azureriders

Pro Pack or Pyshco Pack, I do nothing at all special to my pack jobs, no rolling or pushing of the nose or tail. Make sure the slider is quartered and against the stops and shove it in the bag for consistant 750-850ft openings.

350+ jumps on a spectre 230 loading at 1.2+ between jump #30 and #400. Line twist a few times long ago but it always flew straight. One line over, over the left end cell during snivel, cleared itself upon full inflation. One hard opening, hard enough to be noted but I had forgot about it by the time I landed. One spinning opening, the only thing I could find wrong was an end cell closure, a good flare fixed the spin and the end cell. Another spin from a break fire. Jump #249 Broken stearing line just below the cascade, the uper stearing lines then entangled with most of the right line set keeping that side from inflating and the only time I had to cut it away. The replaced stearing line had a somewhat oversized cats eye which I allowed to slip over the toggle gromet and therefore leaving the break unable to be unstowed after deployment. Landed with rear risers and the left stearing line wraped around my hand, and a PLF

A late and dear friend of mine had a saying that I think fits well here. "There may be a better way of killing one self, but I can't think of one right now" G.D. Williams

Thank you, I am glad to hear someone of such numbers that agrees with me on this one. I so often hear "jump run is N, we should track E to W" with out even a mention to the younger jumper that he should 180 from the formation. A side note to the original poster, as with all things envolving planing, this relys on every one doing as they say they are going to do. On a full outter load of many groups we had planned on two jump runs, something that is not at all uncommon at gold coast. The original plan was for Red and I to the the last out on pass 1, then a solo, who was not known at our DZ and planning to pull at 5000 was going to be first out on pass 2, followed by a couple AFF jumps. The solo was not comfortable spotting, and that made the AFFIs not comfortable with an unknown jumper, who can not spot, being in the same airspace as their students. New plan, the solo goes out last on pass 1, Red and I first on load 2. Made the AFFIs much more comfortable and I saw no problem with it. I checked the spot as the solo left and monitored the complete 360 degree go around that toke some time and then spotted the second pass. Now I did not spot the begining of the first pass but from what I could tell from the tail end of it, the second pass was offset at least 1/2 mile and several minutes had passes. Red and I exit, two way belly drills. I video her track and deployment at 4000, then track my self to deploy just below 3000. During my snivel I find a huge student type canopy in our air space, I automaticaly assume it is one of the student that got out behind us. As soon as I have flight control I stear away to give him room wondering how he got so close, then realize that is no student, it is the solo from the first pass. Our final conclusion, although he had left and we could not question him, was that he had pulled MUCH higher than planned and flew over to our Jump run. The whole thing made me rethink my ablity to see all (or atleast most) of the hazards of a particular jump, but the biggest thing I toke away from this was that a second pass can add another variable to the saftey factor. I am not saying they are bad, I like to see them and think they are way better than everone screamming "get out get out" on a single pass, but they do add one more variable. sorry for the length, but I thought this story fit well here.

Brad, Glad to read your story, I heard you mention it that day but never got the chance to get the details. As for the 3 ring release, I think you responded properly, but I guess I should have warned you about the wings. My first and only pc in burble was just after getting my camera suit. Your wings may not be as big as mine but they still increases the size of your burble considerably. I cleared my by collapsing the wings and looking over my shoulder, but the opening was nothing nice there after. See you next time out, Joe By the way, nice picture of Jr.

Yeah, mine too. During AFF on the ride up everyone would look at us like we were nuts. Instead of worried about the dive we were talking carpentry. I work in the Baton Rouge area, he in the New Orleans area and I finished my AFF post Katrina so you can imagine the level of intrest we had in each others work at the time.

I know some people want nothing out of skydiving more than an occasional fun jump, but I think most of us have been faced with the what to do question, four way, camera, CRW, Instructor, etc. Red (Mrs. Azureriders) is coming up on her 100th jump and asking herself that same question. She is very interested in learning Accuracy. Given both our limited experiences, and never being to an accuracy meet, there is a lot of questions to be asked. Where do they still have accuracy meets? Are they all 'style' and accuracy? Any links to some good begining reading material? Any other input on the subject? Our DZO has done some accuracy in the past and has offered to coach her. Any other advice or info would be appreciated.

residential carpenter / general contractor

RR#1 - Broken stearing line just below the cascade. Willing to land on rear risers but the floping uper stearing lines entangled witht he entire right side line groups, I look up to see flapping lines and the whole right side of my canopy fabric flapping in the wind, it was pretty high speed with only three left cells inflated

I have no clue, or atleast not one that I can claim to be valid. I have been told, that ther break setting was used in the original TSO tests, and although it opened in a stall, it still passed all the tests and to reconfigure the break setting would mean to repeat all the TSO test with the new setting, so therefore they just live with it where they are. Now like I said, this is just some garb that I was told, does someone know the truth to this story, I am curious.

I second that

Only have one Reserve ride to date, Smart 220 at 1.25 : 1. High speed mal and somewhat long spot equal no time under reserve for practice flares etc. Luckily I did not need the practice, the thing flew great, was in trim, plained out to a soft tip toe landing, no problems. I have saw a couple of those things open, yikes and no thank you.

Rigging Innovations seems to keep coming up but I talked to them back in the spring about dying a talon clasic. I was told that if they ever saw it, it would be grounded imediately.

Bill, I always (well, now I should say normally) get a lot out of your post, but I have to say that is the most meaningless post I have ever read from you. No, seriously what you have said does make since and I have thought as well about the fact that both canopies have the same number of lines and atachment points, therefor sharing the same force per line no matter the size. But I still don't know???????????????? Quote I don't understand what happens there very wellQuotethe most meaningful part of your post

YES As for why, in my case, if you have a used container with a mini first ring on the harness, and you want large risers, I am way over 200 out the door, there you go, large risers with mini rings. In my wifes case, who has no desire to ever swoop, she wanted the large risers because they outlast the mini risers. Once again a used container with mini first rings so once again, large risers with mini rings. My rig was assembled the way I described, but by a previous owner so I bought it that way. My wifes tylon on the other hand, I called RI and they had the large risers with mini rings in stock and on the shelf.

I can get the canopy in the bag, which ever packing technique I choose to use. However, I still prefer the psycho pack. It is easier, and quicker to bag, but the main reason is that it is easier on my lower back, which is less than in good shape. Controlling a pro pack with my knee, which I can do, is murder on my back. As for the bridal extension, I do use one but as it has been said it is not a must. I made mine so can't help you as to where to find one. Another thing I have been questioned on many times; NO, the bridal extension does not get in the way of pro packing. I pack about 50% of the time and I have never had a packer fuss about the extension, nor had any issues with such pack jobs.

Mick, Yes, that makes perfect sense to me and is almost word for word of how I would have described it. I do understand how the inverse square affects scalling of a loaded object. I own a construction company and have dealt with such several times. I just wanted to make sure there was not something else I was missing. I recieved an IM the mentioned that the 'fill' time of a smaller reserve is much quicker than a larger reserve, and that 'fill' time has a lot to do with the failer of a canopy. Makes sense to me, although I had never thought about it before. So, the educated census seems to be that a smaller reserve is more likely to fail than a larger reserve when they are both loaded at the same weight and deployed at the same fall rate. Glad to know my opinion was right along with the educated guys. Thanks alot, Any more educated input??

Good point Ryoder, as I have not read these documents and agree that I should. Can you, or somebody, tell me where the easiest place to download them would be?

Jerry, My 2 cents agrees with yours. However my question remains, is a 170 sq ft reserve TSOed for 254# and overloaded by 20# more likely to fail than a 220 sq ft reserve TSOed for the same 254# and overloaded by the same 20#? Makes me feel a little better about 'slightly' overloading mine. Thanks for the reply

I know this subject has been covered over and over, but after much searching I have found no thread directly related to my question, so here goes. From my understanding, most reserves out there fall under the TSO-c23(c) which uses the limits of 254lbs and 150 knots. Before I go further, lets forget about the ability to safely land a smaller reserve, and the manufacture max weight. I know these are very important issues, but not the issue at hand. I am wondering about damage to the reserve by a terminal opening. If I am 274# out the door on my Smart 220, am I just as likely to blow it up as I would be on a 170 sq ft reserve. Worded another way, if I am willing to accept the risk factor of jumping a 220, then why would I not jump a 170. After all, they are both TSOed the same. Now before you go blowing a gasket, I have no, I mean NO intention of downsizing my reserve. I am however trying to become a better educated 'voice of reason' amongst the many other anvils that I jump with. To those of you that have been involved in some reserve testing. Have you tested any beyond the TSO requirement and on to the point of destruction, did the smaller ones, of the same design, fail first. If a design did not survive the TSO test, was it necessary to take all sizes back to the drawing board, or only the smaller ones. Ok, I think you get the point of my question. In my quest to become educated, I would also like to know more about the testing phase of reserve design. I have read that the test is taken to 1.2 times the amount of the TSO label. Now, is that 1.2 times 254#, 1.2 times 150 knots, both, either????????? This quest is in response to being tired of hearing "all man, those things are tested way beyond any limits you will put on em" over and over until I am blue in the face.

some older millitary PCs had lines instead of mesh. The mesh serves the same purpose as lines would, with 0 chance of entanglement. Or atleast that is my understanding.

I would have to agree with the others that have said similar to a Triathlon. Although I prefer my spectre over the Triathlons that I have jumped, they do fly similar. On my cutaway, I had just enough time for a long run, short base and final. So there was no time for a lot of (any) practice up high. I flew, and landed, the smart 220 just as if it were my Spectre 230. I was very impressed.

Gretsch, I just read your original post to this thread, please forgive me for not reading through the other 50 some odd post as it is late and know what most of them say anyway. I will however take the time to tell you a story that I think you may like/need to hear. It was a little over a year ago and I was, as I normally am, looking for some new quality employees. One applicant, who went by Rusty, and I had spent quiet some time hashing out some details while his two week notice transpired at his other job. At some point during this time Rusty learned that I was a skydiver and let me know that it was something he always wanted to do. By this time this guy was looking real promising and I offered a tandem jump as part of his signing bonus. Rusty was overly enthusiastic about his bonus. Surprisingly, only two weeks after I hired him, he told me that he would have to reconsider the jump. A couple more weeks and a couple reminders and it became evident that he did not wish to jump, for what ever reason, and the issue was dropped. Fast forward almost one year. It is Saturday morning; I had made a couple jumps before taking a quick break to borrow a phone and call to check on the crew. My foreman tells me that Rusty was a no show no call but all was well otherwise. I thought that odd but continued with my weekend of jumping. Sunday night on my way home, as I come back into service of my phone, I get a voice mail. It was my foreman, informing me that Rusty had actually been killed in a car crash that Friday night. Fast forward several more days and you find me entering the funeral home to pay my respects. It takes awhile to make my way into the chapel, although Rusty and I had only known each other for less than a year, we had many old mutual friends. Once inside I find his wife sitting in the back, one arm still in a cast from the wreck, several pictures of Rusty in her lap. As I wait my turn to speak with her I over hear her saying "That is not my Rusty, this is my Rusty" while pointing to the casket up front and then to the pictures in hand. The wreck must have been bad and she was still shaken, both mentally and physically. Now it's my turn, as I reach her I take a knee to get to eye level. I have seen her many times as she stopped by the job site over the last year, but it was obvious she did not recognize me in a suit. "It’s me, Joe" I say. It takes only a few moments for her to acknowledge my identity. Her first words to me were not "he loved his job", nor "he enjoyed his work". No, her first words to me were "he wanted to jump". I admit, it toke me a second or two to regroup my thoughts, and lucky it did. The words "and I was going to take him" were on the tip of my tongue when she burst out her next statement, drowned in tears, "and I would not let him." Somehow I managed to keep my composure and offer what condolence I could. However, as the gravity of her statement landed, my wife behind me and several others around me simply lost it. Now I come from a backwoods country upbringing where a funeral is a community thing, not just a few family members. Point is I have been to my share of them. We still dig the graves of our family and friends with shovel and pick, simply because it is the last thing we can do for them. I have been a pallbearer more times than I can count. Out of all this, I have never had anything hit me harder than this woman’s grief, for she knew that Rusty missed out on a dream, because of her reservations about his life, that came to pass, jumping or not. I hope this story offers you some help in your decisions, although I don’t know if it would me, if I were in your shoes. For while I believe you should not hold someone’s dreams back, I also believe it is your duty to do every thing in your power to keep your wife safe. As for how my wife handles my jumping, well she normally gives a good hard push just before chasing after me, but that’s just us. Sorry for the long post, but it is a very true story that hit hard with me and I thought I would share it. Again I hope it helps. Blue Skys

Advice: Talk to your instructors Not advice, just my experience: Jump #6 ATP. Hard opening from deploying very very unstable. Broke an A line from the center cell. Canopy had a slight built in turn but passed my controlability check and I landed it. Was told, by my intstructors not yours, that I done fine, both for deploying and landing it. Jump# 249. Broke right steering line just below cascade. uper steering lines rap around most of the right line sets causing the right side of my canopy not to inflate. Yeah, I cut that one, the only one to date.

I do lots of practice up high every time I have a chance. Flat turns, rear riser flares, stalls, etc. It really paid off three weeks ago when I had the same malfunction. I leveled the main, flared with rear risers, PLFed and walked away only a little dirty. Ofcourse I have had a little more time (jumps) to practice than you have, great job of saving your neck.