crotalus01

I have a question about exit order that I am sure someone here can clear up. I understand the exit order and the reasoning behind it. However, I have jumped at a DZ a few times where the pilot put out a smaller FF group first, then the belly fliers largest to smallest group with about 8 seconds separation between each group. I was in a 5 way that went 8 seconds after the FF group. I admit I was a bit apprehensive the first time as it flew in the face of the exit order I had been taught, and for that reason I was looking for the FF group during freefall (more than I normally would look for another group I mean). When I finally saw them after I opened they were at probably 800 feet about to turn onto their base leg. This was the exit order for 3 loads I was on that day - a smaller FF group first, followed by belly fliers largest to smallest. I was told that is not the norm for that DZ, so I am wondering if it had to do with the uppers perhaps? Any ideas? At any rate, there was never an issue with separation... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Parachutist did a profile on a jumper from Bogota about 3 or 4 years ago. He said that he and his friends would basically rent an airplane and pilot once a month or so and jump like that. Not sure whose land they used for the DZ or if they rented that as well.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Well if you travel internationally you have to understand those cheap (or not so cheap) prices have to do with the exchange rate. In Cambodia I got 7000 Cambodian Rials to one US dollar. In Jordan, on the other hand, I only got .48 Jordanian Dollars to one US dollar. In Afghanistan I got 50 Afghanis for one US dollar. So, US$7.00 for that jump ticket in Kasimovo might be equal to $20 or $30 (or more) of whatever their local currency is... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

+1 - if he had been concentrating on what he was shooting and wanting to look cool, wouldn't he have wanted to get his first chop on video? That video looked like the flight response kicked in when he needed the fight response... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Sounds like a plea for an N2O tank! As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

To answer your question yes and no. I was on a 220 or a 210 the first time I did a full stall and I had to take a couple of wraps to get it there. I also discussed it with my instructors before the jump (which was why I knew to take wraps if it didnt stall from holding down the toggles). Honestly I dont remember exactly when, it was either the last couple of AFF jumps or right afterwards - I know it was in the first 15 jumps. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Actually my home DZ is pretty big on canopy piloting. Rear riser landings were discussed in very general terms during our groundschool when we were going over all the control inputs for the canopy. Nothing in depth at all, just a mention that we could use the rear risers to flare for landing. We were also taught to use rears for turns immediately following inflation if we were too close to another jumper. I believe the first time it was covered with any detail was around jump 5 or 6 during AFF, with an emphasis to learn the stall point for both toggle and rears. Harness steering was also discussed at this time with the caveat that our canopies were too large for us to notice any appreciable turn rate. Edit to add I dont recall anything very specific about landing technique except for PLF and that it would feel faster but not to overdo the flare because the stall happens very abruptly with little or no warning...pretty much flare until you plane out, hold it as long as you can or until your groundspeed bleeds off a bit, and do a PLF. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Rear riser flares are definitely taught at my home DZ. As I tried to explain in the previous post, there were a couple of other factors in play. I stand by my decision to chop it. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

All my mals were on a Sabre 1 190 that has since been retired. The one with 9 broken lines was witnessed by a friend with a couple thousand jumps and he told me the canopy was coming out of the bag well before I reached linestretch - what caused this I really dont know (and yes I did ask). The broken brake line, well...I already had a couple of small tears at the reinforcing tape on the topskin (rigger was going to repair it later that week), it opened hard as hell, I was seeing stars and also wondering if it had maybe damaged the topskin even more. Checked my altitude, a little below 1800' and decided to not take any chances. Yeah I could have landed it on rears, but I had to make a decision quickly and I elected to go to my reserve. At any rate, no more issues since I got rid of that slamming POS.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Good points Pops, yes we do agree. As for my cutaways, one was linetwists I couldnt get out of, one was spinning on my back from 9 broken lines and a couple of torn cells and one was a broken brake line that I chopped because it opened hard enough that it rang my bell pretty good and I didnt want to chance landing on my rears with my head fuzzy. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Fair enough Pops. My numbers are close and you are not giving me ideas about busting anything. I have 3 cutaways in 200ish jumps, 2 low speed and one very low high speed. I simply dont think the number of jumps has that much to do with how a person will perform when dealing with a cutaway at any altitude (I know in my case I performed better on my second, and even better on my third but that had to do with familiarity of chopping, NOT my total jump numbers). Hell, one of my friends has over 2K jumps with no cutaways and he told me he didnt know how he would perform if/when he had his first malfunction. Outside of that small point, we are in total agreement

Why not? Do you not have faith in the training people receive? As pointed out, 200 jumps used to be a D license. To me its pretty simple - a malfunction where you deployed at 4K you might be able to look at it for a second, maybe try something to fix it (depending on what it is). A malfunction where you deployed at 2K or under needs to go. Your hard deck is your hard deck, regardless of what altitude the malfunction starts at. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

So why change the BSR for deployment altitude? Whats wrong with 2K, especially since it seems "most" jumpers are pulling above that? I am the exception I suppose - I pretty consistantly pull between 2.5 and 2K. I have pulled under 2K a few times but I dont make a habit of it... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I was under the impression that they sabotaged his reserve/cutaway handles as well. At any rate, the show is pitifully researched for sure. The part about the pilot calibrating all the altimeters was a hoot! As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

LOL Stratostar....post #7 is conveniently missing from her page. Amazingly every post on her page seems to support her position! We have an editor at the local newsrag that does the same thing - she deletes any post or message disagreeing with her position since the website is her personal one and not maintained by the newspaper. Edit to add I really had to restrain myself from registering and leaving MY opinion of people who move into houses in the flight path of the local airport and then bitch about the noise.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

KLM is shit. They lost my bag with all my clothes in it while I was flying from Amsterdam to Tel Aviv. I got my bag back in this case...2 weeks later on the day I left Israel to return to the States. For my "inconvenience" (spending money to buy all new clothes in a foreign country and missing out on half the things I had planned to see due to lack of funds spent on clothes) they refunded me $150 US and "comped" me 10K frequent flier miles - not that I would ever fly that sorry shit airline again. Not to mention that 10K miles is NOTHING. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

He chopped at about 4K so he had plenty of altitude. I would have done the same thing (minus unstowing the brakes). It looked like the canopy was flying okay, but not safe to land (obviously). I dont have a lot of jumps, so just for reference, my first chop I was freaked out and got rid of it right then (4K), my second was low and high speed so it went immediately, my third (broken lines) I flew upwind before I chopped at about 3K to better my chances of getting my shit back. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Teeshirt: "The restraining order says you can only touch me in freefall..." As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I did my AFF there and the majority of my jumps as well. The only bad thing about it is you will get spoiled by those 7 minute rides to 14.5K... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

3 chops- I looked at my altitude on 2 of them. The one I didnt look was a low pull (waved at 1800' ) and I was spinning on my back as soon as I deployed, so I did my EPs immediately - under my reserve (with massive linetwists) at 1100' - that jump pretty well cured me of low pulls. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

And that right there is probably the most compelling argument FOR keeping the requirement - had it not been for the requirement I doubt I would ever have even been presented with the opportunity for a night jump - and thus would have missed out on one of the most fun, most exhilarating jumps I have done to date!

Yes Pops, I would. Assuming I wanted that license type, if USPA required me to do a CRW jump, or a raft dive, or a Mr. Bill or whatever silly specialty jump then I Would do it as a condition of earning the license. Personally I think its really stupid to require night jumps for the D license - I also think they are a lot of fun and I dont see what the big deal is to do two of them to get the license. I personallt think the majority of jumpers would be better served doing something other than night jumps for a D license requirement - CRW for example arguably teaches a much more valuable skillset. BUT USPA, for whatever reason, requires 2 night jumps. Nothing says everyone must get a D license... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

I don't buy the "its not fair to the guys who had to do it already" argument. When I started jumping a D license was 200 jumps, now its 500 - how is that fair? Having said that, whats the big damn deal? Do your night jumps if you want a D! They are a hell of a lot of fun. I only have 1 at the moment but I fully intend on doing them any time our DZ has them because they are just that fun! The biggest drawback I can see to it being a requirement is that they are not offered enough at some DZs. As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Again I ask the question (for curiosity sake) - when adjusted for inflation, have total fatalities gone up or down overall? We all can see they have shifted categories from no/low pulls to open canopy incidents.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

Hi Marisan, You are of course 100% correct that he (and I) dont have the jump #s to know what we dont know. However, that truism should not be used to discount participation in this discussion for anyone, 0 jumps to 1000+. You never know where the next lifesaving idea will come from.... As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...