mbohu

Thanks. Yes. Helps somewhat. On the yellow pattern I've experimented with 2 things: (landing cross-wind seems to be highly discouraged. Everyone says you MUST land where the arrow is pointing unless you see others before you landing a certain way, when you should follow them in, rather than "chasing the arrow) 1. I turn it so it is more like 90deg to the runway and start at the NE corner of the landing zone, follow the edge of the tandem zone, turn 90deg and follow the edge of the swoop zone--making that leg very long and then turn final late. works but gets me very far to the west end of the zone and close to the access road of the landing strip. 2. I tried flying a long base leg on the south side of the swoop zone. Also works but if wind strength changes and I don't make it to the end of the pond still high enough for turning to final, I'd have to land cross-wind in the high grass. What feels uncomfortable is that both options feel like they work but they JUST work..so it just feels tight, not much room when things go wrong.

OK, I'm going to risk it. I'm going to post a question that for some reason is getting people at my dropzone very upset, when I pose it there. Maybe someone can explain to me where I'm completely off here: My dropzone has a few features: 1. we have a large arrow indicating the direction we are supposed to land in (against the prevailing ground winds. Since I mostly jump in low wind conditions, the arrow tends to move. You generally don't know which way its pointing at until you're 2000-1000 ft off the gound 2. There are 3 zones that we are not supposed to fly over under 1000ft: The runway, the tandem landing area, the high performance (swooping) "pond" (it's dry but it used to be a pond) 3. We do not have an agreed upon landing pattern in terms of left-handed versus right-handed I'm a bit nerdy 9used to run a software company), started skydiving at age 50 and relatively heavy, jumping at high altitude (the ground is 5k+ feet above sea level)--so I feel things are already somewhat stacked against me, so I like to be safe, and one way for me to feel (and hopefully be) safe is to understand things conceptually, as much as I can. So I purchased many of Brian Germain's courses. In one he suggests to map out landing patterns in different wind situations on a map. I did so with a sattelite picture of our drop zone and Photoshop (see attached image). Now the problem is, that it confirmed the problems I encountered when flying with certain wind directions. The fact that the landing zone (while very generous in size) is boxed in on 3 sides seems to make it impossible to fit a standard landing pattern in when the winds are not parallel to the runway. In the picture you can see 4 landing patterns at different wind directions. They are calculated for a student canopy with 3:1 glide ratio (so 3 times the horizontal distance versus vertical). The yellow solid circle is where most good jumpers land. The red shaded areas are the areas we are not supposed to fly over, under 1000ft. I assumed down-wind start at 900ft, base at 600ft and final at 300ft. some moderate wind would lengthen the downwind leg and shorten the final. That's what is drawn on the map. As you can see, there is sometimes just no way to properly fly that pattern without crossing one of the forbidden areas--especially when the wind is out of the north (see yellow landing pattern) When pointing this out to more experienced jumpers I get one of two reactions: 1. They get angry and tell me that I don't know what the hell I'm talking about. 2. They do try to be helpful and suggest I can widen my turns or otherwise slightly adjust my pattern--but none of it quite seems to be enough to resolve this theoretical problem. 3. Nobody wants to take the time to look at the pattern in Photoshop (I understand: Most skydivers probably think that's way too nerdy!) Here is what I experience in praxis: 1. With some adjustments I can usually JUST fit a pattern in, but it really is usually JUST fitting: So I land very close to the runway or on the outer portion of the landing area (again, this is if the wind direction is unfavorable. If it is parallel to the runway I am getting quite accurate.--but if the wind speed changes during final approach on one of those days the arrow points in an unfavorable direction, i am afraid I might overshoot 2. When watching others: They sometimes simply do not seem to fly proper landing patterns (or maybe they fly "more advanced" patterns?!) and they do sometimes fly straight over one of the forbidden zones (usually over the runway) So, I am confused. I'd love some advice on how to approach this. Again, I've not had a real problem with landing yet, but it does seem that when the winds are unfavorable things could go wrong easily (and I've seen others land straight on the runway or in other unsafe ways.) Explanation of the graphic: red shaded areas are no-fly below 1000ft; the landing zone is framed by these 3 areas; the yellow circle is the spot I would generally like to land near; the landing patterns are the 3 connected lines in the same color; the short line is the final approach, the longest line the downwind leg; the toughest one is the one landing to the north (in yellow) You can see I can't even find a way to fit it in without crossing the runway under 1000ft. (as each leg is 300 vertical ft., at a glide ratio of 3:1 I end up with each leg 900 ft long at no wind. At moderate wind, the downwind leg is going to be even longer and the final approach a bit shorter--that's how I determined the shape of the pattern) Thanks--let me have it!

Thanks!

I have 50 jumps. I used to have the same feeling in the beginning, but now I love getting out of the door almost more than everything else. It started changing around jump 12 or so and by the time I had my a-license (about 25 jumps) the fear was gone completely (of course, one never knows: it's not like I expect to never feel fear again in the plane--but hasn't been there the last 25 jumps) Two things helped: 1. After AFF, I took a winter break and did lots of tunnel flying. At some point I had an epiphany: When I get in the tunnel from the door, the air is already moving 120mph and immediately I feel it supporting my body, and I can trust it and lean into it. Well, the same happens when jumping from a plane, except that the air is coming from the front. So, instead of thinking of stepping out and falling down, I started thinking of stepping right into the air flow from the front of the plane and being immediately held up by that, just like in the tunnel. The first time I went up again in the air immediately felt completely different, just because of that shift of perspective. 2. I did a canopy course which consisted of 5 hop'n pops from about 5000-6000 feet. We practiced stepping out, getting stable immediately and pulling within a couple seconds of exit. First time I tumbled and took a while to pull, but from the 2nd time on I was able to be stable right out the door and pull while looking at my coach and counting the number of fingers he was showing me while crouching in the door. That ability to get stable and pull immediately gave me tremendous confidence about getting out the door. Now, I love nothing more than getting out that door! Let's see what happens when I jump from a helicopter next week...all dead air...I bet there will be fear

Yes. It was a coach jump--maybe jump no. 10 or 12. They had a Skyvan visiting (usually we jump from an otter or king air). I was sitting near the back of the plane, getting ready to exit the big door. I was supposed to do an exit with 3 flips before getting stable again. I was a bit nervous. Then they said they would not get above 8000ft and my coach said that was too low for me, so I had to let everyone go ahead of me and got to the front of the plane expecting not to jump. As I was moving forward I noticed us passing 9000ft (my minimum jump altitude) and, as the door opened, my coach said: "ok, you can jump, if you want, but we won't charge you if you don't--but if you jump you have to go now" I would have had to squeeze past everyone to get back to my spot and quickly jump--and I did not feel prepared, so I said no. We went down with the plane, with the huge back door open and by the time we landed there was so much cross-wind that the pilot barely was able to set her down--the view out the back door with the plane going side-to-side was awesome and I was glad I did not jump (although all jumpers got down before the winds had picked up). They shut down right after my load. I still regret it a little though because I still haven't got another opportunity to exit out of a skyvan.

Here is what helped me to keep going and overcome some of the fear and get my license--not sure if they give you a license right after AFF in France but I think you need many more jumps before jumping mostly alone. (for me it was mostly fear of the door, getting out of it, but also sitting right next to the open door on the way up--now it's a beautiful experience!) 1. Jump with coaches (actually my DZ requires lots of coach jumps after AFF until you get licensed) 2. Do a canopy course. This will help with the landings and, if they do it the same way as here, you'll do lots of "hop'n pops" from lower altitude: Getting out of the door stable and being able to pull right away gave me tremendous confidence (so no more fear of the door) 3. Actually, do this before the canopy course--as suggested above: Brian Germain! Watch every free video and purchase his courses as well--especially the one on landing! He's got a good video on fear as well. 4. Tunnel time: If you have an indoor skydiving tunnel, book some time there and find a coach. (One of the amazing things about a sport that is somewhat exclusive: I got to have one of the US's premier freefliers to be my coach in the tunnel--as a total beginner!) This also helped me tremendously in trusting my body in freefall. (You can practice staying stable during the pull and that should make line-twists much less likely) And I think the tunnels are much more affordable in France than the US. Lastly: Absolutely trust yourself. If it doesn't feel right, don't jump. Yes: challenge your fear, if you are up for it...but no matter what anyone else says: going back down with the plane or waiting until it feels right is ok (if sometimes expensive) I only have 50 jumps, so just talking as a fellow newbie.

Unfortunately this is not 100% true. I am an Austrian citizen and live in the US where I have my license. Austria (and probably most of Europe?) does not accept the USPA license as valid, because the USPA is not a governmental organization, but a private club. When I wanted to jump in Austria, they told me I had to call the areoclub and get my USPA license officially validated by them before I would be able to jump. The specific drop zone where I wanted to jump said they used to make exceptions, but not anymore. It might be useful to confirm the exact process that they require (I ended up not having enough time to jump while I was there, so I did not go through it myself) --Thanks for putting this together!

Thanks everyone. Yes, my mistake: It's a zp.exe from parachute systems (not "PD")

Hi, I would like to see if there is someone who can give me a bit more insight into the performance of the ZP.exe parachute from parachute systems. Would you recommend it to someone who has about 50 jumps--for their next 150-200 jumps? I am relatively heavy, (250 exit weight) and am looking at a 235. I currently rent Navigator 240s at my DZ. (The reason I am looking at the zp.exe is because parachute systems is offering new complete systems for about $2k less than all others I find, and that is the only main that they produce that is large enough) One concern: It's sometimes listed as a square and sometimes as a light elliptical. Which is it? Some people say it has a very steep descent rate. Is that true? When I watch the few videos I can find of someone jumping it, they all do a slow single-stroke flare, rather than leveling it out first and then keeping it afloat as long as possible...and I read that some chutes (like the solo) don't work at all with a 2-stage flare. Is that the case with the zp.exe? (Even the nav240 I rent, currently works pretty well with a 2-stage flare and if anything I'd like more flare-power in my next one...I also like that it responds at least a little to harness input) Anyway, parachute systems is not much used in the US so I'm hoping some of you from other countries might have more insights. Thanks, Markus

I am a newbie (50 jumps) and am considering this as my first rig. A couple things I'm wondering about when looking at your pictures (and the packing manual on their site): 1: In my packing course, and when watching anyone pack at my DZ, I always notice how the closing loop has to be pulled all the way tight, so that all 4 grommets of the flaps completely align (and aren't offset from each other as in the 3rd picture from bottom here) That always seems to require a lot of power when pulling it through and I struggled a bit with that in the course--but it made sense to me as that seemed to be the only way to ensure that it's really tight. So with this container that seems not to be the case. The side flap's grommets are apart from each other, so that the closing loop doesn't go straight through, but goes through the right flap, then turns 180 deg towards the left until it goes through the left flap's grommet. Is that normal? 2: One thing we were always taught on gear check is that the pin has to face upward (smiley face) in order to be considered properly inserted. Here (and in the "safety addition link on their site) it seems to be the opposite--possibly because the bridle is not routed from the top? Just wondering about that one. Any wisdom from more experienced jumpers appreciated. My main concern is having a rig that packs so different from others that more experienced people at my DZ won't know how it's supposed to be properly packed and me just doing based on the manual on my own... Thanks. Also: right now they have an awesome special on a complete system, but my exit weight is 250lbs and the largest of their current mains is 210sqft, so they suggested I order it with a PD.exe 235. I've seen reviews going from awesome to awful, so not sure about that one. Any input appreciated.