tdog

Only if they start to claim that some students have an unfair advantage if they are a Grad student as there are other advantages that need to be taken into consideration.

Well, you know Ben... You did so well at the last Collegiates you attended with a serious team, they are trying to make sure you can't compete again.... Just kidding. In all seriousness, the Regional Director for our region, who is the Coach of the US Air Force Academy, is the Chair of the competition committee. Here is his info, copied and pasted from the public USPA website. I think he might be a great place to start. From the very positive comments the USAFA staff members gave your team on competition day, I would hope they would allow you and other graduate students to continue with your passion. If they claim that graduate students have advantages that would give them an unfair edge, then I would argue back that only self-financed competitors be allowed to compete under a certain age and get rid of the entire student issue as anyone of college age has certain limited finances, and after all this is not about being a student but being a younger competitor. Bill Wenger USPA Member # 1157, D-3774 Mountain (MT) Regional Director fredrick.wenger@usafa.af.mil; acc_coach@msn.com 545 Struthers Loop Colorado Springs, CO 80921 (719) 333-2356 (w); (719) 488-8250 (h); 200-8947 (c) (719) 200-8250 (fax) Committees: Executive (Member at Large), Competition (Chair), Regional Directors

dropzone.com classifieds ebay local DZ used gear board. Call the big DZs (Skydive AZ, Perris, etc) and see if there are any classifieds on their post boards that meet your criteria that manifest could fax you. Almost any manufacture will be a-ok, so as long as the DOM is 2001 or newer. Prior to 2000 you will need to check for freefly friendly, but your options still could be good. For 3-4K you should find a real nice rig.

QuoteI prefer the student squatting in the door - right foot forward, left foot back, head outside facing the prop. One JM out, one in. [\reply] Yep.... And have their hands "pray to jesus" together moving "up" and "down" as part of "prop, up, down, arch"

In this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3560015;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread I posted info on two incidents this summer where a Vigil fired in a group skydive because it was turned on at a different DZ a few days prior, and in one case, over a month prior... Imagine this. You jump at your home DZ. You leave at the end of the day and throw your rig in your car, maybe frustrated that a storm blew in before your last jump..... You travel with family members and friends to a different DZ. It has been weeks or months since you jump. You are used to a Cypres that turns off after 14 hours. The Vigil does not if it thinks it is airborne, which can happen if you drive home from the DZ with the Vigil on, and your home is a different altitude... You get to the vacation DZ and your friends, teammates, or family help you unload all the gear from your car. You might share gear as you borrowed rigs to make this vacation happen. Likewise, you may have multiple rigs you are sharing as friends or teammates, or maybe your gear is down so you borrow a friends. You see the Vigil is on, so you assume your teammates got the group's gear ready that morning... Or maybe you think, "I guess I turned it on already"... Seem far fetched? Well, somehow this scenario played out twice in a month.... I got a phone call from a friend who described to me what it is like to watch someone in your formation have a reserve deploy in your face. So I am now beating this message home to the point of annoyance. I used to think myself, "Vigil, Cypres, all the same". The Vigil is drastically different in that you MUST turn it off at the end of the day to be safe. If you did not turn it on yourself, reboot to be safe. You don't know how long the unit has been on, or which DZ it is calibrated for. Cypres II confirmed in an email to me that theirs will turn off in all situations after the set number of hours. So their units have the risk of turning off before the sunset load if you turned it on very early in the morning, even while in the aircraft, but don't have the risk of staying on for many weeks calibrated to the wrong DZ. Hence - you must understand this difference as both units need human interaction to be safe in regards to intentional or unintentional shutdown/non-shutdown. P.S. I own a Vigil and I started the above referenced thread when I discovered this the hard way.... And I am an AFF instructor and Rigger too, and I read the manual. Its a small difference I had to call both unit manufacture's to understand exactly what their software would do...

UPDATE: May 6 2009 I created this thread when my Vigil stayed on for 3 days. You may go to the first post and relive the debate if you wish. May 18 2009 a Vigil fired above the desired altitude. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3572705;search_string=vigil;#3569998 I received word from two reliable sources that the user took their rig from about 5,500 feet MSL to a sea level DZ without turning off their Vigil. It fired in freefall as it was calibrated to the wrong DZ. May 22, 2009 http://www.vigil.aero/...Airborne_Status_.pdf Vigil posted an official informational bulletin. June 20, 2009 Another Vigil user took their rig from about 5,500 feet above sea level - to sea level, and it fired in a midsize formation with people docked to the user. My good friend was in the formation and he told me the Vigil was on for MANY WEEKS before it went on the vacation to California. Based upon the group, who are my friends, I can only speculate that they were sharing rigs and thought someone else turned on the AAD as most people are in the "Cypres Mindset" that when it is on, it is on, that it will turn off on its own, and it would not be on from a jump 5 weeks prior so don't worry about rebooting if you were not the person to jump it on the very last jump. There needs to be a change from the "Cypres Mindset" to a "Vigil Mindset" as they are not the same... My Opinion.... THIS IS A BIG DEAL. I predicted problems in my devils advocate comments in this thread, little did I know that they would come true twice in a summer. Clearly, this is happening to other users (statistical probability) however they are not taking the rig to a different DZ, or if they are, the altitude change is too slight, so they are not firing. So flame me all you want. RIGGERS - TRAIN YOUR CUSTOMERS. CUSTOMERS - KNOW THAT THE VIGIL IS NOT A CYPRES. If I was Vigil - I would simply change the screen to say, PRO.... Powered on for X hours. After 14 hours, PRO..... Reboot. Heck, how about, PRO... Airborne when it thinks it is airborne. Something so users know that their AAD is not calibrated correctly... For the record, I have a Vigil and like it.

I have offered free escrow to people too, as a rigger. Its best if the escrow is local to the buyer as they can go to the rigger's house and look at the gear. Last time I did it the buyer was at my place, the seller was on my cell phone. The buyer gave me a check to drop in the mail, the seller authorized me to give the gear away.

MY OPINION As I tell people when they ask my opinion... The skyhook might help you when everything else is trying to kill you, especially user error. I jumped a skyhook equipped rig for 1000 jumps and never used it (so sad, I wanted to)... I don't think I once thought, "shit, I can cutaway lower". How many people smash their cars into trees thinking, "I have airbags, I can do that?" If a skydiver thinks the skyhook is foolproof and takes greater risks because of it, then they might just get what they deserve... If a skydiver is going to die under a failing canopy at 200 feet, and cuts away in a panic instead of deploying their reserve into the mess - the skyhook just might help in the same way car airbags just might help....

I would say.... The difference is how low your legs are on 11 vs 12. I had the youtube videos in two windows and paused them and looked at various spots in the dive. But it is more than that... Look at your neck. Put a tattoo point on the side of your neck and draw lines from your torso to it. ON JUMP 11, every place I hit randomly on the time line, your neck was higher than your torso. ON JUMP 12, every place I hit randomly on the timeline, your neck was lower than your torso. As others said, the second you feel that you are unstable, look higher on the horizon and concentrate on bending your head/neck up using all the muscles you have control of. If your leg straps are a concern, ask your rigger for a freefly bungee if you don't have one. If that does not work, you could tie bungies elsewhere on the legstraps to keep them high. Have you worked with a physical therapist to stretch your hip flexor ligaments? Can it be done? I think you will have a bit easier time if you can pop your legs up into an arch just even 10% more. Maybe you could add some bulk to your jumpsuit near your ankles. Spandex near your knees and above your knees. That way the drag would be where it has the highest chance of pulling your legs up. Or even an RW bootie suit. Not saying it will work, just saying maybe one of your friends should try to emulate your body position with various jump suits and see which one works, then let you try? So - how low on your torso do you have control? Can you control the arch of your neck/chest? If so, I think this will be your best tool. Dropped knees are not ideal for fall rate or falling straight down, but is very stable if the torso is in an arch like in jump 10. It will never work when the head is lower than the torso as in jump 12. Just ask an AFF instructor who has experienced their student, "going fetal on exit"....

All flaps on all containers can "grab lines" if everything is "just right" for it to happen. Heck, on another brand, the whole reserve container sewn in the rig grabbed a line... The line has to be wrapped around the flap on packing, or it has to get around the flap in the chaos of opening, and then cinch itself down.... For that to happen, the line has to have a moment of slack, which can be managed by packing techniques designed to keep the lines tight at all times in opening. I have looked at various rigs and I am not convinced that any one design will eliminate the risk of line snags. However the Vector and Mirage are some of my favorites (I own one of each), as a rigger, and as a user. Other rigs are good too... Statistically the likelihood is very low... Search the incidents. I am sure each container has something a little different - where in some situations it might be superior, but in other cases it might not work as well. In other words, I believe you are focusing too much on something that is very, very unlikely - and there is no proof any other container will work better.... Whereas you are willing to give up the Skyhook, something that is pretty darn cool and a true safety device, because of a small risk elsewhere. If you read incident reports - canopy landings is your greatest risk. Somewhere down the line, low reserve openings are a factor... And way below that - snagged lines on a rig. So, if you were my best friend I would tell you to do canopy coaching first, get a Skyhook and do an intentional cutaway on a three canopy rig as there is no practice like the real thing.... I would look at the other incidents that occur frequently.... I would not be overly concerned about the lines snagging the container on a well maintained and well packed rig. P.S. PM BillBooth - he often replies. Or give him or Jeff a call. I talked with them for 3 hours at PIA last year, and while he has a lot of bias to his own design, he loves to tell you why. You will learn a lot.

I agree 100%. I am nervous until we get high enough where I can jump and know I don't have to land in it. I have maybe 30 balloon jumps - mostly to practice wingsuit BASE exits. I think most skydivers just need a green light. Here is my advice to the OP. Get a green light flashlight. Have the balloon pilot shine it in your face while someone else yells frantically, "DOOR, go, go, go". Then it will feel just like an otter, just more fun. P.S. I have seen the true meaning of a "last ditch effort". It was the last ditch to crash the balloon into before a building, with a powerline behind it, and the foothills behind that, followed by the rocky mountains and continental divide. It was the last ditch...

Also, cover your chem lights with gaffers tape. Fold the end into a tab. You can quickly remove in the plane at the door so your friend's night vision is not harmed by the lights on the entire way up in the aircraft. I have used clear packaging tape before to tie to body parts and other things I don't mind a slight amount of residue on. You can tape over the entire light to make them snag proof, yet the light still goes thru the clear tape. High quality electrical tape will not leave a residue if removed same day. It works nicely too as it stretches tight whereas gaff tape is basically a fabric tape with no stretch.

>>>But I still don't understand whether information posted on here by (sometimes) inexperienced jumpers would be accepted as 'expert' opinion to the extent that it has actually changed the outcome of a case. ---- Consider a grieving family, confused and frustrated, and their lawyer, using what is said to start digging for more. You will never know how many times what is said causes a (groundless) lawsuit that will cost money to defend.

yes - USA - and the case is still pending and within the statue of limitations, so I am not going to say anything more. Further, in an accident, a newspaper reporter called me based upon finding me on this site and somehow getting my contact info by connecting the dots. He told me it was because he found me here. He did not get any meat and potatoes from me - however when no one else would talk either he ended up using anonymous posts on this site as "reputable sources" to make a fancy front page Sunday newspaper story. Often lessons learned from incidents are "global" and "universal" and do not require specifics that link them back to a specific incident for everyone to learn.

I have two Katana canopies. My 170 slider is very different than the 120 slider, as Al said. I had the "first generation" slider that had mesh that, well, self destructed too soon. I saw they changed the mesh early on and ordered some of the raw material. In rebuilding the slider (a project I have yet to complete, so maybe I should as PD for a slider ;-) ), I discovered, as Al posted, that the shape is far from square. If you want to make a removable slider, you better start off with a non-removable one and modify it or build to the same specs. Removable sliders can be a pain in the butt. I jumped a friends rig with one and thought, "this sucks" for someone who is not a swooper. Talk to some people about ways to hold the slider out of the way of your vision after collapsing it. I have seen about 20 ways that work well, some hold it high, some hold it low, one of the ways will keep it out of your vision.

The real cool thing is a Vigil tells the user a lot about the previous jump before you even send it in. And, when you send it in, they send you back a complete graph of speed, time, and altitude. You will be able to discover why it fired. Let us know what you find.

When I sent in my coach application, which was signed by one of Don Y's final candidates before he died of heart problems, I got a phone call from the USPA that the person who signed my coach card was deceased. I called that person and informed them of their previous demise. They were quite surprised to find out they were dead. It turns out the USPA killed off everyone (or at least this person) who was in Don's final AFF-I course as their applications were received after Don's death. But Don re-earned his AFF rating instead of being marked "deceased" in the computer. It took surprising quantities of phone calls to straighten out the who situation. First my friend had to be reborn. Then he had to get all his ratings in his afterlife again. Then my app had to be re-processed. And to complicate matters, Don was my evaluator for my Coach proficiency jumps on my card.... Moral to story: Should the person who signs your application be dead, and they don't know they are dead, their signature is still useless.

8. (Well kindof - I packed 8 BASE rigs for a friend and I last summer, and I consider each one of those to be as important as a reserve packjob, especially when packing for someone else.)

Or a 10 story office building (or an 80 story building in Dubai, I read a news story on a pre-fab building they designed). Or, about 30% of all the R&D time required for an atom bomb using what they knew in 1940.

I use my BASE stash bag. Works perfect. Tie it shut in a knot and you can take your rig packed or unpacked. It even works for a skydiving rig. SHH. $40 bucks http://www.asylumbase.com/Asylum_Frames.htm

If I check it three times, like all instructors are supposed to do with students, once when they gear up, once before boarding, and once before exiting - I am doing my job to make sure everything is a-ok. A Vigil - in the aircraft - should stay on per the manufacturer's instructions, until the student lands. A Cypres - in the aircraft - will turn off after 14 hours. Further, I do question every rig at the start of the day. Why is it on, who turned it on, when was it turned on. Normally your student knows, "I turned it on when I grabbed it." I have cycled power before when I was in doubt. This is a good training thing for the student too - "show me how to turn it off and back on again." I was simply pointing out a possibility of what might occur if someone screws up along the way.... Mistakes are often when multiple small things happen along the way that become one big thing. I typically visit larger DZs in my travels. When I visit, I pop my head in the student areas to see how they do their programs. I have many tandem instructor friends. I have worked with some really great AFF instructors. I have yet to see a turbine DZ with 20-40 rigs in the tandem/student/rental inventory advocate cycling the power on the AAD before every single jump. It is rare you will be using the same rig more than once when the inventory is large - so every jump becomes the 1st jump of the day for you (or your student). Some tandem rigs get 15 jumps a day by 8 different instructors. Student rigs get 10 jumps a day by 10 different students. Do you know a mid to large sized DZ that advocates cycling power before each jump? Zhills? ELoy? Perris? Chicago? If so, please let me know so I can advocate it to my peers and/or discuss with one of their instructors the pros and cons. It is quite possible that 15 selftests a day cause more harm to the AAD than good. Who knows without asking these questions? Do you have data?

About 300 feet.... But... Did you take into consideration that the manual also says it is constantly adjusting itself for altitude, and thus we have to assume it won't be 300 feet off even with a 10 mb change... Have you looked at weather data to see how likely 10mb (hpa) changes are? I have learned a lot by researching stuff thanks to questions you guys have asked. This morning I checked the weather in strategic cities where there are weather fronts and/or the worst weather I could find... Then I picked random locations all over the country, North Dakota, New York City, Yumi Az, San Diego, Santa Barbara, Miami, Salt Lake City, Chicago, Kansas City, etc. I can't find a 10 mb change in a jumping day, and it is hard to find a 10 mb change in a 3 day span. Check it out yourself. Go to http://www.noaa.gov/ Enter in your city, then click the 3 day history button.

Seems like a bit of extreme advice. Per the Cypres2 user guide: Per Vigil 2 owners manual: I pulled some weather data from Denver, Chicago and Miami over 3 days and found that a running sum over any 24 hour period in the 3 days the absolute minimum and maximum did not change 10 hPa... So, I am not going to cycle my AAD every day at noon unless I have reason to believe a major front blew in.

I now know after asking someone who represents the Cypres 1 and 2 products officially that the Cypres will turn off at 14 hours, even if that 14 hours is in freefall.

I don't think any AAD company really looks to us civilians as a profit center. We are just another software version in the bigger picture. Military is where it is at. I went to a seminar at PIA about Vigil Military use. How about this cool setting... A Vigil that will fire in X seconds after reaching Y miles per hour, regardless. A ticking time bomb. They have it. You need to drop some cargo (ransom money) to a ship holding hostages, now you have the tool... Or a Vigil you can turn on in a pressureized aircraft just prior to jumping, and you have to set the landing field elevation manually in atmospheric pressure... I.E. You fly in for 20 hours to enemy territory, don't know where you are going to jump until you get there, and don't know the weather either, so you have to do all the settings manually using data from secret agents on the ground measuring pressure, or using a standard pressure for the field elevation if you don't have current weather data. Yes, per the slogan for the iPhone ads on TV, "there is an app for that".... Their software platform is probably (just a good guess) highly configurable for just about any set of military needs... Their hardware is multi-use... But of course, if they told you everything they can do, they would have to kill you James Bond style.