velo90

Ok I, I know of one who did freefall on his very first S/L. Slight packing error Pulled the reserve and landed fine. Dave

I must have sucked then. I made 7

Last thing I heard was that it had been grounded because of a premature fire. Link to article in German and french :- http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Vigil+group:de.rec.sport.fallschirm&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&newwindow=1&group=de.rec.sport.fallschirm&safe=off&selm=behqee%24e07%2404%241%40news.t-online.com&rnum=1

http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/onleave.asp just in case you are wondering. Dave

Not yet got the A license .. mmmm Practice floater exits, make sure on exit you have the plane in sight and you don't flip. Pull in a stable position. Make sure you always pull really stable. With a camera on your head, unstable pulls can be really dangerous. Practice, side slipping. Make sure you can control your fall rate accurately. Then as already has been said it depends what you want to do. Film RW, freefly, tandems or just your buddy on a two way. All require certain skills which cannot be learnt in a day. Learn how fly properly without the camera and then you are ready to start thinking about camera work. Dave

Only just over a week ago I saw what could be the very same "problem". The reserve had last been packed a year ago. The packer commented on the clumped lines but did not think it would have any negative impact on the opening. Once he picked up the canopy and shook it a few times the lines freed themselves easily enough. I jump Techno reserves and am not worried about it. I have also had two reserve rides on a Techno, both opened at low speed with no problems. Although I must say that they had both be repacked recently. Dave

Only 5 jumps is optimistic, but can be done. I have never seen any stats on the average time it takes to get off the line. Some, for various reasons, can end up doing more than 20 jumps on the line. If anyone has any stats I would be interested in seeing them. Dave

I remember a few of weeks ago we were chatting after a days jumping and someone noticed large flocks of birds around the runway. They asked our jump pilot if he was worried about hitting them on take off. He said....... A bird strike is not that bad, I have had one, the only problem was that the bird was in it's nest at the time

That is the statistic that really has me worried. It is also the one for me that makes skydiving more dangerous than driving. 1 in a thousand drivers don't die every year in car accidents.

I think they the artist should pay me for using their music. The original song gets messed up with sounds from the video, also the original is rarely complete. In effect the artist is getting free advertising for their song from my cool video. And before you think this is tongue in cheek, I have had numerous tandems ask me which music I have used because they wanted to buy it.

My friend's canopy is a Nitro 108, (Nitron in the US). My experience with the Nitro is that they untwist themselves in most cases.

It was just instinct to go for the handles. Pulled, nothing happening, EP. Then I thought that chopping without making any attempt to clear the malfuction seemed wrong. It was only after the jump that I thought maybe it would have been better to cutaway immediately.

But a reserve is not made from ZP. Never the less , a ZP main packed for 5 weeks is no problem if it was packed when dry.

It was a busy day at the dropzone for Tandem video’s and I was asked to do two in loads 10 & 11. Obviously no time to pack in between so I borrowed Andys rig for the second jump. All went well and I set about packing Andy’s rig. As I was stowing the lines I noticed that the elastic bands holding the lines seemed a little loose so I decided to loop the bands around twice. Then they seemed a little to tight so just before I put the D-bag in the container I asked Andy if he loops the bands round twice or just once. He said once so I set about to pull the lines back out but he stopped me. He said, “Leave it as it is, I just know to pull a bit higher next time I jump”. As the day went on I found that I needed to do a back to back jump again. Tandem video and then a RW jump. Of course you can guess whose rig I borrowed for the RW jump. The RW went well, we separated and at about 3000ft I pulled. You notice immediately when things don’t go as planned. I thought, shit I am still in freefall and its those stupid elastic bands (I always use tube stows). I went straight for my handles and then a second thought popped into head. It’s not my rig and the owner will be pissed when I give it back with the reserved popped. Still a bit time to sort the problem out. I grabbed the risers and gave them an almighty yank downwards. Ahh , a couple of the stows have come loose, Another yank, another and out came the canopy. Then came the second problem, a lot of line twists. I had not yet heard my hard deck warning on my pro-track and decided to check my altitude. 1500ft … is the canopy spinning, no it isn’t so I set about getting out of the twists. Fortunately it was a canopy that more or less frees itself of line twists and I was quickly out of them and able to land OK. That was the scariest jump I have ever done. When I look back at the incident I keep wondering, would I have heard my pro tracks final scream and chopped? Why did I not chop straight away? A reserve re-pack is not that expensive. No visual altitude checks until the canopy was out, did I really know how quickly I was losing altitude.

You forgot to mention... In bed when you dream of a bad opening... In the office when you think back to your last line over.... I go through the motions before nearly every jump. It must be something you can do without thinking about it.

I started shooting video because I wanted to show my whuffo friends how cool we all are Now, I don't have and whuffo friends anymore I continue to shoot video because I love to see the first time tandems having fun in the air. The students and newbies think it's great when they get a video of themselves in freefall. Ohhh and the money from the tandem video's comes in handy too.

Yep, I have had this problem on my PC-6. The only solution I have found is to disconnect the cam eye I have reproduced the effect on the ground by shaking the camera in it 's mount. In freefall it does not happen often but it has switched the camera off. When this happens just once on a Tandem video it's a disaster The cam eye is still on my helmet but never connect to the camera.

I keep mine to about 30 mins. As for the style, I change it every year. Just remember, you cannot please everyone all the time but if you please most people some of the time the video will be a success.

Stow the slider then pop the brakes. I have no problems stowing the slider with popped brakes on my PDF risers but ..... If the canopy has opened OK, I'd rather not be flying at full speed while I am stowing the slider. I can always steer with the risers if necessary.

´ Let me know when they can store 200 minutes of video and I'll be interested. That is the amount I have after a busy weekend filming tandems.

That's what I said. Hey, your hat is nearly as crazy as mine

My first cutaway was at Jump #860 after 3 years in the sport. My second 4 days after the 1st . That was an expensive week for reserve repacks. Worst reserve rate from people I know is 3 in 110 jumps. Best is 0 in 2500 jumps. But I am sure there are people here that can beat those figures.

I would change him into an Unsupportive Insignificant Other. His only option then is to become a Supportive Insignificant Other. After which you can decide he is a Supportive Significant Other. USO -> UIO -> SIO -> SSO Well it makes sense to me

On my first attempt at using the rear risers for the swoop, at the point where I should have switched to the toogles for the last flare to land, I just automatically pulled on the risers a bit more. Needless to say I stalled the canopy immediatly and made a not so pretty landing. I think I am going to have practise this transition a lot more at height before I attempt this again.

Unbelievable that someone could walk after that. What I also found interesting was the guy in the red T-shirt who just after Andy hit, put his hands on his head and turned away, as if he was thinking "too late for first aid on that one"