mr2mk1g

why thankyou.

damnit... mental note, must read the text before I open attachments at work funny though

You dont even have to look to disconnect an RSL and it takes less than a second - they're designed to work like that. I dont do this. I dont think people should. If people assess landing with an RSL attached to be a risk and asses that risk as being greater than the risk involved with disconnecting it under cannopy that is their assessment. There are such people, as evidenced by their posts above. Its even in the SIMS to disconnect an RSL in certain situations, as already stated. All I was saying is that if you do see a reason to disconnect your RSL, dont do it up high, do it at an altitude where the existance of a connected RSL simply is not going to make one iota of difference. Thats where I get these ideas.

Sure, get a brief from an instructor though and dont just take what you hear on line as being gospel. When I was at your level I was told its a good idea to go out solo for a while and play around with body pos and fall rate etc. You should have been shown how to de-arch (if not collar an instructor or exp jumper). Try it and transition between it and a hard arch. You may want someone to jump with (dont link up) simply to give you a point of reference so you can see how much you speed up or slow down. Or if you have a pro-track try dearching for a whole dive and arching for a whole dive and compair the average speeds. Get some training on more advanced body positioning from someone at the DZ is the basic answer, cos you cant really get it over the net. If you start RW training eg WARP for CAT10 this will all be covered in the first few levels.

Tube stows should not break – they should roll off the lines. If they are breaking when you pack then you are using knackered tube stows and should replace them more often. Look at them when you pack and if they are getting tired replace them before they cause problems. Try to replace them symmetrically as a new one opposite an old one can cause line twists.

england you must have C licence which is 200 jumps and two freefall qualifications (eg an RW qual and an FF qual). Anything less than that and the camera is simply an in-fligh recorder and snag hazzard (IMO)

during AFF you are taught to fall in a stabe position and the most important thing to learn as a student is that stable freefall position. A hard arch is the most stable position. This is also a very fast postition. You will find that as you gain experiance you gain stability in freefall will not have to have such a hard arch. You will be able to move into more of a flat position which is slower but less stable. [Dont change anything you currently do until told to do so by your instructor]

IMO Talk to square one (JP rocks). The best ever customer service and REALLY good prices. I would have bought my container there and even tried but failed as I had a money off voucher that had to be used direct. Will be buying beer next time I'm out there for being a pain by putting in orders that they were'nt allowed to process.

that is actually a good point - if the nickle will chip off on the inside of the rings then those rings will be exposed to rusting. Yes this should be seen and dealt with, but if people are expecting their nickel rings to be rust proof they may not be looking.

I know a training course verges on info overload... But knowing why you do something and knowing how something works really do help you apply the knowledge you gain. You will probably know exactly what I mean as you are now asking those very questions. When I teach the students in our club how to pack its not just "put the slider here, make sure these lines are here". I make sure they know why its importatnt to control the lines and exactly how the slider works on opening. These things aren't just things you should know as a qualified skydiver, but things that help you to understand what you are doing and assess the risks involved before you volunteer to accept those very risks. If someone cant grasp the basic concept of how a cuttaway system works they are not really intelligent enough to skydive. This sport is not best suited to dumbies. (caviat - not saying you cant grasp these concepts, just that you should have been told them by your instructors (IMO) and thus been given the oportunity to demonstrate that you realy do have that ability before they chuck you out of a plane).

my point is that you have to accept that things like canopy collisions will happen and bill is right that its at low altitude that an RSL really helps But if you disconnect at 40ft it aint gonna matter cos canopy collision or main going up in flames whatever - your going down under whatever you happen to have out there and then. The best you could hope to do at that hight is stick your reserve our aswell and hope to get as much above you as pos. You certainly wont be cutting away or you'll go in with nothing out.

so do it at 40 ft unless your a swooper you got a seccond to yank the tab and unless your on a skyhook a cutaway at that hight will really hut.

watch people a lot then buy someone some beer to teach you. You should be able to pack after a dozen attempts or so but will need practice to get good. you may want to get a packing certificate (stricktly speeking you must) which basically entails getting a rigger (?) to mess up a canopy a bit and see that you can pack it. In this UK this is specific to each type of canopy into each type of container. in reality, many DZ's wont care if you have a cert or not but you must at least be able to demonstrate that you can pack. this will depend on what DZ you go to. and what country your in

(dont know if this is why but) remember that velcro is very easy to peal but has enormas strength if you try to pull two sections along their lengh kinda like this: good velcro pulled like this would suspend a lot more weight.

How do you put a price on WMD?? I was not aware they were so widly sold that we were able to say "AH $60,000,000 worth..." Surely # of barrels or Tonns or 3 truck loads or something would have been more helpfull. Giving a $ ammount makes it sound like a drugs haul.

I've got a buddyt with a jav and a Saber2 @1.4:1 - he stowes his xs by simply taking the end of the xs loop and passing it over the top stiff bit on the toggle before he inserts the stiff bit into the stow. This gives him a kinda flapping bit of break line next to the toggle that im always wary about. He had a break not fire once when he was in perris. We have it on vid but still cant see what caused the prob. He was passing through his hard deck and about to chop when he managed to unstow it. ideas?

I have friends who swear by "tough-stuff" a carpet cleaner for cleaning the exterior of containers with canopies still in. I post this here as less of a recommendation and more of an invitation for comments from riggers on their choice of cleaner. I've always been unhappy exposing a "loaded" container to any kind of chemical.

What he said

I think the US is virtually the only place that has a shorter re-pack period. This is odd because (no offence here) generally speaking the US safety regulations re skydiving are far less stringent than other countries.

As I posted above I will shortly be posting a comprehensive review of both the knives you two have just mentioned and compairing them against the plastic "Zak" knife that we all know.

If anyone has any worries about the consequenses of having a connected RSL after landing they may safely disconnect it after passing through their hard deck altitude. At that hight, they have already made the decision to stay with their current cannopy and regardless of what happens to it they are unlikly to attempt a cutaway. This will ensure they are still afforded the protection of an RSL whilst a cutaway is possible and yet avoid the problems that they associate with its opperation at ground level. Everyone's happy.

Oh you gotta love tigg's Islander... I think they ought to fit machine guns on the wing so it can chase off those stray planes that think it will be fun to fly over an active DZ to have a look. Those piston engines sound great. Let your student know that he'll be welcomed into the UK DZ community wherever he goes.

you look like a Stormtrooper in one. Still trying to figure out if thats a good or bad thing

true..... true.....

true - there are nice people at hinton, and maddy is great to put up with me and my mates enlessly bothering her in the shop and rarely buying anything. Nomad is an improvement, but far from ideal. The first time I jumped it was after they had the let. After about 10 mins I looked at my alti and had a momentary panic as I was convinced it was broken... "10 minutes and only 3.5k??" (I jest not, I really did think it was broke). Then looking round at others alti's realised we really were that low. Slow ass climber... but then what do you expect for a plane the size of a caravan with the same size engines as an islander.