darrenspooner

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Everything posted by darrenspooner

  1. darrenspooner
    I bought the Odyssey last year. I didn't order the RSL, but it came with one anyway, which I'm very glad about, because last week I had a high-speed spinning mal and the RSL pulled my reserve pin after fighting my cutaway out.
  2. darrenspooner
    This is a question I'm waiting to hear from PD about, but wondered what people think. I had my first reserve ride on my PDR143 last week. My rigger was packing it and noticed that the line trim was out. Something he hadn't seen before. The A lines measure A1 = 11.5, A2 = 12, A3 = 12.5, A4 = 13. These are symmetrically the same on both sides. The B lines have a similar pattern but not anywhere near as bad, and the C lines have a very slight variability. The canopy is 9 months old and had one ride. Is this okay to repack?
  3. darrenspooner
    What I remember is that my canopy opened, dived violently to the right which put my in a spin in the lines. I carried on spinning as the lines twisted up further, then it all started to rotate. I am sure the canopy is defective as this is something that numerous people have reported on this canopy. I've packed nearly 100 pack jobs now, and 12 out of 16 on this canopy have resulted in diving turns to the right, but I never has so much as a single line twist on my packing of 3 other mains, two of which were hornets of the same size, which are I believe similar to my main. I am happy to admit that there might be something about my packing or my body positoin, but I spoke with the manufacturer and numerous other people, and I've done everything that's been suggested with no change in the problem.
  4. darrenspooner
    Wow, that's a blast. I do have hard riser inserts, but the best I can remember my situation was that I was violently spinning as my lines twisted up and violently rotating in another direction by the spinning mal. It sort of felt like I was a gyroscope, and my arms and legs were all over the place. I think I used two hands to get more direction as I reached for the cutaway. Like using one to steady the other. I do remember peeling and punching once but my hands coming off the cutaway. But it came out 2nd time. I got spat out real quick, but almost instantly my rsl pulled the reserve pin and I was instantly stable under my beautiful PDR. Needless to say, my main is on its way back to the manufacturer now, as that was the 16th jump since new, and at least 12 of them had hard diving turns to the right as the slider came down.
  5. darrenspooner
    I had my first mal on Friday. My main went into a violent right diving turn on opening and quickly turned into a high speed spinning malfunction. At the point I chopped, the g force was so strong I had to use both hands to get to my cutaway. I probably wasn't going anything like 78mph downwards, but I was wondering if the cypres is sensitive to g force. Could it fire because of rotational speed? I know it establishes fall rate from air pressure changes, but could it fire during such a mal? Just wondering about the possible scenario of a two-out situation if I hadn't got to my cut away? Either way I suspect I wouldn't be here now, but just interested in the physics of it.
  6. darrenspooner
    Good for you for reconsidering. Maybe you found two lumpy things in your pants after all (at the front I hope). You'll have a blast. Its like facing your own imminent death (except that is extraordinarily rare), and in a buddhist sense that makes you feel very alive. If you bottle out again you will feel like a muppet. Good luck
  7. darrenspooner
    I had a ZP before my current canopy and 3 end cells folded under in choppy conditions at 100 ft. Yikes. They came open again just in time, but this would have been unrecoverable any lower. A rigger saw it happen so I asked him what to do. He said chuck it in the bin, hence my crispy new Sabre 2 (which dives hard to the right when it opens, sometimes putting in twists). Perhaps I should take up fishing.
  8. darrenspooner
    got my new odyssey last year and its beaut. No problems at all, and looks cool as hell, plus fits great. Its just my openings that suck!
  9. darrenspooner
    See, I think you must have huge nads coming on here admitting to being a lilly ass. Pull yourself together man. Slap, slap. Just find your best pair of brown trousers and get back to that dropzone NOW. I'm sure you'll find that apart from those few skydivers that intentionally kill themselves, the rest of us do this because we want to live, not because we want to die. Trust me, you will feel like a walking talking pair of bollocks if you do it. It will change your life.
  10. darrenspooner
    I'd go all black apart from panels no. 4, and have them in red along with the container icon and cutaway pad.
  11. darrenspooner
    I have posted about diving openings on my Sabre 2, but I am also having slider hang ups on occasion. Couple of people say to loosen the chest strap. I got a lovely new fully articulated Odyssey, and an instructor told me to tighten the chest strap and let the stainless steel do its job. He said it looked like a bag of shit when its loose! How should I be wearing my harness? And how can I make the picture on my profile bigger?
  12. darrenspooner
    Interesting that this thread goes on and on. Couple of people say to loosen the chest strap. I got a lovely new fully articulated odyssey, and an instructor told me to tighten the chest strap and let the stainless steel do its job. But I have also had the slider getting stuck about a 1/3 of the way up. How should I be wearing my harness?
  13. darrenspooner
    Put it in your hand luggage when you next travel. Make sure some wires are hanging out.
  14. darrenspooner
    There is a great book that contains a lot of the detail of this jump, and also a load of planning of a british skydiver that aimed to break this record a few years ago. Its called Freefall by Tom Read. A real nice ex-SAS, ex-Parachute Regiment skydiver who developed a serious mental illness while he was working ont he project. I am sure plenty of people that read this will know him by his real name and miss him. He died last year I think.
  15. darrenspooner
    I get faced with this in my job quite a bit. Usually its solicitors that don't pay their bills! I am afraid that when it comes to this then there is no grounds for respect or loyalty to the drop zone in question. Write to them and give them 7 days to pay, otherwise you will name and shame on as many national and international forums as you can, and you will hand the matter over to your solicitor, and mention that they will be responsible for your costs as well as the money they owe. I usually get paid within 3 days when I do this, and I've only once ever had to actually have my solicitor take care of it. Before I took this hard line I had some people take up to 4 years to pay me, because I was too nice. You worked hard for that money, and they are taking the piss. Time to get your gloves off.
  16. darrenspooner
    I'm a self-employed clinical psychologist. I take patients skydiving as part of therapy, along the lines of "if you can jump out of a plane you can pretty much do anything". So this means I get to jump during working hours as often as I can convince a nervous patient to do a tandem, and I get my slot on the plane for free!
  17. darrenspooner
    Many thanks. I just got my Bonehead burgled from my house so I might get a full-face replacement on the insurance.
  18. darrenspooner
    I was of the opinion that you need to have 200 jumps to wear a full-face helmet in the UK, yet I have seen pictures of people in Skydive mag that have a full-face helmet on with less than 200 jumps. Does anyone know the regs on this? It seems a daft rule given that they offer superior protection. ***Die with your boots on
  19. darrenspooner
    Just wondering, cos its taken me years to do 121 jumps, what's the most jumps any one ever did?
  20. darrenspooner
    Yeah, well that's what I thought as I tried to get my brand new sabre 2 in the bag. Like trying to get a jelly into a condom. Then someone took over and packed it neater than anything I ever saw. Lesson - its easy when you know what you're doing
  21. darrenspooner
    Wow, what a girl. My wife's only comments to me about my skydiving are "I have absolutely no interest in expensive and dangerous sports thank you very much"
  22. darrenspooner
    The other thing was, if that double mal video rattled you, then just watch it over and over and over and over.......... It won't rattle you then, it will just be boring. Same as the terror of getting starting in the sport. The more you jump the more you feel in control, the more confidence you will have, the less worried you will be.
  23. darrenspooner
    I'll go along with all that. The very large majority of accidents and fatalities happen under a fully inflated canopy. Usually human error, stupidity or carelessness. If you start off flying your canopy like you drive your car on ice then you should be able to gradually build some confidence. Occasionally people get hurt because of a malfunction that was not avoidable. But this is very rare compared to the people that get hurt trying to be too cool too soon. ***Die with your boots on
  24. darrenspooner
    I was in a small plane doing a solo with a tandem. About 10 of the tandem student's family were right on the cross (!), and I thought I'd come in with a smartarse landing right in front of them. I timed it badly and did about 4 cartwheels, and came to a standstill tangled in my lines. I was right at the feet of an onlooker. I finally stood up and untangled myself and the onlooker was a patient of mine, I'm a psychologist. These people look to me for all lifes answers. "Nice landing" she said, while peeing her pants in hysterics. ***Die with your boots on
  25. darrenspooner
    9. Travelling back from the DZ after being rained off when you haven't jumped in 8 weeks