Cacophony

In order to put a knot in the line you have to put a loop in the excess and then feed the toggle through that. I tried to replicate it on the ground and couldn't figure out how to knot it back up around the ring. If I did it when I first stowed the brakes, it took both me and my packer to overlook the problem.

After I landed after shooting an AFF video I stowed my brakes in the field, just like I normally do. When I got inside I asked my packer to pack for me. During my next jump the opening was a nice, soft, on heading opening. When I went to release my brakes however, I realized something wasn't right. I tugged on my right brake line, but it refused to move. I realized that the line was actually tied in a knot around the guide ring on my riser! After deciding it would be inpossible to fix under canopy I chose to land with my rear risers. Ended up being an uneventful landing. I took a small wrap on the left line to help counter a small turn. I jump a Stiletto 135 loaded at 1.4. My rigger told me that this is something that can potentially happen during opening or when you unstow your brakes. I could have also done it by stowing my brakes sloppy (which I don't do normally). What are everyone's thoughts? When you pack someone else's parachute, or your own, do you double check to make sure that the line is routed properly through the guide ring, or just that it does go through the ring? My packer mentioned how he checks to make sure the line is through the ring properly and the brakes are set. Is something like this a common occurance? I feel that I handled the situation very well, but I fear that someone with less experience will make a bad mistake and try to land with their risers when they don't know how, or perhaps decide to cut away too low.

Are your jump numbers mis-typed? If not, then you should definately not be doing the kind of turns you are describing. Think about the angle that your canopy takes as it is diving towards the ground. The steeper the dive, the more the top skin is exposed to the relative wind (possibly the wrong term here). The stronger the wind gust, the more it is going to push on the top of your canopy. If you have one or both front risers pulled down is creates a stair step in your canopy. Think about it, the front risers are only attached to the A and B lines right? Well, that is half of your canopy from nose to tail. Between the B & C lines is where the biggest cell distortion is. That area can also serve as a pivot point for the front half of the canopy to be forced under the rear. Excuse my rough explanation. Anyone care to re-inforce or shoot it down?

The Blade is not a X-braced canopy so it won't be quite as high performance as a VX. However, we had demo's from HiperUSA at our DZ a few weeks ago, and while I didn't demo either canopy (blade, nitro) it was pretty obvious that the blade is very capable of getting some serious distance without the hassle of a X-braced design.

In a case like that I would give the DZO the first say, because after all, he is the one who made the person sign the waiver in the first place. If you give that person a copy of the video it may be used in a criminal trial as a form of evidence. Of course the waiver should take care of this, but it is up to the DZO to decide what they feel is best. I also feel that the video is your property just as much as the person who paid you to shoot it, so in a way it is up to their discression. If the DZO says its ok, then make sure with them that its cool that you put in on their video. If they say yes, then I say go for it. Any opinions?

Using your front risers pulls down both the A and B lines on your canopy. The post was probably brought upon by the fact that pulling down your front riser creates a stair step effect in your canopy. I have heard that it isn't recommended to do front riser turns in high winds because the stair stepping effect can potentially (I don't know the odds of it happeneing though) cause the relative wind to fold the nose under. This might be the idea that the person was trying to convey. I'll try to find where I read that at. I'm sure the likely hood of such an incident is more likely to occur with a canopy that has less cell pressurization. For example a Sabre might be more suceptable to this than a Vengeance because a Vengeance is designed to keep the cells pressurized better.

It all depends on how much editing you plan on doing as to what program to get. Honestly, if you want to be able to do some really really creative images and everything then you would need something like Photoshop. The thing is, is that there is always more than one way to do things with most programs out there. Just because the function isn't built into the program doesn't mean that you can't figure out how to do it. Even a basic editing program can be very good if you learn how to use all of its functions inside and out. Premiere is definately the way to go though if you want to have the most features and options. It takes a while to learn everything, but once you get the hang of it, it becomes pretty easy.

What kind of sight are you using? A polarizing or concentric sight should help to fix that. It might not solve it, but thats the whole theory behind them. I make sure that my helmet is synched down on my head when I sight it up on the ground and when I'm on a skydive. It really helps to ensure that everything is right where its supposed to be. I have noticed though that my sight tends to change a whole lot depending if its really humid or not. I guess it has to do with the way the padding reacts to the extra moisture as its positioned on my head. Ahhhhh, all the variables.......

Someone is probably holding a tight grip on the video for shock value when they release a video all about the event.

I've owned my Vector 3 for about 3.5 years now. So far this year I have had my right toggle come unstowed on opening 3 times so far this year. A friend of mine who is sponsored by Relative Workshop feels as though it is a potential design flaw in the rig and/or risers that cause this to happen. He has the same thing happen on occasion. Up until this year I never had a problem like this with the exact same risers. Could it potentially be a wear and tear aspect. They are still in great condition. Anyone else have this type of problem?

I don't think you have to learn sit or knee flying to get a good clear shot at all. Its a matter of learning how to fly in a mantis-like position with your arms more in front of your chest and below your body rather than in a box-man position. This allows you to push more on the air so that you can get your head up a lot more. I use the same setup as you..... wing jacket and freefly pants to video Vector tandems. You have to use a lot of leg input to counter a backslide with the technique I just mentioned, but I have been getting really good results lately. I taught myself how to do this when I was working with the Fasttrax 4way team getting some outside shots. Its worth a try. Good luck.

One other consideration to keep in mind when jumping in high winds and jumping a docile canopy is turbulence. "Ram Air" parachutes require air being forced into the nose to keep pressurization and the person hanging below it is what pulls it forward to keep air forced in there. When you jump student gear your suspended weight might not be enough to keep the canopy fully inflated in high winds or turbulence. Always be ready for that PLF!! Sounds like you did a good job in that area. Realistically you should not have jumped if the winds changed to an unsuitable condition while you were on the airplane. That should have been taken care of by someone on the ground.

I brought my friends reserve PC back to her VIA the lines in my canopy a long time ago. I didn't intentially get it in there. I was planning on catching it in my hands, but I didn't know what I was doing. It was a stupid thing to try and I'm not going to ever again, but I did land just fine. I landed a little crooked, but uneventfully. Personally, if I had determined through lots of deep flares and moderate turns that it was not effecting my canopy beyond a landable state then I would keep it. I'm not going to be so quick to get rid of a good canopy in hopes that my backup will work perfectly. However, if you have any doubt in your mind that you cannot land it safely and altitude is permitting then perhaps you should get rid of it. Better to be safe than sorry.

I know this was posted early on in the thread, but I just want to re-emphasize the fact...... Collapsing your slider and stowing it behind your head is one really good way to help prevent against self induced line twists. Another good thing is to loosen your chest strap. Doing this shifts the center of gravity from directly above your head where your slider grommets pull your line groups together, to the center of your harness, or at your hips. As your canopy turns it pulls your body into the turn from your hips rather than above your head which flies your body with the canopy more than just dragging it behind. Another good way to prevent self induced line twists is to be more conservative in your turns. Stilettos are pretty notorious for line twists hence the name "Spinletto's or Spinetto". This is due to the fact that they have a very high rate of turn due to chord length and elliptical design, blah blah. They roll into turns faster than a Sabre or similar canopy. All canopies are suseptible to line twists and its very important to understand the characteristics of your canopy before you try flying it too radically.

It takes me 7 to 8 minutes to edit a tandem video, which includes the leader and slow motion spots in freefall. At my home DZ we pre-order tapes with the leader at the beginning so therefore you don't have to put it on there every time. I totally agree that NLE editing systems produce much much better videos, but as previously stated, I don't think that the general consumer really cares and would just rather get their video quicker.

TRV25 Bonehead Optik D-Box Brent Finley Ring Sight Cam Eye II

1.2 baby! Oh yeah! I've almost been knocked out in freefall before, so I understand how important it is to have a docile reserve that you could land under assuming you weren't conscious.

A re-line would be cheaper I didn't think that type of a thing was possible. If you are pregnant I would worry more about the hard openings rather than a slight turn anyways. Sabre's do open hard, but they have been around for a long time and jumped by tons of people. Perhaps your PC is too big, or maybe you should try some new packing techniques. Just trying to save you some money!

I hope that was before you became a rigger!!! Or at least for testing purposes.

I don't really have any background in emergency situations but I feel that it would be appropriate for me to emphasize just how important it is to not move someone with a femur/back/hip injury. I smashed my femur into a bunch of pieces, cracked my pelvis in 2 places, and slammed my face into the ground last August. It certainly knocked me out. The next thing I knew my camera helmet was off as well as my rig and the top of my jump suit. However, all of that stuff wasn't removed by an EMT. It was removed by some people that had no idea what they were doing. There needs to be some kind of stronger emphasis in skydiving towards this kind of thing. I was very lucky that I had no back injury because I feel pretty confident by everything that I was told by the people who were there, that if I did have a back injury I would certainly be paralized by how much I was moved. On my DZ we do have several people that are either a nurse, or have professional training in medical treatment, however, in an emergency situation, sometimes people choose to take matters into their own hands rather than listen to the people that matter. I guess what I'm getting at is that a more global training for emergency situations might prevent the untrained person from acting irrationally before anyone else gets there. People shouldn't be trained necessarily in what to do, but what not to do.

I've had mine for about 450 jumps. I only changed the battery because it was 2 years old, but it was still going strong. I find that it is very accurate with my Alti 3 and I have also found mine to be very consistent.

Whats up man. Its been a while. Thats a weird issue you have. You say that even when you make a valid wav file, it still won't play? What type of audio are you taking from the video? I would think that you should just be able to export the audio from the program like you said. Be sure to post what you find. C-ya.

Wow. That is really cool. A little overkill, but its cool to know that it can definately be done, and by someone without tons and tons of money too!

Well, I use Maxell Plus DVD-R discs. They are really good, however, I am a firm believer that putting labels on DVDs is a HUGE MISTAKE!!! As long as you just put them in the jewel cases its cool, but if you really want me to explain my reasoning then I'll be happy to mail it seperately. Check this page out.... http://www.dvdrhelp.com/ I think you will like it a lot. I have learned a ton of stuff from it. Take care.

It might be common practice for gear manufacturers to quote times and not deliver by those times, but that doesn't make it right. The Scotty method (Startrek - not a big fan, but it works!) should be used by quoting a longer time, and then delivering earlier, rather than later. That way the company looks better rather than worse. Its a simple business idea.....