mdrejhon

They did catch me crossing the paths in the first few seconds of a track, as posted in Page 1 of this thread. At P3 big ways, they start with 20 ways, which allows the organizers to observe little bits and pieces of everyone's tracking after several jumps, and give a good impression of how everyone is able to track, after two days worth of 20-ways -- i.e. they do catch glaringly bad trackers eventually after the first few 20-way jumps, and assist them. So while it's not fully systematic, they do notice issues in tracking, and the Perris P3 team does analyze the beginning of a track during video debrief (where it's in the video), including tracking team coherency. In bigways that has multiple angles (3 cameras), most of the tracking teams are caught at the first few seconds. That said, I'm sure there's ideas to be had for better debriefs of breakoffs. There are a lot of safety aspects of the bigways that needs attention, other than tracking too, and the safety record of the P3 camps has been very good overall.

People who have flown this 100way recognize this as a swoop, not a breakoff. The caption's wrong. This would be a stupid way to breakoff :-)

A bad landing would be like jumping off a 6 foot wall and attempting running at the same time, then stumbling... manageable with a PLF without injury. A very good landing is like stepping off the last step of a stairs, onto the top of a pillow. Worse landings can be worse, but I've never had anything more than just merely a 'bad landing'. Yet? Be prepared for all kinds of landings. Learn your landings well, so that almost all the time, the landing is more like the latter. Also some dropzones use student parachutes that will land a little bit harder than others -- like a well-jumped old student canopy versus a new student canopy. Instructor teachings vary a lot from dropzone to dropzone. Radio equipment quality varies. At very light loadings like 0.5-0.6 like I started on, you will have some slight thump to your landings (vertical force) but very forgiving of landing errors like low turns. Similiar to jumping off a chair or kitchen table, on average. This can still be a problem for knees for some though, so bear this in mind. However, at some typical student wingloadings of 0.7 at different dropzones, depending on dropzone, it can be possible to zero your vertical velocity before you touch the ground, even on Jump #001. But the error margin for a botched landing can be less at higher wingloadings on first jumps, leading to worse knee injury. That said, dropzones havingbrand new canopies at at 0.7 might appeal to you -- but the instructors there might be as good as a different dropzone using slightly older gear that's bigger, and give you safer landings over there. You might also want to ask for extra flare-altitude tutoring (and give the instructor an extra $20 tip if he does a good job) -- flaring too high or too low will be a problem for your knees. Just try to get the best package deal you can -- good instructors, good gear, tons of landing area (farmland dropzones with lots of grassy places and meadows), places where the dirt is soft rather than hard ground and few obstacles to worry about -- it will help a skydiver with "special needs". Then other dropzones are a piece of cake once you've purchased the right gear that you know how to land reliably and softly, and know how to judge wind conditions, temperature, density altitude, etc. (Try the Pilot canopy maybe -- Although I fly a Sabre, that canopy has a reputation for being pillow soft -- gentle openings, gentle landings, easy to learn, easy to reliably land softly)

I have a Sabre 170 and its openings can be quirky, but pack it well and you won't even remember anything unusual about the openings -- just how fun the canopy is to fly and land.

Actually I think the letter E is still in yellow, but a cutout in the black/purple ink for the E to show through wasn't made -- thus yellow is being muddied by the black/purple background being printed on top of the letter E by accident. Usually for these multink printing processes where the background is a separate ink than the foreground (usually cyan, magenta, yellow, black), an opening for the letter "E" shows in the background of different ink (so the letter E should be white if the yellow wasn't printed yet). But in this case, the background ink was printed where it shouldn't have been. Basically, the yellow ink shows "EASTERN" but the background ink (magenta and black inks), only had "ASTERN". Error, I think -- but a prank-like one.

HUH ??? There seems exceptions. My Sabre seems to open just as quickly at subterminal. The slider comes down faster. Also that I am falling slower vertically. Grabbing while I exit, and then if I throw the PC immediately after I see the plane/tail fully clear, I'm open only 250-300 feet lower than the airplane's altitude. I do that on very low cloudbottom jumps.

True bigways are 100-ways. Some people call 6 ways a big way, which it really is not. 20-ways define beginner big ways, but they are not nearly as complicated as a 100-way breakoff. On those size bigways, you cannot do a barrell roll... For more information on what they teach at the Perris P3 bigway camps about tracking, please see jjcunniff's good post in this thread, and some good replies I made: Tracking... (big-way, especially) Must read stuff for big way newbies.

On bigways during tracks that exceed 10 seconds, I NEVER STOP my track without first LOOKING at least TWO altimeters: Altimeter #1: Big ball of Earth Altimeter #2: Wrist altimeter Yes, I have to crimp my head down and turn my wrist to look at the altimeter, but I'm still tracking the hell away from the meat missles chasing behind me!!! I'm sooner pulling at 1500 feet, if I HAVE to (thankfully not so far, but if someone is somehow tracking over me at pull altitude, I've got no choice but to wait!). People sometimes have done this at the bigway camps. Yes, there's been an AAD activation at one of the bigway camps. Be hyper aware. This is serious stuff. If I am an outer wave breakoff, my Altitrack shows me being under a fully inflated canopy typicaly a hair above 2000 feet. Sometimes a hair under, too. When deployments start at 2500, it happens. There's a YouTube video of two skydive trackers colliding at over 100+ mph. Red spray visible. One dead, one crippled. NOT PRETTY It was a demo jump gone wrong, with two trackers trying to make an "X" and they collided near head-on. Google it -- see a midair freefall collision in video. That's why I, or you, or everyone else, don't stop my track with meat missles still chasing me from the next breakoff wave. You halt your track, but the tracker behind you is going to collide into you at well over 100mph, if you're unlucky. This video demonstrates what happens. WARNING! DISTURBING CONTENT -- CLOUD OF RED, POSSIBLY VAPORIZED BLOOD AND BODY PARTS CLICKY: YouTube Skydiver Freefall collision video -- Fatality in action That said, even with the known risks, the bigway camps at Perris P3 have an excellent safety record, and arguably better and safer statistics than swooping. (Which is fun too, albiet done outside of a bigway event!) But no problem...do a few more single planeload ways, join the P3 big way camp, move on, and you'll just be a bit embarassed at having done something unexpectedly risky in the past.

JohnDeere, (And others wondering what the hell this is about) First of all, you are correct, but you're also correct there's some 'extra' skills needed in big ways. To preface for those not familiar with me being an up-and-coming bigway jumper concerned about these kind of matters. I've now been in several 100-ways and a few dozen 50-way jumps, so I am learning a lot from the World Tem caliber Organizers who organized the camp. Kate Cooper, Tony Domenico, Larry Henderson, Dan BC, Tom Jenkins, Doug. They are the same people who are helping organizing the next 500-way World Record in year 2010 (Or shortly after). I'm trying to 'make it in' the invitationals (and it's tough on a limited budget too, with 150 jumps this year alone with over 100 bigway-camp-specific jumps) THAT SAID... I'm still a bigway newbie, relatively speaking. So let's explain why the "World Team" caliber Organizers teach people to stay with catch up with the low guy in some cases. Firstly, it's ONLY for the first 5 seconds of the breakoff. Secondly, after that, if you're an outer-wave breakoff wave, you should do your best track -- low guys be damned.

Thanks for the good info. Most of this stuff I already do but I am after all, only 400 jumps (+7h tunnel) and want to make it into the invitationals and records. Now, it gets tricky when you're squeezed for the first time between two people and have to make a split-second decision: On one occasion at a bigway camp, I got squeezed between two people in my radial (during the team tracking period). A person next to me got low and then enroached into my radial. I had a choice between staying in my tight radial (only 2 degrees of clear angle) or immediately crossing over to space that was at least 30 degrees of clear angle on the opposite side (i.e. a 30 degree section of pie that had nobody tracking). That was in the first 3 seconds of breakoff. He overrotated slightly and I overrotated slightly, so I had a choice to squeeze myself in a tight radial with ~2 degree of clear airspace room, or continue and cross over to a ~30 degree of clear airspace. I chose to crossover -- keeping a hawk eye on him 20 feet below me. By less than 5 seconds after breakoff (for a 20+ second track), I was in the middle of the roomy radial. First I apologized. Then later I wrote to Larry Henderson about this asking for more info given the circumstances, and such complex situations are a tough call -- considering both of us overrotated -- but that I intentionally decided to cross to the roomy radial in a hurry, as a preemptive action just in case he would later start to track underneath me in a tight radial of little safety margin. Correcting my overrotation was thought of but I decided to continue the crossover because there was more than 10 times as much clear airspace on the other side of him, now being squeezed myself. Best thing is to avoid this situation in the first place. This is often why bigway camps now use the "tracking team" technique, where groups do tracking RW for the first 5 seconds of a breakoff (staying close together: The high guys need to dive down to match the level of the lowest tracker). Usually these tracking grouips are between 2 and 5 people, often a weed whacker's worth at a time. Then after a few seconds, fan out. The purpose is to establish continuous visual contact with your tracking neighbours and make sure everyone is tracking at the same level. However, in my case, I was the leftmost person in my tracking team and the other guy was low, so I was ending up being 'squeezed'. There are many opportunities for action, depending on the situation. - Allow myself to be squeezed between two neighbours' tracking radials that's very tight, and being prepared/hyper-aware for evasive action (tracking longer, even to under 2000ft if necessary) - Execute immediate evasive action to cross over to the "roomy airspace" opposite side of a low tracker that's about to go underneath me, if I'm already crowded on my radial. (Again -- only if in the very first few seconds of a breakoff, the 'tracking team' stage of a breakoff) - Dive down to same level if he's only a few feet below, so he can establish visual contact and steer back into his radial. (only if still in the 'tracking team' stage of breakoff -- the first 5 seconds -- and he's not enroaching into my radial already) .... There's really no one size-fits-all for all situations. Again, this happened on only one jump, but it has lots of lessons worth learning as there are clear dangers apparent from these situations. I just accepted the comments that I crossed a tracking path, then later explained what happened to ascertain how serious the situation was, and it's never easy to determine what the right choice of action was. Given a pickle of a situation, I was told I potentially did the correct course of action, although that ideally it shouldn't have happened in the first place if *everyone* stuck to their radials. Mistake or not? Even the organizers are not sure, given this information supplied. Moral of the story: Jumpers need to be careful about enroaching in each other's tracking path. If you are low, don't make it complicated for the jumpers above you. The high jumper has more ability to do evasive manoevers than the lower jumper does. Work very hard at the tracking team. Have an accurate radial if you're forced to track while low -- and breakoff quickly (don't be tardy) at designated altitude if you're low. Or whatever altitude is assigned by the organizers for people who go low: i.e. breaking off along with the outers. And finally, if you're low, please get the hell away from the formation (not to track, but put some good horizontal separation while watching the formation) if you can't maintain horizontal stability while trying to fall slow. Some people fly wildly sidesliding back and forth when they're low, like some newbie skydiver. Thanks to 7 hours of windtunnel I'm now getting good at staying still horizontally while trying to fall slow, and I've elevatored back up into my stadium more than once and continued my approach. But so many people fly wildly after they go low -- I've had myself and my neighbours taken out by people flying under the formation! Staying horizontally still while falling slow is not very easy at first, but please do the formation a favour and back away, sideslide away, or whatever reasonable evasive manoever to get the hell away from the formation so you don't take all of us out! (And please keep your head down: Looking up while low, makes you fall faster, and make you even lower faster. Looking up reduces drag and speeds up your fall. That's why you turn 90 degrees so you can keep your head down and still see formation while trying to fall slow. And if you're just two or three feet low, immediately resist the temptation to lift your head (so you don't suddenly drop low). That may mean looking up with your eyes alone, at least until you're more than a few feet low -- then you immediately turn 90 degrees, rather than tilting your head upwards. Valuable tips that can slow you by as much as a few mph in some cases. Bigway camp league stuff, most bigway veterans will be familiar with all of this. But people who are recently entering the 40-to-100-way leagues have to learn these essential skills (myself included!) of slowfall recovery. Now I need breakoff funnel practice -- (okay, just kidding, but something I need to be prepared for) -- I've never been in a breakoff funnel before.

My favourite exit platform is one I haven't tried yet. I'd like to do a jet, a heli, and a hot air balloon eventually.

I replaced my Micro Raven 150 with a PD-143R non-Optmium that I purchased (from ZHills staff, if IIRC). I don't have the pretty peny for an Optmium, but I certainly feel safer with a PD143R at the ready. Pack volume of a normal 90's-era PD143R seems ever so *smidgen* bigger than a Raven Micro 150. I still have my Optmium hiding in storage. It's slowly becoming a closet queen. Unless I get a second rig and I have no other reserve.

Finally, time for me to book time. Chris Kotscha, with Vincent Lemay as coach, is getting together as many tunnel hours as possible (15 to 70 hours of bulk purchase). There seems to be good demand. Still a 4-way novice; I did my first 4-way flyover/flyunder block moves in SVNH. (Blocks that required some of us to fly over each other -- vertical component -- due to limited space in the chamber) Only for one block, but it's a challenge in a 12-foot chamber. We all did mainly randoms and non-flyover 4-way blocks. It should be much easier to do all the blocks at Skyventure Montreal, with it being 14-foot, curved cylindrical plexiglass and only one entry/exit door. Any 4-way buddies want to go regularly monthly, at 1 or 2 hours per month? At only $200 per hour (sharing the cost of the chamber), it's a good evening trip to do Friday evenings, even if it's raining or snowing. I got interest, just need enough to fill a complete 4-way team willing to go at least once a month for an hour of getting 60 skydives equivalent for cheap...

I'm also a deafie so that means I am more reliant on text messaging. People who's been to the recent Perris P3 bigway camps would probably vouch for my ability to type very fast on a BlackBerry keyboard. I actually have an audible now, with a flashing light LED -- it's the L&B Optima LED.

HW What?, they don't have to send the message? The way 'to cheat' is to go find that text message expert or Mark Rejhon and have them as a PAX on a tandem. I'll put $$ on Mark - even if he did it as a solo jumper. That guy is FAST. . As long as it's a QWERTY keyboard. I can do the phrase in less than 1 minute, and I thumbtype about 70 words per minute. (Precisely, 74 words per minute or 363 keypresses per minute.) Freefall is another story, but I have a few disposable BlackBerries to try, and can get someone to make a breakaway tether for one. Although I have the ability to thumb touchtype and look at an altimeter while I type, I guess they'll require a Videographer as a safety, audible, and a fully functioning AAD.

Depending on HOW you define a perfect landing, there may have never been a perfect landing by ANY skydiver in history. Something to mull over... There are GOOD landings.... But perfectly exact landings, to the nanometer? Nope.

The usual boilerplate advice for most new jumpers or jumpers re-entering sport is -- RENT first! Don't buy yet. Rent a lightly loaded student or novice canopy, then slowly downsize to a reasonable size, then buy gear that's similiar to the size of your last rental, with room for at least one more downsize later on. Be conservative with wingloading. Don't forget to practice all the stuff that they teach students nowadays -- and things like practice crosswind landing, for example, etc. A canopy coaching course may actually be the ticket, as that is where most of your refamiliarization danger will be at this time... Yeah, boilerplate stuff usually for new flyers, recent downsizers, and people re-entering sport.

It was much easier to land my own gear softly than well-worn big parachutes of rentals and student rigs. While easier to land a newer and smaller ZP, the error margin is smaller, so it is easier to hurt yourself than a botched landing under your big student parachute. Learn to land the student parachute safely, then you'll probably be relieved when you go to a appropriate regular beginner canopy. But it DOES become easier. Talk to your favourite people at the dropzone.

I believe the new owners of DZ.com is looking for other monetizing opportunities. This might be one.

I voted $100. At $100, I would jump far less frequently (and use tunnel flying to partially compensate) and also give up a dream to be on a World Record as that requires a huge number of jumps. I would then focus on things like a Beach Boogie event, and make every jump count, maybe just one or two per day. Some high altitudes, some formations. I'd think oil prices would go back up at least a bit when the economy picks up, but not quickly to the previous nosebleed $150/barrel levels (at least for a decade or more). This cycle has shocked us into slowly moving towards alternative technologies, which reduces pricing pressure.

I was thinking of Belize Beach Boogie, and I have heard of one in Punta Del Este in Uruguay too -- at various times of the year. Would love to try one of those, some of those require a C license...

Keep me updated on this too. I just got my C license less than two weeks ago. Beach boogie anyone? Ha ha.... (Some of those events require C license) Empuriabrava sounds good.

I got my $100 gearbag used for $25 at a "Perris sidewalk sale", from a retiring skydiver. It was $50, but there was damage to the bag I pointed out, they offered $25, so I bought it. Got the damage repaired, and I've got a $100 quality repaired gearbag for cheap.

They are social networking sites -- You can categorize your friends on them: Coworkers, family, friends, accquaintices, 'camp buddies', school classmates, etc. That way, you can keep the "skydiving event" buddies separate from your regular friends. These sites can be used for such purposes, and it is pretty common to use these sites for this type of organizing. It's a great party-organizing, reunion-organizing, or event-organizing tool. However, accomodations should be made to stay in touch with people who prefer not to be members of a social networking site such as facebook... Actually, it's possible to organize an event without becoming friends of each other: You just create a 'group' or 'event' and invite them to the event -- without needing to "Friend" them. (Facebook provides instructions on how to do this, if some people prefer things be organized this way)

Statistics are fun, huh? If you rough guess an average of 50 jumps per pack job, that means about 1 in a 1000 jumps results in a save. Another statistic I read, was that there was a 1 in 700 chance of a mal. So that sounds about right too, that given 50 jumps per packjob leads to a save roughly between 10 and 20 packjobs, given a healthy error margin.