azureriders

That way, when you have a bazillion jumps and are invited on a hybrid, you will have no clue as to how to get in and dock, but you will be cool anyway, right?

I am working on a small project tonight and need pictures of an exit light set up. Ours has a simple left right toggle switch for spotting, and red light marked open door, and a green light marked exit. What I really need is a picture of both lights off, pic of red light on, and a pic of green light on. However, I can photoshop in/out the ilumination so a single picture would work. If anyone has a head on shot of a set up similliar to this, I would really appreciate it if you could shoot me a copy tonight. I could take the pictures tomorrow but would really like to finish this tonight. Thanks in advance

This goes hand and hand with my opinion of continuing the flight. Although I never said it, a large part of my point is that the jumper without the rig was taking no more risk at all than the two people in the cockpit. Now if you think they should be wearing a rig, well I could be inclined to agree. Sparky, Although I respect your opinion, I don't see the point of stoping the flight, unless once on the ground you also outfit the pilot / copilot with a rig. Ofcourse that is just my opinion.

I couldn't say. Sparky? Correct. Only the PC and I would guess about 1/2 the reserve bridle was out.

I will not argue one way or another about the regs, as I am not qualified to do so, but my safety conscious mind was fine with continuing with the flight. The load was almost full, the camera guy was sitting by the door facing forward, and he rose up at 3000 agl to get a shot of his customer when his reserve fired, probably from being dragged on the back wall. Sitting beside him, also facing forward, I reacted as fast as I could to contain the PC and pull him close to me and away from the door as Leanne quickly shut the door. But IMO the kudos go to JC, who was sitting in front of me facing aft and was the first to see the PC and alert everyone of the problem in time to react. The rig was passed to the front where it was hands on contained by an experience skydiver riding copilot. The video guy is also an AFFI, TM, military free fall instructor and videographer with well over 6000 jumps. He and I both know the owner of the rig he borrowed to be a safe skydiver who maintains his gear well. Although obviously an added risk, IMO the use of a borrowed rig was acceptable. The now rig less ‘passenger’ moved to the front of the plane and was warned to make sure that no student or tandem pax grabbed him on the way out. Once again I will not argue with the added risk of the flight, but IMO (read the jump numbers people, they are low for an opinion) it was acceptable to continue flight, and all in all handled as well as could be expected. A side not for you sparky, Brad is telling you straight. We always check everyone’s chest strap whether asked or not, and if you ask for a ‘pin check’ you are more likely than not to get a full gear check. Brad, say hi to that hot little wife of yours for me.

Gold Coast will do it, or least have done it in the past. However they are a good distance from you.

After rereading my post I can see exactly where you are coming from and there is no need for you to apologize for your concern. The fact that I did this safely, and I do believe it was safe, was not the advise I was trying to focus on, although I can see where my post sounded that way. My opportunity to chase tandems, in my opinion, has way more to do with having a TM mentor willing to teach me the skills needed than assuming that I have above average skills. I do not think that I do, at all. This was the advise that I wanted to focus on and I would ask the original poster to reread my post with this in mind. Thanks FlyinseivLP2 for pointing out my error

I chased my first tandem at around 150 jumps. It was with a tandem master that knew me well, knew my pasion for saftey, and had made several fun jumps with me so he knew my skill (or lack ther of) level. The first jump was very concervative and I kept my distance. It took a few jumps but I gradually worked my way in for some docks. I now have somewhere around 30 tandem chases, on my quest to fly video. So, in my experience it can be done safely as a novice jumper, but it should be done very conservatively. I would not have asked any TM to let me lurk if it would not have been that I knew one very well, and I would not have complained if he would not have been comfortable. I have now also lurked, an docked to, two of the other TMs a time or two, both of which gave me excellent marks. Made me fill good. Keep it safe

Glad I am not the only one that thought all that sounded like a car mfg's\dealers sales pitch

At the begining of each day of jumping I put Red's hair in a ponytail of some sort, sometimes it is plaited, sometimes braided, twisted, 3,4,6,8 strands, or what ever. I am no hair stylist but have worked in the horse tack industry where I learned many different ways of interlacing two or more strands of what ever. I am just glad to hear of someone else who plaits hair.

Why would anyone want to change our great sport of zero liability to match the accommodations that our nation affords a population full of habitual plaintiffs? Would it not make more sense to work towards changing the rest of the nation to match the greatness of our sport?

N/A

I went from a navigator 240 to a spectre 230. I didn't notice a lot of difference in timing but the spectre had a lot more flare power. For me this meant two things during my transition, if I over done my first stage I would find my self going back up, but I also had a lot of extra flare left at the end of the second stage where I really needed it. It didn't take long at all to get used to the spectre and I have had my best landings on it.

I am sure Sue can chime in here with more details, but to my understanding this has already been done

Our friend Sue (Sectaerius), who is at work at the moment, has asked me to post this question for her. Sue is currently a level 3 AFF student, with 9 jumps counting some tandems progression jumps, who plans to very soon come out of a several month lay off. She has had issues before where she felt insecure about having enough strength to flare properly. Now she is finishing up some physical therapy needed for a dislocated shoulder, which was the reason for her lay off. Her therapist has shown a lot of interest in simulating a skydive with her exercises, both to make sure her shoulder is up for the task and to help her with her prior strength concerns. For this simulation he needs to have an estimate of the required pull force to completely flare a canopy. Sue is jumping 210ish F111 student canopies at approximately a .85 wing loading. I am sure everyone could make a guess at the pull force required to flare this, and we would be glad to hear those, but it would be really nice if anyone had any factual data or a link to similar information.

The part of the bridle that was damaged does not pass through or come in contact with any grommet or other hardware. My bridle (which is at the rigger's loft so I can't look at it for a better description) has a link on either side of the bag grommet and therefore there is no travel of the bridle back and forth through the grommet. The tear was about an 1-1/2" from the link on the INSIDE of the bag, between the bag and canopy. I do pack for myself most of the time, and agree with the crowd that thinks I should. I do have lower back problems and when it is bothering me I tend to pay a packer. This particular openning was packed by a packer, the same packer I always use and trust. I don't really think any of it was pack related. I am more for the shit happens category. I sent the rig home with my rigger with instructions to fix the bridle and give my main a complete examination for damage, wear, trim, etc, what ever he could find. He also said that he did not think the tear in the bridle had any thing to do with the spin. I agree from my limited knowledge, but still find it odd that there apears to be no wear in the bridle, just all of a sudden a tear. Thanks for all the info. I was just curious if this happened often with spectres or 7cells. Glad to know that it dosen't, but like someone else said, it was no big deal and very manigable.

My gear is in excellent shape and very well taken care of, however thanks for the concern. I think I was misunderstood about the condition of the bridle. The bridle was in excellent shape, and for that matter still is except for that one spot. There is seriously no wear apparent anywhere on the bridle. The point that is torn looks like you took it between two hands and tore it, like you would a piece of paper. Right next to the tear on either side, and I do mean ‘right’ next to it, there is no wear at all. I do inspect this part of the bridle each and every time I pack. I know this because I always remove the twists of the bridle from around the kill line. As for the PC in tow, I thought the same thing. I was assured later, by a master rigger, that would not have happened even if it would have torn all the way in two.

I had a spinning opening yesterday. The next time that happens will be the second time. Body position was as good as normal I guess. Opening seemed normal until the end cells should have inflated. The left one did but not the right. The canopy made a quick 180. As my body was catching up with it and I was thinking how far off heading that was, the canopy went into a spin to the right. This was when I actually realized the right end cell had never inflated. The spin was fast but not extreme by any means. I checked my breaks and both were still stowed so I released them and went to 3/4 brakes which inflated the cell and every thing was fine. Dumped at 3500 and was full flight and on heading at 2200 so no real problems just a few questions. I have had several end cell closures when I was renting gear, but that was the first one on my spectre. Should I expect a spin the next time it happens? If so, is that common among 7cells or just the spectre? Does this fall under the shit happens category, and have little to do with the end cell closure? I think you get the point, any info would be appreciated. Also, inspection on the ground found that my bridal was torn 90% across its width between the bag and the attachment point, about an 1-1/2" from the grommet on the bag. The kill line was practically all that was holding the bag to the canopy when I landed. I disregarded this as having little to do with the spin, but if you think different...........

Been practicing and everything is going good but I don’t like everything that I am seeing. If I pro pack my canopy and then unpack it by pulling on the bridle until line stretch, the removal of the bag, and keep pulling until the canopy is laying there in somewhat of the cocoon shape that I had it in when you packed it, everything ‘deploys’ in a straight, orderly line. If I do the same test with the psycho pack, everything is pretty much the same until the canopy is completely out of the bag and I keep pulling. As those of you who psycho pack already know, the canopy is pulled in a twisting motion until the bridle attachment point is brought back to the top of the cocoon. My question is, does this matter? Once a canopy is out of the bag, does the PC keep pulling at it until it is say standing vertical in a cocoon shape then begins to inflate? Once it is out of the bag, does it begin to inflate immediately and the pull of the PC insignificant at this time? I think the answer surely lies somewhere between my two exaggerated examples, but to which one is it closer? Or is there something else that I am not seeing that makes this twisting action insignificant?

I graduated a seven jump AFF course on jump number 15, you can serarch my post for the story if you are interested. I know people who have taken twice that many. Hang in there, not everyone gets every level on the first try. Look for the positive. Good pull and canopy control is, I think, in every one of your jumps. The more experieced here will tell you that there is not much more positive than that. You know you can pull, no matter what happens you can pull and fly your canopy, the rest will come, just don't give up.

I come from a fairly religious family, most of which totally support me sky diving. The rest of them I told that I have prayed more since starting sky diving than the rest of my life combined, which is true, and that God and I were ok with it, also true. That pretty much put every body at ease, but I am sure that would not work for everybody.

Well the wave off is in freefall, but the clearing of airspace that I mentioned is under canopy. I clear my air before deployment time before I look at the altimeter the first time. I do however realize that my 1000 to 1100 feet is not all deployment and/or snivel. But it is acurate the way I described it and that is why I described it that way. I do thank you for the information, and all the rest of you. I read the info on PD's website before posting this thread but if anyone had any negative experience with this I wanted to hear it. I think now I will give it a try and I will post back as to how it went. Thanks again and of course if anyone else has something to add, by all means lets hear it.

I have done the search and have got a lot of useful information, but I was hoping to get some fresh input and specifically for my case. So please forgive the new thread on an old subject. The Problem: My Spectre has 400+ jumps and I almost always bag it on the first try so that is not the problem. The problem is my back. Those of you who have lower back problems know that holding any position hurts. Trying to keep my knees 'exactly' where they belong while pushing the canopy into the bag is killing me. The way I pack: I DO roll the nose (remember the back) and all together, not into the center. I do not roll the tail to speak of, just enough to get it to the floor in tack. Then PRO pack it into the bag, and I have tried several techniques of this. My openings: My sequence on my last several jumps goes as follows: Check Altimeter, wave, throw, snivel, slider down, check airspace, and quickly check altimeter. Delta between the two readings is consistently 1000-1100 feet. I do not want to change anything about my openings if I can help it. My Questions about psycho packing: My main question is rolling the nose? I think not, but I have read some that do. What should I expect on my first opening? I do plan to open high of course. As long as I am very careful to get the bridle attachment where it belongs, I should be ok to try this for a weekend of jumps before getting a bridle extension. Right? Also: Any tips would be appreciated. I have read as much as I can find and watched a couple really good videos, but there is no one that I know of on my DZ that psycho packs, so its all on me and you. Although I do plan to ask my rigger and others I trust for their input as well. Thanks in advance. .

Some where between 20-25. DZ was in a transition stage from one location to another so at the time we were taking off from the old place and jumping at the new. Took off with 13.99 mph wind, flew 30m north and got out with, lets just say much faster winds. I was in the second group out so I was only slightly up wind and deployed at 4,000. Turned the 288 manta immediately into the wind for a penatration check and held there while backing over the DZ, and another 1/2 mile to boot. I turned with the wind once, about 1500 feet to make sure I was not missing anything important, ya know, power lines, and then went right back to holding. Finally got forward penatration at about 20ft off the ground. Landed safety in a cotton field right next to a couple guys from the first group out. I didn't find my off landing to be that big a deal, but my hats off to those of you who learned on rounds.

As some others have said it may not be you getting bumped, more a scheduling problem. Winds are a major factor, but something else that I have noticed on our DZ. the regular TM's do not have an AFFI rating, however one of the main AFFI's has a tandem ratting. I have seen more than once when a group of tandems would come in and all but beg to all jump the same load and manifest will ask the AFFI to take one of them so that they have enough TM's. This normally means an AFF student gets bumped a load or two, however they would never let mean being bumped to another date. This may not be the exact situation in your case, but maybe some similiar form of tring to please everyone. If you are truly being bumped because you have already paid and they know they have you tied down, that is just wrong, very wrong.