Travman

I've seen far to many incident reports that read When there is a perfectly good canopy sitting on your back, you don't want to spend the rest of your life doing rigging in the air.

Yeah was planning on breaking it up, sort do a bit of a loop LA-Vegas-San Fran-LA. Was thinking driving to see more, I hear the PCH is awesome.

My girlfriend and I are going to California and I just wanted to get some advice on what to do, where to go etc from people that know the area. Its not a skydiving holiday at all (I jump, she doesn't). We arrive in LA on 13 June and fly out from LA 1 July. Planning on linking up with friends in Vegas, they are there for 1 night on 17 June. We would like to go to the beaches in LA, probably check out Hollywood, shopping and my girlfriend wants to have a go in the iFly tunnel in Hollywood. We also want to go to the Grand Canyon, maybe Death Valley, San Francisco and Disney Land (fulfill my childhood dream). We are thinking of staying in LA first few nights, then driving to Vegas and staying there for a few nights, then driving to San Francisco and then back to LA. Though I've had people recommend staying in Anaheim for Disneyland. So any advice would be great, thanks.

I'd ask to see where their policy says you can't be present during the search.

Was it a new canopy? I'd be getting a quote from the manufacturer to replace both entire panels, including shipping in both directions.

When I went to Hawaii with my girlfriend she wanted to do a tandem. So I called the DZ 3 months before we went and told them I would have about 350 jumps by then, would I be able to follow her out and they said "Yeah, that'll be fine". When I got to Hawaii, I called the DZ a few days before we went down and again said I have 350 jumps (though of that 350 I had almost 300 training/competition 4way and 8way), can I follow her out and again they said "Yeah, that'll be fine." When I got there they said I that it was manufacturer's requirements that I needed 500 jumps. So the best I could do was go out before her. Now fair enough if thats the rules, but it was annoying that I had twice called them and was told it would be fine. I'd also previously followed out a tandem in Australia and had that in my log book. When I got back to Australia, my first jump was following out a friends tandem at my home DZ. Afterwards the TM came up to me and said "Man its great jumping with a relworker, you were just there the whole time." Again, I can appreciate that rules are rules and they don't know my skill level having never met me before and I was surprised when they told me it would be fine on the phone. But I wouldn't have been annoyed if they had told me the first or even the second time I called what the requirements were.

Yeah I agree with what you are saying. If wind tunnels were common place and cheap enough that people were as familiar with them as going to the beach to swim and snorkel (we can only dream) then perhaps skydiving wouldn't seem as extreme.

Number of skydivers per day 6-8 Number of SCUBA per day 2 maybe 3 With skydiving you put yourself in a fatal situation when you exit the plane. With SCUBA the risks increases as you descend, if there is an issue early on it is easy to abort. Skydiving - bad staff happens quick! The difference between fatality and perfect landing is not that much. SCUBA - bad staff happens more slowly. More time to think, react. If you get the bends you go in a re compression chamber for a few hours or so. If you get stuck in the corner of a swoop you go to hospital for a few months, or worse. I think you are probably more like to get injured playing rugby, ice hockey etc but certainly more likely to be killed skydiving or SCUBA diving.

I definitely fart more at altitude.

Yeah, I got my Pit this week and will be jumping it this weekend. It looks great but feels a little tight in places, particularly around my thighs, but I'll see how it goes. Thanks for all the input.

Maintain awareness, there are less visual cues. I did a night jump on jump 67. After opening I located the DZ then collapsed the slider and unstowed toggles, which took longer than usual due to gloves and I was trying to stay relaxed. Once I had done that I realised strong uppers had blown me too far downwind to get back to the DZ. I landed off-dz in pitch black (no moon) in a barbed wire fence - broke my nose.

I've been doing 180 turn landings on a Samurai 150 loaded at between 1.0 to 1.1 for a few hundred jumps and have never had an issue. In fact I have had quite a number of people comment on the performance of the canopy, with some mistaking it for a 135 because I can get some good distance and speed from it. I start my turn at 400ft and do a slow turn so if I encounter traffic or am too low I have plenty of room to speed up to the turn. But I can see part of your logic, I started on a Sabre 170 doing double front and then 90's, I tried 180's but found they were quite difficult to master on that canopy and I dug myself out of the corner a few times.

Thats exactly why I started the thread, to get other perspectives and to see how others have handles a similar scenario.

There is a thread on the Aussie Skydiver forum for every single chapter in that article to discuss each area. Also another difference we have in Australia is that there is no seal on our reserve pin from the rigger. Perhaps this means that the pin *could* shake loose but I doubt it, just throwing that out there. Neither option is going to be correct 100% of the time. The reserve handle could have been pulled out by someone taking grips and the pin may be almost all the way out. I know there should be a certain amount of force to extract the reserve pin, but what if the rigger put in a new closing loop and made it too long? However my split second thinking at the time did reflect a lot of these comments, and in my scenario it was the correct decision. The only thing that made me question that was the effect of a reserve deploying during canopy flight.

Here is an article from the APF (Australian Parachute Federation) website http://docs.apf.asn.au/index.php/The_Red_Zone#Floating_Handles Also a discussion on this topic in the Australian skydiver forum has most people saying that you should deploy the reserve. Interesting to see the different perspectives on the issue.

The instructor I spoke to is my most respected mentor and when he said the "correct" thing to do was to deploy the reserve he was referring to the text book answer, but that no one really follows that. We had always been taught at my DZ that you should deploy the reserve if the handle is floating. I can vaugley recall an incident in a recent Australian Skydiver mag that said the same thing, might see if I can find it. I deployed my main because it would give me more options to deal with the situation. This discussion has been very interesting so far.

Yeah I did think about this which is one of the reasons I went for the main. Also I do find the Mirage to handle keeper to be average and I usually check it often and my opposite usually checks it before exit, but it was a rushed exit. Has anyone seen a reserve deployment during normal canopy flight? All the two-outs I have seen or heard about involve both canopies being deployed around the same time.

Metal D handle on a Mirage G4.

I knew that once I past my hard deck I was committed and there was a risk that I could have a deployment as I came in for landing which wouldn't be pretty. Adrian was an idol of mine, his IMAX doco was what prompted me to live out a childhood dream of skydiving - so the incident sticks in my mind.

On the weekend whilst doing 4-way training with my team I had a floating reserve handle. Our camera man noticed it first and came down to our level opposite me to get my attention, next my opposite and piece partner noticed it. My piece partner stopped taking up grips (side body on the reserve side was the next point) and my opposite starting pointing at her reserve handle and me. I immediately knew what she was getting at since I had noticed the camera man as well, but I was hoping she was pointing out a bad spot. I looked down - we were over the DZ and my next thought involved colourful language. The camera man pitched high to give me more space because he knew I wasn’t going to track much. I did a short track then had to decide which handle to pull. I initially thought to pull silver, but then I thought I’d rather deploy my main so I could inspect the situation but be prepared for a two-out. I dumped my main, ensured my airspace was clear and then checked the reserve cable. There was no more slack than usual, I had a couple of goes at trying to get it into the pouch but the tension on the webbing made it impossible. Still above my hard deck, I made the decision not to cut-away but to land my main. During the canopy ride down I was remembering Adrian Nicholls’ CYPRES fire incident so I kept my inputs light and did a basic straight in approach, not my usual 180 approach. I landed without incident and checked the reserve pin, which hadn’t shifted from its usual position. After thinking about the situation, I felt next time I would deploy my reserve as I found the canopy ride to be quite nerve racking. I spoke to an instructor afterwards and he said the “correct” thing is to deploy the reserve (which I knew), but he doesn’t know anyone that actually has. I did a search on the topic and found a discussion from 2004 and I was surprised to see that most people suggested deploying the main as a floating ripcord handle won’t generate enough force to dislodge a reserve pin (if it has the correct amount of tension applied). I thought I’d start a fresh discussion to see what others would or have done. I’ll post the footage once I get it from my camera man.

I pretty much only do 4-way training/comps, so yeah it will be for comps and training. I do perhaps 5 jumps a year that are not training/comp jumps.

I am about to order a Pit Special, but just looking at all the different options available in terms of fabric options, booties, grippers and the other miscellaneous options they offer. I am wondering what other people have ordered and what their feedback is. I pretty much only do serious 4-way, so after a competition suit. Looking at the mega booties, wondering if the vented ones are any good, and also curious about the other options like the grippers, knee pads etc.

What about jumps from a 727-100 without a cooper vane?

In Australia we are legally required to log all our jumps, regardless of license.

I started with a Sabre 170 (I weighed about 65Kg and later put on weight (naturally, not lead) up to about 75kg) and enjoyed it. It has a very strong flare and is forgiving on landing. I also did some double front riser and 90 front riser approaches as I got more proficient with it. I sold the rig with the Sabre the same day I bought my new rig with a Samurai 150, so as others have said there are certainly no issues on-selling them.