Alti for CRW?

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Where can I get an alti pillow for my chest strap? All I have is an alti on my wrist and it was advised not to use it on my wrist for CRW for obvious reasons.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks

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[monkycndo 0]

I was at Perris this last weekend. Square 1 had a box with a couple different styles. Short wedge pillow and the type that looks like a triangle made of webbing. Under $20 if I remember correctly.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Danka!

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[monkycndo 0]

Bitte.
ps The colors were a bit limited on the pillow style. (hot pink)

Had plenty of colors on the webbing style.

I ended up getting one in the classified here with older Alti II. Just another option.

50 donations so far. Give it a try.

You know you want to spank it
Jump an Infinity

[homer 0]

I picked up a complete (used) set up at Z-Hills. Sunshine Factory has complete set ups or parts to make your own.

I would like to find some kind of hard housing that can hold 2 jack the rippers at opposite ends and will fit on my chest strap behind my alti.

CSA #699 Muff #3804

[Sargeatlarge 0]

Crush up a beer can - works for me

Sarge

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

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I picked up a complete (used) set up at Z-Hills. Sunshine Factory has complete set ups or parts to make your own.

I would like to find some kind of hard housing that can hold 2 jack the rippers at opposite ends and will fit on my chest strap behind my alti.

Thanks. I found a used one in like new condition. Now that you bring up the chest strap, I have a short one and having both hook knives on it takes up all the excess space. So, I'll have to figure out where to put the other hook knife to make room for the wedge.

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[remko 0]

I wear my alti on an elastic band on the upper arm. Hook knives, I pack a large one on my chest strap, a small one on the leg strap and a small one in the riser cover under the 3-ring release.

The one instance I had to use a knife I had it strapped onto a little flotation device which I was wearing on my chest strap. A bridle lassoed around it with a cute lady hanging below. Took some effort but I finally got it out.

My advice, the less stuff sticking out the better!

--
Everything you know is wrong. But some of it is a useful first approximation.

[parachutist 1]

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Where can I get an alti pillow for my chest strap? All I have is an alti on my wrist and it was advised not to use it on my wrist for CRW for obvious reasons.

Any input is greatly appreciated. Thanks

You'll get that advice about altis... mount them on your chest... but I've been CRWing around for a few years and I know of 2 accidents where jumpers face-planted on landing and were injured (1 seriously and 1 fatally) by their chest-mount altimeters which were driven into their chest or throat.

I quit wearing chest-mount altis for that reason & started wearing a Neptune on my glove. A wrist-mount is fine for a Neptune too because a line would be very difficult to catch on it (try to catch a Dacron line on it... you'll need to work hard at it).

Chris

[RkyMtnHigh 0]

Thanks so very much for your input.

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[faulknerwn 37]

That's strange - I'd mount one ANYWHERE but my hands.. I've known multiple people who have lost altimeters by wearing them on my wrist, and when all is going to hell in a handbasket, the last thing I want is any chance of my anything on my hands being snagged - my 2 hands are my safety - nothing goes on them...

[birddog 0]

i personally think it is very dangerous to have any thing attached to your wrists particuly an alti when doing crw. Ive been unfortunate enough to have someone dock on me very hard and then have them hanging off my wrist mount. Never wore an alti for crw again. I only started to wear a chest mounted alti after a couple of narly wraps. Some people have them sewn on there jumpsuits which isnt a bad idea either.

Deal with it

[CRWCheryl 0]

If you mount LONG hookknives on your chest strap, think about whether a twist in the harness could end up with the end of the sheath in your reserve handle. I've had one friend with a very difficult reserve pull years ago. After a fairly violent main deployment, her rig had shifted so that the hook knife ended up in the reserve handle and holding it in place. Luckily she worked it out and lived to tell about it.

I've got a pillow alti on the reserve side of my chest strap. It gives my hook knife a buffer zone away from the reserve handle.

[parachutist 1]

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That's strange - I'd mount one ANYWHERE but my hands.. I've known multiple people who have lost altimeters by wearing them on my wrist, and when all is going to hell in a handbasket, the last thing I want is any chance of my anything on my hands being snagged - my 2 hands are my safety - nothing goes on them...

How could you get something caught on this (see photo)? There are no lips for a Dacron line to get under. Do you know of any possible issues with the Neptune hand mount, or are you just going by the standard advice from years back: "no altis on wrist"?

As for the sewn-onto-glove method of attachment, I stole that idea from Steve Sassetti. There were 2 of us in the 85-way with that type of Neptune config, and it works well. Worst case scenario with that one: Even if a line got caught under it, the stitches would tear through the plastic and I may lose the Neptune. Oh well.

Chris

[crewdog2 0]

Chris, I don't see a line snag issue with this type of altimeter. As for where to mount the altimeter, I have always preferred the chest because in a wrap I am usually busy with my arms and wouldn't be able to read it if wasn't mounted on my chest. I've been deep in the shit a couple of times where the only thing I could see was my chest-mounted altimeter. -Russ

[faulknerwn 37]

That's a good point as well - I've been cocooned so tightly by Ken Oka that all I could do was wiggle my toes and hope he understood that meant cutaway!

As far as snagging - I've had lines wrapped around my hands/wrists which I cleared and having an altimeter in the way to try to peel the lines around would have been just another obstacle to work around...

[parachutist 1]

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Chris, I don't see a line snag issue with this type of altimeter. As for where to mount the altimeter, I have always preferred the chest because in a wrap I am usually busy with my arms and wouldn't be able to read it if wasn't mounted on my chest. I've been deep in the shit a couple of times where the only thing I could see was my chest-mounted altimeter. -Russ

Russ,

I understand the ease of looking down to see the alti... but anytime that I've been in a wrap so far (maybe 4 out of 1200 CRW jumps), at least one of the jumpers involved has been able to use their hands and call out altitudes, So that part hasn't really concerned me as much as the danger of a chest mount causing internal body damage.

Different experiences leading to different choices, I guess... I learned after you guys figured out a lot of the do's and don'ts, so most of the potential wraps in my CRW career thus far have been stopped before they developed - either stopped by me or by whoever the other jumper was. Mainly thanks to your CRW generation I haven't been deep in the shit yet. :)

Chris

[kleggo 138]

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Chris, I don't see a line snag issue with this type of altimeter. As for where to mount the altimeter, I have always preferred the chest because in a wrap I am usually busy with my arms and wouldn't be able to read it if wasn't mounted on my chest. I've been deep in the shit a couple of times where the only thing I could see was my chest-mounted altimeter. -Russ

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you can probably thank your buddy Frank for at least one of those..............................

kleggo

[crewdog2 0]

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That's a good point as well - I've been cocooned so tightly by Ken Oka that all I could do was wiggle my toes and hope he understood that meant cutaway!

Funny story: While participating in the 38-Way Record jumps in '92 we had a funnel on one of the dives and eight of us were entangled. We hung in there and everyone got spit out. Later that night while camping out on the dz I had a CRW nightmare. In the dream I was cocooned in five canopies and everyone cutaway to save there own asses. My arms were locked down to my sides and all I could do was squirm and yell all the way in. I startled awake to find myself all twisted up in my sleeping bag.

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[crewdog2 0]

Oh I can thank my buddy Frank for about five of those. That's why he's been packing my reserve for free for the last 16 years.

[VectorBoy 0]

Later that night while camping out on the dz I had a CRW nightmare. In the dream I was cocooned in five canopies and everyone cutaway to save there own asses. My arms were locked down to my sides and all I could do was squirm and yell all the way in. I startled awake to find myself all twisted up in my sleeping bag.

[crewdog2 0]

Of course it was. Reality is no match for my imagination.

[VectorBoy 0]

You are right ,

besides I only have to miss you by a little bit and an aggressive turn at the time would have had me broadside to all three of you in the base. It was tight visual.

[Trace 0]

I'm a huge fan of having an alti on my wrist, but I'm also mindful of the risk of getting my hand entngled. I've tried all sorts of mountings, but nothing is more visable to me than on my wrist. The best solution I've found is mounting a Neptune on my hand. I sew a window on the back of my glove. The trick is to use a glove that has an elastic back, and insert the alti from the inside of the glove. This leaves a very sleek exterior. I've used this set up for about three years now. I've had one canopy wrapped around that hand, and I was easily able to pull the cutaway past my alti. I don't have a digital camera with good resolution, but I'm including some crappy camera phone pictures with this post to try to illustrate the glove mounting I'm using. The first picture is an exterior overall, and the second picture shows the slit on the interior of the glove that allows me to insert/remove the altimeter. Sorry about the poor image quality.

CReW skies,

-Steve

[jenfly00 0]

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Chris, I don't see a line snag issue with this type of altimeter. As for where to mount the altimeter, I have always preferred the chest because in a wrap I am usually busy with my arms and wouldn't be able to read it if wasn't mounted on my chest. I've been deep in the shit a couple of times where the only thing I could see was my chest-mounted altimeter. -Russ

It's not just a matter of the alti being a snag point. If you have lines around your wrist/hand, the alti presents a lump that could easily prevent you from freeing your hand.

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"O brave new world that has such people in it".