frontloop33

My Sabre2 (170 sqft, WL: 1:1) opens really soft. I have about 35 jumps on it now and had not a single hard opening. Sometimes the sliders stays half way up, so you have to pump with your back risers to get it down. Packing: Just a regular pro-pack packjob. I quarter my slider, fold the stabilisers towards the middle and leave the nose hanging (do not roll it) with the slider in one line with the nose (I do not pull the slider out/in front of the nose). Openings are very soft and almost every time the endcells are closed which can (sometimes) cause a 90° turn.

Hi! do you have trouble with your girlfriend, who is NOT skydiving, when you hang around your DZ at least one day per weekend? Or does she accept your passion without any complaints? Or do you have any deals (that might be expensive), like "I go skydiving, you go shopping" to "keep her quiet"?

Funny thing. I just changed from my student canopy to my own PD Sabre2. The openings at the student canopy (a Paratec Balance) were always really hard. You throw your pilotchute and find yourself under an open canopy. At my Sabre2 the openings are much softer, but there's something interesting about it: I throw my pilotchute and the snatch force seems quite hard, but when I look up, I see a snivelling canopy that opens really soft after some time. So: Is the hard first shock (the snatch force) just because I can feel it now (instead of having an instantly open canopy) or can it really be hard? And is there a way to change that?

We had a tandem student some time ago with a paralysed right arm. He had his arm fixed at his chest with some kind of sling, So no worry, everything was fine and safe.

Hi! I heard a discussion whether it is better to leave one's Solo2 (or any other audible) always on or switch it off at the end of the day. Some say switching on/off needs more energy (battery) than leaving it always on. What is right?

Well, usually you see the cloud from above. Why not break up at 5,000' or 5,500' Not being over a cloud would have been the wiser choice anyway.

That's right. They work great with contact lenses,

I've watched the video several times. And it is just scary. 1. A student(?) who is very insecure (you can see that, as he tries to grab the strud). 2. loose legstraps (as mentioned above). 3. He's somehow stable but never a "thumbs up". 4. As he tries to grab his hand deploy (at 1:10) he turns into a dive until his AAD fires(?) / reserve deploys at 1:24 --> That is 14 seconds of freefall, so that's about 700 m / 2200 ft (since i've been taught 170 ft/sec // 50 m/sec at terminal velocity) Given that and a AAD firing altitude of ~350 m that means a waveoff altitude of about 1000 m / 3000 ft. So he should be 1000 m AGL at 1:10 and quite far away of the instructor. Question: Is it possible that the instructor can/could reach a student who is that far away as at 1:10 within less than 14 sec. Or is it impossible so that the instructor should have deployed his parachute right away!?

Between 90 and 150 km one way. Depends on the DZ I want to jump at. At least there are 9 DZ's to choose from..

But I jump at a very small DZ, so it's hard to find a good coach. With some video-instruction (or text book instruction) I can try it by myself and if I think it works I can try with some other jumper (no coach), just to have someone as a visual reference. I did that with side-slides last weekend and it worked pretty good.

Haven't found anything yet. Any suggestions? I'm looking for more advanced free fall skills (beyond what is thought in AFF) but still kind of basic. No freefly-moves like headdown, sitfly and so on. More like side-slide (mentioned above) or the circling around another person.

gloves in winter 'cause it's cold?! No gloves in summer 'cause it's warm?

But that's really basic stuff. I don't know if mixedup really meant that. I know there are more advanced but still basic belly flying moves like the side-slide or things like that. Is there an overview about these moves? Just basic moves beyond AFF-moves (barrel-roll, back-/front-loop)

Hi! What packing error causes a malfunction? What do you have to do wrong during your packjob to have a lineover?

If I understand the two documents correctly: Cypres: There were several no- or to low activations, which led to the death of the skydiver. There were also some other activations (ground, cabin), but they are not reported and apparently didn't cause any trouble (at least none that I know of). So, my conclusion of the Cypres-Article is: If you have one, it's very unlikely, that there is a misfire that can kill you. But it can happen, that it won't fire when needed. This raises the question: Do I need a cypres at all because it might not safe me (too low activation, when I fail to pull). Vigil: There were some in-plane activations, that caused death or serious injury. So my personal conclusion is: I feel safer with my cypres (as i would with my Vigil), even when it might not safe me. But at least it does not kill me. One question remains: Is it wise to spend $1500 or safe the money and jump without any AAD at all. Nevertheless, the statements "Unknown, but has occurred" at the cypres document should be investigated.

1. more horizontal separation: Better tracking when doing RW or leave more time/space at the exit, when going solo. 2. If you see someone coming towards you, make a turn (90° to your right) and go away, even when you think you are not really close together and there is plenty of space left.

I think about 300m / 1000 ft right after opening, but it's a little hard to judge.

I also got talked to this weekend: Right after opening, I was heading towards another skydiver. He was about 50-100 m / 170-350 ft below me, so I decided I can fly over him: Me heading west - he heading east. An other reason beside the altitude difference was, that his canopy was way smaller than mine (135 sqft vs. 210 sqft), so he should descend faster than me (which leads to more vertical separation)... After landing, he was not very happy about me flying over him... We talked about that (without pulling any handles ;-) ) Well, I know, that making a turn and flying away would have been the safest choice, but I thought there was enough space between us... So: What distance between two canopys is safe and what distance is too close?

Well, you can't call them "stupid things I've done", 'cause I was a student at this time. 1. thing: About jump no. 5 - 8 (S/L with spring loaded pilotchute): Standing at the door of a Cessna 206, facing on heading. Was supposed to "jump" to the right and arch (nothing else, 'cause S/L jump). I jump, roll/turn to the right (over my right shoulder on my side/back). Next thing I see is a good looking canopy (inflated, square), but: Left risers are ok, right risers around my right arm, right lines between my legs. And I'm hanging somewhere in between. Luckily I was able to put my right leg out of that mess, which also causes my right risers to unwind. Everything turned out fine, except the bruises on my right arm. 2. First free-fall jump. Supposed to exit @ 1500 m / 5000 ft, 5 sec. delay and pull. I exit and pull immediately (@ 1500 m / 5000 ft). Very strong wind that day (but only high up, almost no wind at the ground). My instructor let me go way to early, so I ended up landing several hundred meters away. See attached file. The blue spot shows the landing area.

On my first freefall-jump (after S/L) I became unstable while trying to reach my ripcord. Every time I reached for it i turned on my back. So, after several attempts I realised, I was quite low (about 800 m / 2600 ft -- should have pulled at 1200 m / 4000 ft) and decided to pull while I'm on my back. The spring loaded pilot chute went up between my legs and I found myself under an open canopy. Quite uncomfortable, but better than anything else. So yes: You can pull while on your back. Yes, it can become nasty Yes, it is uncomfortable and might hurt But it's the best option you have.

Hi! when you are on holiday and want to go skydiving, but you don't have your own rig: Would you rent one from the local DZ anywhere in the world or just at DZ's where you might be sure about the quality/condition of the rented rig? Like renting a rig in the US vs. renting one in Russia.

I didn't say there is nothing to learn. I just said, that it might be better to learn more canopy control with the canopy I'm going to jump for the next hundreds of jumps. Our 250sqft canopys are very slow.. - It's impossible to pull the front risers. - With already medium winds you can land without flaring at all. - no wind landings are quicker but not really fast - you can't stall the canopy with your toggles (maybe by using the rear risers) - turns are very slow. You can reach a significant descent rate only after several 360° turns. You loose very little altitude with 90° turns. I've tried most of the "Canopy Skills Drills" (article by Brian Germain) but only a few times. So there is still a lot to learn.

I'm not really sure how or to what extend things you learn on a 250 sqft canopy (loaded at 0.7) can be compared to the behaviour of a 170 sqft canopy (loaded at 1.05). (There are no smaller canopys than 250 sqft at my DZ) Nevertheless canopy control is important and there are a lot of articles here at dz.com about canopy-control. But I can't find any article about belly-flying.

since I have to wait about 6 weeks to get my own canopy, I'd like to learn something while in freefall. Maybe turning only by using my legs or something like that.

Hi! what do you suggest to learn/improve after getting licensed? Me and my friends recently got their license and they started to freefly (sitfly) immediately after they were off-student-status. I'm not really feeling comfortable with that, since I learned at a tunnel, that belly-flying is not really easy (you may drift around a lot without really knowing that you do so). So what do you suggest to learn/do the next couple (10, 50, 100, whatever) jumps?