TracyS

Not at all. Since we were in a mood for pointing out what I missed, I thought it only appropriate to offer my humblest apologies. You were clearly correct that I should have noticed that the OP had 3200 jumps and that my post was therefore unnecessary, unlike your wisdom of pointing out that learning stalls is a necessary and valuable thing. Again, my humble apologies for not noticing that the OP was clearly not in need of my input. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Not at all. I started AFF at 49 years old as a present for my 50th birthday from my wife. I'm loving it. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

My apologies for not seeing that in the OP's info. I am clearly out of my league posting in the same thread as you. I would think the OP also knows they are necessary things to learn as you pointed out. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Yes, you do fully stall the canopy to the point of it collapsing. It is to teach you what it feels like, how to deal with it and at what point in your toggle or riser travel it will occur. It is also part of a canopy course. If you are going to try it on your own, please be sure to discuss it with your S&TA and instructors so that they can give you guidance on what to expect and how to do it properly. I am still too new at this to give you any other advice than that. Edited for spelling. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Andy, Glad to see you up and posting. See you at the Farm soon. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

To ALL that have been debating this topic. THANK YOU! As a 50 jump newbie, this has been one of the best threads I have read on this forum. It hasn't devolved into heated tirades with a bunch of useless, smartass shots at each other. I can see that I, personally, have been doing something in my housekeeping that I will change effective immediately. Prior to releasing my brakes, I have been collapsing my slider and stowing it AND loosening my chest strap. I will no longer be loosening my chest strap prior to releasing my brakes. I will save that step until after my brakes are released an am in full flight. Although not the actual topic of debate, I can't help but wonder if the cause of the malfunction was the act of pulling the slider down or not giving the task the attention it deserves. Just like driving a car and operating the turn signal, something we all do without even looking at it because we've done it thousands of times. Was this malfunction induced because the jumper had done it thousands of times and, as the video seems to show me, was not really focusing on it. He seems to not be looking at the slider and just reaching up and pulling it down, as he has done so many times before, and maybe he grabbed the toggle in addition to the slider. This is a task that is still new enough to me, that when I do it, I look at the toggle/grommet and watch it as I am doing it, so that I see what is happening. I collapse the slider and pull it down prior to releasing the brakes because I feel it is better to do it in slow flight than in full flight, but, like any other task, it must be given the attention that it deserves. As Popsjumper has said, it is a Big Boy task. It is not a necessary part of what we do, but something we choose to do as a part of our sport. Like any other activity, like practicing stalls or slow flight, has risks and benefits. Thanks again to everyone for the great debate on this topic. It has opened my eyes to a risk that I am going to change with regards to when I loosen my chest strap. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

I haven't been in the sport long enough to really answer the actual question that you asked but when I read it, I thought you must've meant slider. Someone is bound to jump in here soon and give you a far more intelligent answer than my generic "most, if not all" answer. But, seriously, if you already have your own rig, have you checked with your canopy manufacturer yet? Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Are you sure "risers" is what you're asking about, or is it "slider"? I would imagine that most, if not all, of the manufacturers make collapsible sliders. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Back before PIA 2013, I was talking with someone at Sunrise about my container. He told me then that it was, essentially, their version of a Skyhook. He also told me that it was already available, but that they has not announced its availability publicly. IIRC, they were waiting for PIA to announce it. IIRC, he said the price was somewhere around $250 to retrofit it to a container. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

GooniesKid, I'll take you up on that beer and buy you one in return!

Happy to be of amusement

Howdy Quagmirian Thanks for the feedback on my brake lines question. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Nor do I swing that way. You're not the first and you won't be the last to read my name and assume, female. Watching AFF's land...good fun, especially when they aren't listening to the instructor and do their own thing. Saw one this past weekend not listening to the instructor. He had her turned on downwind and told her to let it fly. Instead she immediately did a 180 and turned upwind. He's on the radio trying to get her to turn downwind and she's totally oblivious. Suddenly, about treetop level, she turns again heading downwind. Bunch of us watching her come in and listening to him on the radio just sat and cringed waiting to see her land. Thank goodness for her big ole floatie student rig. She walked away from it unhurt. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Wait a sec? Is this like a date thing where we buy each other a drink and dinner? Are you saying "yes" to a date? I could have a lot of fun with this at your expense but, in the spirit of our newfound sense of camaraderie, I won't. My guess would be that you are male and assuming, as have many others, that I am female, right? No one who has ever met me or heard my voice has ever made that mistake again. Can't tell you how many fights I used to get into as a kid over the whole girls name thing. Got to a point where every time I went to a new school, the first idiot to pop off with some comment about my girlie name would get nailed right between the running lights. Seems like that would put an end to that crap pretty quick. Finally, made peace with the girlie name and have had a lot of fun with it over the years. So, if a drink and dinner are still on yer mind big boy, I'm sure my wife wouldn't mind me having dinner out with a fellow skydiver. Be warned though, I don't put out on the first date, I'll make you work for it. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

GooniesKid, I'll take you up on that beer and buy you one in return!

Thanks for the suggestion, but a company only gets to ignor me once. After that, I decide to spend my money elsewhere. Fortunately my situation did not involve a problem, just a question. At this point I couldn't care less if I ever get it answered. I love the Altitrack and hope to have a nice long run of use with it. If it ever dies, I'll toss it in the trash and decide what to buy to replace it. I learned long ago that the customer ALWAYS has the last word. Any company can ignor you or not help you. But you get to decide whether to continue spending money with them or not. You also get to relate your experience, good or bad, to others. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

As for the rest of you who have responded to the OP so far, THANK YOU!!! I see a few names that have also responded to some of my questions with constructive input. We noobs really appreciate when you more experienced jumpers are willing to share your knowledge with us without trying to make us feel stupid. We are "young" jumpers ( not neccessarily "young" in age ). We are enthusiastic about this new activity that we are participating in. We're excited to immerse ourselves in skydiving and try new things and get our own gear. We're not unlike a little kid that sometimes gets ahead of themselves, forgetting that we need to crawl before we can walk or run. Again, thanks to all of you who have offered the OP constructive advice. You guys & gals are a valuable resource. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

And again, you offer nothing of value to the conversation. What's wrong with him wanting to buy his own gear. He's seeking advice so that he make a wise buying decision. Not a thing in the world wrong with wanting your own equipment. You get to begin jumping the same canopy repeatedly instead of bouncing around different student rigs and not knowing how it has been handled since you last jumped it. Your own gear, you get used to how IT flies and start to better refine your skills. You have no knowledge of whether the OP has read any books, seen any videos or not. You've yet to offer the OP any constructive advice on his question and simply want to sit back and withhold all that valuable info you have tucked away in that noggin of yours and deride him for being so stupid as to ask such a basic question. Do you just spend your time TROLLING around looking for noobs to jump on? Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Get over yourself. You offered NOTHING of value to the discussion and simply wanted to sit there and thump your chest as you look down your nose on some noob asking his stupid question. He never implied he was a Golden Boy or bullet proof. In fact he specifically gave information stating that he is a new skydiver and was asking for input as to whether buying this canopy would be S A F E. He obviously realized that it might be questionable and sought the input of more experienced jumpers. It's easy and proper to advise him to speak with his instructors who have seen him jump and fly his canopy, but why is this forum here if not, in part, for us stupid noobs to tap into the wealth of knowledge that more experienced jumpers have. Maybe you could try looking at the question in the context in which it was asked and then offering constructive advice or just staying out of the conversation alltogether. Or maybe it would be better if noobs like myself just asked other noobs our questions instead of bothering a big shot like you. Don't be so quick to bash us new skydivers who don't have the wealth of knowledge that you were apparently born with. We are trying to learn and part of that entails asking questions of those with more experience. We're enthusiastic, and excited to be doing something that you may take for granted because you have been doing it for sooooo long. Sometimes those questions are gonna be stupid, not to say that this question is. By the way, how long have YOU been jumping. You have no jump numbers listed. Only registered on 27 August 2012 and have, if I'm reading correctly, only 27 post. Looks like you're not much less of a noob than myself or the original poster. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

O U C H ! Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Years ago, before seatbelts were the law and people just didn't wear them, I hydroplaned a '73 Challenger through a red light at about 50MPH. I saw the light but couldn't stop. It was raining and the road was wet. Tried brakes and steering to avoid the cross traffic that had already started through the intersection. Cop saw the whole thing happen. Said he could see my wheels locking up and releasing, the fronts turning left and right as I tried to get traction. Just before slamming into the cross traffic and bending my car almost in half, I had a thought of crushing my jaw and teeth, or my throat into the steering wheel just as a friend had done and threw both arms up in front of my face and throat with the thought of braking both arms being preferable to a crushed throat or choking on blood and broken teeth. Hit a Datsun B210 first knocking and spinning it out of the way. Never felt that impact. Hit a box truck next almost flipping it as my car folded. When everything stopped, my car was kind of folded in half, the engine still running and I had to go out a window to get out. Worst injury was the lady driving the Datsun B210 had a broken collar bone. It all seemed to happen in slow motion but was over in just a few seconds. It was definitely one of those "this is gonna hurt" moments that when it was over and done with was not as bad as it could have been. It was back before we became as lawsuit happy as we are nowadays. I called the lady in the Datsun B210 and the truck driver multiple times, checking on them and updating them on my communications with the insurance company. I had to go to court and both the lady and the truck driver showed up and actually spoke to the judge on my behalf. I was 17 and was really touched by their gesture. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

popsjumper & Quagmirian, Yes, I agree. A good PLF position would have been appropriate. It's funny, the bad landing in this video was more reminiscent of the landings on that canopy prior to getting the brake lines adjusted. The difference being that in this bad landing, I knew immediately that I had started too late and was the cause of the bad landing. Before the brake ling adjustment my landings were just crap on this canopy and I thought I just needed to get accustomed to how this canopy lands. The good landing is basically the results I achieved once I took a wrap on the brake lines, testing it up high then on landing. Immediate improvement. Then the same once I had them adjusted. I'll be working on the PLF position. Thanks for the input. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

??? Please explain. I don't get it. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.

Here are two of my landings from the Flight-1 101 canopy course. The first one is the one I described in a message above. This landing is in no way representative of the effects of having had my brake lines adjusted. Just a bad decision on when to start my flare. http://youtu.be/7gIWkFBMaPo The second one is one that I'm much happier with. It shows the type of two stage flare I am able to get since having had my brake lines adjusted. http://youtu.be/DB2-VFzL0VA

Ok, did the Flight-1 101 Canopy Course yesterday. Sleeping in the car at the DZ to attend the 102 course today. Obviously not sleeping much or I wouldn't be posting this at 2:00 in the morning. Still reflecting on the 101 course. Did not get to talk to Ian directly about having my lines shortened but we did discuss it in general terms. I have further refined, in my mind, what effects shortening my brake lines had for me. To stall: the canopy does not want to stall by just going into deep brakes. I had to take a half wrap to get the canopy to completely stall during our stall exercise. This is still in line with my previous post about having to really dig deep and stretch the arms to stall. I wasn't stalling, before, to the degree that we did during the course. Wow!, that was a "fun" ride, letting the canopy completely fold back on itself and then holding it there. The recovery was a pretty wild ride. To Flare: the two stage flare is something I'm still happy with. Ian did like how my canopy planes out in stage one of the flare and how it finishes in stage two. I did have a landing that I wasn't at all happy with. I flared too late for stage one and smacked the ground pretty good. The only good thing about the landing was that even as I hit the ground I continued to fly the canopy until it stopped. I realized I was going to hit and continued into the flare. I didn't stop the flare to reach out in a protective gesture, which would have completely stopped the flare. Instead, I dug down into the flare and rode it out as I hit. Not sure if I got some lift from the canopy as I continued into the flare or if I bounced off the ground a little but I'd like to think that following through with the flare gave me a little extra lift and helped lessen the impact. Lucky for me, the ground is pretty soft from recent rains. My knee and calf are a bit sore but nothing injured other than my pride. Hans asked why I was trying to beat up on his drop zone. Ian didn't see the landing but did get it on film. When I described it in the debrief, he had not seen it yet and thought I was being a bit to hard on myself in my assessment, until he saw the video. All in all, the landing was a good learning experience. No injury. A gentle reminder that it's not the fall that hurts, it's the sudden stop at the end of the fall that hurts. I won't know until I get home and can convert the files, but I may have the landing on video. If so, I'll post it on YouTube and post a link here for amusement and critique. I digress from the purpose of this post. I would have to say I am happy with the results of having the brake lines shortened. The canopy doesn't "want" to stall without some extra input. So I shouldn't find myself stalling while trying to flare for landing or flying in brakes. It did result in a much improved two stage flare. Canopies must all be female. If I treat mine good, she gives me a good ride. If I slap her in the bag, she will dump me like a turd. Courtesy of PRE7117, love that line.