Ruffles

Yeah, thats a 2. I just got rid of one, so it looks familiar.

I second what Supergeil said, I went through the same research and came to the same conclusions. I'm over-joyed with the G3 and you can get it with all the goodies for the price of a plain G4, I believe.

When the skyhook first came out, I asked Bill Booth about getting it on other rigs. He said that the problem isn't so much the lawsuits, but that the phases go something like this: First, otherc ompanies will pooh-pooh it saying it doesn't work. Second, they will try to circumvent the patent and copy it in their own rig Third, they will finally approach Booth about licensing it out and then there's tons of legal mumbo jumbo. Bill said that this process will take a few years. I may get a vector if this true.

As long as he jumps the same size canopy and doesn't gain/lose weight, his loading will be the same. Lots of jumpers, as they they progress (and sometimes a little too quickly) buy a new smaller size canopy so they can get more speed and maneuverability out of their parachute ride. This increases their wind loading, thus they are "loading" their canopy higher. Its like giving your 16 y/o son his first new car. It starts out a VW bug, but then after a while he wants to drive a Mustang. One of the big controversies in skydiving right now is just how much driving experience do you need to safely drive the Mustang. Lots of people have been crashing and dying lately, so the wing loading thing is a hot topic.

I'm a FNG as well, but those are my cutaway procedures (Grab both and pull one at a time) for those very reasons. Drawback is, when you are spazzing, you may dislodge silver before red, and that's no good from what they tell me. I also know other people who use the same method. No one has ever gotten on my shit about it. I think either one is acceptable. Glad you're OK brother. BTW- Better you cut that thing away than struggling with it all the way to the ground. With that whole adrenalin thing going, you might have never figured out what was wrong. Things could have ended much worse.

OK, thanks hook.

I have a G3 with the big three-ring (not mini's) with the wider (2 inch I think) risers. I always thought that Mirage's came standard with reinforced risers. One of my mentors was looking at my rig and noticed I don't have them (additional stitching on the smallest three ring assembly). I am 240lbs w/gear and being as "husky" as I am, I am a little concerned about tearing on opening. What do you guys think about this, do I need to send my rig back to Mirage?

I see your reasoning, but look at it like rolling the dice (which is pretty much what we do). You have one die which has 333 sides to it and every time you roll it and its comes up #1, you get a malfunction. Now, those odds are slim, but if you roll that die three times a week for 5 years, sooner of later, its going to come up #1 and you're eventually going to have a mal. However, now you roll another die (pull the reserve)that has 750 sides on it. If that die comes up #1 you get a reserve mal. The odds of rolling the two separate dice above and having them both come up #1 on the same jump/roll is 250,000 to one. This of course excludes packing errors, deployment errors, etc and goes by chance alone. I'm no math geek either but I took statistics and, being paranoid as I am, I think about this shit alot. If you were only jumping your reserve chute on every jump with no main in your container, then your odds would be 1:750. All right, I'm even starting to annoy myself. I'm out. P.S.- Diverdriver can probably explain this better than I can. He's an airline pilot and he knows more about systems redundancy than I do. .

Good question, one that I myself asked when I got into this sport. Go to www.skydivingfatalities.info and do a query search for double-malfunction (DMAL). You will see all that occurred in the last 8 years. Most of them are not the scenario you depicted when everything was done perfectly and the thing still didn't open. There's stuff like someone tumbling away from a spinner and having the pilot/free bag wrap around their leg, etc. Double mals are ceratinly possible, but mains malfunction at like 1:333 and reserves at like (correct me if I'm wrong) 1:750 so statistically thats 333 X 750 = a one in 250,000 chance of a D-mal based on odds alone. Practice those procedures brother and the odds are probably less than than that. .

Thanks Quade.

Do you think its OK to start CRW with a Silhouette 210 main and 70 jumps? Unfortunately no one (except for the leap frogs) does CRW or knows much about it at my DZ, so I guess I will be flying to a camp somewhere. Does my expereince level and equipment sound OK to you guys to start this thing? I was also wondering if there is a particular type of CRW skill (like bumping end cells) that I can start to learn without wrapping being such a danger. Thanks. .

Jeepers... He really said that? I would have at least made something up that sounded better than that. /

I looked at my RSL just now and I traced it from pin link to risers and it is NOT velcro'd to anything at all (Mirage). Assuming it were, I have a hard time believing that a fully inflated or even partially inflated main canopy being cutwaway will not pull hard enough to separate a few inches of velcro. I'm not seeing how this changes things. ..

Many have said that you should disconnect the RSL before cutting away a down plane. The RSL is connected to the main canopy risers. When you cut away the main, the RSL will just pull a pin that is already out, right? SO why is there a need to disconnect it? BillVon?

I have one, and jump it connected, because I haven't had a cutaway yet. I wonder how many of those no-reserve-pull fatalities were "sure they could pull both handles". I also notice (skydivingfatalities.com) that there are like 35-40 of those no-pull fatals in the last 10 years compared with 2 RSL-related fatals... Interesting. Blue ones to those of you that jump without them (HPC, CRWs, cameras), but don't say I'm lame for using one; it may save my ass one day. (

At jump 35. Why = because the student rental rigs at my DZ kinda suck w/ bridal protection, flaps coming open, and are uncomfortable as hell. I knew I was hooked hardcore on jumping and I figured I can buy cheaper fishing poles, cars, paintball guns, etc., but this is my ass and I want nothing but the best protecting it. .

First, what they said: talk to your instructors as to the brand and style to buy, but you can roughly calculate the size. You weigh 135lb + 25lb of gear = 160lbs. You therefore need at least a 150 sq ft chute, preferrably non-elliptical since you have 25 jumps. They make "semi-elliptical" canopies that are almost as much fun, but don't kick your ass as much when you screw up like a fully elliptical will. We always say "talk to your instructors first" because every new diver has different abilities. They know your abilities better than we do, so they can advise you more wisely. P.S. I wouldn't buy my first chute brand new from the manufacturer because you will likely end up selling it in the next 2-3 years and will get back 2/3 of what you paid for it new. Just my $0.02. ..

Guys, no mail, not good, please help.

I evaluated a poll I did a couple months ago which (roughly) categorized the frequency of various malfunctions. While spinning mals led the batch by far, most of these are on ellipticals (which I don't jump{yet}). The runner up was line-overs. Seeing how statistically this is the most likely malfunction I am going to get on my canopy, I wondered what experiences you all have had with them. 2 areas in particular (1) Since the caonpy is generally partially opened, does it spin you, are you generally stood up, do you find that you don't burn altitude as bad while reaching for the handles, etc. What's it like? (2) Packing errors are generally what cause these. When I pack, I do a fine job of ensuring line group separation and that whole bit, but when lying the wrapped up canopy down on the floor and the following s-folding, they can get screwed up. How can you tell if you've messed up the line groups all over again? They are all concealed in the wrap. This uncertainty unnerves me a bit. Tips, Suggestions, comments? .

Whats a troll? .

Thats a damn good idea ixl, glad I thought of it :)). Yeah, I'll get some vids (2-3) next week and see whats up. Thx man.

Well, it happened 2X on two separate pack jobs by two different people on my old vector and its happened once on my mirage. I can lift the bag out of the container w/ no problem. Sounds like a your basic PC hesitation, but being a new diver, my time perception is kinda altered at deployment, and therefore, what seems like a 3 second delay may be a 1 second delay. I dunno. I just don't see how this is happening w/ 100% brand new equipment (including the ZP PC). My rigger said all looked well. Seeing as it happened on two completely different rigs and on three different people's pack jobs and on new equipment, I must assume that I need to start throwing harder. The problem must lie with me. Too many variables. Worse comes to worst, there is that little red thing and that little silver thing somebody was telling me about. In that case, I'll be getting a full equipment overhaul by a Mirage rigger. Thanks for the input gang. ..

yeah , I meant deploy from a belly jump, not free-flying or anything. Thanks for your support Quickdraw. My gear is all brand new so wear is not really part of the equation yet, the killline is calibrated properly, the bridle is the length specified by Mirage, and I see plenty of blue when I cock my chute. Looks like I'm either gonna have a cutaway and I'll let you guys know how it went..... or you'll never hear fom me again.... whichever... (JK). I'll have my rigger take another look at the thing this weekend. Maybe i just need to start throwing harder. blue ones ..

Well, my PC is definately cocked and is not any where near worn because I just bought it like 3 months ago. Weird thing is that this used to happen on my old rig as well. If my next post is "Had my first cutaway from a PC in tow", I guess you were right.

I have just recently began doing my own packing, but this happened to me twice before when two different other people were packing for me. Check this out: Belly-style throw out deployment, I wait for about 3 seconds (2 seconds longer than it usually takes to get pulled vertical) and then I feel a tug on my back, then another 1-2 second delay, then I get the usual full-on vertical deceleration. This has happened 3 times now in 65 jumps on a Mirage G3 and a Vector II. Once it took so long my hand went for the red handle subconsciously. What the hell is this? If its a P.C. hesitation, why am I getting that weird tug? This happen to any of you guys? ..