MagicGuy

It would've been my business if you were on the load with me and in the same airspace as me, actually. Great way to make an example of yourself, bro.

You're absolutely right in the fact that noone is safe, lots of experience or little experience. But someone who has little experience that is flying a canopy that is over their head is putting themselves, and those around them, in far more danger than if they are flying a more conservative wing.

Technically, that is true I guess. Not at my DZ it wasn't. When any newly licensed jumper comes in with their first gear, it gets the one over by the rigger. Quality is looked at, size of the rig on the person, and of course, the SIZE of the canopies. If the rigger/instructor doesn't think that it is the right size, they don't get to jump it, end of story. I think self-policing is great, but there is a certain point where common sense should triumph over someone's stupid decision to jump a canopy that's too small. 1.25 on a Sabre2 170 seems a little high. 30 jumps is nothing on a canopy. Have you had to land out yet? Wait until you have to.. changes things a WHOLE lot. When you suddenly realize that shit, I'm not gonna make the dz.. tensions are high and all of a sudden you are saying FUCK. Or like the other poster said.. getting cut off on final (which WILL happen, just a matter of time if you keep jumping). What about if you can't make the pattern and have to land downwind? You are going to be hauling ass.

With the recent discussions of jumpers that have low jump numbers jumping canopies that are way too small for them, it makes me wonder - where are the S&TAs?! Maybe my opinions are tainted, or maybe I just got lucky and 'grew up' at a DZ where high wingloadings are not even an option for lower experience people. I weigh 150lbs with gear on. When I showed up with a 135 at 100 jumps, I basically got told "sorry, but no way you are jumping that". This is after getting through AFF with no failures. After standing up, literally, EVERY landing up to that point (100 jumps). In the words of some of the recent posters, I could've been called a "natural". My wingloading on that 135 would've been 1.1 something. Sure, a 135 is a small canopy regardless. But these jumpers are coming on here and talking about their 1.3 wingloadings when they have between 100-200 jumps. Spectre 170s with 12 jumps?!? I have 400 jumps. I have taken 2 canopy courses. I have been swooping for 200 jumps and getting coached by local guys. I've taken a coach course. I've done CReW, tons and tons of hop and pops and high pulls to focus on canopy control. I placed 3rd place in an accuracy competition. I have only not stood up 2 landings ever. My wingloading is barely at 1.1. (Sorry to use myself as an example) So my question is.. why are these S&TAs allowing this stuff to happen? With the majority of fatalities and injuries resulting from canopy incidents and that number not really going down much, you would think that the S&TAs would be enforcing wingloadings a lot more with these lower experience jumpers. Is this acceptable? Sorry for ranting, but as a person who loves this sport more than anything, I hate seeing this shit. Allowing someone with low experience to get away with high wingloadings is just setting them up for rapid downsizing and who knows what else in the future. Not to mention that it is a completely preventable thing. Opinions?

Oh man.. I know you know this is a joke but I feel compelled to say it. Please don't do that!!! Thought the video was pretty sweet. The audio through the helmet was awesome. I agree - that on tandem videos would be a moneymaker for sure.

That was good!!

Not a good idea.

Just tried iSquint. Worked perfectly! Wish I knew more about converting to mp3 stuff.. I'm actually happy to know that I can actually figure out iSquint. I suck with computer stuff..

Awesome. Thanks, exactly what I was looking for!

Joe Weber bought my jump ticket, flew, just me, to 13K in the Otter, and then packed for me. Now that's what I call a 100th jump!! I actually did my first ever high pull down in Lake Wales for my 100th. Not really conventional, but hey, I had a friggin' blast. Congrats on your 100th, bro!

Anyone know of a video converter, for a Mac, that will convert mpgs, .wmvs etc into .mp4 format so I can upload onto an iPod? Oh.. free software programs are AWESOME Thanks!

Take your concerns to the DZO, S&TA or the DZ manager. If they think that it is a problem, they will take care of it. 80 jumps? Geez.. that is pretty ridiculous.

No sense in trying to talk sense to virgin burner. There were other threads where he was gloating about his rebelling and other stupid shit. This kid is obviously just another case. At least we can say we tried though. I'm happy knowing that I tried my best to not sound like a hypocrite or a douchebag when giving advice. If they don't wanna listen, screw them. Let all of their co-jumpers know that they are reckless and we'll see how much fun they have doing solos for the rest of their skydiving careers.. which by the looks of it, won't be much longer. I don't get how so many people don't realize that they will receive so much more respect from people in this sport if they are just willing to listen to people that have experience.

Man, I feel guilty responding to this thread because I am horrible about cleaning up my gear. I hardly ever pack after the last jump of the day.. my rig sits, quite regularly, over night in the hangar, unpacked.. yeah. My helmet, goggles, alti and jumpsuit don't really get much better treatment. I do have times where I feel I should be more protective of my shit. I just HATE to pack at the end of the day, although like another poster said, in the morning and hungover sucks just as bad. I live at the DZ a lot during the season so bringing it into the trailer just doesn't happen. I'm around so much and just figured that all of the regulars that I know are around would never take it, and probably keep an eye on it as I do with their gear. At the end of the weekend everything comes home with me. And I NEVER leave my rig in the car, ever.

I probably should've put in my post that I would only do this with jumpers that already have their A Licenses. So yeah.. no pre-A license 3 ways

I'd do it. I wouldn't call it a "coach jump" really - I wouldn't be charging anything to do this so it would just be another jump for me. I would make the dive-flow easy so it could be a successful skydive. I do this type of thing all the time to help low time jumpers gain some skill and confidence. It's always a great time.

Asking questions isn't pissing anybody off. I think the thing that irritates a lot of us on here is exactly what Fast said - you making a statement, after talking about swooping and your basically ludicris wingloading at such a low number of jumps, which is supposed to justify the fact that you are putting yourself into sketchy situations that you shouldn't be in with 100 jumps. I've already given my advice. I just have one question. Do you honestly think that a 1.7 WL, at 100 jumps, is safe? What do the people at your DZ think about that?

Well, while I'm not a gymnast, I have been able to do flips since I was 7 years old and I've stood up all but 2 of my 400 jumps. The first one was around jump number 50 where I hit some kind of turbulence at about 10 feet that collapsed my canopy. The other was around jump 300 during an accuracy competition where I was too focused on landing on the target than I was about not doing maneuvers too low where I can't recover from them. Everyone's different. Some people get the whole flaring/timing process sooner than others can, and can adapt to different weather conditions easier than others. I still think canopy skills like being able to fly a predictable pattern and having overall awareness of canopies in the sky are just important, if not more important, than consistent stand up landings. Know how to do a good PLF and try to get someone to tape a handful of your landings. Watching yourself from an outsider's point of view can do wonders for your learning process.

I haven't made a ton of downsizes since I started. I'm actually in the process of downsizing right now. I started off, as a student, jumping Navigators ranging from 260s down to the 200 we had. From then I jumped a PD190 9 cell a handful of times, a Spectre 170 a handful of times, and then bought my own gear which was a Triathlon 160. My WL on the Tri 160 wasn't even at 1:1. The biggest difference in those initial downsizes I noticed were mainly the rate of turn being faster and having slightly more speed on landing, which to me, made landing easier and more predictable. I had jumped a 135 Hornet before I ever jumped a 150. It was a pretty noticeable change for me on those first few jumps, but I wasn't scared or nervous. I quickly jumped up to a Pilot 150 and have been jumping that for close to 300 jumps now. I have also jumped 135s and 150s (both Sabre 2s) and a 120 original Sabre. I haven't really noticed much of a difference going from the 150 even down to the 120. Actually, the biggest difference I noticed in the lower range was a Pilot to a Sabre2 in the same size. Pilots turn a whole lot faster and I think are faster flying canopies overall - the recovery arc is just a hard thing to have when you are learning how to swoop. I would definitely be happy where you are now, if not considering going up a size or two. Focusing more on basic skills and building a strong foundation on those types of skills and drills will only benefit you in the long run when you are ready to start working on how to swoop. By the way.. I started touching my front risers at about jump 200. No turns, just double fronts on final. I still don't touch my rears (on landing anyways..) and have only just recently started building up a turn bigger than 90 degrees. Swooping is no joke and at around 100 jumps, I think other skills will be better for you to focus on. Stay safe man.

Very nice! I really like the camo. I'm surprised, but I like it a lot. When I get a second I'll post my Wings. I love it.. it's about the same size as yours, as well. Only a few years older - and about 300 more jumps, but it looks brand new! Enjoy it.

I'd say that's an understatement...

It's not my canopy any more Yeah, the fabric sticks IMO. I have taken it out of the d bag and it just stays in the s-fold shape, for as long as I had left it there. The fabric literally had to be pulled apart at times. The camera guys I mentioned is getting old and kind of raggy. He asks me to roll the nose and I do - sometimes it works, sometimes he gets slammed. I recommended he get the canopy checked out. I never rolled the nose on mine. Only got slammed twice, but the openings were never consistent. The Spectre 230 was just slippery as hell and BIG. I think the container was a tad small for it, too. It was a bitch to pack. Oh, and the d bag was one of those split ones.. can't stand them.

What the FUCK! I reported that ad as a scam because I have seen that rig around my dropzone ALL THE TIME. I guess it didn't get reported in time. That sucks. I knew right away, even if I hadn't seen the rig, that it was phoney. Price was WAY cheap, the Cypres was practically new, and the guy wasn't asking much for it.

I've actually had owners of Spectres tell me to leave the nose pretty exposed and not to roll the tail too tight because the openings were TOO long. I have never heard anyone tell me they got slammed by their Spectre, or ask me to roll the nose. Usually people are pretty vocal about how they want their canopy packed. I've gotten to the point where if they don't ask me to do anything special, they get the same packjob as anyone else. Rare occasion - original Sabres. However, I've found sometimes that rolling the nose doesn't help anything. Triathlons.. are just weird. I jumped one for about 80 jumps and never knew what it was going to do on opening. One of the camera guys that I pack for always asks me to roll the nose on his. I sometimes think that Gelvenor fabric can cause weird openings. The fabric can get so sticky that I think it starts to open, unsticks and slams the hell out of you. They are easy canopies to pack, though. That's for sure.. Just to throw it out there, hardest canopy I've ever packed was a Spectre 230 that had MAYBE 10 jumps on it. Man, I struggled forever with that canopy. It sucked!!!

It's great that you want to pack man, and that you want to contribute. You are kind of in the situation I was in this year. I started jumping last July and did a crapload of jumps in my first year. Our rigger, realizing that one, I could pack well and two, with all of my jumps, it would be nice to have some income on the side to try to balance things out.. asked me if I would like to help packing. Of course, i said yes. I started out, which I think was awesome, by learning everything I could about our student rigs and canopies, and by teaching students how to pack parachutes. It is a lot of fun, extremely rewarding but challenging at the same time, and great practice. Those canopies are large, they have to be packed precisely but efficiently, and the students have to have confidence in their gear. Teaching students how to pack is one of the hardest but most rewarding things I have ever done. From there, I started committing to one or two days a weekend to really bust ass and pack all day. I never learned tandems, mainly because of the size and me being a fairly small dude. But I packed experienced and student rigs all day for 1-2 days a week, depending on how busy it is. I'll tell you this.. Packing is a tough job!!! It starts taking it's toll on you from the very first parachute of the day. Constant bending over, lots of brutal stress on your knees, callouses and pain on your hands.. it is not fun, or easy. But if you get good at it, you can make some serious cash, and people really do have more respect for you (in my opinion). If you are serious about it, all I can say is practice, practice and practice some more. Familiarize yourself with as many different rigs as you can. A lot of rigs close in the same order, but the occasional Racer can throw off your whole routine. Same thing goes for canopies. Learn which canopies have 7 cells and which have 9. If someone has an original Sabre, recognize that they are known for slammer openings and that some people may want theirs packed differently. Definitely get as much practice and experience as you can. Ask questions, LISTEN to people, and you'll be fine. Every little detail like this can help you be a safer, and more efficient packer. Good luck and have fun man.