sammielu

Ask the manufacturer. Manufacturers each have different methods of measurement and you can look them up on their websites. A quick email or phone call and they can look up the rig measurements by serial number, compare it to your own (just make sure you have someone measure you who knows how to do so, follow that manufacturer's method, and measure everything 3x to throw out anomalies). I personally would trust the manufacturers specs over a sellers list of measurements, but that's just me. Based on your measurement list, everything looks pretty close... as long as you both were properly measured and use the same type of torso measurement.

wolfriverjoe: can you recreate the 3-ring thing you saw to post a picture? I know you know what you mean, but I'm confused. Maybe you mean an inverted 3 ring and use different language than I would to describe it. I know what a flip through is on a canopy but haven't seen that term apply to 3 ring assembly... Dual Hawk 3D rings can jam up when on the ground (no tension in the system), where they're locked up in a 45-degree angle and won't lay flat, I'd be curious to see that on a sport rig with circular 3 rings.

I meant: if a 220 is too fast for you right now, go back to the 260, then maybe try a 240 before the 220.

If you're going to offer a discount or groupon, be sure it's something you can afford. A dz near me offers group discounts (some thing like 5-7% off for groups of 7 or more, more discounts for the bigger groups). The local groupon is $20 off a weekday tandem, guess when there is the most capacity that discounts can help fill... weekdays. Try to link up with touristy things around town and co-promote their attractions and post each other's brochures. Most tandems only do one, just like most tourists only visit xyz attraction once.

As a student, you should talk to your instructors about this and any question, they know you, your experience, equipment and dz specifics. If you did well on a 260 and not so well 40 square feet smaller (and faster), there's no reason to be on that 220. Go back to that 260 and really dial it in including different wind conditions and downwind and crosswind landings. Then maybe try a 25p if available, either way: talk to instructors and get specific feedback for you, not general Internet feedback.

Congratulations! Now you know how you handle emergencies! Keep all that in mind when you consider making changes to your pull altitude or when it's been a while since your last jump.

Good call. Bottom line is there is no guarantee that a skydive will not hurt someone. Your doctor can help you evaluate the risk and potential injury due to your previous injuries, but there is no way to know for sure. Some people are bendy and more likely to roll with the punches so to speak, some people break bones, sprain ankles, or throw their back out doing everyday activities.

^^all that stuff. Also: 100 jumps per year is a good minimum number to maintain skills. Jumping less you will be remembering everything each time, not using it or building on it. Its common to do just a couple jumps to stay current in the winter and focus your jump time to the rest of the year, though we do get those cold clear days in winter and you can layer up and jump. Eloy Christmas Boogie is a lot of fun, though it's cold down there too at least they get sun and skydives. Last year I counted 21 of us from all around WA, you should come!

I've seen 3 spinning line twist malfunctions resulting in cutaways from improper toggle stowing, 2 from messed up bights/line stows and one from a combination of those and improper riser/flap order (just last week). Uneven risers and looking up (no one looks or reaches up symmetrically) to watch the canopy open is a common one too (watch for that in malfunction videos). Yesterday I landed a flip through and did some reeducation with packers. Riggers and instructors can help you understand what causes a problem and show you how to prevent it.

Talk to your doctor. Ask if it would be ok for you to jump from 3-4 feet and land on your butt with your feet straight out and all your weight on your tailbone/spine. Instructors do our absolute best to land sofly and keep passengers comfortable through all parts of the skydive. Some instructors and landing circumstances are better than others and there's no way for you to know in advance. There is no guarantee or insurance in skydiving, it is not "safe", it is not for everyone. When you check in to skydive you'll sign a very long waiver that explains all thus in legalese - the choice to skydive is yours and you are the only one responsible for how it goes, whether you are uncomfortable, injured, or not. Instructors and business are not responsible (legally) for keeping you safe, you make the choice before you skydive. It sounds harsh, I know, but we're dealing with real risk for real bodies here, accept it or dont do it. You might be fine, you might hurt yourself a lot, no one on the Internet can honestly tell you otherwise.

Verify your packing techniques with a rigger. Improperly stowing toggles, line bights, and routing risers (different rig manufacturers recommend them stowed under flaps differently!) all can cause off heading openings and line twists and I've seen them result in reserve rides.

Plenty of people repeat student jumps, 2 repeats and you're doing great. 19 repeats with the same problem is the max I've seen before they finally went to the tunnel to get the quick-feedback and repeated attempts that the tunnel gives us. Look on the bright side here: what's next for you? More skydives! Yay skydives! That can be "what's next" for as long as you want it to be, it is for me... more more more!

5-sec delay on a static line progression: flipped into a fast backflip off the strut, completed 1 1/2 rotations before deployment, flipped cleanly through his risers and landed a complete flip through noting that he had a hard opening (because he was upside down) and that the risers were twisted. Static line hanging exit with practice pull: went into full freak out "there's a bee" waving hands all around and kicking feet when let go of the strut. The non-awareness of their crazy legs makes me smile, especially when they don't think they can do the splits until they see the video (it's common)... it takes s lot of skill to stay stable while your legs are performing an artistic routine behind you! The ones that really amaze me are the licensed jumpers who forget how to exit a 182 stable. I've seen plenty dive toward the tail and throw their pc at or through their feet, and then of course they complain about hard openings :) oh well. We all start somewhere!

FWIW - before you take shortcuts from someone (or the internet), be sure you know what you're doing. When I was struggling to learn to pack other jumpers were constantly showing me "shortcuts". Fortunately (or unfortunately) I date a very experienced rigger with 15 years more experience than I have who still manages to catch me whenever I struggle or try something new wit packing. He always asks the same type of question, "how do you know...." -the top skin of your canopy isn't going to rip off? -that rubber band isn't going to break and cause an out of sequence deployment? -the slider is still up and quartered? -lines are still in the middle? Whatever I was doing, I undid and went back to the original way I was taught without trying to change/cheat/simplify. It's hard to learn to pack any method, but it's way harder to learn several ways at once. Pick one and always do it that way. Ask any experienced packer which side of the canopy they pack from and if they can switch :) :) :) And if you want a boost in self confidence, look in on a packing class to sympathize with the first timers. They are definitely having a harder time than you are now; it might make you feel a bit better about the parts you do know! Also- know the way you learn. I learn by taking notes, so in addition to tons of practice, I sat in on additional packing classes just to take notes, watch, visualize the parts I knew, and ask questions.

Pick one person to learn from and go with what they say and bring your questions to them. Everyone has different things they emphasize due to individual experience; if you get different advice or methods often you'll get confused and ultimately not learn much. Pick one and stick with it, then practice practice. Most packers, riggers, and experienced folks will give you their time (during a slow time, rainy day, or day off) for $20, dinner, or beer. Choose someone, ask them when works and what they want (if they say no to cash, bring them a pizza and a 6 pack to share after you're done learning/asking questions).

"a solution to deal with the injury you have" is a question for your doctor. If your doc says wearing a brace will help prevent injury if you jump from 3-4' high and land on your broken parts (after you heal, obviously), then discuss that brace specifically with your instructors to see if they are ok with that. Braces limit motion in the sky; a problem for passing jumps and controlling your body parts in the sky. Braces redistribute load upon impact and may contribute to injury in certain circumstances - that's the question for your doctor. Personally, I don't take students who think they need to wear braces. If you're that scared you might hurt yourself, you shouldn't jump. Other instructors may take you on, but not me. Get your fitness/PT level up to where you don't need the brace, then jump.

I'm pretty sure the easiest way to relieve pressure on the knee is to bend it. :) Good on you for wanting to consult your doctor, ultimately the doc knows what's up with your body and you can discuss risks of injury and how to mitigate them. It may be helpful to explain the expected impact from landing as similar to jumping off a height of 4-5' and PLFing to distribute impact over your whole body. Doctors don't always understand skydiving stuff. Best of luck!

Butt landings put most of the impact on your pelvis and back. No good for you. Keep working with your instructors on landing techniques and stay on big slow canopies. Packing gets easier over time, but it never gets easy. Your body adjusts to the wierd body positions and particular muscles used, and each person has to determine what works for them. Packing courses include a lot of sweat and frustration! Unfortunately, bigger canopies can certainly be more difficult to pack. I recommend patience and practice and going slow. Also giving yourself the luxury of a paid pack job now and then can be a really nice treat if it's hot out or you're tired or a cool jump opportunity comes up. Gear choices can make packing somewhat easier in the future: brand new canopies are harder to pack and cramming the biggest size canopy that a container can fit is more difficult. When you look at gear, welcome the 800+ jump mains and the containers that can't go down any smaller, easier to pack both. Befriend a rigger to help with this stuff, they might have packing pointers too!

With 2 years since your last jump, even if you had an A B C or D license you would be doing review with an instructor and at least one jump under instructor supervision. If you held any instructor rating you'd need to take that course and do the jumps again. You're getting off easy.

Learn to PLF is the short answer. PLFs save skydivers from injuries. Conveniently, the ready yo land/ready to PLF position is also a position where you can take a step or two when you have a soft landing with proper flare technique. To get there: explain the following to your doctor and wait until you are medically cleared to jump and you've discussed risks of landing errors and banging things around. If you have rods in your body, they won't give/bend like the soft tissue and there can be risks of worse damage. Once you're ok to start practicing, get with an instructor to coach you on PLF technique. Practice a lot. Practice until you are comfortable PLFing in each direction from 3-4' off the ground, until you can do it without injury and without hurting yourself. Practice until the practice doesent hurt snd you've toughened yourself up enough that you know you will PLF correctly and avoid injury the next time you try to battle physics on landing. Physics will always win and all aspects of skydiving take lots of practice to learn... you will screw up landings again. A lot. We all do over time. So practice PLFs all over the place to avoid injury, listen to your instructors, and take it slow. RE: braces, etc. They can immobilize ankles and wrists, both of which you need to be able to fly. They might save you a sprained ankle. They will not absorb enough force to prevent breaking bones if there is an impact.

Leg kicking or legs doing things you're not aware of is common when students are starting off. First: accept that what you think is yout neutral/relaxed position is actually a position where your legs are kicking or you're asymmetrical and turning, not a neutral (still, unmoving) position. You need to learn Neutral, you don't have it yet. Practice on the ground, a lot. Skydives and tunnel are expensive for even 60 seconds. Practice for 1 minute 10x per day for free on your floor. Instructors can help get you set up for how to practice. Knee taps and heel taps help you think of what your legs are doing. Also consider footwear. Big shoes catch a lot of air, exaggerating foot/leg motion. A $20 cheap pair of vans or chucks just for jumping might do you a lot of good :)

Talk to the rigger who will be packing the reserve into your new container, experienced riggers can explain why one size (or model like maybe a short or narrow or both) will fit your canopies and your body best. As far as packing the main, try it on someone else's rig before you spend money. Id let almost anyone practice something like that at the end of the day/weekend, if they paid a packer to pack my main in it when they were done horsing around. If it were me, I'd also request a beer so I could keep an eye on them while they're working with my rig. It would be easy: disconnect your canopy just like you're doing your monthly 3 ring maintenance,take off your pilot chute, pack it into their dbag and container. Your rigger can help you ID similar dbag sizes. Also, jumps hack has an excellent pack volume chart for almost every canopy.

Infinity, Javelin, or Vector.

Managing fear is a mental challenge. This is what I tell nervous students: You do not have to skydive. Once you're in the plane, you do not have to get out of the plane. No one is going to force you to go on a skydive. You can spend your money and go on a plane ride and not a single one of us will say anything bad to you about it. The thing is, through that door is fun, joy, smiles and pure beauty. You can go out there and play, if you want too. It's really, really fun out there, it's why we're here day after day and why we're waiting for the days when we can be here. I promise, it is fun out there. You don't have to go, but you can if you want. You already know what it feels like to choose not to jump. Go to a quiet place and consider how you feel about not jumping. Then consider how it would feel to jump, the joy, freedom, exhilaration, accomplishment and all those feelings you don't know what they even feel like yet. Picture yourself leaving the plane and going through the skydive. Picture yourself under canopy and coming in for a perfect landing. Picture it over and over until it's more familiar to you than this guilty/sheepish/disappointed feeling you're having now. Next time you're on the plane, review: you can stay in there and have the disappointment and apprehension again, or you can take a deep breath, push through those feelings, and get out the door. The rest comes with practice and listening to your instructors for what to practice. You've got this man. Come play with us.

So now new Vigils (2+ model) are the only new AAD on the market that has additional time and money expenses required after the initial purchase (pay rigger to uninstall, pay shipping to manufacturer for battery replacement. probably pay manufacturer for battery replacement, deal with rig without an AAD in the meantime, and reinstall AAD once returned). Good move Cypres. I bet the next move will be for Vigil to update their manual to recommend turning the unit off at the end of the day to conserve that battery life.