Altitude Awareness

[skydude2000 3]

Hi all,

I have a few questions about altitude, since I'm stuck on the ground. I've learned it's extremely dangerous to set an aad in the plane. What if you find that your altimeter is not zeroed, or is off by more than a couple hundred feet, from that of another jumper in the plane? Is it dangerous to reset it, based on another jumper's altimeter? Never done it, just a 'what if' sort of scenario. The other question I had is somewhat related. Is it possible, and if so, what is the best way to train yourself to reliably judge altitude by visual reference only? ie. look at the ground and say 'Oh, we're at X number of feet' based on the size of landmarks etc. obviously as a rough estimate. Not really sure of the easiest and safest way to learn that.

Blue Skies,

Skydude.

PULL!! or DIE!!

[bodypilot1 0]

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What if you find that your altimeter is not zeroed, or is off by more than a couple hundred feet, from that of another jumper in the plane? Is it dangerous to reset it, based on another jumper's altimeter?

Altimeters can be a couple hundred feet off as you climb. Dont bother to adjust it, it will be on zero when you land. If it's 500ft or more you may need to have it tested.

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Is it possible, and if so, what is the best way to train yourself to reliably judge altitude by visual reference only? ie. look at the ground and say 'Oh, we're at X number of feet' based on the size of landmarks etc. obviously as a rough estimate. Not really sure of the easiest and safest way to learn that.

Train your mind for time in freefall, and use the angle of the horizon. It will take a few jumps to get pretty good at it.

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[in2jumping 0]

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I've learned it's extremely dangerous to set an aad in the plane.

FYI it is also dangerous to set your ADD at home or any other place and then drive to the drop zone.

[SPAWNmaster 0]

also, i'd just like to add that some alti's such as the altitrack you can adjust for any discrepencies and manually set the altitude if you notice it's off (when at altitude, obviously on climb it takes a little bit sometimes).

[riggerrob 558]

Resetting altimeters - or AADs - in the airplane creates more problems than it solves.
A 20 foot error is only about one second of freefall, so there are more important things to worry about.

As for learning to "eyeball" altitude: try looking out of the airplane (while climbing) and say to yourself: "this looks like 2,000 feet."
Then glance at your altimeter to confirm.
Learning to "eyeball" altitude takes a while, but the more you practice, the sooner you will grasp the concept.

[diablopilot 2]

Think about why setting an AAD while climbing, or at a different altitude than you'll be jumping is dangerous.

It won't fire at the altitude you were expecting.

In the case of setting it while climbing (some models won't activate in a climb) it would fire higher than designed.

Now thing about the dangers of resetting your altimeter in the climb by comparing it to others on the plane.

If those you're using as a reference are wrong, yous will be too, right? And if you were using the aircraft altimeter as a reference, you need to make an adjustment based on how high your DZ is from standard sea level since thats what the A/C altimeter is set to.

If in the climb your altimeter is less than 200 feet off from 2 or 3 others that seem to agree in the airplane, I wouldn't bother resetting it. It just doesn't matter that much.

----------------------------------------------
You're not as good as you think you are. Seriously.

[popsjumper 2]

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...Train your mind for time in freefall, and use the angle of the horizon. It will take a few jumps to get pretty good at it.

I'm really surprised, at your jump numbers, that you would tell anyone to do this.
Training for time is very dangerous when you get out at a lower altitude than what you "trained" for. You train your eyes for altitude as riggerrob said above (on the airplane) and during freefall.

And training for angle of horizon is all well and good until you hit that mountain directly underneath you.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[popsjumper 2]

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...A 20 foot error is only about one second of freefall...

Damn! Are you President of the Anvil Brothers?

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[DougH 270]

Wouldn't that make him one of the feather brothers Pops?

We all know an Anvil brother covers 20 feet in .00001 miliseconds.

"The restraining order says you're only allowed to touch me in freefall"
=P

[jakee 1,254]

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...A 20 foot error is only about one second of freefall...

Damn! Are you President of the Anvil Brothers?

You call a 13mph fallrate Anvilish?

Do you want to have an ideagasm?

[bodypilot1 0]

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...Train your mind for time in freefall, and use the angle of the horizon. It will take a few jumps to get pretty good at it.

I'm really surprised, at your jump numbers, that you would tell anyone to do this.
Training for time is very dangerous when you get out at a lower altitude than what you "trained" for. You train your eyes for altitude as riggerrob said above (on the airplane) and during freefall.

And training for angle of horizon is all well and good until you hit that mountain directly underneath you.

Without getting into great detail about extiting at lower altitudes, as well as different locations, of course your time in freefall will change........

If in dout about your altitude, PULL!

www.WestCoastWingsuits.com
www.PrecisionSkydiving.com

[blackout 0]

when in doubt pull out

[kschilk 0]

I never had complete faith in altimeters so I started using clouds early on, to help gauge my altitude and as a back-up altimeter. I note what kind of clouds are at what altitude, on the way up and test myself, on the way down. I never usually go up, on a clear day.

"T'was ever thus."

[stratostar 5]

An old school saying : "falling out of the blue umbrella & into the green bowl" this happends around 3K to 2.5 K.

In other words green will start to fill the horzion and replace the blue.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[DSE 3]

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An old school saying : "falling out of the blue umbrella & into the green bowl" this happends around 3K to 2.5 K.

In other words green will start to fill the horzion and replace the blue.

Never heard that one before, thanks for sharing it

[stratostar 5]

Try it sometime, only in your case were the mountians are it don't work as good as in the flat lands where it's really noticable, the lower you go the more the green will surround you and fill the horzion.

you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

[LloydDobbler 2]

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An old school saying : "falling out of the blue umbrella & into the green bowl" this happends around 3K to 2.5 K.

In other words green will start to fill the horzion and replace the blue.

Yeah, that is a brilliant way of putting it. I've known about the 'horizon effect' for a while, but never heard it explained that way.

Gonna have to remember that. ('Course, I won't be trying it because I try and always pull by 3.5. But still, good stuff. Thanks.)

Signatures are the new black.

[Skydivesg 6]

And if the green starts to fill your goggles........... take a deep breath and go towards the bright light.

Sorry..... couldn't resist.

Be the canopy pilot you want that other guy to be.