erdnarob

Contact Jim Wilson by sending an email to me privately. I will give you his email address. Jim has about 40 "old" rigs, he refurbishes them sometimes with the help of manufacturers and jumps them. He has recently jumped a double keel Paradactyl Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I can see your point but if you have a helmet made of layers of carbon fiber fabric sandwiched between 2 layers of fiber glass compound like it's the case for Bonehead helmets I believe this type of construction will be quite more impact resistant than a shell made of ordinary plastic like the Z1. The lining will play the role of a shock absorber contrary to what our friend said. My personal priority for a helmet is lightness, good visibility and keeping contact with the relative wind. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Be very patient, you have to do it at least 20 times to get use to it. Here is an excerpt from one of my post on S fold in trhis forum. ......You can also do the 3 folds and bag the canopy in the deployment bag while laying on it. That keeps the canopy compressed and you have your 2 hands free to control the volume of the canopy and still able to bag one side then the other side without any frustration..... Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It's hard to believe what you say about the resistance of carbon fiber to impact since all carbon fibers and same class of man made fibers like Kevlar, Vectran and HMA are known to be have more resistance to the tension or impact than ordinary plastic. Those carbon fibers or same family fibers aren't used in bullet proof vest? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Just check with PARAGEAR they have a catalog on line and you can order on line too. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

. I think he was just asking a technical question. We all have to know the reserve operating margin to make sure to stay withing the limits. Some people judged us skydivers as idiots because we jump from perfectly good airplanes...!! We know (or at least we should) our limits. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Well, a lot of good things here but ultimately this is the responsibility of the licensed jumper to check his gear. There is 3 attachments points: 2 on the leg straps and one on the chest strap. It's not too much compared to a pilot who has more than 70 checks and/or tests to do before taking off for the first time of the day. A well packed rig has to be checked on the ground before doning it : front : 3 rings and release cables, chest strap, leg straps; rear: AAD, reserve pin, main pin and bridle routing + pocket. This has to be done for each jump. This is not the place in the airplane for a complete check, just the pins should be checked but certainly not the reserve card. Obviously, if in the airplane you see a major problem on somedy else rig, you try to fix it. If it's impossible the jumper will come down with the airplane and ask to pilot to slow down his descent before arriving at the AAD firing altitude. The idea here is to be systematic on the ground and have adequate routine which will keep you healthy. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Please do not always rely on green light either. In 2007 at a major center we were doing a 32 way, the green light came on and we didn't check where we were. We all jumped, it happened that jump was a total mess both for the formation and the spot. When I opened I couldn't find the airport and other skydivers were turning in a circle looking completely lost. It happened we were at 5 miles from the DZ in the middle of corn fields. I managed to find a clean place for landing between 2 fields like most of my fellow jumpers did. I even was lucky enough to get a ride back at the airport on a very well know parcel service truck which just happened to be nearby. Last March in a major Florida DZ, the green light went on and the ten of us jumped, this time we were way too short with respect to the airport. After our relative work we separated and opened. I was seeing the airport at an angle of 15 degrees and after holding my brakes to float and come back I calculated I couldn't make it back. The problem was that I was over the forest and I immediately spot a not too big glade with a big tree at the beginning. I cleared that tree by 5 feet and managed to land sofltly but in small bushes (no stand up). Never I would have imagined that I would have to do accuracy with my almost brand new Katana. I wasn't happy since this was not the first load of the day and there has been no significant wind change. This time I had to walk for half an hour back to the road where a truck was waiting for the 5 people who landed in the forest including myself. Beware the green, on an jump plane but also on the road...but this is another story. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Get the video "Break Away" on malfunctions. You also can get the video "Kinestesia" from Guy Manos. Take care of your knee, it's a fragile articulation especially when ligaments are stretched from a twist. I wish you the best recovery and hope you have a good physiotherapist. There are several treatements like electric stimulation, turbo bath for massaging your knee..etc . Take care. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It's an easy mistake to be missed by a person looking at you. Congrats to the person who saw it. You owe him/her a couple of beer for sure. Possible consequence of such a mistake: falling off your harness...#$%?!!@! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Always take the landing zone as zero reference either for a normal jump or for a jump at different elevation with respect to the take off runway elevation. It's quite simple, when you land at a specific place, you need to see your altimeter indicating zero. Same philosophy for your AAD. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Since you just got your A license you still have a lot of instructions to follow. Why not wearing a student helmet for a while like PEEK suggests. If you really want a helmet for many years, I suggest you to buy an open helmet for better visibility purpose and better eye contact during instructions and later in FS or VFS. A lot of instructors don't wear full face helmet during instruction for the same reason. The best hard shell helmet for me is the BONEHEAD since they are made of carbon fiber and that is why they are expensive but the helmets made of carbon fiber are together the most impact resistant and light. Z1 full face from Parasports are nice looking but are made of plastic. Their open helmet shell used to be all the same size and maybe still are, the helmet head size was obtained by different thickness of the lining. You have to think your are doing skydiving where function should always prevail over fashion. Personally I wear a Frap Hat or leather open helmet. I like to feel the relative wind on my face. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I wrote on a post in this forum the following : ( There are several factors contributing to the opening forces like : canopy type, pilot chute size and fabric, line stows length, right sort of rubber bands, the way the slider is placed, the jumper position at opening, use of tuck tabs on riser covers...One can read about it on Performance Designs web site. What can likely happen is that the slider moves down a bit on the lines when doing the 3 folds and bagging the canopy. A slider just one inch away from the stoppers can make a really hard opening. Therefore, at the bagging one should comb the lines up in order to make sure the slider is still against its stoppers) I wish you a fast recovery. Doctors can be overprotective (or self protective) and ask you to stay quiet for too long sometimes. Make sure you have several persons advice before resuming your skydiving activities like, physiotherapists, sport medecine clinic doctors, physiatrists... Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If caught in a high rise building on fire, wouldn't you like to have a last chance to stay alife. Training or not, round parachute or whatever, a last chance is a last chance. On 9/11 people were jumping from window without any parachute. I would rather have seen them jumping with a parachute even if they had no training and even if the streets are full of electrical wires. Do you think the bomber crew had a lot of training during the WWII. However thousands of them save their life...with a round parachute! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

An AAD is a back up device just like a spare tire or safety inflatable bags. You hope you will never see it fire like you hope you will never have to use your spare tire. Then as several told you, stwitch on your AAD at the place you land (this is your zero reference) and forget it. They can fail and they do fail. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Did you compare each line length with the PD chart. 6" seems a lot. You will really know if your canopy was out of trim when you will fly it with a new set of lines. A lot of people who did it say their canopy with a new set of lines was flying differently (like a new one). I hope you will still like it that way. You should keep the lines like the original ie. Spectra 825. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You have to determine if they are made of TWILL or RIPSTOP fabric. TWILL is extremely porous and shouldn't be jumped again. You also have to see if the lines are attached to the lower lateral band with tab or if they have continuous lines. It's always possible to refurbish old round canopies but it has to be made by a master rigger if you want to jump them. You are better to try and land them in 4-5 feet of fresh snow if you see what I mean. Ask first to your local instructors and riggers. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

One more thing, don't do with your future canopy and equipment what you have done to your buns. Sunburned buns hurt but they heal, not a canopy. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Always talk with your intructors but exercise your judgment too since some instructors are quite of the macho type and overprotective as well. Do not forget to check with a rigger about equipment. They are supposed to be the specialists. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

First about tracking: ground practice while being on your back with legs extended. Then put your hand at your hip palm up (in this case) open and curved. Hands do not have to be necessarily against your hip but within 5" or less. Then bent your torso upward and lift your leg together making sure your abdominal muscles are tight and hold that position for 12 seconds. This is the Guy Wright way. If your belly muscles are not a little bit sore, your track is not the best. Do it in the air when flying on your belly. Now for landing : You can start your flare at 15 feet but depress your toggles very progessively according was you see by looking at 45 degrees ahead of you (the place where you will land). If by any chance the ground seems to come to you faster, keep on depressing the toggles accordingly, in this case a bit faster. Alway refer to an instructor and stick with him until becoming quite proficient. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Not directly related but I mention it anyway. There shouldn't be any problem if the pace maker holder is jumping a rig equiped with riser cover magnets. The magnets are strong but seemingly not enough to disturbed the function of a pace maker. For instance and just for illustration purpose my iPHONE 3G is absolutely not disturbed by the 2 magnets of its belt case and in this case the distance is minimal. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Basically, with modern canopies performances and the high percentage of accidents occurring under a perfectly well deployed canopy (35%), we have no choice. We skydivers have to integrate in our culture that flying a modern canopy is like flying a glider and landing a canopy put the skydiver in the same situation than a pilot approaching the runway on short final. Some skydivers are fast to catch that reality but a lot of them have difficulties to integrate those concepts in their flight plan and landing preparation. Courses (seminar or instruction) on canopy handling have to be offered as soon as possible and I would say for the very basics, included in the first jump course. As an instructor I have been told that my first jump course was too long because I was including some basic canopy handling knowledge such as : wind line, wind penetration check, left hand pattern, parts of the approach for landing (downwind, base and final legs), angle of descent and the way to evaluate where one will land and correct accordingly ...There is a philosophy saying that "If you explain too much the student will not remember. It is the art of instruction to explain things simply and that way giving the student a knowledge of what to do when the radio fails. It's a matter of survival. Later on there should be more instruction about canopy handling especially for landing like : landing at angle with respect to the wind and how to do speed landing and surfing. Better to teach that before the jumper tried it by himself. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I like very much your approach which is a scientific one. The only way to get figures we can trust. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hey guys, order. We all know that to get what we have now for jumping a lot contributors have worked hard both to build and test their equipment but also to market it. There is a difference between getting an idea, inventing something, building and testing and making equipment strong, working properly, compact, confortable and why not...good looking. While Domina Jalbert from Quebec invented the ram air airfoil in order to move logs in the forest, North American Aerodynamics, Steve Snyder of Paraflite and Pioneer made a parachute from this idea. Who has invented airplane and automobile? Hard to say but Henri Ford made automobile available for almost everybody in North America. For sure I have seen piggy back equipment in the seventies but we were calling them "refrigerators". Bill Booth is one of the first to have built a modern parachute equipment with revolutionary features still in use now and he continues to improve his rigs while some very popular rigs didn't really change for the past 10 years (to quote somebody on this forum). I met Bill in 1975 and had the chance to put on my back one of his pre Wonderhog series. It didn't have already the 3 rings but a sort of fork release system. But the throw away was there. Bill has received from the famous Smithsonian Institute a diploma for fine parachute equipment inventions. Finally I got my first Wonderhog in 1978 equiped with the 3 ring release. I think we have to realize that all contributors are important. Some are more successful than other. QUIZ: Who has invented: Airplane, car, parachute, bicycle, sailboat, submarine, computer...there is maybe no anwer to that but there are many contributors who made those things quite reliable as we use them in 2008. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

With the 6 months repack cycle coming, 150$ a year means 75$/repack (for an average of 2 repacks) you are exactely at the figure I mentioned ie. the cost of 3 jumps (25$ /jump). Everything is alright as far as I am concerned. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.