pchapman

I see your name popping up a lot lately, and as someone who is going to take a first jump course in the future but hasn't jumped yet. I know you are bursting with enthusiasm and questions, but you might want to just sit back and read, or even search old threads. It is hard for a newbie to pull the right kind of information out of all of the stuff that's been written here -- so a lot of what you read won't apply to you, and you won't have the experience to know what does and doesn't apply. Thus much of what you'll read is for information purposes only, which you'll pretty much need to ignore when you get to the drop zone and start listening to your instructors, and learn the basics of what will keep you alive. You could download the USPA "SIM" if you are in the USA and want to get way ahead of yourself -- at least the info is accurate and concise. It is way to early to ask about what parachute size you need, because you'll be given one to use as a student. As a student, you'll learn things like wing loading, either from your instructors, instruction manuals, or from hanging out with other skydivers. There are plenty of people on DZ.com who will help newbies out, but we're not gonna explain everything, especially for someone who is going to learn things anyway at the DZ. If later on you get stuck trying to interpret something, then asking on DZ can be useful. So you could try easing off on the questions just a little.

Ah, Rankin. I remember his tale in a kids book of aviation stories when I was young. The safety lesson for the day: Try to avoid ejecting right over a massive thunderstorm, unless you are looking to be scared by lightning, battered by hail, get frostbite, and get spat out many miles away after a 30+ minute canopy ride.

See the Preserve I instructions on the FFE site, on this page: http://www.freeflightent.com/parachute-packing-and-user-instructions.php Don't know if they authorize over 180 days outside the USA. Another manual for the Preserve V mentions "consistent with the F.A.R.s" (US regulations), so one is probably good to whatever repack interval is legal in one's own country. Para-Phernalia in one of their Para-Phernalia Softie pilot rig manuals write "Para-Phernalia, Inc. and Free Flight Enterprises have established a 20-year service life from the date of component manufacture for the Softie Pilot Emergency System and the Preserve line of emergency parachutes." BUT: a) You may be able to ignore that outside the USA b) If it isn't in the manual for your actual product, you can say that statement has no applicability. The above manual for the Preserve I, fresh from the company's "Packing and User Instructions" page, does not include the limit. There is no life limit in the Preserve I manual! c) You may be dealing with an FFE canopy NOT in a Para-Phernalia container for pilots, so what Para-Phernalia says has no bearing on you.

I'll agree with you there. But with the blinding speed with which the company has taken care of the problem -- it now being 20 days since the misdelivery -- one does start to wonder about trying to find out who might actually have the canopy in their possession now...

Certainly possible! Perhaps someone copied the address off the adjacent row of a sales database or spreadsheet... The OP should try to find out who does live at the address the canopy was sent. And someone at NZA needs to have access to their database even on the road to figure out what happened.

The OP was saying - not in the very first post of the thread - that FedEx was supposedly given the wrong address, and delivered to what they were given. Hence the claim that it is a NZA issue.

Oops. Ya gotta "hook in" right. I haven't been around HG for a long time, but I think it was always normal to have a hang loop and a backup hang loop too, that hang from the glider, into which a big beefy steel biner is hooked, from which a flyer's harness hangs. Actual carabiner failures or harness suspension failures are extremely rare. I'll guess that an error in hooking up properly was most likely the problem. But I don't know all the details of what can go wrong in hang gliding. It is a concern among hang glider pilots to avoid launching without hooking in. Sounds hard to do but they manage it occasionally, especially when distracted, unclipping to move around separate from the glider, then getting back to the glider, not planning to launch right away, and then forgetting to hook back when the chance to launch comes.

Just a quick reply on a few of the topics: Getting the legs up for landing can be difficult for even a fit student IF the harness is not adjusted well. It is something that instructors are not always perfectly aware of because they are rarely ever on front. Using the grippers on the side of the jumpsuit is a good way to help get the legs up. Legs straps normally stay pretty tight but a couple others can be loosened off after the canopy opens to avoid discomfort for the student. Only 1 able bodied person has ever fallen out of a tandem harness and that's due to gross misadjustment. Still, everyone in the industry likes to have straps good and snug -- even if we'd leave everything just a little looser and more comfortable on our personal gear. Students aren't always ready to use leg muscles to avoid slamming their butt on the ground, and it is something instructors could talk more about. We're used to being ready to apply some muscle tension, but students often are not. Usually tandem landings go OK but maybe in 1 in 1000 a student gets injured. (That's a pretty rough guess.) Not every tandem landing is perfectly soft and feet do sometimes get twisted, especially because newbies don't have a good sense yet of the timing of the landing and body position. Plenty of tandems happen with students heavier or also taller than the instructor. That's pretty common. It all comes down to getting a good flare, which is a bit harder the heavier the pair of people is, but not a whole lot.

If the leg straps are already snug around your thighs (and all the way up in your crotch) that suggests the overall length of the harness is too long. No adjustable lift webs on that rig to shorten the distance from hip to shoulder?

the conversation is in the wingsuit forum http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4282480;

The version that has now been posted for the first time on Parachute Systems' web site does show "before the next jump" for everything, clearing up that confusion. So the only silliness left is the Master rigger thing, where I assume many of use will allow any rigger to simply inspect. Like with Vigil SB8 or the Capewell bulletin in '03, it'll make sense to record the inspection on the packing card.

Not sure what's up with the 'temporarily unavailable' -- it's hard to know how a site will work for others, without having a different computer and internet connection to test it with. It 'should work'... Anyway, I did get in contact with Parachute Systems and they apologize for the problems. It is their first SB ever, the head of the company has a back injury and hasn't gotten to the office, and so there seems to be a little confusion in the small company. They do hope to get a definitive version of the SB posted soon on their own site. Since the 2nd version I got is identical with the first on Parachutemanuals, except for the things I described, one can get by for now with the first version plus this thread. Then eventually we should all be able to get a cleaned up version from the company.

I assume it'll make its way to Parachutemanuals.com soon, but for now I've put my copy (thanks Deyan) up at: http://www.mediafire.com/view/?oc7av6os9wc2b86 I call it "sort of version 2" since there's no identification or proof of what it is supposed to be. So that I'm not just talking behind the company's back, I have emailed Parachute Systems with my concerns about their bulletin process. Everyone makes mistakes but it all just looks sloppy.

I got a copy of the new bulletin version. Sorry to say, but what an incompetent company, at least when it comes to paperwork. First they don't have bulletins on their own web page, at least in any way apparent. Then they re-issue a bulletin, with the exact same bulletin name, exact same date, and just a few words changed, with no indication that the bulletin was changed. Two versions of the "same bulletin" will end up out there. And the language is ambiguous: The new version says to a) inspect the brake lines before the next jump, b) inspect the brake toggles at the next repack, and c) at the end, "Compliance Date: Before next jump". Now, does that mean that the bulletin overall needs to be considered before the next jump, but the toggles can wait for the next repack? Or that their wording is in error and that the toggles have to follow both next jump and next repack rules, or in effect just the former? This difference does matter if someone has a Vortex without a Decelerator reserve in it. I think I'll take the safe way out and interpret that everything has to be inspected before the next jump, and tell my customers that.

Are there any other changes, or just the compliance date? I have a few rigging customers to update...

Interesting. Too bad the story doesn't describe how the actual lockup happened, lessening any learning potential!

Switzerland is unusual in that respect. And people can't assume that everyone lives under the US's rules. It is a little ironic though, given that the FAI is headquartered in Switzerland, and that the FAI has had a set of licenses from A through D as a standard for the last decade. (As piisfish will know, national organizations are free to do their own thing, but the FAI's recommendations have caused some countries to adjust their licenses to align more closely with the FAI.) (FF license, piisfish? Only riggers will understand that joke.)

Maybe it's not bad to find something a little scary in skydiving, if everything has been going well.

To reiterate and refine the flaps issue some more, going from the cutter to the outside of the reserve container: Vector III (no Skyhook): cutter, lower kicker flap, upper kicker flap, a strong PC (with a grommet on top of course), 2 side flaps, 2 top & bottom flaps. = 7 grommets above cutter, including 4 above the PC that have to slide apart (pulling the AAD-cut tail of the closing loop out in a zig zag between them, while pressed by the PC) Javelin (no Skyhook): cutter, molar freebag grommet, 2 side flaps, a less strong PC (w. top grommet), 2 top & bottom flaps = 6 grommets but that includes only 2 flaps above the PC that have to slide apart with the tail of the closing loop

Good call. Even with just one low res video available, it is much easier to see full screen. So we can forget the one sided cutaway / cross connector idea. If one looks at the two canopies relative to each other, it is actually that Mr. Cutaway's canopy is hanging on its side, being pulled down by his weight and up and to the side by the lines caught up with upper jumper.

(Just my choice, but I'm not going to bother with another browser plug in just to view the material.)

That was the famous non-fatal main-reserve entanglement in New Zealand by Mike Holmes in 2006, which was on a Teardrop rig, lines catching around the main closing loop anchor tab. But yes, the tab is similar to that on a Javelin. (Wings & Racer also anchor the main loop from inside the pack tray, but leave only the loop itself "hanging out.") If we're talking about snags: On the Jav, I also don't like how soft the main side flaps are, relative to the neighboring hard plastic in the ends of the flaps. A poorer combination for snagging lines. But it is admittedly a very rare event.

"Compliance Date: At the next repack cycle" The solutions are basically these: If a Decelerator brake loop is restricted in size due to the bar tack location, the bar tack needs to be removed and resewn in the proper location. If the nose of the Vortex II reserve toggle is too soft, stitching should be added to stiffen it. Free replacement toggles are also available.

While I'm guessing that the double leg wrap is the same thing as the parabatic grip, I don't know for sure. In any case, for the parabatic leg grip: There are a couple peoples' descriptions and one pic I posted a while back in a thread on downplanes, starting here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3369487#3369487

That - with a cross connector - would explain why the main canopy looks so distorted and elongated during the last part of his flight under it, being 'tilted' upwards towards the camera side. Looks like it first happened just about when the two jumpers separated from the entanglement. Wonder if it was deliberate to help fix the entanglement in some strange way or if he was already planning to chop. I don't know military systems well -- For their gear, they would be taught to cutaway? (With the combination of Capewells, a somewhat maneuverable but not ParaCommander class main, and a pilot chute equipped reserve.) Deploying the reserve pilot chute before the chop probably saved him some valuable altitude - as long as he kept it from catching on anything before the chop.