karlm

I jump a Vision 124, loaded at about 1.5 - I find the riser pressure is OK when you first get on the risers, and the pressure builds up and is rather high towards the end of the dive. The canopy even at that loading is conservative in the initial turn, and seems to slowly generate speed in the dive, not much of a radical whipping action, it also eases out of the dive nicely. Now all I need to do is to learn to get on the rear risers ... Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

t - damn your so right, if it aint right send it back. Thats what I have always like about PISA / Aerodyne good customer service. I sent my Icon back - and they had no issue making me a new one. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Interesting that you are trying to compare a Pilot which is a square canopy with a Hurricane which is elliptical. The Pilot is a good all round mid performance canopy has soft consistent on heading openings, good all round flying and a good solid flair. If you want to compare try jumping the Vision, and then compare it to your Hurricane. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

OK ..... Here are are images of Team AngelFire, South Africa's National Female 4-Way. Look out for them in Croatia. They are jumping Icons with either Visions or Pilots are Smart reserves. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

I have jumped both the Pilot 168 & 132, and all very happy with the overall preformance of the Pilot, the openings are great, the flying is funa nd easy, and the landings are good. I rate it as a very good all round canopy. Our National 4-Way Teams all jump either Pilots or Visiona and from what I have heard they are all happy with the gear. We have also had one Smart ride on our DZ, it was a Smart 120 and the jumper was happy with the opening and the flying of the Smart, the landing was what impressed the jumper the most. All in all the new Aerodyne gear is excellent. I jump a Vision 124, loaded at about 1.5 and have nothing but praise for it. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Simon makes cool t-shirts you can get to look at them on his site. http://www.planetadrenaline.com/ Real funny stuff. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Good question here .....! I think the main question AlexJ is asking is: "What is the standard judging practice?" I would think that once the team is in frame the scoring takes place and the rest are NJ's - as the team would have lost a fair amount of points due to the camera flyer there is no need to add a bust to the score. If the first viewable footage is a inter, then the block would be scored as a NJ. Here is three actual jumps that were done during competition and how they were judged. Jump 1 - On exit camera flyer goes unstable/low on the exiting 2-Way, they continue to skydive the draw. Camera flyer takes 20 odd seconds to recover and get back up on the formation. Judges wait till 2-Way returns to top of sequence (page) before scoring points. Thus team scores a 2 on the dive. The viewable footage shows 5 points, but since the judges waited till top of page, score ended on 2. Would it have been better to hold on point one or continue as they did? Judges decided not to incure busts, but rather deem all non viewable footage as NJ's and score from top of page. Jump 2 - Camera flyer sets up camera in morning for jump off round in 2-Way, never checks sights. On review of footage team is filmed in top right of screen and spend most of the dive out of frame. (they moved in and out of frame the whole dive, but most grips were not seen). 2-Way team has no idea and continues with dive. Judges look at footage, and since the team can be seen in and out of frame the whole dive, judges are able to determine where in the sequence the 2-Way is. On the odd occasion the team was in frame and built a random a score was given, otherwise the rest of the dive was NJ. Judge deemed that since it was not a deliberate camera issue, and as the team would be loosing a large amount of points on NJ's the points in frame would be scored with no busts being given. Jump 3 - 4-Way exits, camera flyer goes flat and a bit low on formation, team sees this and holds on first point (was a burner of a round), team can be seen holding point as camera flyer gets above team, who then continue dive. No Nj's or busts incured by team. Judges deem that since the team can be seen holding the formation while camera flyer gets above them, they score from first point viewed. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

WOW - Glad to hear all involved walked away from it. Very lucky. Low Man has right of way, as he cannot see you above him. We did a inflatable dive in December, there were eight of us, one on the dolphin and two on either side (aff style) the rest were seperate exits and would dock the formation. We made one rule, if you went low at any stage, you were to track away, no matter what the altitude and pull at 3500ft. This way we ensured that anybody below us would be out the way, otherwise they would just hover around and end up below a jumper on pull time. If worked great and you can see the low guys tracking off when they go low. Great skydive. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Well I must agree that watching girls pack is sweet You should go check out the SA National Team - AngelFire when they train at our DZ packing is fun time. www.jsc.co.za But I must admit I have caught girls eyeing out the odd packboy Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

- I am sure the jumper has learned a lesson from his slip up. His initial response may not have been the correct way to handle it. But we live and learn. - I would and never suggested that a jumper be a AFF I without the rating. He jumper is skilled and has a natural talent for the sport, he holds no rating, but does coach free fly which I think he does well at. - I do think that the jumper who noticed the pull up cord, might have handled the talking to a bit rough, and we all know skydivers seem to have a bit of a authority issue. All in all a mistake was made, a jumper helped out and prevented a nasty incident, we have all learned from it. Gear check are important for both you and your fellow jumpers. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

The jumper who made this error, is a very compitent flyer, I have had many good qulality FS skydives with him, and have seen foootage of his Freefly skills, which I would say ar good. He is one of those with natural talent. He just made an error and was lucky that a fellow jumper was there to help out. I am sure he checks his gear 100% now. The DZ that he calls home, is a very pro-active DZ, and the Instructor Body spends alot of time and effort in improving safety and educating jumpers on all aspects of the sport. We have regular articles posted on safety and gear. We hold seminars and coaching clinics for jumpers. I think it is wrong to judge somebodies ability by their jump numbers or the ratings they hold, if they are safe and work with in the system (which this jumper does) then it's OK as far as I am concerned. My original post was intended to highlight a gear check issue I have not seen before. We all ahve stories of chest straps, leg straps etc. This was a new one for me. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Just a correction to clear a few mistakes on the jumper mentioned. I was not involved with the JM rating decision, and the comment I made is that or hear say. I have no first hand knowledge of the reasons. Thanks to the former CI for clearing that up for me. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

The comment on the gear being Cyprus equipped ... was not made by the jumper. I just added that as a additional bit of info. Tonto is correct, I check my own gear before kiting up, and once on jump run, if I need a check for any reason i get a qualified JM or AFF Inst to do so, they know what they looking for. I am sure that the pull up might have slipped through the gromets and he cold have had a normal deployment. I would I want to chance that NO WAY. 400 Jumps and a Free Fly Coach .... I would not have made that decision myself, it takes alot to be a coach or AFF I, not everybody is made for it. And as Free Fly has higher speeds and is a more dynamic than FS, one need to be heads up as a coach. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Good points ... but if you jump with a full face helmet, then you can shout as much as yu like, the guy on the ground will not hear you. It would be a advantage to move in a slow and direct mannorr, when moving away from a canopy landing, this way you give the pilot a better indication of your intentions. The other option is to kneel down to indicate you see the person. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Having been part of our DZ's duty staff for the past year, I best way to approach a jumper who has crossed the safety or club rules line, is with a good manor and a friendly attitude. You get the best response from the jumper, and they are more willing to listern and learn from the mistakes. Shouting and pulling rank never solved anything, it just gets the parties to become defensive and never resolves the issues. On the subject of landing etiquette - Once you have landed it is still your responsibility to look out for fellow jumpers, both on the ground and in the landing pattern, as said before, it is far easier for you to move a foot or two, than to expect a jumper on finals to turn to avoid you. I have seen a load of jumper (5-Way) walk off the landing area with no idea that the tandem that left after them is now trying to land, the TM had to turn low to avoid the group, landing only a few feet to the right of the group walking off the landing area. They had no idea. Count the dots on opening and see where everybody is, and once on the ground do the same. COUNT THE DOTS. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Yip cannot agree more - The jumper in question has been through the JM course, but was not approved due to his lack of observation and attention to detail, he is also a free fly coach. Never get onto a aircraft without a proper gear check, either do it yourself and if you forget get a fellow jumper to give you the once over. I have found chest straps mis routed, AAD's not switched on, alti's not on zero. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Our DZ (www.jsc.co.za) here in 'ol South Africa has given the 45 rule the boot a long time a go, we ahve moved to what I would say is a much better and more accurate way to ensure good separation between groups. We have a chart in the back of our Porter, with four levels on it Low, Medium, High & Very High, which indicates the wind speed at altitude, the pilot will on a time to time basis, get a jumper to write either a L, M ,H or VH on the chart, these correspond to timings between groups. The time between exits is based on the ground speed on the aircraft and the distance covered according to the wind speed at altitude. Exit times are between 8 to 20 seconds between grounds. We have found this to work well for us at our DZ. Will post a jpg of it if I can find it on video. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

I see far to many jumpers both senior and students not checking their gear before, kiting up. And then finding out either at boarding point or while in the aircraft that something is amiss. On the 5th June a group of jumpers were jumping a CASA in Lesotho, the group was made up of experienced and low time jumpers. On one jump a senior jumper notices that a jumper with about 400 jumps had his pull up cord still in his rig, as he had not taken it out the closure loop. Lucky for him it was bright green and a snr jumper saw it before exit. When asked about it, the jumper said he had not seen it and did not seem to concerned that he had made such an error. His gear is cyprus equipped. I finf this very concerning, check your gear before you put it on. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Yip, any position is great, so long as she is getting her rocks off and showing a face. "Spank me baby" - any time girl, just wait till we see each other again, then the spanking will continue ..... miss you Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Ok, so my best number is 9 own rig, packing myself and then 8 the following day. We had 100 jumps done in 12.5 hrs by 4 jumpers (400 jumps total) 4 rigs each, packers, and one Porter. Set the new South Africa Record on that one. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

I see this often on video and through conversations with jumpers, once open they just grab and pull on the toggles. It is only time before you get yourself into a situation like the one above. Always once open, use back risers to steer clear of any traffic, then look and check all is good (no excess lines wrapped on toggle, through brake line & riser etc), then release and fly home. If you have to spend a few seconds just fixing the misrouted excess line, which i have had you do a few times, due to packers packing the left brake with the excess stowed to the right (inside of riser) and then getting mixed up with the brake line and toggles. The basic rule here is to be more heads-up all the time with the whole skydive. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

OK - So I have to officialy say sorry I did not take pics last week, and had to work the whole weekend so no pics yet. BUT WATCH THIS SPACE. You will not be sorry. Alexj - The new Bev Suit si that cause you getting a bit thicker in the middle? Thansk Bushman - For the response. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Great to see the people in the industry look out and watch for posts and comments on their products. Bushman - your insight and posts have been valuable on all aspects of the new gear from Aerodyne. Great cumstomer service is what makes a company break ground in an already crowded market. All I can say is that Aerodyne has a solid track record of reliable people behind the brand, and with the combined years of knowledge and passion, Aerodyne is sure to be a major player in the sports gear market. As for the "Javelin Odyssey" comment, he's been mouthing off for months now and still now toy ..... should have ordered a Icon. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Yip, thats just what we do, the duty staff of the day keep an eye on the wind and change the chart to reflect the current direction. It has become a very useful tool for both students and visitors at the DZ. We also have a rule for "no wind" or "light wind" days, and that is landing with the club on your right. Keeps it all simple. Our jumpers also have become more educated and there is always a chat about landing direction and descent areas before take off. We have found that the split landing approach and descent areas, have kept the students and less skilled away from the buildings. And helped keep the air traffic issues low. With over 400 drops a weekend it can get busy. Better never to have met you in my dream than to wake and reach for hands that are not there.

Sorry guys no pic yet ..... but will post ASAP. I jumped my Vision 124, and boy what a toy ...... Loooooooooovvvvvvvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeeeee it. Soft on heading openings, good toggle pressure, light and controlled riser pressure .... great flair. And so easy to pack