LearningTOfly

Thanks all for the input- The details mentioned are very helpful. The switch to the 'palm grip seems awkward in my mind, but in reality I'm sure it will flow. Thanks again. And agreeing with what chachi said... ...baby steps

What's your personal style of gripping your toggles when the flare involves a transition from rear risers to toggles? I generally loop my toggles around my first through ring fingers, leaving my little finger out, and use my thumb to make sure the toggle stays on. I realize though that this method may not work so safely when using rear risers to plane out as thumbs are now hooked around the risers and loosing a toggle becomes more possible. Thoughts?

I've only jumped someone else's pj on two occasions- now that was scary. They were jumps thirty something and forty something too...

That's true too... For me it's not such a concern though, after a few hundred the packing isn't really an issue- I just don;t like to fight with creases that were put into stupid places Come to think of it- I pack every now and then as a form of stress relief from whatever - blue skies

An additional question: Good idea or bad idea: Leave a canopy (carefully) packed over the winter so that it will have a good 'memory' of how to fold itself come spring. Repack before first jump intended-

I'm in the Great White North, and in school, so getting ahold of that issue may be difficult- but I don't dispute that keeping level shoulders is the best body position during deployment- that is what I do 95% of the time too. Thanks for the pointer- Another thing I have heard that might be interesting to discuss is that even looking up during the early stages of the opening (slider up) can also throw off an opening. I've had this happen as well a few times- lately on my CF I was looking up and out of my peripheral watched the opening go through a 360* heading change. It was fun... at the time

This is something I've been wondering about- I generally don't look over my shoulder during deployment- I just pull and let my mental timer tell me when I should start doing better things with my time. My reasoning is that looking ahead maintains body symmetry. There have been a few jumps, though- most notably a recent hopn' pop on my new canopy- (subterminal- slow opening) where things didn't move as fast as I thought they should, so I glanced behind me to make sure everything was going to plan- it was, but the surprizing thing was that I looked over the shoulder opposite my pull side- while on the ground I always thought that I would look over my pull side shoulder... Then when I was doing a reserve drill (with an intentional pull- on the ground), and I looked over my opposite (left) shoulder again to see how things went. ...I started thinking about it and came to the conclusion that I think I have a little more peripheral vision (or my neck rotates more, I dunno which) to the left... thus the natural thing for me to do is look left/ opposite to pull side. Blue skies

The only thing I've been asked is "does your parachute have a compressed air cartridge in it?"- to which I responded "no, it doesn't have any compressed air cartridge in it" and left it at that, they were happy. I wonder how the compressed air catridge rumor got started....

I've had no problems with it at all- I've taken a rig on a plane two or three times in the past two years, and there has been little issue. All flights out of T-dot Intn'l. Once I made a security guard's eye's get really big though- she said 'one moment' and hurried off to her manager, who waived me through. Probably the best thing is to go prepared with the right answers and documents if needed. ...maybe in my case, the guards were just having a pleasant day

Is resizing an articulated harness as simple as having the manufacturer install a different length of web between the chest and hip rings on the container? As well, how would one measure to find the proper length for this modification. (I'm assuming that all that is needed is that a longer/ shorter length of web is required to put the hip ring in it's proper position)

Once upon a time I found it fun to fly around a city with a few bridges (say, Vancouver)- and loop every bridge in sucession. There's a Cap232 add-on out there somewhere that was fun, as well as a Cap21. Another fun thing is to get a jet of some sort, and go ridge running around some mountainous area- 400-500 kts- flying up a hill- hit the peak, roll inverted, back down the other side. That was a while ago, though- I used to use it for IFR practice, but even that became tiresome. There are too many unrealistic features in the game... Oh, just another note- there is a skydiver that you can download for fs- one half is a skydiver in freefall, the other is the same under canopy. Haha, it's very good practice for working on those hookturns. Have fun

Skydiver (for now) here, but an on topic short story- I dumped once on a hop-n-pop in what must have been a not quite belly to earth position- the next thing I feel is the bridle which is passing from my pin, up around the front side of my elbow, and a pilot chute that luckily hasn't inflated yet. Actions were pretty much instinct as I reached that arm backwards to allow the bridle to clear. The entire process must have taken less than a second to happen, because it felt like two. No harm done, but after opening the first thought through my mind was 'well, that could have been interesting'. (of course not extremely as exciting- I had another 4g' to play with)

Random wondering here... can ATC pick up skydivers on Primary radar? I've heard that they can pick up trucks on a highway- and I think I've heard that they can pick up flocks of ducks/ geese. How about divers?

Rock on Happy Birthday man- may this year be full of fun and jumping. Blue skies

Well tomorrow I say goodbye to the teen years- 54 jumps and 500 hours of flight time seem a little less impressive now. Then again, I hear the 20's can be quite spectacular... It's been a wild ride so far- I hope people around here are having as good a time as I am these days.

Just wondering- on a PRO pack, I've seen some people stow their slider and then fold their stabilizers back and forth over eachother before pulling up the tail. This seems like a good idea- in my mind it keeps the steering lines where they should be, at least while the canopy is in the bag... as a result I would expect that there is a reduced risk of a lineover occuring. Is this right? Any opinions on that packing style?

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I jump a Sabre- it has a larger slider on it, and usually opens nicely if I pull the slider to the front (shielding the nose) when packing. This weekend I must have been doing something different in packing, because I got three brisk openings out of four, but none were painful... just fast. The thing that worries me most about hard openings is the hurt that the harness feels.

:4:1 Beer for first time at this dz. Two hopnpops. One really really cool dive with a new friend. One 'work' jump. Then studying on Sunday

"Ground Sky Ground... might as well go for it..." pull Then as I look down between my legs and see my pilot chute inflate: "Oh ya..." Besides the barrel roll on exit, it was fun- I got off the s/l and went back to square one, stability wise. Then I relaxed... and that was all it took to gain stability. The chute opened just fine, too, despite my er, 'bad' body position- it just looked a little kinky from the ground, that's all.

Jumping without a jumpsuit is no different than jumping with one. In the end, it all comes down to body position, not apparel. Wearing baggy cotton pants might slow your fall rate, for instance, and you will probably take a second to figure out what to modify control wise, but other than that- as long as you can fall stable, you're set. My first plainclothes jump was right after getting my solo- it was from 13.5 and I didn't notice a thing... until my goggles slipped up at 10.5... but that's a different story.

Started using them for the approach after jump number five or six, and have been on them ever since. Doing ninety's now... and front risering thereafter if altitude is still in excess. It's fun stuff.

Thanks for the link- That footage is incredible! Couple that with the soundtrack, and the Pitts- I got goosebumps, lol. Awesome stuff Blue skies

Thanks for the info and the link- much appreciated- I couldn't find any such incedents on the specified site... which is a good thing, I suppose.

Just wondering... What are the details/ statistics regarding accidents occuring due to harness malfunction- or more specifically, harness failure?