LawnDart21

While I appreciate the honest opinion D, to answer your question, I was gonna give myself until 2000ft to punch the reserve if the tracking didn't deploy the main. I realize every second counts up there, and yes, my first thought was "okay I have time to try and deal with this" and my second thought was to track, but both thoughts were here and gone in 1/100th of a second. I wasn't pondering the idea for any great length of time...lol....fearing an entanglement of the main/reserve, I just wanted to give the main dbag a good chance to clear itself (if it was going to) before I hit the reserve and added another canopy coming out off my back to the equation. Again, I appreciate the opinion, but I made a quick decision in a crisis situation which still left me an out if it didn't work (the reserve) I still had time and altitude, so I went for it. In retrospect, I might have tried to deal with it differently, which is why I made the post, to try and learn from others. Happy Holidays to all.....And to all a good flight! Tom

Here's the background, I have 400 jumps, I jump a Mirage M1, and usually fly a Vengence 120, but have been jumping a Sabre 150 while waiting for my Vengeance to come back from PD. The M1 specs state that a 135 is the biggest main you can put in the M1, but everyone I have talked to, including riggers, said that 1 size too big isn't a big deal. I put the 150 in, and left the orginal closing loop in. It was obviously tigher to get the pin in on the 150, but the psi was still just over 20, maybe 22, which I believe is within reason for closing loop tension. I had made a bunch on uneventful jumps with the 150 in about 50 degree ground temps, then last weekend I jumped with a 34 degree ground temp. I dumped at 3500ft, and as I looked back expecting to see my d-bag come off my back, instead I just saw my pilot chute in tow (cocked and inflated) trailing out behind me. My pin was still in and altitude I was a losing....I thought about just punching my reserve, but thought if the reserve came out and the main decided to deploy, it might be ugly, so, given I was still plenty high, like 2800ft, I just started tracking, hoping the horizontal pull on the pc would pop the pin, and it did. I landed under my main uneventfully, but in retrospect, I'm not sure I made the right the decision. Here are my questions: 1) Is it possible the cold weather caused the closing loop to shrink and that is what caused the delay/hesitation? 2) If you have a cocked pilot chute in tow, meaning the pin could in theory come out any time, should you cut away the main risers first, or just go for the reserve? 3) What would you have done? Any and all feedback (positive and negative) would be greatly appreciated, blue skies, Tom

I totally support paying for coach jumps. I was in Lake Wales last year and while I thought I had a solid sitfly, I did a coach jump with Max Cohn of Generation Freefly. It was like, $35 for the coaching plus his slot. I was a bit weary of the $$, but I paid it and I tell you, it was the best money I ever spent. At a glance,I had a good sitfly, but he was able to show me subtle areas that could be improved to increase my agility & stability. It would have taken me 30 or 40 jumps without coaching to figure out what he was teaching, so I look at it as saving $500 or $600 dollars in trial and error. I just think the key to coach jumps as a fun jumper is to make sure your coach is credible. Cheers! Tom

You already knew the answer to your question before you even asked it.... do what's right not what's politically correct. F*ck the instructor, teach the newbie, the newbie has the right to the best instruction available. "Stay high, pull low, sleep with your rigger's girlfriend.......that saying was a lot funnier before I became a rigger"

don't wear your gloves in the plane on the ride up to altitude. Your hands will sweat and then the sweat will freeze in freefall. Just put your gloves on about 1,000 ft before you exit. Alos, I've seen people stick thick winter gloves in their jump suits in addition to the ones they wear while in freefall. Once under a good clean canopy, they change gloes and put the thick ones on. Just watch out for other canopies while your making the chnage! Cheers! Tom

I'm looking to buy a AV mixing board to edit tandem videos next season, the only problem is that A) I have no clue where to buy one B) I have no idea what is a good model versus bad model and C) I don't know how many jumps, er, dollars, they cost? What is a reasonable price for one? Any help/advice would be mucho appreciated. Cheers! Tom "Stay high, pull low, & sleep with your rigger's girlfriend......I've come to the conclusion that saying was much funnier before I became a rigger......." - Over heard in the food tent at Quincy 2001.

I did my first snow jump last season and it was really cool. Just a hop and pop from 3500ft out of a Cessna, and I'll tell you, I got out directly over the DZ, but after spending 300 jumps that season looking down at green grass and leaves and stuff, I had trouble making out the landing area at first all covered in snow. Anyways, I came in and did a sick surf dragging my rear foot through the snow for about 40 yards, and then I flared......and SUNK......about three feet into the snow. Dumbass that I am, I didn't check the depth of the snow. All my buddies that followed me in landed in it too, and we had to trudge through an icy river (ankle deep) under the snow back to the hanger.

My 1st AFF jump, I found myself saying a prayer: "Lord please protect us and give us all good, clean opens and see us safely back to the ground. Please protect our pilot, who is risking his life so that we may know your glory through freefall and see him (or her) safely back to the ground. Should that not be your design, should today be the day that one us meets our judgement, please know that we are truly sorry for our sins and thankful for the life that we have been given and pray that we be granted entrance into heaven so that we know your glory for eternity with You, and your son Jesis Christ, who died so that our sins may be forgiven. With all our heart and soul we love you." I said it (unplanned) on AFF Level 1, and have said it every jump since...........

Your best bet if your going to other DZs is to finish your license requirements where ever you go. With the new ISP it should be quite easy for each DZ to help you through it. An A license is only a piece of paper, but the knowledge and experience you acquire while getting it will make you a safer skydiver. I've seen students breeze through AFF and then have huge difficulties with the required prelicense skills jumps, ie, orbits, docks, etc. It's really not a question of "could" you jump without a license?, but "should" you jump? And to be honest, you probably shouldn't without going through and getting your license. Stay safe bro. Cheers -T3

Here's an idea: Alot of freeflyers (myself included) have bungy cords sewn between our leg straps to keep them from sliding down to our knees while sitflying. Second, your worry is making the leg strap too cumbersome, so perhaps instead of enlarging the leg strap, just reshape it. If a standard rectangular leg pad is 20 square inches, change the design of the rectangular pad into say an oval or an ellipse, or a "1/4 moon" shape, there by placing the bulk of the padding in the more needed area (the back of leg/butt area) and less padding at the connection to the ring/liftweb. You'd be using the same surface area of padding, so it shouldn't be that much bulkier around the leg. Then encorporate the bungy connection of the two leg straps. Anyways, I was a marketing major in college, so ergonics was never really my thing, take it for what it's worth. Good luck with the project. "Gravity and Ground, neither one gives a sh*t."