rohicks

Don't regurgitate, learn why they're saying it. You should understand how your equipment works at a deeper level than "don't do it because I said so." If he specifically stated "holding area" then you're generally below 2000 feet, an altitude where you should stop doing extreme maneuvers. There's another 5000 feet above that to play around in if you're doing a hop & pop from that high up. Again, understand what they're telling you. You're making bad assumptions here. Just because I'm regurgitating advice from my instructors on a forum doesn't mean I don't understand my equipment.

Yes that's clearly what I said in my reply. I have no idea how far it was out, but I do know for a fact it wasn't much.

I don't think you should assume that, but yes she told him to not do that. As well as the other instructor teaching the course agreed with her. I'm sure there was more than one reason attached to it, but for me to speak to that for them other than what I heard is not appropriate. Considering that he was spiraling after we had completed all of our canopy skills required on that jump to kill altitude. I'm sure he was doing it lower than the S&TA would of liked. I've always stayed away from spiraling because of the fear of firing off my AAD as a student. It was even taught in our ground course to not do it while citing the reason for a possible AAD fire when set to student status. Just doing what I'm told and recommend to do. That's why I said in my original reply for the OG poster to talk to their instructor about that before they take some random advice.

Fair enough. It wasn't all the way out. I think what you are picturing and what I said may have been over-dramatized, and I did discuss it with an instructor was no big deal. It was pulled out an inch or two maybe not even that far. I do know i grabbed on it as if I was deploying, but was clearly wrong so tucked it back in whether or not anything came out.

While caution is always to be encouraged, this is a bit much. There is no problem with investigating your canopy's performance envelope provided you receive a proper briefing from someone qualified to do so. This doesn't require a canopy course (though they're awesome and everyone should take them all the time). There is also nothing wrong with spiraling nor stalling given sufficient altitude and airspace. Your AAD is not going to fire at 3000 feet. The problem with newer jumpers spiraling down, besides maybe not doing the most perfect job clearing their airspace, is that it puts them in the pattern with experienced jumpers at a higher wing loading and congests the pattern. It's advisable to do all of this kind of canopy work on hop & pops to avoid this. I disagree; this is actually advice i'm regurgitating from my instructors. Even during the canopy course I took 2 weeks ago our S&TA told one of fellow students to not spiral while in the holding area because of exactly what I previously just said. And we were doing 8k hop n pops. I agree there is no problem in investigating your canopy skills like: brake turns, flares, 90 - 180 - 360 turns, rear riser flares, front riser turns, but to spiral... no. I'd ask your instructor I can forsee what their advice would be on spiraling. Report back and let us know.

I'd really like to hear from a couple of instructors on this? Something tells me, it was a bad idea but I can't really sensible alternatives. Otherwise I think there is alot of good advice in your post. Especially get used to one piece of equipment at a time. That was advice from my instructors on using both. They wanted me to slowly get weened into using a digital because that's what I had bought and wanted to use. Using my analog in free fall only glancing at my VISO sometimes, and using my VISO under canopy. Once I got used to it they wanted me to go and use my VISO only. I think it worked out great for me. I'm glad I did it that way.

You had a cutaway on your 13th jump?! That's messed up man I hope you're not superstitious No i'm all good. Although i didn't jump the rest of the day mainly due to it killing my budget. I came back the next day and did a 5,500 hop n pop ;)

I was always told to do that through my AFF progression, but never did. The last 10 jumps or so I've been doing it; looking over my shoulder to check during deployment. The Australian Parachute Federation teaches to do a cutaway and then reserve deployment. http://youtu.be/iBNf-HsD3Ms?t=1m29s I'm fairly certain I was taught by my instructors to cutaway and then deploy reserve during my AFF. As a student when I was going through my AFF, without much knowledge and experience on malfunctions, the only thing that ran through my head was to cutaway and pull my reserve on a malfunction that I could not clear or a canopy that I was not comfortable landing. This thread raises a good point that I've never though about. Whether or not to cutaway during a PC in tow. I'll keep my eye on it for opinions, and possibly discuss it with some of my instructors at the DZ.

Not an instructor, but these are my thoughts. Don't be afraid of it! It's a student canopy, it can probably take anything you could possibly think of doing with it. I tried everything I could think of with mine when I was up high. Check your airspace, then pull down hard with one side, as hard as you can, and do 5 or 6 spirals. Feel what happens to your body when you spin hard for so long. Try pulling out of spins by letting up on that toggle, and then try getting out next time by pulling hard on the other toggle. Pull your rear risers as hard as you can and feel it flatten the glide. Pull your fronts, if you can, they're fricking hard to move on large canopies. Try going to half brakes with both toggles and turning by pulling one toggle down even further. Then do the same with both toggles starting at 75% brakes. Feel the difference in the turns? Pull down both toggles as hard as you can and try to stall it. My understanding is that student canopies generally cannot be stalled with normal pulls, and mine couldn't. I had to wrap the steering lines around my hands to get enough pull to stall. Feel how slow and quiet the canopy becomes when both arms are pulled down as far as they can possibly go without dislocating your shoulders. It's pretty cool. You're up high, so even if you did manage to screw something up, you'll get to experience your first reserve ride. My own first canopy has just arrived and very soon I'll be trying all of these things on it for the first time to learn how it flies. (Beer!) Please don't do that stuff without taking a canopy course first to have the proper instruction to stall your canopy and recover it. Especially don't attempt the spirals when your AAD is set on student, you are still learning how to set up proper landing patterns, and look out for traffic. I foresee bad things happening... Ask your instructors do what they say. As for what my progression is/was after AFF recently; here is a list of things I did. 1. I did a coach jump right off of AFF practiced docking and tracking - http://youtu.be/w0z8ZPIiRzQ - I didn't feel comfortable exiting alone with just me and the sky so the coach jump was a good way to transition into being on my own. 2. I did a couple full altitude jumps where I just fell belly to earth. Checking altitude and enjoying the view. Getting comfy being one with the sky. 3. I did my 5,500 and 3,500 hop n pop in the same day. 4. I bought a full face helmet and did a few more full altitude jumps to get used to using one. 5. I did another coach jump practicing docking, tracking, swooping, free fall rate adjustment, and spotting. 6. I did a couple full altitude jumps with my new VISO 2 digital altimeter with my analog altimeter in front of it so that I could slowly ween myself into my digital VISO altimeter. The very first time I jumped with my VISO and my analog together i looked at my digital the first time in free fall and I mis read it at 9,000ft. I thought it said 3,000 so I started to deploy. I checked my analog right before I pulled it all the way out and realized I was wrong and tucked the PC back in the BOC. After a few jumps of using both i felt comfortable reading my VISO and I started using my VISO solely. My point is always get used to one new piece of equipment first by doing a few jumps with it before adding something else new. During these jumps I practiced tracking on a heading towards the airport and off jump run. 7. I did another coach jump practicing exactly what i did for #5 - http://youtu.be/y-_5z-unfsY 8. Since that last coach jump on #7 I've pretty much done all hop n pops from 5,500 ft to work on accuracy. to which I'm still struggling with. Make every jump an accuracy jump! In between all of this I had line twists on jump #13 with a toggle fire that sent me into a spin. That was my first cutaway jump. ALWAYS practice your EPs! I also have had 25 minutes of tunnel time throughout these jumps. I've also practiced exiting numerous different ways on each jump. Flips, backwards, superman/bomb out/dive out exits, poised exits, etc. I also took a packing course, and then just took a canopy course 2 weeks ago. Hopefully that gives you a few ideas to do while progressing up to your A.

I met Jarrett when I was going through my AFF a few months ago at Palatka (I doubt he would remember meeting me). He was in a wheel chair and I asked him if it was appropriate to ask why he was in it. He said no problem told me his story and I was really inspired by what he was telling me and how he's still skydiving. He's very positive about life and seems like a good guy. I was surprised how he's younger than I am and has done a lot in this sport. Good to see some video of him as I haven't seen him since the day I talked to him nor have I seen him jump.

I did the same thing. Been using mine since I got off AFF and love it! So comfy and can see anything around you with no obstruction. The lifting of the visor under canopy is no big deal and takes half a second to do. I do it with toggles in hand after i do a canopy control check and look for traffic. I say get one you won't regret it (unless you want to do video work later on maybe) ;) Can't do camera work with a G3? I ... I didn't know that. It doesn't matter right now, I'm so far from that point that it doesn't affect me. I'll wait for the Air C6 to come out (apparently some time next week or so) and then make a decision between the two. And of course the biggest dilemma when it comes to buying new gear, making the decision of what color to get seems to always be the hardest haha. Can't pick between black, red, and maybe white. Thanks for your input considering we're pretty much on the same level. :) Unfortunately it was not designed for (serious) camera work, but people do use go pros on it. I have a few coaches/instructors at my DZ that use their GoPro on their g3. That's all the advice I can give to you because frankly I don't have an advice based on experience with camera and skydiving; only what I've researched. See this post. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4469710

oh I dunno....

Apples are not oranges. They are not plums either. When comparing them and expect identical results. No way! Sheesh that clears up a lot of life problems. Thanks homeslice.

Funny i posted this same question early in my AFF and received a bunch of sarcastic replies like google it.

I did the same thing. Been using mine since I got off AFF and love it! So comfy and can see anything around you with no obstruction. The lifting of the visor under canopy is no big deal and takes half a second to do. I do it with toggles in hand after i do a canopy control check and look for traffic. I say get one you won't regret it (unless you want to do video work later on maybe) ;)

Hey OP don't worry, luckily not everyone is like this guy. Welcome to the sport, ask a lot of questions, do a lot of thinking and just take it all in! ^ditto. You'll learn really fast that the forums here have a lot of assholes. Just relax and listen to your instructors. Good luck!

When California breaks off and falls into the Pacific Ocean, they will blame it on Bush. haha probably.

The blame will get put on Bush.

I had my first reserve ride this past saturday on my 13th jump. I broke off at 5,000 ft. from my coach, deployed at 4,000 ft., had a number of line twists and kicked out of two of them, mid way through the 3rd kick I had a brake fire and the canopy began spinning and diving right. I immediately decided I wasn't comfortable fighting this anymore and cut away. I had a reserve above my head by 2,800-3,000 ft. I stood the landing up, and landed in the student area. I think this was a packing error because I'm 90% certain my body position was stable and neutral on deployment. They recovered the main with one brake stowed, one undone, and all the lines twisted. It's odd because the week before this jump i was reviewing my hard deck, and EPs everyday with the recent talk about this thread and the few incidents that have been posted. I was reviewing what I would do if in that situation and it payed off. I didn't hesitate and I wasn't even nervous. The reserve ride had me more nervous than the malfunction and the cut away. I was taught in AFF anything at or below 1,000 ft. to go straight to reserve, and to get as much fabric above your head and to not cut away. 2,500ft. is my decision altitude (meaning my hard deck). At 2,500ft., if in a malfunction that i can not recover from, that is when I will make the decision to cut away and go for my reserve. If I don't have a main canopy that I can safely land or control. I'm still very new to this sport, and while I already have a cut away logged. I will always stick to what my instructors told me in AFF. It's the safest way to go IMO. Certainly a good topic to always keep in your mind when headed to the DZ, and thanks to Dave for bringing it up because it literally helped save my life last weekend. One thing that I do know by speaking of experience from having to cut away is that no matter what be altitude aware. I noticed how preoccupied I was with the malfunction that I didn't bother to check my altitude when I began to dive and spin. I just cut away not knowing what my cut away altitude was. Although I was aware that I deployed high enough to handle it. It certainly was a mistake I don't plan on making again if ever in that situation now that I know what it feels like.

Maurix we both are pretty much at the same skill level right now. I have two jumps on video with a little bit of tracking. Mine are not excellent, but I don't think they are terrible. You can check them out. Not sure if you'll learn anything from them though. This was my first time tracking away from someone. It's near the end before deployment. http://youtu.be/w0z8ZPIiRzQ This was last weekend. I did some tracking away (which was decent), and was supposed to come back. However, our break off altitude came around to fast to track back to my coach. So I tried to break away, and pretty much tracked in a circle lol. http://youtu.be/y-_5z-unfsY Good luck. I'm still learning as well. Don't be so hard on yourself especially with minimal time in the sky. More jumps is all we need.

http://youtu.be/GHqLxhmfnmY

Thanks. Congrats on figuring out your problem. Sounds like we were very similar during our course. Good luck on the rest of your jumps!

Good luck! You'll have fun, and I'm sure you'll do just fine. If you check out my you tube channel i have a few other AFF videos you can look at. http://www.youtube.com/user/rohicks

I agree. It gave me more confidence from being able to relax.

Probably because you clicked on it. And then CHOSE to read it. I was told there would be free food served here. I was dooped...Most will learn that everything does not need to be logged ... Probably should take your own advice. If it's so annoying to you then why even bother waisting the time to comment? &_& I was excited it's been a long time goal of mine to finally complete it since I started it back in 2006.