ljwobker

Sounds like I'll be calling my friends at the KGV in Picton and finding myself a room there. ;-)

I'm going to be in the area for a business trip in march, had a few questions about sydney skydiving... 1) Anything special going on in mid-march? Right now it looks like my jump weekend would be March 18/19. 2) Does Picton run regularly during the week, or is this a mostly weekend operation? I guess I'm asking "If I come out there thursday and friday, can I get to full altitude more than just a couple of times?" 3) Any trouble finding RW groups to jump with around the DZ? I've got about 900 jumps, mostly 4way and would be looking for reasonably experienced small groups or some bigger stuff to jump on. 4) What do jump tickets cost at picton these days? 5) If I want to just hang out around the DZ, is there a place to stay on the DZ? I probably won't be able to bring full camping gear on this trip, so if I need something approaching a basic hotel, is that stuff available in Picton or somewhere else nearby? 6) anyone want to adopt-a-seppo for a few days in march? ;-)

That's right. By the time I decided that I wasn't going to mess with it, I also decided that since they were both flying in a docile manner the LAST thing I wanted to do was upset the apple cart. I decided this pretty high and was indeed able to turn the canop(ies) with just harness inputs... they didn't by any means turn QUICKLY, but I could definitely steer them. Fortuneately (again) it was a pretty calm day, and I was able to line up along the longest part of our landing area. (One more item where I was lucky). I also didn't dare flare them, figuring two canopies in brakes was more than slow enough to take my chances with a PLF. It ended up being one of the softest landings ever... like jumping off a one-foot fence.

Answers: reference "instinctive training" comment from reginald: I spent hours in the plane over my first 700 jumps going "arch look reach pull check SHIT right hand-pull left hand pull". Now that's been modified to include "make sure the !%$*-ing main has detached" between the two hands. This comment perfectly summarizes (what I think) anyone reading this needs to take away: make damn sure your main is gone before you auto-fire your reserve into it. I got a significant "discount" on the cost of this lesson. reference The111's comment about which rig: My rig was down for an I&R as well as the AAD check. Both the rig and canopy were similar enough to mine that I felt comfortable jumping them with only a slight addition to my normal pull altitude. This particular main canopy was actually larger than my normal one. reference champu's comment about the hook knife: I generally agree with you, but in this case the only line with problems was the right-side steering line. If the exact same malfunction happend to me today, I'd vey easily cut just the one misrouted line and be on my way. I can't imagine that repairing one steering line costs more than an I+R, and even if it does, I'd rather save myself the reserve ride.

I had a two-out situation about a year ago, and recently someone suggested that I post my experience here so that others may learn from my mistakes. Comments are welcome (but please don't bother telling me that I'm an idiot, as I already figured that part out on my own). My two-out, January 9th, 2005. My cypress is in the loft for it’s 4-year check, so I check out a rig from the store and do a gear check, everything is in order. The jump is a basic 4-way mess-around jump, nothing exciting until pull time. Jumping a rig that isn’t mine, I pull at about 3200ft, which is about 500ft higher than my normal pull altitude. The main deploys in what my body tells me is “normal” line twists, when you get that “slightly-turning” feeling. I look up and start to spread the risers apart when I realize that the slider is only about 2/3rds of the way down and “looks funny”. I spent maybe 5 seconds or so trying to figure out why the lines looked wrong, and at that point the canopy starts to spin – not violently, but violently enough that when combined with the fact that it’s not my canopy AND it looks ugly, I’m gonna chop it. Here’s where I make my first mistake of the day. I was taught in my AFF to use the “one hand on each handle” method to chop, but when I go to pull the cutaway handle, I missed – either didn’t pull it hard enough or didn’t peel or something like that. Instinctively I go immediately after the reserve, and now hear this “pop” and out comes the reserve. I’m basically directly over the center of the DZ at this point (thanks for the awesome spot, whoever was flying!) After the reserve opened I had a couple of people tell me that the two-out got into a downplane for a few seconds. I don’t remember this myself as I was probably concentrating on figuring out what the hell was going on. I do remember checking my altimeter a lot, I was at about 2800 when I initially opened with the bad lines, I decided to chop at about 2500, and was at 1800 when I realized I had two canopies out and flying side-by-side. This 700ft sounds about right for two or three rotations in a downplane. At about 1800 feet I realize that I’ve got two out and flying side by side. The reserve is on my left side, flying maybe 6-12 inches behind the main canopy on the right I can’t figure out why the main hasn’t released, because in my mind *I’m certain that I’ve pulled the cutaway handle*. This is the second mistake – I never physically looked at the cutaway handle to see if it was still there, I just assumed that since I had “pulled it” it was gone somewhere and the main hadn’t released for some reason. In any case, I spent about 1000 feet trying to figure out why the main was still attached, again without looking at the cutaway handle. At about 800 feet I decided that since the side-by-side was fairly stable, I was going to ride it down and PLF like hell. I didn’t want to mess with the canopy any more than absolutely necessary, but I was also headed north towards the box plant and had no desire to end up there, so I tried turning the whole thing by just dropping my left hip and using harness input. This set me up running downwind (ground winds were light, maybe 5mph) directly away from the hanger. The only real excitement was at about 150ft when the canopies buffeted a little bit and bounced maybe two feet apart, which at the time seemed like a lot of movement. Ten seconds later I hit the ground in damn-near perfect PLF format: feet and knees together and limp as a rag doll. I got a muddy jumpsuit and a good case of the shakes, but no damage whatsoever. Thanks to Brian Ball for landing next to me and to Rob for hauling ass in the van towards my landing spot! To summarize, here’s a sequence of events and my opinion on whether I handled things correctly or incorrectly: 1) a thorough gear check when jumping unfamiliar gear. (GOOD) 2) Pulling slightly higher than normal under unfamiliar gear (GOOD) 3) Realizing that a low-speed malfunction gives me time to think (GOOD) 4) Checking altitude immediately upon deciding that something wasn’t right (GOOD) 5) Missing the cutaway handle without looking at it (BAD, REAL BAD) 6) Hitting the reserve handle without verifiying that the main was gone (BAD, REAL BAD) 7) Not realizing I was in a downplane for 2-3 rotations (BAD) 8) Checking altitude as soon as I realized that I had two out. (GOOD) 9) Assessing that the two out were flying stable once in the side-by-side configuration (GOOD) 10) Spending 1000 feet trying to determine why the main isn’t cut away without looking for the cutaway handle (BAD) 11) Recognizing that at 800ft it was “probably” going to stay stable and deciding not to mess with it any more. (GOOD) 12) Harness inputs to steer to an open area as opposed to toggles or risers (GOOD) 13) The PLF. (my first. Hopefully, also my last.) (GOOD) What I learned from this, and/or things I’ll change in how I jump: 1) I’m very lucky. I learned an awful lot for a very small price. 2) ALWAYS ALWAYS look at your handles. 3) I was trained in the “one hand on each handle” emergency procedures. After this and thinking about it some more, I’m going to change this to the two hands on each handle, which incidentally is the way that CSS teaches their students. I jump with an RSL, the canopy is a Sabre2 170 loaded at about 1.3:1, which is not a particularly fast canopy configuration. Considering all this I think that in 99% of malfunctions making certain that I chop the main is the most important thing to do, and the risk of the one-hand-on-each handle is that you miss the cutaway and get another two-out situation, which I’m not a big fan of. My “instinctive training” was to go bang-bang on the two handles, and I didn’t stop to realize that I had missed. That was an important and potentially very expensive lesson. 4) Wear a hook knife. The root cause of the malfunction was a bad pack job, where the right side steering lines were somehow wrapped around the left-side lineset, making the main uncontrollable. If I’d had a hook knife on me and had realized what was going on, I could have cut the one misrouted line and easily landed the main using the risers. The pictures (from Karen Wood) are posted at http://www.pbase.com/ljwobker/jump_pix near the bottom of the list.

I've got 600 jumps on a Sabre2-170, I don't do anything super special with my pack jobs. I don't roll the nose, but I am careful to get the slider all the way up against the stops and quartered. Just before rolling up the tail, I barely tug the center cell out into the center of the pack job and expose it just a little. In my experience this helps keep it more on-heading during opening, although I've also found that paying close attention to my shoulder levels fixes more of the off-heading problems I was having in the past.

Bringing back a dead thread because it's the exact same question I want to ask. How do "equivalently sized" crossfire2's compare to sabre2's for pack volume? I don't need some number in cubic inches, what I'm ideally looking for is a general agreement from people who have packed both into the same container and say "the [whatever] packs [a little, some, a lot] [smaller,larger] than the [other one]" can anyone hook me up with said knowledge? If it really matters, I'm interested in a crossfire2-169 compared to a sabre2-170. Bonus good karma will be given to anyone who can also compare the pack volumes of these two canopies to Stiletto 170s and Safire2 169s. Thanks much.

Anyone in sydney planning on driving down for the Easter Boogie at Picton? I'm on a business trip the following two weeks and was hoping to catch a ride into and back from the CBD for a couple of those days. I can Cityrail and meet at a station, and will cover petrol $$$ for the ride too. Pls just reply or send me a PM if you think you're going... thanks! --lj

This URL at the TSA website *specifically* states that parachutes may be carried on and/or checked as baggage on aircraft. It also states that parachutes will not be inspected without the owner present. http://www.tsa.gov/public/interapp/editorial/editorial_1147.xml I've flown many times with my rig and never had any more trouble than some above-average curiosity and a call to the airport TSA supervisor. My best advice is to just be patient and polite with them as they figure out what's going on. Having a copy of this bulletin would probably also help. Jumpers need to be aware that all major airlines have limits of liability that will not come ANYWHERE CLOSE to covering a lost rig. If they lose you're rig, you're screwed big time. Always carry it on. Hope this helps. --lj

What kind of DZ runs TWO twin turbines on a tuesday morning? This one does, and that's just about enough for me... this place is great. I show up with about 60 jumps on my resume, and they start talking about how they'll put me with a "Load Organizer" (what's this, I'm thinking?) and a "Video Guy".... so I start talking about how I really don't have the money for all that, I just want to make a couple of jumps.... then they start talking about how it's free. That's right, they put me and four other low-time jumpers with a GREAT load organizer AND a video guy, and it cost me 19 bucks. I learned a ton from both the LO and get to review the video anytime.

One of my adopted homes. As a North Carolina jumper, nothing beats heading out to California for the summer (too humid here!) or winter (too cold here!). Cheap lift prices and gear rentals keep the money-pain bearable, and the facilities are great. Lots of CRW if you're in to that, as well as the normal freefly and RW crowds. The CRW dogs make for good pictures even if you're not one of them. Super friendly people, Kathy rememers my name every time even though I'm only there about twice a year.

Background: I demoed one of these over the last two weekends, put about 20 jumps total on it. I'm about 235lbs out the door, jumped a Sabre2 170, which translates to about 1.4 wing loading. I've got ~250 jumps, mostly on Hornet and Triathlon 190s. Packing: The Sabre2 170 packs smaller than my Hornet 190 by probably 10-15%, but the more slippery fabric takes some getting used to. I did a basic PRO-pack, didn't roll the nose and put about 5-6 folds in the tail. Openings: not nearly the snivel that I get from my Hornet, but never fast enough to hurt, either. Mine consistiently opened in a right-hand turn, but I'm assuming this is a packing problem that I haven't worked out yet. Flight: Toggle turns were very comfortable, responsive but not fast enough to get you into big trouble. Front riser pressure was more than I expected, but I don't do low riser turns so that's not really a concern. Rear risers felt more mushy than I expected, but I'd still land this canopy on the rears if I ever lose (another) steering line in flight. The straight stalls were very deep on the demo brake settings, I'd have them shortened if I bought one. The straight stalls were fairly quick, but nothing that really scared me. The turning stall was another story, I got four or five twists and collapsed about three cells -- glad I was really high when this happened -- not a maneuver I'd try on a regular basis. Landings: SO nice. I'm one of those boring straight-in guys, and on a no-wind day I had no problems at all getting enough lift to fly very soft, almost stand-up landings. Any headwind at all and you could just put your feet down. On most of my landings there was a fair bit of control range even after touchdown, so no real risk of a low stall here. (See my comment about shortening brake lines). Overall: I loved it. I was looking for a 2nd canopy to replace my Hornet that offered somewhat better performance without the risk/hassle of a true elliptical, and yet was still fun to fly and easy to pack and land. This one fits that bill perfectly.

I own a Hornet 190 with Dacron lines that fits VERY snugly into my Infinity. I swapped over to a Sabre2 with microline and it fits much more comfortably, I'd estimate that the volume of the Sabre2-170 is 10 to 15% smaller than the Hornet-190. Maybe this is useful, maybe not... ;-)

I made some student jumps on a Falcon 230 -- I'm just at 200lbs, so this was 1:1 going out the door. It's a pretty soft ride, and even with the steering lines set for stall-proof student use, it lands soft in any/no wind. If you're more interested in the landing than in the flying, this is a pretty good wing for you.

I've got just under 200 total, and probably 150 of those are on my hornet... the other 50 are a mismash of student and rental rigs... some on a manta, some on a PD190, Triathlon 190/210/230s, a navigator or two...

dude... big difference between a Hornet and cobalt... Hornet is a *barely* elliptical wing, and a cobalt is significantly moreso. If you're thinking about a 1.35 cobalt at 30 jumps, I'm hoping I'm not there the day you spiral in. Do yourself a favor and get a Hornet, load it at 1.2 or so, and make a hundred jumps on it -- I own one and it's a fun canopy to fly even at that loading. As one of my JM's said: You're not ready to downsize until you've landed out 25 times on your old canopy, and made at least five bad out landings when you immediately stood up and said: "Shit, I'm really glad I had this big thing over my head for THAT". Until you've broken a steering line and landed on the risers, landed in a bean field going downwind, and had to make a 270 degree flat turn on final to avoid the guy who cut you off AND the power lines, you probably need to be jumping something really forgiving. All of these things have happened to me, and similar things will happen to you... thank god I wasn't on a 1.4 elliptical when that guy cut in front of me -- I would have either fried myself or hit hard enough to see if my fullface really works. --lj

Yah, I've got about 150 jumps on my Hornet 190, and I've been quite happy with it. My first canopy, and would recommend it to anyone who's starting out. I'm about 205lbs (probably 230-235 on exit) so my loading is about 1.2 lbs/sqft. No malfunctions and only one opening that really rocked me, so odds are that the bad one was my fault anyway 8-). It's easy to pack with the fabric and the packing tabs, and floats fairly well from long spots. It's also really inexpensive, which is great for a first canopy -- and if you want to sell it, it's fairly easy to find a novice who will pick it up from you.

I'm considering moving from my Hornet 190 (200 jumps) down to a slightly faster/smaller/more elliptical canopy. I'm considering: Crossfire 169, Heatwave 170, Sabre2 170... anyone around who has jumped some combination of the four listed? I'm interested in flight/opening characteristics and pack volume (my Hornet 190 is TIGHT)... other suggestions are always welcome... thanx. --lj