TKruger

I'm at odds. The last thing I want to do is sell off my gear... However, I get it...I have to do what I have to do...unless someone else has a better idea.

I am a skydiver, a jumper that has run into financial trouble. I’m in the process of moving to new place and trying to reestablish myself. For the past few months I’ve been trying to resolve this issue. I’m trying to take care of my dad who is older and can’t find work and my 9 year old daughter that I have custody of. Recently I’ve found myself in a position where I needed to sell all I had to try to make it by. My Harley Davidson Sportster has gone, My go pro has gone, Multiple fire arms I own have gone, my Big Green Egg has gone and the only thing left is my skydiving gear…It’s up for sale too. I’m tired of losing things…it’s not that I’m sitting back letting things happen. I’m giving 100% yet I find myself in a position where I have to sell my gear to survive…WTF……. I’m at a point where I need help. From one direction or the other. It breaks my heart to sell off my gear but I know I have to do what I have to do. However something tells me that there are other options for survival. Those options I don’t know of …and I’m only basing things off of what I know. Any direction would be greatly appreciated.

The whole idea is taking the extreme to extreme...Where do I sign up?

Thanks for that. The Container is a Wings that was purchased new and has fewer than 80 jumps on it.

Saturday, first jump was a 5 way. After a bit of a struggle we all got together around 7.5K tried for a Right Hand doughnut and it went to crap couldn't get it back together. We all broke off and here is where the story begins..... After coming out of my track I reached for my hacky and deployed my main at around 3K. I'm jumping a Sabre 2 190 and have around 30 jumps on it. I generally get a couple types of deployments over the last 30 or so jumps. Sometimes it a stable on heading opening with the advertised longer snivel while others it's more of an abrupt (less snivel) opening but not a hard opening. I know what that feels like. On this jump having a feel for the snivel it seemed like it took a few seconds more meaning 1 or 2 for it to go from ball of material above my head to the slider coming down and being fully inflated. Upon the slider coming down and the canopy being fully inflated it dove down and to the right. I didn't think much about it at first since I've had that type of a dive to the right in the past. Where things became interesting is rather than the canopy settling to normal flight as it has in the past I began to slowly at first spin. Now I've had a break fire on a Pulse 210 that I had so immediately that was what came to mind so I check for my breaks to see if they were still stowed. Upon inspection it looked as if they were in fact still stowed and in the holders on my risers. Now I'm beginning to spin faster as I continue into rotation number 2. Not seeing a problem with the breaks I grabbed my rear left riser and noticed that due to the spin I wasn't able to pull enough to offset the spin to the right. By now I'm at about 2K feet and after realizing this I decided it was time to chop and hope for a better canopy. In doing so I was reciting....Look, Locate, Peel, Punch PULL but when I got to peel my one handed attempt wasn't allowing me to get the pillow off of the Velcro. So I went at it with both hands, successfully chopping dropping my cut away handle. Before I could reach for the reserve handle the RSL had already had the reserve out and over my head. I ended up making another jump that same day so as to not allow the incident to affect me negatively. I spoke with some of the instructors who said that it was possible that the eyelet came off the tab on the handles while keeping the handles in the elastic pouches. The common consensus was that this is what happened and that I could have potentially fixed the problem by releasing my breaks prior to going for the rears. Now I have replayed this event in my head over and over again and I still believe I saw both handles still stowed. First question: Does anyone else have any insight or suggestions as to what may have happened? Second question: My Vigil II which I turned on before this jump was OFF when the rigger completed my repack. When the rigger tried to turn it back on it would go to Hello and then turn off. The Vigil has been sent to Deland to be inspected and I'm waiting to hear back from them what the issue is that caused this problem. Has this ever happened to any of you or someone you know? Thanks in advance for your replies!!!

Thx

Thanks for the prompt response. To clarify 240 may not be exactly correct. I weigh about 200 plus my gear. Most of the 100 jumps are recent. Only 30 were back in the 90s. Please note that I have not gone into my original purchase or this purchase with out consulting instructors and staff at my DZ prior to pulling the trigger. Thank you for the input.

I take it you have already bought the canopy…….the question of fit should have been settled before purchase. FYI….if your profile is correct your wing loading on both main and reserve puts you in the danger zone. Sparky What do you mean by that please?

Another question that just came to me is will my Saber 2 have issues with fitting into a bag that a Pulse 210 has been being packed into..ie my DBag..what about my pilot chute? I've heard about padding the bag and all and am not sure what to think..Also reference to the size of the pilot chute having a variable influence on how the chute deploys... Looking for working handling of the above.

Very good read. I've done a class with Brian G and would recommend it to anyone serious about canopy flight.

I've just landed the above canopy and am excited to jump it this weekend. Is there any input anyone out there who has jumped or is currently jumping this canopy has that may aid me? Many thanks in advance!

Uh that's how I got into Skydiving in the first place Seriously though, good points. Instructors will know how you fly, what skill level you are at and so on. Also before you buy new or used gear Get Measured! A nice fitting container that's not flopping around as you free fall is an up! Last but not least ARCH, ARCH, ARCH, ARCH! Don't pee on yer shoes!

LOL! Just ran into a similar issue last weekend myself. Resolve last weekend! Odd how free beer dissapears!

Nice choice! Unbelievably knowledgeable staff. Great instruction and a nice friendly atmosphere! You're in good hands! There's not one instructor that I wouldn't suggest you work with. All are great! Sell everything you own and invest in Skydiving, you'll thank me later!

Do you really need something to beep in order to know when to turn? The more toys the younger jumpers get, the more they depend on these devices to do the simple basics, like flying and landing their canopy. Not what I was getting at. I have seen many use the Digital alarms as a back up to the analog alti's out there. I refuse to count on one piece of gear to tell me how high I am, especially since I've had incorrect readings on my analog alti due to various reasons. Not so much intrested in new toys as you put it. More about being safe. Riddle me this Mr "I'll provide input and not allow anyone to really know how much knowledge I have." Why no update on your profile? Do you jump? How many alt's do you use? If you don't jump what qualifies you to provide input on this topic?