Zennie

K' that wins the Gonads of Steel award! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Just got back from visting my folks in Indy. On Thursday we went out to Aerodrome in Richmond (after a brief detour due to bad road signs and construction). Things were a bit slow, but I got a really good vibe right off the bat. I convinced my Dad to do a tandem jump, and so he, I and his TM, John, went up in the Cessna (my beer jump from anything smaller than an Otter). Got to 11K, I climbed out on the step, waved bye bye and did a nice little sitfly. Got under canopy and looked up to see my Dad & John under canopy. So with no further adieu I high-tailed it for the ground (*huge* landing area, BTW, you'd have to work to land off). Dad came down all smiles. Right after we got down, the Otter pulled in for the weekend. So I packed up and hopped on with John and a 4-way group that had filtered in. John & I started with a tracking dive and then went to a sit (me)/head down (John) dive. Lots of fun! Only got to do two jumps, but I had a great time on those two and a really nice time getting to know all the folks there. Very friendly and safety-conscious. Really good vibe dropzone.

Only other doggie safety issue that comes to mind would be a biffed landing. Definitely wouldn't want to roll over the top of the little guy. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I don't want to get too bogged down in this, because I seem to just dig myself deeper, but I went back and re-read your story and this one. I got the sense that things happened very quickly (which was my original impression) in your case and in this case things progresssed more slowly. Nevertheless, let's assume for the moment that they were both the same. I don't think either of you did anything wrong. You both handled it appropriate to your experience and comfort level. You're both here to talk about it and that's what matters. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Just got home and pulled out Poynter & Turoff's book to see what they said on the subject: "You must avoid power lines at all cost; the danger is just too great." So the consensus appears to be low turn over power lines. Man I hope I never have to make that choice. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Agreed. Perhaps I am underestimating the likelihood of getting electrocuted. BTW. Is the person you know Mad Dog? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I bopped over to wreck to see what people have said about low turns vs power lines go and the consensus seems to be to opt for the low turn. Man, I dunno, I still don't like that. About the only time I can conceive of doing a low turn would be if it was either that or get creamed by a semi truck. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

OK, I can't agree with this part. And I think The Parachutist's Handbook also mentions not to turn low (don't have it handy at the moment). It was drummed into my head to never-ever-ever-ever do a radical low turn. A radical low turn is guaranteed to do serious, serious damage, if not kill you. Again, another situational thing, because we're talking about two really, really bad choices here, but I think I'd take my chances with the lines rather than pounding in. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Man, between you and Merrick, I seem to be pissing everybody off lately. Your situation, and the one we're discussing here are completely different. This is all situational. That's what I'm trying to get across. If I were in your situation I would have done exactly the same thing. You were in a hard spin. You can't work that. Adios main! Hello reserve! Please, don't second-guess yourself. You did the right thing (given what I've read). I'm only pointing out that a lineover that's not spinning, that's under control, is not necessarily an immediate cutaway situation. Some are fixable. Some are not. Your situation was unfixable so you did the right thing... you got rid of it. Don't beat yourself up. I should know, I'm just now getting over beating myself up over a close call I had 30 jumps ago. You seem like a very knowledgable, heads-up skydiver. You encountered a problem, you executed your emergency procedures. You're here to talk about it. That's what counts. And again, if you don't feel comfortable working a mal, by all means cutaway and deploy your reserve. I'm not saying that's wrong. This sport is very situational and dependent on comfort levels. There is no right or wrong way of doing things (other than not pulling -- I think we can all agree on that). Look at the debates on RSLs and Cypres. I just see this as an information exchange. That's all. Please don't be offended. This is how we all learn. You have no idea how much I've picked up from reading the debates on this board. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey HH. Does this mean that any reviews that we've done but which haven't shown up have been lost? ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I wouldn't still have a lineover at 1000. I'd have a landable main at 1800 or it's going bye-bye. 1800 is my hard deck. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Definitely agree with you. But not all of us would work the lineover first for financial or ego reasons. For some of us, it is for safety reasons that we're reluctant to just chop and go to reserve right off the bat. I'm with Aviatr in my philosophy. My reserve is my absolute last resort. It's my last chance. There's no other backup. I'm only going to deploy it if there's no other option available to me. So if I deploy my main into a lineover, and I'm not going into a spin. I'm going to try to clear it. I'll try working the brakes first to pop it out... which works a lot of the time (according to folks who have had this happen). If that doesn't work I'll cut the brake lines and come in with rear risers. Only if I go straight into a spin, or if the above two measures don't work am I going to get rid of my main. Again, not because of ego or money, but because I believe it's safer to try and land my main. If something else happens (God knows what) I'll still have my reserve available to me. Each person has to do what is right for them. I view the cutaway/reserve like an ejection seat. I'm not going to do it unless I'm in an unrecoverable situation. If I am, damn straight I'm gonna use it. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Easy paisano, I wasn't making a determination one way or another about your proposed wingloading (and quite frankly I didn't run the numbers on yours). I'm just telling you where I'm at and my thinking as far as my canopy upgrade plans. Your mileage may vary. I just know at my current 1.23 loading I've got plenty of performance and a fair amount of forgiveness. If I were to downsize my next size would be a 135, which would load me around 1.37. No way I'm ready for that yet. Plus there are differences between styles of canopies at the same wingloading. A Sabre 150 and a Stiletto 150 do not fly the same and are not equally forgiving. Like I said, I'm not passing judgment on you one way or another. I've never seen you fly so I have nothing to go on. I'm just passing on some considerations I've made in my canopy upgrade decisionmaking. The only other thing I'd pass on is to ask your instructors or other people at your DZ who are familiar with your flying. I did. If they think you can safely go to a 1.3, then chances are you can. As far as the actual canopy goes, I'd wait for the next generation Sabre & Safires to come out & demo 'em both. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Checkout Pammi's post count. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Eh, what the heck, I'll throw in my $0.02 here. I have 71 jumps as of today. That ain't many. At least 50 of those are on a Sabre 150 (rental and my own) that I load around 1.2. I stand up the vast majority of my landings in all conditions. I've played with the front riser loops (up higher). I do 90s, 180s & 360s and measure the altitude drop for each one. Bottom line... I think I'm a decent canopy pilot, and I have nowhere near explored the full performance range of this canopy. And I still make mistakes and learn new tricks (take a wrap on the toggles on no-wind days, look out toward the horizon when flaring, stuff like that), you will too. At least when I screw up with this canopy the worst I end up with are some bruises & dirt on my clothes. There's no rush to downsize (unless you're loaded < 1.0, then maybe try a 1.1-1.2 loading -- I've found 1.2 has better drive through turbulence for me, while still being a conservative wingloading). I may in fact change canopies at some point, but it will be a light elliptical (Spectre, Safire, Sabre II) of the same square footage. And my main reason is that I'm really paranoid about the Sabre's opening characteristics (though I pack myself pretty nice openings). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I talked to the Bossman about this a while back and the problem is server loading. So here's what I've done.... You'll need an IRC client such as mIRC to do it.... I've set up a channel called #skydiving on an EFNet server. So log onto any EFNet server (there's a whole list of 'em in mIRC) and /join #skydiving I'll be there (but I may be away from my computer). We can arrange it so someone is always camped there to keep the channel open. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

FWIW, I don't have a problem with what you did. I've talked to my instructors before about lineovers and they all try to clear 'em... usually with success. The big considerations are altitude & how bad your canopy was spinning. Your altitude seemed OK, so the big question would be how bad the spin was. You definitely don't want to wait until the forces prevent you from reaching your handles. So I'd prolly try to clear it until I reached my hard deck or I started feeling the canopy going into a hard spin. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I thought about this early on. You could easily do this in a full face. My only problem would be that I'd be so busy jamming out that I wouldn't hear my ProTrack going off. On a more practical front, friend and I have mulled over taking two cell phones up with the wireless headsets so we can talk in freefall. It'd be really good for RW.... "Um, Ted? Just WTF are you doing?" ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Hey! Paula! You made it over here! Good to see ya! This board is a little more "lively" and everybody is extremely helpful. Look forward to more posts from you! Sorry, can't help you on the big way stuff. My biggest is a 10-way. Plus you have just a few more jumps than me so far be it for me to offer "advice" (not that I have any on the subject anyway, other than stay calm). ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

This is the *ahem* precursor to the second time I've been to a dropzone other than the one I learned at. I went to Indianapolis to visit my parents and decided to try out Aerodrome on the recommendation of a fellow DZ.com-er. The staff is extremely friendly and safety conscious. I was there on a Thursday and things were kind of slow, but everyone I met and jumped with were really nice and very accepting of me. I didn't detect any hint of sky-godness in the people I met. It was also a special day because I brought my Dad to do his first tandem. He had an absolutely wonderful experience. We both had complete confidence in the equipment and competence of the staff. The airport is huge. I can't imagine landing off. Nice facilities. Big hangar with a large packing area. It's not air-conditioned, but then summers in Indiana are nothng like summers in Houston! :) If you're in the area, definitely check them out!

Heh, I suppose "no" would have been her reaching over & pulling his little silver handle. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

OMG that was hilarious! And I know it was dead-on cuz it pissed my wife off. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Dude, you really ought to talk to a doctor. Our friend Brit thought she had a mild concussion from hard openings and it turned out she had meningitis. If they hadn't caught it right away she could have died. I'm not saying you have it, but if you've had a headache for ten days now, that's not normal. If for no other reason than peace of mind (and maybe a few good drugs) get it checked out. OK, I'll stop being Mom now.... ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

I wasn't able to jump at all last weekend & I'm out of town this week (change of plans, looks like I'll be jumping at Aerodrome this week), so this is the first I've heard of this. Send my best wishes to whomever it was. ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie

Congrats dude! ------------ Blue Skies! Zennie