Hooknswoop

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Everything posted by Hooknswoop

  1. I haven't compared smoke pants to tracking pants, but PF tracking pants will slow your fall rate quite a bit compared to a free-fly suit on your belly/not-tracking. I flew a pair of PF tracking pants in the tunnel recently. Derek
  2. Because a larger slider 'catches' more air, but allows the canopy to open more and reefs the canopy less. A smaller slider reefs the canopy more, but has smaller surface area to 'catch' air. A too large slider will cause hard openings and a too small slider will cause hard openings. It is a balance between reefing and surface area. A pocked allows the a slider to catch more air without sacrificing the reefing of the lines. I have had much success with pockets. Derek
  3. The Perris, Oregon, and San Diego reserve rides were all spinning line twists with the links un-even. This mean you either were not even in the harness, or it was mis-adjusted. You can harness shift to make the links even to stop the spinning, which takes spinning line twists too simple,and fix-able line twists. Derek
  4. My one bag lock, on a tandem, was caused when normal, large (non-tandem) rubber bands didn't break and were double wrapped. Derek
  5. Looks like standard rubber bands on a tandem D-bag. Do you know what rubber bands are on there? Even then, the canopy is still in the bag and the locking stows look fine. How was the opening? I am still looking for video of a canopy out of the d-bag before line stretch. I would constantly hear that 'line dump' "caused my hard opening", but I have never seen video of a modern canopy out of the bag before line stretch or what I would call 'bag strip'. I believe that bag strip would cause a catostrophically hard opening with canopy damage and/or injury to the jumper. I think that 99% of hard openings are caused by not keeping the slider against the slider stops during packing and pulling after a diving, not flat, track. Derek
  6. i think that s why skydiving has such poor retention post student-status. Sure, they are sorta safe, they can jump, pull and land without killing themselves, but not much else. But they can't really go jump successfully with others. They tire quickly of doing solos. Other skydivers want to jump with people that can fly, not coach people, so they quit. People should be trained to be safe as well as fly with others. USPA has been lowering, not increasing heir minimum Instructional rating standards. Remember, DZO's make money by the jump, not by the quality of the instruction given on that jump. If anything, they make re with a poor Instructor since the student is more likely to have to make re-peat jumps. Quality Instructors know they are quality and expect better pay, treatment, benefits, etc. Poor Instructors and just happy to making money skydiving. Since DZO's control USPA, keeping the Instructional standards low works in their favor financially. Conflict of interest. I recently met an 'Instructor' that had 16 total skydives, 2 free falls and said she was "white knuckled" in the airplane. Derek
  7. At the end of the day, the BSR's are not laws, the FAR's are. Derek
  8. I wish I could take credit for it, but I didn't come up with it. I picked it up a long time ago, don't remember from who. Derek
  9. I thought the manual called it a surgeon's knot, oops. Definately not a figure 8 knot though. I think that is the secret, putting a lot of force on it to pre-stretch it. Derek
  10. The manual calls for a sureon's knot, not a figure 8. That might be part of it. I start with a long loop with a singleknot at the end with the washer already on it. To pre-stretch it, I use a stainless steel knee plate and packing paddle as the anchor and a T-bar through the loop to pull on it. I pull it hard to get it set. Then I mark where the knot should be, slider the washer past the mark and tie the knots. Then I pre-stretch it again. Makes for exactly the same length loop every time. Derek Derek
  11. You didn't start tracking at 4k, you checked altitude at 4k. Then you turned, stopped, and THEN you started tracking at much less than 4k. AS others have mentioned, you can ALWAYS check altitude. Look at the ground. It is not a matter of if, but when, your altimeter will fail. Derek
  12. You should lose about 1000 feet for every 6 seconds on your belly, less in a track. No way did you burn up 2500 feet in 5-7 seconds. Either you started your track lower, or tracked longer than 5-7 seconds. Did you see 4,000 feet on your altimeter, wave, then turn, stop the turn, then track? Unless you were in a vertical dive, the problem is more with altitude awareness than tracking. If your AAD fired, it would have launched your reserve pilot chute and done nothing to your main. It can be n big deal, or it can kill you or anything in between. I disagree with releasing the brakes on your main or reserve in a 2-out situation. If you have a stable bi-plane or side-by-side, why change anything? Why allow the main to accelerate/go to full-flight? I recommend you sit down with an Instructor and have them go over your gear with you so you completely understand how everything works and revisit how to deal with a 2-out situation. Also discuss with them this skydive and altitude awareness and tracking technique. Remember, the goal of tracking is not speed, but the most horizontal movement for the least vertical movement. Derek
  13. Maybe tied for fatalities, but USPA cannot track accidents such as injuries. Instead of 'accidents', he should have said 'fatalities'. Derek
  14. USPA's unofficial motto is; "What is good for DZO's is good for skydivers" DZO's want cheap labor. Revoking ratings takes away from that cheap labor pool. Same reason they lowered the AFFI course standards when there was an Instructor shortage. Derek
  15. I wouldn't call it a committee, just a group of skydivers looking to make a change. From the sound of this discussion, which swoopers are welcome to, they don't want change. The problem with the status quo, is that people are dieing. I have been reading a lot of swoopers getting defensive, but none offering a solution to seperate standard traffic pattern flyers from non-standard traffic flyers. That is what the people offering up this BSR as an idea are trying to do. They are not out to get swoopers. Do have a solution to the problem identified by the recent fatalities between people flying standard and non-standard patterns? Seems to me that swoopers and other non-standard pattern flyers should take the lead with this sort of thing and come together and develop a solution that will fix the issue with the minimum inconvience for all involved. Fighting against change in order to keep the status quo doesn't seem like a good use of time or resources. A better use of time and energy would be to solve the issue in a way that makes everyone happy and keeps them alive. Take some time and watch the canopy traffic at your DZ. Identify where similar collisions could happen and develope one or more concepts that would reduce the chances of a collision happening. Kick those concepts around, at the DZ, with as many jumpers as possible and even here for even more input. Then impliment the concept that pisses of the least amount of people. If you don't, and there is another double fatality, who is responsible? Derek
  16. http://www.superbikeschool.com/machinery/no-bs-machine.php Derek
  17. John- When did you flip sides? What happened to "Education, not regulation"? Derek
  18. Ellie is awesome. Sorry Emma, next time she flies at SVCO, we are putting her on her head. Derek
  19. I just ran upstairs and measured the (SVCO) tunnel. 11-ft, 5-inches from flat to flat and 12-feet, 5-inches corner to corner. We have 8 panels. Maybe the 12 feet is an average. I 'believe' it is 109 sq ft. That might be the best way to measure a tunnel, square footage. Derek
  20. Check with an A & P. You are probably looking at having to prep the aluminum, paint it with zinc chromate as the primer and then the color you want the final paint to be. Derek