nigel99

Andy, I friend of mine here (AFF instructor) runs a weekly Friday night packing class. It is specifically dedicated to running through the A license packing requirements. Yes the students pay him a small fee to attend, but in exchange they are given a dedicated 2 hours after jumping where he is giving them undivided attention. I think it is a good model to work from. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

From: Chuteshack.... In this particular incident an extra couple hundred feet may have made a difference. I really don't understand those who argue against increasing the firing altitude for AADs. Assuming the information from Chuteshack is valid, in my view this is (at minimum) an "iota". Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be. . More of a question than anything else. If AAD altitudes were raised 500ft. What would be the practical impact on the sport? What height would normal main deployment be, and normal breakoff from RW/FF etc? Currently our Australian regulations say that you must have deployed by 1800ft. I doubt many people do this, but on some bigger way jumps I was recently deploying at 2.5k and under canopy at 2/2.1 and with one jump logged at 1900ft canopy open. We can't safely raise exit altitudes due to hypoxia, and we probably already push the limits on top altitudes, anyway as sports skydivers. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

LOLOLOL. That is all. You beat me to it. He should take up the 100m sprint, because Usain Bolt can only manage 23Mph Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Fortunately at our DZ in Western Australia, you would have to try pretty hard to hit something. There are the odd trees and fences but generally it is wide open space. That said one jumper managed to land between the fuel shed and the boarding area. It is a corridor about 15 foot wide with a fence and a 182 on the one side and a fuel bowser, poles and metal fencing and hut on the other. It was pretty close.

Easter boogie and people wanted to start drinking Moon rise was about an hour and half after we jumped. We jumped at about 7:30, sunset was 6:15 and moon rise 9pm. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

It was fine for actual landing as I landed in the lit up area. Apparently it is the dark that makes it hard. What I did really struggle with was the pattern. CI had given very good and clear instructions, but I ended up going a touch to far down wind. Another 5 to 10m further back and I would have been getting into a tougher landing area with little to no light. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Thanks to a fun jumper doing a lot of legwork, I managed to get my first night jump done yesterday Really freaky being in a jump plane in the dark and seeing the lights. It felt alot like being on a commercial flight. The moon hadn't risen and so it was very dark, CI had said we would be able to see trees and stuff, but to be honest I couldn't. I found it very high stress from take-off to 'feet down'. I came very close to riding the plane down, towards the red light/one mile mark. Intense pressure to land accurately in the staff landing area with a concession that the beer line didn't count. Lucky for me on the beer line concession cause I was about 10m short. There was the additional 'demo' pressure of doing a decent landing in front of the CI/DZSO and a bunch of jumpers watching. I also discovered how to do effective harness turns, just struggle to turn a strobe on your ankle on Last night I didn't think I would ever want to do one again, but now that I've had a chance to calm down I'd like to give it another go. The stress levels were in the range of first jump mental overload. Very good fun and so glad that someone put the effort in to pull this off, Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Just want to point out that people aren't looking at their rigs as a 'system'. They are happy to have an AAD incase they are knocked out, but they are on a reserve that they are pushing the max limits on and would probably not survive the landing unconscious anyway, due their wingloading. The biggest question on my mind is that it was stated that the instructor had pulled his reserve handle. Was the loop cut? I think that has substantial bearing on his fatality, because if the loop was not cut, he pulled above the AAD firing altitude and yet still did not have a functional reserve. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

The other thing speculation does is flush out misunderstandings. We've already seen people 'learn' about Aad activation limitations, reserve deployment limitations etc. Obviously for some of the experienced people, especially those directly involved must find it frustrating. Interestingly the APF statements of fact really help prevent the wild speculation, perhaps there is a lesson for the USPA in that. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Call me a cynic, but an AAD is not designed to fire when turned off, hence it worked as designed. The apparent fact that not one reserve PC launched shows that they most likely were never turned on. Our problem is that we don't know if the reserve PCs were launched, we have each interpreted it differently. It would be nice to know, we do know the instructor pulled hos reserve. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Since the original thread is locked. Was this the first jump in the US and could it have been a conversion jump from ripcord to BOC? Just a thought based on the TV picture. It sounds from what TK has commented that all equipment worked as it should. I would take that to imply the Cypres units both cut their loops, and it is simply a reminder that an AAD is a last resort. 750ft doesn't leave much room for error and there are no guarantees you will live through an AAD fire. It seems the focus is on why they both went low, rather than equipment. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

I had a reserve ride on my AFF L4 because I couldn't find my pilot chute. I am 5'2", 98 lbs and the pack is so huge it was flying me. I look like a ninja turtle in my rig. More than two tries and too much altitude later I went to EPs. Not a flexibility problem, just short arms. Fixed it by arching hard on a crawler to make sure I could touch the pull, and practiced the touch over and over until it was in muscle memory. But it's still tough and I almost always lose stability at pull time trying to reach. We also used the belly band to pull the rig up higher. But it can only be pulled up so high because we ran out of slack. Can't wait to get something smaller...Good luck! Not sure how your dz did it, but we thread a piece of webbing that is about an inch wide through the hip rings and have a plastic snap to close the improvised belly band. By the way who knew cute tiny skydiving girls had the same problems as chunky guys. Lovely pic of you.

I don't understand why it has to be an IB to teach the fjc, USPA a cach can do the fjc. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

calm is smooth smooth is fast slow is slow The first skydiving instructional book I ever bought, as a student jumper back in the 70s, was Sport Parachuting by Charles Ryan . I don't think I have it any more, but in the chapter on competition "turning style", I remember it offered the following advice (I'm working from memory, so it's not a precise quite, but it's close): The way to go fast is not to try to go fast, it's to have complete control over every component of what you're doing, and the speed will be the natural result. I think that same principle applies to competition RW. This is accurate. But slow is still slow. And fast is fast.

You americans have got no taste! Marmite is good just don't ea.t it out the jar. A THIN layer on toast with cheese is great

The PD flight characteristics details are really informative. I think they are in the user manuals, regardless they are easy to find. I've found a reasonable amount of brand snobbery, so be cautious if people rubbish a brand. For most people looking at first canopies Sabre 2. Saffire 2 and pilots are very popular choices. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

We had a reserve ride for exactly this reason not long ago. The guy wasn't flexible enough to reach the hackey. Using an improvised belly band to pull the bottom of the rig snug against you helps reduce the problem. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

11 reserve ride, wow that a LOT for such a short time frame Thats cause the parties are so good, the packing suffers the next day Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

It is a real dilemma. I cringe every time I see a kid doing a tandem, our minimum age is 12. The latest magazine even has an article on a 13 year old 'skydiving birthday party'. Part of me can't shake the fear of 'what if', but then 2 days ago a 13 year old drowned in the ocean while swimming. I feel schizophrenic about kids and risks like this, part of me says it is healthy and you can't live in cotton wool, and another part says it is unacceptable. I would guess that swimming in un-patrolled beaches is more dangerous than a tandem and yet I do it all the time with my kids. I don't think I've met any tandem pax who 'understood' the risk. Some are scared, but that doesn't equate to understanding. Ultimately like certain other parts of life, it is probably best for kids to wait till adulthood. It doesn't harm them to wait. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

They were very happy to give her Instructor D, but she really wants and in some respects needs her IB. It probably doesn't matter, unless you want to teach first jump courses, or be DZSO etc. But it is worth being aware of. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Be aware of the difference in the US and Australian instructor ratings. I know someone with over 5000 jumps who is really struggling to get her uspa rating recognised as anything over an instructor D. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Posters on dz.com are terrible for tearing people to shreds, without knowing the backstory. It's good to post the video's, as long as you have a thick skin, there is usually stuff to learn. Yip - one of the most dangerous things is consistently getting away with doing something wrong. That is why coaching is so valuable, it is focused attention on what you are doing. It's also one of the reasons that it is good to travel. Even dz's have systemic problems, so your coaches and instructors don't pick up on them. For an extreme example, I learn't to jump in Africa, our dz had NO pattern training at all. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

First rule of posting on dz.com NEVER take personal resposnibility, second rule never admit you made a mistake.... Seriously though, well done for analysing your jump and learning from it. Exit separation scares me, I hate less experienced or cavalier jumpers going straight after me. I know that people get yelled at to go, and adrenaline can make time seem to go slower causing people to leave to little separation. Something I picked up from Joey 'Sunman' is counting off the exit separation on your fingers and out loud. It paces you, let's other in the plane know your plan (you're not asleep at the door etc) and gives them an indication of when you are going. Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

Squeak - I know you have the knowledge

It's great. The only problem is I don't have much upper body strength and if I keep doing rear float on the 8 ways I'm going to end up looking like this. I can certainly feel it today... REAR FLOAT, is the cruisiest float position there is, HTFU princess How the hell would you know? Last count the biggest RW you did last year was a 2 way Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.