erdnarob

You have the right attitude. NEVER let somebody putting you down or treat you badly. I spend a great deal of time to talk and encourage beginners because they are the new blood of our sport. We are doing a social sport and people who refuse to see it that way by having an antisocial attitude like jumping just with friends or talking just with people at their level and not welcoming beginners are killing our sport. Those people have forgotten their early days in the sport. They just take without giving (like babies) but you can be sure they will be the first to criticize easy target like beginners. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I just put that post on EQUIPMENT AND RIGGING FORUM but I thought it would be appropiate to put it here too.

I heard about that case of a seal jamming the reserve pin. I think that what happened is that the seal was placed quite at the top of the pin and the red safety tie braid too loose. The seal probably came under the pin toward the top of the container side with respect to the closing loop and against the grommet. If you look closely to your reserve you can see that the space under the pin toward the top of the container side is slightly taper. If the seal goes there it can be squeezed in that taper space between the pin and the grommet and more you pull more the seal is squeezed and the rip cord pull becomes harder. Is that make sense? To avoid that problem, the rigger should place the seal in the middle of the red safety braid length and have this red braid relatively thight or with at about 1/4" play. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks but the idea is not mine. I got the trick from UPT VECTOR main and reserve packing video which I recommand greatly. When you come to thread the 4 braids into the AAD hole, don't be discouraged too easily. 1) first have the 4 braids endings normally cut (no hot knife in order to avoid a hard spot at the end) 2) wet with saliva and twist the 4 braids together (they have absolutely to be equal or no braid too short or too long with respect to the others). 3) put the twisted assembly into the AAD hole, apply some pressure and twist the assembly the reverse way it has been twisted first and that way the friction with the inside of the hole will make the assembly tighter then smaller in diameter. This is the difficult part at the beginning. The rest is the same than using one pull cord. Note: You will appreciate that method when seeing less damage on the loop due to the contact and very high pressure with the pull cord an you will find out that it is almost easier to remove them (separately) at the end of the packing. Caution, remove one first then the second one. Goog luck and tell me if it works for you. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for your help...! However I disagree with you when you say Dropzone.com is not the best place to ask his question. This jumper with 11 jumps may have many good reasons to look for a second advice. And an advice is not a contract, that's why there is no cause for panic. FYI big guys are very often turned down by ignorant skygods at the DZ. A person can also lose confidence toward an impatient instructor. Anyway, Dropzone.com as far as I can see is unique and there are a lot of experience on the forums. Answers vary a lot, some are short while other are longer. Some are not answering the question at all but commenting about answers already given. We need you all, that makes the richness of this site. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

He has already 11 jumps and I assume he is probably off AFF instruction. A zero porosity 230 canopy (with briefing) will give him more support than a student 260 (made of F111) parachute and certainly a better flare without being too touchy to handle. That's why I said "with a briefing" as always. I can see you are on the conservative side and it's OK but people get hurt from a bigger parachute as well thinking nothing can happened to them and giving them a false safety feeling. Being instructors (just like parents toward the children), we have to make sure to avoid transfering our own fear to beginners. Spending time with beginners and briefing them correctly is a good way to get our sport better. You should read again my precedent post second last sentence. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Size...............27" diameter Material..........ZP otherwise with a F111 you need a 36". The use of ZP material will ensure that the porosity will not change unlike a F111. A ZP 27" packs smaller than a 36" F111 Installation......If you are not used to pilot chute installation, do it with somebody having experience then the next time you will know what to do. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A fresh packed reserve could have a slightly frayed closing loop even with a new loop installed if the rigger is not careful enough. That could come from a too short loop leading to too much tension, or from the temporary pin piercing thru the loop by mistake. This is why I use now two pull up cords of Cypres or Dyneema (Vigil) braid. Using 2 pull cords for reserve make the contact surface with the closing loop twice bigger then reducing the pressure and the possible closing loop damage by the same amount. If you twist and wet the 2 pull cords 4 braids it's relatively easy to thread them thru the AAD cutter hole. Now about your loop, it looks new on the pictures because it's very white but quite frayed. Since it's a reserve I think you took a good decision to have it replaced. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

See.... you did it. Something was telling me that you were a thoughtful person. Congratulations. But it's just a beginning, don't relax too much and beware of complacency. The season is just starting. Have fun. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Experience has proven me that it depends on the individual. At 60 jumps I wouldn't hesitate to let a jumper use a ZP parachute like a Sabre 2-170 with a loading of 1.0 lbs/sq.ft provided he has shown a good canopy control earlier. The author of this thread did one jump already on such a parachute and need to be briefed for a better landing. A guy at my DZ at the same level (165 lbs) wanted to buy a 210 or maybe a 190 and after discussion decided to go for a 170. Now the same guy at 110 jumps and after spendind 7000$ for his rig realizes that it's too bad he doesn't have a 150 especially when it's windy. Another jumper with same number of jumps but with weigth of 185 lbs decided to go for a Sabre 2-170 and he did very well. But don't get me wrong, I briefed extensively those jumpers, I had confidence to them because I knew they could honour it. OTOH I would discourage some people to buy a ZP 170 canopy loeaded at 1.0 -1.2 even with 200-300 jumps because they don't have the discipline or/and the skill and good attitude to handle that kind of canopy. My philosophy is the following: it's not what you tell to a beginner which is important but the amount and quality of time you spend with him/her. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You should try more jumps on a 170 zero porosity canopy say for another 10 jumps or less if you are good at it then get a briefing for a 150 like a Sabre 2. Get a good briefing from an instructor who knows you quite well. The most important is to fly gently without any turns near the ground and to have a lot of clearance ahead of you when landing and flare with toggles very symmetrical. Equipment is expensive and renting a bit longer to get knowledgeable about canopies will make you bying something you really like and suitable for you. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Congratulations for having 11 jumps. It's a good beginning. But with that amount of jumps, you should keep on renting a rig for a while to keep on with your progression and get knowledgeable about canopy control other than student parachutes. Try to rent a sport rig suitable for you like a rig equiped with a zero porosity 230 square foot canopy. The canopy could be a Spectre 230 or a Sabre 2-230. After the zero porosity 230, if things are going very well, try a zero porosity 210 (Spectre or Sabre 2). After say 10-15 jumps on that kind of parachutes you will know if you like them and then you could decide to buy a similar equipment. In all cases get an instructor supervision and briefing. You certainly wouldn't like to buy something you would regret later on. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Thanks for the details: Just for the benefit of the readers: Then my Katana 170 has a chord of 8.50 ft on the middle cell and a chord of 5.78 ft on the end cells. Therefore the percentage of taper is: (8.50 - 5.78) / 8.50 = 0.32 or 32 % and since it's more than 20% the Katana 170 according Brian Germain is a fully "elliptical" canopy. Remember the pitch angle is 18 degrees (no canopy I have measured have more pitch angle than the Katana even the cross braced ones). Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The answer seems quite simple for me. The D bag stows have to be away from the lines and risers to decrease the possibility of any interference during the deployment. It seems to me that all container manufacturers ask the user to follow that method isn't it? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A fully tapered (elliptical) canopy is reacting and turning faster than a rectangular canopy (just like the SPITFIRE airplane was more agile than the german Messerschmitt in dogfight during the WWII) this is why a beginner doesn't start with a fully "elliptical" one. Half sligthly tapered like the Sabre 2 or the Safire 2 are often use for intermediate student. Tapered canopies also open in a softer way than rectangular ones. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Trim for sure is very important for the canopy behavior. Here is a comparative study I made for some common canopies (in attachment). You can see that the Katana has the highest "pitch or depression" angle with 18 degrees while the Nitro has the lowest angle with about 13 degrees. That's why the Katana has a long recovery arc I guess and is a "diver" as well (ground hungry). The Nitro would be a "glider". In my study I associate the triangle ADF to a right triangle, this approximation makes the calculation easier. Since I use the same method for all canopies that gives a comparison for the concerned angle. This is very easy to do. When somebody lands, I measure the length AD with tension on the stitch (on the same cell stitch in the middle) and using the same attachment points (A and D) with tension on the lines this time I measure the difference in length of the 2 lines and that's it. The rest is made by the formula. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If we want to be exact there are no elliptical parachutes but there are tapered parachutes (or semi tapered). On a so called fully "elliptical" parachute, generally there are 5 cells in the middle having the same chord length then the 2 ends cells each side are tapered which means their chord length decreases. For instance on my Katana 170 which is a fully tapered canopy the chord of the middle cell is 8.50 ft while the chord of the ouside cells is 5.78 ft which almost 3 ft less that the middle one. Moreover a fully tapered canopy is tapered on the leading edge and on the tail. Have a look at the sketches I made of a Katana and a Nitro showing the line attachment points (38 on the Katana and 36 on the Nitro). Note. Some canopy are sligthly elliptical or tapered while other (the Katana) are highly elliptical or tapered. 1) sketch 1 the Katana (black dots are the 38 line attachment points and in green the secondary steering line attachment points (4 each side)). 2) sketch 2 the Nitro ( black dots are the 36 line attachment points and in green the secondary steering line attachment points (4 each side)). I hope that answers your question. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The way you feel is just normal after several months of no jumping. The fact you are a beginner doesn't change the situation. After the Canadian winter (4-6 months) I feel the same way at the first jump in the Spring. OTOH if you are nervous, that means you are not a fool and you should consider that nervousness as an exercice your mind is doing to prepare you. The best way to get some relief from that feeling is to attend the Safety Awareness Day your DZ is probably organizing. If not, ask an instructor to assist you to physically and mentaly review your next jump and emergency procedure preferably in a suspended harness including an actual fall on a mattress. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Congratulations and welcome to the skydiver fantastic world. Don't worry too much for your landing it takes a while to get it well done. In the case you don't have a radio in your helmet maybe you should ask for one and with the help of an instructor on the ground you can learn to flare at the right time. Don't look below you at landing cause it's not where you go but look rather at about 45 degrees. Tell us when you will be satisfied with your landing and what you have changed to get it good. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

As a VFR private pilot, I had 3 hours of flying with the hood simulating instrument flying with an instructor beside me. That saved me and my passengers a couple of times when suddenly I got a complete overcast below me and I had to go down for landing and going thru the clouds. I didn't do it on purpose but it happened. I wasn't an instrument flying pilot but had got some training just in case. Your are right it is 178 seconds to be exact. Thanks. That was to illustrate to be careful and not necessarily to rely on an "awareness". Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

What creates the lift on a wing is its shape and the speed of the relative airflow with respect to the wing. Example: Let suppose an airplane needs 70 MPH of relative airflow to take off (lift higher than the weigth) and there is a wind of 20 MPH. In these conditions: 1) taking off upwind (nose wind) means that the airplane needs to have a ground speed 70 - 20 = 50 MPH for take off since at rest there is already a relative airflow of 20 MPH. Therefore the takeoff distance will be shortened and if there is a engine problem there is a maximum of clear space ahead to stop. 2) taking off downwind (tail wind) means that the airplane needs this time to reach a ground speed of 70 + 20 = 90 MPH since at ground speed of 20 MPH the airplane is going at the same speed and same direction than the wind and will have zero relative air flow with respect to the wing. The airplane will need an extra 70 MPH to buit up the take off speed going now at 90 MPH then almost doubling the distance needed. 3) if there is no wind at all, any direction for take off is OK provided the length of the runway is OK Taking off downwind is OK only when the length of the runway is quite important. But a wise pilot should be very cautious for doing so. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

As we say in aviation: It is better to be on the ground and whish to be in the air than being in the air and wish to be on the ground. Gusts like turbulences can create a negative angle of attack for your parachute and a very sudden stall occurrs. If that happens really near the ground, you will not have the time to recover. Time for an extra good PLF if you react fast enough. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You have to be careful with your "altitude awareness" since it can cheat on you when conditions, type of jump, altitude...change. Generally a student well supervised knows about his jump and opening altitude. What is more tricky is when having experience you rely on your experience too much sometimes then there is a change and you get caught. Habit is good but can kill you. I was thinking, what is the most reliable? a beeper or your "altitude awareness". A beeper will not change when conditions of the jump do. Your mind can. As a pilot I can say that if by any chance you fly into a big cloud, you always have to rely on your instruments especially the artificial horizon dial on the dash. According to studies, the best pilot cannot fly an airplane more than 172 seconds and keep it horizontal without the help of instruments. Without visual reference, after 172 max or well before, a pilot loses the sense of verticality (or horizontality). He absolutely has to rely on the artificial horizon to fly the airplane horizontally. Otherwise this is the spiral down to the ground. The most amazing is that when a pilot get deprived from visual reference and rely on his instruments, his mind and body sometimes do not believe the instruments and the pilot starts flying with instruments but his body is tilted sideway according to what he thinks is the vertical (reference: Jeppesen and Sanderson PRIVATE PILOT MANUAL). At the private pilot ground school, it was quite scarry for me to discover that I couldn't always believe my eyes or my sensations. Now coming back to skydiving, I would say that: beware of your habits. Your mind can be wrong. Knowing that, I believe that a beeper or audible altimeter is a good accessory. Camera people should have two of them. OTOH jumpers should take every possible cue for the altitude: beeper, visual, other people going away or shaking legs...etc Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Better yet riggerrob, if you use a Vigil II and a Vigil interface you can download the data of any suspect jump in your computer and show the person on a graph (in color) and with printed figures what really happened in the air with a lot of precision (time, altitude, speed...) That can even be used as an evidence in case of lawsuit. This is the way I used to determine that my Katana was opening with an average of 600 ft on ten jumps. Coming back to the use of a beeper for a student, it seems to me that one set up at 1500 feet therefore well above the student altitude opening is a good solution. Personnally, I jump with two beepers, one Time Out which really wakes me up and the Protrack as a computer. First warning is set most of the time at 5000' after that I used my altimeter. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree 100% with you, at Perris the recovery truck is real fast. When I had a biplane up there and landed it, they recovered my pilot chute assembly before me. They just blamed me to use a green color pilot chute fabric which wasn't my choice BTW. I told them that anyway the grass at Perris is generally light brown. He He! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.