line twist

[GrumpySmurf 0]

'Pull high cause you're gonna need the extra time to figure out how much differently your square F-111 Reserve flies from your elliptical ZP pocket rocket'

[GrumpySmurf 0]

Or 'Pull high cause your elliptical ZP pocket rocket takes 1,000 feet to open, and you don't want to get the rep of 'The Cutaway Kid' cause you have to continually chop it as you pass your hard deck while it is still snivelling."

[billvon 2,406]

>I was taught to look over my shoulder as well. I was taught on a throw out
> system they taught this in cases of a lazy throw its gives your pilot chute a >chance to clear the burble.
I recommend you _not_ do this. It works with large canopies, but having a shoulder low at deployment will lead to asymmetric openings. We teach our students pull - count to 5 - check to give the canopy time to open. This works well for smaller canopies/lower deployment altitudes as well, although the time is of course shorter. Make sure you're 100% stable, give the PC a good launch, then wait, in a stable position, to feel opening shock. If you don't feel it - _then_ check.
-bill von

[dterrick 0]

Yaaay! Thanks Bill! EXACTLY what I was taught at FJC last Septermber ('check' on 5, there square steerable, or go to emergency).
Jump #20 (#5 of the weekend and the year) on Earth Day I did EXECTLY what you just suggested. Yes, normally it takes nanoseconds to feel the snatch, and by then I can feel confident in looking up as I will be feet down. J#20 gave me nada. It was about 20F at 7500 (on a 20 sec delay, std. progression) - 'check' included a second pull (BOC) fearing a lost handle or PC in tow. BOC empty, Main tray full ...Baaad thing right?
My tasks were complete early so I was square and stable at 5k AGL and waited a 5 count before pulling (why push it yet?). I KNEW that at 'check' that I was at about 3 traveling at terminal and Ground Rush was lurking for the first time.
"I'm not goin in, AAD be damned, this is MY ride" so I went for the handles. Simultaneously I got snatched feet down and saw only a high slider - either I chopped (RSL and 2 handle system) on purpose or I had a loose pillow and it went accidentally. Either way, I was under a round at 2500 - I thought I'd gone deaf for a moment but it was the most beautiful sound I'd never heard... Watching my main (CL 220 student gear) float away with the slider still up was reeeallly strange - I still thought I had a mal at that point.
Over the Beer, JM and DZO determined I chopped a perfectly good main. K, fine, I STILL would not hang around waiting for a bad canopy to become good at near terminal. Before the beer, I was back on the "Existential Elevator" , having felt that I either Cheated Mr. Death or cheted myself out of a canopy ride. Either way, I passed the test(s) and heard only encouraging words from the Seniors and was cleared to Altitude.
This weekend past I was doing 35's from the cieling.... I watched that Cruiselite VERY closely after snatch - and yes, it DOES take 2-3 seconds from what I saw to what I needed to see.
Next thought for you all , if I had waited I'd have been at close to 2000 AGL. Would anybody else out there have had the presence of mind to deal with 2 out (round and square) having just delt with one violent opening (when the FXC on your rental gear fires early)?!?
If the fricking snow doesn't keep coming back I'll be cleared off student status this weekend. The rig I have commissioned out of the JM & DZO's 'tickle trunk' includes a 2 year old Stellar 160 SQUARE reserve and a Raven II for a main. go ahead guys, ask me how easy it is to 'fly' a round back to DZ when you don't get the chance to deploy and correct for the wind line and the winds are blowing you off DZ toward the stuff they warn you about in PIM-2A :)
Dave Terrick
-Toadi Acceleratio Semper Absurda