brettski74

I disagree. This guy's head was subjected to an impact capable of making a sizeable divot in the ground and ripping/cracking a fairly solid carbon fibre shell. Are you suggesting that this guy would have suffered injuries no worse even if he were not wearing this helmet? For sure there may be better helmets out there for various types of use, but to say that a Cookie/Bonehead/Sky Systems/etc provides *NO* impact protection is just false. I'm fairly sure if I tapped you on the head with a bat (baseball, cricket, whatever...), you'd notice the difference between wearing a helmet or not. This is a legal disclaimer intended to help avert legal issues should the wearer be injured whilst wearing the helmet. It's basically telling the wearer that they assume the risks of whatever they choose to do whilst wearing the helmet and that the manufacturer does not guarantee any particular level of protection. It is not a statement of laboratory test results. I think what you're trying to say is that most helmets used in skydiving are not made to conform to any kind of accepted standard as is the case with many/most helmets sold for use on bikes and/or snowboards and that helmets designed to conform to such standard may offer greater levels of impact protection.

Not bad, but what happened to the top person being in control? If they are unresponsive, I'd agree with you totally. If they're responsive and alert, they may not have been trained in CRW EPs and probably are an idiot for running into a canopy that was directly in their line of sight, but before you unilaterally decide to cut away, you might want to check what they're doing. They may be attempting to clear the wrap and cutting away may well make matters worse for them.

It depends on the design of the helmet. Many helmets are designed to be destroyed while dissipating impact energy, but not all. For example, Pro-tec's SXP multi-impact liners can be re-used after multiple impacts and retain virtually all of their impact absorbing properties. That said, they also cost more than a standard protec helmet with a foam or EPS liner. As noted above, there are materials that are certified to retain their protective properties after more than one impact, but they tend to be more expensive. Again, maybe, but if the padding is designed appropriately, probably not. It depends on what type of impacts you're trying to protect against, but helmets aren't like cars. We don't have large thicknesses of material around the outside of our head that can be turned into crumple zones. Adding a hard shell to a helmet adds little extra distance through which to absorb the impact - perhaps 2 to 5mm - and therefore little opportunity to absorb anything on its own. It may however, allow for a thinner padding layer to be used for a similar level of impact absorption while also adding resistance to penetration by sharp objects. In terms of helmet design and what different components are used for, there are a variety of different impact risks to be considered including sharp objects, small blunt objects and large blunt objects. Padding layers may provide some protection against all of the the above, although on their own are most effective against large blunt objects. Some types of padding are destroyed in the process of absorbing the impact, such as may be the case with various types of foam padding. A large blunt object would be something like a wall, the side of the plane or the ground. Padding layers provide protection by spreading the deceleration of the impacting object over a longer distance/time, thereby reducing the peak force imparted upon the head. Small blunt objects are things like the leading edge of the horizontal stabilizer, the side of a signpost or a tree branch. The force of the impact is localised to a relatively small portion of the available padding on that side of the helmet. More effective use of the padding can be obtained by a rigid shell which resists deformation from the impact and thereby spreads the impact over a larger area of padding, which thereby reduces the peak pressure imparted upon the head by the impact. This in turn allows a thinner layer of padding to be used to protect against such impacts. Sharp objects are things like knives, sheared/torn pieces of metal or the end of a signpost. In addition to the need to spread the impact out over a wider area, there may be a need to include a layer that resists being cut or torn. An outer shell that is very hard, but brittle may crack if hit hard enough with a sharp object, allowing it to enter the crack and penetrate the softer padding layers easily due to it's sharpness. I'm not sure how good or otherwise the fibres in composite materials such a fibreglass or CF are at this, but I know that kevlar has been used for this type of purpose in bullet and knife proof clothing. Finally, there is the neck, spine and rest of the body to consider. There are limits beyond which additional head protection is moot because the force of the impact is likely to result in mortal damage to other parts of the body or worse. Really, it comes down to fitness for a particular purpose. There are real impact risks that may require hard and/or tough outer layers in order to provide maximum protection to certain types of impact and there are other impact risks that are impractical to hope to protect against with a helmet alone. I'm not suggesting that there aren't improvements that could be made in the design of some helmets used for skydiving, but I do think that people often place far too much burden on their helmets to protect them from injury than makes sense in light of how little other body armour they are willing to wear.

open mouth. Close mouth. Breath through your nose.

I've seen a Mamba come open. We hadn't even exited the plane and our outside centre's visor kept flipping up repeatedly from the wind. He's since done something to fix it, but the point is that a Mamba visor can come open on exit and/or during freefall. That said, I've only seen this on the one jump and my two other team mates have Mamba's as well and as far as I know, neither of them have had visor problems, so it's probably not a common problem.

Disconnecting the RSL would not have made much difference, regardless of what was snagged. The RSL lanyard is secured in place by velcro, which would be almost impossible to remove using a pull from the back of the container. The lanyard runs underneath the reserve riser covers, through the yoke and past the cutaway cable. There are plenty of things to get in the way and at best, retard the passing of the snap shackle through to the back. Even if it did, the snap shackle itself could get caught on the snag point on the aircraft door. On the other hand, the opposite end of the line is held in place by the reserve pin, which is designed to be easy to remove when pulled from that direction. When you pull on a line, the end which moves is the one which requires the least force. This snag incident would have pulled the reserve pin long before anything at the other end of the line even came close to moving. The RSL is kept underneath the reserve pin cover flap. Whatever snagged the line had to slide in under the reserve pin cover flap, snag the line and the pull it out.

Huh?! Who said anything about Google? I'll say it again. Search Top left, See the menu with links for My Friends, My Posts, Settings, Subscriptions, Search, ... Top right. See the Search box? I even posted a link to do the exact search I suggested for you. Did you even bother to click it? It returns 127 results for a search for "vector 2 freefly", but I guess 127 is pretty close to zero.

The answers to all these questions and more can be found via the search function. Did you try searching vector 2 freefly? Use the search function. It is your friend.

What Thomas said is generally true. On my previous trips to Perris, consumption of alcohol is limited to the fenced off pool area and the bar while jump operations are continuing. Once the last load of the day has gone up, this is relaxed and you're free to wander around more with your beer. There's often an announcement over the PA once this happens. Night jumps don't happen every day. They're more of a novelty thing and usually done close to the day of a full moon. If there's night jumps going on, you will probably be restricted to the pool and bar area until these are done. There will be plenty of announcements over the PA if this is going on, though and you can always check with your instructors or manifest as well. Bringing your own beer is fine. They may not appreciate you taking a case of beer into the bar, but you should be fine by the pool. There have been many cases of beer brought to the dropzone in the past and there will be plenty of people around to appreciate your free beer.

There's a whole forum dedicated to this. Start with the FAQ thread there. There is also a gear section on here dedicated to reviews. Unfortunately, there's no camera review section, but there are helmets. Newest, smallest, highest quality video... some of these are conflicting requirements. You're going to have to decide what is more important, but if your jump numbers are accurate you'll have plenty of time to think about that. Now is not the time to be strapping a helmet to your head.

You can't go wrong with Eden North. Great people, good plane, good facilities and lots of options. You should find people of all disciplines there including freeflying. Can't recall seeing any wingsuits there, but I'd be surprised if you couldn't find a few. And if you do get tired of that, you'll also have some of the best RW and CRW people in the country around you if and when you want to try something new.

Have you even seen an AN-2? The plane in the video has half as many wings and twice as many engines as an AN-2! [Crazy]

Whether you can afford it or not, buying new gear that you're going to want to sell in the first year or two just doesn't make economic sense. Things worth buying new at your stage are those things that you're not going to want to replace in the first year or two, which would include helmet, altimeter, AAD, goggles and probably a jumpsuit. Your harness/container, main and reserve are things that you will probably want to change within the next couple of years. Buying new will only be a waste of money. I'd strongly suggest that you wait until you're closer to the end of your downsizing progression until you buy new. At best, you'll get two downsizes out of a container and when you downsize the container, that will typically mean downsizing the reserve as well. Jumpsuits are a funny one. If you're absolutely sure that you want to freefly, then there's probably no harm buying yourself a shiny new, custom made freefly suit now. That said, I bought a freefly suit as my first jumpsuit, but have subsequently gotten heavily into 4-way and bigway formation skydiving, which necessitated me buying a couple of different competition RW suits and I never wear my freefly suits any more. If you can find something second hand that fits reasonably, you could also save yourself some money there in case your discipline of choice should change once you know a little bit more and have had the chance to try things some more.

The best guide is a coach, instructor or rigger to watch you pack. Soliciting tips on an internet forum from people you don't know is not an approach I would recommend.

I have data to back it up.

IMHO, the best advice I can give you on learning to skydive is listen to your instructors. There are a few people on here worth listening to, but they'll tell you mostly the same thing in your position. Some will point you to the Skydiver Information Manual (SIM), which you can download for free from the USPA website. If you're into study, that can't hurt. Again, different things for different people. I'm sure that there have been people who looked down in freefall during AFF. I wasn't one of them. I actually wondered how I would know if I was holding a heading in freefall once my instructor was no longer jumping with me. My first jump by myself, I figured out the answer almost immediately - the ground. I hadn't ever noticed it there on any of my AFF jumps. I was too busy looking at my instructor or doing my training tasks. Probably, but these are common questions from people about to start skydiving. Do a search. They've been done to death, so you're sure to find heaps of responses on here, however, whether they are "answers" or just words may vary wildly from one to the next.

Did you say you're on a CRW team? If you're question is "what does skydiving feel like?", start with a search, but I can tell you now that no matter how someone tries to explain it to you, you won't understand until you just go and do it. Skydiving is different things to different people and some like different aspects more than others. There are several different disciplines within the sport. I mean, I can tell you it's windy falling through the air at 120mph, but sticking your head out the window while driving down the highway doesn't really do much to clue you in on how you'll feel on a skydive, so just go and jump.

Based on Andy's response, I see I'm not the only one having difficulty understanding exactly what your question is. I think the answer you're really looking for is along the lines of shut up and jump!, but I'll give it a go, anyway. You asked about forces... I wouldn't worry about forces. Once you exit the plane, the only forces acting on you will be a result of inertia, gravity or drag (ie. wind). Unless you do something stupid near the ground, the biggest shock will be opening shock which is typically 3 or 4G from a stable belly-to-earth position at terminal velocity, but that's over in less than a quarter second. You decelerate at about 1.5-2G for another few seconds and then after that you're sitting in your harness and any additional accelerations you wish to feel are entirely up to you. You also said something about your body following your head. That's pretty much what you want in most sports. To quote Sean Connery in the Highlander, If your head comes away from your neck, it's over. Or perhaps you're asking if it's possible to fly head-down? Yes, that's possible, and part of a popular discipline called free-flying, but you won't learn that straight away. First you'll learn to fly on your belly. Free-flying comes later. You'll get lots of different opinions on just how much later that should be, but you'll have plenty of time to learn about the common and sometimes pointless debates in the sport. I'm not sure what you're talking about with wasting a jump. If you want to learn to skydive, go find yourself a drop zone near you that offers the type of training program you're after and has people you like and start. You'll have plenty of time to waste jumps later. Right now, you really just need to start learning the sport so that sometime soon, you may have an idea of what questions you really need to ask, but for that to happen, you'll need to experience the sport a little and start to learn a little more about it.

Interesting... I think it was only two weeks ago I was having a chat with one of our novices about inducing line twists under canopy. She told me it had happened while under canopy. She'd buried the toggle and then let it up "suddenly". This prompted a short conversation about letting the toggles up under control. I later learned when talking to another coach, she hadn't just let the toggle up suddenly. She'd actually let go of the toggle. Needless to say she also covered that point in their conversation. I believe she was jumping her own gear, though. Not sure of wing loading, but it would be close to 1:1 and she'd have about 30 jumps. I know we typically jump at different DZs, but is this just a coincidence or are we talking about the same person? On the instructional question, one of my coaches in my early skydiving career talked to me about the possibility of inducing line twists after opening through agressive toggle inputs. I've never actually done it myself, although I'd guess that conversation with my coach probably helped there. I'm wondering how prevalent an occurrence it is for jumpers who've never considered the possibility.

In terms of the OP's request, this has got to be the best answer yet! I usually go with something like I don't trust the pilot to get me home safe, so I make my own way back.

Not by flying in half-brakes, though.

Try the search function, then once you've mastered that, go and ask this question of your instructors. Trust them, not some random person on the interweb who you don't know.

Which mod? Are you talking about the split RSL mod, or the staging loop mod or both? My rigger and I talked about this at my last repack in April and he also spoke to the folks at UPT about it. I'll probably get both installed at my next repack after the summer, so to answer your second question, I'm not in a huge rush, but I am planning to have the mods done.

Except that there isn't an arrow to follow in the main landing area.[Crazy]

The Skyhook RSL is still an RSL. If the left side riser was snagged, it's still highly likely that the right side riser would release far enough to pull the reserve ripcord.