erdnarob

Go for Vigil II. They are way more advanced in technology and certainly more user's friendly. There is no scheduled maintenance but anytime you would like to have yours maintained, you can send it back to the manufacturer. The Vigil II tells you in clear language the 3 items it's testing and shut off if one test fails. The Vigil II has 3 modes (Student, Pro, Tandem) you can choose from within a couple of minutes. That feature makes your device easier to sell or for a DZO easier to manage the DZ equipment. The make is also way stronger than competitor's with sturdy cast aluminum and kevlar reinforced cables. Check on google: Advanced Aerospace Designs. This is the Vigil manufacturer. You will have all details you are looking for. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Some AFF instructors don't wear a full face helmet when jumping with students in order to have a better eye contact and therefore a more direct communication. Personally, I like to have in free fall as much freedom as possible concerning a helmet : total vision, light weight, no protruding parts...that's is why I still have a frap hat. The main purpose of the helmet is to protect your head from the risers at opening. With the tension from the opening forces which can reach a thousand pounds per risers, those are like steel bar. If your body is slightly at lateral angle at opening time, the risers go straight up anyway and can catch your ear, neck or any protruding part of your helmet. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

1) It seems to me that the student canopies used at your DZ are certainly not zero porosity ones and if they are made of F111 and have thousands of jumps they provide not a great support for you. 2) You weight is in the average but you still need enough support from your canopy 3) try to land on grass, ask a instructor to guide you with the radio 4) for the DZ elevation ask the pilot, he should know it. If the landing zone is several thousands feet above sea level landings are harder. 5) good news you have good bones 6) make more exercises for your legs (squating, climbing stairs, lifting weight with legs in a gym...) But anyway, you need a good technique for landing. If your instructor cannot provide it to you see another instructor. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I am afraid the kind of opening you have is the price to pay to fly a nine cells ZP canopy. I had a Sabre 2 doing off heading openings but it got quiet within a second or so. Now your very low loading is a contributing factor for slow opening. You should contact Performance Designs and maybe they will suggest you to use another slider. OTOH you might have a trim problem. If your canopy is not new it maybe it would need to be relined. Or trade your canopy for a Sabre 1. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Very interesting this discussion. I understand that a piece of hard material caught in a cell can eventually with the inflation high pressure start a weak point on the fabric and generate a tear. However I am not surprised that when jumping and packing in a sandy area, that can weaken a canopy after a while since sand goes everywhere and is sawing the lines and the canopy stitches. Just for the fun : One time at the end of the flaking I saw a live bumblebee in one of my cell near the tail ready for a free ride. I thought for few second and decided to open my chute and release that passenger. The insect didn't want to get out and I had to invert completely the cell to get rid of it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Don't give up, beginning in skydiving can be hard but I am sure one day you will be more confident and successful at landing. Some people are good at landing and very unstable in freefall. Think positive, you are good in freefall then try to find out what is not working for landing. Some questions: * What kind of canopy (make,model,size) are you jumping ? * What is you weight ? * What kind of ground are you landing on (grass, sand, crushed stone...)? * what is the elevation of the landing site with respect to sea level ? * Do you have a tendency to break bones easily? * Are you doing any sort of physical conditioning especially for the legs like jogging, bicycling...? I really want to try helping you but I need some data. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Maybe your hard opening was a combination of : *on belly position and de-arching too late (too much speed) *line dump *riser cover tuck tabs not releasing at the same time *slider not exposed *slider away from the stoppers *...etc But it seems also that your canopy had a weakness like...too much exposure to the sun maybe. Maybe this canopy has been cut away and found only a week later. Have it inspected and fabric tested by a rigger. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Do you consider you have had enough training for landing procedures or you just didn't follow anything you have learned ? What about the radio use for your first jump by yourself ? Flaring is almost an art. The parachute is relatively fast and the timing for the flare is more or less a question of feeling. Maybe you should train yourself specifically for it. Before landing: 1) look at 45 degrees down in front of you because this is where you go. 2) at about 25-20 feet start slowly depressing your toggles progressively 3) If you see the ground coming faster than expected, depress your toggles faster in order to always have the full brakes at 6-12" from the ground. Training: Get a gym strong elastic with 2 handles. Attach it vertically to have the handles hanging up one feet above your face. Grab the handles and depress them while somebody tells you how high you are with respect to the ground like : 30 feet, 25 feet, 20 feet, 15 feet, 10 feet, 5 feet and contact and these heights are told to you every second or so. At "contact" you have to be full brakes with arm fully extended. The idea is to educate your brain and create a good coordination. Skydiving is a fantastic activity. Don't let a bad landing giving you a bad impression. Expect on the next jump to be nervous before landing. But you should have a radio for a couple of jumps and follow the directions from the ground instructor. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If the line over is located toward the middle of the canopy I guess you will have a symetrical configuration and the canopy will fly straight. If the line over is near the edge it can slipped away to get you a good canopy but most of the time it is at the 2/3rd and the canopy starts spinning the side of the line over is. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You can...!????? Sorry Wendy but with the ailerons or/and rudder being probably stuck, a supplementary weight and drag at the very end of the airplane making the weight and balance of the airplane possibly out of control. Having the whole tail ripped off if the reserve inflate and endangering the entire load of jumpers including the pilot and the person caught in the tail...what can possibly go worst....???? I am a jumper and a pilot and I speak here on behalf of both : a reserve caught in the tail of the airplane is the worst scenario. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I had both of them. Sabre1 was probably the first ZP canopy to have worked OK and it becames a world standard. However it was opening once in a while quite hard. Sabre 1 is a rectangular parachute while the Sabre 2 is semi elliptical which makes seemingly a difference with smoother openings. Because the Sabre 2 is semi elliptical or tappered it also turns faster. The Sabre 2 seems to have a more powerful flare. However both canopies are great. The Sabre 1 is an excellent choice for your budget but try to get a dome slider or a larger slider than the original one and make sure to fold it in 4 parts (between each set of lines). Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

BTW a 7 cell reserve has 16 suspension lines connected to the 4 risers (you have counted the cascades) but that's not my point. Under tension risers can be easily cut and they are just at few inches from your head. But another question is : where is the best place to have your hook knife you can reach fast and easy ? I have mine on the chest strap with its pocket inverted. Why? Because under tension my chest strap will be near my neck and pulling the hook knife "downward" will be easier. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree with diablopilot, prevention is way better than the cure especially when there is no really a cure for a horseshoe malfunction. Horseshoe mal's can appear in many modes like: pilot chute stuck in its pocket, bridle caught around your arm, leg or neck... When the pilot chute is caught in the pocket and provided you know what happens, you can try once or twice to remove and launch the pilot chute. If there is no success then go for the reserve handle, what else...? How to avoid that ? 1) know your rig and how it works and maintain it (ask a rigger) 2) before EACH jump check: release system (rings and yellow cable), pins and AAD) 3) take your time (grab securely then pull) to launch the pilot chute properly. When it's the time to pull, no panic. An extra second will provide you with better result than rushing it. 4) after the PC launch, resume your free fall position and de-arch to slow down and look at horizon. A friend of mine had a leather hackey and slippery gloves. He didn't do the pilot chute launch properly (his hand slipped), got unstable and his bridle went between his legs. The deployment occurred that way. Result : he got hit badly by the POD on the leg, a 350 lbs HMA line cut through his jumpsuit and hurt his leg, he got a broken line and a 3 foot tear in the middle cell. However he was lucky enough and landed OK. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

On a Vector III reserve risers, if the fuzz and hook parts of the velcro are well matched, suspension lines and extra steering lines will have no contact with the hook part of the velcro. OTOH you don't even have to undo the velcro to release the brakes. Getting rid of the velcro and using 2 channels to stow the extra length of steering line on a reserve can lead to problem like it's the case for main in some rare occasions. Velcro properly used seems to be safer and the fact it is installed on a reserve is what we should have...safety. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree with you. I did my first and only raft jump at Rantoul and we used a zero G launch from a Casa. The pilot knew what he was doing. There was 3 jumpers in the raft and 4 jumpers around it to stabilize including myself at the front left. I was pretty sure that would be a total mess but surprisingly with had a perfect exit and held the raft from 13500 to 5500. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I didn't check PD figures about the wear on a reserve but what about a F 111 canopy with 500 jumps which have been repacked 300 times ? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If your girl is packing your chute, you are sentenced to cook for her, clean the house weekly, be always very kind and patient, tell her she is the most beautifull... even when you will be pissed off. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

And their reserve work well. I had a total in last August and my PD 160 reserve opened fast and seemingly soft, inflated on heading, flew superbly and landed me softly. I was happy since I am a rather quite big guy. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Flying a Spectre after having made 53 jumps on a Sabre 2 is like driving a Volkswagen after several years of driving a BMW. As people told you it will be even be worst by flying a 7 cells F111 canopy. But I agree you have to go with your budget as long as your canopy lands you safely. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It looks that your problem is to have not enough tension on the thread. Always start with straight stitches before doing zigzag or something else. Are you sure the small spool (in the table of the sewing machine) is well set up ? Also I found that using E thread on an ordinary sewing machine can make a mess unless you proceed very slowly. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Congrats for your new achievement but never let go. Later on with big, medium or small canoppies beware when being in the traffic, problem of collisions can happen. How to avoid that: *Follow the circuit pattern *When too crowded apply brakes and maintain to let other go down and land, resume flying normally when you are alone or almost *Beware of other canopies landing almost parallel to you but actually converging toward you. Keep an eye around and in traffic NO SPIRAL AT ALL. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Antonija : I disagree with you. Statistics can be done with anything. How do you think Insurance companies proceed in order to calculate the insurance policy premium for somebody ? Same to set up a casino slot machine. And they deal with life insurance too. I sent the problem to statisticians and we will see their answer. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Agree with you. You just provided an exemple showing the complexity of probabilities calculations and how some formulas can lead to weird results. As you said the formula I used seems only good for small numbers. I was right to be doubtful. Thanks for the exchange of info. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I believe jump aircraft accidents are not included in the statistics given because they are not directly related with skydiving accident. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.