freeflygirlz

I don't know much about pot either. On my home DZ during 7 years I have never seen any drugs at all, except alkohol and cigaretts, with are drugs as well I have never had problems with my student, only once I had to send a student with a heavy hang over back home. He was solo at that time and only missing very few jumps to his licence. He came back another day. Visiting other DZs in Europe and the US I was very very surprised, how many jumpers smoke pot in the evening!! I was not used to this and could hardly believe in the beginning. I have never seen someone smoking it during the day, but they won't do this in the bording area, right? I personally use adrenalin as my drug, I don't smoke at all, but i like to drink alcohol sometime. You did exactly the right thing, keep on having an eye on your students! I personally would agree to a drug-free-DZ, but I am happy, that this is not an issue at my home dz. Making it a rule instead of voluntary might pose a problem. blue skies

In Germany there are 2 manufacturer and both produce and sell the same caonpy, the Nitro. Its HiPer (www.hiper.de) and the other one is Profile Research (wwwpara-leasing-nord.de). Besides a few details they are both the same canopies. HiPer and HiPer USA belong together, Profile Research sold the right to sell the canopy as Nitron in the US-market to Precision. Thats the way I was told it and I was in contact with both german manufacturer. blue skies

The Nitro and the Nitron are the same canopy. The Nitro is for the european, Nitron the US market. I also would not recommend the Nitron until you have about 300 jumps, it is a high performance canopy. All the others are very nice canopies, although Sabre 2 might open a bit harder than the others. A canopy you might want to consider is the silouette. Its a zero P / F 111 mix, therefore easier to pack. It flies similar to the Pilot. Go and demo the canopies, but make sure to use the same size, otherwise its hard to compare.

I agree, ask for the serial number and send Airtec an email. They can tell you, just in case there is something to tell about (serial nr. does not fit together with DOM, reported stolen, fired once, etc.) bying a used Cypres is much less risk, than buying a used canopy or gear. blue skies and happy jumps

1. we do have a lot of open space, this makes jumping for students safer, even with squares 2. THATs the reason, why we use Cypres. Here we could get into a money-discussion again. I wouldn't jump with a FXC and so I would not expect my students to do so. 3. That's the reason, why we don't overload student canopies!! 4. Confused or scared students need good ground preparation and qualified support by radio. Unconcious students are not very frequent. 5. We do train our students on two-out-situations. Thats part of the ground school. We give our students enough time to get trained. Of course it's quite a lot of new stuff, but thats just the way it is. As Instructor it's our job to give them what they need and prepare them for their first jump. I agree with you, that there are a few more aspects to think about in this question. But I'm still of the opinion, that in common skydiving schools there are more pros for square reserves than for round reserves. blue skies

I just read the book "Bird Man" by Leo Valentin, the founder of wing suits. It's his autobiography, he started jumping in 1938 and tells a lot about the 1940ies and 1950ies. In this book there are stories about jumpers who died because main and reserve (of course rounds!!) entangled. There are also pictures in it. I would not jump with a round reserve, and so I would never expect my students to do so. I suppose it's about money if a DZ still uses round reserves.

Without beeing a TI I would like to add some thoughts from my experience as AFF-I: It depends on the jump. Of course you have to be focuses on every jump, but if something works not as it should, thís takes much more energy. Packing, especially tandems is ver exhausting. The weather also plays a role. Very hot and sticky days make jumping much more exhausting (thats a lot because in altitude it's much colder and other climate). Returning back to the ground is sometimes really uncomfortly. And I guess, that for tandems the weight of the passenger is also important. If all passengers are at the upper weight limit you might not get closed to your personal records. I personally never do more than 6 AFF-jumps on a day. Its too challenging and to much responsibility to take risks of beeing tired and not 100% focused. On my DZ the record is 10 tandems a day, all packing themselves. I'm not sure about regulating it. I would hope, that reasonable jumpers set personal limits. A problem might be, that the DZ expectes you to do another jump, although you do not really feel like it. Financially pressure takes the rest. And maybe you feel OK on the ground, but if you get into a really difficult situation (sidespin, malfunction...) its too late to find out, that this jump was one too much for this day...

Thats the reason why a hop and pop is required for AFF-students! To take off the fear of jumping out of 3000ft. Imagine a jumper with 100 jumps, trained on aff, never jumped lower than 13000 ft. He sits in the plane, in 2500 ft the engines stop, no matter why, and this jumper refuses to jump, because he has never done that before. In case of an emergency exit you cannot start discussion... It's great to see how much fear the students have before their hop and pop, and how great they feel after they have done it! I guess for many of my students this gives them more selfconfidence, then their first aff. Most of my students do the hop and pop between their 15th and 20th jump. As we do have springloaded pilot chutes for aff, they are allowed to switch to handdeploy _after_ the hop and pop. This gives them enough motivation to take their heart and just do it. Once in a while I really like doing hop and pops. I ejnjoy jumping from about 5000ft, doing a linked exit, make 3 moves without taking grips, tracking away and pull. Thats so much fun. Everything feels a liitle bit different than in full aliti. you realize much more, like the wind is getting louder, the pressure is increasing, still not terminal speed at pulling. I do not like to jump lower than 3000 ft, without reason. If its for weather I do jump from 2500, but not lower.

First: I'm no TI, but I am doing a lot of videos, a few hundrets up to now, and working with differnt TI on our DZ. What makes the good TI good? - NO jokes. Its fun for alle the other skydivers, but not for the pax! - Do not overload the students with information!! Most TI want to to them good, but in my experience, most passengers do not want to know about cutaways, cyres, side spin or accidents. IF they want to know something, they WILL ask you! Tell them _after_ the jump, if they seem interested in starting skydiving. - In the Plane do your routine before hooking up. Tell them about the jump again (hands in, arch...). But do not talk to them the whole time, its their first skydive, they want to prepare for it. A focuses and concentrated TI gives them a safe feeling. If they ask, show them the cities, rivers whatever you can see out the window. - IMO skydiving is not about fun! Its great fun without making jokes... Its a great, very intensive experience, do not make to much fuss about the rest of it. Keep focused. - And: As a female videoflyer it sometimes realy pisses me off, what some TI are doing / talking to girls. THATS not professional. Thats not part of your job! Enjoy your tandems, be safe!

I personally would get a new one!! I'm not very sure about the legal situation in the US, but as long as your rigger is doing the repack, you should be fine. You can send the canopy in to the Manufacturer, they will test it on porosity and strength. But usually this is not worth it's money. A old canopy is an old canopy! blue skies

If we would have a Tunnel on or very closed to our DZ I - as AFF-I - would highly _recommend_ every student to go to the tunnel for 10 to 15 minutes. As right now the next tunnel (and its not a very fast one) is about 8 hours drive! As soon as we find out we are having kind of a problem student (who would need a few rejumps) tunnel training would make a lot of sense. But as its that far to drive, its not very resonable. Up to now I had only one student who went to the tunnel. He already thought about quitting skydiving, then went to the tunnel and did a very nice job afterwards! If you have the chance of flying the tunnel - take it! It's that much fun and you are learning a lot!!

Yes I have also seen that once. A jumper from my DZ just got his brand new rig. The collapsible PC was attached with a soft link, but the grommet of the D-bag was too big. If thats the case it#s much safer to switch back to metal ring or rapid link!! The jumper on my DZ got the gear from his dealer like that. On the first jump he was fine (the rigger has packed it correctly, but no one told him how to do that). On the second jump he had a reserve ride. He did his cutaway and just as the reserve started opening the main came out too. Luckily the main cleared and he landed without incidence. But this is always a dangerous situation!! blue skies

If you care about missfires you might be pulling too low. Although Cypres is working very exact it migth fire 100 feet higher than supposed. If you are still in freefall or just in opening sequence you are definitely pulling far too low. There have not been any reported cases where a correctly used Cypres has failed to open the reserve. There are quite a few cases where the Cypres was not used as told in the manual (for example read the incidence report in the July edition of The Parachutist) but it's up to YOU to use your AAD correctly. About your concern landing on the reserve unconscious: It's up to you to choose a decent reserve canopy. The larger the canopy the higher your chance of not being injured. Avoid getting unconscious by jumping with skydivers who might be a risk in freefall. Do not jump with bigger formations as long as yours skills are good enough. Do only skydive when you feel healthy and fit for it (no medicamentation, no alkohol, no drugs, no hang over....) I have a Cypres and I am very happy with it! Please make sure you have the very best equipment and training you can get! blue skies

To me this depends on how many jumps the canopy has. For me it seems OK if a canopy with a few hundrets of jumps has a little damage. But I would be annoyed if I buy a nearly new canopy (less than 100 jumps) and it has a hole you haven't told me about. If the canopy is a little bit older this is just normal, don't care about it. If its rather new, tell the customer, but it should not be a problem. Do not patch it! No need for that!

Quote: The bottom line is that no-one in their right minds loads 1980s vintage reserves (Firelite, Laser, Rascal, Raven, Swift, etc.) much more than 1:1 and if you plan on loading a reserve in the 1.5:1 range, it had better have been designed in the 1990s (Amigo. Next, PD, Smart, Techno, Tempo, etc.). _________________________- My friend bought his new gear with a new Micro Raven in 2000 at our dealer. How should the customer know, which resever to buy? The dealer recommended the Micro Raven as it is rather small packing. Before this Raven incidence we all did not spend a thought about with reserve to buy. Of course this is a very important thing, but I do rely on my dealer's advice. Although I'm authorized to maintain and pack reserves, I do not presume to tell manufactures how to construct their canopies.

Of course you are right, that a jumper shouldn stay in the manufacturers recommandation. But in the reality out there - how many jumper are loading there reserves more than the recommanded WL. And 1,5 is a quite average WL for experienced jumpers. Nevertheless, there are far bether reserve canopies on the market. For my friend the only consequence was to change to a PD-reserve, which will fly stable even with higher wing loadings. This is just my personal opinion. And I want to share it with other jumpers who have Micro Ravens. If we would have known about that before, my friend could have avoided a lot of pain!

HI! I have bad experience with a Micro Raven: My team mate and friend (4000+ jumps, TI, AFF-I) had a reserve ride with a Micro Raven (120) at a WL about 1,5. At landing, he started flaring, at about shoulder height the canopy stalled imediately. He fell on his back hard, got the cypres unit in his vertebras. Thanks god he was not really hurt, but he was in pain for quite a while. Later on we talked to a few riggers and they all said: Small Micro Ravens are very dangerous. You should make a flare test and maybe its better not to flare at all and do a PLF. In the manual you can read, that they do not recommend any WL above 1,1!! Check out the manual and think about it! In the Skydiving Magazin (I think it's in the July-edition) there is an article about Micro Ravens.

THATS cool!!! Does it still work *gg* ??

Hi! Just to make sure you know: Skyhook is only available on Vector Gears (Tandem, Student and Vector 3) In my school we have Sigma Tandems and Student Gears with Skyhook. For these gears I highly recommend the Skyhook, as the reserve openings are much quicker than with standard RSL. The problem of unstable reserve openings with RSL is not that much of a problem with the Skyhook. On my gear I don't have either. BTW I don't feel comfortable with packing a reserve with skyhook. I'm not doing that much of rigging, so I do not pack gears with skyhooks.

To me there are two options: you can continue with your turn _while_ flaring, asymetric flaring. many of my students are doing this unintentionally... or you could - depending on the size and type of canopy - try to make a light turn by moving your body in the harness while doing a symetric flare. form 30ft this might not really work with very large canopies! For me both ways are working fine, sometimes I'm doing a ligtht turn during flaring just for fun as well... BTW I'm jumping a 135sft. Nitro

put it in the wardrobe or the storageroom. Put it in a gear bag or an old bed sheet. I personally would not leave my gear in the basement. Average temperatures and humidity are no harm to the gear, just don't leave it in the car too long. Make sure to remove the handdeploy of the BOC-Pouch for storing!!

I ordered 3 Silhouette-Canopies for our school about Christmas and I haven't got them yet!! My dealer is in contact with PD, but she has no idea why it's taking _that_ long...

a jumper on my dz used to do drop tests with cats and hens when he was a boy. He used self-made little parachutes (rounds of course) of bed-sheets and droped them of the window or a bridge. I guess, he didn't produce a lot of lift as well..... poor cats...

Hi! We put our radios in the students helmet. we have put cypres set up bags on the left side of the helmets, they have the perfekt size for our radios. I have a little map, only for documentation of the radio stuff. There I (as AFF-Instructor) write down: - name of the student - load in which we are jumping - number of the gear (in this map are the gear-numbers with the coulours of main and reserve canopies, type and size as well) - number of jumps the student has (to make sure a first-time student gets what he needs, but a student with a few jumps is not talked down all the way) - room for comments from the radio-instructor (eg. flares very late...) and signature of the radio I Before bording the plane I hand over this map and the instructors-radio to an instructor, who then is resposible for the radio for the next load. He also has to do the canopy-debrief with the sudent. This works very well for our school and its not too much of work. As we usually only do one tandem, I personally assist the student on the first jump alot, but keep the talking short and straight to the point. As someone else talked about student malfunctions: IMO the radio instructor should not tell the student to do a cutaway!!! The students are well trained to decide wether to cut away or not. Thats his business! Only if he is not doing anything a all for a very long time, then maybe. I have heard a story, where the radio instructor told one student to cutaway, then 4 students in this load did chop, one of them pretty low!! this happend about 10 years ago, so might be a little bit of a camp fire story, but anyway, it could happen!! Make sure to buy good and small radios. bag on the chest strap is fine, helmet as well and IMO they can hear it better. Make sure, they are not deaf on the ear, where the radio is!

Hi! My DZ ordered 3 silhouette-canopies for rentals in december and we haven't got them yet. My dealer says, pd doesn't give her info, when the canopies will be delivered. anyone else having problems? thanks and blue skies