davelepka

And then you jump it without ever taking a look at the pin/bridle/PC, right? That's what happens when you lay on top of your rig in the door, then drag it across the floor and door frame on exit. But no, you check all that stuff, multiple times before you jump. And if one of your jackass BASE buddies wanted to wrestle around with you at an exit point while you had your rig on, you'd check all that stuff again before you left. This isn't BASE jumping were talking about. It's skydiving, and there are other people you put at risk with your actions in and around the aircraft. The truth is that a guy wanting to freefly in a older container is only a risk to himself, and those who choose to jump with him. A guy who takes un-needed risks in the door is a danger to others on the aircraft and the aircraft itself. It's clear we have a difference of opinion here. I would suggest that given my longevity and experience in the sport, I may have a valid thought or two regarding prudent safety practices, and what is or is not a good idea. I would also suggest that with your limted time and experience in the sport, that you may still have a few things to learn, and a few viewpoints that need 'adjusting'. Hell, I know a guy who tied a pull up cord around his lines while packing his BASE rig, and then forgot to take the pull up cord off before he jumped the rig. This guy thought he knew what he was doing, and thought the pull up cord was the way to go when packing his BASE rig. The guy survived the jump, and actually walked away from it. Needless to say, he doesn't tie pull up cords around his lines anymore, and has gone on to do may BASE jumps over the course of many years without the need for a pull up cord around the lines during the pack job. See? He tought he knew what he was doing, and almost killed himself in the process. He lucked out, and came to the realization that he was wrong right from the start.

I've got 500 on a Sabre 135, and 1000 on a 107, and I think stuffing the nose into the center cell and rolling the tail is a shit way to 'fix' the problem. I outlined the different ways to alter the canopy to get good openings upthread. If a canopy does not return good openings with a clean pack job and a seated, quartered slider, than you need to change the canopy, not just roll it up into a tighter bundle and hope it stays that way until you slow down a bit.

Oh, that makes me feel better. So when a guy with 100 jumps wants to do something that's ill advised, you're going to ignore that, and just do whatever he wants. How about educate him about the risks, and advise doing something else? How many deaths? I don't know, but I sure as hell don't want to be anywhere nearby when one (or more) happens. Have given any consideration to your stuff coming out in the door? I know that after you pack, your rig seems like a pretty solid item, but remember that it's not. Once you put your full weight on the rig, canopies compress, flaps can distort and go slack, and tension on the closing loop will lessen. On top of that, the entire back of the rig is now in contact with the floor. I'm not fan of red tape either, but I'm also not a fan of being a dumbass. I'm not suggesting that you should fill out a form and pass the scrutiny of a review board before exiting, I'm suggesting that you be careful when in the door, and avoid doing things that your rig was not designed for and could cause a premature deployment.

You have missed the point by a mile. I don't care if you want to swoop yourself right into the ground, but if you were trying to do it in the middle of a busy landing pattern, I would take issue with that, Likewise, everything you do in the plane has a direct result on the safety of everyone else in the plane, not just yourself. As such, it's not just your choice if you want to act in an unsafe manner for no good reason. What to pull a two person tube out of the door? Gte the skills to fly it off the plane instead of rolling it off the floor. A tube is just a closed freefly compressed accordian. Pull the acordian off the door and pick up the grip. I don't give two shits about your personal freedoms when there's chance they will impact my own safety, and that of the other jumpers, pilot, aircraft, and DZ. There's no way to 'be careful' about grinding your pins in to the floor, and dragging your PC handle across the floor and door frame.

Of course. Just don't drag your pins/PC handle across the floor/edge of the door while doing it. If you dislodge something in the door it won't be fun for you, or anyone else in the plane.

OK, one last word on exits - taking grips in the door is cheating. Learn to do it without grips, and once you can fly tight, no contact exits right off the plane, you'll be able to pick up the grips pull off the pieces with no trouble.

If you're looking for exit ideas, have a look at the number of exit slots on a given plane. Front float, center, rear float, camera step, diving from the door, etc. Now learn to exit RW stable from each slot. Once you have that covered, learn to do them all in a sit. Then in a stand up. Then on your head. That should keep you busy for 100 jumps.

Your harness is there to keep your rig on, and so you have a place to keep your handles. Avoid letting others grab your harness, and keep your hands to yourself with regards to other people's harnesses. Grippers are for gripping. Use them.

Don't lay on your back. Your pins and PC handle are back there, and last thing you should do is grind them into the floor of the plane right before you jump. Stand up and exit like an evolved human.

Hop out onto a wing, and have him roll it in the direction of that wing. Hang on until he gets 1/4 of the way through the roll and drop off. If you leave from the top of a barrell roll, the leading wing will be swinging back under the plane as you leave. If you try it that way, and have any delay dropping out of the cockpit, you may have a 'problem'. Keep in mind that all the inverted exits from a Pitts are done from sustained inverted flight, not in the middle of a manuver.

The whole process isn't as formal as you're trying to make it. To start off, once you're ready to start jumping with a camera (do a search on that topic), set yourself up with a video camera and helmet. Then jump with other licensed jumpers, filming whatever RW jumps you can. This is how you get the hang of framing stuff and maintaining proximity. Once you can produce a reasonable quality RW video, you do two things - one of them is to introduce a still camera to your RW jumps. Learn how to set it, and get used to taking pictures while you shoot video. (This is where you can make a couple bucks. If you're shooting nice footage, you can charge a few bucks for a dub of the video, or a print of a still.) The other thing you do is to sit down with the head camera flyer, and go over the procedures and safety related items with regards to jumping with tandems. Then sit down with a TI, and have the same talk. Now you're set to jump with tandems who didn't get video, so you can get the hang of things. Start off without the still camera, and just like RW, work your way up to jumping both cameras with a tandem. Once you can consistantly produce a nice video, you can either see if the DZ you've been training at will put you on staff, or take all of your 'good' tandem footage, and use it as a resume to start hunting for a job.

I've been following this thread, and even though it got a little off track, and your profile is devoid of information, I hung in there and gave you the benefit of the doubt to see where you were going with your angle. Then a resourceful poster pulled this from another thread you were on - - and that's when I realized that you sir are a real bag of douche. You've got an awful lot of opinions about things you know zippo about. Let's look at it this way, is Brain Germain all seeing and all knowing? Nope, but he very may well be the most expereinced and informed person on the planet on the subject of canopy flight, selection, and education. Nobody that I can think of has put more time, thought and effort toward those areas than him. For all intensive purposed, he defines the upper limit of that area of study, so until someone comes along that can best him, he essentailly is the letter or the law in these matters. All that aside, I caution you and your way of thinking in terms of skydiving, safety, and risk management. Your buddy Darvin doesn't know you from a hole in the wall, and will scoop you up just the same. I'm sure you have a comeback for me, but guarantee you 100% that if you make to 15 years in the sport and 5000+ jumps, you will look back at your position today and see the error of your ways. Little kids learn about hot stuff by touching the stove. Adults see kids make the same mistakes over and over again, and as such they never trust a little kid by the stove. There's no question in their mind that little kids will eventually touch the stove, and that they will get burned. This is the same thing. Long time jumpers see tha same mistakes being made, year in and year out. There are very few expections to the rule. The difference here is that the 'kids' on the DZ are actually adults who should know better and should listen to reasonable arguments made by other adults who posess knowledge and experience in the area of concern. Now man up and fill out your profile.

When I say openings at 'higher WL' I'm not talking about the difference between 2.0 and 2.4. What I mean is that a Velo with a long snivel at a WL of 2.0+ is going to be more 'lively' during the snivel as compared to, say, a Spectre at 1.4. Both canopies have a long snivel, but the WL on Velo is going to notch up the 'fun factor'. In your example, unless the same person packed the canpoy for all the jumps, and the deployments were all at the same airspeed, the conclusion is far from scientific. My buddy flies a 79 at 2.5+, and his canopy opens great every time. Very long snivel, and good heading maintenence.

My Velo hunts around, and changes heading all the time during the snivel. I do grab my risers on opening, but not to 'steer' the openings. It's something I've always done, and with the Velo what I do is spread the risers outwards (I'm holding the front and rear at the same time). My thinking is that the further apart they are, the less likey the lines will cross over and twist. The other thing I do is just go with the canopy. I give zero resistance to where the canopy wants to go. If you start to try and 'steer' things, you're trying to go one way. and the canopy wants to go the other, and that sounds like line twists to me. I just sit square in the harness, and pretend that the heading doesn't exist. Al long as me and the canopy are facing the same way, I consider that to be 'on heading'. Again, I think it's a function of having a giant slider and shooting for a slooow opening. The more time you spend with the slider up, the more time the canopy has to hunt around. I'm sure that being at higher WL doesn't help at that stage either. Personally I like the slow openings and high WL, so I live with it. I will say this, that after a reline the openings are much smoother and cleaner, but after things 'break in', it gets a little more 'free form'.

There are two things that caught my attention in your post - and this- It sounds to me, based on the above, that you're trying to get through AFF in short time period (a week), and that because of that, you're pushing it. Making a first jump, with the whole day of training, is a tremendous physical effort invovling muscles that you're not used to using. If you went on to make a second jump, it's no wonder that you were worn out and sore the following day. This is where trying to finish AFF in a week is a problem. It's not something you can count on being able to finish in a week. Often times, students will pay for jumps, one or two at a time, as they go. Even if you jump every weekend, you have five days in between to recover. Seeing as things went well for the first two, you obviously have the ability to skydive. I think what you need to do is come up with a slightly less ambitious plan for getting through your training. You need to be feeling good, both physically and mentally, you should be well rested, and well fed before even considering making a skydive. It's not only a matter of performing to the best of your ability, it's a matter of being the best position possible make a SAFE skydive. There are other benefits to extending your training. You'll spend more time at the DZ, and have more exposure to that environment by the time you complete your training. It also helps financially, as it gives you time in between jumps to replenish your bank account.

This is a great point, which I should have mentioned. When landing off, the PLF / no PLF line should be moved a few notches to the more conservative side. A 'good' landing can result in a twisted ankle due to a hidden depression in the ground, or thick growth of grass or weeds. Again, this is not the manicured open landing area back at the DZ. Additionally, if you are injured, help is much further away. In the case of a twisted ankle the result is you laying there for 30 min by yourself. In the case of a more serious injury, you may be much worse off because of the delay in care. Also, if you twist an ankle, you're not jumping for weeks or months to follow, and that really sucks.

As the other Dave pointed out, the right engine failure is better than the left engine. Due to the rotation of the props, the plane wants to yaw to the left under high power, low airspeed situations. In a single engine plane, the pilot has to apply right rudder to keep the airplane flying in a straight line during take off and climb out. If you were to release the rudder input once you were airborne, the plane would begin a steady left hand turn. More airspeed, and a reduction from take off power to climb or cruise power reduces this effect significantly. In a twin if you loose the right engine in high power, low airspeed situation, the left engine would need to lever against the inboard left wing, the entire right wing, and the drag of the dead engine to do any real harm. If you lose lefty, on the other hand, that's another story. The drag of the dead engine will slow down the left side, and less airspeed = less lift. At the same time the right engine, which is now trying to power the entire aircraft, is still trying to rotate the plane to the left. When you combine the drag of the dead left engine, and the right engine trying to roll with just the outboard right wing to pull around the outside of the roll, you can see how a twin can end up on it's back if you loose the critical engine. This is also why lower powered twins are 'less safe'. If you need full take-off power to climb or maintain altitude on one engine, and that happens to be the right engine, you can see the problem. If you have a Super Otter that can climb or maintain altitude on 75% power, that's going to make a bad situation less bad.

This is a great example of why you should use, and plan for, a landing pattern. It makes these types of calls much easier to make. If you're just looking at the ground, and how much you can cover before you need to flare at 15ft., you leave yourself open to getting low before you realize that what you want it not what you're going to get. Now you're at 300 or 400 ft with very few options. If you look at things in terms of a landing pattern, now you're aiming for your pattern entry point, say 750 ft. above a point upwind of where you want to land. By the time you realize you're not going to make it to your pattern entry point, you'll be 300 or 400 above that point, which is 1000+ above the ground. Much more time and altitude to work with than the previous example. A word about downwinders - it is true that jumpers should learn to land downwind. It should be done on a day with very light winds, and under the supervision of a member of the DZ instructional staff. The idea is to get jumpers to understand that the vertical component of the landing is the same as into the wind, it's just the increase in horizontal speed that changes. However, when you take that theory to an off-field landing, the increased horizontal speed can become a significant factor. There's a big difference between the wide open, manicured landing area at the DZ, and whatever field you can reach when landing off. Literally, if you can imagine an object or terrain feature, there's a chance it will be present in the field you're landing in, and excess forward speed can be a very bad thing when you encoutner said object or terrain feature. As always your number one priority is to land with your wing level, and into the wind is secondary. When landing off, the importance of the secondary feature is increased. Always have a plan B. When you open on every jump, select an LZ in between you and the DZ 'just in case'. Have a landing pattern worked out for this LZ. If you fly right over it and cruise back to the DZ, good for you. If you're coming up short, you already have a plan B. If you have to resort to plan B, see if there's a plan C you can fall back on if plan B starts looking a little too far off. Repeat this process until you're safely on the ground.

If this is really a problem for you, I wish I was in your shoes. You said your cutaway was the result of a brake fire, so that's not related to the canopy. If it wants to hunt, let it hunt, what do you care? Look at it this way - the canopy is designed to open slow, but as we know, any canopy can open hard at any time. What this means is that anything can happen when you throw out, and as such you need to be well clear of other jumpers for every opening. If it wants to hunt, or pick a new heading, just let it. Once the slider is down, you pick the new heading. In terms of the 111, I knew a guy with a 111 who ordered it with a small slider. I guess they offered two choices, and he liked to quicker openings. The 111 you jumped may have had the smaller slider option. I don't know if they offered it for any other size. As a general rule, always go the slower openings. If things go wrong and it opens harder than normal, you're starting off from 'slow' so a harder opening might just be 'normal'. The chances of the opening being slower than 'slow' are slim, but even if it happened, I'd hardly call it a 'problem'.

Do yourself a favor, if you haven't already, and take a canopy control course before you invest money in tunnel time. Keep in mind that your canopy, and the skill to use it, is what gets you safely on the ground. Freefall skills are just there to entertain you until pull time when the life saving begins. Giving attention to your canopy flight, and developing your knowledge and skills in that area is what will keep you in one piece and freefalling as much as you like (or can afford).

I can help. Let me know what you need.

I'd trade it all for a thermos.

I was always impressed with the fighter pilots that get shot down. Those guy have the real survival skills, and they use them in hostile territory. I would love to see Bear get punched in the face (to simulate an ejection) then pushed out of a plane with a round canopy over rough country. Even without enemy troops tyring to kill him, I would be surprised if he survived.

I am not 100% sure of this, but I think that sport rig orders (single rigs) take a back seat to military orders (way more than one rig). As such, a $50k military order gets pushed to the front of the line and all labor, machinery, and inventory resources will be dedicated to that order. The other problem is that the Javelin is a popular rig. Whatever production capacity they do have for sport rigs has a 'healthy' backlog for orders. Even if they lose half of their sport rig customers due to a 12 month delivery time, that still leaves them with all of their military business and a 6 month backlog of sport rig orders. Not exactly a 'problem' from Sunpath's point of view. Truthfully, I'm surprised that canopy and container manufacturers don't offer a 'rush charge'. I gladly pay the extra $40 to get my jumpsuits in a week, and on a purchase like a rig or canopy I could see $150 or $200 to guarantee delivery in a month.

I don't think that matters. If the guy was being paid to shoot the video, he should have done his job. His 'move' resulted in a zero for the team, which represents a 100% failure to do the job. If he wasn't being paid, he should have stepped aside and let someone who would have done it right. The entire team was counting on him to fly (and exit) his slot, and he did not. It's literally no different than if one of the 8 way team had peeled off on the hill and went head down for the rest of the jump. Without that one guy, the rest of the team is fucked, and end up with the saem zero the camera guy got them. Even if it was just a fun, pick-up team, there are 100 ways a camera guy could have fun and still turn in a judge-able video.