jheadley

Indeed. Quite addicting.

Not as morbid as when I saw a flyer for a crematorium at Skydive Sebastian.

Mousetrap 9-ball.

Could you expand on this? Because Brian Germain (in his book), Scott Miller (canopy course) and several instructors that I've spoken to say the exact opposite... "full glide until you're ready to flare" Sometimes accuracy is very important to prevent hitting something. Sometime you find yourself needing to be very precise, even possibly needing to sink your canopy down vertically due to the need to avoid trees and power lines or whatever that surround your only good landing spot. Don't pretty much all modern 9 cell ZP canopies "float" in brakes? I can see maybe if you were facing a decent headwind, slowing the forward speed would steepen your glide relative to the ground. But on a no wind or light wind day, wouldn't going into brakes to try to sink it just make you go father (but get there slower)? I've done a few braked landings on light wind days (only quarter and half brakes). I'd be afraid to try it on a windy day because of turbulence. I can see advantages to landing in brakes in a tight spot for one because it's not as swoopy of a landing.

So snap 180's are bad, slow carving 180's are ok. Is there now going to have to be a regulation on what an acceptable turn rate is?

And wouldn't that seal thread add 4.75 pounds of pull force to the reserve ripcord? So if a pin had 20 pounds of pull force on a test, and then it was sealed, it would now be in violation of the 22 pound max force (?)

I see what you mean by this but what is an alternative method to using the knee plate? I know some people simply don't use the knee plate at all, on any flap or pack job, but I'm worried that would damage the stiffeners.

You're right that I can't be certain all the time but a good % of my jumps are on video, also nobody has ever said anything to me about having a flap open. I know at least if I notice an open flap I'll tell the person later. I don't know if other people do that. My Javelin feels very secure to me. I like how the flap is flat and wide.

FWIW, my Javelin has about 800 jumps on it, and I've put 600 jumps on it myself. The main flap or riser covers have NEVER come undone on the ground or in freefall. If you actually size the rig correctly (i.e. don't stuff in too big of a main and reserve, and have an appropriate harness for your body size), they stay closed very well. They're my favorite reserve containers to pack also.

hmm... I can see you being behind where you were before relative to the ground, but relative to other canopies that are also in the sky, I don't think it'd change. Edited again... I'm trying to figure out how to say this in a way that isn't confusing. Relative to the ground, the wind may have an effect on you, but relative to other canopies in the air, it will not. However you are correct that you will be "behind" where you were after a 360, but I believe just because of the forward speed of your parachute, and the forward speed of a parachute that is behind you, and flying on the original heading. Wind doesn't have anything to do with this. I'll stop now, my head hurts.

One reason I've heard for using student cypres's is just for liability reasons. If a student goes in, for any reason, and the family sues, and they find out the AAD was an "expert" AAD and not a student one, then that can look pretty bad.

The SOS system cuts away and pulls the reserve with one handle. (Single Operation System)

I thought Sikhism and Hinduism were two different religions?

I believe Chambersburg Skydiving Center has banned turns over 180 degrees.

The infinity closing flap definitely seems the most secure of any of them. I don't know why people are so down on the downwards closing flap. If anything, IMO it actually seems more secure than the upwards style (if they are sized correctly)

'Cause I've got nowhere else to go!

One thing that I'd like to comment on is that while I'm glad Jarett isn't going to fly underneath tandems anymore, he certainly isn't the only person doing this. I'm sure we can all think of some relatively respected video guys who do the same thing and never get talked to, because of their reputation and status in the community. One I used to pack for even fully admitted that if he had a premature, it'd be a triple fatality. Are you guys going to start calling out them too?

I've got about 150 jumps on a Sabre 2 170 and 350 on a Sabre 2 150, among other sizes. I do a somewhat-sloppy pack job (but am neat where it matters). I have no problem at all with the openings. They don't open on heading as reliabily as say a Spectre or Pilot but are still nice. I feel perfectly comfortable taking mine on bigways. I don't think I've EVER had a hard opening, and maybe just a few brisk ones. All I do to control the openings is quarter the slider, that's it. The Sabre 2 is still my favorite canopy after jumping over 20 different models. Packing and body position, packing and body position

You hear about misrouting chest straps or bridles all the time but you never hear much about misrouting RSLs. Why is that? It seems pretty easy to do. There have been some definite RSL mis-routings I've seen before, but also some that aren't so obvious. I've caught several rigs that appeared to have misrouted RSLs. While they all would have most likely still worked in a cutaway, they still worry me. I'll show some pictures of what I mean. The first picture called "RSL" is an RSL connected to a ring on the riser that is on the outside, and not the inside, like usual. This was a vector 2, but Mirage risers IIRC. I asked the manufacturer about this, and also a master rigger, and they said this was ok. It doesn't look very pretty but I see no reason why it wouldn't work. Is this ok on pretty much all harness and riser combinations? I have also seen people hook up RSLs with the ring on the outside of the riser, but the rsl lanyard is routed under a reserve riser. This setup had the RSL velcro attached to the inside of the front reserve riser, so it only went under that one riser. This means the RSL lanyard and ring would have to travel underneath a reserve riser, in one side, and out the other, before releasing in the event of a cutaway. It still would probably work but I do see some possibility of a hang up. Last weekend on a Telesis, I found an RSL routed underneath both reserve risers this time, since the Telesis had the velcro channel going along the yoke, but this rig had the RSL ring on the inside of the main riser, so I really saw no reason at all why this would be done. The lanyard actually ran down the inside, then under the reserve risers, to the outside, and then came back around to connect to the inside ring on the riser. The other two telesis's on the dz had the RSLs routed in the standard way, and after talking to another rigger, I changed it back to the standard way. There is another way that is hard to catch, and at first it seems like it'd hang, again, but if the cutaway cable is pulled, then I suppose it shouldn't be an issue, but again, I see no reason why you'd connect it like this. I like seeing the rsl routing nice and clean. I've attached what I mean in the image RSL2. Basically the rsl is between the cutaway cable housing and the riser. Are these real issues or am I just thinking way too hard about this?

I think a 50% price increase would just mean that riggers will finally get paid what they deserve. 40-50 bucks for a reserve repack is pretty lame considering an I&R takes me 3-4 hours, and I can make 50 bucks in under an hour of main packing, with much less training and responsibility. Do people really give their last chance at life to the lowest bidder?

This same thing happened to me (the brake line knot). I didn't have Tru Lock Toggles though. I demoed a Katana 150 and it came on Infinity risers. I didn't like how the binding tape on the back of the risers was so loose that it didn't keep the excess in place, so I routed the brake line like a Tru-Lock. I put my hand through the loop before unstowing my brakes (The 150 had a lot of excess), and got a nice little knot around the binding tape. I had a relatively uneventful rear riser landing after that. I still like the idea of securing the excess with a bottom pin. I just will no longer try to do it unless they actually are Tru Lock Toggles, and there isn't a huge loop of excess line.

But who will be packing that weekend? Kevin and abbey won't be able to jump if there are no packers

of course! I hope I'm lucky enough to die skydiving, and not of old age or falling down the stairs or being in a car crash or some other BS.

The big thing that everyone HAD to have when I was young (10 or so) was POGS. Little circular cardboard disks with designs on them. I remember going to my friend's birthday party, and EVERY single person bought him pogs as a present, except me. I felt so lame, I frantically ran home afterwards and told my mom to buy me pogs. WTF... kids are so stupid

About 50 mph. Z1's falling off are actually pretty common. I am impressed the pro track still worked after impact, though.