azureriders

I think his example puts him long and up wind and he was taught to use his breaks to slow his descent and use the wind to bring him back and his question was in this same example could he use front risers to zip on back? If that truely is your question then I am sure some of the more qualified will chime in a correct the rest of my post, but the answer is no. Front risers are going to get you 'down' faster, they do not increase ground speed, unless you recover from a front riser induced dive. If you are long and up wind going to front risers IMO will only cause you to land farther out, someone correct me if I am wrong. The canopy I jump seems to glide better than it floats (depending on the amount of wind), so on a long upwind spot I come back on rear risers, triming for the best glide ratio. You can experiment with that also.

Exactly Don't want to argue with you given my jump numbers, but going to half breaks is exactly what I was taught to reinflate a canopy. Increases the angle of attack and allows more air more quickly into the nose (you would need more air speed to get more pressure). Is that not why we pack our canopies at half breaks? Someone correct or support me please.

I probably worded that so that you could take it out of context. The discusion was what to do if you found yourself very low with a SOS or dual cutaway rig pulling a streamer. Now I know the correct thing to do is to never find yourself at that point, but just for the sake of argueing lets say you were. The AFFI's comment was to the effect that if the streamer was not going to inflate and going to let you burn it in, you may as well pull the reserve handle, which will cut away your main on this type of rig, and hope for the best, however under 500' the streamer is probably going to do you more good than anything you get out of pulling the reserve and loosing the main. I have had several long and in depth conversations with several instructors, one S&TA and a few well respected DZ.COMers about this type of rig. It is designed so that if a student freaks out and only pulls one handle then both actions are performed, cutaway and reserve deployment. Like with any good thing there seem to be drawbacks as well. IMO one draw back for this rig is there is no real answer to the question above, other than the obvious don't be there and have a plan and stick to it, even if there is no right plan

I actually suggested putting a RSL ball on these rigs. I think this would be a good idea for a licensed jumper who is jumping these rigs, such as the rental gear that I am jumping, but may be complicating things for the student??????? but what do I know

As councilman24 said, in the plane I only check main pin as well as looking at anything I can see but the one that I am most meticulous on is that first gear check of the day. I know, I should be on that one but I am still on rental gear (not for long ) and that first gear check gets my full attention, includeing pulling the bridle out to show that it is free from pin to BOC and sometime repacking the PC if I don't like the way it looks. Also, even though I am cleared to pack at my DZ, supervised by a rigger of course, I still pay for the last pack of the day. I take as good of care of the rig as I can, but I just find it a better service to the guy that is going to jump it next to have it "professionaly" packed.

I am going to say that this is a little off topic, because I see you point and understand your question, and the choice of words is not the topic of this thread. I was taught at a very young age that experience is something that can neither be given nor nor taken. You can teach someone anything you want, but you can not give them experience. You also can not say that a 100 jump wonder is not experienced when you know that he has the experience of 100 jumps, you can not take that away from him. I think a better wording of the question would be how much experience is required to be a proficient skydiver? IMO that changes nothing in this thread, is the experience of jump numbers alone enough, or the experience of cutaways, or jumping with pros? What experiences and how many is required to make one proficient? Again IMO, your question and my rewording of it are great questions. I may not have the experience in skydiving to be rewording your question, but I feel the same exact way about all things that I am involved in, and at some of those I am very proficient

that is equal to 189.39 miles, I take it you was useing a bail out bottle

"Be the ball, just be the ball" *in a little ant voice*

very similiar to the way I was taught. I flake the tail before putting the D's on the C's. When I am pulling packing tabs I trace each seem all the way to the tail, that way when the canopy is straight and read to fold, the tail is already flaked, you just have to keep it that way. As you suggested, it is neccessary to leave the breaks unstowed for the tail to be flaked this way.

The numbers I gave were scratch, but I was topped out and not getting any better, got boring at that point. I have atleast four good balls still in my gear bag, with all the extras. The wife just came home an hour ago from her state tournament. She throws a 180ish average and is currently on level 4 AFF, thinks she can do both oh well edit: I went through the spinning thing too, hang in there, it will come

From my understanding, someone please correct me, there are two types of flat packing. 1) stack packing, that I understand to be similiar to pro packing, just on the ground but I have never saw this nor know how to pro pack so I don't totally understand it and 2) roll packing, where the canopy is on its side and rolled from the nose and the tail untill they meet in the middle. The way I was taught: canopy on its side, roll the nose into the center cell and then 'fold' the canopy from the nose and the tail, stacking the line sets until they meet in the middle, then placeing the tail on the nose I don't know but one way, nor the proper terms for all the other ways so someone please fill me in. The way I was taught seems to give me good openings on the Navigator that I have been jumping and always basicaly on heading as I mentioned earlier.

The worst part is... first 3 attempts at level 6 were all on video, I could see what I was doing wrong and I still did it on the next jump; needless to say I was getting very frustrated with it and actually did consider going bowling. After my first jump with the second instructor I felt alot better and more relaxed. Best part of my last jump was the comment that on my slow motion back flip I was had a very stable head down position, at least until I realized I didn't finish the flip (took about 2 seconds for that to sink in... ) I have been bowling. Bowled for serveral years. High game 279, high three game serries 683, bowled the abc nationals two years and countless other tournaments all over the south, quit with a 183 average (I am sure some reading this can beat my stats) Point being: bowling is not what it is craked up to be so I took up skydiving, so am I backwards???

I am no expert by any means, I have only been taught one way to pack and that is a flat roll pack. The packers at my DZ claim to have made some simple changes to a standard roll pack. As I only know their way, I could not tell you what these changes are, but I have never had a 90 degree off heading opeing on one of my pack jobs.

I thought the USPA keeps a list of Insurance companys that will cover skydivers, correct me if I am wrong. Hope you and William are doing good, Yall are mentioned often around the DZ, and it's all good too, I promise

I grew up sewing. My mother owned and operated an upholstery shop where I worked as a kid and have since spent some time working in a saddle shop. You should see the looks on people’s faces when my wife, who learned to sew after we were married, asks me sewing questions. Better yet is their expression when I answer the questions. I just think it is cool to be in the skydiving community where my sewing skills are considered cool

Good point, I should have said second man made altimeter. I am working on training my eyes on every jump. They are getting there, I feel good that I would know to pull before my hard deck, but doubt that it would be 'on time'.

I bought a helmet that came with a bag of goodies. Included was an Altimaster V. Looking for some advice, is this thing fit for a secondary altimeter or should I toss it. It fills cheap, way cheaper than anything I have saw from Alti-2 before. It is plastic, but has no adjustment knob like the plastick Altimaster II. It adjusts like a Galaxy. The plastic construction gives the adjustment a bouncy, clicking feeling, not at all smooth. Other than newer better designs, is there a reason this thing is no longer in production?

That only covers step one "get a rope" it totally leaves out step two "find a tree"

ha, I have my water training and don't even have an A license. It was offered, I was there, so why not.

I have had, and Red is having, several of my AFF jumps videoed that way. The instructor wears a camera and uses it for debriefing at no charge. I normally give the editing guy a tip to have him put it on a disk for me anyway. First off, you must have an instructor that shoots video. At my DZ, if you are haveing trouble with something and they are not super busy, it is easy to find one of the vediots willing to shoot your jump for cost. His jump ticket + pack + tip to the editer = apox $35 and the DZ dosen't mind not making a cut as it is in effort to fix your problem.

Everyone has plenty of Blonde jokes and this one is very good, but do you know what you get when you take a blonde and remover her impulse control? A RED HEAD

I graduated AFF on jump 15! Why so long, all because of spinning, I had no other issues. However, my instructors spent so much time teaching me how to turn, in order for me to know how not to turn, that now with less than 30 jumps I can (not that I claim to be good at it) turn, turn in a track, turn in a dive, turn with my legs, and yes I can not turn when I want to. Point is, every cloud has a silver linning and yours will too, you just got a find it. I also think you should read the exit order and seperation articles in the saftey section of this site, or do a search for such in the forums. Horizontal seperation is where its at. Not that I am saying it is ok not to follow the plan, but I was taught that if you could not get stable in 5 seconds you should deploy. I pulled on my 6th jump at 10 grand, jumping from 14. I was spinning so fast my arms and legs where being pulled out flat. There is no way that I believe I could have stayed conscious until 5500', where I was planed to pull. Please check my jump #'s before listening to me, and as everyone else has said, talk to your instructor. Hang in there, its all worth it.

It did feel good as many of you have said. He fixed it, that was good enough for me. No beer needed, as I don't drink the stuff. Yes, I have been told that you can not be a skydiver if you are not a beer drinker, but I am tring really hard. The only thing I think anyone owes for haveing someone look out for them, is the same in return.

Bill, I will agree with you that simplicity is reliable. I have heard you use the comparison of your drouge release to this issue several times. My question is, if the drouge release would be in plain sight so that it can be checked by the jumper prior to ea dive (the way I check my double ended three ring release loop) would the rate of drouge rlease failures still have increased by a factor of 10? As for the duel cutaway system, I have never jumped anything else and have no problem jumping it again. As I have explained in other releated threads, I found the double ended loop on my first gear check in the FJC, but only because I am the type to research, study and prepare myself before any class or activity. Although I am comfortable with the gear I jump, my questions to the instuctors and DZO's that use the dual cutaway rigs are these: How can the student be taught to do a gear check if he don't understand the gear? If you teach him how the gear works so that he can understand it, now you have let him in on the secret that either handle should save his life, does that not negate the whole, no transition to new gear thing? Another question that I have asked before with very little answer: what do you do in the more shit is better than some shit sittuation? As Bill mentioned, if the three ring fails to release, you can not dump the reserve giving you more shit for drag. Same thing under 1000', no time for a cutaway, but no way do dump more shit with out cuting away first. Now I know this and I still don't mind jumping this gear, but the difference is I KNOW THIS. What about the student that does not know that he is jumping a dual cutaway system, who comes home and reads DZ.com and finds a catchy phrase like more shit is better than some shit, or reads the SIM which states clearly that you should not cutaway bellow 1000' but instead dump your reserve. Now the SIM also makes reference to the SOS system in that same statement, but you have not told the student that his reserve handle is in fact a SOS handle so he dismisses that bit of info. He don't know what a SOS is, but surely if he was jumping one his instuctor would have told him during that speech about how important it is to understand your gear. I am not against the dual cutaway system, however I am against anyone straping a lifesaveing device to my back and not giving me proper and thorough training on exactly how it works. There are several questions above and more that could be asked, and I don't claim to know the answers, just that I don't agree with the way these rigs are curently being used. However, I am not an instuctor and don't believe that those of you who are need my aproval As for the three ring release failure, or no time to cut away: I have heard that there was a SOS type left MLW handle made that had a pud on the end of the reserve cable itself. If you pull silver it activated both the three ring and the reserve, but if you pull the pud it would pull the cable through the silver handle which is still in its pocket and deploy the reserve only. Do any of you that use the dual cutaway or SOS know if these were in fact made and if so are they still in production and where? Not saying that this would be good for students, probably just complicating things. I know this is getting long but one more example. I had an instuctor, (who I had just met, used to work there, filling in on a busy day, etc etc), brief me for level 6 AFF. He was going over EP's with me and asked questions to make sure I understood both the decision altitude and hard deck, then asked what I should do if I found myself under 1000' with an unlandable canopy (yes, this was followed by a speech about how this could not happen if I was doing what I was supposed to be doing). The answer he was looking for was to 'just pull silver' yet here I stand wearing a dual cutaway rig. I mentioned this to him and he backed up and probably gave me the best set of answers to the above questions that I have heard so far, but what if I had not known that I had a dual cutaway rig????????????????? Sorry about the long post, but this is something I have been working on since I have been jumping. I like the dual cutaway or SOS rig. I have even proposed some modifications to it. I have presented these mods to Bill Booth, Slotperfect, Billvon, and others who have all given me feedback, a lot of which was very positive. In conclusion, I am begining to understand and agree with Bill Booth that this rig is too complicated. Where Bill says the rigging is complicated and therefore less reliable, I am saying that it is complicated because there are so many unanswerable questions surronding it. Two different anologies, both complicated.

I agree, but like I said before, I know this guy well enough that I could have snatched him around however and he would have been ok with it.