Grogs
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Everything posted by Grogs
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Based on my experiences on my canopy... yes and no. When I front riser, my forward speed increases, but so does my rate of descent. So, I'm going forward faster, but my glide path actually gets steeper. So if I were safely over my target area, but blowing backwards, using the front riser will keep me from backing up as much, or even allow me to get some penetration. On the other hand, if I'm already making some penetration and I front riser, I'll end up landing shorter than I would if I flew without them because of the steeper angle of descent. These are my results on my canopy, so your milage may vary depending on your wing-loading, type of canopy, etc. Remember you'll also pick up more speed when you're front risering, so remember to let up a safe distance above the ground before you flare and always keep your toggles in your hands while doing it.
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I know a very experienced tandem master (over 1000 tandem jumps) who says he gets nauseous every time he rides in the passenger position. His reasoning was because the harness held in a position where his head was about a foot farther away from the tandem master than his hips (leaning forward), so when they did turns it a was very unnatural feeling. Probably the only way to tell for sure is to do a solo AFF/IAD/SL jump and see if you have the same problems.
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Congrats Jason! If you don't want to pay the extra $20 for the expedite fee, you can still call the license and ratings section of USPA and send you an e-mail confirmation once they've processed the application (they normally process it on the Monday after you fax it in). They'll do that for free, unlike the fax confirmation which they'll charge $5 for. In any case, welcome to the world of the licensed. Now you can (easily) go to other drop zones and experience the different vibes every DZ seems to have.
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0:6:1 here. The 1 is for taking my first student up this weekend
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It's for a 4-point 4-way, i.e., at least 4 people on the dive making 4 separate formations.
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How good is that group Zennie? If they're all the same experience level, that makes it much harder. When you jump with people who are really good, it helps out a lot because you're pretty sure they're doing what they're supposed to do. If, for example, you see the formation moving away from you, you can be pretty sure you're backing up, and not them. When you have 4 people who are all having the same kind of problem, it's really hard to diagnose who's doing what. I've been lucky that at my DZ, I was usually able to do a jump with some experienced people at least once a weekend. It really helps your confidence after you've done 3 dives and haven't scored a single point to be able to do a load with some high-timers from your DZ and bust 6 points on a 4-way.
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I thought the newer Dolphins had velcroless riser covers. Or are you talking about the velcro on the bridle?
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Hehe. I heard one I've never heard of this weekend. Hold your hand up with the thumb and pinky straight out and the middle 3 fingers curled upwards like you're holding a bowling ball. Translation: You should really think about taking up bowling instead. The funniest thing was one of our newer jumpers heard us talking about it and said 'Oh, that's what that meant when I saw that'
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I've never heard of/seen this. This is definitely not something covered in our AFF first-jump course. If you put a fist in my face, I'd probably assume you wanted to fight and punch you. The only hand signal we have is one finger in the person's face, which means wave-off and pull. If it's an emergency, or if extra care needs to be taken, the JM will most likely dump the student instead of taking the time to 'give him the finger' This is true. As a coach, the signal for the student to pull is to deploy your own chute. He's briefed on the ground that if he sees you deploy, he deploys. In reality though, if something like an open container happened, I'd probably still give the pull signal before I deployed, USPA be damned. Given the alternative between 'I don't know why he didn't pull, I did what I was supposed to do' and 'Why the #$%^ did you give him the pull signal, but at least he got down alive' I'll take the latter any day.
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Hehe, no matter what you might think watching the video, they do not allow you to do any 'skydriving' on your first jump. In any case, you'll love it all the same.
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Don't let it bother you. You need to be prepared to deal with a malfunction every time you jump, but they're actually very uncommon. I've probably seen 2-300 students jumping at our Dropzone in the last year and we have'nt had a single student mal in that time (knock on wood). Just make sure in the unlikely event you have one you pull the handle(s) and save your life. As for how to signal the JM, actually the best way I can think of would be to just throw out your main. The guy might not necessarily realize what's going on, but there's a good possibility he'd throw out too and try to figure out why you pulled. That should, if nothing else, give him some extra altitude to deal with his mal. Even if he decides to ride it down, he at least doesn't have to worry about watching the student anymore, giving him a better chance to notice the problem.
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The biggest problem with the Astra AAD IMO is that the power has to be cycled off and on between every jump. There's always a possibility you will either a) Leave it on at the end of the day and have to replace the batteries (which for me was $95 for the batteries, plus the reserve repack required to get to them) or b) you forget to turn it back on again. I had an Astra for nearly a year, and although I did pretty good, I would on occasion forget to turn it on before a jump. I like having a Cypres and not having to worry with that extra hassle. After all, an AAD doesn't do you much good if you forget to turn it on.
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We usually hold to that 1 case/jump limit too, with the exception of the 1st cutaway. You had BETTER give the rigger a case or your 2nd cutaway might not go quite as well.
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We actually use the expert Cypres on all our student rigs, probably for that exact reason.
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Haha, we were talking about this on the ride to altitude the other day. There were these great looking puffy clouds all around (none within a mile of the DZ though, of course ). Some of the guys were talking about how cool it would be to crank a big hook turn and go surfing across the top of a cloud dragging your toe in it. We were thinking it might even be possible to see the effect of dragging the toe with a canopy speed of 60+ mph. It would make one hell of a picture, but unfortunately not one we could send to parachutist as they tend to frown on those FAR violations.
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Hell yeah, say hi to Bryan. He used to be a Tandem/AFF JM at our Dropzone before he ran off to El'Snore to become a real Skygod.
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True, but working the latch and raising the visor on a Z1 in freezing weather with gloves on is a pain? I know that gave me fits last Winter. I even lost a glove one time because it was the only way to raise the visor, and landing with it down was not an option since it was completely fogged up. Pulling the goggles down may be a bit of a challenge too, but I'm thinking if you get desperate you could just slap them and get them to slide down around your neck.
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Yummmm.... 529 jump tickets. I'd love to see how fast I could jump those off. I'm thinking I could do it in less than a year. Anyone want to donate the 9k so I can find out?
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Hehe. I think it's pretty funny he lists his AD license number rather than the USPA one.
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LOL, I've smacked a bird before. Strangely it was on the way to the DZ also. He/she just flew right in front of the car as I passed by. And speaking of birds... I almost hit one in freefall one day. Right as I threw out my pilot chute, I saw something go shooting past me about 10 feet away. Once I was in the saddle, I looked up and saw a hawk flying around right above me.
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Hmm, that's odd. Stacy told me she was going out to the DZ to jump because she saw blue skies. Maybe she was just trying to piss me off about the fact I'm stuck at work.
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Hehe. I haven't had one of those dreams since I started skydiving. If I had one now, I imagine I'd be doing flips or trying to go head down.
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0:7:1 (I got a double eagle this weekend, so I'm owing a case of beer now)
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Personally, I don't jump with one anymore. I had my first cutaway while I was demoing a canopy I was looking to buy. Since the RSL ring on the risers was on the opposite side as my RSL, it wasn't hooked up. After I did my emergency procedures correctly without one, I felt much more confident in my ability to perform emergency procedures without relying on the RSL and had it removed at my next reserve repack. I also like jumping without an RSL because I feel it simplifies the malfunction tree a bit since it takes out the question of whether or not to disconnect the RSL in certain malfunctions, which I can't gurantee I'd be thinking clearly enough to ever do since the old 'pull red, pull silver' is so deeply ingrained in my muscle memory. Still, having said that it's a personal choice. There are a lot of incident reports that might not have happened with an RSL equipped, so if you choose to jump with one more power to you.
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Ouch. Sounds like you had one hell of a hard opening in addition to the straps being loose. I assume you're jumping a Manta or the like (translation - huge fricking canopy). Those things always open hard as hell. I think they're designed that way intentionally so that the student knows the canopy is there as soon as he/she opens it. I know I had bruises on my inner thighs every student jump I made. It will get better though, I promise. Nowadays, I can pull in a track (I had to test that during the coaches course) and not get bruised. Anyway, glad you didn't get hurt, and remember what you've learned about having the straps adjusted. When you move down to smaller canopies, having an uneven harness can cause the canopy to spin up on opening and result in a malfunction, so it's good to get in the habit early.