erdnarob

Instructors should put more emphasis on teaching the flat turn method. When too high for the target, flat turns of 180 degrees (right then left repeatedly) before the target is a good way to get lower without progressing toward the target while maintaining a low rate of descent. Flat turn is made by first slowing down the canopy by bringing the toggles to the shoulders then for a right turn for instance, lift up the left toggle and when the turn is completed get back to the shoulders with the left toggle again and get ready for a flat turn to the left. It is of prime importance to plan your approach as soon as 1500 ft. You are the pilot of a machine and you should behave like a pilot just like flying an airplane. Early wind penetration check and use of the angle of descent method are also important to master and should be explained to beginers. The angle of descent method is the following : when approaching the target from say 1000 ft find out visually the point( in front of you) not moving. If that point is before the target you will land too short, if the point is behind the target you will land too long. But have a instructor you trust to explain those methods and do practice. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for the corrections. I assumed wrongly that the Cypres student had the firing set up 200 ft higher than the Cypres Expert model. But 29 MPH is quite a low speed and the author of the thread wouldn't certainly like that kind of speed for normal jumping. I had the wrong impression that the speed for the Cypres Student was like the Vigil one ie. 45 MPH. My excuses. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

This new fabric obviously will not heal when there are broken fibers. If there is a hole with destroyed or worn out fibers forget the healing. OTOH it's interesting to see that people are designing new fabrics. We still have to see the final test on this,ie. the field test. Jérôme thanks for confirming the manufacturer. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Yeah but they will not have the riser covers magnets. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If you chose a Vigil, you can set it up yourself at PRO, STUDENT or TANDEM mode. And the chosen mode stays on the display when the device is switched on. If you chose the STUDENT configuration on your Vigil it will fire at an altitude of 1040 ft if you are on your belly and at 1300 ft if you are straight up while at the begining of the main opening for instance (due to the differential pressure between chest and back when on your belly). Since this set up is a student configuration your Vigil (and Cypres as well) will fire at a lower speed of 45 MPH. If you chose a Student Cypres the firing will be at 950 ft and at a speed of 45 MPH when being on your belly but this configuration is factory set up only. I doubt a manufacturer will set up a custom AAD for you. OTOH if you get into the habit of pulling at 3500' or higher, this is your best insurance against possible problems. To do so, get an AAD but also get a good beeper. An AAD set up at PRO (Vigil) or Expert factory set up (Cypres) should be OK for your safety. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A Micron maybe which has a double protection for risers. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

What you did is an excellent experience since you made your first cut away in a controlled environment. I certainly didn't have that chance. Now you really know and lived several things: your reserve is working well, the Skyhook is working well and you know what sensation to expect when doing a cut away. Congrats. We have to keep in mind that there are people who do a cut away and never pull their reserve. I didn't experience already a cut away with my Skyhook but OTOH I had two totals (unintentional) where the Skyhook had to release from the RSL which it did perfectly. Happy for you that you have met Bill Booth, a great inventor. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Do you think your mounting is resistant to a riser strike at opening ? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Since you speak about GPS device use for skydiving maybe you would interested to know that the iPhone (3G and 3Gs) has a GPS. If you download for few $ (2.99 $) the application GPS MOTION X you will have all functions of a hand held GPS and better yet you can register your track, send it by email to 5 different people right away and view your track on Google Earth when opening the file on your computer. An option on Google Earth enable you to view your track as following it from a helicopter where you can adjust the angle and speed. And I garantee you that it is MAC compatible since this is what I use. Another application coupled with your iPhone GPS named SPEEDOCHECK allows you to see your speed on an analog or on 2" high digital display. Sport holders for iPhone are available at all electronic stores therefore you can mount it on your left arm when jumping. I guess you can get the same kind of features using an iPod touch. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Agree with you. Any canopies can hurt. Being knowledgeable about a specific canopy, having a good attitude and being briefed by an instructor you trust is more important than being put on a big parachute and left to yourself. The quality of the instruction is directly proportional to the time an instructor spend with his student. If an advanced student has already demonstrated he/she has the right attitude, brief him/her and allow him to jump a canopy suitable for his weight. Too easy to give an oversize parachute to somebody and leave. I too read Brian Germain book The Canopy and his Pilot. This is my reference book. But it's not a replacement for the time spent with a patient instructor. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I speak about what I know best. I flew a Sabre 2 a lot and tried a Safire and both are fine canopies. Now for the Vector III as a user and a rigger I still believe it's the best right now on the market for the features I mentioned. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

How right you can be when you say it is always very touchy to talk to somebody who made a mistake. A guy at my DZ came back jumping very recently after having stopped for 5-6 years. I was happy to see him back but his first descent was not what I like to see : no concern about left hand traffic, repeated spiral turns in the landing area and to top that an illegal reserve. Being one of the person in charge of the DZ safety, I just talk to him about the reserve and hope for the best for his descent procedures. Last weekend the same guy came back and had about the same kind of behavior with no change for his reserve. This time I had a serious conversation whith him on his approach and his illegal reserve (not packed by a certified rigger). He took it rather badly and ask me if I wanted him to stop jumping at the DZ. Definitely that guy didn't understand my role and the consequences of his behavior. He said he was alone in the sky and I answered that other people thought they were alone as well while doing repeated spiral turns and killed themseves when they got a collision with other canopies. The case is in the hands of the 3 co-owners now. Two weeks before that, I did the same remark to a guy who had opened at 5000' while other were at 3000'. Few repeated spiral turns brought this guy at the same level that other people who were about to land. He had no time left to do the left hand pattern and had to land in the opposite direction that others. But when I talked to him, he knew already his mistake and he was very open to my remarks and very friendly shaked my hand . He too made my day. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks a lot for your touching story. As you mentioned, no big problem taken individually but a series of events leading to a drama. In this case it seems to me that the determining factor was not checking early the airworthiness of the parachute. I don't know why but jammed brakes seem to be back recently. I had one at Skydive Chicago Summerfest last year (my first ever), a new rigger I have supervised got one last year, two people at my DZ got one earlier this year and 2 days ago one of my students got one. Now, I double check my brakes. Coming back to an RSL use, people are half and half about using them but having no statistics, it's difficult to know what is the best. Seeing the Skyhook videos convinced me to have that kind of RSL but I am not a cameraman. A cameraman should maybe jump with at least one beeper (two is even better) and an AAD. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

3 flares = 3 x 15 seconds = 45 seconds 90 degrees followed by 180 degrees turn = 15 seconds Stalling = 15 seconds 3 Brakes flat turns = 15 x 3 = 45 seconds rear risers turn = 5 seconds rear riser flare = 5 seconds Front riser turn = 5 seconds TOTAL = two minutes and 15 seconds (To be done above 2000') You have plenty of time if you are open at 5000' Make sure you keep an eye on where is the DZ. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

On a 2-15... way for instance when other people left the airplane already or leave after you, you turn 180 degrees, track while trying to stay perpendicular to the line of flight avoiding that way to get close of other groups. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

arch or de-arch in order to slow down ? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

According Paragear catalog canopy comparison chart page 285, Icarus canopies indicated size is matching the actual size while the PD Sabre indicated size is slightly smaller than the actual one. But read the notice at the bottom of the page. Also Icarus Safire uses Vectran lines which is thinner than Spectra lines used on the PD Sabre lines therefore reducing slightly the packing size. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I don't know the Pilot but a good choice would be the Sabre 2 which is slightly semi elliptical like the Safire 2. And for a rig, if you buy it new why not choose the Vector III with hip rings, riser covers magnets and Skyhook. You will have the most advanced rig right now on the market. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I think you got a good advice here. It's too soon for you for a 150 and out of question with a Stiletto and this is for your safety. Good decision to wait 30 jumps to start thinking about buying your own equipment. At 30 jumps or so, you will know better what is good for you with the help of instructors. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It's not a myth for me. It actually happened. I am a big guy and have some material under the arms of my jumpsuit. But when I track and put my arms on the side of my body I lose automatically my "wings" and my track is always steeper than lighter people. On a bad spot (too short) in Florida I realized when tracking I was too far away from the airport, and as I said, I was in a hurry to pull and when I did I felt a huge difference in the opening shock. Fortunately I had a Katana. Should I have a Sabre, I would have end up maybe at the hospital. That time I had anyway to land in a glade in a forest and doing an unexpected landing accuracy with a fully elliptical canopy. The glade was actually covered with 4 feet high bushes therefore my landing was so so but I was OK. I forgot a point (#10) on the factors contributing to hard openings: ie. the type of lines. Tubular nylon (550 lbs) used in the past was the best to alleviate the opening shock with an elasticity up to 20%. Dacron elasticity is about 10 to 15%, Spectra is about 2% and HMA almost 0%. Elasticity of the lines plays like a rubber band or bungee and allows the opening shock to be more progressive and therefore decreases the negative acceleration and reduces the force of the opening. It's almost like a car with a good suspension versus no suspension at all if you see what I mean. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree, this is Spectra (microline) made of polyethylene fibers for PD 190 (F111) or other sizes. Generally HMA lines (which are more expensive) are for fully elliptical canopies to keep the differential trim stable. Those canopies are very sensitive when out of trim. Amazingly, Spectra lines shrink due to the friction especially the outside ones. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

There are many factors contributing to a hard opening. 1) too big size of pilot chute 2) canopy type (fully elliptical are smoother) 3) Type of fabric (ZP can slam) 4) slider grommets not against the stoppers (generally the cause of a hard opening) at packing (to be checked again when finnishing bagging) 5) one tuck tab releasing a fraction of a second before the other one 6) too loose rubber bands on the POD 7) too small stows on the POD 8) too compact body position at pull time 9) pulling in a hurry when tracking is not finnished Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have jumped mains with 5 cells (Sratostar,Cirrus), 7 cells (Stratocloud, Cruisair, Spectre...) and 9 cells (Nimbus, Safire, Sabre..., Sabre 2, Nitro, Nitron, Katana, Firebolt) and I can tell that given the size, the flare is more powerful on a nine cells. The 9 cells parachute is also generally a better glider than a 7 cells since the aspect ratio is larger (just like actual glider wings). That means (provided you have the technique) you will come back from a further bad spot with a nine cell and will land more softly. Since the 9 cells is a better glider, your approach will be more flat while a 7 cells descent is more vertical. What speed hurts the most when getting in contact with the ground ?..the vertical one. Now if you look at birds, which ones are landing the most gracefully, the ones with short wings or wide wings. Look at a seagul or a wild goose landing and that will give you an idea of what parachute to choose (Small or large aspect ratio). The aspect ration is the span divided bu the chord of the parachute. For instance the aspect ratio of the 7 cell Storm and Spectre is 2.14 to 1. For 9 cell Sabre 2 it is 2.58 to 1; for 9 cell Katana it is 2.74 to 1, and for a PD reserve it is 2.1 to 1. But I was told that the Storm is a 7 cell flying like a 9. Sorry, I didn't jump it already. I talking here in general without consideration of the jumper status. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The Vigil III is supposed to be released in 2010. A new feature will be, as said, that it will not fire near the ground under any circumstances. I have an idea of other original features but so far I cannot speak. I am pretty sure the Vigil III is now finnished but who will blame Vigil to make a series of testing in all kinds of possible conditions. We are happy to get a product which gives us satisfaction but we often forget that several elements need to be done like: design, manufacturing, testing, modifying, testing again, marketing and last but not least field testing... Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

An almost similar ZP fabric was on display at the 2007 Reno PIA symposium. The manufacturer was GELVENOR TEXTILES from South Africa. The fabric was "healing" when punctured with a ball pen but the pattern was a little rectangle instead of now a hexagon. I would bet that the new fabric described in this thread is from the same manufacturer. We still haven't seen everything with parachute fabric, webbing and components... thanks for the topic. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.