Bosveld

Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Uhhh, that's like a 40 year old woman who was with the balloon crew. Oh, ok then.......... well at least it wasn't the guy!! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

My last visit to the dentist was GREAT! I didn't go to the usual old fart, in stead there was a young blond fresh from varsity who helped me. Ok, she wasn't topless, but she was blessed and her top was pretty tight. While she was working on me, her nipple was lodged in my ear. She hurt me way more than the normal guy, but for some reason, I didn't care too much that day. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

The other day at our DZ a guy's camera helmet came off, right after exit. The wind was pretty strong that day, and altough we checked the spot and searched, we couldn't find it. The next week somebody phones the DZ looking for the owner of a helmet that came off. He phones the jumper and wants to take him to court because apparantly the helmet hit his car while he was driving past the airport and made some considerible damage to his car. Luckily it hit a car and not a pedestrian! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

My older brother started jumping when he was 18. I was around 11 years old then and that was the first time I had ever been to the drop zone. I had to wait till I was around 16 so that's 4 years. I only started when I was 17 because of limited funds. Before that I never even thought about jumping. I always wanted to be a pilot though. I was hanging around the drop zone every week-end and was packing parachutes by the age of 14. If it wasn't for my brother I don't think I would have ever jumped. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I am by no means an expert, but in my oppinion: Before thinking of downsizing and what to get, when it gets time to buy something new, do demo jumps with lots of different canopies and form your own oppinion based on that and listen to experienced guys. I've done lots of jumps with eliptical canopies, but at this stage in my career, I still feel more comfortable with square canopies, so that's what I jump. I understand eliptical canopies are more responsive, and I saw that when jumping them, so I'll move there when I feel comfortable with it one day. I don't plan my downsizing in years to come already, I'll do that when I get there. But that's just me! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Only your arms? You are either very lucky, or very fit. I wish it could only be my arms that take strain. If I do that many jumps, it's my shoulders, my back , my ass, and muscles I never even knew existed. Ok but I do mainly flat flying so that must make a difference.

No No, don't get me wrong. I've always been the laughing stock at my DZ because looking cool comes last on my list. I don't really care about looking cool, if it fly's well, then I love it. I've just noticed other people don't always share my opinion, they care too much about looking cool, even if they have to sacrifice a little bit of functionality. I was wondering how many of those people are really out there. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

If you could only afford second hand gear, would you take the matching jump suit and harness, although the harness might not be 100% comfortable and the jump suit might be a little baggy for your fall rate, but hey they look shit hot? Or would you go for the harness that fits you perfectly and is most practicle for your type of jumps. Never mind the fact that it's shocking pink, red, horrible army green and purple, with a perfect fitting yellow and orange jump suit?

Wear one on my chest strap. Never used to wear one, till I started jumping with a camera, then it's required in SA. So I had to get one. Now that I've got one will obviously always wear it. I'm glad I have one, you never know. Even jumping without camera I still wear it. If I loose it, I'll get another one. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Oh really? Please keep us updated as to how well this works for you. Normally I'd avoid Panasonic for jumping, but I'm curious if their higher-end models are more reliable... _Am I'm using a Panasonic NV-EX3. I've done about 50 camera jumps on it, with no problems. In fact if anything I have had a couple of oopsies with the camera, like forgetting it in my car's boot outside of the camera case, just rolling around after too much beer,or dropping it once, and it still works fine! I am very happy with it and haven't had any problems. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I pack for money, because I need to sometimes, for jump money and drinking money. If you've packed as many rigs as I have, you realize what everyone realizes at some stage in their skydiving career. PACKING SUCKS! But hey, I'm sure more than half my jumps have been paid by pack jobs. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I started packing before I started jumping. In those days our dropzone also insisted on students packing their parachutes (supervised) from the first jump. Since then we got a King-Air and the student gear is really in high demand. There's no time for packing instruction, the rigs needs to be packed almost always for the next load. Since this is the case, we have people with over 100 jumps who's just not interested in learning to pack. They'd rather pay someone to do it for them. At the boogies you find those people grounded because all the packers are jumping, and these guys can't get the loads in they want. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Ok that makes alot of sense to me. In fact it's so logical, can't believe I posted without thinking of that. Thanks! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

If we are talking about different DZ's then should altitude ASL not also be taken into consideration? I don't know the situation in the states, but here in South Africa we have some DZ's at sea level and some are as high as 5000 ft ASL. Some people have broken themselves on the first load when returning to their DZ after a boogie down at the coast. a While back we had a lady with 5000+ jumps break herself at our DZ on her first jump there with a very mediocre turn. The experts said it was because she was accustomed to her sea level DZ. She just turned too low for that altitude ASL and never saved herself. So in this case looking at your Alti or going on feeling would probably not have saved her. When jumping at new altitudes this must be taken into consideration as well when doing your approach. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I have a friend who had three premature openings in the last year because of the same problem, stretched spandex. We had the rig converted to a pull out, and now the problem seems to be solved. He was very lucky to have three in such a short time and still be okay. The last one I think scared him properly because that's when he started jumping another harness till the problem was solved. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Ok, This eliminates, dumping unstable or in a spin. It could still be that you are leaning one way in the harness when it's sniveling. Or it could still be the pack job. The fact that you told me that the problem dissapears when you get someone else to pack it still suggests to me that it is the pack job. If you get someone to check your pack job, they should be able to spot the problem. If they can't, well then it's not the pack job. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I don't really know if it would always be the same in every situation. I had a High speed malfunction once where the pilot chute was not cocked. That uncocked pilot chute was strong enough to pull the pin un-stow almost all the lines except for the last ones holding the bag closed. They were double stowed and that's where the opening stopped. My risers were out though and I luckily had no problem chopping. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Everybody just prooved one thing, as long as there is going to be skydiving people will debate pull-out vs. BOC People will come up and proove pro's and cons for both. I think try both, jump with what makes most sense to you. That's it! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

When asking master swoopers from my club why the didn't jump triple risers they told me this. People have already really said all to be said, but I thought I'd sum it up. Reason why people prefer triple risers is because: If you pull down the slider the toggle goes almost directly from your hand to the attachment point on the canopy. Normal risers has to go to the back riser first and then to the canopy. But only if you pull down the slider, otherwise it has to go through the slider any way and triple risers has no effect. That gives greater maneuverability when flying or landing on toggles. (check when people flare with hands in weird places like next to them they almost always have triples or had at some stage) Next time you see someone land with triple risers try and check where their brake lines go. Reason for people preferring normal risers: If you are doing back riser landings with triple risers, they are harder to find and you might accidently get hold of one triple and one rear which won't be pretty! They are also easier and quicker to pack. If you are doing back riser landings, I'm pretty sure everybody would advise you to do the sewing thing on the triples. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Off heading openings can be caused by an uncountable number of reasons. Rolling the nose and one side slips out first, not packing the canopy completely symmetrical, from pulling in a wrong posistion. Hell, I'll never be able to mention all of the things it could be. My advise would be to next time get one of those packers that "it seems ok" with, to stand with you when you pack and check what you could be doing wrong. Let someone experienced check you packing. That's the only way to safely say what could be wrong. Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

dude ....... THAT IS ................Sweeeeeettttt!!!! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

Now that sounds familiar.......wait!!! That's the story of my life! sum1mom.. welcome to skydiving! Don't worry if you have enough money us packer boys will be packing for you. If not....welcome to the packing club. Once a Packer always a packer. I can never get rid of it. After my pay check every month with enough money to not have to pack I still have to do it! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I was not more aggressive on landing, than I was with my control test, in fact by the time I was landing I was very docile cause the canopy didn't work too well any more. But I see your point, I might have made a different decision after a very aggressive control test. It was pretty aggressive, but next time I will really yank those toggles to see how it responds. Makes sense. Let's hope there is never a next time Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!

I had hard opening once, broke a steering line. Did a control test on my rear risers, practiced flaring, check the stall point and did a stand up landing on the rears no problem. Then end of last year I broke one of the lines attached to the stabilizers on the same canopy. Did a control test with my toggles still stowed. The canopy worked perfectly. Then I unstowed my toggles and did another control test. The canopy was a little worse on the toggles, but I could flare and was confident that I could land it perfectly fine. The lower I got, the worse the canopy got. Came time for landing and I had to give almost half brake input on the one toggle just to fly straight. Then off-course I had to flare (cause couldn't get myself to just land without flaring. Big mistake! at flare altitude on a straight approach, the one side of the canopy half collapsed, and I basically hooked into the ground from flare altitude. Hurt my ankle badly, but nothing broken at least and I walked away. Next time I snap a line I will think twice about keeping the canopy even after a control test. Canopies could get worse after flying for a while. Second lesson i learned, don't change something that already works! Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, will be true!