0
ernokaikkonen

Setting audible altitudes

Recommended Posts

Someone's comment in a related thread got me curious about the way people use their audibles. He suggested setting the alarms higher, to get an advance warning of the altitude that's coming.

Personally, I don't have an audible, but when I get rich and can afford one, it will be set below my break-off and deployment altitudes. I want to keep my altitude awareness and use the audible strictly as a back-up only.

What are other people's thoughts on this?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I can't really use your options. I almost always leave mine at the same three altitudes: 5000, 3500, and 1500. On rare occasions I will change the 5000 to some other value. Sometimes it is a pre-warning, and sometimes it is a post-warning. The 3500 one is the "OK, it is time to stop tracking and consider waving off and pulling" warning, if I haven't already done so. The 1500 is the one I really don't want to hear, because it means something is wrong, and I want it to remind me that time is running short.

I have two audibles and one wrist visual. I am not afraid to jump with none (I have about 500 jumps with no altis of any kind), but I'd rather have more warnings than I need than less.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I set my audible for 4500, 3000 and 2000.

I leave it this way for most jumps that i do, freefly, BM, tandem vids and four way camera.

Freefly and Birdman it's there as an act now kinda thing, whereas on four way camera i hear the 4500 beep go and know that in 500 feet my team is going to break off.

The only time the first beep gets set higher is on bigger way tracking, freefly and bird man jumps.

Advertisio Rodriguez / Sky

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I do both. The Optima has multiple banks of warning settings. For Tandems I set them at 6,000, 4,500 and 2,500. The 6,000 is just a heads up for me to get ready to wave the camera off. For all other types of flying I set it just below.

I use the Lo-speed warning for tandem settings, 1,000, 750 ft and 300 ("Please remove your hands from the toggles now")

Never used an audible before last year after 10 years I buckled and got one. Love it!
Pete Draper,

Just because my life plan is written on the back of a Hooter's Napkin, it's still a life plan.... right?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Well, you know what I think -- I posted right under that thread. Mine is (well, was :( -- someone walked away with my helmet) set for 35, 25, 15. 35 because I mostly do smaller stuff, and that means I should already be tracking. 25 because I should have pulled (I pack to open quickly), and 15 because if I hear it I'm fucking up.

That way my eyes and analog altimeter remain my primary altitude sensors.

Wendy W.
There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have set mine for the "you should do something now" altitudes... I am always thinking, when I hear the beep, "I expected that, right" - "It is not taking me by surprise".

If it is a coach jump, it is when I want to see the student track. If it is a group freefall - it is when I leave.

Knowing that altimeters fail, I rather have both the visual and audible telling me "time to do something" instead of using one to say "you are already late"....

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

Well, you know what I think -- I posted right under that thread. Mine is (well, was :( -- someone walked away with my helmet) set for 35, 25, 15. 35 because I mostly do smaller stuff, and that means I should already be tracking. 25 because I should have pulled (I pack to open quickly), and 15 because if I hear it I'm fucking up.

That way my eyes and analog altimeter remain my primary altitude sensors.

Wendy W.



I do the same sort of thing... I see the beeps as a "you should already be doing something" warning, whether it is tracking away, deploying or initiating EPs...

My heights are set a bit different, though... ;)
Mike
I love you, Shannon and Jim.
POPS 9708 , SCR 14706

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I currently use the original Dytter with only one setting. I set it at 1800 feet. My altitude to decide if I have a landable canopy. See Wake up Call

I used to have a Timeout that had 3 beep altitudes. You could only adjust the highest one. I had that set at 3500. The other two beeps went off at 2500 and some flatline tone at, I think, 1800 ft. The 2500 beeping always scared the crap out of me because I thought something was wrong. I still had 500 feet more to track, so it always bugged me, especially on big ways. The Timeout went crazy on the 300-ways. I think it was the cold that got to it, even with a fresh battery. It kept going off around 4-4.5k. It wasn't set there either. I haven't used it since then. It's always good to have the eyeball altimeter to let you know if an audible or visual altimeter is broken.

For most big ways I go sans helmet/dirt alert, unless it's really cold.

I can't see buying a new-fangled dirt alert, when the original Dytter works.

.
.
Make It Happen
Parachute History
DiveMaker

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
THe attitude in that article is quite interesting. As a newbie and not jumping with anyone so no breakoff etc my Pro Dytter is set at 3k (pull at 3.5 so hear as deploying), 2.5k and 1.5k. Mine are therefore really nothing more than varying degrees of panic. I should have done what I want to do and only hear the first warning tone as the canopy is deploying. If I hear a tone but nothings happening I know I have a problem. If I hear tone 2 or 3 paticularly then its time to worry and start thinking about EPs.

Im going to keep it that way for a while until ive calibrated Mk1 Eyeball to altitude. Dont want to get into any lazy habbits of relying on audible.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
i have mine usually set to 4k,3k and flatline at 2.5k i should always be aware of my break open and flatline in the saddle time. We have all done it at one time or other no one is perfect as long as you learn the lesson Atiltude awareness is crucial:|

Billy-Sonic Haggis Flickr-Fun


Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

If I hear tone 2 or 3 paticularly then its time to worry and start thinking about EPs.



By the time you hear tone 3 at your expierence level you don't have time to perform EP's. Your ADD will save your life, hopefully.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I honestly don’t care how people choose to set the first two alarms on their audibles but I do have an opinion on setting the third alarm or “flatline.”

Setting it ABOVE a hard deck means that people will hear it semi routinely under a normal canopy deployment and will become desensitized to it. Becoming desensitized to a flat line creates a situation where people potentially think “I have a little more time to try and fix it.” This can end badly.

Setting it below a hard deck means you should have already been performing EP’s. Also not good.

I am a believer that the flat line should be set AT a person’s hard deck. If you hear the flat line you start EP’s, no if ands or buts.

Just one man’s opinion.

Ron (the nicely dressed one) ;)
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I have my third tone set to 1800, but a couple times have heard it going off as the slider hits the stops, then later find it to have recorded the opening at 2000. Very strange. I could not understand the response from L&B when I asked them to please explain.
People are sick and tired of being told that ordinary and decent people are fed up in this country with being sick and tired. I’m certainly not, and I’m sick and tired of being told that I am

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
I used to set all of mine LOWER than my action altitudes, to prevent dependency, but now that I have just started freeflying I now have them set for my exact action altitudes (well, for breakoff anyway) ... Learning to freefly has made it pretty much impossible to check my altitude during the jump, and my eyes that used to be alright on belly just are not adjusted to the new view yet ;) ... Flatline has always been at hard deck (which used to be 1800, recently raised to 2000ft) .. That is my "if I am not taking EP action now, get hot!"

FGF #???
I miss the sky...
There are 10 types of people in the world... those who understand binary and those who don't.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

it will be set below my break-off and deployment altitudes. I want to keep my altitude awareness and use the audible strictly as a back-up only.



This is exactly why I have mine set low. I was finding that I was starting to ignore the other indicators of my altitude; my altimeter and the horizon. I would rather add this third element to the lower altitudes 2.5k, 1.5k , 1k because my assumption is that if I'm that low then something else is going on that has robbed my attention from the first two.
"I encourage all awesome dangerous behavior." - Jeffro Fincher

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

I have my third tone set to 1800, but a couple times have heard it going off as the slider hits the stops, then later find it to have recorded the opening at 2000. Very strange. I could not understand the response from L&B when I asked them to please explain.


If you've still got their reply, I'd be interested to see it - I experience the same thing.

IE, first tone at 3k, time to chuck. 700ish foot deployment puts me at 2.3k and decending slowly, but often I'll hear my 2k warning chime in just as the sliders coming down (300ft or so early). Is this what you get?

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
This is also why when you hear of Cypres fires during a main opening, and the jumpers swear that their alti read this and their Pro Track said that, that they are full of shit. All of those instruments (Cypres included) will experience variations in readings during significant changes to their situation.

If your Cypres fires in any way, you blew it. You shouldn't be within 1000 ft of that thing going off. Ever.

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites
Quote

often I'll hear my 2k warning chime in just as the sliders coming down (300ft or so early). Is this what you get?



My 2nd alarm does go off under canopy (typically when I'm doing a HnP) but my third never does.
"We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Share this post


Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

0