JohnMitchell

Is that little bit of wobble much of a problem? I think doing it slower will take more time on any skydive, something we have so little of to begin with. Perhaps it's just that you're coming out of forward motion into a neutral position, so the relative wind is coming from slightly in front, making you head high. Then, as you slow, you settle out. Another thought. Do you ever wobble in freefall? I see people doing that when they are trying to force a more head-high attitude than aerodynamics allow. You could be doing the same thing coming out of your track, trying to force yourself head-high. At what point is all this happening on your skydive? If it's in diving and docking on formations, try using your knees to slow down a bit. Ask a good belly flyer. If all this is happening when it's time to pull, heck, just track, go neutral, wave off and pull. Don't worry about a little wobble.

Don't you wish more people thought like that?

I don't have the range that many of the tunnel instructors have (nor the flexibility of most of them). I find that I HAVE to wear weights or baggy suits to stay at all with some of my more extreme fast and slow students.

Merry Christmas to all y'all too.

Planning to work for Bill? What kind of work? Have a great time.

Priceless. Glad you lived. You know, your next post talked about "what would the guys say back home?" Every time I think of doing something stupid or making the wrong decision, I always think "How stupid is the write up in the Incident Reports in Parachutist going to look?" It always seems to remind me of my mortality and how far better than I have gone in before.

Glad you made it. So it sounds like you had a hard time locating the reserve handle (before or after) cut away? What type of main canopy and wingloading? Have you considered using an RSL? Thanks for relating this incident. This is exactly the scenario that makes me prefer 1-hand-on-each-handle. But I must admit either technique has advantages and drawbacks. For experienced jumpers, I say it's a personal decision.

Sounds like some really good reasons to do so. I've also got a couple of thousand jumps without one, too, so it's not a big deal. A few years ago, our DZ had a serious injury when a very experienced jumper, on a low hop-n-pop, free feel too long, opened low, had 2 out, and hit in a downplane. The next day, still cloudy, we're doing jumps from 5500'. In the hangar I heard two sub-100-jumps jumpers discussing turning off their AADs because of the previous day's incident. I took a moment and asked what altitude they planned to open. They said "3500 feet". I convinced them that leaving their AADs on was a good idea. So my rule of thumb is "If you need to turn off your AAD, should you be doing what you're doing?" In the case of an aerobatic plane ride, HELL YES!

A very Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, and a very safe New Year to all.

I've never forgotten to turn it on (knock on wood). What kind of jumps ya making that require you to turn it off?

Very good point. Thanks for bringing that up. I've never jumped a pillow reserve rig. I should probably avoid them, or have an RSL, at the very least.

Great idea. I think that's a good rainy day project for me at the DZ.

Unless you started before about 1962, there was the Sentinel available to you. Right. And there was one sentinel at my DZ, on a 24' flat. Actually wore it once, but not on my first freefalls. I guess I should have said they weren't commonly available. There were some other designs prior to that that had to be disarmed under canopy, right?

Talk about holding tension. You know, we should keep this link for any noob who asks "Howdja pack them old round chutes, anyway?"

Ours was a sunny day today. I guess the sun figured it was such a short work day it ought to show its face. Up here at 47 degrees North, it was awful low in the sky all day. I had to keep flipping my visor down when I was driving around, even in the early afternoon.

So in other words, controllers are annoyed at US pilots that say the full ICAO airport identifier, in this case KOSH, instead of using the FAA identifier OSH for Wittman Field, Oshkosh, WI. For years we got by with just 3 letter identifiers in our country. Then the FAA had a big push to mesh with and copy ICAO, so our weather formats, identifiers, and a few other things had some big changes. . . No more "W0X0F" weather. I want to go one step further, from the controller's viewpoint of the useless "K" at the beginning of the airport identifier. Just say the name of the airport. 99.5% of the time we know the indentifier already (we took a big test and everything

When I first started jumping there were no AADs or RSLs to back you up. Before I made my first FF jump, I was briefed "John, when you leave that plane today, you're a dead man until you pull." That kind of self-reliance seems to breed a sense of necessity of doing the right thing when you had to.

I regret that I didn't get that ticket years ago. Plus I sew terribly. So it's always been easier to take the rigs in for a repack at each cycle, and pay someone out of my tandem earnings. Tax deductible, ya know.

Yes, it is. Thanks for sharing that. As your head is down and you watch yourself grabbing the handles, you can also watch to make sure you PULL the handle. If you did have trouble with an actual hard pull, then you'd want to try with 2 hands for two tries. I think you've very well pointed out that merely going through the motions is only partial practice. There's no better practice than doing it for real. Great idea, always.

And with the use of RSLs, the 2 hand option is a good choice, I have to admit. I have to remark here, that people worry about pulling out of sequence. Using the 2 hands method, does anyone worry about grabbing out of sequence? I acknowledge that out of sequence deployments have been a problem for some. Is this a fault in procedures or training? Are we getting the training we need? I'm lucky to be the type that seems to work well under stress. At least so far, so good.

Words to live by.

Thanks for the input. I knew the "1 hand vs. 2 hands" would be the subject of some debate, and I welcome it. Perhaps each experienced jumper can weigh the evidence and decide for themselves. I do remember when all this stuff was brand new, and we were training ourselves a bit. BTW, I'm a fan of real ripcords for reserves and I like and use an RSL. Also a TM, so I've trained myself "one hand on each" for all my jumping. Pulling the handles in sequence is a very conscious priority when I cutaway.

Yes, very true. Although I have to personally admit never once feeling any Velcro resistance. (Adrenaline, perhaps? ) Also, my rig (Infinity) peels from the top or bottom, so it's very easy to pull. IDK that about the pull force test. Thanks. Your statement I put in boldface is absolutely correct. . That's one reason why I emphasize hooking the thumb thru the D-ring instead of grabbing it with the finger tips.