erdnarob

Since the Sabre is a 9 cells, your best chance to have on heading openings is to resume your box position after you pull and look at the horizon. But first make sure to have the 3 fold canopy well symetrical at the bagging and leave between 18-24 inches of suspension lines free. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Very interesting historical reminder. I had the chance to used several of them: Kap 3, Sentinel, FXC, Cypres 1 and 2 and Vigil 1 and 2. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

For the benefit of the readers could you explain how did you come up with those figures ? Thanks Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Mark, it's super, you seem to have the right attitude about packing. That's why I put some exclamation and interrogation marks in my post I wasn't sure how to interpret your terms "loose" and "baggy". Just a note, it was a recommendation of Performance designs to roll and crease inward the 4 cell noses each side on the Sabre 1. Therefore it's neat to do it that way. One thing one has to remember too, when doing the 3 folds for bagging the canopy, it's important to comb the lines (for 3-4 inches) near the attachment of the A lines toward the canopy to make sure the slider is still against its grommets. Any gap between the slider and its grommets can generate a hard opening. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Because your canopy is like your baby and of course you want the best for him. Humidity and bacteria and all kind of germs present in the air have a role in the biosphere, it is to decompose all the waste, dead wood, fallen tree leaves, dead animals and even chemicals like plasic or else. You don't want that for your canopy isn't it? Have you ever left a piece of clothing in the trunk of your car for months? I did with a cotton jacket and was surprised to see grey round spots on it. It was mould which is the beginning of a decay. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree with people who tell you to buy second hand first. You have 25 jumps and still have to discover what you like best in type and size of canopies. When you will have 80-120 jumps I am not sure you still would like to load a parachute at 0.88 . Now to put a cross braced canopy into your container forget it since they are quite too small. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

There could be a financial reason. Military market is more important than the civilian one and leading to less law suit problems. Some canopy manufacturers dropped the civilian market for thoses reasons like Paraflite and Pioneer. Also was the manufacturer talking about a military version of their AAD ? Maybe. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

With your weigth I recommend you large 3 rings release since the force reduction factor is 200 (10x10x2) instead of 128 (8x8x2) for small ones. In case of cut away especially while spinning and experiencing a lot of G forces you will be more pleased to have large rings because of the force reduction. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have dispatched more than 2000 students in my life as an instructor and as I use to say, I got one new grey hair per student dispatched. You never know what a student has in store for you and the fact that the student performs well on the ground is not necessarily an indicator for his/her performance in the air. Very nervous students should be told not to drink coffee or smocking cigarettes prior jumping. That can help them to relax and improve their performances. Being an instructor is a hard job but somebody has to do it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Well Mark, are you here encouraging sloppy packing !!!!!??? I heard that one already and I don't quite agree. Sloppy packing for sure involve more friction then will damage your parachute faster. There are many factors contributing to the opening shock like: 1) position of the jumper at pull time, after pull resume your free fall position using a reverse arch to slow down 2) size, type of fabric and shape of the pilot chute 3) the type of canopy, type of fabric used, type of lines used (Dacron lines are more "elastic" than HMA) 4) the proper size of the rubber band, if too slack, double them 5) the length of the line stows 6) the way you pack like rolling inward and creasing the 4 cell noses each side or not on a 9 cells for Sabre 7) according Bill Booth one tuck tab of the riser covers releasing before the other one can generate a hard opening. The riser cover magnets are supposed to solve that. I have them and it works beautifully. 8) legs straps adjustment, too much slack and the opening might be harder As you see there is many area to look at inorder to improve your opening shock. But always remember, softer means also a longer vertical distance. My Sabre 2-170 was opening within 340 feet average on 10 jumps. My Katana 170 now opens withing 600 feet (average on 10 jumps). No wonder my Katana opens so softly. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

When you speak about front mounted container I guess you mean the front mounted reserve. I jumped with such an equipement many years ago and it worked fine. I even got my first malfunction with it and this is the only time I could see in details the whole deployment of my reserve, what a beautiful sight! Then came the ALL IN THE BACK which is aerodynamicaly way better and more confortable too. In the meantime, the release system has improved quite a lot. In the front mounted reserve era, you still had 2 separate releases in case of cut away and after pulling the front mounted reserve handle you had to protect those releases with your hands in order to avoid the reserve fabric to get caught by those releases. With such a system, you had to put your legs in front of you to cut away in a sitting position and allow the reserve to deploy properly. With everything in the back in case of cut away you stay upright or you put your legs behind in order to fall on your stomach. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have explained already on this forum what makes a self induced line twists. It was a thread where you could see it on a video. Physics explains it. On a self induced line twists, the canopy turns faster that the jumper. That happens after a sudden important toggles input. The body of the jumper has the tendency to stay like it was (ie. not turning) because of what we call in physics the conservation of the angular momentum. A fast reacting canopy for turn is likely to induce that kind of problem easily. I have had line twists self induced but unintentional years ago with a Nimbus canopy. This canopy wasn't comparable to elliptical canopy we jump now but his aspect ratio was near to 3 and that is why I think that happened. To avoid such a problem, as several people said it on this thread, start depressing toggle progressively to allow your body to follow the motion. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Cari, have a look at Paragear equipment on line catalog. You will have plenty of choice. You can also check with other parachute equipment providers like Aerostore, Square one, Skykat...etc, they have them all. An altimeter is essential but having a beeper (audible altimeter) in your helmet is very efficient. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

65 degrees (F) is even better than 72 and for some people it is confortable as well. Better cool than too warm. You can get a hygrometer (costs 20$) and calibrate it (you will find one where they sell clocks, telescope, binoculars) (I recommend you a "hair" hygrometer cause it's more accurate). But you don't really have to buy one. Keeping your equipment in a nornally heated house or apartment is sufficient. Just a trick: when you take a shower for 10 minutes and you see droplets of water starting running on the wall of the bathroom, this 100% of relative humidity. On the other hand when your nose starts getting dry and sometimes bleeding and it becomes unconfortable this is 30% of relative humidity. Putting your equipment in a closet is perfect but don't "seal" the rubbermaid bin cover. Let a little gap to allow humidity to get out and toss the material around a couple of times the first 2 weeks. The worst place I have seen to store a parachute equipment for weeks and months is a car trunk. Why humidity is not good for an equipment ? Because humidity with bacteria always present in the air will generates mould and the subproduct of mould can be acidic. For people storing equipment in a basement, it is OK provided you use a device too remove humidity (especially during the summer). Basements are prone to catch humididy in the summer. On a hot humid day I can extract one gallon of water a day with my deshumidifier. You have however to keep it heated in the winter (60-75 degrees). Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I did the test. It only took few minutes. I put a ripcord cable (not the one of my rig) with the ball ending and 3-4 inches of cable inside the 2 parts of a never used velcro and pressed the 2 parts firmly together. I did it 3 times and used a scale to get figures. The force never exceeded 2 lbs in order to pull the cable and ball outside the velcro. I invite you to repeat that test. I think my sugestion to put the cable ending inside the handle pocket is still OK. In your case it seems that the velcro of the pocket was mistakenly accused to have been the cause of the reserve activation. As you said check on your own rig if the cable can move when using this method. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It is hard to believe that with a suitable force to move the reserve pin, the cable excess with the ball put in the velcroed pocket will not be able to slide. You have to remember that the fuzz/hook of the velcro has a force to match the 2 parts together but has no force on a cable or pin sliding between the 2 parts. Just the ball ending will offer a little resistance. Anyway I will make sure to test it on my rig. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I don't konw if there is statistics about the subject of your question but I have had one really bad spinning malfunction which ended in a cut away. On purpose, I waited 2-3 seconds trying to get back flat on my belly before pulling my reserve ripcord but I was seemingly in an almost horizontal position on my left side (because of the left spin of the main) since I saw a white square (the reserve free bag with the reserve inside) going up from my right side. My reserve deployed beautifully without any twist. When TSOing a reserve, one of the test consists of intentionally do 3 full line twists on the reserve and pack it that way for an actual activation. If you look at the Skyhook video from UPT Vector web site you will see fast spinning malfunctions (forward and rearward) with reserve deployment by the Skyhook. Most of the time the reserve opens with no line twists or just one. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It seems that you don't consider your AAD as a back up device but maybe as a psychological crutch...or am I wrong ? An AAD is worn and switched on and you forget about it. Last year I lent my Vigil II for 2-3 months during the Summer to a friend of mine because I calculated that he needed it more than me for personal reason. I have made 1700 jumps without an AAD then jumping without one is OK. As I use to say : >. In other word :

Maybe you should pro pack using a hook. That way your hands are free and you can work from the front of the suspended canopy. Second suggestion, use wax coloring markers, mark the white tapes at the attachment point of the lines like for instance : blue for the D lines, green for the C, yellow for the B and red for the A. That will help you to identify your set of lines. Also before flacking take in each hand, the 2 front risers together and the 2 rear risers together starting near the container and going at the canopy then spread your 2 hands and shake well while keeping the canopy fabric hanging. That will set the groups of lines together. It is always confusing a bit at the beginning but after a while it will be quite easier. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Terrible. It seems to me that this student was first trained using a ripcord handle to be pulled and kept in the hand. Congrats to the instructor who managed to solve the problem. The student is better to pay him the beer for the rest of the season. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

This is the post I just put on another thread: Question about ZP fabric

Storage of a parachute equipment takes some precautions: 1) if you don't jump it for more than 3-5 months unpack it. 2) store it preferably in a coton bag to allow humidity to get out and to protect it from dust 3) store it in a dark place. Avoid absolutely long exposure to fluorescent light (it generates UV light) 4) keep it at about 72 degrees (F) and and 72% of relative humidity. BTW those to figures are what makes a house confortable. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I think the importance of the recovery arc is more complicated than a matter of angle of incidence only. The way the weigth of the jumper is distributed between the front and the rear of the canopy counts as well. The shape and size of the airfoil is responsible to generate the lift and it is likely going to influence the recovery arc too. That question should be ask to the following canopy specialists: John LeBlanc at PD, John Sherman at Jump Shack, Brian Germain, Georges Galloway from Precision Aerodynamics, Ted Strong... Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

For information purpose, Paragear catalog on the Vector III M compatibility chart shows these 4 successive container sizes to accomodate the following: 1) container size V348M (10x12x19x5) canopy : SABRE 170, Stiletto 170 with reserve : PD 160R, Raven 1 2) container size V350M (10x12x19x5.5") canopy : SABRE 190, SPECTRE 190 with reserve :PD 176R, Raven 1 3) container size V351M (12x14x20x3.75) canopy : SABRE 190, Silhouette 190 with reserve : PD 160R, Raven 1 4) container size V352M (12x14x19x4.25") canopy : SABRE 190, SPECTRE 190 with reserve : PD176R, Raven 1 figures given are: (width at the top x width at the bottom x length x thickness) I don't know about other containers but if you look at the above figures you have to be careful. Make sure to ask the question about going from 190 ZP to 170 ZP to your container manufacturer. When your container is closed with a smaller canopy than the original one, it's important to have it tight enough to make sure the pin will not slip too easily for safety purpose. Donwsizing the main canopy using the same container makes more volume available and it is a good reason to keep the same reserve size. You can accommodate the difference in canopy size by changing the length of the closing loop but to a certain extent. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Some physics here; when you pull your reserve handle, you have generally 2-3 inches of slack at the end of the cable (the cable ending ball is 2-3 inches lower than the top of the handle where the cable goes thru). Then at the pull, for 2-3 inches there is virtually no resistance and when the cable ending ball hits the top of the handle, your arm has already acquired some momentum and therefore the cable is subject to a sudden accelerating force (this is for D shape metal handle). Because of the momentum one shouldn't really feel a big resistance from the pin. Plus as you said adrenaline makes it nice and easy. About the kinetic coefficient of friction being less than the static one, OK, but I don't think that kind of consideration makes a big difference again because of the slack on the cable and the arm momentum. I like to pack my reserve tight (about 20 lbs) for safety reason. I have had 5 cut away but never I felt a significative resistance. But before the beginning of the jumping season, I always practice myself on a suspended harness. Maybe "practice makes perfect" is the way!!! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.