FrogNog

You mean the force is up to 75% lower, right? (i.e. the larger force is up to 300% higher, or 4 times as much, so 4 - 1 = 3 which is 75% of 4.) Because if the pull force goes down by 300%, it would be negative. I'm glad to hear this was tested, and what the result was. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy, actually. And I agree with your assessment of typical real-world reserve handle pull technique. (I know I won't be getting out my fish scale after cutting away...) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

At my DZ I was taught to track directly away from the center of the formation for 5 or so seconds at breakoff, and take care of the "line of flight" issue with exit separation. The reasoning was: * tracking less than about 5 seconds would be a risk of not being far enough from your formation buddies. * tracking more than about 5 seconds would be a risk of covering significant distance up the line of flight and therefore under other groups. * when breaking off a formation of 4 people or more, if everyone goes directly away from the center to maximize their distance from each other, it is assumed at least one of them will be tracking more or less up the line of flight, and "correcting" this problem by adjusting the multi-person track distribution out from the formation is not the right thing to do. I accepted this as a risk prioritization thing, where being too close to your formation buddies is the largest risk, and trying to "be smart" at breakoff time in re track directions was a risk that could be traded for other, lesser risks. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

All personal equipment price savings in skydiving are erased instantly when a component breaks the jumper. What is the price difference between this reserve and one that you would feel comfortable with? Because being comfortable with two handles in two hands about to cut away is worth a lot of money. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

See, that's just another reason to keep yer closing loop nice and tight. Prevents packing too much extra volume. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Yeah, I thought jumping into a huge marshmallow (of appropriate engineering) would be a sweet sport. But what if the spot is off? So I'll stick with parachutes. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

My foster cat would definitely put a hundred holes in the canopy first. I trim her claws but I swear she has a nail file somewhere. And, she pisses on anything fabric on the floor in a corner. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

"They can cut my reserve pin when they pry my rig out of my cold, dead hands." Or, put more gently, this is why I will do whatever I can to carry on. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I have a $250 watch I almost never wear because it's so gorgeous, I don't want to break it. Took me 2.5 years to track it down and buy it. I never thought at the time I would fail to wear it, but most of the time I'd rather not know what time it is than risk losing it, breaking it, or having it stolen. Now, AADs are a bit different because they're life-saving devices, not convenience devices. And if someone went to the trouble of having one and getting a rigger of any repute to install it (meaning it looks like it works), it would seem stupid to not turn it on. But I agree with SkySlut that there must be some people out there who have one and don't turn it on. Maybe they used to use it but don't want to anymore, and haven't repacked it out yet. Maybe they only use it on "dangerous" jumps. Maybe they use it most times but turn it off when they're doing low hop-and-pops or low-pulls or some other tomfoolery. And anyone can fail to or be prevented from turning on an AAD if they forget, are flying to jump into a DZ with significantly different altitude and don't know how to or cannot set their AAD up for that, or are taking a ferry that they expect to violate safe AAD riding rules and/or have no intention of jumping out of. These are minor cases but they, too, happen, and would be good explanations of why someone would not turn them on. And for the record, a Cypres-1 that's 4 years old can be had and 4-year-serviced, including shipping and insurance, for $800.

I seem to remember that part said some people could pull significantly more than 25 pounds, but some people definitely could not. (And therefore the limit would have to be set about there or it would kill certain people.) I guess I have to read my Poynter's too.

I'm not some sort of rep for the Skyhook or the guys who make them, but it is my understanding that the Sykhook is designed so that (when it is installed in the correct direction and the lanyard isn't snaked through a reserve ripcord ring or otherwise mistakenly misrouted) any kind of reserve deployment you could do without an RSL or without the Skyhook is still possible and will not be impeded. That's the "magic" of the spur on the skyhook device: it's sort of like a one-way connector for the skyhook lanyard. If the lanyard is being pulled away from the jumper by the canopy, great! - the skyhook will be pulled by the lanyard due to the shape of the spur to which the lanyward is connected, and the reserve free-bag and PC will both go along too. And if the skyhook lanyard is not moving away from the jumper, e.g. the main risers are still attached to the 3-rings or to the jumper's camera helmet, or they got 5 feet from the jumper in a cutaway but a suspension line caught on a camera kelmet keeps the canopy from completely cutting away, then the skyhook lanyard slips off the spur on the Skyhook device as soon as the Reserve PC starts pulling the reserve bridle away from the jumper, and deployment looks like it would if there had never been a skyhook installed, just an RSL. http://www.relativeworkshop.com/products/pdt_skyhook.html The picture at the top of this page shows the skyhook device and the spur to which the skyhook lanyard (called "SkyHook RSL" in that picture) connects. Note that with the skyhook, a "regular" RSL/lanyard is still used to open the reserve container before the Skyhook RSL/lanyard attempts to enhance (or fails to enhance, but in theory does not impede) the free-bag extraction and line stretch. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Is it mandatory to turn them on, too? And if so, do they check? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Ha! And you'd think that the following years would be cheaper, wouldn't you? They're not. - Jim I know better. Starting the year off with $4k for a rig shot things pretty quick. But hopefully now I will get a lot more jumps for my time and money.

Dairy cow fertilizer - first coupla jumps -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Thankfully the Internet then also tries to drown them out. Plenty of other stuff to read about. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

This is my understanding of the pertinent engineering: The skyhook has a little house it lives in near the top of the reserve container. The skyhook in basically a block with a spur all attached to the reserve PC bridle. The skyhook lanyard connects from the main riser to the spur on the skyhook device, and because of the shape and installed direction of the spur, if the skyhook lanyard remains attached to the main riser and the reserve PC is deployed, the reserve PC bridle will follow the PC and the skyhook's spur will slip out of the skyhook lanyard end. This makes it important to have the skyhook device installed in the correct orientation - so the skyhook lanyard will not tow the reserve PC in the situation you described. (I imagine the purpose of retaining the skyhook device in its little "house" is to ensure correct orientation of the operative bits at emergency time.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Nice. I will have to ask to go out last and ask to do this on my next Otter day.

Doesn't have what I vote for: balance. (Or "gridlock" - poe-tay-toe, puh-tah-toe.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Happened for real in a plane crash. Pilot (male) was missing appendage. Said appendage was then found complete in passenger's (female) esophogas. Another reason to not drive "distracted". But hey, sometimes it's just fun as hell! Isn't this what autopilot is for? And aren't there FAA rules for this having to do with airspace, weather, day/night, altitude, and crewing requirements? I mean, I would _never_ be getting plane head on final or something. That's just dangerous. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

-=-=-=-=- Pull. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

OK, let me see if I understand this: 1. We are mostly skydivers here 2. Someone posts what appears to be a good way to get rid of a few hundred dollars you have lying around but don't know what to do with Did I miss anything? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I believe his statement was that he has never seen "incorrect data", not skewed or slanted. "Wrong" could certainly mean "incorrect" or "unethical", so there is some ambiguity there. As an NRA member, I find it painful to witness their propaganda. I know _I_ don't need that kind of crap, but I guess getting such a large group together requires the ol' LCD approach. Personally I see NRA data and try to remember which logical fallacy or statistical representation "trick" or sampling failure is being employed (if any). In the end, it just backs up my statement that in a bipolar debate, moderation is surrender. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

The poll lacks a subtle version I go with: my job is to make sure she _appears_ to be enjoying herself. If she's faking it, not my issue. So, I pay enough attention to, er, satisfy my contractual obligations, so to speak. I'm just not responsible for someone else's games. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Well, if you have a lot of experience, could you answer this question I have: is that more of an ocean gray, or a gun-metal gray? (Or, if it's definitely some other kind of gray, I'm all ears.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Yeah, I am finding out that wind has everything to do with it. Practice and experimentation is the order, I suppose. I will refrain from giving a useless, 74-jump "my experience has been" comparison of double front risers and deep brakes across various winds. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Yup, I learned why people think Twin Otters are so cool. Also, I got some nasty pea gravel stuck in my shoes. -=-=-=-=- Pull.