yoink

I agree!

Not so. some ellipticals like a Stilletto only have 3 D attachment points on each side if I remember correctly. Tracy - lay your canopy out on it's topskin and then COUNT the number of attachment points on one side - That's the right number. For a Sabre it's 4, 4, 4, 4. For a Stilletto it's 4, 4, 4, 3. - I work front to back because that's how I pack... some folks do it differently. Now just remember that sequence. Anything that attaches to an edge is either a stabiliser or a brake line and (IMO) can be discounted because they're dealt with differently during the packing sequence.

I still don't understand why you'd deliberately increase the risk of a skydive for a passenger who doesn't know any better.

congrats on the A! ! I'll try once more. 1st - There are some really good skills to be learnt on lightly loaded canopies. Too many people now have no idea how to handle going backwards so don't discount your experience or what you can learn now. 2nd - please tell me you have read, thought about, (discussed with the fiancee?) and UNDERSTOOD that while your wingloading on a 135 will be about 1:1, as soon as you start jumping with other people you will be strapping on a load of lead. You simply can't fly well if you're maxed out trying to keep up with people... It's not a question of skill. It's not possible. That means your wingloading will probably jump to about 1.2:1 - something not recommended by industry experts for people with less than 200 jumps. Maybe you're exceptional and it's not a problem. Honestly, I don't care. I want t make sure that you UNDERSTAND the decisions you're making. and finally, you've done a great job of ignoring everything I said about the emergency procedures. Did you actually do what I suggested? Did you address the fact that it took you 7 attempts to perform a maneuver that should be instinctual? Did you talk with your instructors about it and do 700 practice drills over the weekend? Of course not... Let me be clear. You said earlier that your fiancee didn't want you reading this because it got you upset. Too bad. He should be as pissed off about this as I am. 7 attempts for an EP is too much. It may well kill you. don't believe me? Ask your instructors. If they don't' agree, find another instructor. Nobody here wants you to fail. Nobody here wants you to be afraid or upset. But at the same time, nobody here wants you to get hurt. We remember what it's like to get of student status and personally I'm chuffed for you, but remember, you won't be spoon fed any more. It's up to you to seek out as much information as possible and make your own decisions. You have an opportunity in this forum to ask questions people with tens of thousands of jumps. People who define the best ways to skydive - use it a resource, even if you don't do it publicly. Stay Safe.

*Sigh. Well this entire thread was a waste of effort. Awesome. If your fiancee disagrees with anything I've posted, tell him to feel free to post here or PM me if he doesn't want to do it in public. I'm sure he thinks he's looking out for you, but just burying your head in the sand doesn't make some of the advice (that you asked for) any less valid or true. Stay safe.

It can be. It can also be somewhere to get some really good, meaningful and thorough advice - if you can see it. How about this - as a female in a sport dominated by guys, the OP is much more likely to be given leeway by a well meaning DZO or instructor. I'm not saying it's happening in this case, but it DOES happen. A young guy with 50 jumps goes to the DZO and says 'hey, I've got a 135' - what do you think the reaction will be in 90% of cases? However if a chick does that, well, guys (and I include myself in this) are stupid. We don't like to say no to cute girls, even when we should so they tend to be given more leniency, even when it's not in their best interests. That sort of knowledge - knowing that people may say 'yes' to you when perhaps they shouldn't is worth having. Particularly when it comes to safety issues. What about the discussion we could have about body size, exit weight and canopy sizing? Sure the OP is a tiny girl and may well be OK on a 135. All you hear is 'it's too small' and deduce we're all canopy nazis. She's already indicated she wants to jump with her fiancee, and it's not a stretch to imagine she'll want to jump with other people too. At her size, keeping up in freefall is going to be tough and draining, so that means piling on the lead. Uh oh. Now that conservative wing loading on the 135 may not be so conservative... so maybe it's worth rethinking the options available. answer me this - how is suggesting that a 135 for a novice jumper may be agressive a bad thing? Do you think it will hold her skydiving career back if she doesn't get on it straight away? My point is how dare you come on here and suggest that all advice about canopy sizing is just 'it's too small'. and is useless. There's a great deal of thought that leads to a suggestion from some posters here,

Really? I was taught to punch forward. You're are the first person I've heard say pull straight down. It does make sense though, thinking about the direction of the cable housing. You were taught wrong. Always pull in line with the cable!

Lots of people will focus on the canopy stuff, and I'm sure this thread will mainly revolve around that, (because that's what we see lots of here), but PLEASE don't miss out on the lesson you need to take away from having to attempt your EP's 7(!) times before successfully cutting away. In a fast mal those 7 tries could easily be a thousand feet of altitude which you may not have...

Firstly, congrats on saving yourself! ! A couple of things spring to mind - First, you say 'I had just gone through my emergency procedures that morning', then say you managed to cutaway on the 7th try. OK - advice - you haven't drilled your EPs enough - Nowhere near. Either that, or you're doing your drills wrong, neither of which is good. Get into a hanging harness and have an instructor watch you go through your EPs. PEEL. PULL. Then repeat that motion a hundred times. Then do it a hundred times before your next jump. And a hundred times before the next one and so on. I'm completely serious on this - it takes a lot of repetitions to drill muscle memory and you can't be fumbling 7 times on a cutaway. It's a big indicator that your training hasn't sunk in properly. Others will probably give you advice about your canopy selection. Personally I think it's overly aggressive, and history shows that people have difficulty owning something they're not ready for and then not jumping it while they rent the sizes in between for an appropriate number of jumps. You say 'I'll need to demo a 150 for 'some' jumps - yeah. Long enough to get COMPLETELY familiar with all the characteristics of that canopy. We're talking hundreds of jumps here - are you REALLY going to do that?? Even though you're light, the 135 will fly VERY differently to a 150 as performance isn't a linear scale with size. I'm pleased you managed to look out for yourself, but there are bits in your post that are waving red flags to me - be aware. That's probably not the good advice you were hoping for, but it's true nontheless. Take care!

We talked about it briefly in terms of possibility of a DZ shared resource here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4189161;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; Or were you after an actual example of someone's warning? I can't remember any of those.

' Yup. I think its optional in order to make a skydive safely. Why? You think it's a necessity?

For once you qualify - Necessary: Container. Main Canopy. Reserve Canopy. Altimeter. Important: Helmet. Jumpsuit. Goggles. Optional: Everything else. OR, if you want to be THAT guy. Necessary: Color coordinated rig / Jumpsuit combo. Go Pro. Optional: Everything else. Don't worry too much about researching gear just yet. You'll have plenty to keep your attention when you start AFF.

As soon as I saw this video I thought of applications to swooping gear. I wouldn't be putting it anywhere near my rig or canopy without extensive fabric testing though.

Thanks for the updated video Brian. Once you're into your landing pattern you say 'Too tired to hold front risers' - was that indicating you were starting a HP landing and just didn't have the strength top continue it? If so, weren't you worried about any damage to the lines that may have been caused during the malfunction - the most conservative low-G approach seems like a good idea to me after a wild ride like that, even if only because you're still jammed on adrenaline and probably aren't making decisions clearly. Not the best time for busting out a swoop!

I'm sorry - the trading insults like 10 year olds on the playground that made up a majority of the start of this thread has a point does it? Do explain... I'm all ears.

Well this thread is like a broken pencil. Pointless.

If you believe that, then why does it matter? And why are you riding this horse? What's the axe you're grinding? I'm not sure anyone one else cares, to be honest. You're talking about 2 canopies that less than 1% of the skydiving public will ever see, let alone fly or own.

Might they be, you know, responding to the wishes of the people that put them in office, maybe? Them pesky Democrat voters?

Fewer guns equates to fewer murders with guns. Thought experiment time - imagine a world without ANY guns. Would there be less murders with them?

Because they might reduce the liklihood of such an event in the future. Yet another BS strawman argument from Rush... I'm so bored of your (and others) continual 'if we can't 'fix' everything at once, we may as well do nothing at all' arguments. That, combined with the 'but x causes more deaths than guns' is getting really tedious. Do you have anything new or interesting to say, because if you're just going to keep repeating the same stuff but voiced in different ways, I could replace your posts with a very simple computer script... Let me see - RUSH: option Explicit Dim arMessages(10) as string ' private Sub Form_Load() Randomize Timer arMessages(0) = "Violates 2nd ammendment" arMessages(1) = "Unconstitutional" arMessages(2) = "No proof it would have worked before" arMessages(3) = "No AR was used!" arMessages(4) = "Cars cause more accidents - fix that first" arMessages(5) = "Arm everyone! that's the solution!" End Sub ' private Function GetRandomMessage() as string Dim iIndex as Integer iIndex = Int(11 * Rnd) GetRandomMessage = arMessages(iIndex) End Function ' private Sub cmdGetText_Click() MsgBox GetRandomMessage() End Sub there you go. You entire contribution... feel free to use it next time you want to make a post.

Wait. Are you saying my tinfoil hat isn't protection enough anymore? RUN FOR THE HILLS!

I think the CAA cypres exemption letter is available on the BPA website. If not, send them an email asking for it.

Ask her what her home dz is, and a contact number of the dzo / rigger there so you can verify her. Then walk away...

And somewhere along the way they'll go after those who participate in high-risk sports, who use emergency rooms more than the couch potatoe population. Folks like skydivers. And the same logic applies. If we're more likely to injure ourselves and require more than the average time and effort of a dr for doing something that is entirely voluntary, then we have to accept that it's only fair that we shoulder the additional burden. Or would you have it that everyone else should pay for any additional cost that YOU incur. If you personally want to pay standard rates for everything, be AVERAGE. Have a boring 9-5 desk job that doesn't require lots of commuting and take up jogging and watching TV for a hobby. As with anything in life, exceptional things cost more, and that includes being part of a minority sport.