acho

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Everything posted by acho

  1. Hi, With my low jumps and no cutaway so far I might not talk about cutaways but I was thinking about device that can help tracking down the main after cutaway. First idea that I had was based on cell phone network. It is not what I was looking for. In this case you have to think about plan, coverage and if jumping abroad roaming fees. So after some brainstorming and few prototipes I have something that might do the job. The device is small 2.37"x1.37"x0.6" and weights just over 1 oz /33 grams/. It has built in GPS, radio transmitter and rechargable battery which can hold about 14 hours. It is activated by magnet so no user activation involved. The range of the device is about 2 miles surface to surface. From the air it might be more. The best part is that I don't need expensive receiver in order to use the transmitter. I need simple walkie talkie at 460-470 mhz band /ulicensed band/ which can be found just about anywhere and once the transmitter is called it just tells with voice it's GPS coordinates. The big question is where in the rig to install it. I left it with my local rigger but would like to hear more opinions. So far I was thinkink about main raisers or d-bag. What do you think?
  2. while I was recovering from ankle surgery I got bored and did project like this so if you are interested send me PM ;)
  3. I dont care if I look cool or silly when landing. I only care if I am hurt or not ;) I believe that I look cool if I can walk by myself :) My current instructor is very good instructor - he breaks down the small but important thinks so I can understand them better. The landing pattern is no brainer since my instructor made it very clear following lines on the airport. I i find myself higher on last turn just have to do ribbon like turn to get lower. I will ask for video of the landings. Any good source to learn more about PLF? Thanks
  4. Thanks for all the courage you are giving me and all the advices! No, I am not going to give up! The problem is that I never had that nice and smooth horizontal glade and never managed to do PLF /probably I don't knot the correct position for it/. Another problem at the touch down is that I am lifting my legs up like tandem lading - not sure if it is from the tandem jumps I had or just attempting to protect my ankle but in the last 4 jumps my legs are up and forward and when they touch the ground they just slide and I am sitting with some force on the dirt /we do not have grass, we have dirt since we are in the desert/. I weight 200 lbs and currently /for the past 3 jumps/ I am jumping manta 260 and from what I read it is correctly sized canopy for my weight. I am sure that after I land not so ugly just once I will relax more and will not think so much about it at the exit and free fall. In the holding area I am doing lots of flares to practice, event tried if I can stall the canopy just to know what it is and how far in to the brakes it will stall and it does not stall from 7-10 seconds of full brakes /this was the longest I tried/. I am not 20 years old anymore which contributes to be conservative skydiver with no desire to try crazy stuff. I am kind of brave but not stupid so I am not scared but nervous about landing. Last jump I had idiotic landing - i did all possible mistakes but one - flaring. I read wrong the wind and started approach to land in to the wind. The instructor was talking to me on the radio but it was so loud that I did not understand even a single word. At final I got some nice cross wind, attempted to do small corrections so I stay over the dirt, don't know why but pulled wrong toggle and did almost 90 degrees turn /in the final/ toward some not very friendly landscape and barb wire fence of the airport. I knew that low turns are big NO so I tried to force myself not to do anything ant eat what it is going to happen. Lucky me I cleared all the obstacles and ended landing on the runway. The positive experience from this madness was that my instructor was thinking that the radio is not working and didn't tell me when to flare but i flared on my own - may be far from perfect but in result I got the well known to me butt drag on the runway. Somehow I hit the runway with my right fist and left sum skin and blood and probably I twisted my shoulder a bit but is it getting better. I will be not able to jump in next week or so due some work excuses but then I am looking forward to jump again Anyone know good learning material regarding PLF so I can read/watch and practice it on the ground? Thank you
  5. Hi all, All my life I wanted to jump. For some reasons I started my first AFF when 38 :) Prior that I had one tandem and I loved it. So last november I started my AFF-P as this was the only available option I found. Two tandem jumps with checking altimeter, practice touches and some turns on the second one - great. Then the next day I got rig for me on my back and headed with the instructor for AFF jump #3. not bad free fall, pull on time, nice opening - cool. The instructor landed and tested the radio - worked -cool again. Started the landing pattern as instructed and it looked good but it was no wind day and I overshooted the landing zone by ~200 ft which was not something very bad since I have miles of desert to land. Then I decided that the radio is not working any more and the ground is too close and mooing too fast and decided to flare /instructed on 3 stage flare/ after stage one my instructor shouted on radio STOP since I was high /about 30 ft above the ground/ and I decided to return to full flight. The canupy dived and the instructor screamed FLARE, FLARE, FLARE. I did it and rolled in to the dirt but no injuries so lesson learned - never return toggles if flared too early. After that the instructor said next jump tomorrow and I started to get ready to go. All of the sudden he came to me and said that there will be one more load today and to get ready for jump. OK, got ready but still not so happy from my landing. At altitude I had very little time to get in position for exit but it was not a problem. Free fall was ok, pulled on time, nice deployment and after few minutes started landing pattern with corrected altitudes for turns so I am not goint go overshoot the landing zone again. So far so good but I was heading to overshoot it. The fun part is that the landing zone is ending at big fat ditch so guess where I was going to land - the ditch. Listened to the radio for the flare signal, flared and was about foot short to clear the ditch. I hit the wall of the ditch with my legs forward and busted my ankle big time - multiple fractures, surgery, screws and plates and months of recovery. 7 month later after my doctor cleared me to jump again i was on vacation back home in Europe and decided to do the AFF there. Did only one jump due to bad weather and airplane problems. Needless to say that the landing was not so pretty but no injures :) When I got back to the states I decided to continue with my skydiving affair and started AFF again but in different DZ. did 3 jumps there so far and needles to say that landings still look ugly - sliding on butt, dragging hands on the ground leaving skin in the dirt but this is ok. The problem is that I feel hopeless about landings and this takes over my mind and is messing up with the other tasks in the air. I love to jump but hate to land ;) So the million dollar question is - do I have to give up and end my skydiving affair or to continue jumping? How should I free my mind from thinking about my crash landings and do the rest of the tasks good /in free fall I am not so bad, a bit unstable but ok/ Anything helps - I know that there is no way to learn something online but need to get encouraged or discouraged to continue. Thank you and I am sorry for the long post P.S. While I was waiting for the 3 days to pass before I can post after registration I was reading the forum - so far I am at page 160 :) P.S. 2 - All the instructors I had so far are great and really try to help!