rgoper

are you saying that you were not aware of the round in the reserve tray in the container prior to your skydive? always know whats in the main and reserve in the container. glad you handled it well, sounds like you identified the mal and took the appropriate actions to cut away cleanly and deploy your round reserve. here in the states USPA requires the parachute system to have 2 ram air parachutes, obviously your organization hasn't evolved into the 21st century yet. Take Care, Stay Safe. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i fly the same setup your going to. it does take some getting used to. i used to fly a Hornet and the slider came down past everything and covered my whole face up, i was looking through a neon green slider! this prompted a few adjustments. now, i'll deploy and when the slider comes down the lines, i'll pull both draw strings to collapse it just as it gets to the top of my slinks and simply pull it behind my head using the drawstrings that collapse the slder to pull it down past my brakes/toggles, if i have time i will stow it in my slider keeper, but generally the back of my helmet keeps it in place. i've seen some guys stow them underneath their chins as well, either way will work. the only thing i plan on changing in the future is purchasing a set of RWS risers because the have the top of the velcroless toggle keepers enclosed so the slider can't unstow a toggle for you during the deployment sequence. once you get used to it, you'll absolutely love it! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i have never heard the phrase "poor body position" so many times in my life when referring to the poor openings on the Cobalt. or does everybody else just have excellent body positioning on all other brands of canopies? at some point, and some time Atair will have to address this issue. your jpeg looks REAL familiar. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

why then would the HeatWave NOT demonstrate the same behaviour? same jumper, same wing load, both elipitical canopies, no problem with the HeatWave. i think there is evidence to support poor opening and proper deploying sequences with the Cobalt^2 i had anyway, i can't speak for any of the other canopy sizes. the Cobalt is the only elipitical canopy that has demonstrated this bad behaviour. observation and personal experience only, nothing more, nothing less. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

Matches and exceeds performance of cross braced tricell canopies while providing the sweetest "multistage" openings, 15-20% smaller pack volume, and lower cost.Ultra high performance canopy designed specifically for competition swooping. The high efficiency wing is optimized for extreme distance. this is the rest. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

you must have missed the point i made abou it being a 170^2 parachute. there are signifigant differences between the 170^2 and the 120^2, which is a crossbraced competition canopy with very different characteristics than the 170^2 Cobalt. you cannot compare the two. go jump a 170^2, we'll talk to you after your cut-away and reserve ride. as for the Cobalt being superior to the HeatWave, both being 170^2, the HeatWave is by far a more reliable and predictable canopy. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

***Has anyone here actually jumped a Cobalt 170 at a decent wingloading? I am considering getting one, but I'm having a nightmare trying to get hold of a demo...Atair basically told me that I had no chance...Quote save yourself the trouble. i had one, i won't get into details. get a Heatwave of a X-Fire2. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

it's NOT MY POST. i just expressed my opinion. so BTFU. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

a training harness and vigilant training will help him to develope muscle memory. i've never utilized a ripcord except for my tandem progression, but i can't see a ripcord spring loaded pc would be more advantageous than a BOC. the biggest advantage in my mind of a BOC VS. a spring loaded ripcord system is you know you PC is cocked by inspecting the color in the bridle window, hard to mess up! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i check my own gear religiously. that said, i also do PHT's all the way to the jump ship, at pin check, and right before exit. i'll let some one i trust check my main pin, but no one ever touches my reserve pin, or flap, and i ask before the pin check for them not to slap the shit out of my container telling me "your good" i hate that. i had a fellow jumper give me a pin check here a couple of months ago and he said "your good" i asked "what color in the window?" he said "red" i replied that's a kick, i have a Jim Cazar PC and the kill line is blue, next thing you know his face was red. but, how do you know whomever is checking your pins is really checking them? i've gotten to where i check my own, i'm preparred for a premie, or any othe situation before i exit the jump ship. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

09/11 would more than likely never have occured if Al Gore had won the election, i mean if the election hadn't of been stolen from him. don't get me wrong, i voted for ol' Wyatt Earp (last time) but 09/11 was an act of vengeance for the gulf war. old habits die hard. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

It's Back Now --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i think this would fall into the "no personal attacks" rule!?!? --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

access your hard drive and go back to the original sys.reg after the first clean install and activate it. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

first, let me say i'm glad your o.k. secondly, don not be lulled into a false sense of security because "the bad thing" didn't happen to you this time, next time you might not be so lucky. i wish i had a dime for every time i've seen new sky divers pull this exact same stunt while under a lightly loaded canopy. a light wing load will cause you to keep turning and the canopy to stay in the same position. i'll probably get the usaul arguments from the usaual crowd on this theory, but i've seen it too many times. next time you do this, make sure to keep an eye on your canopy as well as canopy traffic. Take Care, Be Safe. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

Kevin: Look forward to meeting you and jumping with you soon. Take Care And Be Safe In Your Travels. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

as pds mentioned, just do a poised, relaxed exit. head high and watch the plane fly away, then PULL! you'll eventually begin to love doing these, trust me! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

thus my reasoning for sending my rig to the same rigger, even if the rigger is out of state. this rigger "knows what time it is" i've tried, but i cannot jump my rig, unless i know this particular rigger has inspected my rig and re-packed my reserve. handicapped jumper you say? i don't care, vanity is long passed me now, life longevity is my goal, i know i'm mortal. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

some people i know are collaborating right now to institute a program to address the issues you've inquired about. just give them about 90-100 more days, this often inquired about topic will be covered, reviewed and addressed competently and adequatly soon. please be patient as this program is still in the conception stage. this program will be instituted to "Make A Difference." Take Care, And As Always....Be Safe And Have Fun! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

if you have one on your rig, and you do, obviously, it's living where it needs to if you don't wan't it functional for whatever the reason(s). excellent post!

you did the right thing and cut the excess off. further than that what could of happened is anybody's guess. i'm sure you're aware what "could" have happened. you took the right action to keep from finding out what may have happened! Take Care, Be Safe, Have Fun. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i agree with this much. bad idea, don't do this. if anything, after your safely cut-away from your main and deployed your reserve and everything is cool, ie: your reserve is SSS (square, stable and steerable) and canopy traffic is o.k. stow the reserve ripcord in your jumpsuit, and if you still have your cut-away handle and cords, stow them in your harness ring, or inside your jumpsuit as well. keep both of your hands free to move at will. bear in mind you've just lost canopy traffic awareness because you've been dealing with problems of your own and you have'nt been paying attention to much of anything else but saving your ass, so as soon as possible, make a visual sweep and see where everybody else is while under reserve. one more thing i forgot to mention, regardless of jump numbers or cut-away and reserve deployment system the rig your jumping is utilizing, if your rig is utilizing an RSL, do not depend on this device to save you, make like it's not even there. don't land your reserve with your d-ring in your harness, you'll more than likely get scolded. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

i know he's your instructor, but i'm baffled at this statement. in the event you cut-away, and pull the d-ring to full extension and cleared the ripcord from the reserve closing loop your going to know if the ripcord had been cleared or not by the snatch force of your reserve deploying. there has been some debate here as of late as to whether or not to chunk your handles in the event of a cut-away and consequent reserve deployment. i'll offer this, in my very limited experience, if your under 300 jumps and haven't had a reserve ride, if you must, chunk them away. but if your experienced and have handled mals and reserve rides before hang onto them. i keep mine, but that don't mean it's right. stay safe, have fun. --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

Chuck: i concur. that said, it doesn't matter what a low time jumper should/should not be doing, they're doing it anyway. my posts was an inquiry to solicit information and advice. my whole objective is to save lives and heighten safety awareness through great training and competant support during gear selection regarding low time sky divers. a colleague of mine and myself are in the developmental stages of a concept that will hopefully help us to achieve this objective. hopefully we can make a difference with this concept, instead of arguing about wing load BSR's and who's flying what and why, instead of litigation we must try to "make a difference" with a proactive project. "It's All About Living" --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"

you caught up with the RW jumpers because you did not allow enough time before exiting the aircraft, end of story. there is no other excuse, it was no one else's fault. horizontal seperation is imperitive to ensure seperation at deployment time. see Prof. John Kaelland's power point presentation illustration. i used to believe the same thing you do years ago, i was wrong. the 45 degree theory is complete BS, it cannot be applied to exit, do the jumpers ever get to a 45 degree angle from the aircraft? and if they do, how do make this determanation? type of aircraft, winds aloft etc dictate how much time is needed between each sky diver and/or groups of sky diver(s) forget everything you've heard about the 45 degree angle exit seperation thingy! --Richard-- "We Will Not Be Shaken By Thugs, And Terroist"