mathrick

I packed myself half a twist recently when learning psycho pack. It won't give you twists by itself, but it will spin you violently as it deploys, since the twist is all the way up at the canopy and it will pull on the lines vigorously during inflation. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

It teaches students, during their most impressionable time, a system that's completely different from what they'll be using for the rest of their skydiving life. I've read at least one fatality report where there was circumstantial evidence that the jumper (a highly experienced one) reverted to the SOS she was trained on in high-stress, quick-reaction situation. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Umm, a more embarrassing question would be "why did you not inspect the rig before jumping it?", and "how did you get past the manifest without demonstrating your reserve being in-date?". Never, ever assume a rig is airworthy without spending time to ensure it is. People have found all kinds of things on second-hand rigs, from incorrectly assembled 3 rings to misrouted RSLs that'd have horseshoed the reserve in the event of a cutaway. They've found those in freshly repacked and sealed rigs too, so don't assume it's airworthy just because your rigger was the last one to touch it. Riggers are people too. If you can inspect it, you should. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

SOS is actually the single-handle, integrated cutaway + reserve system they have on some student rigs. You're right it's useless (worse, it's dangerous, and thus banned in DK at least), but it has nothing to do with packing mains :) Did you mean static line-style, spring-loaded pilot chute closed with ripcord when packed for manual activation? "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

DFU has issued an update, limiting the affected gear. After further consultation with people in the field, the notice has been narrowed and now only affects Atom Millenium with cordura on the inside of reserve flaps. The official document hasn't been reissued yet due to the reduced personnel available during holiday season. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

You're both right about accuracy canopies, though I wouldn't consider accuracy landings to be "good", rather they're acceptably shitty and it's your job to hit the soft target :). But my impression was that demostalker1 was not asking for a classic accuracy canopy, but rather hijacking the original thread to ask about a canopy that will land softly in general tight spaces that aren't accuracy tuffets with limited brake range (I'm guessing for demos maybe? Or maybe just a very small LZ). For which a Parafoil is not necessarily the answer. But I might be wrong of course. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

That will only serve to worsen the landings. It will lower the maximum speed, yes, and the speed given amount of movement on brakes will result in, but it will do nothing to make landings softer. It will make them harder. Ram-air canopies are airfoils, they need airspeed to generate lift, which is what a flare exploits to arrest the vertical descent. A canopy that isn't in full flight at the beginning of flare requires deeper, faster input to achieve acceptable landings, so permanently braking it will only exacerbate Doug's problems. It also invites a stall, which will be all the worse. Instead, what I'd suggest is try wrapping the brake lines around your hands until there's no slack left with your arms all the way up (so there's no bow in the brake lines, they just go in a straight line to the trailing edge), but without deflecting the tail. Ie. make the steering lines the shortest they can be while still affording full flight, then flare from there. That will give deeper inputs, without compromising the airspeed flare is made of. Caution: try this up high (way above 2000ft) first, on a dedicated jump, holding the flare all the way down for at least 5s. It's hard to know without seeing you and your canopy how much slack you will take out, and it could well end up stalling your canopy. You need to know if it does and be prepared for it, especially if previously you couldn't fully pull the brakes, so stall was never a possibility. If you don't know how to recognise a stall, stop talking to strangers on the 'tubes and get your instructor, then do practice stalls high up (although with a D licence, I sure hope you know well what a stall is :) "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

DFU (Danish Parachuting Union) has just published a notice by its Materieludvalget (Board of Equipment), grounding the Atom Millenium H/C system until further notice. MU's notice is binding for jumpers and dropzones operating under DFU. The notice document can be read here. Translation: Background: During the yearly reserve inspection and repack cycles, on multiple occasions it has been observed that in Atom Millenium containers the reserve PC extraction could be hindered. Upon consultation with riggers working in the field, MU has determined that the reason lies in deficiencies in the container's construction. The reserve flaps do not open sufficiently, which means the PC and reserve canopy need to push through a narrow opening during extraction. Additionally, the container, which employs cordura, has been previously observed to have a tendency to become sticky. Lastly, the plastic stiffeners sewn into flaps might work themselves loose overtime, creating creases and edges that could trap the PC. Affected equipment: Atom Millenium harness/container system Scope: affected equipment is to be grounded until further notice Remarks: MU has issued a request to the manufacturer for the publication of a Service Bulletin outlining the necessary repairs and precautions to restore the equipment's airworthiness. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Also gloves and climates other than DeLand or Perris. Some colder DZs ban pillow reserve handles, and I jump with gloves regardless of the outside temperature, as do roughly 50% other jumpers I know. I prefer having a D-handle for my reserve, went with that for my custom rig. Racers are actually still available in double-D handle configuration, I kinda wish it'd be the case with more rigs out there, I'd probably get it if it were an option for mine. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

We don't :). It's all clubs, money is made on tandems and for some clubs large organised student groups like the military. General jumping activity is a net loss and subsidised by the income from those. But from my experience with the few RGs, they seem to climb a little bit better than non-RG. Yup, that's how my home club's OY-FCJ is equipped. http://www.oy-reg.dk/billeder/l7004.jpg "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Interestingly enough, it seems to have much less fisheye lens distortion, despite having a nearly identical FOV. I wonder if they changed the sensor area? "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I know plenty of jumpers as new or newer than me who chose analogues. There is probably some difference in percentages across generations, but ultimately it's probably a matter of personal preference, the same way some people best understand things when they hear them, and others prefer it in writing. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I think we might be talking about two different things. The idea is not that you dearch before opening, but that as you feel the canopy start to inflate and sit you upright, you can help it by bringing the knees in a little bit at first (to minimise the rotational inertia the canopy has to fight), then making a wide swing with your legs up high (kicking yourself in the forehead, if you will). Since twists are generally the result of the light canopy moving in directions that are ad odds with the inertia of the heavy jumper, you can minimise them by going along with what the deployment would do to you anyway and minimising the resistance the deployment forces encounter. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Swinging the legs forward on opening has all kinds of wonderful properties. I learnt it in a flight1 course, and it's not only helpful in mitigating a slightly harder opening, it also makes it much easier to avoid line twists. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I'm normally opposed to forum signatures, but I'm totally stealing this to make it my sig. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

No, it didn't offend me, it annoyed me because it's fanboy wank pretending that Cypres is the be-all end-all omniscient godsend with no flaws, and then you have the gall to claim this is about making "informed decisions" and "learning about your gear". What you wrote is the exact opposite of those things; it's bullshit that would serve to misinform and take knowledge away were any naïve fresh jumper to believe it. It has nothing to do with what I jump, because I am aware that Vigil is also a complex electronic device with embedded software subject to flaws. It happens to have the particular set of flaws I mind less, and flaws I can actually discuss and make informed decisions about, because it's not being marketed by fanboys who'd rather have me take unnecessary risk than disclose the fact their beloved Cypres is not, in fact, omniscient and infallible. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

and guess what... they work. They have been around a long time and have learned quite a bit. Other AAD manufacturers have made mistakes that CYPRES already had accounted for... Yeah, like the mistake of NOT making their product crash and still present the "ready" display despite being completely non-operational, the way Cypres did? Or the mistake of not being sensitive to radio interference, like Cypres 1? Those sure were great features there, I wish others had copied them! Stop your fanboy wank, it's not actually presenting any information. Cypres is a complex electronic device with embedded software, and suffers from the same problems all other complex electronic devices with embedded software do. The difference is that for other AADs, you have a chance of hearing something about the changes (admittedly not much, but it's still better than nothing). "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Mine didn't do it, then did it heavily for a while, then stopped. Mine does it almost always, very rarely it doesn't. Every opening is an adventure! Also, don't ever fight a Sabre2 on opening, let it fly with your hands just resting on the rears, and follow up on whatever it does until fully inflated. Trying to steer it through the opening is a great way of getting line twists. I never really had problems with particularly hard openings, whether I pack myself (I'm religious about making sure my slider is packed properly) or using packers. The slider needs some convincing to travel the last couple cm down the lines though. Just a tug on the rears is all it takes, and if you hold it lightly for a few seconds, it will also inflate any closed end cells. 170 @ 1.13 here. Landings were scary fast when I first switched to it from student Navs and Spectre 190. Sabre2 really needs you to have a proper two-stage flare dialed in, but offers a lot to land on when you do. It's a fun wing to fly. I got used to the steep glide, made me overshoot horribly on flatter trimmed canopies. It has a very wide glide range, but get used to hanging on the rears on long spot. I got seriously sore muscles after a day of tracking jumps. Mine seems to have particularly short brake lines, even after I had a rigger cut a new lineset. Made it confusing when I switched to a Pilot, which has brakes long enough that I can't stall it without serious effort. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Oh wow, that's some scary shit. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I honestly have no idea. All I know is that OY-SDT turns loads a couple minutes faster than OY-FCJ, even though they look very similar, and both are T models manufactured within a year of each other. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

A couple DZs in DK run them. Adds a little challenge to hanging the students off the strut :) But the loads turn faster, so it isn't pointless. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

Nah. They're informed they won't be allowed back in several times prior to the jump, and asked twice if they're ready, the last time being when they sit out in the door before crawling out onto the strut. Also, as much as she had a deathgrip, it was awkward and slipping, so the JM was mostly working to get her foot off the step to give her clear falling space. Out of curiosity, did you C182 have retractable gear? Now that'd be an impressive comeback (and one I especially wouldn't want to see to completion for everyone's safety. Determined or not, they're going down) "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

We might, or might not, have a video of the JM kicking a student off the step despite her deathgrip... "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

We don't let our students get back in once they're out the door. Sitting out is the last moment when they're allowed to change their mind, after that they will jump regardless of any late epiphanies that might visit them. That has occasionally resulted in some very amusing footage, but it's really rare that anyone tries to back out at that stage. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."

I still think 1.35 WL is plenty to start swooping, so you don't need to be in a particular hurry to downsize just yet. Get super good on what you're flying now. That said, I know a guy who jumps a VK77 in his Vortex 150 (incidentally the same model I also just bought), so there's one downsizing-friendly container for you. I've also heard good things about downsizing capabilities of Curvs, with the caveat that their nominal sizing is extremely tight (dry Arizona climate and all that), so you will go several sizes down, but not don't count on going up. "Skydivers are highly emotional people. They get all excited about their magical black box full of mysterious life saving forces."