erdnarob

I knew and like this video especially when the guy at the right talking with Bill Booth when he demonstrates the Skyhook at the beginning of the video is myself (with the Lacoste T-Shirt). The Spectra ripcord Bill is showing in this video is not different from the one I have. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for that, I just missed it. I am not "shocked" by your remarks. Now for Terry, thanks for your feeback. This is what I wanted. I don't expect the Spectra of this ripcord to wear rapidely since "normally" you don't use it. Also the pin used with the Skyhook is quite thicker than the typical reserve pin which can bend quite easily when too much tension is applied. The Skyhook metal pin is not swaged since it has a loop all forged together, I like it better but because of the metal loop this pin will not pass into the housing and is not meant to do it. That's why it takes a loop or an eyelet to pull the pin out of the closing loop. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Congratulations. You are an important man as all people who put their money, time and efforts to get a rating. Jumpers should generally more appreciate peope like you. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

This is why I mentioned the Sabre 2-230 if you want to be "comfortable". I know very well about the gear "limitations". As somebody mentioned it, the rationale is the legal aspect which I can understand. Lets put it this way, I prefer to see an intermediate jumper jumping a ZP canopy 190 with a good briefing and having had practice on a ZP 210 before successfully than letting him jump a ZP 230 and leave the jumper alone. OTOH having a big parachute will not solve the lack of brienfing or practice. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I suspect that your doctor is not part of a sport medecine clinic staff. Don't be discouraged too early and get advice from doctors who deal with sport injuries. They know the athlete's motivation and the benefit of physiotherapy. One of the tandem masters at my DZ had 2-3 broken vertebrae in the middle of his back after a bad landing on his own sport rig. He had first a surgery including metal pins which wasn't a success. He got a second surgery where the doctors decided to "weld" the 3 vertebrae together and after physiotherapy, swinmming... he had a quite good recovery. Now he is back to skydiving and even has resumed his activities as a tandem master. It's still hard to believe especially after I have visited him twice at the hospital. Just keep your motivation and your dream. Don't give up. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for adding more of the Nitro features. The least we can say is that you know your stuff. This is why we have this forum isn't it ? I believe Technora is another name for HMA (High Modulus Aramid (fiber)). I didn't know the steering lines were made of Dacron (black color too). That's why they are so thick. My friend has complained about them since the knot at the toggle is quite bulky and in few occasions it has stopped the slider grommet. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have been waiting for it for more than 2 years now but I have it now on my equipment. I first saw it at the February 2007 Reno PIA symposium. It is designed by UPT Vector. This is a reserve rip cord with a 1000 lbs spectra line (blue color) instead of a stainless steel cable. Since I have a Vector III including a Skyhook, I had a typical D metal handle with a stainless steel cable terminated by a metal eyelet. The reserve pin is attached to the RSL and going thru the ripcord eyelet before locking the closing loop. Now what is more simple than a Spectra line instead of a metal cable. On the new ripcord, I still have the metal D handle and a Spectra line (blue color) which has a 2 loops at each end made with a fingertrap and secured by a bartack. At the D handle, the Spectra line is just attached with a larkhead knot while at the other end the loop is playing what the metal eyelet does to the pin in the all metal ripcord. Advantages: 1) the metal cable breaking strength is 920 lbs while the Spectra line is rated at 1000 lbs 2) it's very easy and reassuring to check the structure of the Spectra ripcord since you just have to check the bartack at both ends. 3) according Bill Booth this ripcord when being pulled at angle with respect to the ripcord metal housing offers considerably less friction than a metal cable. 4) since at the middle of the ripcord there is an inside chock cord (bungee), the installed Spectra ripcord is very slightly under tension which means should the D handle be removed from its pocket, there will be no floating ripcord (like it's possible with a metal cable). The chock cord under some tension will keep the handle against the main lift web and the metal ripcord housing. I would like to know if there are other skydivers having this type of ripcord and get the comments of all interested people. SEE the pictures in attachment. Note: One can see on the third picture the slight bulge made by the chock cord inside the Spectra blue line. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You roll the nose on a Sabre 1 but not on the Sabre 2. You don't roll the nose on Safire 1 or Safire 2. Try to put the packed canopy more symmetrical into the POD. Safire are known for slow opening especially the Safire 2. After pulling, resume your box position and look at the horizon that can help. Don't worry too much about the first 2 seconds after the opening. Most of the 9 cell canopies do the same kind of turns (half a turn to one and half) at least as far as I am concerned. But after that they should be quiet. If you see that your canopy starts turning left for instance, lift your left leg to put more weight on the right leg strap and counterbalance the left turn and stop it. Trying my best. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You forgot to: 1) flake the tail and stabilizers after flaking the fabric between each set of lines (can be done before) 2) Make sure you keep the D-lines and preferably C-lines too as much as posible at the center. Can be done just before you pull the tail over. 3) Put the slider quaterly between the 4 sets of lines 4) wrap the tail around the flaked canopy and tight the middle part around the lines near the slider grommets 5) take about 15" (from the slider grommets position) of the 2 sides of the tail and make 3 x 180 degrees (more than that will start pulling the D-lines away from the center) 6) hold the 3 x 180 degrees crease with left hand and the tightly wrapped tail center around the lines with right hand and lay down the canopy on the floor. 7) kneel on the canopy where the lines are going out to lock that part of the packing and ... you probably know the rest. Good luck Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Well there is not many harness/container systems for 6'2" big guys around. Same for very small size. If buying new the size is not a problem for the manufacturer. For the canopies you have many size suitable for you. I suggest you to have a Sabre 2. Since you are a beginner I would say a Sabre 2-210 or 190 but try first a ZP 230 canopy. When your instructor is satified with your landing procedures go ahead. If you like to be just comfortable buy a Sabre 2-230. For your information, I am myself a big guy with similar weigth with many years of experience and I am jumping a PD ZP canopy-170. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You will get I think 70.00-80.00 $ only if you buy another one ie. a Cypres II. Airtec states that your old Cypres is no more good but IF...........it is still good for some money. It's a sale technique looking like what does a car dealer. You should make up your mind and get the AAD you really want. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I see what you mean but it's not quite that way. You have an aerodynamics formula such as : F(aero) = kS V^2 F = the aerodynamics force applied on a body k = a constant depending on the shape of the body (CX) and on the units S = the the surface of the cross section of the body with respect to the direction V = the body speed (which is squarred) ie. If your speed increases by a factor of 3 for instance, the force applied will inscrease by a factor of 3^2 = 9 That is why you have to avoid opening a parachute at very high altitude because of the speed in thin air. Therefore the thin air will only compensate very partially for the speed. Records in Canopy piloting in distance are due to the fact it was in Colorado high altitude ground thin air. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Then I am pretty sure that canopy has been relined with new black lines because black lines are quite recent (1.5-2 years). They are supposed to be treated against UV light. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Peter. That happened to me with a Paraflite Nimbus years ago. That parachute had a large aspect ratio (1: 2.85) and I cranked it at a 1000 ft. I got instantly a couple of line twists which fortunately got undone rapidely. But I will do that NEVER AGAIN. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If you have an average weight (150-180 lbs for a guy) a student parachute (240 to 280 sq.ft) ie. with a loading at 0.75 to 0.88 (for a 240) should be OK for landing even at 4500 ft provided you use a good technique. Jumping at high altitude has its full effect when you start loading a parachute quite higher (1.3 to 2). As somebody mentioned, a hot and humid summer day will have similar effects since that kind of air is lighter than cold dry air. The atmospheric pressure at 18000 ft is half (50%) of what it is at sea level. That means at 4500 ft the atmospheric pressure (or thickness of the air) is reduced to 0.875 % (with respect to sea level). According to some fast physics calculation : ...(square root of (1/0.875))-1... your canopy speed should increase by about 0.069 or 7% (I wish an aeronautical engineer will validate this result). But at higher speed the canopy flare will be more powerful. That's why you need a good technique. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thank you Gary. Amazing on the picture; the free end of the chest strap is inside. But it works. I generally put the free end outside. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

For sure those extra folds at the end of chest strap and leg strap as well are important and a rig without that should be grounded. This is the last barrier before losing everything. But there is a lot of play before those extra folds come against the adaptor and if it happens there is a risk to fall out of the harness at opening. I can see that in case of an unstable opening the adaptor can suffer a high load which is relatively low in case of a normal opening. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Well, you know that you can design a fool proof device and be sure that there will be somebody to find the way to screw it. Yes you can misroute a chest strap the following way. You thread the free end of the chest strap between the frame of the adaptor and the friction sliding bar concave side first and then thread it around the convex side of the sliding bar and back to the elastic keeper. This is one of my trick when a new jumpmaster or a novice is doing an exam on the gear inspection. I take a rig and put up to 7 "mistakes" in it and the candidate has to find them all. As you said, how can we misroute a chest strap then since what I have described above looks "normal" the candidate very often misses it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The PIA has a standard method. In the Paragear catalog it corresponds to the lighter type writing. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Not the one I have jumped last year but they should have changed recently. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I am not sure that the Protrack sofware is Apple compatible. I am on Apple Leopard and I have a Protrack. Could you confirm that can work? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The chest strap flat type adaptor commonly used is both light and 500 lbs strong proof. The chest strap is not subject to a very important force at opening but you could fall out of the harness if undone. You certainly wouldn't like to have a plastic buckle made in ..... (like found on a lot of sport goods) or having a heavy thick quick ejector (with padding under) isn't it ? The chest strap adaptor you see on most of the modern rigs is a compromise between strength and light weight which is the sign of a sound design. I let you go since I was taking a pause. I am packing my reserve ! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I tried both twice. A Nitron 190 and a NITRO 150 and I agree with you, they are both great canopies. The NITRO is the original one made in Germany with the biggest size being 150. It has relatively thick HMA black (UV treated) lines and thicker reinforcing tapes. Nitro is made by HYPER company. THe Nitron is the American version of the Nitro. THe Nitron is made by Precision Aerodynamics of Dunlap Tennessee. The Nitron is equiped with light brown color HMA (or Vectran) lines. Both have the same design which is typical from Nitro or Nitron ie. 1) continuous lines (no cascades) 2) the outside lines have a direct attachment at the bottom of the stabilizers to kept them under tension (unlike other canopies). From these attachments points at the stabilizer there is no more line going to the canopy (to remember when packing) but from those attachments points there are 3 tapes spread and going on the top of the stabilizer and used to distribute the force on the canopy. 3) a 2 feet long fin on the top skin located at the ouside cell level (keeping a better canopy lift) 4) a semi rigid thick mesh covering the outside half cell (to keep the shape of the canopy when turning) A NITRO 150 (due to continuous lines) packs a bit thicker than a Sabre 2-170 The NItron 190 I tried has a trim angle of 15.19 degrees while the NITRO 150 has a trim angle of 13.25 degrees (the lowest trim angle I have ever measured). For comparison, my Katana has a trim angle of 18.03 degrees and makes it fly steep, it's a diver. The Nitro is flying very flat and is a glider. Both Canopy are fully elliptical or tapered. Both have 36 attachments points (excluding the upper steering lines). When packing: from the bottom and each side, #of lines per set are as it follows : 3, 5, 5, 5. Hope that helps. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You should know that everything is in evolution including AAD's and rigs as well. What has happened yesteryear is not anymore what happens now and this for everything including opinions. The new President is one of the good examples to illustrate this. Read my moto under my post and you will understand. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Chest straps are sometimes misrouted because the owner probably has never been explained the function of the adaptor or if you want the way it works. FUNCTION or HOW IT WORKS: The chest strap adaptor has a frame and sliding bar. When you put a tension on the chest strap it has to force the sliding bar to squeeze the free part of the chest trap against the adaptor frame. More tension on the chest strap more squeeze from the sliding bar. If it is misrouted the chest strap will slide almost freely in its adaptor when tension is applied. Try it and you will see. Now how a chest strap is well routed ? The strap coming from the attached end has to go first behind the sliding bar of the adaptor then threaded between the sliding bar and the adaptor frame (on the adaptor side located toward the attached end of the chest strap). If it's not clear I will send you pictures, just tell me. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.