pchapman

You sure had a close look there Brian! So there was drogue and bridle on the student's leg. It's all about the exciting ride these days. If everything went right all the time, it wouldn't be EXTREME would it!

How not to throw rocks? You arguing for or against? We all have our bad drogue tosses but that still looks like a really bad one. Oh, silly me, I must have missed the point: The guy in the video is from Red Bull, so it must be an intentional toss while rolling 360 after exit. It's just like a low altitude BASE layout backloop: Pull early, PC is out to the side while one is rotating, and the canopy comes off one's back while rotating level again. So he's just demonstrating his awesome drogue toss timing skillz, releasing it back to wind so that it barely misses the student's legs. Wish I were so good.

Neat video of the actual jumps. Professionally produced indeed. At about 5:40, I like how one fellow does a nice front loop before deployment, while another has the pilot chute oddly snap back at him and plaster itself against the container or something, back to wind. He disappears off screen below the rest of the gang... but reappears with a full canopy about a hundred feet lower than those next to him, probably wondering "WTF??". Still, I guess they went to pilot chutes to clean up the deployments, with less of that lateral blast of air?

Which one? The only one that makes sense. Which may be a little confusing if you aren't experienced with English and parachute rigging. One packing method in the Thinback manual is for canopies without a diaper, that stow the lines in elastics in the container. Since you have a Phantom canopy with a diaper, that does not apply. The other packing method for the canopy is incorrect too, as it is not quite what is done for the Phantom canopy. Use an actual Phantom manual for that. (See the offer made to you or maybe it is online at one of the couple rigging sites like Parachutemanuals.com) Canopies should generally be packed according to the canopy manual even if the container manual is different. What you do use from the manual is the last part which shows how the packed canopy fits into the container. That is the part to use, because that is about the container, not the canopy alone. Finding a rigger with round canopy experience would really help...

I got a bit of info a friend who has been a rigger for about 3 yrs at a DZ with around 12 Sigma rigs, sporting a mix of Vigils (all v. 2 I think) and Cypreses (v. 1 & 2). One Cypres (version uncertain) had a problem and went off for repair. Two Vigil 2's had a problem and were sent off. (I'm not sure but I assume the AAD Vigil company covered the repair costs, to maintain goodwill.) One local jumper had a Vigil 1 that had an error and went in for servicing. For some years earlier there were fewer tandem rigs and they had Cypreses only. As an instructor there and occasional rigger, I hadn't heard of other AAD failures back then. So neither company's products have been perfect, and the data isn't precise, but Vigils have unfortunately been giving a bit more of a problem than expected, especially given that they are the newer Vigil 2. Just one DZ's experience.

Aside for BrianM: PST (the other DZ north of Toronto...) also does S/L.

Wendy Faulkner's web site has long shown a bunch of the old BCRW photos, and even a BCRW awards list. I'm still wondering where Gary Cobb is now. Some day I'll try backwards CRW! http://crwdog.servebeer.com/CRWdog/Backwards.html

Much does depend on what exactly the rules and customs are at your DZ, as they vary by location. One hopes that there is some area where you could land into the wind if a serious mistake is made with the FMD. I wouldn't want to see student forced to land downwind with a 10-15 mph tailwind when they've had no chance to learn to deal with tailwinds through gradual practice. It's all right to say "at that DZ you need to learn to land downwind", but what if it happens before you've had the chance to learn? Heck, landing a big canopy downwind can sometimes be worse than landing a small canopy downwind, because with the small one, one may have a much longer flare window to get sliding on the grass. So it would be really good if there's a far corner of the field where you could go and stay out of the pattern, and land upwind if needed. I just don't like how some say "You must follow FMD!!" and then offer no way to learn how to downwind land safely.

... and that's me in the picture flying it. Not the best performing canopy is it? Sluggish and strange feeling on the toggles if one is used to a nice ParaCommander.

I'll say the standard stuff and hit the obvious points: Good going; you got a canopy deployed; you learned something; you should be more confident and relaxed for the next time. Though I also trust you can see that even with the high initial pull altitude, altitude flies, and it is easy to try a little too long and get low quick. If an experienced jumper with a fast canopy pulls near the minimum limits, it isn't so surprising if they end up open at 1000' after a mal. But given that you are newer to this all, and started a lot higher, it is getting low. Remember how many tries they told you to do before going to silver?

The 172 mph must have been the 150 kt certification limit. And 150*1.2 = 180 for the testing. In any case the certification descent rates and total velocity can be pretty high, and no data are published for speeds at max weight, so one can't even extrapolate down to lower weights.

Thank you Brian, that makes sense. It's even on the little sheet Paragear sends out with their plastic fids, the ones I have so rarely used after making piano wire style fids years ago.

Not mentioned? Perhaps because reserve lines would - I expect - normally arrive without the end of the steering lines hot knifed, if they are Spectra? Or are some of them lightly hotknifed?? This could use a new thread.

Despite feelings we might have about the guy, I don't think it is the time to go into exactly who and where. I don't even know the name for sure myself -- leaving the woman some privacy in the matter. I think the word has passed around, between the girls at the DZ.

Hi Lee, In my case it happened in Canada, but that's an interesting observation for the US! I haven't been able to find (after just a quick search) any similar law or reporting rule here in Canada, although there is a federal law about tampering with safety equipment on commercial aircraft. Edit: I checked with the jumper. She is going to the police. It is good that there were witnesses at the DZ to the earlier threats of harm that are now clearly more than just words.

To add to this, I hear she's from Quebec, where she was legal to drink at 18, so it is understandable if not actually legal. If the girls were stomping on flags or tipping Zambonis over, there would be a problem. But otherwise it is humourous that the IOC have their panties in a bunch.

I don't know the details yet but I believe the jumper is reporting things to the police. (Stratostar: Good recall. That ripcord pin sleeve incident was the one I was thinking of.)

I inspected a rig recently where a jumper's ex-boyfriend, also a jumper, had cut part way through one of the main lift webs. The guy had made some veiled threats so the girl tried to keep her rig locked up when not in use at the DZ but one time it wasn't. At least the damage was obvious on the front of the rig. Reserve risers were intact! I get the impression the guy was drunk or on drugs at the time, because it was pretty pointless damage, neither hidden nor totally destroying the rig. There have been a few cases of rig sabotage reported over the years. My case here was trivial. (The serious cases I recall: The cut reserve riser fatality in Belgium, cut reserve riser suicide in England, reserve pin tampering in Italy, paratrooper rig tampering in US, and serious injury in the USA after a well known skydiver's rig had reserve risers on one side cut. This is off the top of my head so I might not have the stories straight!) Another time I did a repack for a girl because the rig had been at her boyfriend's when they broke up. All was OK but fact that she felt concerned enough to get an inspection says something.

Thanks for the details of that bad day. I'll look forward to seeing what you can achieve in the sky again as you get more practice.

etc. And tumours or other brain problems may let people experience visions, which in a religious environment can be seen as being religious in nature. As for an earlier quote by Kallend: Don't forget "omnivorous", according to Homer Simpson.

Companies don't publish airspeed and descent rate data, whether for full flight or in brakes. So unless someone is really really familiar with both canopies, who knows. Without other details, one can only guess bigger is better. (I don't know if the Paratec Speed is measured the PIA way or PD way. The PIA way, the PD 176 comes out to 189 by one published set of measurements.)

I don't know about the jackpot thing, but here's another bit of imagery: Going for the reserve has reminded me of a duel in a Western movie. You chop, flip to belly, and there you are, face to face with the earth coming at you fast. It's just the two of you, nothing else matters. You're down to your last shot. It's the moment of truth that imprints itself on your brain. "Draw!" Your hand moves, there's a flash of silver, and you stop the earth dead in its tracks...

When I saw the title in this post, I figured the column in the magazine would be like one that ran in Canpara many years ago -- Howard Sommerfeld's "Museum of Rigging Horrors", showing things to watch out for!

Re Olympic hockey At least the women are smart enough to be able to skate down the ice without crashing into each other all the time like the guys. (Ok, that's likely due to different rules on checking...)

Old canopies and hardware? Sounds like you know of a storage trailer at some long-time DZ. Let me know what canopies you find if you sort through the stuff!! There are a small bunch of us on DZ.com who are interested in jumping old canopies. Old canopies do get sold and traded around. Prices stay low since it isn't about collector's items, but getting things back in the air for the occasional jump. We sometimes get donations from old timers, and sometimes we pay a bit plus shipping to make it worth while for someone to dig things out of the basement. There's often someone out there looking for a decent ParaCommander, and some early squares are fairly rare. So it would be cool if you dug around and figured out what all the old nylon was.