mdrejhon

At the last Perris P3, some people on my bigway turned and tracked too quickly on their audibles, rather than wait for the whole base to kick their legs as a breakoff signal. They were reminded that they should have waited for the leg kicking, even if it was a slightly lower altitude. I have noticed bigways have a tendancy to have conditionally delayed breakoff signalling -- basically the organizer may bring the bigway 500 feet lower than usual if it's stable. The 400-Way World Record attempts used this technique. Basically the breakoff altitude is set conservatively originally assuming a mess of a formation, and when the formation is stable, it's then typically reasonable to delay the breakoff very slightly down, up to a bottom end of range such as 500 feet lower. (i.e. 5000 feet instead of 5500 feet breakoff) By setting my audible's breakoff to a lower altitude, I might be able to avoid becoming dependant on the audible and then ending up doing such actions. On the other hand, because my audible seems to beep ever so slightly early, I am already seems to have sorta trained myself that when the audible goes off, it means "pay attention to breakoff", sometimes I wait until the instant I see the first person start to breakoff, then initiate my breakoff. It's a tough call (good arguments both sides) but I can see it is likely safer for me during bigway events, to have a safety margin BEFORE or AFTER the breakoff rather than the EXACT breakoff, since that's inflexible in the light of flexible/variable breakoff initiation altitude used in bigways including World Record. Basically when the breakoff is commanded by leg kicking or another technique such as a center pull.

I am going back to Perris for September 10th through 22nd, for the Perris Big Way Camp, and hopefully also the 100-Way Camp if I manage to move on to the 'next level'.

Spectators can be distracting but over time you get a little numb to them and just concentrate on your skydive. AFF is a bad time to have family, it's a lot easier at, say, the 150th jump and even so, they were at the patio rather than at the peas...

This brings up a really good question. I just got my first audible (flashing LED), partially for the purpose of improving awareness during bigway jumps. Now I notice it often goes off 1 to 2 seconds before the breakoff. So I often end up looking around and glancing at my altimeter, for a second (to doublecheck) then break off -- I'm still one of the first to breakoff now on a portion of recent jumps with the new audible. Does this mean maybe I should turn off the breakoff altitude on my audible and only rely on the pull/flatline as alarms. That way, I am forced to rely only on my existing altitude awareness (ground, wrist, and other people breaking off --but trying to be the first one to waveoff after 4500 feet passes, for example) And sometimes bigway jumps have conditinally-delayed breakoffs (a stable 50-way at 5500 feet is safer than a mess at 6000 feet), where I must wait for leg kicking... I don't want to de-sensitize my altitude awareness because my audible notifies me a little bit quickly. Is it because the audible is inside my helmet instead of outside, or is it just normal -- that I notice the LED more quickly than many people notice their audibles? One idea I may do is to set the audible to 4000 feet breakoff, even for 4500 feet breakoff dives. That way I'm forced to continue to depend on my existing awareness and I can more easily beat the audible without becoming unconsciously dependant on it for breakoffs, and if the 4000 feet breakoff triggers, it means everyone is a tad slow including myself and it's time for me to go ahead and do some indpendent breakoff action. (Please note -- the waveoff and turns seem to happen at about 4300 feet, but that could just be calibration differences. That way, 4000 ft alarm should only occur when I've finished turning and already starting tracking -- it would become a "you must have already started tracking by now!" alarm, rather than "start breakoff" alarm.). Does anyone use audibles this way? Opinion?

For a bigway jump event of a 50-way league, sometimes one has to let go of the hackey at 2500 just after having tracked away from the outers of a formation. Basically, at some of these events, I can't initiate the deployment procedures above 2500 feet. That means you're in the saddle just right around hard deck. One gets used to it though. Other than that, I don't normally initiate deployment that low...

Three skydivers in a Twin Otter. That is pretty roomy. The roomiest Twin Otter I've been in was probably 14 or 15 people, no less. I wonder when the dropzone starts losing money... Probably at 3 person, it is already a loss so they were very generous to you.

That's the same canopy as mine! The worst time I had flaring under my Sabre 170 was when the brake lines got replaced for the first-ever time, I suddenly had a big batch of bad landings. I was unfamiliar with the fact I had to pre-position my toggles at the tail deflection, rather than all the way at the loops. Formerly there was no loose brake line, now there was plenty of loose brake line, I had never jumped a canopy that had some loose slack in brake line before. Basically, if there's 7 inches of loose brake line, hold your brakes 7 inches down away from the ring at the brake stow. That made it much easier for me to do a dyamic flare. Basically eliminate the slack by feeling for the tension of tail deflection, and hold there while waiting for the ground to get close -- that's the top of the 'flare band'... It probably does not apply to your situation (a familiarity issue with modern canopies) but it might be one of several contributing factors to the difficulty of starting a smooth dynamic flare... Simply put, I was at the time, unfamiliar with adapting to changes to my gear. Try a rental Sabre 230, 190, 170 -- the Sabre progression I did before buying my gear. It's much easier to land a Sabre 230 accurately in zero winds than a Sabre 170.

I did that on one of my instructor PFF jumps but initiated at something like 4500 feet, rather than low pull. I went into my first linetwists that way. Was curious; did you end up in linetwists? However, if I somehow ever found myself unexpectedly in a formation at the unforgiveable altitude 1200ft, I think I'd immediately instinctively PULL my main in place and THEN waveoff frantically or point frantically at altimeter -- while waiting for my PC to go to line snatch (I'd have one second to warn everyone, everyone would see me look panicked for a fraction of a second before instantly popping up). Although my Sabre opens briskly and reliably unless it's been unjumped during a winter layover or similiar, I guess I'd probably would have an AAD fire anyway, though -- though might have already slowed down below AAD activation speed below 750ft, if I let go the PC knob by 1000 feet, that's assuming I reacted immediately within 1 second, not sure if I'd be reacting that fast. Scary thought to have two canopies try opening themselves simultaneously, more potential for tangle I'd think. I'd be white as a ghost when I landed and wonder what the **** happened for a fail like that. Lowest pull was 2000ft for me, during a bigway event when I decided to track longer because of someone above. Rarely have a canopy still deploying below 2300 feet. I now have an audible (OPTIMA LED, since I am deaf) partially because it's now required equipment in some future bigway events I want to go to... But I don't want to become dependant on it.

Someone suggested moving to Bonfire. Though one could put this in a signature, then all posts you've ever made in Dropzone.com has the clicky at the bottom. >>Vote for the wingsuit photo on USAToday.com! (Click "Quote" then copy and paste the above, including the URL coding).

I guess from a cost cutting perspective, shortening AFF by having more tandems, would probably suck. I should point out, maybe the ones that don't suck are the ones that aren't called "tandem progression" but a "3 or 4 tandem prerequsite" before a full 9-jump AFF-type program. That's how I started... That would be like adding required tandems to the beginning of a full AFF program. The first one or two just is for fun, the last two with training exercises such as altitude awareness, turns, canopy control, with an instructor behind you, etc. That was what I was suggesting to the OP -- an extended program with extra training tandems added on, not necesarily an official abbreviated version of Tandem Progression...

The website seems working fine from my end. It costs only $4 per month to get cheap web hosting at a site such as GoDaddy during news-quiet periods. (This allows about 300 gigabytes of transfer, I believe) More webhosting expenses will be required for heavy traffic, tho... Clicky - www.legrandsaut.org

I had a Curve but now have the new BlackBerry Bold which is better than Curve. Sharper screen, faster CPU, higher speed 3G... I already have it, because it came out in Canada already, but has not come out yet in the U.S... Hey, didn't BillyVance say he had a Curve 8330 somewhere else? It can already playback video today under OS 4.2 and it can even record video if later upgraded to OS 4.5 (which will come out in the fall)

There is an amazing thread about a local paralyzed jumper trying to progress to solo: Paralyzed and progressing towards solo sky diving -info on what were doing Your challenge is much simpler than this person... This is the very same dropzone that taught me as a deaf skydiver -- So far, still seem to be Canada's first and only licensed deaf skydiver (among those born deaf) I think never say never, but as a matter of couresy to the dropzone, I think they are probably a little nervous about their own safety too as well and for yours -- There's probably easy solutions, such as jump a whole batch of tandems in a "tandem progression" (modified AFF) style -- and go to wind tunnel. This may eventually calm you down and reduce difficulties in future jumps. Several tandems before AFF is a huge help also in eliminating some of the fright that often cause students to mess up a first-jump AFF or not to listen to radio, etc. Go to a different dropzone that may have more experience with 'challenged' or 'difficult students', explain to them your situation with the original dropzone (to be honest and up front), and the next dropzone may be willing to work with you better. Also, explain you're willing to do as many tandems and wind tunnel time as necessary before trying out another AFF. The dropzone will see that you're flexible and willing, and they will see what they can do. Now in regards to the original dropzone, ask them if the monies paid can still be used towards a tandem jump, jump with them one last time and say a cordial goodbye. It's better than nothing in a no-refunds situation.

On my first stuck toggle: When my unexpected turn started (locked toggle), I immediately instinctively pulled my other toggle to cancel out the turn before I realized the other toggle was stuck. This got the canopy back above my head, and my other arm was holding the other toggle at half brakes, which gave me time to evaluate and quickly solve the situation in mere seconds. Such instinct of immediately flattening a turn is pretty important if for any reason the canopy is unexpected not directly above your head, like a low turn, a quick recovery from a collision avoidance, an asymmetric flare, and strange toggle behaviour (like one brake line too long due to tension knot). May never need to do in all of these situations, but it's a universal lifesaving habit... It is true that the turn can become violent that you get immediately thrown into spinning linetwists you cannot recover from. Or that the tension knot jams somewhere that you cannot flatten out. The OP likely did the right thing given the experience level... It's good and healthy to train "muscle memory" of automatically flattening your turns during unexpected events is probably a healthy universal habit to have... Apparently this helps more universally than I would originally expect. Being able to flatten out without thinking. Listen to what instructors say about flat turns and braked turns.

BlackBerry Bold has pretty great video playback. :-) I converted a copy of a video of my 49-way skydive formation as a 1.5 megabit per second MPEG4 at full 320x480 resolution. I was easily able to identify all 49 skydivers, including grip colors, of a complete 49-way formation on the BlackBerry Bold's very sharp screen -- it's cramming an iPhone-resolution screen into half its size (by being double pixel-per-inch -- about 225ppi, nearly paper quality). Javelin, coming soon, will have a similiar display (at slightly higher resolution, 360x480), as well as the Thunder/Storm touchscreen BlackBerries coming.

For the amount I'm currently pulling the fronts down, I've finished letting them go at approximately 25-40 feet above the ground, since the recovery is extremely short and quickly-self-recovering on a relatively-light-loaded Sabre1. If I let go any higher (even 50 feet), it feels like it is back to normal full glide by the time I'm starting my flare and it behaves more like a normal flare normally. I lose the speed boost after 2-3 seconds. Hopefully this altitude sounds about right for double fronts on a lightly loaded one. I know that I won't necessarily need to finish letting go the fronts that low with different canopies and/or when I someday start swoop turns (not this year)....

Try www.blackberryforums.com (BlackBerryOutages) and www.howardforums.com (Sprint topic area) No connectivity problems on my BlackBerry Bold at this time...

We're now at four people in the shuttle, including the well known Kate Cooper. If it's a typical Astrovan sized or SUV size 7-seater van, I think four passengers is a full van considering the tons of gear that skydivers tend to bring. However, if more people want to join us, contact me and we can verify if they can ugprade to a bigger van or 'short bus' type shuttle. Send me or PatrickDugan a PM

That might be what I do too in that exact situation even without knowing about this thread (fully controllable with modified control input), but I would definitely do several VERY aggressive flare tests to make sure the tension knot was tight enough that it wasn't going to slip by accident and suddenly hook me to the ground. Then below harddeck, I'd be gentle, just to be safe. People have been hurt by a tension knot suddenly becoming undone during a flare, causing the canopy to hook into the ground.... There was an actual thread about somebody getting hurt with this.... So this isn't a controversy-free emergency procedure. One not generally recommended by instructors for new jumpers, for sure...

If this happened to my reserve, that's what I'll have to do -- parachutes don't need steering lines to land themselves, rear riser flare practice is handy, but I'm not going to play with a hook knife while a main canopy is spinning me like a malfunctioning amusement park ride... I'm convinced by reading about people running out of time under spinning canopies. I had one experience where one toggle was stuck (it resolved itself), but if this happened again and I was unable to fix this next time: I MIGHT re-stow the other toggle as long as I'm flying straight. It's doable because I had both of my two hands free to attempt that. I would probably give myself about 5 to 10 seconds max to do this (flying straight, slow half-brakes descent -- so not a high speed malfunction) then land using my rear risers. Mind you, this is not the same situation as yours (jammed toggle rather than a tension knot, and I could easily stop my canopy from turning)

I've been jumping approx 100 per year on a regular 9-to-5 income. (trying to ramp that up, maybe 150-200+ if I get to bigway invitationals next year) To do that, a few really good boogie or event weekends make the cut. This summer has not been very good to me due to weather, but I jumped 17 times during a long 3-day weekend of excellent weather. Assuming unpredictability of weather and a winter layover, you essentially have to give up half of your summer weekends to the dropzone and then stay at the dropzone both weekend days. In warmer climates of mostly good weather, a once-a-month dropzone visit (of 2 weekend days) could get you to 100 jumps a year easily. If budget is no constraint, if you have two rigs or pack very fast, or you swap between your own rig and a rental rig, and let ground packers pack for you (A few dollars per packjob), you can easily do about 10 to 15 jumps per day at a busy dropzone that runs back-to-back loads with no propeller cut (or multiple planes with one departing every 15 minutes). If one does RW, and need dirt dives and video debriefs, then a comfortable level is often 4 to 7 jumps per day, depending on the complexity of the RW and energy levels. Now, one can work for the dropzone during weekends of the year, and greatly exceed 500+ jumps while still having a weekday job.

The only time I don't like it is when I'm boarding a Twin Otter while the props are spinning-up and the exhaust pipe is aimed directly at my face, while I'm waiting for the person in front of me to finish climbing in. Jet fuel overdose, anyone?

Your other choices: Appalachian Amusement Center, NC Flyaway, TN Of the two, skydivers seem to generally recommend the Appalachian Amusement Center as being better for skydivers. The other might be worth a visit for fun though. There's also Paraclete XP, which is a much bigger tunnel (16 feet diameter), but seems roughly similiar distance as Skyventure Orlando.

Hey, thanks for the extra info -- very useful to have. The second jumpsuit was now ordered earlier anyway (Before I saw your post). Bev Suit, like my old one, I simply made a modified copy of my 2005 order form. I decided on not getting afterburners, however I substituted polycotton in place of spandex, and added swoop cords and small 'wings' option (3" of baggy fabric). Exact same colors, but with one exception: Grippers are orange instead of yellow, to help identify the two jumpsuits apart without looking too different. My experience with MIA jumpsuit (for three weeks) means I now want to have a spare one, just in case one goes out of commission, or when I have both, I have a choice between a fast and slow one. The truth is, I've recently developed a bad habit: I'm spooked by going low that I recently avoided diving as aggressively because of the fear I didn't have before. Formerly, there was a situation in 2006 where I exited two seconds too early (misinterpreted exit count as a rear float, left before "ready") and still managed to climb up and dock. As well as on a different jump, successfully recovering from 20-feet-too-low situation and still successfully docking. (valuable Guy Wright tip: don't look up at the formation when you go low, keep your helmet down in the airstream, look sideways instead). I only had 175 jumps then during those 20-way jumps... I can no longer do those feats (same jumpsuit) in the last year; probably. I clearly don't have the slow-fall power I used to have! Something is wrong if I can't fall as slow as I used to, so... I have compensated for this by being sometimes overly cautious in many dive approach, and not arching as hard as usual. This was evidenced as me being the last one to dock on many bigways recently. After a dissapointing summer of bad weather that threw a few 0-jump and 4-jump weekends at me, the big weekend's 17-jump weekend I just completed, I'm now docking much more quickly as the practice is definitely helping! With this recent currency, I'm now docking reliably again and more 'normally', but I still have the phobia of getting low that I didn't have before... Currency does plays a big role in improving my stopping power as well as recovering quickly from a minor low situation, but I still feel something has 'changed', which I trace at least partially to the weight gain... And possibly partially to bad slow-fall habits I might have developed. To help work on that more: I have 10 minutes of tunnel at Skyventure Perris scheduled at 8pm September 10th, specifically for slow-fall manoever practice. During 2007, I actually struggled for some time with transitioning from boxman to mantis (since I was doing 4-way in tunnel) that also hurt my ability to fall slow, and I still may have some lingering bad habits that needs to be ironed out. But even when I go back to boxman spreadout/cupping, I still don't have the same slowfall power I had at end of 2006... Practice, practice. (I'm more mantis-focussed now when I try to slowfall, but still need to improve it further) I look skinny, but I noticed I can fall unexpectedly fast when I intentionally arch hard -- I probably could even have reduced or even skipped the 10lbs of lead I wore in the base, if I intentionally arched really hard. All spring/summer long I haven't even arched my maximum possible hard near a formation (except when I'm adjusting my stadium, if I'm still far but too close to resume a dive). If the other jumpsuit arrives, I'll definitely be bringing both to the bigway, along with a sweatshirt -- being more prepared this time! Nontheless, I'll definitely avoid using it at the beginning of the bigway camp, especially if I'm in the base Lots of new gear ordered this year. New Z1 helmet to replace discontinued helmet, and I just got my first audible (a deaf-friendly flashing LED model, an optima) and field tested it during all 17 jumps this last weekend. Also got an Altitrack to replace an Altimaster II Galaxy and get a freefall computer. Unintentionally, this shaved off about 2.5 pounds of gear weight, since the old helmet and altimeter were both made of metal/dense material, while the new helmet/altimeter appears to be made of plastic. To the point I even noticed a sudden minor improvement in my slowfall, but not as good as my 2006 capabilities. Either way, two jumpsuits (one fast, one slow) in my arsenal can't hurt... Especially if my long term jumping career is bigways. I borrowed jumpsuits for the last three weeks, and the experience of jumping three different random jumpsuits helped give me some insight on my fallrate capabilities and how they're affected by loaner jumpsuits, too.. Now it's time for me to lend out my jumpsuits. And thanks again for the tips -- I saved a copy of your tips :-)

Wow, I believe you -- more the reason to pay close attention to opening, even at my current 1.15 wingload.