DrewEckhardt

It's a never exceed chart that reads 1.0 + .1 / 100 jumps up to a 2.0 maximum for 1000+. Foot notes include manufacturer's maximums may be lower, -.1 per 2000 feet of density altitude, and -.2 for canopies under 150 square feet.

Over 10 people have died jumping Norwegian big walls due to unstable exits and wall strikes under canopy. Jumping a 400 foot bridge with a big landing area would be a much safer first jump than a 4000 foot cliff.

I made jump 13 on my own rig because the DZ rentals were all 295 square feet and $25 a jump.

It's normal for a skydiving main packjob - rolling the tail causes some migration.

Boulder Outdoor Repair can sell you heavy metal zippers ($2 IIRC) and install them ($20 IIRC). Your favorite rigger should also be willing to do such repairs.

When I cocoon my BASE pack jobs, I tuck the edge of the center cell in between the A-B and B-C fabric because that's how I learned and it might hold the back together while the front opens. However, skydiving reserves usually get the entire pack job wrapped except the nose and other people pack their BASE rigs the same way. Are there good reasons for either approach?

The pricing model has varied _a lot_. When I bought my Samurai last March the price to everyone was $1499 direct or through your field rep. The kill-line slider, Slinks, and stainless steel grommets were each $30 options. Depending on size the net price was an uninteresting ammount more or less than a Vengance with the standard 20% discount from any major dealer.

Hard housings sit a little different, although I have no problems getting my 3 pairs of hard-housing equiped risers to look decent in my 2 Reflex R335s.

Those of us in favor of following the first person down do not dispute that they may land cross-wind or downwind, that the winds may subsequently change leading to landings other than upwind, or that people with sub-par canopy control skills may be injured on landing. Our position is that all of this is a safer use of the main landing area and therefore preferable to the various landing directions which result in variable winds. Stumbling on a cross-wind landing or an embarassing face plant are preferable to coliding with another canopy going > 50 MPH on the ground or in the air. While I'd like to think such a collision isn't possible, I've been run-over by unguided missiles who were either suffering object fixation or could not ground carve. Intersecting flight paths make such collisions likely. Tunnel vision is also a real problem - people don't see things in front of them until within narrow field of vision. Better to see a few scrapes than a few low-altitude wraps or highway speed collisions.

Most people aren't relevant to this discussion. The original poster is an accuracy guy who jumps a parafoil loaded at .52 pounds/square foot - lower than most people on a student canopy. If that's where the bulk of his experience is (I don't know and you didn't ask) it's not appropriate to suggest a moderate wing loading (for him) to swoop.

Wing suits are a special case because of extremely low fall rate and long range. You can exit after the tandems, fly a mile along the line of flight, fly some more, fly 1.5 miles back to the center of the LZ, and open a minute after the last tandem. If you go through the previous groups' opening altitude over a minute will have past versus 10 seconds for the last tandem group when tracking - you'll be able to see their open canopies for a long time. You'll also be approaching any open canopies with half the decent rate you'd have on most tracking dives so it will be less of a problem. Finally, observing the 4500 foot opening recomendation will have you above the tandems.

Trackers should exit either first or last (as in after the tandems) and fly a pattern which has them open on the opposite side of their exit point from the rest of the load (your group didn't do this). Exiting first you might spend half the jump at 90 degrees to jump run, fly a short leg parallel to jump run but away from the landing area, and then return perpindicular to jump run. Regardless of where people track on break off it's impossible to be as close to subsequent groups as you would be on an RW jump. Last you can continue along the line of flight for half the jump, turn 90 degrees, and then return. On the return part you lack the altitude needed to get back far enough to cause a problem.

I lost a pair of prescription glasses - cost me $300 and change to get them replaced. My priciest jump ticket was for a B17 jump. I figured I'd tour the plane before it left. It was neat, they still had slots on the last load at Quincy, and I bought one for $350.

I'll try almost anything at least once - sit, head-down, belly, track, back-track, wingsuit, skysurfing, swoop, CRW, BASE. This evening I'll do my paracommander training so I can jump a round. Some of it's mediocre (belly) or bad (head-down), some I haven't done enough of (CRW, have taken docks but not run anyone over) although after 9 years I'm still having lots of fun.

My Monarch 135 (ZP square at 1.26), Monarch 155 (ZP square at 1.15), Turbo Z 205 (ZP topskin square at .88), and Dagger 244 (F111 seven cell at .68) all swoop fine. My Fox 245 (.68) does less well although any modern skydiving canopy should do the trick.

BASE jumping varies from more dangerous to much more dangerous. The danger relates to what happens if you have a bad exit (unstable exits off cliffs lead to wall-strikes and fatalities, while it's impossible to hit many bridges in freefall), where you are compared to the object on opening (not dealing with a 180 opening after a short delay from a cliff or even a 90 on the wrong cliff will cause a wall strike and perhaps fatality, while bridges and long delays put you farther from other obstacles), and what the landing area is like (size, obstacles, outs. You may have a 30x90' landing area surrounded by a boulder field, railroad tracks with a cliff on one side and drop-off on the other, a reasonable landing area surrounded by trees with no outs, or acres of golf-course). Very low objects make slow openings more dangerous and decrease the time you have to deal with things (I won't freefall cliffs below 300' or static line ones under 200' for that reason). The legal bridge in Idaho is an ideal place for a first jump because you can have a bad exit, can't hit it on opening, have a long time to deal with line twists that would fly you into the bridge or a rock pile, can land in the water if you have problems, and have a large putting green-smooth landing area. While probably the safest jump you can make, it's still more dangerous than the average skydive because you don't have a reserve and can still hurt yourself if you land on the rock pile. Jumping a 3000' cliff would be more dangerous (people die in norway after unstable exits), especially with a tight landing area in the jungle. If you don't want to take a water landing, the bridge day landing area looks tight. While 876' is higher than 490', I don't think altitude beyond 400' makes a jump safer unless it's giving you more tracking time or helping to fly to a better landing area (neither of which is applicable here). This all relates to the recommended experience for BASE jumping. While you can safely jump the bridge without a lot of experience, you'll probably want to jump other objects where 200 or even 500 parachute flights are not a bad idea. It'll be easier to resist temptation if you don't start early, and more experience with skydiving equipment will make gear problems less likely.

In the light and variable conditions which cause most confusion it's safer for everyone in the main landing area to land in the same direction as the first guy down. At under 5mph, even a tail wind isn't a big deal. If you are going too fast for comfort you should slide in and suffer no worse than grass stains. The potential injury severity is much higher with people landing in all directions, with closing speeds well over 100 MPH for high performance canopies in opposite directions versus 0 for a perfect side by side approach. Landing side by side, you need a lane 30' wide. In any direction there can be conflicts over hundreds of feet. People get tunnel-vision in all high-speed situations (sking, skydiving, driving, etc). With people going in different directions, we're less likely to see them before it's too late. The first guy down should be landing into the wind and you should be closer to into-the-wind than if you had a default direction. Modern parachutes have a pretty wide range of sink rates. Opening at 3000 feet, it's not hard to get enough float so you have enough time for the first person to land and to get to where you want to be at 1000 feet. Good wind indicators should be provided to facilitate accuracy (you need to know how much wind there is) and let you know when to expect a faster down-wind landing.

Driving involves moving tons of steel arround a few feet from other people, in low light situations, and on slick roads. You can take a large number of passengers with you when you die. Arround here, you need to get a vision test every 10 years to drive. Unless you're incredibly reckless you're not going to kill anyone else when you die skydiving or have a real effect on the community.

Most of the signs I've seen at DZs say $A to B feet $B to C feet etc. or $A to B feet + $C/1000 feet. Before you pay, the DZO is free to ammend things. "There are clouds. The last load got only 10K feet. You're paying full price" or "If it gets too windy and we call the load you get your ticket back". After, you have a contract and ought to expect your altitude although you might get bored and call for a low jump run. If that doesn't work well, the DZO is free to change things. I've been to DZs with a tandem weight surcharge - you could do the same thing for experienced jumpers, or note the ceiling as a functioning of gross weight. Promising full altitude and then not delivering is a contract violation.

He'll tell you that American pilots are only allowed to use authorized medications. The FAA does not authorize the use of any anti-depressants, and you need to be off anti-depressants for 60-90 days before getting a medical certificate. Some pilots work arround this by flying depressed without medication or lying to the government. Other countries are more enlightened and permit the use of SSRIs. If you're safe to drive, you're safe to skydive.

105 main, 135-150 reserve.

I put about 20 jumps on a Samurai 120 with an exit weight of 195 pounds, and 150-200 on a Samurai 105 at 170 pounds out the door. I also have 600 jumps on a Stiletto 120 at exit weights from 170-205 pounds. Toggle and harness control senstivity varies more noticeably with size than wing loading, with up to 35 pounds less weight at the same size having a minimal effect. Speed varies noticeably with wing loading. The actual magnitude isn't important. Stall speed could limit the canopy size you jump (I wouldn't want to own a conventional elliptical loaded beyond 1.7-1.8 pounds/square foot at 5000 feet MSL for this reason). Control sensitivity could - when I changed from a Batwing 134 to a Stiletto 120 I had problems flying straight after planeout.

Having beer + BBQ after jumping would be good for vibes and the jumping. People would be more likely to stick arround for the end of the day instead of going home. With a late night party people would be more likely to camp out and be there for the first load. Having load organizers with their slots covered would be good - the jumpers would get mixed up more, and we'd have more enjoyable jumps. New jumpers would have people to play with, and every one would be more likely to stick around for more loads. Many of us would like this, and as long as there's excess lift capacity (including shutdowns between loads) I think the DZ would make more money by providing these services and getting the extra slots filled - although that's their call to make and there's no reason you can't provide the same perks yourself. Take up a beer collection and setup a grill. Organize and cover your own slot, or chip in to take some one like D-jan up. Jump with new people like Skratch, Steve S, and big-AL do. Or just bring your own group, jump mostly with them, and be content. You're free to make what you want out of the situation.

I can learn to snowboard for a couple hundred dollars, buy a complete snowboarding setup for a couple hundred dollars, and get unlimited lift-serviced snowboarding for another couple hundred a year. AFF and a short post AFF coaching program run a couple thousand, entry level gear is a couple thousand, and the 100-200 annual jumps of a recreational skydiver can run $2000-$4000. Unless you can achieve a ten-fold cost reduction, skydiving isn't going to be as popular as winter snow sports.

Iuse a Pro-Track set to high in my bonehead open face helmet, with the speaker hole near my ear. I can hear the final siren but rarely notice anything else in freefall (regardless of p)osition This doesn't seem to be atypical.