azureriders

It has been pointed out to me that the rig I jump is not what some of you may call a true SOS. The gear that I jump: has a red cutaway handle with a set of cut away cables to the 3 ring has an RSL has a reserve silver D that has both a reserve rip chord and a second set of cut away cables to the 3 rings. while this may not be a true SOS, the question is still the same because I have no way of deploying the reserve without first cuting away the main.

Ok, I see now that I was a little uninformed that a SOS rig had only one handle, that makes your post make sense to me, but then leads to the student have to make a transition in EP's when he buys his own gear, not that I am, nor qualified to, saying that is a bad thing. The gear that I jump: has a red cutaway handle like most sport rigs has an RSL has a reserve silver D that has both a reserve rip chord and a second set of cut away cables to the 3 rings. We are taught our EP's just as I explained earlier, (look right, grab right, look left, pull right, thumbs in and pull left.) but after I descovered the cut away cables on the reserve D I was basically told that if a student was to freak then hopefully he would pull atleast one handle and either one should do. I first read about a SOS system here on DZ and thought that my rig was what was being described, I see now that a SOS is basically my rig without the red pillow, or am I still missing something. Now I will speak to my DZO again, but I would now think that their stand is to gain the benefits of the SOS without the student haveing to change their EPs when buying a rig I have another SOS related question that I started a thread about in S&T. Being that you are familiar with the set up I would really appreciate any input there as well Thanks, Joe

Dont mean to high jack this thread but it seems to me that flat packing has a bad rep on here and amoung several up Jumpers that I have met. However, some things I have heard from other sources about flat packing: 1) It is virtualy impossible to pack a line over 2) It is going to open, maybe a little squirely, but it is going to open 3) The golden nights flat pack every thing they jump 4) P.R.O. = Prepare for Reserve Opening I know none of these to be facts and #4 was told to me by someone who claimed that is what he would say shortly after pro packing started to be used and there were problems with it, now he is ok with it but still prefers flat packing

I started to repost the entire thing, but there is no reason to be a smartass I guess. Great Post Dave

lol, I saw it there just before you bought it

I first read this post a while back and was easily able to agree that the 45 degree rule is mathmatically impossible. Last weekend I got ready to do my first solo after AFF and I asked one of my Instructors what seperation I should give on that load and low and behold one of the up jumpers over heard me and all the way to alltitude I had to hear how the 45 degree rule worked and how I should not count or listen to my instructor, just watch for the 45 degree angle. In an effort to not come off as the stucent telling the up jumper how things work, I just set quitly until it was my turn to COUNT. The guy went in the group ahead of me so I did not have to listen to him tell me I did it wrong.

We obviously are both comeing from the same direction more than either of us may think. I dont think she should be able to DEMAND others pay her bills, but ASKING for help is an entirely different thing. She must have said something on TV that got under your skin, something that I did not see. I dont say that any of us should have to pat her on the back, but leaving her out to dry is not cool either. If you think some one should organize a fund raiser for her, then you obviously see my point. Once again I am not supporting any of her actions.

point very well taken. Please understand that I am not supporting this girls actions even in the least little bit. She screwed up, so now she needs help. This help may be in the form of tough love as you put it, faceing her with the fact that she screwed up. Maybe she should not even be allowed to jump agian because of her unsafe actions. This, thankfuly, is not my place to decide. I am behind all of you in the safety of skydiving side of this thing. On the other side, the financial side. There is no tough love that is going to help this. It has been pointed out that like so many others in this sport, she jumped without insurance. You may slap a family memeber in the face with their screw up to try and HELP them, but you do not throw them to the side and forget about them. Telling her she should have to go through life with no teeth, come on people, that is just not the family thing to do. On one side that requires the experience of many hours, years, dollars, jumps, and heart aches dedicated to this sport, I will sit back in my dark corner and admire those of you that have the prerequisites to give this girl the "tough love" that she obviously needs. On the other side, I refuse to sit slothfully by and allow my FAMILY morals to be bent by not speaking my mind. To those of you who aggree that I have the right to voice such an opionion, weather you agree with it or not, I thank you. To those that agree with me, it is good to know that I am not alone. Yet to some others I must stick to my original post, bite me.

thanks John

N/A

yeah, that was the first part of my Instructors answer was to make sure that I knew how to reinflate a canopy. But my real question lies more in the uniflateable situation, a chop or dump the reserve into it queston, only with a SOS

It is common practice on my DZ not to tell the students that they have a SOS system. We are taught to look right, grab right, look left, pull right, thumbs in and pull left. Thanks to alot of you here on DZ.com and some homework on my part I was able to detect the SOS system during gear check in my FJC. I was then told that students are not told of this because they don't want us to think we can pull silver without red and therefore start bad habbits. Made since to me at the time The day I did level 6&7, the board was full and it looked like someone was going to get bumped, but my instructor introduced me to another AFFI that was there that day sport jumping and told me that he would be jumping with me, this was great for me because no one got bumped and the AFFI that we were used to got to jump with my level 3 wife. Out on the tar mat my new AFFI is going over alot of things that I probably already know but he dont know me so lets be sure. hand signals, hard deck, how do you cut away, etc etc, oh and what if you get a collapse under 1000ft, (little windy that day, on and off of weather hold all day). I quickly respond, "more shit is better than less shit" he grined and knew that I understood not to cut away so low, then it hit me, "HEY, wait a minute, this rig has a SOS on it!!!!!" Sorry so long Dont take this as a bash on my DZ, the guys are great and I did get an answer for my question, it just happens to be one of those that I would like some more input on and I will be talking to the other instructors about this, atleast until I get off rented gear

Is it commonly taught not to pull red on a sos system. When I finished my FJC and was inspecting the gear, I found the SOS system. I was not sure what I was looking at but from the fact that I had done my home work, read a lot on here, and actually bought an old rig for my study, I knew that it was not what I was expecting. The coach that was giving the FJC actually did not want to answer my question at first, but after I examined a little more and thought I had if figured out, he caught me away from the other students and explained it to me. The practice on our DZ is to still teach red then silver so that good habits form. To tell you the truth I dont think the instructors where happy that I new I could pull only silver and drilled it into me that I should not, so I promised them I wouldn't. Of course this lead to my next question but I think I will start a new thread for it before totally highjacking this one.

Thanks John, I will look for the info. As for the rest of the complexities, let no one here believe that I am supporting this girls actions, hell post on what she did wrong in a way to keep her, or more importantly ME, from making the same mistakes, but let's not bash her when she's down when we could be helping.

Ok, I have not seen any of the TV coverage and I have not been following this thread, I just opened it and read the first page of posts and could not believe my eyes. Is this what was meant when I was told that skydiving was a big huge FAMILY???????? Where I come from family sticks together and helps the one in need wheather or not he/she screwed up. It dont matter what happened, just that they need help. In my community we are always having a fund raiser for one person or another. Most of the time it is because some one has been hurt or killed and had no insurance. Like it or not it does happen, so we pull together and help these people out. If I pass you walking on the road rolling a tire, should I pick you up and take you to the tire station, or should I pass you by and say thats what you get for driving with out a spare? And as for asking for help, she should not have to. If the skydiving community is really a FAMILY, then they would band together and help this woman out without her asking. Shayna, I dont know if you are following this thread, but if you are (or anyone else that has the info) send me an email with the details on donations. We can not do much but would be glad to do OUR part. I am very new to this sport and the candor on this site is strongly against newbies giving advice or making bold statements, and in general I agree with this unwritten policy, but in this case, if you dont like my opinion, then bite me.

I guess I am one of the lucky ones. I have never jumped bellow 14k. Our DZ is somewhere around 50ft above sea level and we have a super otter.

i was reading somewhere (and i think it's posted here) about a military cargo delivery system that uses a ram air canopy, a gps system and some sort of control mechanism that will deliver cargo to a specific spot on a halo drop. the pilots probably prefer that to a low jumprun in hostile territory. http://www.pia.com/fxc/apadsovr.htm

congrats

Fun does not even begin to describe it, and even more so because you and Red are there too, yall will be finishing right behind me I know. Thanks for the congrats and thanks to everyone else as well

This is a boobie thread, you can't just go posting pictures with no boobies. I think you now owe everyone two picture with boobies to make up for the last one.

Its been a long trip. Started off in ATP then had some trouble with my legs once on my own so was put back to AFF level 3 so that I had two instructors. Then there was an all forward movement jump to improve on postive pressure on my legs before going to level 4. Anyway, Jump number 15 was the big Jump. Yesterday, last load of the day, Awesome. I was under canopy thinking how great it was and watching the track dive landing way out, hahaha

Congrats. I graduated the same day so I feel you Joy.

I posted my natural red's natural boobies and got away with it, but I think she may get a little up set if I were to prove the natural red part, but you can take my word for it.

Doesn't everyone??????

Thanks for the compliments, she will be flattered. Oh, and she is AFF level 3, until Sunday atleast, so they are REAL skydiving boobies too