SkymonkeyONE

No worries mate; it's all goody in the hoody! I will keep out of the air at least until this Saturday, then just self-medicate if it sucks bad enough. Can't really get any worse at this point.

The Nova did get a pretty bad rap. This after quite a few people smacked in while jumping in slightly windy conditions. The Nova was a nine-cell non-eliptical zero-p main. It was a direct competitor to the PD Sabre. They were pretty damn popular in the south and mid-west for a while. Chris Gay used to jump an 88 back when the smallest PD main you could get was a 120. He jumped one even smaller for a while. As Dan said, they were just plagued with bad press and certainly with poor construction oversight. Those problems caused the company to "go out of business", or in actuality, rename. The Nova became the Esprit in it's later incarnation. Chuck

I broke my coccyx on a demo this past Friday. Idiocy pure and simple. I decided that I would have no problem sticking my wife's Stiletto 120 into this pretty tight spot, botched the approach, overflew the target and bowtied the canopy on landing. I hopped right up, dusted off the evidence, packed the rig, then walked around for a bit. Figured out the real deal when I hopped in the car to leave: OUCH! I wrote a detailed description in the Safety And Training forum. Check it out if you like. Anyway, I have a ton of Percocets but it still hurts to sit, even doped up. Chuck

Outstanding.

I have posted previously that this same thing has happened to me more than once. I used to test-jump parachutes for FTS (now APS). I would just hit the ground, pencil some remarks, then put on another rig and go up again. I never rigged up these canopies myself. I have landed backwards at least five times; had crossed steering lines; had one or both toggles come off in my hand; and lastly had a combination of crossed steering lines and a backwards canopy. I landed every one of them, though I admit it was pretty stupid to land the last one (it was a 150 reserve prototype). Anyway, you obviously did OK and gave them something to talk about in the process. Lovely. Chuck Edited by SkymonkeyONE on 7/3/01 02:18 PM.

As I have said plenty of times before, you really must be sure of your own ability and your equipment. Case in point: My wife and I volunteered to make a demo jump into our unit's organization day this past Friday. There were three other jumpers and we were skydiving out of a Blackhawk helicopter. Anyway, it was a sort of spur of the moment thing. I would have jumped my own main, but everyone else was jumping red/white/blue. Not a problem! Kris (my wife) has two rigs with R/W/B mains, so we just used her U.S. team rigs. She jumped her foil and I jumped her style rig with the Stilleto 120 in it. The area wasn't too tight for swooping in my book, and nobody doubted my ability to stick it in that area, so off we went. Bottom line up front: I blew my approach, landed off target, and busted my ass. Literally. How did it happen? Complacency, pure and simple. To begin with, I had not made a single jump on that main in over a year (it's a pig compared to what I normally jump). When I DID jump it last, I complained to Kris that I thought the brakes were setup WAY too tight and that the canopy just did not fly right in front risers. She likes it the way it is, so I really had no right to adjust it just so I would like it better. The Stiletto control range is up around your eyes; VERY different than every other performance main on the market. It has a very short recovery arc also. This means that from the point that you would execute a 180 degree maneuver, your canopy loses much less altitude before it comes out of the dive under it's own power. What this also means is that the stall point is much higher in the control range. All of these things snuck up on me when it came time to make my final turn onto final. There was only one direction that you could approach from: out over this lake, pass over a dirt road, then land on the side of a hill. Go too far and you hit the lodge, not far enough and you hit water or cars. The only out was to the left of the target, around the building. Anyway, I setup out over the lake pretty far in anticipation of the greater glide of the Stiletto. I was going for a standard 180 Degree riser-dive so I was looking back over my right shoulder. I grabbed the right front riser at about 300 feet and cranked it around. My toggles are always in my hand, so the canopy porposed around (remember, the brakes are way too tight), but I didn't lose nearly the altitude I needed. I found myself "way too steep" in accuracy terms. I was too low to do a 360, and there were trees on my left and right preventing me from doing any big S-turns. Also, I could not "sink" the main in. The only option was to grab both front risers and sashay right-then-left. I overflew the target at about 10 feet up, carved left around the building, and flared like I would under my Cobalt. The Stiletto bowtied behind me and dropped me right on my ass and heels: SMACK. I hopped up and dusted the "evidence" off my black jumpsuit, then went over for the lineup. I knew my ankle hurt and that my butt stung a bit, but packed up and enjoyed the party for a while. When it came time to leave, I hopped in the drivers seat of the Del Sol and went "OUCH!" I didn't bother to go to the doctor all weekend because I knew what I had done, but today I got the answer I knew was coming: "it's broken Chuck." Oh well, I got my Percocets and moved out smartly. The bad thing is that I am strapped to a desk all day at work and have to sit down to beat on this computer! They say that the coccyx never really heals and that it takes up to six months to really stop bothering you. I am obviously not going to stop jumping during that time, but it will definitely not be pleasant during openings. The moral of the story is this: practice what you preach. I was an idiot to jump my wife's main into that demo. I should have just went by the club and got one of our demo team rigs and been happy. It would have taken me five minutes to do that, but NO, I wanted to swoop. All my fault, I know. 2,700 jumps and I have never busted my ass like that. Next time I will get the right rig for the job. Chuck

I own a bunch of both. There is no real reason not to have a ZP pilot chute. They last longer and you can get away with jumping a smaller one than a similar-drag F-111 variety. A ZP pilot chute has a higher snatch force than an F-111 one and as such makes a parachute open harder, assuming you are jumping a standard size pilot chute. That is obviously something you would want to avoid on an already-hard opening main. Jim Cazer is now making zero-p pilot chutes as small as 22". I jump one of those on my Cobalt 75 and it works fine. Chuck

Anxiety of that sort never really goes away completely. I have been skydiving over 20 years now and I still get a bit anxious. This happens occasionally when I am jumping new gear or haven't been able to make a skydive in a few weeks. On those days I will check over my equipment over and over until I climb out. Once out the door I am always relaxed. I don't normally sit next to the door in the Otter, but when I do I don't normally look out until it's time to spot. The exception to that is when I am jumping at an unfamiliar DZ and really don't want to get hosed on the spot. Don't sweat it, but at the same time be very sure your gear is on right. Still, if you are bothered by the door, just don't sit there. The deep breathing thing talked about in another response really helps too. Chuck

This probably sounds a bit simple, but you really need to stay hydrated in the Summer. Lots of times I get so amped and busy on the DZ that I just forget to drink water. Sometimes I don't get around to drinking anything until I get a little dizzy (which is obviously bad). Headaches are one of my dehydration indicators, too. My wife stays on me, which is a big help, but it is still not uncommon for me to run myself into the ground. Chuck

I would be very surprised if you can't find a DZ up in your neck of the woods that is able to accomodate your friend. At my dad's DZ in Alabama, he has three MT1-XX HALO rigs modified for sport use by BIG jumpers. They have 375 square foot mains and reserves and adjustable harnesses, so they will fit almost anyone. I am sure that there are some northern DZ's with similar equipment, you will just have to call around. Chuck

Crosswind meets all those criteria. Travelling 2 and 3 are also great. Good Stuff is a great video with lots of odd stuff on it and it quite a bit cheaper than the others. Chuck

My Cobalts open fine in a hop and pop mode. I don't pack any differently for it and I have never experienced any line twists. I have had 90-degree off heading openings every once in a while, but that is not the norm. I haven't ever been spanked either. The openings seem to me to be exactly like most any other main I have done short delays with. One critical thing to remember with eliptical mains is that you must remain straight in the harness to avoid twists (not that I have ever had one spin up on me). I always check my canopy by looking straight over my head, not to the side. This was WAY more critical when I was jumping a VX or a Stiletto. It is very hard to screw up a Cobalt opening. Chuck

Agreed. going for too many changes to your regular routine is just asking for trouble. EVERYONE makes mistakes. Your friend is lucky he hit water. In my experience, the biggest factor in his case was the over-water swoop. Depth perception is most certainly different over water. As I am sure you read in the swoop meet article, I went swimming a couple of times. The ONLY variable I changed was jumping that unfamiliar pond. Luckily, I dialed it in fairly quick and didn't ever get hurt. Chuck

It is not the riser covers you should be concerned with. What the big problem is, is with the main container closing flap. In a sit they will almost certainly come open. I had two premature deployments because of that flap coming open and the bridle catching air, thus deploying my main. Luckilly, I had a BOC and it just pulled out my pilot chute. A horseshoe would have really sucked. The "fix" for a vector II is to cut off the stock tuck tab and replace it with "walrus teeth" at least two inches long. I never had a problem with mine after I did that. Chuck

Are you not in an area that has another DZ close by? If so, you might run your operations out of there. Lots of clubs operate that way, including the one I primarilly teach at. Generally, you can talk the DZO into giving the club discounted jump tickets. Most places will thank you for the increase in their business. Chuck Blue D-12501 Skydive Raeford

Stacy is VERY limber.

The answer for ME is to go straight for the reserve. I do not want the possibility of my risers becoming entangled with any part of my reserve. Now, what I teach my students is to do the standard cutaway procedure. I insist that they do this so that they do not become overloaded with information in their early experiences in the air. After a time, when a person gets their wits about them and is completely heads-up, then they can choose to just go straight for the silver if they like. Chuck Blue D-12501 SL-I (over 15 years), TM-I

Do you mean sport jumping without o2? 20 of us did 18k from a Coast Guard C-130 into a demo at Elizabeth City, NC for the 50th anniversary of the Coast Guard. We just passed around a walk-around bottle. This was using sport gear. Work? 32,000, night, combat equipment, o2, from a C-141. Froze my goddamn ass off. Chuck

I have freeflew/sat in shorts and a t-shirt before, too. Generally, I tuck my shirt into my pants/shorts when doing so, but one time I didn't do it and was going to just let it flop. I looked across from me on the Otter and saw T.J. Landgren with little rubber bands holding his t-shirt in place. I asked him about it and he said it was to prevent exactly what happened to you. "Hmm, I had better tuck my shit in then." Yep, you got it bad on that one. Lucky for you, you had sense enough to pull your damn reserve ripcord. Definitely a lesson learned, eh? Placing your experience here will allow others to learn from your mistake and hopefully prevent the same thing from happening to them. Chuck

As I posted quite a while ago in this same thread, we used to collapse our chutes all the time just for shits and grins. We all started doing this after seeing it done in the Wally Gubbins video. I have held both toggles down on a sabre 135, stalled my canopy, and rode it for up to 2,000 feet with no ill effects. It spins you around and shakes you, but you are not quite at "baglock" speed. Letting the toggles back up evenly let the canopy just open back up. I never, ever had to chop because of anything I could do with my toggles. Chuck

"we're going to have a load of new dz.com jumpers out there at Perris" I cannot believe not a one of you said anything to me when I was there for the swoop meet. Bad monkeys! No banana! LOL! Chuck

The amount of pressure doesn't have anything to do with my decision making process; it's all about the amount of turn induced by a set amount of deflection. I have never jumped a sport-sized parachute that had "too much" front riser pressure for the way I fly, but I have jumped plenty that just didn't act the way I like in a riser turn or dive (my wife's Stiletto 120 for example). This, I find, is MOSTLY due to the way a canopy's brakes are set. Too tight and they will deflect the tail down while you are diving, thus hampering your clean-carving dive. Riser diving is also greatly affected by a parachute's trim and where a person's weight is carried. Dan could answer you better in technical terms, but "feel" is what is important to me. I can jump and swoop anything, but to properly "dial in" a main takes a bit of practice. I generally try to set-up for landing the same way everytime I jump. I know how high I want to be and where I want to make my last turn. I know how I sit in the harness and the way I set my slider and chest-strap. Lastly, I know how I am going to grab my right-front riser and how far down I need to pull it in order to "set" my carve. For my current main canopies (Cobalt 75 and 85), that point is where my dive loop is right at my eye level and my elbow is resting on my lower right ribs. Every parachute design has a different rate of turn in a front riser dive and you must make test jumps in order to locate your "sweet spot." I know where mine is, but you might like a different type of turn (i.e. more snappy or more of an easy turning carve). Enough of that. Personally, to me, the Cobalt and the Crossfire fly very similar. To me, the Cobalt flies almost identical to the Alpha, but a little less rigid. Riser pressure is the same, at least in my experience. Chuck

"By the way, does anyone ever search the archives for this kind of information anymore?" A very good point. We have been dealing with quite a bit of redundancy in our posting. Another example of this is in the safety and training forum concerning canopy control exercises. A bit of research by browsing the old pages or, as you stated, by doing a search would really be better than asking again. I certainly don't mind answering questions either, but you did make a good point. Chuck

I just brought the old thread back to the top, so read it. It is entitled: fun under canopy.

back to the top for the benefit of new readers