erdnarob

For sure you are a normal person. I guess everybody soon or later think to that kind of question. Is skydiving dangerous ? Well it is for sure a high risk sport like mountain climbing, scuba diving, motorclycling...etc But there is also some ways to get it as safe as possible. Here they are : 1) know your equipment and how to use it 2) make good packing or have a good packer 3) if in a formation follow the "rules" for free fall traffic, approach, docking and....tracking, traffic pattern... 4) generally, know your procedures and rules 5) more specifically know your emergencies and reserve activation procedures and get trained for that on a regular basis 6) watch out when you travel from the DZ to home. This part is dangerous too. Beside that, skydiving is the most exhilarating activity I ever made. I have tried scuba, I am a pilot...but nothing beats that stuff. You really feel alive after a god skydiving day. But there is a price for that ! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Parachutes are like airplanes, their performances are sensitive to the air humidity and temperature as well. When the air is warmed by the Sun, it expands therefore has less density than cold air. Amazingly, the humidity in the air is less dense than the air. This is how humid warm air goes up, expands, get cooler and forms a cloud. We can conclude that the lightest air is the hot and humid one. For an airplane flying in hot and humid air, it get less lift from it and for instance will take quite a longer distance for taking off. For a parachute, there will be also less lift in hot and humid air therefore less resistance, faster vertical speed and faster landing. If it happens you jump your canopy at a Paraski over the snow, you will not get the same feeling at all than jumping the same parachute in the Summer.

I was at Skydive Expo in March 2010 attending a seminar on the progression of the equipment in the past 30 years or so. The speaker clearly said that with AADs set up to fire lower than 800 feet and firing, if you get a pilot chute hesitation of one second, you are dead. Now, what kind of launch many reserve pilot chutes are having ? Most of them launch the pilot chute not high enough to break thru the jumper's burble. As a rigger this is what I have witnessed many times since a lot of people bring me their equipment with reserve not having been pulled. A pilot chute with a spring too weak to go thru the jumper's burble IMO is more prone to get an hesitation. How come not too much solution is done for that ? Malfunctions are rare and most of the time the pilot chute is able to clear up and deploy the reserve. A stronger spring pilot chute launching at 5 feet should be able to solve the hesitation problem. I then suspect a pilot chute hesitation could explain why some people having their AAD fired die. This is why I have a Vector 3 equipped with a 45 LBS spring pilot chute and jumping 5 feet high. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for your reply. You certainly know that there is a difference between the announced size and the actual one. The packing volume can also varies a lot depending on the use or not of reinforcement tapes, design, type of fabric, type of lines and ....humidity. Years ago Paraflite company introduced parachutes made with lateral construction. They really were packing small for their size but they are not anymore available in sport parachute products. On Paragear catalog there is a chart for main canopy size and reserve. According this catalog, generally, Performance Designs parachutes are a bit bigger than advertised. eg. a Sabre 170 is actually a 179 according the PIA standards while the PD 160 reserve is a 174. On the other hand a Stiletto 150 is a real 150. The Safire 169 is an actual 169 and most of the Safire have the announced size which is the real one. I am glad your Merit 190 fits well in the 348 size Vector. I would really like that a universal standard system be established for parachute volume. The PIA should do it for all parachutes made. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Rob, I am thinking about having loops installed at the top of my rear risers but the other side with respect to the toggles. The reason for this is that in case of a broken steering line, I would have something solid to grab on and therefore I could land my Katana properly. Two times, I got a knot of one steering line around the top channel which keeps the steering line excess (I have two channels). Since in both cases the knot was near the toggle, I could easily compensate with the other toggle to fly straight but when I was using the toggle on the knot side, I was actually pulling the whole riser. In this case, having loops installed on my rear risers would have been more convenient. I did some practice in the air and my landing was not too bad but it wasn't a stand up one. What do you think about that ? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Amazingly this is what actually happened to me at Perris Valley in 2005. I got a biplane with my Sabre 2-170 and my PD reserve 160. For few seconds I have thought about cutting the main away. But because of the proximity of the 2 parachutes I decided to keep them as they were since looking up, I realized that the wiping effect of the risers when released could make them entangle with the reserve lines. The main was leading the reserve, the toggles of the main had been released but I kept the reserve on its brakes. IMO that helps the main to keep the lead. My landing was OK considering the circumstances. There was almost no flare. Therefore, I can tell you that cutting away is not a good idea in this case especially when the two parachutes in a biplane are flying well. Also, I heard after that I just did the right thing by keeping the biplane and not releasing the reserve brakes. Why disturbing a biplane flying well ? Of course, I flew my Sabre 2 very cautiously doing only minimum turns to keep the biplane perfect.

A predictable landing pattern is needed to prevent that type of accident like collisions and all sort of traffic interference. At some DZ like Parachute Montreal I have seen a board where it is written : TODAY THE LANDING PATTERN IS A LEFT HAND CIRCUIT (for instance) placed right at the loading area and hard to miss. At the Summerfest 2010 at Skydive Chicago, landing pattern were part of the dirt dive and was reminded for every jump by load organizers. I suggested it to my DZ to have such board. The problem arises especially when winds are calm and the wind sock is subject to a little breeze and changing all the time. Some DZ (Skydive Chicago) have separated the landing area in two parts, one for people having 1000 jumps and more and another one for the other skydivers. Other DZ like Sebastian Florida have a special area reserved for swoopers. But, as you know, many skydivers are hard to be told some restrictions. Once I talked to a jumper who was spiralling his chute right above the landing area. He told me he was alone and wasn't happy about my reaction. I answered him that few people have done the same kind of thing thinking they were alone when they were not and got a canopy collision. I think that this type of restriction has to be written on the waiver and enforced by the DZO and his staff. If that can save one life, everybody will be happy. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have had a Vector 3 M 348 fitting a 160 PD reserve and a PD Sabre 2-170. Perfect fit. If you go on the UPT Vector site, there is a chart for container/parachute compatibility which will tell you the same thing. Now I have another Vector M 348 where I still have a reserve PD 160 and a Katana 170. Again, you have the perfect fit. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If you are a technically oriented type of person and curious about skydiving equipment, I highly recommend you to take a rigger's course. It is one of the best investment you can do as a skydiver. Taking the rigger's course however is just a beginning. To become a really experienced rigger, you have to avoid just sitting on your rating. You can participate to forum discussions like this one, go to the Parachute Industry Association (PIA) symposium held every two years. (Next one will be at Reno, Nevada in February-March 2011) where you can attend seminars on all kind of interesting subjects related to rigging and skydiving in general and even get certificates of continuing education both from the FAA and the PIA if you have accumulated at least 10 hours of seminars. Skydive Expo in DeLand Florida (last March) was another event where major manufacturers showed up and had display of the latest products. Also that give you the chance to speak directly to them and ask questions. The manufacturers are very happy to answer your questions about fabric, hardware, new systems, new designs, new helmets, new type of lines, new free fall cameras ...etc Beside that, having a rigger's course make you an independent and more confident person concerning repairs or just preventative inspection of your equipment or friends ones. Obviously, you will be able to repack your reserve whenever it's needed or just open your reserve to replace an AAD, change its batteries or shortening the closing loop...and after closing it put your own seal on it. You also can go on manufacturers web sites and learn a lot that way. There is no limits for curiosity and knowledge.

Being a skydiver, a physics teacher and a pilot as well, I found your idea very interesting. I was giving some basics of aerodynamics of an airfoil like a parachute to my first jump students for about 10 minutes too. It is maybe not enough from a scientific point of view but you have to consider the priority of the matter to be taught for such a course. First jump students do not have to get the full explanation right away but if one of them asks the question, the instructor should be ready to answer. Later when students get their first license, aerodynamics of a parachute can be part of a seminar. Once I have made a program on my HP 48 GX graphing calculator to calculate the spot taking in account the speed and direction of winds aloft (given by a pilot forecast source) at every 3000 feet from ground to 12000 feet. I tested my program by making the calculation "by hand" and by using actually the calculated spot. When I tried to convince the people at the DZ to use that program at least for the first load, very few people were interested and some said my program was useless. As always, people are relying on the performances of their canopy to bring them back for landing until after a cut away they will lose their 2000.00$ canopy. We are doing a very technical type of sport but the skydivers really interested by the aerodynamics of a parachute are not part of the majority. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks again Peter to add precision to my post. For sure the mass of air rushing to the top of the canopy bounces back down due both to the elasticity of the air itself and the elasticity of the fabric as well. In this issue, I am still not sure if the question concerns the squiding during the inflation or during the descent itself. I wonder if Jean Potvin and Gary Peek from the university of St Louis Mi have studied the inflation and descent of round parachutes. If they did, they sure have something to explain about it. They were both on a project to find out how ram air parachutes are inflating. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Lee. If as a rigger one feels confident to do it properly because of enough experience, there is no problem. Theoretically any master rigger should be able to do it but as you know, there is a difference between knowing how to do it and do it with a good quality. The main lift web has not only to be structurally OK but has also to look OK. This is the same for putting a patch on a canopy. People are just better than other depending of their speciality or experience doing it. Now by mentioning that the hip rings will make it easier, I mentioned that because you will not have to deal with the leg straps. If a rigger is not used to do that kind of job, he will take way more time to do it and will never be able to charge the hour rate for so many hours spent. I certainly doesn't want to object a qualified rigger to do such a change since everybody has to accumulate experience but I was taking the customer point of view in this issue. This job is not very common for a master rigger working alone in his loft while at the manufacturer's loft, they will do it faster. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi again. In my precedent post, I tried to explain the pulsation (squiding) of a round canopy at the opening. Later I understood that you maybe meant that you wanted to know what causes the squiding during the descent. Since I am into physics here is my explanation: The pulsation or squiding comes from the fact that there is two forces which oppose to each other when a round parachute is descending. First, the weight of the jumper which tends to decrease the diameter of the skirt. That causes the parachute to go down faster. Since the parachute is faster, more pressure is built into the canopy which tends to expand the skirt. Wider skirt slows down the canopy and allows the extra pressure to escape from under the skirt. The result is when the extra pressure is gone, the weight of the jumper overcomes the expanding force of the pressure by decreasing the skirt diameter and the cycle starts again and again generating that squiding. The round parachutes more likely to do some squiding are genarally unmodified (no gore or part of gore removed). Just the open apex allows for some extra pressure to escape. The frequency of the squiding should increase if there is more weight suspended to the parachute but I am pretty sure that even with a small weight, there is also a slow pulsation. When you use a round parachute with many modifications like a ParaCommander type canopy, there is so many openings including some ones oriented to the rear to give the canopy a forward speed that there is a balance between the pressure forces and the weight of the jumper which makes no pulsation or very minute ones. Amazingly, a star behaves the same way. At a specific time of its life a star starts to pulsate when gravitational forces contracting the star oppose to nuclear forces generating heat and trying to expand the star. Contracting the star generates more heat and more heat starts nuclear reactions to increase then there is more heat and more expansion and again we have a cycle or pulsations. Fortunately right now our Sun is relatively stable and the 2 forces (gravitational and nuclear) are more or less in equilibrium. We can say that our Sun behaves like a ParaCommander right now

By squiding I understand pulsating like a squid. A round parachute doesn't deploy like ram air canopies. For round canopies, the inflation happens first with some air going inside making the parachute looking like a pear shape with a bulge at the top while still narrow at the skirt. Then Bernouilli's forces are generated from inside to the outside because of the air going around the pear shape. Then the bulge increases in volume and finally the skirt starts to expand and the final inflation occurs. The top of the round parachute is more dense or heavy with respect to the rest of the parachute (the top of a round parachute has the seams converging and seams are more dense because of the extra fabric). That can be the cause of the top going down (because of more momentum) and sometimes the top passes under the skirt making an inversion. I hope that answers your question. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Years ago I had a frapp hat made by a girl named Lonie from Denmark. It was custom made from water buffalo skin with ribs made of python or boa snake skin. While some people congratulated me for the nice look some other pointed out that I wasn't respecting the ecology since snakes were not breeded for that purpose!!!???? As you know, it's always difficult to please everybody. Unfortunately, that nice frapp hat came to an end after so many years due to the head perspiration. See the picture Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

As you mentioned it, Paragear is selling frapp hats. I still saw them at Paragear Skokie Illinois 3 weeks ago when back for the Summefest 2010. But you can get them at Aerostore Pottstown Pennsylvania. Mine was bought from them and was actually made but by Edgardo Gerrero of EG suits. They are very well made. It's my favorite hat for jumping. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I would be glad to get a Vigil 2 with serial # 20 000. Probably they kept it as a milestone at the factory or somebody has made a reservation to get it a long time ago. I will check about it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Changing the length of the main lift web is a major change. Even if a master rigger can do it, the manufacturer or riggers having worked on that type of mod a lot, have the experience and the tricks to do it easily. That involves three or more (for each side) different places to undo and put new stitching. If the rig has hip rings, it should be a bit easier since you don't touch the leg straps. We have to remember that the main lift web is actually part of the same webbing than the reserve risers. Personally I would send the rig to the manufacturer for such a change. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have had 6 reserve rides so far in more than 2200 jumps. 1) partial mal with a chest mounted reserve (Greenstar system) type of handle: Clover leaf sideway pull 2) partial mal whith a wonderhog : type of handle : blast handle with center post removed 3) partial with a wonderhog : type of handle : blast handle with center post removed 4) partial mal with a Vector 2 : large D handle 5) total mal with Vector 3 Skyhook equiped : large D handle 6) total mal with Vector 3 Skyhook equiped : large D handle (hope this is the last one ) Ergonomically speaking, I think the large D reserve handle handle is the easiest one to grab and pull. The fact that you can put your thumb inside makes the pull more positive. Note : I never had any problem with my blast handle since it is also an easy handle to find, grab and pull despite it has been deleted Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks Billvon, you just made more precise and complete what I had in mind. This holding is OK if nobody is behind and above you. But in any case, since your speed is way slower by doing so collision chances are decreased. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I am interested a lot by such studies. In the 1970's, I got an issue of PSYCHOLOGY TODAY magazine with a long article on high risk sports. They were particularly mentioning Skydiving. Reading this article, I found out (as far as I remember) that skydivers (and risk takers) are more independent, more intelligent, less religious people than the average. They were mentioning that people who are the most afraid of the death choose most of the time a job which they consider will protect them from it like: physicians (doctors), priests, cult ministers or religion related jobs. This would be a reason why you don't see too many of those doing skydiving. For sure there is exceptions like doctor Pete jumping at Skydive New England Maine. Another explanation is that there is something in the brain where there is an excess or lack of some substances needed to a person to fell alive. Risk takers need to get adrenaline in greater quantity than other to feel well. Personally, skydiving is for me a very technical sport where you have to pay respect to the equipment and techniques if you want to become an old skydiver. I am also a pilot which is different but quite challenging too. But after so many years, I think maybe a lot of skydivers are people who have been "hurt" mentally when they were young. At the time, people or family didn't understand them because they were different than other kids and people didn't trust them for the same reasons, just to give some possible reasons. This makes high risk takers wanting unconsciously to prove they are as good as other....!! Could be my case ?!! We can see also people taking more risks when adverse things occurred in their individual life like a divorce, a love pain or else...this individual has the tendency to take more risks like driving faster or doing high risk sports. Many times I have seen people quit skydiving when they had found their sweetheart and several years later coming back to the sport. When asked what makes them come back, very often the reason was because of a separation or divorce with their mates. Human soul is unreachable but studies like that can give us some hint on why things go the way they do. Deep motivation for high risks sports is a touchy subject and people have to know and accept themselves (introspection) like they are to speak at ease about it. You can contact me personally for the questionnaire. I will do my best. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I recommend you to stay jumping with a Sabre 2. This canopy is just fine for your number of jumps and can be challenging at best if you push it enough but right now keep the challenge for later. As several people mentioned it, when things are OK or normal, any canopies or so are OK. But when things go wrong, beware of fully elliptical canopies like the Nitro, Nitron, Crossfire, Katana, Mamba etc...They can have extremely violent reaction needing almost instant emergency procedures. If you haven't been trained on a suspended harness for cut away procedures and do it regularly, you are maybe at risk if jumping those fully elliptical canopies. I have jumped the Nitro 150 twice (loaded at 1.8) and I like it but I prefer my Katana 170 which is more "flexible" and easier on the toggles while the Nitro is quite stiffer and having short range on toggles. I have also jumped twice the Nitron 190, a nice parachute with powerful flare quite comparable to the German Nitro. At 35 jumps, you will have a lot of fun and challenge with a Sabre 2 or a Storm as well. A friend of mine who has a small Sabre 2 and who has more than a thousand jumps fly it at high speed and does beautiful carving landings with it. Don't do that now. I am just telling you that a Sabre 2 will fit your needs for a long time. You should also think about taking a canopy piloting course with specialists. Better safe than sorry.

Because of lack of concern with the traffic. People often want to land nearby the hanger or the packing area even in a parachute crowded space. When you think you are alone, check anyway for traffic near you especially on the sides. You can be lower and be overtaken by somebody above you first but going down faster. Few times just before landing I got squeezed between another parachute and and obstacles. I yelled at the jumper to catch his attention but he kept on flying without noticing me. I had to change my direction angle at the delicate time before the touch down. Load organizers should put the emphasis on the traffic pattern and warn the jumpers about canopy collision. It is so silly to have survived to a beautiful skydive and get problem few second before landing. Even if landing a parachute is a critical time when high concentration is needed, you have to avoid having a tunnel vision. Also, if at a 1000 feet you realize that too many people are going to land at about the same time, pull your toggles at shoulders and hold it. Your parachute will stop descending fast and your horizontal speed will be quite decreased. When you estimate that it is your turn to go, resume your normal descent. I know you have the experience but everything I mention here is for the benefits of the readers. I will have to practice what I am saying here soon since I am going at the Summerfest at Skydive Chicago.

I hope you have a very large place to do so. Don't forget a lot of lighting to be installed behind the hanged canopy. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Mention the problem to Larsen and Brusgaard the manufacturers. They are very customer friendly and fast to solve the problem