riggerrob

Demonstalker would be best off with a 300 square foot BASE canopy if: he is not interested in classic precise landing competition and only cares about soft landings in tight areas. BASE canopies flare better than PL canopies.

Q: How do fish talk to their friends on the far side of the ocean? A: They use shell phones

Agreeing with pchapman on this issue. Our Danish friend was giving good advice about canopies loaded close to 1 pound per square foot. I tried all the Danish tricks on my Cruislite. However, I am not sure if the Danish tricks are relevant to lightly-loaded precision landing canopies. When you are only loading at 0.7 psf you are never going to get a spectacular flare. But since you are already descending so slowly, it does not make much difference on landing speed. Also consider that low aspect-ratio canopies (less than 2 to 1 on Para-Foil) do not flare very well to begin with. Instead, Para-Foils depend upon light wing-loadings to soften landings. Consider that classic accuracy competitors fly most of their approach in half brakes. As they approach the target, they apply more and more brakes until they mush or stall vertically the last metre or two. Classic accuracy competitors do not want a dynamic flare that significantly changes their approach angle. Back to the OP: set up your 300 square foot BASE canopy so that it stalls at 7/8 arm extension. Only fly classic accuracy approaches with large, lightly-loaded canopies (300-ish square feet). And only do hard-core, stalled approaches onto a soft target. Inflated tuffets are best, but freshly-raked pea-gravel is almost as good at cushioning landings.

I was discussing this with a couple of students last weekend. I asked them: "How high is the flag pole?" "How high is the wind-sock?" "How high is the far fence?" "Which is the best height to start your flare?" The two most important factors are starting your flare at the correct altitude and - secondly - finishing your flare. Local students were fortunate to always have instructors (or CSPA Coach 2) watching their landings and giving advice on how to improve. Second best would be to have video of your landings and discuss that video with a local instructor that evening. Hint: cold lemonade always improves instructors' attitudes and improves quality of coaching. On a similar note, this evening I am enjoying a bottle of wine .... but that is a rigger habit.

Looks like a phone mangled that... I always expected burkas and chadours to be lighter weight than Sunbrella.... ............................................................... Grown! I meant to say "car covers." Apologies to my Arabic-speaking neighbors. Some days I wonder if Spell-Check was invented by Satan?

Q: Why don't clams donate to charity? A: They are shellfish.

Good point. Next time a Sigma main comes through my loft, I will sew magnets onto the main toggles. On another note, have you ever installed Icarus/New Zealand Aerosports lines on a Precision main?

One of our freefall students (50 second delays) talked a friend into doing a tandem. The tandem student's legs were shaking - with fear - while waiting for her plane. So I taught her a few dance steps. During the plane ride, she was saying "I hate you! I hate you!" and punching her friend (big tough ex-infantryman) in the arm. The freefall student climbed out first. Tandem scooted to the door, slightly too slowly to kick him off the step. We all landed in the same field. Last thing I saw, she was chasing her friend round the flag pole .... threatening bodily injury if she ever caught him! Hah! Hah!

Funny, we used Hornet 190s (as transition and rental rigs) for years and everyone enjoyed the openings. Also check age of lines. Openings deteriorate after A lines shrink or stretch to more than 3 inches difference across the A lines. Hint: most new canopies start with zero difference across the A lines. Personal experience, I got a Stiletto 135 third-hand. It had close to 1,000 jumps on the original line-set. My first jump was an AFF. After opening, the other instructor looked up at me kicking out of line-twists and said to himself "Best get out from underneath in case he cuts away." I eventually kicked out of the line-twists and landed softly, but the flare was nothing spectacular .... not much compared with my old Sabre 1?????? I walked off the dz wondering why everyone else loved their Stilettos. I re-lined my third-hand Stiletto over the winter and the second summer learned why so many people love their Stilettos! Earned my exhibition jump rating with a Stiletto 135 ..... and I weight 200 pounds.

Congrats! Good decision-making process. Glad you got that fear out of the way early. I had to wait until my 45th jump to pull a reserve. Vibrated like a jazz musician on cocaine!!!!!!

I stand by my original advice. I read all of the OP's account and understand his decision-making process. He identified a problem and practiced rear riser flares well above reserve decision altitude. Above reserve decision altitude he concluded that he could survive a rear riser flared landing. The jump ended with him walking away from the landing. I applaud his decision-making process.

Wow! Took a few years, but I finally get to tease Hackish about being half-right. West Way made both 1-pin and 2-pin sport rigs as well as a few pilot emergency parachutes. Steve West started making Innovator containers with two reserve pins (aka. Wonderhog) circa 1980. By the late 1980s, Steve was building Innovator 2 containers with a single reserve pin. Innovators pack mostly the same as Vectors. I have only seen 1-pin Innovators during this century .... and not very many on the West Coast. As for the OP's freebag, I would just confirm that rubber is still flexible and repack it. If you need replacement O-rings, just ask your friendly neighbourhood cash-register repairman. Hah! Hah!

Sunbrella is the leading fabric for awnings, lawn furniture, Arab covers, etc. Since it is made of acrylic, it deteriorates very slowly in sunlight.

Atom Millenium reflects the date of manufacture. First guess, the Millenium was introduced around the turn of the century ..... same time as Javelin K series. What was the atomic number .... of that Danish rig? What was its atomic weight? How many electrons? How many protons? How far down the periodic table? How m....... Sorry, my mind wandered to a different type of atom. On an Atomic note: which way was the pilot-chute cap oriented? Was the long axis pointed towards the top flap. For riggers not familiar with Atoms: they have a pilot-chute similar to Vector but the hard cap is oval, like a race track. The long axis is supposed to be packed parallel to the wearer's spine, making it narrower to clear the side flaps. I suspect that this Service Bulletin is just another problem caused by making smaller and smaller patterns of the same design, until the different components no longer work together. Who can remember when Vector II reserve pilot-chute was introduced? Who remembers all the different Talon, Skyhook and Magnum pilot-chutes before Rigging Innovations finally introduced the Stealth reserve pilot-chute? How many have packed a Racer with that tiny diameter pilot-chute Spring? How many remember Strong removing "Flingers" from Quasar reserve containers? Bottom line, as containers get smaller different variables create problems. The factory has never seen some of the packing methods "invented" by field riggers.

I did six tandems on my 59th birthday.

Can people please stop using this way of logic? In this case he made a decision, and got away with it. Probably he made a good decision for his situation, but people also make very, very bad decisions and walk away from it. As I'm sure you know, luck is a factor in this sport, people can do really dumb shit and walk away because they were lucky I also wonder if PeteW knows how easily it is to stall your canopy on your rears, I hope he does :) ......................................................................................... DVK I stand by my original logic. I have seen far too many young jumpers questioning their decision ..... as they walk away from their first reserve landing. So I listen to their version of the story, and congratulate them on making a good decision. Far worse is the two students how impacted at reserve line-stretch, because they hesitated on an important decision. I would much rather repack a reserve that have a student hesitate on a decision. From a personal point of view, I have broken a dozen-ish lines on first generation tandems and suffered more tension knots than I care to remember. I quit counting after a couple dozen tandem reserve rides. I also quit jumping first-generation tandems. I learned new techniques from other TIs and developed a couple of my own new techniques for partial malfunctions. I have only landed one damaged canopy that I regretted (both center A-lines broken). Fortunately we walked away with bruises. So when (last week) a TI asked me to repack a reserve after he cutaway from a (single) broken center A line, I cheerfully repacked the reserve, inspected the main, spliced the broken line and gave him a sales pitch on a new line set. At this age, I no longer get excited about broken lines. I ask myself "Is it steerable? Is it flare able? Will I walk away from the landing?" These days I mostly jump tandems and whenever I get bored, I practice rear riser turns and rear riser flares - shortly after opening. Luckily, I have never been forced to land a tandem on rear risers, but know which types of tandem canopies I could comfortably flare on rear risers.

That teenaged girl did better than Harrison Ford. P.S. Harrison Ford has always had my respect.

You made a decision and you walked away from the landing, ergo you made the correct decision. Next time you jump a new canopy, practice rear riser flares (up high) during your first few jumps. That experience will help you decide well before you break a steering line/lose a toggle, etc.

Have you talked directly with Skydive Delmarva or Skydive Baltimore? How tall are you? How heavy are you? How flexible are you? Can you touch your toes? How muscular are you? How many chin-ups can you do? How many sit-ups can you do? Can you run down stairs? Can you roll on a judo mat? How far can you run? What other sports do you play? I ask all these questions to evaluate how far you have rehabilitated from your injuries. For comparison: I have sprained an ankle, sprained a knee, sprained a thumb, sprained my neck, concussion, face resewn twice, herniated two lumbar vertebrae, dis-located a shoulder, torn ligaments in my knee, bruised ribs, bruised my sternum, etc. during skydives but rehabilitated well-enough to do six tandem jumps (instructor's position) last Sunday. Perhaps my question is: "How hard have you worked in rehab?"

Yes, Circa 1980, a local jumper (slender, fit young woman) got a custom-made Wonderhog with a butt strap similar to the butt strap in Jan Meyers' article. The extra butt-strap was seen on at the factory. Fast forward to this century and Y-straps are now mandatory for tandem students. I prefer the Strong Y-strap because it is sewn to the leg straps. Sewing it to the leg straps reduces the "confusion of straps" during dressing. Sometimes that confusion is caused by the Y-strap sliding too far forward, forward of the leg pads?????? Sewing Y-straps also reduces the size of the "hole in the harness" that your butt might fall out. In the long run, I would vote for a strap similar to Jan's but hand-tacked or zig-zag sewn to the leg pads by a field rigger. As an aside, a few years back I took a tandem student who was missing part of one leg (amputated mid-femur) and was glad to tighten the Y-strap to ensure that the leg strap did not slip off the stump of his leg.

.......................................................................... Belly bands might help. Belly bands definitely help when you are putting large containers on small students because they prevent the container from shifting sideways. Butt bungees only came into fashion after hip rings and after those hip rings had been in service for a few years (mid-1990s). Then second-owners complained about leg straps wandering. Most of them were wearing harnesses specifically tailored for some-one bigger than them. Dough! No wonder harnesses were sliding around on their own! The solution was adding a little elastic bungee cord between the lower leg straps to hold them in place until opening shock.

To answer the original question: I concentrate on keeping my knees level. I did not understand this until I suffered major line-twists during my first few wing suit jumps. Eventually I concluded that I was relaxing too early - during deployment - and wind was hitting (the top/back skin) of my assymetrical) leg wing. When I concentrated on maintaining arched legs - until after deployment - line-twists disappeared. Makes me wonder about all those malfunction stories that start with: "I was on my back, spinning under massive line-twists ......"

First: ask a local rigger to inspect your harness and confirm how well it fits you. Second: ask your local rigger if a butt bungee will help with fit. Third: if you complete your profile, we can help introduce you to local riggers.

Avoid mentioning maintenance to prospective customers because they know nothing about maintenance. Why do you think airline mechanics skulk around at night? Why do bus mechanics skulk around at night? Why do janitors skulk around at night? Because the general public do not want to hear about scheduled maintenance or routine maintenance or preventative maintenance. Yes, transportation professionals bet thier lives on mechanics' quiet work, but the general public does not want to hear about it.

Speculating ..... Caravans, Kodiaks, Porters, etc. fly on floats. Many Caravans and Kodiaks also fly with belly panniers full of luggage. Some Porters have Bombay doors in the middle of the cabin floor, but you still need to fall past the spreader bars, cables, etc. Is the Porter's hatch wide enough to drop a tandem? Kodiaks can bolt both floats and luggage panniers underneath. What if you cut a canoe-sized hatch in the back end of the Kodiak's luggage pannier? Would the canoe-hatch be aft of the rear spreader-bar? How much paperwork to cut an extra hatch in an after-market luggage pannier? Is there enough headroom to stuff a few tandems in the Caravan/Kodiak luggage pannier? What if you replace the luggage doors with Plexiglas windows? Could you charge extra for the "panorama view" during the climb to altitude? What if the luggage pannier only concealed a hinged ramp .... and the ramp was just long enough to rest of the aft spreader-bar? How much paperwork to cut an extra hatch in a Caravan or Kodiak's floor? Where do tail control cables run in a Caravan or Kodiak (floor or ceiling)?