erdnarob

Orange PVC tube handle, sure, my 1978 Wonderhog and futher RWS rigs were equiped with them. But because of Murphy's law, there was a small possibility for that kind of handle/tube, being hollow, to catch something. I have seen people putting a cork on both sides of that tube. This is again a typical problem of fashion versus function. On an airplane, some push buttons, switches, levers or handles have a bright color and even better, they have a shape related to their function like the lever for flaps have the shape of a flap and the lever to get the landing gear up or down has the shape of a wheel. This can be very convenient at night when your electrical power is down. Back to our problem, when I am in the door for a tight exit, as long as I can, I protect my hackey using my hand and sometime, I ask the people behind me to keep an eye. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have had the same problem with my right shoulder, I tore 3 ligaments which took a two hour surgery. After 6 months of physiotherapy I was ready to jump. At the beginning, like in your case, it was a bit painfull to flare in freefall and to throw away my pilot chute but as I continued to do my physiotherapy alone with specified exercices, after a while, my shoulder condition returned to the normal with no pain at all. Just let the time doing the complete healing. It can take a year or two. However I agree with your physical therapist that the move in order to throw away a pilot chute is awkward though it doesn't require a lot of force (about 2-3 lbs). Be patient. I am suprised anyway with your physical therapist attitude since you need to adapt to your rig. Probably if you had seen a physical therapist in a sport medecine clinic, you would get more understanding.

[But... that's not cool! Nothing is more cool than a black webbing with a black handle against a black jumpsuit. Yeah, baby! ] Black webbing with a black handle against a black jumpsuit DURING A VERY DARK NIGHT JUMP TEASING THE BLACK DEATH Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Personally, I have a hackey but all types of handle have pro and con. Especially for people jumping in cold countries during the Winter or any time, beware of the combination of your handle and gloves, it can be deadly. I have investigated a case where the jumper died while using a borrowed rig equiped with a very tin and flat freefly handle with gloves. He was used to jump with his gloves, used to jump with hackey like the two precedent jumps he made just before the fatal one, but maybe he wasn't used with the combination he had on his third jump that day. Unfortunately for him, in a hurry, he had forgotten to turn on his AAD. OTOH I recommend that the handle whatever the type, to be of a bright color different from the rig, it is for the people close to you in an aircraft door when doing a tight exit. A bright different color handle catches the attention of other jumpers nearby therefore it's easier for them to avoid and not entangle with it . I am still badly surprised to see quite often handle color matching the color of the rig. When there are works on a highway, don't they use the bright orange color ? There should be a reason for it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You seem to have a misconception about what the stall is. A stall at altitude, even low is dangerous because of the canopy not be able to maintain the flight, just like an airplane in the same situation. But the stall is not so sudden. It takes few seconds to install it on your canopy or airplane. That is where you can benefit from it. When you are at a couple of feet from the ground, pulling your toggles all the way down will give you the maximum support and therefore a softer landing. In this very case, the stall will never happen since you are on the ground before it could happen. On an airplane Cessna like, just before the stall you have a stall warning alarm. The softest airplane landing happens when you hear that alarm at the touch down of the wheels on the runway. OK it takes some experience and good timing to get that. But if an instructor tells a student by radio to pull toggles down at the maximum just before landing, it's OK. Also, especially if you have a fast canopy, if near the ground, you pull the toggles down at maximum too fast, your canopy will go up sometimes by 10 ft. To avoid it, pull the toggles down progressively and monitor the reaction of the canopy. Ideally, you should use the John LeBlanc's approach with several steps to observe before landing. 1) you should stay 10 seconds quiet to stabilize your approach 2) at 8-12 ft, you pull partially your toggles down to fly horizontally near the ground 3) you finish your surfing above the ground by applying full toggles down.

Sometime Pluto is nearer from us than Neptune due to its orbit partially inside the Neptune one. OTOH Pluto has been declassified as a planet. It is now a "minor" planet like Sedna. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

««««b) It may take more force to unhook the skyhook in case you have to go straight for silver.»»»»» I have 2 totals on my Vector III equiped with a Skyhook. First one because of my jumpsuit zipper which gave up and inflated my jumpsuit, second one because my packer put the hackey in the poach but too near my butt. In both cases, I tried twice to get my hackey, couldn't find it at its usual location and then go for the silver. What I can say about the reserve deployment, is that it seems that the bridle unhooking from the Skyhook in those 2 cases was not a problem at all. My two deployments were so fast that when I looked up, my reserve was fully open and stable.

Please don't give up. You are reminding me when I had the same difficulties at the beginning. Some people started to look at me as a guy "having trouble" instead of helping me. Those people have left the sport years ago and here I am after more than 40 years and doing Canada 102 way record. If you are like me, you have to work harder to get someting but because of that, you get more details, appreciate more the sport and you are more understanding toward beginners having the same problem.

I am into Physics. I will try to help. Once in a while, there are alarmists who claimed that weird things are going to happen like planet aligment or, last year, the end of our civilisation in December 2012 according Maya's calender or whatever.... First, since all planets have their own period of revolution around the Sun, a perfect aligment is not going to happen soon. Combine the revolution period durations of the 8 planets and one can see that an alignment of them all has very little chance to be seen in the next thousands years. Second, gravitation decreases proportionally to the square of the distance which means that planets are so far away that their gravitational pull on the Earth is minute. The Sun gravitation (Earth and Sun system) is strong due to the enormous mass of the Sun. That makes the Earth (and planets) orbiting around the Sun. The Sun itself is responsible for more than 99% of the entire mass of the solar system which means that planets influence is about nothing. However, nearby planets influence each other by slightly modifying their trajectory. The only enligment which has a measurable effect on the Earth is when the Sun and the Moon are in line with the Earth (twice a month at the new Moon and the full Moon), that makes tides being bigger (high sea). Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A gross mistake from the instructor for not having checked his main closing loop tension. A pilot chute can generate a pull over 100 lbs at terminal speed then do not hesitate to keep the loop tight. OTOH this is the student who communicates with hands to the instructor that something goes wrong. At least this instructor is better to buy a case of beer ! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have jumped a Safire 1-209 and a Pilot 210. But my turn to ask you if you have tried the Katana 170. In many people mind, the Katana only exists in small sizes. Moreover, even at the same loading, a biggger parachute is reacting slower. I am loading mine at 1.6 and I repeat, it is not touchy as long as you are conservative, thanks to the long range toggles. I have about 600 jumps on mine. I have tried a Katana 150 and it provided me with the softest landing. The pitch angle of the Katana is the higher with 18 degrees. It is a great advantage and the added speed provides you extra soft landings which is good to save your bones.

I missed the 14 years break. He was asking for something providing a soft opening. The Katana 170 is one answer. Now, before jumping it, he can make few jumps with a Sabre 2 which is the normal canopy to prepare you for the Katana. Again, it depends on his experience and skill and ...a good briefing. Again, the Katana 170 is a docile parachute when flown conservatively. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Well, the price of the Vigil 2 can increase by January 2014. Check with the manufacturer, Advanced Aerospace Design or Vigil USA. OTOH, why not ordering it now and wrap it with nice paper to put it under the Xmas tree ?

I have had three times a brake lock on my Katana and managed to land using the working toggle and pulling the other riser. I repeated the flare several times at altitude and when came the landing, it was not that bad (though no stand up). Now I have a new pair of risers including also loops on the inside (of the rear risers) just in case I have to use them (broken steering line or else). Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

According to PD, there are many factors contributing to a hard opening. Here they are : 1) position of the jumper at pilot chute launch. You should de-arch to slow down and not look at your canopy but look at the horizon 2) the pilot chute size and fabric : if too big it can make the opening harder by not allowing a progressive deployment. ZP pilot chute fabric has less poriosity than F111 fabric therefore at the same size, it will slow down faster. 3) the type of canopy : some canopy due to their design are prone to hard opening. OTOH the fully elliptical ones are known for being soft at the deployment. 4) type of lines : Dacron or polyester are relatively elastic and provide softer openings than Spectra, Vectran or HMA which are almost without elasticity 5) packing method : slider not against the stoppers make a slammer or not rolling the 3 end cells when asked to. 6) tuck tab : (according Bill Booth) if one tuck releases the riser before the other one, the lines are shorter on the undone tuck and the canopy starts to deploy with these lines which can make a very hard opening 7) leg straps too loose can also be the cause of a hard opening 8) DZ elevation or altitude deployment. Can be a factor for hard opening 9) canopy fabric : F111 provides softer openings than ZP fabric since F111 has more porosity Remember one thing, slow opening means longer vertical distance needed I hope that will help Good luck and tell us about your future deployment Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have to add two types of canopies where one or two D-lines are missing. 1) the Katana has only 4 D-lines on each side due to the tapered end 2) the Stiletto has only 3 D-lines on each side due to the tapered end 3) the Nitro and the Nitron have also 3 D-lines on each side for the same reason OTOH these four canopies have 5 C, B and A lines on each side since they are 9 cell canopies Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

YES. 14 years old is enough for you to understand what to do. But you have to realize that you have to gain everybody's confidence. It can take a while. OTOH the acquired confidence can be easily lost really fast. Being young is not a sickness, actually it is an advantage. I am a high school teacher and years ago, I got a ride in an airplane flown by one of my student Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

This is a good reason to always have a good spot. In case of cutaway, the main canopy will come back near or on the landing area. Too many people rely on the square canopy performances to exit at a spot they think good enough or estimated by the rule of the thumb. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I am almost 15 years older than you and weight way more than 185. I jump a Katana 170. All depend on your shape and physical conditions. If you have the experience, skill...the Katana 170 will provide you with the softest openings like most of the fully elliptical canopies do. And even better, the Katana will flare powerfully. You can fly the Katana conservatively. It's a docile canopy unless you start to push it. The long toggles range makes that canopy not touchy at all. But never never do a sudden 180 degrees normal turn at low altitude since it sinks very fast. OTOH you can easily do flat turns. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

IMO this is a case of wrong teaching method at the packing course. It's important to teach the packing course by including the 3 aspects making an equipment airworthy. ie 1) structure 2) compatibility 3) function. Obviously, in this case, the function aspect is not understood by the packer. Simple question,...when the pilot chute is launched, is it able to pull the bridle in order to extract the pin ? Sometimes at the DZ, I am asked to test practically a beginner about gear check. What I do, I take a rig and go alone in a secluded place. There, I change about 5-6 set ups on the gear making it non jumpable but all of them looking almost OK. Then I put the rig on somebody and ask the beginner to do a gear check. Since I have few tricks in my bag, generally 2-3 wrong set ups are discovered. Even some instructors coming to see what is wrong are missing few. Finally, I show them all the wrong things and explain how important it is to fully understand the function of a component. The how is important but also the why.

My favorite is the Time Out but it is no longer available. Otherewise I have the ProTrack which is also a electronic logbook. I have the two in my helmet. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You should check with your instructors who are going South this winter. Maybe you could continue your progression up there with them. In Quebec, we have the same climate than Michigan and it is common to have beginners continuing their progression with their own instructors in Florida, mainly at ZephyrHills. The DZ operator is aware of that and seems to be very pleased. You can check with Quebec DZ. Some of the instructors are USPA rated. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Make sure to try the gloves with your reserve, cut away, main activation and toggles handles. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Confidence is the greatest gift. You know, when somebody of experience gives you a chance. A chance to jump with him and friends. This is why a lot of people are quitting the sport, too many little closed groups which only jump together. Another great gift is encouragement to work harder and not giving up when times are difficult like being a beginner and being unstable in free fall, or tumbling at exit repeatedly or any other problem related with skydiving. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

In late 70s I have seen a friend of mine jump a modified C8 round parachute (cheepo) equiped with an inverted apex like a ParaCommander. They just put two ½" tubular nylon tapes from the apex to the front riser links. The performance was quite better and landings OK. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.