mircan

That`s how I do it too. Piece of cake. dudeist skydiver #42

Jumping with people without knowing their experience level... Yesterday, some of my friends from other country came to mu dz. I got up with them in cessna 182 to do video of their 3-way. They all have about 100-150 jumps. I knew they are not that good freefallers, but I decided to keep a distance until I see what will happen, and then if they were ok to come close and make some pics. They had a bad exit but they got stable after some time. I started to approach carefully but then they fell apart... One of them went low, towards/beneath me but slightly to my right. I watched the other two which stayed together and starting slowly towards them. And then, by the corner of my eye I spotted "something odd"... I looked beneath me to see what is this odd thing? About 7-10 feet right of me and 30 feet below I saw a pilot chute and deployment bag coming out of container! First half of a second I thought (like a moron): "Hey, a parachute is opening... Second half of a second I thought: "Nooooooooo!!!" And then I screamed by it. Didn`t have time to do anything. Turn, track, slide away... The guy had a brain-lock or something after the formation fell apart and deployed his main at 7000 feet. My big mistake is assuming that no one would deploy that high 'out of a blue' without even looking where the other are. And being above them. My luck bucket is running out. OTOH: one other guy`s luck bucket run out of luck. He broke a leg and totally dislocated ankle after low-hooking a sabre2 135. I did not witnessed it though, just passed by ambulance car while taxiing to this jump. dudeist skydiver #42

(alhough we hijacked this thread a loooang time ago...) Here, you have two choices: 6 months service with gun in your hand, or 9 months without gun and doing stupid things like cleaning poo after old people in some retirement home. My dad was an army guy so i know the drill and I have no problem with guns, but if i go to army who will pay my bills and keep me my job. Aaaaaa, nobody? Same story like the guy from your post... dudeist skydiver #42

You`re right. Like I wrote in my previous post. If you`re "dual", the government does not care for your other county regulations. Obey ours! (but i could jump if i just keep mu mouth shut... no comprende senor.) dudeist skydiver #42

I stopped buying PC upgrades for almost 3 years now. For the same reasons. I bought a laptop though. But only for editing tandem videos. So can it then be considered as skydiving gear? dudeist skydiver #42

Hey Phree, i supposed this is the case. I have dual citizenships and had problems with different issues. The Army service. Basically one country says that it does not care if you are citizen of another country and you served. The second you became their citizen, their laws apply to you and they see you ONLY as their citizen. Resident or not. It seems that this is the case for skydiving equipment too... dudeist skydiver #42

I figure then, but maybe i`m wrong, that almost all USA DZ-s have such a waiver (considering that in your country you can sue anybody for about anything, no offence). We have them waivers here too. Photocopied yours. So i guess there is no problem then for Russian/USA citizen to come make some jumps at USA DZ with his beautiful wife Ivana wearing their Paraavis gear? If they sign a waiver. dudeist skydiver #42

Why? When I come to the USA, i can claim that I`m Russian and jump whatever gear I want. Who can deny me my right as foreign citizen to do that? OTOH here in Serbia the problems are other way around... Local lawmakers are "re-inventing hot water" and making local regulations more strict even than the ones in USA. Like 10 night jumps for any instructor rating (even static line), enforcing tandem passenger weight /age limits more strict than the ones given by manufacturer... Maybe I`ll go to the States, get my ratings and pretend to be an American when jumping here. It would be a lot easier.

I am aware of that little problem... However, you can always marry a Russian babe and get dual citizenship so you can jump their gear. Their attitude is weird though. My dealer does some business with them. And it appears to me that the Russia is a BIG market on it`s own, so they don`t have to sell their gear outside and get it TSO-d. Russian collegues, correct me if i`m wrong. dudeist skydiver #42

Or you can buy Russian gear. It`s cheap and good quality (no matter what western people think). dudeist skydiver #42

I had an unusual approach to this "wingload" story... I jumped big-ass accuracy canopies (280+ sqft) until i got approx. the same jump numbers as you. Then my first next was 1.1 WL (70-80 jumps), and now 1.6 WL (~ 60 jumps). I noticed that the abilities that i gained from jumping accuracy jumps (flying slow in deep brakes, landing on a dime...) helped me a LOT when learning to fly smaller canopies / bigger WL. So maybe your story is similar... my2c dudeist skydiver #42

Ticket is ~39$ here in Serbia (25euro). 10k feet from Cessna 182 (or Queen air). The people are jumping less and less (even when there are more and more of them - strange). We, the lucky ones that got into the tandem story can still manage somehow. But "profit", if i can call it like that, is less and less. i`m no whining. dudeist skydiver #42

Now that is 100% true. Even my dealer recommends it (although, messing with visa, getting days off work... would be PITA). And no, we ordered some accessories... I ordered two shirts (50$) last winter. Extra charges were 25euro. Total: 90$. Good shirts, but not worth that kind of money. Next time I`ll wait for some of my friends to get back from the states and bring it personally. Hopefully in late July. dudeist skydiver #42

Not 100% true. Shipping to Europe, customs and taxes can add up to 40% on the starting price. We just ordered some gear through para-gear. In total it was price ($) = price(euro). dudeist skydiver #42

cheesy sunset. dudeist skydiver #42

Slider on my Safire 2 was doing that on first 20-ish jumps (it was brand new). I also thought of it as strange (and made a post about, video here). At first, i pumped brakes, then i was on rears, but with time it stopped. my 2c dudeist skydiver #42

Any chance of uploading it? dudeist skydiver #42

She would not let go for the whole freefall time (no matter what TI was doing). And as the sleeves were flapping, this is the rare picture where you can see her face.

contrary to the main, I hope it opens fast. As I remember, the lines on some old round military parachutes lines were stowed not in rubber bands, but in the fabric-type-zero-elastic-sewn-in-loops (sorry, I don`t know the term in English). And you stowed the lines with metal hook. So, if the canopy opened with lines packed that way, is it possible for modern canopy with thin lines not to open when doublestowed in half-diameter micro-line-rubbers? dudeist skydiver #42

My thoughts exactly. It was hard enough to cutaway with someone only pulling the helmet, and what would happen in case of snagged cut-away spinning canopy... dudeist skydiver #42

No, I don`t roll the nose, just slightly push it in the packjob. This canopy, usually have soft and long openings, so rolling the nose is not necessary. About body position... I don`t know. Last hard opening was with my second jump with camera suit. I`m pretty sure that I was not head down, or in a track or unsymmetrical because I payed attention on arm/leg position that is required when jumping wings. dudeist skydiver #42

I have tried cutaway on ground on my tonfly evo pro (early model, sidemount). - I tried a scenario where something was stuck on camera box. Cutaway handle is on the opposite side of the box. When my friend pulled hard up on the camera box, my head was tilted right and the cutaway handle was pinned down to my neck making it very hard to get my fingers in it and cutaway (not impossible though, just hard). - Second thing that I noticed was that with this particular setup the helmet would have hard time to come off even when the handle was pulled. This was because on that model chincup strap went OVER the cutaway bolt and INTO the helmet thus disabling the bolt to come out. Simple solution was just not to put strap into helmet hole. - With FTP, there are no issues. My point is that trying to cutaway helmet on ground made me realize some of the possibilities that might happen in the air. Second point is that there are number of videos on skydivingmovies.com that picture helmet entanglements (like recent one here with brake line snagged on a ringsight ) and those things can get ugly and quite dangerous. my 2c blues! dudeist skydiver #42

To sum it up: - the bag size is not the issue, - tuck tabs are not the issue (the jav is old), - canopy is new, so line trim is not the issue, - slider handling probably IS the cause (so must pay EXTRA+ attention), - must roll the tail harder, - change rubber bands to microline ones, - double stow them. Thanx. dudeist skydiver #42

OTOH I have 150+ helicopter jumps and not a single one out of Otter, Caravan, Casa... dudeist skydiver #42

I double stow all lines. Standard rubber bands though (on vectran lines). How loose... Well the bag is pretty "soft". You can squeeze it with one hand to 2/3rd of it`s size quite easily. I figured it`s probably about slider, but I`m pretty sure that the last time I did not let it move for the whole time until first line stow. I don`t know. Maybe to tighten rolling of the tail? Maybe this time it was loose... video of the second one here dudeist skydiver #42