flyhy

... the line in the fingertrap is now actually too short to tie a knot in it... but I jumped it today and it seems to be alright. Maybe just no long term solution anyway...

Hi. I'm just about to put new steering lines onto my canopy but haven't got a sewing-machine... Does it make any difference to make the stitching by hand as long as it's holding the fingertrap in its position?

Two different ways of packing the canopy after lying down on the ground to get it in the right shape for bag: 1.: conventional way of tucking sides under the canopy 2.: folding the sides over on top of canopy Is there any difference for the opening? Someone told me that #1 can cause lineovers because the steering lines get out of place whereas in #2 they stay tidy ontop of canopy.

I grab the end of the center cell and go from there along the fabric till I come to the cell where my first steering line is attached to. Then I roll the side around, and tuck it into that piece of fabric around the lines. Same on the other side.

I had the same problem with my Sabre and asked the same question over here. I tried 4 different ways of packing and even more ways of just 'throwing it into the bag'. After lots of hard, many unpredictable and some really scary openings somebody showed me another way... and it works: roll nose, 4 cells on each side towards center and tuck them into the center cell, do the same with tail (cover all lines!) , wrap stabilizers around lines, etc. -Big line stows on bag help as well.

cause I don't have enough money ;) I hate rugby anyway

Yup, but that's a lot of investment on a canopy that I'm almost finished with anyway... I think about getting only my control lines replaced, that's way cheaper and will do for a while?!

Hi. I've got a Sabre 170 that I bought second hand. It had about 400 jumps and I've done about 50 more on it so far. When packing I realized that my right steering lines are about 5 cm shorter than my left ones (that probably explains why it always dives a bit to the right after opening and why right hand turns are a bit faster than left hand turns...). I got it checked by a PT and he said, they're out of trim and I need a reline sooner or later. But it looked like being alright for a while, didn't have any serious trouble with it. And I only wanted to do another 50-100 jumps on it anyway before downsizing and as it's my first own canopy i don't want to sell it afterwards but keep it, put it on the wall, whatever. But today I saw that the stitching of my lower brake lines becomes undone! I got them replaced only 50 jumps ago, so it's probably the rigger who fucked it up. Anyway, I don't think it's safe to jump it anymore, but I don't really know what to do with it. Get it relined (and spend lots of money on a canopy that I won't jump that much longer and won't sell it either); or just buy a new (smaller, faster!) canopy right away, without having these planned 50-100 more jumps on my 170. What do you think??

Does anybody know the SONY HI-8 CCD-TR3300E Pal camera? I can get one for cheap but didn't find much info about it. Is it alright for using as freefall camera?

The rig was actually made in 1988... Is it possible to get this TSO stamp now? Or has anybody a (cheap!) container for sale ;) ?

Hi- I have a zerox rig that I bought around 1994 in Ireland. I now want to jump it in New Zealand, and the rigger over here checked it for a stamp to say that it's TSO'd (safety standard). He couldn't find the stamp, so now I can't jump the rig. I haven't ;jumped it for a while at home, but no-one ever checked it for this mark. Does anyone know where the mark should be on a zerox? Or if there were illegal zerox copies made?

Is there any web page or other service that provides the basics of rigging? Or any good book about the important things to know?

... this is my thought pretty much every time I walk back from the PLA and look up to the sky where I just came from. Aren't we just lucky to go up every day and throw ourselves into the air?! And some of us are even more lucky to get paid for that! What do you think? Is there any reason to not just spend all money on jumping and become professional instead of going to uni and learning a 'proper profession'?

cheers mate! Will try that and no worries I'll be safe.

"Unintentional" was maybe the wrong word as I was fully aware of what I was doing (which is probably even worse aye?), I just didn't plan it but I sort of knew that I was just high enough to not die. Also talked to some more experienced people about it afterwards and asked them for advice but I'm sick of just getting a "go and try and find out" -reply. My landings are quite good under my canopy (Sabre) but they are better in no wind days with more ground speed... and that's the point where I'd like to start from. Anyway, thanks for all replies so far!

I'm probably not experienced enough yet to even think about swooping... but I'm at a stage now where I progress quite quickly. So I finally had my first sort of swoop: came into landing and did a (sort of unintentional) 180deg. toggle turn into final, speed picking up, suddenly me on the ground, sliding over the landing area on my knees, finally stand up landing. Didn't get seriously hurt but still pissed off my former instructors cause I really shouldn't do this. (Just happened automatically though..). So when and HOW's the right way to start high speed approaches?

So, has ANYBODY out there ever had any problems taking his/her rig as carry-on luggage???

How do you travel with your rig? I heard the best way is to put the rig into a hard shell suitcase and leave it with the normal baggage. But this is too complicated for me and my travel plans... Somebody told me he always takes it into the cabin. How safe's that?

Is anybody really learning?? It's happening again and again and still there so many unexperienced jumpers who think they have to downsize as fast as they can. That is what's going on around me, we all have 50-100 jumps, watch the 'big guys' swooping in under their 108 crossfires and think they are so cool! And it is these cool guys who tell us NOT to buy too small canopies. But still people get the impression that they have to learn swooping and buy some 150ft² rag right away to be "cool". Pissing me off, I mean finally you can have fun under almost every sort of canopy, can't ya?

Sabre 170, loaded ~ 1.0-1.1

What's this 'bait' thing about?

But I just got them replaced by a parachute technician and he didn't day anything about it. And I wonder that I can't do full turns at all. They start as slow half turns and the next step is a line twist. So even too short brake lines should have a point of turning a bit more 'exciting' before ending up stalled?!

Everytime I want to do a 180+ deg full turn or spin to lose height I get line twists. Even when I pull my toggles down very soft and slowly, as soon as I hold them down my canopy gets unstable, feels like collapsing and ends up in a linetwist which is quite disturbing when happening at about 1000ft or so. I tried to not pull them down to the bottom as my steering lines might be too short... but that doesn't help, then I don't get a full turn. Any advice?

I found out that the dz where I did my AFF this year is now sold to another very commercial tandem company! The new owners changed everything and the old staff all handed in their notice and left. I'm going mental about that as it was a real cool place, staying in the hangar for free, having parties in the evenings, a life of sleeping, eating and skydiving! Unfortunately this place is on the other side of the world from where I usually live so I had to leave and haven't seen these people for 6 months now. Planned to go back in January... but now everybody's gone! They will even move out of the hangar and sell our cool old C185 to buy something bigger, they're so commercial. Our skydive place was some sort of commercial business too, but it was much more personal, like a little family.. And it is my home dropzone! My skydive home doesn't exist anymore... Just had to share as I'm really sad about that. Maybe somebody out there has got some nice words..?

Apart from that it really doesn't matter, it's NOT me.. I'm normally posting in this forum asking how to land my sabre 170 properly. I wouldn't even dream of jumping something smaller yet. But that's another story.. The problem with these two guys is that they think the smaller the canopy they jump the cooler they are! He didn't even realise that he sort of fucked up the landing with the 170. He didn't get injured so everythings alright... although he made some bad decisions up there resulting from lack of experience?!