darrenspooner

You'd probably be good at head down with that c of g

A tandem instructor I know hands gloves to his students and tell's them that they are "impact protection gloves". Another time he yelled across the packing room (that had a number of nervous tandem students in it) "hey ___ have you got last months fatality reports handy?" They don't seem to mind. But doing AFF is different. Instructors need to be mindful of that. Their student is entrusting them with their lives, and most of the time they don't know their instructors from a slice of bread. The instructor you mentioned needs slapping. ***Die with your boots on

I know repetition takes space, and old timers don't wanna see the same old stuff over and over, but this is the first time I saw this and I'm glad its here. ***Die with your boots on

Ying yang my friend. What comes around goes around. If it were the other way round what would make you happiest? ***Die with your boots on

I learned how to pack by watching Pack Like a Pro. I watched it several times, packed my canopy several times, then got a rigger to check me while I did it. I did it right! I thought the video was just fine. Got one here if you want to buy it for next to nothing.

I bought a new rig earlier this year from Dave Ruffell at Sunshine Factory (I live in UK). With the exchange rate being as it is I got it for nearly US$2000 cheaper than the price here in the UK. Cheers Dave

I did 4 jumps in 8 years of ungerdrad and postgrad clinical training. Now I got the money to jump as much as I like, but I got two little nippers that prevent me from going! There's always something. But hey, makes it extra special when I do get to go. My advice, just jump when you have the opportunity, but focus on getting through the course. It will fund the rest of your life skydiving.***Die with your boots on

Hi. You need to so something that in simple behavioural terms is called habituation. What this means is if you just do it over and over and over the situation itself will lose its ability to elicit a fear response in you. Example, if you were in my room and I told you to look behind you into the corner of the room, and when you had your back turned I slammed my hand on the desk, then you would experience a startle reflex. Like an instantaneous fear response. If 5 minutes later I did exactly the same again, you'd jump but not for quite as long. If I did it every 5 minutes for an hour, the 20th time you'd probably just scowl at me and groan because its so boring. Its like how med students drop like flies on their 1st day of surgical rotation, but 6 months later their up to their waists in guts and loving it. And its like how you see a horror film it scares the pants off you, but if you watch it 5 times a day every day for 6 weeks it just gets boring. We can also habituate to pleasant stimuli. Like say, lobster thermidor. Its almost gastronomically orgasmic, but if you eat that baby twice a day for 6 months you'll never want to see a lobster again. Just breath into the fear, and jump over and over. It will get better I promise you.***Die with your boots on

When I posted about this a few months ago I had a brand new sabre 2. Like trying to get a jelly into a condom. Someone told me to talk nice to it, but I found it much better if I swore and abused it. Secondly though, use a pull up to get the mouthlock on, then think about tidying it up. Another tip that someone local showed me was, when its on the floor get your knees on the end, just above the label, and hold it in place with all your weight. Then lift the whole thing up laying flat against your stomach and chest, and hold the twisted tail with your hands. Don't let go of the twisted tail until its ready to go in the bag. Fold it in half so the end that attaches to the bag is on the floor, and your hand that's holding the twisted tail is still holding it about in the fold. Keep hold of the twisted up tail. Fold it in, fold it in, fold it in. Rolling, squashing, folding, with your knees still on the label. Then get the bag ready and stuff it in. Get the pull up in the bungee and lock it closed. Then tidy it up. Good luck, you poor poor poor newbie. Failing that, buy something old or find a packer!

Well, if accidental death from skydiving is suicide then every other non-illness-related death that ever occurred must be suicide. This means that everyone that died falling out of bed or slipping in the shower committed suicide because they didn't surround the bed in sponge and paint the bath in submarine paint. And all those that got run over committed suicide because they left their homes that day knowing there were cars on the road and so on. This is a meaningless post, other than having the effect of irritating people. Cheers mate.

Thanks for all the info folks. My summary is that this is a problem many sabre 2 owners have had that seems as if its probably rectifiable by concentrating on body position. Like I say, my last jump on the weekend was fine. I closed my legs after I threw out the PC and it was lovely. I do like the canopy, it flies fantastically and the openings, apart from the fact that they are directionally unpredictable, are perfectly paced. I think I will just persevere with how I'm jumping it and see what happens.

I reckon if you DELIBERATELY do your best to tumble and swim you will quickly learn to feel a sense of control and mastery. Also, just as prep, ball up in the door, have your back facing outwards, and get someone to shove you. Count to 5, or 10, and then arch. Count and see how long it takes to get stable. Its like, one or two seconds. If you do this experiment I don't think you'll bother so much about hopping and popping.

My AFF instructor (Milko) told me that there are only 2 kinds of skydivers - those who have had a cutaway, and those that are going to. If I just tell myself each time I deploy that its going to mal I seem strangely calm and ready for anything. Hey, works for me.

I see your point entirely. If the truth be known, I spent a long time deliberating about colours for my own odyssey because I wanted my wife to like it! Its now covered in mud which necessitates use of the Brush of Shame.

Its just a bag, man. Try not to worry yourself so much. So long as it works, who cares. Oh, buy the way, I have the coolest looking Odessey in the world

Yeah, that's the thing, its just not predictable. I mean, if it did exactly the same thing each time I could learn how to fly the harness or do something to correct it. I spoke with someone (8000 jumps) on the weekend and he basically said that this is just a feature of sabre 2s that has to be corrected with body position. Nothng to do with packing. We'll see!

I've now done 15 jumps on my new sabre 2 150 (loaded at 1.3). Nice symmetrical opening until the slider comes down, then its diving hard to the right, putting line twists on a couple of occasions. There's loads of posts here about this problem, but I thought it was only on the earlier canopies. Can anyone summarise current thinking on this please? I don't do anything with the nose, and I reach up and pull the risers apart now. This weekend I jumped it, paid a lot of attention to body position. Once I threw out the PC I pulled my legs together to make sure that I stayed symmetrical, and it seemed much more stable. Any tips? This has spooked me a little. ***Die with your boots on

Sorry to hear that my friend. My wife always tells me she's not concerned at all about me jumping, but each time I go she tells me to be careful on the road. Hope you're healed soon.

Well my doubting friend, did 2 jumps at Langar today, the second of which was over 14K. Yee haa. Thanks for the info guys. I been jumping at Langar a while now, did aff there a few years ago. But just be sure I checked out with Rich Wheatley and spoke with Milko. Have a good AGM

And I'm not going to the AGM because i HAVEN'T JUMPED IN TWO MONTHS. Listen or jump, Hmmmm!

No No NO, no wind this weekend - pleeeeeeeze. Weather forcast says 5mph northerly at Langar. I'm going, and if you say otherwise then its La La La La La La, I'm not listening. Thanks anyway

I got 120 jumps, weekend warrior. On account of weather, babies, usual stuff, I haven't jumped since mid-Nov. I am hoping to jump on Saturday, and I know this is something I should just ask the CCI, but what are the regulations about currency in the UK? Do I need a brief, or just be conservative and tell the jumpmaster what I'm planning to do, do I need coaching, checking out? I feel confident but don't want to turn up clueless and appear to think I know everything. ***Die with your boots on

I bought a used (ex-demo) hornet from a reputable UK dealer. I didn't have the chance to demo it. Got it checked out by a rigger. It spanked me on opening, and so I came on here, got lots of suggestions, and tried them out with varying degrees of success. I got to a point where it was hard, but not painful. I also had two other people jump it, one who was lighter than me. He had soft normal openings. II also got my rigger to pack it a couple of times and the openings were good. Then I read lots of posts that hornets are very temperamental and lots of them open hard and need all sorts of packing approaches to calm them down. I just thought my canopy was normal, and I had worked out a way of reliably packing it to be acceptable. Then I sold it, and the buyer bought without jumping it. I just heard back from him, about 5 months after, saying he had similar problems but has not been able to tame it and he has been told by two people that the canopy is inadequate or defective. I feel bad that I sold a canopy that is spanking someone. I did sell in good faith and also because I, being relatively inexperienced, don't know any better. I just thought it was a typical hornet and I got it working okay for me. But he thinks it might be defective. I want to do the right thing, but if it is defective then I was duped in the first place by the dealer that sold it to me. Any suggestions on what I might do?

Owned both too, and I agree about the glide angle. Sabre 2 is better. I thought my ZP was great until 3 endcells folded under at 150 feet in turblence. My rigger saw it happen and it owuld have been unrecoverable. It did correct itself but I never jumped it again. I asked the rigger what to do about it and he said bin it. I had it checked out and brake lines lengthened, but I went and got a new canopy instead. I love my sabre 2, but with only a dozen jumps its a shit to pack. The ZP was nice, but that experience unnerved me, and a friend of mine had the same thing happen on his larger ZP. I got a used Hornet 150 for sale if you're interested? ***Die with your boots on

I posted on this a few weeks ago, struggling to get my crispy new Sabre in the bag. Someone told me to talk to it, but I just screamed and called it everything under the sun. I tried everything, but then I saw a chap do a really neat trick and it went in the bag perfectly folded. He layed it on the floor, pressed all the air out by laying on it, the usual stuff, then he got off it at the speed of light and s-folded it before it could start to fill up with air again. Its the air that's still in there that causes the problem trying to fold it. Now I can get it in the bag okay and its only done 6 jumps. ***Die with your boots on