davelepka

Joking or not, the important distinction to make here is that he was signing and sealing a rig previously packed by another rigger. Presumably a rig he had no knowledge of it's care or use before it was brought to him. A jumper signing the last riggers name on their own card - not so bad, provided they know how to care for their gear, and it had been treated well in the last 120 days. A rigger signing his own card on his own rig - also not a problem. A rigger signing and sealing a rig which might be mis-rigged, mis-treated, or otherwise damaged before coming into his care - just plain fucked up.

Correct. What does your altimeter have to do with this though? Last time I checked, your alti wasn;t flying your canopy, you were. Your alti is just a tool providing a piece of info you can process however you please. Here's an example, last weekend, I was REALLY far from the DZ after a tandem video. I was just barely making it back, and once I cleared the edge of the field, I used my alti to check out just how much I had left, and if I need to take a straight-in downwinder, or if I could get across the field and make a braked turn and land into the wind. On the next jump, I did a hop n pop, and my alti let me know when I was 800ft over my set-up point. See? Two different jobs, same alti. Your alti does whatever you want it to, not the other way around. Disclaimer - If you're as far from the DZ as I was, just land off. This is my home DZ, I had outs all along the way, a tandem video to finish, and extensive experince with downwind landings, braked turns, and Hp canopies in general.

Ask around the DZ and find out who the 'bike guy' is (every DZ has at least one), or who knows a bike guy. You'll want some one to assist you with the purchase to make sure you get a good deal on a good bike. There are so many styles and sizes, and even when you find one you like, you'll need an experinced rider to chcek it out, and take it for a test ride. Provided it passes that, you may even want to have it inspected at a local bike dealership that sells that brand. A professional mechanic will know what to look for, be able to let you know about upcoming maintenence expenses. The inspection shouldn't cost more than $50 or $75, and it's cheap insurance to make sure you're making a good purchase. Any seller with nothing to hide would be glad to take the bike in to have it looked at. By taking that step, and footing the bill, you're letting them know you're a serious buyer. Good luck.

In all fairness, Jump Shack never claimed to be involved. However, a safety stow type freebag was invloved, which is what they are attempting to address with the speed bag. That aside, the speedbag seems like an awful lot of locking stows between my reserve and the freedom it deserves. I wonder if theres a middle-ground solution, like maybe four locking stows, with the reat in a pouch, or even just conventional stows. Just to be clear, I don't mean four locking stows as you see on many main D-bags, where the locking stows often end up on top of one another. I 'm talking about two parallel rows of two locking stows each.

Just to expand on that a bit, back in the day, before swooping was swooping, and comps weren't even on the radar, you chose a canopy based on your skill level. There were no comparisons to this guy or that guy. Any hot swoopers jumped what ever they jumped because they were happy with the performance. Their choices were devoid of outside influence. An example, when Rickster shot the footage for Crosswind, I think he was using a 120. I know for a fact that there were loads of jumpers in Deland jumping 107s and 97s, and Olav might have had an 87 at the time. Either, he went with the 120 for what was to be swoopings big screen debut. Just because a certain guy has success with a wing at a certain WL, that doesn't mean that any other Wl will wrong, or giving up anything. Take a look at how many changes in WL and canoyp sizes the pros make. As their skills and techniques change and improve, so does the tools they need for the job. Don't let the outside world dictate your choices. Act as if you wre ein a bubble. Regardless fo your expericne or intentions, remember that a jump in WL and a change in canopy type is never a good idea. If you're going to do it, make it reasonable. Do what seems smart to the outside observer, not whats cool to fellow swoopers, who may be too close to the situation to be objective.

Don't forget about your friend Kim in the demo dept at PD, she's got all kinds of toys for you to try. Edit: I think that swoops comps have really fucked over the whole WL situation. Guys see pros jumping and winning on 'X' WL, and then they believe that X is the ideal Wl for that canopy. This is not the case. 'X' is the right Wl for that pilot, on that canopy. The difference in skill between the pros, and the rest of us also dictates a different ideal WL. No shit. I jumped a 90 Velo for most of last season at 2.3/2.4. Then I bought a 103, and jumped that for a month or so. I also borrow 84's, 96's, and 111's when I need a back up rig. I'm pretty sure it would take a good number of jumps on any of those sizes to show a consistant and markable difference between them. As it is now, they all pretty much do the same thing. The small ones get me there faster, and the big ones get me there slower. They all end up in the same neighborhood. Buy a size that makes sense for your ability and 99% of the jumps you'll do. Don't buy a size because a sponsored pilot wins at that WL. Thats stupid. Buy what you can safely fly on a day to day basis, and your skills will make up the .2 or .3 in reduced WL. Those couple of points will really pay off if something goes wrong.

That stikes me as odd. Would you mind elaborating?

Report it? Yes. Detain the rig or owner? Not likely. According to the story, the pin must have been pulled, as they knew the bag was inverted and packed with line twists. By rendering the rig un-jumpable, the DZO removed himself from liability. What the owner does after leaving the DZ is beyond the DZOs control.

Be careful how close you let your canopy get to a stall, and what you do to it when it gets there. I'm guessing you're doing this with the hopes of eventually using your fronts on landing, and if thats the case, you need to change your technique to keep your canopy a little further from a stall, as you'll be doing it relatively close to the ground. Back off the brakes a little, and do your thing from 3/4 brakes, and stay well away from the stall point close to the ground.

You're talking about a pretty big change in performacne and handling going from a Spectre 210 at 1.1 to a X fire at 1.4. I would look into a more gradual transition both in Wl and canopy type. Regardless of how conservative you may be, a canopy is what it is, and an X fire is not conservative. I'm not saying that it wouldn't be a good choice eventually, but it might not be the best choice today.

OK, I'm not telling you to change the way you do things, but just to be aware of some of the things that could hamper your ability to perform your EPs as quickly and as easily as you practice them. Keep your hands away from your handles unless you plan to use them. By selecting a safe breakoff, pull altitude, and hard deck, you can take any of the problems I outlined and make them simply an annoying delay to your EP's, as opposed to real risk to your well-being.

First off, this post is in reference to the recent passing of Bob Mag (see the incidents forum). Bob was an assistant police chief with 20+ years on the force, and was recently elected as the new S&TA of the Cleveland Parachute Center, both of which speak toward what kind of guy he was. Neither of those accomplishments comes easy, and he was more than qualified for both. The exact details of his incident will never be known, save for the fact that he had a mal, and his cutaway and reserve pull were too late to allow his reserve to inflate before impact. The obvious lesson here is to respect your hard deck, but it would be presumptuous to assume that Bob didn't respect his hard deck, as there is an underlying lesson. It's this underlying lesson that may have been the problem here, and as such I wanted to get it out in the open, and make sure that everyone is aware of it, and mindful of it while jumping. The lesson is this - Your handles may not be where you expect them to be when you have a mal. Your handles may not pull the way you expect them to when you have a mal. Your hands may not be where you expet them to be when you have a mal. Your head (and your eyes) may not be where you expect it to be when you have a mal (in the physical sense). Your head may not be where you expect it be when you have a mal (in the mental capacity sense). Anyone of these factors can effect the speed at which you can perform your EP's, and in turn the usefulness of your hard deck. Your handles will move around during a mal, and most people know they will shift upwards if you have a partially open canopy pulling on your harness. What many people may not consider is that a spinning mal can apply asymetircal loads to the harness, and cause twisting and other odd circumstances. This can have handles folded back, or trapped under other things. This can also lead to dislodged handles, which aloows an even gretaer range of possibilities. Once you have your handles, you may encounter hard pulls, or have difficulty gripping them. The end result is a delay in performing your EP's. If you are in the habit of grabbing your risers on opening (and who isn't?) severe line twists can trap one or both of your hands in the risers. It may be for a second, or it may be for the rest of your life. Hand mounted altimeters can provide an additional snag point, and furhter delay freeing your hands. The end result is a delay in preforming your EP's. Looking up at your canopy deploy will have your head trapped behind your risers in the case of severe line twists. You may not be able to get a visual on your handles at all. The end result is a delay in preforming your EP's. Being scared shitless, and thinking you're going to die, or not being scared enough, and thinking it's no big deal will both not help you if you have a mal. The end result, you guessed it, a delay in performing your EP's. The sum total of all this is to remember that no matter how many times you mime your EP's on the ground, there's a good chance that it won't go that smoothly when you really need it. By all means, continue to rehearse as often as possible, but keep inmind that the reality of a mal will change EVERYTHING. Plan your breakoffs, deployments, and hard decks keeping all of the above in mind. Remember, as long as you don't run into a plane or another jumper, there's no such thing as being open too high.

Jump it again, and do several riser turns without the toggles in your hands. See what happens. Grab the toggles and repeat. See what happens. Compare the results. You should be able to fully flare the canopy with longer brake lines. You may have to adjust your technique, and learn to flare ALL the way, but it will work. You could also double check all the line lengths, as they do make mistakes at the factory. As an aside, it was your third jump on a canopy, which did something wierd on a riser turn, and you still did a riser turn close to the ground for your landing? I would rethink the situation, and make an effort to approach things differently in the future. Edited to add - other posters should take your lead when they have questions. Providing complete information, and an honest assesment of the situation is what will get you a straight answer.

Look at some of the older PC models. The PC 9 has a side opening tape door and a battery that slides off the side. You're not going to find an easy bolt on solution. Plan on some fabricating and customizing to get exactly what you want.

Easy. Read the incidetns forum. Reserves fail. Rear risers and PLF's work.

Do you know how to read? I stated what was wrong with the idea. A few posts down, some one else backed up with a story about a german guy going in at Eloy from the same problem you're at risk for. Is it realyl hard to understand the problem? If your stow should come loose at the wrong time, your slider can cover your face. What is os hard to understand about that? Can you get your canopy coaches on here to explain how this is a better alternative than behind your head? I'd love to hear them try to back that one up. Get this, you are only 15, and most likey haven't jumped in many places due to your age. Maybe there's more out there in the world than you've seen or known about. Maybe you need to consider that, and instead of insisting that you're right, be open to the possibility that you have alot to learn, and that this is a great time to start. Have ever been laid? Looking forward to a drivers license? Ever done blow off of a strippers tits? There's alot of good stuff out there in the world. Shut your mouth, open your mind, be smart, and live to see it all.

I didn't say he was stupid, I said his idea was stupid. I also backed it up with a good reason, and a real world example of where a similar idea had previously been given up. I really don't have to be nice. I'm right. I live with a little thing called reality where being right, and preventing an incident is more important than being nice. Do you think he mis-understood my point, or the severity of the mistake he might be making? I don't.

I feel your pain. Really I do. Have a look at an AC ops manual. They have all sorts of procedures for different malfunctions. There are also far more malfunctions that could occur that they don't have a procudure for becasue the number fo variables involved are too great to cover with any accuracy. Your rig is the same way. There are mals we can train for. Line overs, or bag locks, those are easy to understand and remedy. The horsehoe invovles many variables. Type of rig and nature of deploment system. RSL. Skyhook. Collins laynard. SOS. Conventional handles. Nature of and location of snag. Altitude. Frame of mind. All of these add up to no single solution. As I said before, if you want to pour over the possibilities, then go for it. You'll also end up filling your brain with ideas, all of which require an assesment of the horseshoe to correctly apply. If you think you can monitor your altitude, correctly asses the problem, select the appropriate solution, and follow through with the correct action, all while ridging the mother of all malfunctions, than godspeed to you. I'll prefer to train for the basic horseshoe, and work to prevent it. If it should happen to me, I'll do what I trained for, GET A CANOPY OUT, and see how things look then. Above all you need to remember that you're in freefall. Time is not on your side. Horseshoes happen behind you where you can't see them. Keep telling yourself over and over that you can scroll through your list of what-ifs, and thats what you'll do. Still in freefall. Falling. Quickly. People go in struggling with the most basic mals. They cutaway late, and pull sliver even later. This is with a simple and straighforward procedure. Making it more complicated will make it easier to screw up.

I'm not opposed to the removable slider, I think it's cool. I'm more interested in the failures just to hear how it goes down. For me, the extra time packing is the killer. I pack for myself, and often have a 15 min turnaround to pack, swap a tape and CF card, swap batteries, maybe change jumpsuits, and all that other bullshit, so a few minutes makes the difference. I'd love to be able to loose the slider all together, but for now, I'm stuck with it.

OK, then get to work. The possibilities for a horseshoe are almost limitless. Mix in with that the fact that many horeshoes don't happen on deployment, but mid-skydive, now your alittude becomes a factor. How high are you? How much time can you apply to assesing your horseshoe? Do you think you have the presence of mind in such a situation to make a complicated judgement with any sort of accuracy? Understand the nature of what you're dealing with. It's scope is broad, and covers many, many possible scenarios, all of them occuring at high speed. Take the most basic horseshoe. Pin pulled, PC still in pouch. Try to clear the PC, once or twice. IF ti comes out, see what kind of deployment follows. If it doens't come out, pull your handles. It's not rocket science. A horsehsoe is a pile shit, and you can't apply rocket science to a pile of shit.

This was the reason I stopped doing it that way, no shit. The idea of it covering your face came up after I stopped doing that way. I use the ball and bungee set-up. Mine is attached to some loops made from binding tape on my yoke. By the time I stow it, I'm pretty sure I'll stay with the canopy. In the case I do need to cutaway, I'm pretty sure it will let go somehow, or even if it doesn't, I'm fucked as it is because I'm in a wrap. The removable slider is too hardcore for me. Has anyone had a corner or two let go during deployment? Or how about lines entangling with the slider parts? Anyone?

You're making alot of assumptions about your horseshoe. Why not just clear the PC from the pouch in your picture? How did the riser covers come open? Why is your horseshoe also a baglock? See how the possibilities stack up for how a horseshoe can be configured? How much time would you spend evaluating your horseshoe before taking action? This is one of those scenarios where you really are fucked. You have a complicated mess going on, and you're moving really really fast. Even if you have 10k ft to work with it, nothing says you can get an accurate assesment of the problem. Even if you can asses the problem, can you formulate the correct actions to fix it? I think you're looking for answers that don't exist.

It's a slippery slope. If you cannot clear the horseshoe and have a regular cutaway, you're hoping that disconnecting the risers will transfer enough drag to the snag point to clear it and kiss the mess goodbye. So you take 2k to unhook the RSL. Now how long do you wait to see if the snag will clear? Do you try to clear it manually, or hope it will happen by itself? Either way, you're buring up altitude. Fast. If it doesn't clear, you've just wasted that time, as you still have to dump your reserve into the mess. Where do you want to spenmd your time? In freefall trying to get a clean reserve deployment, or under a canopy (or partial canopy) trying to work out an entanglement? Either way, you're probably fucked. The horseshoe is the worst kind of malfunction. It's too random to apply a single course of action to . The best thing you can do is be educated and proactive about gear maintenence, and be a freak about people touching your stuff at any time.

All of the above scenarios involve a GREATLY reduced airspeed. Two of them involve all every canopy you have being out and inflated. A HUGE difference from freefall. Use your brain before your attitude there, killer.

Thats fucking stupid. WHat happens when it s comes loose at a critical point in your canopy ride and covers your face? Years ago, when parachutes first started to pick up speed, some guys would twist up their slider, and hold it in their teeth. The reason I stated above is why they don't so that anymore. Try to avoid suggesting your bad idead to others.