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bluegremlin

A newbie question

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After a nerve recking jump (Fist time pulling on alti after an unintended unstable exit) i had a really hard opening. my instructor described it as the piolet shute burbled for a bit then the canopy flew out and snapped open in about 1/4 of the time it should have taken. Caused me alot of pain. When i landed i talked to the guy that packed and he said he packed in a new way he had been told to pack but it shouldnt have caused such a harsh opening.
Could this have been my body position or was it the pack? and how often should i expect opening like this?
Second question, i have problems keeping my head up while in freefall which means without noticing im bringing my arm in to check my alti causing me to slowley spin. Iv done god knows how much practice on the ground but i cant seam to get in right in the air. Anyone got any suggestions that could help?

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What i tell my students when they are checking the alti is to not move your arm in but to roll your hand and rotate your head. If you don't move anything you should start a turn.

As far as your head being down. Just remember the groud isn't going anywhere but there are people in the air you might want to keep an eye on. So just work on keeping the eyes up and the head should follow.

Patrick

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Second question, i have problems keeping my head up while in freefall



Make an effort at looking at the horizon, and not being fixated on the ground....your gonna get there soon enough.:)
One must ensure that his or her spirit is never broken......Samurai Maxim

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Hey Gary,

If you're around at the weekend, I'll spend some time going over stable alti-checks with you.

As for the hard opening, I had the same thing on the same sort of rigs that you are using when I was a student at P'lee. Did you roll your shoulders in order to clear your pilot chute from your burble? Or did it happen before that?

If it was a roll or shift in body position, then it is likely that your weight was unevenly distributed in the harness and you experienced a minor whiplash effect. I remember rolling to the left when trying to clear my pilot chute in a similar situation, which caused me a lot of pain at the time!

Don't let the hard opening put you off, once you start to relax in freefall more, your body position will be more stable and will help give softer openings. There will always be freak hard openings, but generally they're less than 1 in 100 unless there is something majorly wrong with packing/body position/equipment.

As always, feel free to grab myself or one of the other instructors at the DZ if you have any more questions :)

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Ask whoever your instructor is to go over heading maintenance with you before you next jump. It effectively teaches you to turn (i.e. to counter a natural turn), but you won't be doing any deliberate turns on the dive.

No.#1 tip: Relax.
You have two parachutes on your back, lots of altitude and a more relaxed arch will make you feel more in control.

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As many have commented, seek your instructor's advice. You seem to be having some sort of lazy pulls, keep in mind that if you are done with AFF, you should practice on getting stable, PRCP's (Keeping stability), and alti-awareness, judge your own position by looking to the horizon. Keep alawy altitude awareness. Then talk some more to your instructors. Let them know about this or other advices you been reading-getting, and get their opinion.
"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon

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