conoro

Call it 170lb 20lb of gear. A 190 sized canopy puts you at 1:1 which should be good for your experience (assuming you can stand up land your existing canopy in no wind). I've got 70 jumps and just bought a PD-170 which is 1:1 for me. I had to ignore quite a few insistent people who said I should be jumping a 135 and actually gave me hassle about the 170. The nerve! They can bite me

Hmmm. Just two weeks or so ago 4 of us were getting out of the Cessna on one pass. I was last out and just followed out without checking. The second I got out I muttered "I am so gullible"

Whoa! I hope not! I haven't seen the latest Basic Safety Rules, not that I think they would have changed - but my handbook says, 2800 for solo certificate, 2500 for A, 2200 for others. They recently made the A a lot harder than it used to be (you now need 5 2-way RWs with 3 pins acheived on the 5th RW for example) but I wouldn't think they'd lower the min pull altitudes just cause the certificates are tougher!

Just my 2 cents here about my own experiences. I've 65 jumps under mostly Mantas. I started to do what I think most jumpers at my level start to do - pull lower. And lower. Where people were in the saddle at 2200 ft, I was still in freefall. After reading stuff like this and thinking about the situation myself, I now pull by 3000 ft. Two things are important here - one is the decision altitude; the question of "what if?" had never really entered my mind that much. I had (only!) two quite low deployments, at the lowest I was in the saddle at 1300 ft. That's damn scary - if I'd had a high speed mal I would at the very least had a Cypress fire. The second thing I learnt is that if you choose to throw at 3000 ft, your pilot chute won't always be out at that altitude. I now reckon 300 ft for the reach-pull. A little over one second. I was puzzled once when someone said I deployed at 2200 and I was _sure_ I deployed at 2500. Oh yeah - and hooknswoop is right, the protrack rounds to 100 ft on the display. And also the "deployment altitude" isn't the altitude the PC left at. I add 500 ft or so.

0:3:0 3 Jumps Saturday. What a nice day for it. Wind was insane for my first jump of the day so my first downwind landing. Run! Run faster! Followed by first jump not on a Manta - Sabre 190. Wow - a canopy where I can see the ground moving at 1000 ft. Moves really fast at 10 ft. I suddenly understand where Lisa is coming from as regards downsizing. I'm 145 pounds and if I'd turned that 190 close to the ground I'd be toast. Great fun though! I discovered the saying "look before you leap" on the last hop-n-pop of the day. Followed someone out at 3500, said "oh crap" and opened. At least I asked could I play through as I landed on the driving range of the nearby golf club. Hmm. I may owe beer.

Damn. Lisa got in first

In the packing instructions for my 150 Silhouette it specifically says not to do this. It does mention that jumpers do pack like this and they shouldn't - it does put strain on the stitching. Not to mention very long snivels.

I've seen so many of these posts at this stage... I'll jump in before Lisa does . Simple calculation - your wing loading: 195 pounds + 25 pounds of gear = 220 over 170 square feet = 1.3:1. That loading is too high for 34 jumps. Others will have opinions (as always) that you'll probably be alright etc. Until you have a long spot into someone's back garden that is. Smallest I'd go with that weight is 190 and even then... Look around for a used 210 sized canopy. $2000 seems ball park but 130 jumps? Hmmmm. Hard to believe that....

Thanks John. I wasn't comfortable with the colours and so I changed them - red cutaway and yellow reserve pads, which I'm far happier with. I feel comfortable using the pillow for a reserve handle, backed up as it is by both an RSL and a Cypress. I did email Aggie and ask him - the pillow was the original reserve deploy method; it wasn't changed from steel. Actually Sunpath were pretty fast at responding to my questions which was nice. Good plan! This is a great idea and I'll do this - I'll take the pillows, hook them to the suspended harness at the DZ and run through emergency procedures again. I can see how much "grip" is a factor then. If I'm happy with the setup and train with that setup, I should be safe with that setup. Cheers, Conor.

Primarily? Theirs. However I was reading arguments for and against soft pillows on this forum (here) and there are good arguments for a low timer like me using a D handle. On the other hand, I have both an RSL and a Cypress and I found no problem in pulling the pillow on the ground. I'm just trying to keep my DZO happy I guess

Hi Jayjay, I can sympathise. My back isn't the best either - lack of exercise combined with skiing probably (Do not try a jump, no matter how small, on your 4th time ever on the slopes! If I hadn't been a skydiver and automatically kept my feet and knees together I would have broken a leg). I remember my first freefall jump very well - 7 seconds of freefall, throw pilot chute, Smack! I went to the physio who recommended I do some yoga style back exercises like cat stretch, curl ups and abdominal strengthening exercises. This helped a whole lot. More dropzones should do morning exercises before jumping. Also, whoever is packing your rig to roll the nose. It does help a lot. And if he gives you grief, remember _you_ are jumping it not _him_. Find someone else to pack it. I'm really really tired to being told not to roll the nose from people who are routinely slammed by their canopies and blame it on the canopy. Sheesh..

I already have the reserve pillow on the rig. I was trying to convert to the silver metal handle. That's the tricky bit. I've been reading dropzone.com a bit and there are now two options in my mind - make up a pouch from type 12 webbing as suggested by Sunpath or get a loop type pillow reserve handle. I've never seen these before however. Haven't even seen them for sale.

Yeah. I guess my use of the word "ordered" was too strong. "Suggested strongly" is more how he expressed it. I kind of munged the sentiments expressed by the DZO and the rigger together cause they said pretty much the same thing. Sorry. I have more than one jumpsuit, but my freefly suit is...lemme see now... Dark green. Oooh. That's not good . The reason for concern is that I was, like most skydivers these days, trained on red cutaway and silver handle. Look! Reach! Pull! etc. When I cutaway my main on the ground last weekend to check the cables, I found myself looking at the red. I know it would be different if I had been wearing the gear at the time but still - training makes me look for red even as I'm reaching to my right side.

Oh no! Not this soft pillow vs D ring again! Well no. Not really.

Sophmore is, what, 18? Mmmm. Yummy. Why was I posting again? Oh yeah

Yes, the sales and discount prices are what makes the prices change quite radically. What's interesting is how the options change the price. I'd really want articulation on a new rig - with the Wings it's not that expensive, with the Voodoo it's included in the base price, with the Mirage you get nailed for that option! Jjohnson, I guess one does expect to pay a premium for quality, but if you consider the top 6 (or whatever) manufacturers - whatever you pick I don't think you can go wrong really. I've actually noticed though that the less well known brands, like Wings and Infinity make more of an effort to keep their customers happy. Take their web sites as an example - there's way more info on the Infinity than on the Javelin.

This must be a common thread amoung DZs. I was told to get a Tri 135 or a Safire 135 and then I was looked at funny when I said "No bloody way!" (I weigh 140, 57 jumps, all on Mantas). Of course one had a Tri 135 for sale...nothing to do with it. Sure. A 150 will do fine for the next 200 jumps thank you.

I've noticed something as I was getting prices for rigs. When you add usual options to, say, a Wings container - hips rings, hackey, kill line etc, the difference between a Wings and a Voodoo2 is about $60. (Using Square1 prices). And a comparable Talon2 is about $10 less than a Voodoo. I've also seen posts like "Wanted Voodoo, too expensive, so I bought a Wings." Am I missing something here? It's seems to be all a question of looks and style preference. I haven't jumped either but both are described as comfortable to wear... I'm sure it's not a question of safety. Apart from style, the Voodoo has chest rings and a wider top. And narrow limits on reserve/main combinations. I wonder does the wider top cause problems with skydiver who don't have broad shoulders... Like me! Just my thoughts for Sunday night

Seconded. Search around for Lisa's posts. On the Gear forum too. She has an Infinity container so you'll see her recommending that one

I just thought I'd point out something about the Manta. I noticed some people (not Lisa or Billvon obviously) saying the usual - turns like a bus, really slow, feels like dogs etc. May I say that the Manta 290 can injure very effectively if you make an error with it. I've seen one shattered leg that resulted from deflaring at 20ft. I myself have turned low (but flare-turned to correct), semi-flared (shoulder high - target fixation), and toggle released before feet were on the ground (top of corn!). These were all incidents occuring between 30 and 50 jumps. I got a sprained ankle, sprained finger, mud on the butt of someone else's jumpsuit and also a very sore butt from the quarter flare. That's at 0.50 loading. That's OK - I learnt valuable lessons on the dropzone instead of lying in a hospital somewhere. Think skiing. Triple diamond slope on a snowboard after one season? Just my 2cents. Conor.

Thanks Rhino. Always great to have another opinion on canopy sizes. I had planned to check stall points etc up way high but I might have missed the rock point you mentioned. Good idea! Story: In trying to stall the Manta once I discovered that one's arms don't appear long enough. So I placed both toggles together in one hand and started reeling in the lines. Whoooaaahhhh. Staaaalllll!!! I looked up to see both end cells touching. Apparantly this is called "trashing the canopy" or something. This was noticed from the ground Conor.

Hmm. This thread has me thinking. I have 57 jumps, so far all on Manta 290s. I was going to buy a new rig, with a Silhouette 150 in it. I think I'm in a different boat from the 200 pounder though :-). I weigh just over 10 stone (140 pounds). Even fully geared up that's not even 1.1 loading. So I should be fine yes?! I've been reading a few of the threads on this topic. I can land on the X pretty much, dropzone is at sea level, I steer with the risers on the Manta cause, god knows, the steering lines take too long. And I'll be doing intermediate jumps (210/190) before the 150 (I'm not nuts!) I don't want to rush it though - the "what type of injury do you want" comment is kinda sobering... Conor.