evan85

Yes! I was at the MOAB boogie that year and got to do a jump with him! He was incredibly nice and down-to-earth, despite having showed him in his own G5 with "MS" painted on the sides, as you mention

Thanks! Are these the suggested pencils to use when pencil-packing a reserve?

I'm not certain just yet where I stand on the ultimate question, but here's something additional -- couldn't jumpers (and planes) in the air help spot a downed jumper/canopy that could not be seen from the ground?

*CALLED IT* http://squirrel.ws/skysnatch The "SkySnatch" is now available. I can see why a "more stable" pilot chute could be desirable in edge-case scenarios while wingsuiting, CRW, or similar. In freefall, I'm not sure I see any benefit. Anyone with more knowledge than me have additional insight on who, if anyone, should be looking at getting one of these?

Only thing I'd change, Id' say center of pressure rather than center of gravity though. But yeah, generally speaking, that's the idea. Yes, that is more technically correct, but I think more students will be familiar with "center of gravity" :). Regardless, I should note that this is obviously a "beginner" way to think about side slides; i.e. once more advanced you should be doing more knee/elbow dropping as in the video that was posted above. But I think this is a really intuitive way to teach the technique that folks not experienced with flying their bodies can understand (that is, understand not only what to do but why it works).

Objectively, the suit is not too tight. For someone with 90 jumps, however, you may find yourself stuff with "only one speed" -- i.e. not able to slow down enough when you need to do so. If you're set on getting into RW competition, like 4way, this may not be a problem -- others can put on weights and you want to be on the fast end anyway. But if you are trying to jump with a wide range of folks doing different types of jumps, you may have difficulty keeping up with anyone who doesn't fall fast.

A coach I really like explains it this way: Your hands and feet form 4 corners of a rectangle. Wherever your center of gravity is within that rectangle is the direction you want to go. So when you bring R hand and R leg in and push L hand an L leg out (like in your drawing), you're biasing your CoG on the right side of the rectangle, and you're going to go right. Indeed, this explanation works for forward and backward motion just as well as sidesliding. (Turns are a slightly different story but if you think about it, it's a good way of teaching why centerpoint turns work the way they do.)

PMed

This might sound harsh but... maybe don't take other people's money to pack their canopies for them if you don't know how to prevent line-overs.

Brian, this is a great article and some really good suggestions to stay current over the winter. One comment though -- as a climber, I've always been told never to clip metal to metal, if there will ever be fabric attached to either of those things. For example, on a quickdraw, one carabiner is always the "rope" side, and the other is always the "wall" side (where it is clipped to a piece of metal on the wall). The idea is that the "wall" side carabiner can get worn, get burrs, etc., and you wouldn't want your rope rubbing against that. I think the same concern is at issue here. If you clip carabiners directly to the large ring -- and then swing around in your harness over and over -- you are risking introducing wear to that large ring, putting burrs in it, etc. Your risers will then be rubbing against that wear/burrs/etc. and this could potentially cause a failure of the riser. Perhaps you could use risers properly installed on the rig and clip the carabiner through the top of the risers instead, where the metal-on-metal wear wouldn't be an issue?

3000' seems excessive for this. Recall that the SIM only requires main pack opening by 2500' (for C/D license) on a standard skydive--plenty of folks open there and are fine with it. "But evan85," you say, "what's wrong with using my reserve that high? Maybe I don't need to do it, but it's my call whether to spend that extra $70 on a reserve pack job!" Here's what's wrong: you are wasting a precious safety opportunity. What if your reserve has some kind of malfunction? There's no way to (quickly and easily) cut it away and go to your main -- but your main was literally designed to do exactly that and let you switch to your reserve. Even at maximum conservativeness, your main should always be your first option if you're high enough to be in the saddle with enough time to cutaway if necessary. 3000' should be plenty high for that, for most people.

You are both right--depending on the mal. The difference is that you are describing "best practices," while the podcast is discussing what to do when you find yourself in a non-ideal situation. For example: Do you have a broken brake line, but your canopy is still flying straight and properly, and you feel confident landing it on rears? Then go ahead and land that main, my friend -- you're too low to cutaway and wouldn't want to risk fouling up your (almost perfectly good) main with a reserve pull. Do you have some kind of catastrophic malfunction (say, for the sake of argument, your main canopy has torn in half), but somehow accidentally missed your hard deck without cutting away yet? I cannot recommend enough that you pull your reserve, and do not "ride the main down" just because you passed your hard deck. Obviously these are the far ends of the spectrum. What if you have 5 broken lines? What if you have tension knots? What if you have a torn cell but the canopy is holding together?

I don't know whether this applies here, but is it a "student" jump if the passenger is an experienced jumper? That could be the explanation.

^^^ This. But if you're the type of person who really likes to read and learn by reading, a couple other suggestions: Brian Germain's "The Parachute and its Pilot". Read it now. Read it again at 100 jumps. Then again at 200. And again at 500. Also, read everything Brian Burke has ever written about safety in skydiving. Probably read that again at 100 jumps too, once you have a better appreciation of what he's talking about and why it matters.

I understand the new FF handles are a bit bigger and have the same grippy material as the cutaway handles. Mine is set to arrive Monday so I'll post a pic when it does

I think what Mirage means is, if the reserve pilot chute is pulling significantly harder than the cutaway main (for whatever reason), the loop of reserve bridle that is "trapped" in the trap line cinch will pull itself out (because the cinch is loose enough) and the two will separate. Seems reasonable but hard to know without really seeing one in action up close.

Yep, others already got it, but the key is that your question was not written correctly. You say "a pilot chute doesn’t drag, after launch, until it reaches the end of the bridle." That's incorrect. What's more correct is that the pilot chute doesn't exert force on whatever is on the other end of the bridle until the bridle is taught. The pilot chute itself still experiences drag, just like any non-zero-volume object will in an airstream. EDITED TO ADD: the drag, of course, will be far less than when it reaches the end of the bridle, because the bridle helps form the shape of the PC into one that produces additional drag. But as another poster said, throw an unformed napkin into the wind and it still has drag. So the answer is that the spring gets the pilot chute into the air stream (by exerting a downward force against the rig/jumper, causing an equal and opposite upward force on the pilot chute), and then the residual energy from that force + the drag in the airstream continues to push the pilot chute upward (relative to the jumper). Acceleration due to gravity is identical for the jumper/rig and the pilot chute.

100% right about where the pull force comes from, but the pin orientation actually does discuss this, calling the loop of webbing the "retainer tab": Personally, I route my bridle out the bottom and back down (as in the "prevent bridle piercing" videos, etc.). I do "happy pin" and make sure the retainer tab, or bridle attachment, or whatever you want to call it, is on the top of the eye (i.e., the "top of the smile" as you say)--because this is the way that makes it easier to see the bridle window (something that BASE jumpers needn't worry about, as they generally (or maybe always?) do not have collapsible PCs).

I've also found BASE jumpers an interesting resource on topics like this, as they tend to be (rightfully so) far more concerned with having a pin that's secure but will open exactly when you want it to (with much less extraction force on sub-terminal jumps). Here's a couple interesting posts I found about pin orientation and pin locks. I'm sure there are other/better articles, but I found these educational. http://www.watchthybridle.com/2014/02/pin-orientation/ http://www.watchthybridle.com/2013/10/pin-locks-in-detail/ Edited to add: As others have mentioned, this is much less of an issue in skydiving, where at terminal velocity it's incredibly unlikely that your PC won't be able to extract the pin (unless something abnormal is preventing it from doing so). Even so, still interesting to see how it all works. I'd rather know too much about my gear than too little...

This is probably something you want the rig manufacturer to do, not just any old rigger. Most of them will adjust pieces of the harness for you. Cost seems to generally be around $300 -- call the folks that made the rig and ask them!

Hi all, I'm starting to get into swooping (or maybe you say it's not really "swooping" if I'm still just doing 90s -- that's fine). Right now I'm flying a safire 2 149 loaded a touch under 1.3. I've been working on double front to FR 90s, nice slow carve, working it so that i plane out with as little input as possible, etc. I'll soon be jumping a safire2 139 (w/l ~1.35) for a while while I wait for some new gear to arrive, then will be on a safire 2 129 (w/l ~1.45), with plans after that to go over to xfire 2 129 (w/l ~1.45), then 119 (w/l ~1.55), then 109 (w/l ~1.7). Please assume for the sake of this post that I'll take all the time necessary at each step (including all of the canopy control checklists, etc.) before downsizing, because (a) I will; and (b) that's not the point of this post. My question is this: at what point does it make sense for me to start working on turns greater than 90s? I know that a big part of this answer is "when I'm ready" -- so yes, I'll be working with other experienced canopy pilots who I trust, including canopy coaches, to make sure that I'm ready. What I'm asking here is more about what canopy and what wingloading should I be on before I start working on bigger turns? Thanks!

Although our DZ puts AFF out after Free fliers, we still use enough time delay between exits to ensure longitudinal, or horizontal, separation along the jumprun line. Even though the student pulls as high as 5,500', the instructors may open as low as 2500' (2000' just a year or so ago). Also, more than one skydiver has had a premature opening. I saw one at 7000' last summer on a freefly jump. You can take vertical differences into account when arranging exit order, but if you're using only vertical separation, you're rolling the dice every time.

No need to disconnect the main from the container. You will probably want to take it out of the dbag and instead stuff it in a pillowcase or other permeable container (i.e. not a plastic trash bag). Dry silica packs are probably not a bad idea but if it was me I would not let them be in direct contact with the canopy, just in case. Your reserve is meant to stay packed for a long time. There's no issue with simply leaving it as is. Just send the container to your rigger to do the inspection and repack (hence the name I&R) -- he knows what to look for when inspecting the canopy far better than you do.

Yes, belly groups (biggest to smallest) should get out before freefly groups (biggest to smallest). But this only applies to folks who are pulling at reasonable altitudes. When you have an AFF student who is pulling at 5k ft or higher, that AFF group should exit after freefliers -- this is no longer about horizontal separation (which is the reason belly fliers go before freefliers, taking into account the greater freefall drift of belly fliers), but about vertical separation, which will be a serious issue if a jumper pulling at 3.5k exits right after an AFF pulling at 5k+.

I won't take credit for the idea since there's already an article posted about it, but wanted to start the discussion. Should skydiving rig manufacturers be looking at this design for potential use in skydiving applications? I don't know enough to give a solid answer, but my thoughts are: Pros: more efficient, more stable, etc. can't be a bad thing Cons: unnecessary cost I assume the reason this is targeted to BASE and not skydiving is that in skydiving--i.e., at terminal and where a small bit of altitude generally won't make a serious difference (unlike in BASE, or at least some BASE)--your regular old "2D" pc is going to work just fine. That said, interested to hear folks' thoughts. Is this something the skydiving manufacturers should be using? Squirrel says they have open-sourced the design (in the form of downloadable 2D patterns to print/plot and sew), so it would seem the only additional cost would be materials and labor, not R&D.