AFFI

"The Low Down On Low Turns" by Scott Miller Read it... Study it... Learn how to do Flat Turns, if you do not you will have learned nothing. You only have 25 jumps so dont beat yourself up, learn from your mistakes and take measures that will keep the canopy overhead. Once again: "The Low Down On Low Turns" by Scott Miller You know how to use the internet, go to google and do a search, it is easy to find. If you take the incentive it is probably on DZ.com... Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Rob, I do not know you but always read your posts carefully because you usually have very good things to say, worth reading and to take to heart - this time I disagree, not totally but partially. I am not training for that day only but rather endeavoring to develop safe skydiving practices that will stay with the jumper, a solid foundation of safe fundamentals that will be used for years down the road. Who knows, something I teach a student may save their life 5 years from the day I trained them. That being said, I still think you are a great repository of knowledge and information and as always look forward to reading your posts…. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

my pack job - quater the slider, clear the d-lines and stuff it in the bag. Stow the lines neatly and close. Havent packed a mal in 2700+ packjobs - hopefully I will pack one this weekend because I am long overdue... Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Jumping with a Cypress intentionally turned off is bad juju. Perhaps I am just superstitious but I sure would look like a dumb-ass if that was the one time I actually needed my AAD... Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Not to mention how the blood in his body may have been reacting. Loose consciousness and there is no chance of recovery - perhaps a good idea to trust your reserve before there is nothing left of you but a memory? My first cutaway was a spinner and I got rid of it pretty quickly but then again, I was going through my low pull stage at the time. I have seen some skydivers barely survive situations fighting malfunctions as if it were the only parachute they had. Why do we spend all that time training on how to perform emergency procedures and end up coming dangerously close to death rather than just trust our reserve? Is it machismo or a lack of trust in the equipment? I know what I will do, find out what color my reserve is… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Personally? The reserve is my last chance to sleep with my wife tonight and to call my mother tomorrow morning and tell her how much I love her. So I jump PD reserves only. Tried and true. I have landed a Raven Twice a long time ago when I was still a beginner skydiver with around 200 jumps so they seemed to work. The research I have done though suggests that the PD reserve is as I said tried and true so I am biased. So sue me, I prefer the Vector 3 Micron too, even though every thing on the market these days is airworthy, its just 4 flaps and a pilot chute right? But it is the small differences in engineering. Tried and True… Somebody shoot me…. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Thanks for the reminder... I jump with an AAD and ADD! Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Oh yeah, Godspeed to healing to Silverchic, wish you a speedy recovery and lots of continued training in the future. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Your previous statements in this thread dictate otherwise. The purpose of this forum is to learn about Safety and Training concerning skydiving, so if we can all leave our egos at the door we can get on with learning about skydiving issues. I am an experienced instructor at a very busy DZ, and the plain fact of the matter is that there are strengths and weakness in varying aspects of learning how to skydive amongst both genders. As politically incorrect this is going to sound, how I dare even think it, there ARE differences between men and women, thank you God and I am not being facetious. In general, females relax and perform at a higher level of proficiency than males in freefall sooner during the progression; in contrast males seem to pilot parachutes with a higher level of proficiency sooner during the progression, and I am talking “In General” as there are exceptions to all observations. I have 5 years of documented proof of this as I wear a video camera on every student jump and record landings as well as keep logged records. I have tried to be as unbiased and non-offensive as I can with this opening paragraph so lets see if the moderator lets it ride… - - - So meanwhile, back at the farm - - - In traditional AFF, say utilizing a very large canopy students are taught “Don’t turn low to the ground”. A great number of current skydiving fatalities are caused by not having a canopy overhead at landing time, but rather landing the body around the same time as the canopy. This is like driving a motorcycle into a brick wall at 60 MPH. These types of landing accidents are cut into two categories, high performance landings and taking evasive actions to miss an obstacle. I have personally lost friends to both - one being a very experienced and conservative skydiver that never learned to take evasive action low to the ground to miss an obstacle. This person pulled a single toggle to the number one position at approximately 100 feet AGL to miss a tree and that was all it took to kill them, I miss seeing that person dearly (notice I left this skydivers gender out of it). As for “Hook Turners”? Well, as a USPA Solo Freefall Instructor I can to nothing about that, I rather enjoy the excitement of high performance landings myself and fully understand the risk I am taking as well as when to abort (so far). For the second mentioned category there is something we instructors can do something about, at least we do in the program at the DZ I work at. Believe it or not, Slow Flight Flat Turn techniques are taught in the program I work in from solo jump number 1, much like they are taught in Canada. In fact an extremely experienced canopy pilot from Canada (he has a room full of gold medals in Accuracy) assisted in the development of our canopy training program that works in conjunction with the freefall dive flows in our student progression program. It is an 18 jump course and each student jump has a pre-defined set of skills to learn and practice during the progression. Slow Flight and Flat Turns are on EVERY one. We teach that flying in half brakes not only slows down your vertical and horizontal descent but turning in this configuration allows one to change their heading on the horizon while keeping the canopy overhead. We have had students and low timers avoid disastrous landings, some even landing still in process of a flat turn to avoid an obstacle do a PLF and get on another load because we are teaching the importance of keeping the canopy overhead when landing. As mentioned in an earlier post on this thread I had never even heard of a flat turn till I had well over a hundred jumps and there was a time or two knowing this skill could have saved me some scab picking. There is a reason that the USPA included a braked approach and landing on the A License Proficiency card, to encourage this very important canopy skill to low timers in skydiving. Lesson here? Learn to keep your canopy overhead when landing irregardless if your gender, nationality or for that matter the status of your hair color or lack thereof… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

There are so many ways you will learn as time goes by. Personally, I have found that the more familiar they are with the gear, how to use it and its reliability before we skydive produces calmer students sooner during their progression (knowledge dispels fear). Naturally every skydiver is nervous at first, if you ever have on that is not then that is a red flag... Keep at it... Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Derek, I am touching this one as soon as I have read it, sorry for the slow reply but I have been out of town. Broken down into its simplest priorities as an AFF instructor there are 3, then the priorities branch out to the point the where I can (and have) write scores of pages and manuals. Priority 1: Get a parachute over your head that is safe to land. This means that the single most important event that must occur in order to survive a landing is to slow the descent rate from terminal velocity to standing unharmed on the surface of the planet. I have seen an unconscious skydiver have a cypress fire and land still unconscious without un-stowing the toggles onto a concrete surface. He got up and walked away with a broken bone in his arm and various minor injures. I wonder how high his body would have bounced off the concrete before it landed lifeless without a parachute overhead. So it does not take a genius to figure out that getting a parachute overhead significantly increases the odds of surviving the landing for a skydiver. Priority 2: Land your parachute safely in an area free of obstacles. This one is pretty self explanatory and I believe is a skill that is over looked by many. This is apparent when I see “experienced” and conservative canopy pilots make mistakes that could have been easily avoided by continued training after obtaining their "lisence”. Learning how to safely change heading low to the ground in order to avoid hazards (slow flight flat turn) is a skill I wish a few friends of mine had learned, I sure miss them. Priority 3: Don’t hurt yourself or any one else in the process. It is hard to get on the next load with a femur (or other bone) broken or sticking out of your body. The skydive is not over until you are back in the hanger safely. Seeing contact between a skydiver landing and someone walking across the landing area back to the hanger that resulted in serious injury is a testament to that. I believe it happened to Eric Fradet in the 98 X Games. Notice that the freefall skills are not even on my list of priorities? Of course I train freefall skills but I spend the least amount of training time on them and regaining stability and other related skills the pertain to safety (such as altitude awareness) are encompassed under priority number 1. My primary job as an USPA Solo Freefall Instructor is not to teach students how to skydive but rather to teach students safe survival skills. The when they are unleashed, the experienced jumpers will teach them how to skydive… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

GREAT posting Beverly. There have been a lot of good posts concerning this issue and I believe that a post from me on this topic is going to take me some to think about how I am going to express myself properly, so look for a post from me on this topic in a day or two, perhaps this afternoon unless my babble to follow in this post I feel is sufficient. Diablo and Luke mentioned that Tom is both right and wrong and what I believe they are alluding to is that Tom has expressed a couple of contradictory issues that are not exactly in contradiction unless used in the same sentence I.E. the same block of training. Thank you Beverly for bringing up this topic because I believe it is a VERY important aspect of training. Watching a skydiver lying in a divot as deep as their own body with blood seeping out of every orifice, piss and shit in their pants with the only sound from them is gurgling as they are using their last few moments amongst the living drowning on their own blood is an experience that will stay with me the rest of my life. Furthermore, after experiencing visitation to a former student in ICU, well. I nearly stopped instructing and the reason I did not is she convinced me that if I quit instructing that would be that would be a disservice to skydiving because of my ability to teach and communicate what is important where survival is concerned. The stark and undeniable truth is that when a human being jumps out of an airplane they are dead unless they do something to save their life I.E. gets a parachute over their head that offers enough drag to enable that person to survive the landing. I have never shown a gory picture to a student because communication skills should be sufficient to paint the image in the students mind. Do I talk to students about death? Positievly, absolutely, of course and yes. One of the points I have read on this string that is worth repeating is learning when to place more emphasis on the potential bad things that can happen to those students that may have a lackadaisical attitude towards the importance of emergency procedures. Getting a parachute over your head is the very most important thing that must happen to best ensure the survival of the landing so the vast area of concentration of my training is EP’s, secondly is canopy piloting and landing your parachute in an area free of obstacles. What happens in freefall is important but if I do not have time to reach absolute perfection with the student concerning dive flow before the skydive it’s alright with me as long as the aforementioned (EP’s and landing) is completely understood by the student before we get on the airplane. If the student screws the dive flow up a little bit but gets a parachute overhead and lands safely then we can get on the next load – I have never seen a skydiver on the airplane with a femur sticking out, freefall improvement will happen with practice and more freefall practice is bred through safety. Be the very best instructor you can be, thourghly train EP’s and landing and maybe you wont have to go to a students funeral… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Cvpress fire... If both Cypresses fire at the same time and the openings occour in close proximity? Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Winds are not all the same. 14 MPH is not the only guideline I personally use in deciding whether or not to let a student jump but also the temperament of the winds where gusts and directions are concerned as well at the status of the students ability. If the wind is 13MPH but very gusty, say 1 MPH gusting to 13 MPH this may not be a very good set of conditions to jump in. If you find yourself in a worse case scenario under your reserve landing off in a tight landing area with a wind speed of 13 MPH and it suddenly drops to 0 MPH when you are at 10 feet or vice-versa you must be prepared for such contingencies. I would rather sit one out because catching a load the next day comes much sooner that waiting for a broken bone to heal. I once read a quote in a Parachutist article that stuck with me, it went something like: “On windy days, the experienced skydivers sit by the beer line and watch the inexperienced skydivers get experienced”. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Good advice by Dave, it works pretty well for students I have worked with that have similar issues. I am not suggesting that you not practice flare or practice canopy maneuvers but remember that the more you use your arms under canopy the more they will be worn and tired when it comes to flare time. Another point that I wouldn’t have thought of until I experienced it with a student, don’t work out really hard the morning of or the day before skydiving, give you muscles a couple days to heal because your arms might be to sore to perform. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Yup, I agree, every now and then we need the sacrificial lamb (our liberal friends wont like that comment) to remind us of our mortality. Concerning the Hooker Seatbelts, okay I’ll bite, what are Hooker seatbelts? Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I have been giving this comment some thought and looking for a way to communicate how this mindset can be counterproductive to initiating emergency procedures for a partial malfunction. Cutting away is more like an art-form in the sense that you want to perform the maneuver as smoothly and efficiently as possible in order to maximize the quality of the reserve deployment. Fencing or Boxing are good examples of sports that incorporate good form and finesse under situations of extreme duress. An case in point is that rushing your EPs when you do not need to (low altitude) in an effort to beat your RSL might affect body position or even worse still, rushing it may cause the jumper to pull silver before the main has been fully released – I know someone this actually happened to because they were rushing it. Just something to think about. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

QuoteYou can’t expect to improve your jive by disjiving other jivers, all that does is interrupt the flow of the universal jive, to which we all serve, by our own individual jive patterns Quote I am not too “hip” and up to date on all the lingo floating around but I believe this is one of the very best postings I have ever read potentially worthy of a Pulitzer! Freakydiver had an epiphany to share with the world and I believe it is worth repeating (if I am reading it right). Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

I believe the difference is .2

The unfortunate truth is yes, you are correct and this occurs not just in skydiving but in every conceivable aspect of human existence where money is involved. Just ask the Space Shuttle Astronauts… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

If you have been properly trained you probably already know the answers to your inquiry... Although there are clearly defined practices in place concerning student deployment priorities, the best advice you will likely get here is to talk to your instructor when considering that you are still on student status as outside advice may undermine the training practices in place where you are learning at. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

In the past year there has been a rash of skydivers not fully releasing the main canopy before deploying the main resulting in serious injuries and death. An out of sequence does not necessarily mean that the handles were pulled in the wrong order; it can also mean that the jumper did not fully release the main before deploying the reserve. I have personally witnessed two of these landings and was off the DZ when a very good friend had the same experience. This has been happening to skydivers of varying experience levels and there are a lot of underlying circumstances that introduce ambiguity to the circumstances that can occur to a high level. I am not certain that it is as simple as “Pull Red Pull Silver” to work in every instance. Continued training, practical exercises in a hanging harness and through preparedness in every conceivable scenario might be a better course of action. Just to play devils advocate concerning semantics: We are not “Pulling” the handles, we are pushing them straight down toward the groin in order the keep the cables in line with the hard housings. If we push out perpendicular to the body there is the potential that the 90 degree bend in the housing might create a difficult extraction. The way we teach at my DZ is more like “Peel Red Push Red (to full arm extension better ensuring full release) Push Silver”. Personally in a cutaway situation I will not deploy my reserve until one of two thing happen, I am fully released from the main canopy or I run out of altitude and deploy my reserve in an act of desperation. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

There are two maneuvers on the A License Proficiency Card from the USPA that ensures the teaching of this to USPA solo freefall students commonly referred to as the “Dive Swoop Dock”. It is stated: Dive a minimum of 100 feet after another jumper and dock safely without assistance from the other jumper (two times). It is part of our solo training program. The way we teach students if first learn the Delta Dive which is in its simplest terms, feet fully extended, arms swept back 90 to 45 degrees out from shoulders with exenterated chest presentation, chin up so you can see where you are going. This will give you a diagonal dive with less body presentation to the relative wind. Once you dive half the distance to your target go back to the arch so you can bleed off the speed you have gained in the diagonal. Ideally you want to come on level 10 feet from your target so you can approach horizontally to take the dock. Lawndart21 wrote “Perhaps a better solution would be to prevent yourself from being put in a position that requires you to go into a head down dive to catch the student.” If the FJC we teach the importance or avoiding situations before they become a problem so I think what Lawndart is eluding to is not letting a coach-ee put you in a position where you have to catch up to begin with which is good advice but it only applies all the time in a perfect world. In situations where I have to dive down to a flailing student the only thing I can say really works has been in my experience is repetitive practical exercise. I practiced doing it over and over again and finding out what worked best for me to obtain the objective safely without hurting anyone. When I had only 250 jumps and 2 years of skydiving experience under my belt I do not believe I personally had the skills to perform such maneuvers safely. I am a fat ass so I tend to stay beneath students somewhat since “getting down” is much easier for me than “getting up”. Making rapid adjustments in fall rate is paramount in avoiding separation from happening in the first place which comes with repetitive practical exercise so it all boils down to practice. Advice? Keep jumping, practice all flight orientations, dress for success, find a friend to make drill dives to practice your skills, stay within the guidelines of the USPA or whatever governing body issued you your coaches rating and be the BEST damn coach you can be! Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

Well said! If someone was writing dissertations on skydiving when I was still in high school I usually at least listen. Rob not only opens the box of ambiguity where wing loading is concerned but there are so many factors to consider outside of wing loading he mentions such as wind conditions (there are different kinds of winds), the student performance (not all student perform the same or are at the same level, especially in an 18 jump course) the ETC. means that Murphy is lurking around the corner. Good judgment on the instructor’s part is paramount; asking the advice of other instructors is a regular practice at the DZ I work at. It is best to hang your ego at the hanger door for the better of the student… Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…

If I ever notice a hole in my canopy I have a preplanned system. 1) Check my altitude to establish my priorities. 2) If time and altitude permit evaluate the condition of the canopy. If there is in fact structural damage I use a very simple mathematical equasation: How many parachutes do I have? 2. How many lives do I have? 1. Simple. I trust my PD reserve and my rigger, I do not trust that the structural damage will not get worse at 500 feet! That is just me though, most skydivers believe it is perfectly acceptable to land a damaged canopy if it is controllable. I think the most important things are altitude awareness and not being hesitant to use your reserve and trust it if you have doubt that you can safely land your canopy. How much doubt? Also dependent on the individual. Mykel AFF-I10 Skydiving Priorities: 1) Open Canopy. 2) Land Safely. 3) Don’t hurt anyone. 4) Repeat…