danielcroft

Well, you won't get my vote. Interesting discussion despite the histrionics.

1. Traffic 2. Toggles 3. Traffic & DZ 4. Chest strap I have a Spectre 190 & am just off student status. I have no problem bringing both hands down while still in the toggles at the same time to loosen my chest strap. Maybe that'll change after I get a higher loaded canopy but for the foreseeable future, I think it works pretty well. I don't have a collapsible slider right now so I don't have to play with that yet.

+1 I accept the right of response but can we drop this? You guys can mud wrestle in bikinis to sort it out later.

If you watch to the end of the vid & read the description, he didn't catch his cut away, it was still attached to his foot. I think what he passes by under canopy was the reserve pilot chute and freebag. Glad you're ok dude.

I was looking up TSO C-23 but couldn't find it specifically say that but I think the FAR is saying that those are the only permitted parachute systems. It doesn't list alternative systems anywhere else except with regard to foreign skydivers and only if they're jumping gear that's not certified for use in the US. In that case it still has to be certified for use in their own country and operated accordingly. I mentioned the BASER too, it's legal to jump. If you contact Sonic (the guy who designed it) he'd probably be willing to explain.

Don't have the FAR link but aren't all rigs required to have a reserve? That's the idea behind the BASER - belly reserve so you can jump it from a plane. Is this it? http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/2007SIM/section9part105.htm#10543 Newb here so I could be totally wrong on that one.

Pets & Children are exactly the same in terms of the DZ. If you don't know how to, or aren't prepared to keep them out of the way and from messing people equipment up, don't bring them. Otherwise, fine. Our DZ has a no dogs policy (I'm a dog fan) so that's fine but then to have people show up with children that are off playing on the creepers that a 4 way team needs is pretty rude on the part of the parents. Not to mention the child that managed to spill beer (bumped into it) over my wife's packing mat the other night at the DZ, the mother is the SO of a jumper & didn't say or do anything about it. That's just inconsiderate & rude. Cliff notes: If you can't control your pet/child, they shouldn't be at the DZ.

Thanks for that.

Would the CRW style split bridle stop this happening?

Lol. I have slider stops on my risers.

Good story, glad you're ok.

This is something I'm going to include in my ep's too I think. Right now I unstow, check the canopy is good and then bring both hands down and loosen my chest strap like I'm going into half brakes.

That's great, glad he had fun!

V-22 Ospreys? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V-22_Osprey

Remembering of course that, as a student, you can't pack for anyone but yourself. Once you're licensed you can pack for others as long as there's a certified rigger watching you. The watching you could mean in the same building or standing over you making sure you're doing it right. If you do the S/L progression, I'd suggest spending a couple of hundred dollars going to the nearest wind tunnel. That'd probably be Nashua NH but not sure. Good luck.

1 in 12 now 1 in 25 If either of those ratios don't improve I may consider quitting.

LOL I have 1 cutaway... jump 12...

That's what I did. Helped me a lot. As well as taking some quiet time, eyes closed & breathing deeply on the packing mats (out of the way!) before I'd start jumping for the day. My friends all say (they're a lot more experienced than me) "What's the worst that could happen" suggesting that given a parachute, everything will be ok. Of course, my mind would wander off onto all the random possibilities. Doesn't really help, I can think of a lot of bad stuff that can happen. Skydiving is a way for me to overcome fear (as well as being challenging, fun and a great social experience), giving up through fear would be the very worst thing I could do for myself. I've found that between last season L8 and this season L9 (first solo) my fear in the plane has subsided a lot. I don't like to mess around still, it's a serious event until I'm getting to the door at which point it gets to be fun and then a whole lot funner out of the plane. Well, that is except for floating exits that I'm not thrilled about. Now I get random and very strong bouts of fear in the pit of my stomach when I'm not at the DZ, weird I know. ; ) I am using the fear to motivate myself to do other things in life: I really don't want to call this person and tell them off... well, I do jump out of planes... ; )

Another inexperienced poster here. ; ) If possible (watch out for ego!) see if you can get your packer to roll the tail a little (lot!) more, that may help slow down your openings. I've started packing my own rigs recently (hurt my thumb in a batting cage so had to stop again) and this is the way I've been told to slow down openings. This is of course given that you have your slider up against the stops at all times. Seek advice from someone you trust (AFFI) about how to resolve the issue, it may be that the student packer is lazy and/or doesn't care or that there's a problem with the equipment. Again, just a newb here too, so take what I say with a grain of salt.

Warning: noob post! What I find confusing is people who say you should master every canopy before you downsize. I personally doubt that any but a very small percentage of us could master any canopy. This reasoning would suggest that I should buy a 280 and fly it until I "master" it, whatever that means. Don't get me wrong, I'm not going out & buying a bed sheet for swooping. My first non-student canopy is likely to be a Spectre 190 (I weigh 162) and I'll fly that to get a feel for it and then see how I go from there. I'll probably rent some 9 cells of the same size after I'm more comfortable to find out what they're like. The smallest canopy I expect to have in the next couple of years is a 170 but who knows, I might not get that good/comfortable. I listen to advice with this kind of thing. ; ) A little more on topic: What I wonder is this: are the low number of incidents in free fall due to the amount of focus put on free fall awareness & training and conversely the bias toward canopy injuries due to a lack of training in that area or is it actually the way it is? Yeah it's easier to hit the earth than another skydiver but the lack of focus on canopy *flight* training might have something to do with the number of collisions last year.

That was my experience. I spun up a good canopy in a turn & chopped as I was spinning & had 5 to 10 twists. People who saw it said I did the right thing because I was being whipped out sideways. Ended up chopping at about my hard deck. Glad you dealt with it dude, much better than a reserve ride. That just pissed me off. I certainly learned a lot from the experience and everyone says it's good that I "got it out of the way" but I wish I'd been able to fix it. Not second guessing myself, I did the right thing and no one can tell me otherwise. I'm much more gradual with my inputs now, even with the "you can't really fuck this up" student canopies...

I'm a student still (3 jumps to go) and predictably would ride the plane down (I think it's fun ;)). When I get my A I'd ride down too. Tandems land in winds that most jumpers sit out at our DZ (Ranch) and we have some pretty serious turbulence depending on the direction of the wind. Peer pressure certainly sucks but I'm usually walking back to the hangar before the radio tells me students are grounded. It's happened a couple of times actually. I remember walking out to the loading area with a couple of other students & a friend on the load. We got a heavy gust of wind across the LZ (thin & long), I just turned around and walked back in. The other students & my friend (low jump numbers) did too.

Thanks for that. I've definitely been able to see my target (not moving up or down) but the bit I was confused about was distance to target when I'm starting on final. Maybe I'm confused, it wouldn't be the first time. ;)

17 jumps here. How do you calculate your glide ratio to know where those 1k/600/300 points will be? I make a plan in my head before I jump. I know where the holding area is, where the general area of each leg begins but I'm not sure where exactly I'll end up. Based on (limited) experience, I'm learning what my glide ratio will be but I'm just not sure how to adjust that based on wind, etc.

LOL. I had to ask too. Dead Guy In Training.