darkwing

Relax, you have more time to do the stuff you need to do. You'll probably be more aware of the wind noise changing too.

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How would a person know if they were accurate?

well, you could look at your visual altimeter when the alarm goes off

So, how do you know your visual is accurate? People believe instruments waaaay to easily. Before you decide anything is accurate, you must define accurate. Then you have to figure out how to measure accuracy.

I have an Optima, and I like it a lot. L&B rocks my world.

Every reserve has holes in it. Needles make holes. That is one reason you can perhaps see that not all holes are bad, or necessitate trashing the reserve.

As I recall, the AT-11 (bubble nose) belonged to Wally Benton, in Star. I think Rozzo's beech at Athol was a D-18. I recall the SNB, but I don't remember where it was or who owned it. I think Rozzo's D-18 is the one that Joe Taylor crashed with a load of Montana musicians, killing all.

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...Are the alarms under canopy accurate?

How would a person know if they were accurate?

I seem to recall being at a boogie a long time ago, maybe Freak Brothers, when 8 pregnant women did a "16-way"

Bev.

I suspect that even with a Silhouette (or similar canopy) harness input will be marginal, at best, especially at that size. I can barely get my Pilot168 to respond to harness input, loaded at 1.4.

I have 600 Spectre 190 jumps, and about 200 Pilot 168 Jumps. The Spectre is in a different category of performance than a Pilot/Sabre2/Silhouette. The Spectre being a somewhat lower performance canopy -- do not interpret that to be a criticism!

Both my Pilot and my Spectre are great canopies. Jump, try, think, and buy...

600 jumps on a Spectre 190. Never roll or tuck the nose, just release it from between your knees and finish packing. Of course quarter the slider, and don't pull it out in the nose direction.

That may be a sort of hook used to pull line stows through keepers, which were sewn-in nylon tapes used instead of rubber bands to stow lines. Then again, it may not be.

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His slider comes down before the canopy even begins to slow him down. You can see it's fully inflated at the beginning. Hard to tell from the compressed video, but it looks like maybe the back of the slider started coming down first, kind of dumping the slider drag. It actually looks like the slider collapses itself on the way down.

The back side dumping drag and descending is pretty consistent with their theory, which would attribute it to a strong airflow over the back, top of the slider.

I'm a rigger from the old, round days, although not a military rigger. It doesn't ring any bells with me, but there are a lot of potential military items that I would never have encountered.

ps - Many riggers, then and now, made special tools for themselves. Sometimes another rigger wouldn't recognize it, even if they routinely did the same job.

Probably do a search, and you will find any answer you want. I say cypres 2, others will say vigil, and others will say something else.

Just wanted to get in my 2 cents before the mods lock this.

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The Nitro/Nitrons are set up with slack in the brake lines for front riser usage. ...

Virtually all canopies are set up this way these days.

Dang, I was already worried enough about the extra cosmic ray dose I was getting, and now I have to get a dosimeter and geiger counter mounted inside my helmet too. They can warn me if my dose gets too high, or if the activity at the time is high, necessitating a bail out due to core breach.

So, how much will a jump ticket cost in this petroleum free aircraft?

If you look down and see blue, turn over.

All the major manufacturers make quality products, using quality materials. DO NOT make the mistake of thinking that any manufacturer has never, or never will put a flawed product out the door. It happens. Just as long as they deal correctly with problems it is not a big deal.

Find a canopy that opens and handles the way you like it, and buy one.

Or, more succinctly, as the phrase goes, "shut up and jump."

Boogie is a state of mind. Just keep your eyes and ears alert, and ask around. If you are going somewhere, maybe email the local DZs. Of course there are the big name events/boogies, which mostly make it on the lists published here, and in Parachutist and Skydiving mags.

There are pros and cons to boogies. Some events, and DZs are more accommodating for solo jumpers or relatively inexperienced jumpers. Some are better if you take your own group.

Most jumpers that have been around have one or two favorites. I have been around, and my favorite is Lost Prairie (in Montana, late July).

I don't recall an Idaho jumper going in at Pope.

All of my first ten were at Jump West Parachute Center at Star, Idaho, out of the C-180. The DZ was owned by the infamous Wally Benton (deceased). Signatures from Wallee Lange and Jack Shrum, current whereabouts/status unknown. Joe Taylor, a pilot, also infamous, and deceased. "Bullit" Bob Denton, still an active skydiver, still marginally competent.

The 7TU was pretty hot for me. They recommended against the even hotter 5TU. My progress as a student was unspectacular.

I used to jump a lot, and was considered competent. Now I don't jump so much, so I suck. So the training method that got me where I am today was to not jump much.

You were given (in my opinion) good advice. I have 600 jumps on a Spectre, and it is a great canopy. It is not in the same class as a Saffire (or the often cited similar canopies -- Pilot, and Sabre2), which is a somewhat higher performance canopy. Some truly great skydivers jump Spectres. You can learn to get a lot out of your spectre. Don't be in too big a hurry to scare yourself. Ignore people who say you can't get performance out of a spectre, they are numbskulls.

There are several ways a canopy can "impress" you. One way is to not kill you when you make a mistake on it. That is a good impression.

I think this gives some history of that aircraft...

http://www.dhc-2.com/id805.htm