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wildcard451

Altimeter Offset Lesson

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I hesitate to post much to this site anymore due to the signal often getting lost in the noise, however I feel this may save at least one person some grief, and I know I have seen at least one bounce video relating to this issue.

My last jumps at the end of April were at the Farm, which has between a 110-130' LOWER offset, depending on who you ask. B|

Weeeellll, I showed up at Raeford the other day for a canopy training camp. I got there late, rushed, etc. There happened to be a load going in 5 minutes that would beat the upcoming military TFR out of Ft Bragg. I threw my gear on right out of the bag, ran to meet the load, and we took off.

I use an N2 on my mudlfap and an N3 on my arm as a backup. One of my procedures that I do on every jump is to verify that both altimeters are "nearly" the same. Well, they weren't and my primary(N2) was reading about 120' higher than actual...."oh yeah dumbass, you forgot to reset that one" (The N3 has died completely and I charged it on the ride down, so I am guessing it reset itself)

I ingrained in my head that I must use my arm altimeter on this jump. Well, habits being habits and all, I flew my pattern using the N2 on the mudflap[:/]. As I ran in on base, things didn't look quite right, and I usually turn from around 820-850'. I was a smidge low anyways (790'). As I hit my bump and started the turn, it all clicked back together that the alti is reading 120' high, and that's why this setup feels unusually low.

Knowing that I was still within the envelope of my turn, I brought the turn around fast based on the visual and really didn't even have to dig out low.

Lessons:
1) Don't rush.
2) Make sure your equipment is set for the area that you are jumping. (Altis, AADs, etc)
3) Always having a defined procedure can help identify errors/discrepancies
4) Swooping by beeps/altimeter only is never a good idea. You must correlate the data with the visual inputs that you are seeing.
5) Know your gear inside and out. I was pretty sure that I could not reset the DZ offset once on a jump. Even reading the manual it does not seem clear, but it says that it brings you back to the ground screen, so I would assume that the program logic assumes you are on the ground when you hit "Zero DZ offset"

Side note: Drug all the water and stood up in Zone 6. Maybe I should fuck up more often. B|

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