Pendragon

Erm... why would you want to do that? Your "fresh A graduate" might get a little scared... Handling and performance would be very different; an experienced pilot would consider it "responsive"; a novice "twitchy" or "unpredictable". The loading that you are talking about is going to make a huge difference. How well did your friend land the Crossfire? What loading was it? Might have got away with it in certain conditions, but what if it's not so good (turbulence for example)? Would he be able to land it without hurting himself? How can someone develop the necessary skills if their canopy scares them? They might begin finding reasons not to jump...and eventually stop altogether (either through habit or injury!) Sure, I expect a Katana is quite exciting to fly. Personally, I'd love to get round to having a go - but I'm in no rush. Bearing in mind I'm a "B" licence holder (i.e. still inexperienced) although I'm a hang glider pilot as well, I use a basic F-111 PD170 loaded at about 1.0-1.1. I can spot land it; never worry too much about the conditions - allowing me to concentrate on my diving. When I have exhausted my canopy's performance range, then maybe I'll get another one. The thrill is great - but only if you're in control! Don't let your "fresh A graduate" wind up looking a fool... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Totally agree with the previous poster. What I'd like to add is that if you have time to get the main out you probably should: why would you want to put yourself under a canopy that is both probably smaller than you're used to and you've possibly never piloted before (or at most have very limited experience!) I would guess around the 1,000-1,500 ft mark, go straight for the reserve if you've got an AAD fitted, simply to avoid the 2 canopies out scenario. If you don't, I'd probably lower the threshold, and that's only because the main would've been packed to open slowly from terminal and might take too long sub-terminal... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

In the UK, I'd bet that more people do S/L than AFF it's really expensive out here. I did AFF, but then I didn't really care... One DZ that I've been to said S/L was dying out; where I trained, much more S/L than AFF gets taught... Regardless, once you've got your "A", it doesn't matter so much... although I have noticed: AFF graduates aren't really worried about freefalling with others (that's all they've ever done) and seem to progress to formation skydiving more quickly, but they're scared of low altitude "hop & pops", don't always land too well (less experience to a given level I suppose) and I wonder how well some might perform their emergency drills if they had to... (BTW, I realise that this is being addressed in some places, but I'm just going on my own observations) S/L graduates often appear to better canopy pilots but struggle with formations initially. All that being said, even just 30+ jumps post "A" qualification is likely to even it all up...

However, failing levels doesn't mean you're a worse skydiver - sometimes quite the contrary. All depends on the person - and the DZ! Some are much harder to get through than others! I've seen people ace their AFF only to get unstuck on WARP or always land badly... I had >6 repeats, but got to my "B" licence in next to no time and have never had any issue with canopy control. Happy landings... -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Interesting one this; but isn't there a difference here regarding control and how it might affect others? Something like aircraft servicing is obviously outside the remit of the skydiver boarding the plane and needs to be regulated. He/she has to trust in the integrity of the system. Footwear - well, that should be at the discretion of the CCI. If you're not comfortable, then you shouldn't be wearing sandals etc. But it's not likely to affect anyone else, so Canopies - everyone is different, and the reprecussions could be serious for others. Trying to think up rules connected to jump nos is silly - what would you tell someone with 100 jumps who wanted to go elliptical but previously had 100+ hrs on a paraglider before turning to skydiving? What scares me is the number of "A" licence holders who don't know collision avoidance rules, let alone the effect of aspect ratio and wing loading. Sure, accidents do happen, but we need better canopy education - there's too much emphasis on the dive itself during training. For the British "B" licence standard, we have to make 5 consecutive, pre-declared spot landings. However, there is nothing to stop someone doing this on a 190 and then getting a 135 which they can barely land later. Why couldn't we have a parallel set of qualifications with requirements for elliptical canopies, swooping etc. After all, we have something for Canopy RW! Putting requirements into "B", "C" levels etc might be erroneous as a number of jumpers without the canopy experience would be grandfathered in, thus defeating the point. Sorry, I've rambled. -- BASE #1182 Muff #3573 PFI #52; UK WSI #13

Well, I must've had a record at my DZ in number of repeated levels - cannot remember off hand, but it was somthing like 6 attempts at level 4 and 4 attempts at level 5... Just remember, everyone is different - I zipped through the subsequent levels after I'd got over my hurdle, only meeting another (little) one when trying to build my first 4-way. Try to relax - and don't go into panic if something doesn't go right first time; keep to the plan and give it another go. I'd mentally walk through it before you go up - don't underestimate how important your state of mind is! Definitely don't fear failure: there is no such thing as a wasted jump, only more experience!