, not them. I know one DZ in particular that has been sued at least five separate times. They are still in business being doing shady stuff like they always do.

I think the only people I have ever seen pack that way are AFF students. It seems that method could just as easily create a hard opening as prevent one. If those grommets move down at all while putting it in the bag, you're possibly going to get a hard opening. Why not just loosely wrap the top skin instead? For the PD Horizon, PD recommends very light wrapping of the top skin and leaving a small gap to let air through at the tip of the cocoon. I do a single wrap on the tail all the way at the bottom and that is it for WS jumps. I would think that effectively accomplishes the same thing you're trying to do, except it doesent leave the grommets exposed to get moved out of place while bagging the canopy (or extraction).

After 100 jumps my suit is still fine. Looks almost new. There are a few things I noticed on their new suits (late 2018 model). The main zipper is cheap. I broke mine in the plane right as I was exiting and it opened up in freefall. They should use a better zipper. Most other brands do. The suit is also hot. Like really hot. That's because it's really thick and excessively heavy duty. Using more nylon ripstop would have helped. Nylon ripstop is a bit delicate and tears easily, but putting it in less critical areas would help reduce the bulk and weight of the suit as well as make it cooler. They use Talsan for their suits by default and while it's their coolest material, it's still quite warm and much, much warmer than nylon ripstop. The new spandex they put on the arms sucks. It's really thick and it doesent actually stretch that much. It feels more like a sweater on my arms than spandex. The old spandex they used on their pre-2018 suits was far better.

Or worse if the the airspeed is too low (e.g. hop and pop or wingsuit), and the kill line is too short, you could end up with a bag lock. I have an unverified theory that many (maybe most?) bag locks probably occur because of partly cocked pilot chutes as a result of a kill line that is way too short or some other sort of major wear on the pilot chute, and NOT because you double wrapped your stows or whatever.

How far inside the PC do you put the bridle? I typically stack it on top of the PC, then I put it into the first fold in the PC and roll it up. I have wondered if there is anyway to prevent the bridle from spilling out for a moment after pulling the handle. From the videos I have of my deployment, the answer is no. No matter what bridle/ PC config I used, the entire bridle spills out instantly after pulling the handle. The second the entire PC is exposed to the wind, the entire bridle is out behind me in about 1-2 frames at 60 FPS. I've gone back and fourth as to whether I think using a PC packing method that allows this is a good idea or not. So far I use a method that does allow for self-extraction. However, there are many videos on YouTube of people in a sit or backfly position who get a horseshoe, and the lines end up between their legs or otherwise wrapped around them. In that case a premature would be quite bad. You'd be much better off activating the handle manually after you have cleared the lines. Example: https://jointheteem.com/skydiving-videos/friday-freakout-nasty-horseshoe-malfunction-around-foot/

An uncocked pilotchute at terminal will pull the pin. I have several videos of my own openings showing exactly that happening. However, it is not likely to extract and deploy the main. side note-- A pilot chute is in essence always deflated until it reaches linestretch and has tension on the bridle. When you throw your PC, it does not inflate into the round shape you would expect. It stays flat and uninflated until it reaches the end of the bridle and has tension on it. In every film I have of my openings, the PC pulls the pin before it reaches linestretch and inflates. With an uncocked PC you will have an open container with the bag still in the container. An uncocked pilot chute is not likely to extract the bag, especially if it's a larger canopy so you will have an open container with a PCIT, and when you deploy your reserve the main will likely dump out and you might get a two-out. Anyway, the exact way you fold your bridle and PC is not super critical for skydiving (less so for BASE). I've literally rolled the entire thing into a burrito and just stuffed it in into the BOC (although I wouldent do that on a regular basis). As soon as the PC hits the air, the PC and bridle unfold into random-ness anyway. The most important thing is to cock your PC. If you dont cock it, you're likely to get a quite serious malfunction and firing your reserve out past a PCIT is risky. Regarding the bridle getting tied into a knot, I dont think it would matter. At worst it would prevent the PC from colapsing, but you dont need a kill line for the PC to work. I had a knot in my bridle today actually. It wasent there when I packed it, but when I got down there was a figure eight in the bridle somehow. Now, a knot around the handle or PC is another matter. If the bridle knots itself around the handle, you could get a PCIT because now the knot is keeping the PC inverted which wont allow it to inflate. That is a malfunction that has happened to people before requiring EPs. That mal seems to be more luck related. I am not sure if there is anything you can specifically do to prevent that other than dont do some weird bridle folding method that involves looping it around in a circle or something.

Maybe that is because the rig design changed and so the packing recommendations did as well? Surely Wings containers made in 2002 were probably made a bit different than ones made in 2016.

It's also worth noting that many modern D bags are not square when packed. They are rectangular to a degree and if you pack them with the lines facing your back instead of the bottom of the container, the bag wont fit properly. You can force it in, but that is not how the container is designed. Just do what the manual shows.

come on, that is such a cop-out. That's like saying the police dont care about transportation safety because they stepped up enforcement of speeding but not DUI checkpoints. It is in fact possible to address safety by addressing more than one category. The license requirements were so easy there was little point in even having a B, C and D license. You mind as well just have made them automatic after a certain number of jumps. Even with the new license requirements, they are still easier than they should be. BTW, might I also remind us that last year the number one cause of death in skydiving was improper EPs, not landing problems.

1. Rolling the nose is to help slow down the openings. It delays the process of air filling into the nose and inflating the canopy. If you have to roll the nose to get good openings, you probably should get a better canopy. Pretty much any modern canopy opens perfectly fine without rolling the nose. 2. I dont know what the claimed reason for rotating the bag up is. I think the theory is that it allows the bag to be pulled straight up and off your back instead of having to turn 90 degrees. Anyway, you can bet manufacturers have tested that method many times and if it was the ideal way to do things that is what they would recommenced. But I dont know of any manufacturer that recommends that process. Go with the process that the manual shows. No one knows more about your gear than the people who make it. 3. You should leave 24 - 30" of excess line. Leaving too little can cause line twists because if you leave too little the bag will not have accelerated sufficiently before pulling off the first line stow. The end result is it's more likely the linestow will rock the bag off to one side causing a twist. This is irrelevant if you have a semi-stowless bag as a semi-stowless bag is basically just a controlled version of coiling your entire lineset into the pack tray. I know someone who figure-eights his entire lines into the tray and only uses the locking stows. That's excessive IMO, but he claims it works. If you go too overboard (e.g. more than 3-4 feet) though it's possible the lines could blow out of your tray on opening and get stuck on you, which would be bad. 4. You should make an effort to lay the canopy down gently. Honestly, you probably mess up the flaking a bit when you lay on it anyway, but the less we can do to mess it up the better. Will throwing it down cause a malfunction? No, but over the course of time, continuously throwing it down ever and over instead of being genital about it could eventually lead to getting a lineover over the course of hundreds or thousands of pack jobs. The greater concern is ensuring the slider stays in place. If you throw it down the slider could move, and if that happens you could get a hard opening. I know people who dont flake their canopy at all. They just do the slider, wrap the top skin around and then start their S folds. The canopy still opens, but eventually that lax attitude might lead them to getting a chop sooner or latter.

Doesn’t a spandex pouch have a seam in the mouth too? I’m just not seeing how that small seam would prevent PC extraction using Brian’s technique and how a different folding technique would matter. The only difference between the way you fold it is where the bridle exits. So specifically is getting hung up on the cudora seam? A video would help a ton.

Here is a question about the USPA. Why doesent the USPA (and DZ.com for that matter), include skydivers killed in jump planes as part of the skydiving fatality statistics? Every year jumpers are killed in airplane crashes at the DZ, and I wouldent be surprised if it accounts for ~10-15% of the overall fatalities in skydiving. Yet, they are excluded. Every dropzone in America, more or less, considers the airplane ride up as part of the skydive. How do I know this? Because it says it right in the waiver. Pretty much all waivers have language relating not only to injury/ death from the jump itself, but also the airplane ride up as well. So why are their deaths excluded from the fatality reports?

Not really. I was overwhelmingly disappointed with jumping scene in that movie. After seeing the behinds the scenes work I was expecting it to be a rather accurate representation of a military HALO jump. However, the movie on the other hand was a completely different story. I dont know what the director did with all those skydiving scenes, but it doesent look like they made it in the movie. The entire skydiving sequence in the movie looked overwhelmingly and painfully fake. Yes, I get that it was actually filmed in the air, but everything else was excruciatingly fake. The entire background was basically green-screened. The landings are clearly fake. They dident even use real parachuting equipment for some of the scenes. They showed Tom strung up in a rig on the ground, but with fake props. Overall it was a disappointment and it was not an accurate representation of much of anything.