20_kN

I spoke with an instructor today and was told something that seems contrary to what I've been taught by other instructors in the past. I was told if I am coming back from a long spot and I am downwind from the DZ, fighting against the wind to get back, that I can pull on my rear risers to travel further. He mentioned if I am coming back from a longspot with the wind, fly in brakes. If I am going against the wind, fly with some pull on the rear risers. I have flown in brakes and with risers effectively a several times already, but I've never tried flying against the wind with some pull on the rear risers as it was always my understanding that action will make things worse. So can anyone confirm? If you're flying into a headwind from a long spot, will flattening out the canopy with the rear risers help or hinder your ability to travel far?

Millions of kids who are ineligible to skydive. How many adults with enough disposable income to actually do AFF follow this guy online? I suspect few.

I came across an interesting Friday Freakout video in which the PC of a reserve gets stuck in a jumper's burble. My understanding is that most (all?) reserve PCs have a spring that's intended to help prevent that from happening. I dident really see the PC spring out much when he pulled his reserve and I am curious why. How common is this on a reserve? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2D3b4U-4eRk

I noticed that Aerodyne uses colored webbing on their canopies to indicate the different line groups. Being a novice packer I found that feature to be really useful. I suspect it wont matter later on when I get better, but starting out it's sure been easier. I dont have colored webbing on my canopy and I was considering using something like a colored Sharpie to color the attachment points for the different line groups. I was thinking I could color just the excess webbing that is past the bar tack since that webbing is just excess and doesent appear to be structural in any way. Ideas?

Yes a reserve pillow is the same (at least it is on my rig). A cutaway pillow may have been easy to use on the ground in AFF. In a real malfunction you have your body weight, which may be multiplied if it is a spinning malfunction. The 3 ring system is supposed to help with that, but maybe it was assembled improperly, or the cables are contaminated with sand and grit, and now you have a hard pull. That is why some students are taught the "both hands on cutaway handle" EPs. If that's the case, after cutting away when the gear shifts it is going to be difficult to grab the reserve handle in a high stress situation so a D ring will be easier to grab than a pillow handle (all you need is to hook it with your thumb). Okay, I can see those points for a student. However, any licensed jumper should know how to check his 3-ring for correct assembly and keep sand out of his cables and keep them maintained. However, I still am not understanding how reserve pillows are so complicated that you should need a D license to operate one as Blis suggested, even more so if you jump with an RSL and pull at a conservative altitude. Has there been many accidents involving reserve pillows?

Sure, but they have a drogue which is huge and can generate a massive amount of resistance. A drogue should be able to break several of those tandem bands easily. By design, drogues collapse when released. I doubt they provide much more drag than an inflated pilot chute on a sport rig. Probably just enough more to counter for the weight of the bagged canopy. Alright, so was the video a legit bag lock that was caused by the bands or a lack of a functioning drogue? Someone above implied the cause of the bag lock was a malfunctioning drogue and not an issue with the bands.

As with anything in life, you can get used to anything if you do it enough. In virtually all examples and scenarios, if you're scared of something (anything really), more experience with that something will make you less scared of it in most cases. I was pretty nervous on my first few jumps. I had some anxiety on the drive home after my first day of AFF jumps and it was bad enough that I lost sleep over it and had trouble focusing the next day. Fast forward to my graduation jump two weeks later and I was substantially less nervous and I was able to focus more on the material and less on the fear. By the time I did my license check dive for my A license, the nervousness was diminished to the point that it was barely even noticeable. I would sit in the back of the airplane looking at all the very nervous first-time tandems on the ride up and think to myself 'yep, I know what that feels like.' So to answer your question, you just have to get out and there do it. You will be nervous on the first jumps just like many of the students that came before you and will follow after you. It will go away with experience and time. Just make sure you discuss your concerns with your instructor before the jump.

Yes, I recall them saying that although several people have disagreed claiming they have had bag locks on double stowed rigs. Some of them post on here. There are photos online showing a bag lock on a double stow. While I am not in a position to really argue (never had a bag lock so I would not know), I do know it's most certainly possible to wrap the stow tight enough that it wont release. Whether that is possible with two wraps is obviously debatable, but I know some people who even go as far as triple stowing their lines and that sounds like approaching bag-lock territory. Someone once argued that a double stow cannot cause a bag lock because even if the band did not release the PC easily produces enough force to break any rubber band. On it's surface, I'd agree, that sounds logical as a PC should generate way more force than any rubber band can withstand. However in practice, there are several photos and videos showing bag locks where the bands did not release (for whatever reason) and the PC did not break the rubber band. I am wondering why that is? [.image]http://www.skydivewestpoint.com/skydiving-information/images/1Packing_009.jpg[/image] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmmxBP2zp9o The video above shows the COLLAPSED drogue, not an inflated drogue or pilotchute. . I see that now, thanks. Sure, but they have a drogue which is huge and can generate a massive amount of resistance. A drogue should be able to break several of those tandem bands easily.

I wonder if the instructors had to draw straws to see who had to be assigned to this guy.

Yes, I recall them saying that although several people have disagreed claiming they have had bag locks on double stowed rigs. Some of them post on here. There are photos online showing a bag lock on a double stow. While I am not in a position to really argue (never had a bag lock so I would not know), I do know it's most certainly possible to wrap the stow tight enough that it wont release. Whether that is possible with two wraps is obviously debatable, but I know some people who even go as far as triple stowing their lines and that sounds like approaching bag-lock territory. Someone once argued that a double stow cannot cause a bag lock because even if the band did not release the PC easily produces enough force to break any rubber band. On it's surface, I'd agree, that sounds logical as a PC should generate way more force than any rubber band can withstand. However in practice, there are several photos and videos showing bag locks where the bands did not release (for whatever reason) and the PC did not break the rubber band. I am wondering why that is? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmmxBP2zp9o

Would you mind explaining a bit about your reasoning to go for a rig 2 soft handles at your (very low) jump numbers? Excuse my ignorance, but what makes a reserve pillow harder to use? Is it different from the cutaway pillow? I found the cutaway pillow very easy to use, even in AFF. I did notice the cutaway only has Velcro on one side and I presumed a reserve pillow would be the same?

During my packing class my instructor said to consider single stowing most of the stows. I was told the instructor prefers to double stow the two of the locking stows on the bag and single stow everything else. My S&TA did not seem thrilled at the idea of double stowing all the stows when I asked about it. Other packers and instructors have mentioned opinions ranging from never double stow anything (avoid bag lock) to always double stow everything (avoid bag strip). PD seems very passionate about double stowing and in multiple videos they recommend double stowing all the stows. They claim double stows will not create a bag lock although I do know bag locks have occurred at the stow point on double-stowed bags. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Nsca5add8g Mirage does not seem to specify one method over the other, but in their user manual the photos show the bag as packed with double stows. Icarus also does not appear to recommend any one method, but in their packing .pdf they show the bag packed with double stows as well. I know via previous searches that many people were strongly against double stowing the locking stows 10 years ago but it's not clear if that's still valid anymore. So here is the question. I have a Mirage semi-stowless M6 with an S-Fire 189 that has Vectran lines. Should I: a) Single stow the locking stows w/ small bands b) double stow the locking stows w/ medium bands? Keeping in mind my packing skill is still at the beginner level at this point.

Okay, I see it now, thanks. I saw it was a bag lock before, I just dident see what exactly caused it.

hmmm I am not understanding how failing to sweep the cable would cause a main-reserve entanglement. The cutaway cable protrudes only a few inches past the three ring release (on the rigs I have jumped anyway). If you grab the cutaway and pull to full arms length, you're pulling 24"+ of cable out. How could that still result in the main attached to your rig? OP: Something that might worth practicing is to do your EP drills while in freefall. I found that the EP drills the DZ has you do in your harness on the ground to simulate cutting away a low speed mal is quite different than those used in freefall. The procedures are the same, but the locations of the handles are drastically different since you're not hanging in the harness. Just a tip that I found useful to make good use out of a solo jump.

Because it's probably better to memorize what side the cut-away is on vs what color. I remember cutaway not as red, but as right (grabbed with right hand), and the reserve as left (grabbed with left hand). If you decided on what handle to use based on their location vs their color, then their color might be less important. But I agree, I kept my cut-away as red just in case to make things as clear as possible.

That did not look like a semi-stowless bag. It looked like a full mag bag completely stowless. My question was about magnets on the semi-stowless bags since Lyosha said that the semi-stowless bags with magnetic cover flaps have built in failure modes. I am wondering how magnets vs tuck tabs on the stow cover/ flap has a built-in failure mode. I ended up ordering the Mirage since it's made for my rig, it's just more curiosity at this point. There are some people at my DZ that have semi-stowless bags with the magnetic flaps.

Yes I changed my EPs right out of AFF actually. I was taught you grab the cut-away with both hands, pull, grab the reserve with both hands, pull. While that method is the most simple and easiest for a student to learn, it's not the fastest option. As such, I changed my EPs to put my right hand on the cutaway, left hand on the reserve, pull the cut away with the right hand, pull the reserve with the left hand. That method is faster, but you have to make sure you dont do both at the same time (or the reserve first) or you can end up with a main-reserve entanglement. This video is a good demonstration (the best one I've seen so far) of how to perform EPs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YD1we-F9-3c I strongly recommend watching ALL the chapters on malfunctions that this YouTube author has (there are 10 or so). They are best malfunction instructional videos I've seen on the net.

So I am a bit light and so I've had trouble keeping up with some people. I wear a fairly tight fitting ZP jumpsuit on my jumps. To my surprise someone told me that if I take the jumpsuit off I'll go faster. That doesent make sense to me so I dont see how a loose t-shirt and shorts flapping around everywhere is going to make me go faster than a tight-fitting ZP fabric suit. So that's the story on suits? I thought their entire point was to go faster, not slower (unless you get a really baggy one of course).

Cause out of sequence deployments or are susceptible to them? I get what you are saying though. That was a question I had actually. It seems like a hard yank via the PC with a large canopy in a magnetic bag could cause bag strip. How do the magnets on the semi-stowless bags reduce their safety? They still have standard locking stows. If the flap were to come open in deployment, the bag would still be secured closed by the locking stows until line tension, correct?

Anyway to show freefall speed and alt at the same time? One of my largest complaints about modern alts (other than Atlas) is that you can only chose one or the other.

I bought my first rig, a Mirage G4 M6 (yea, big I know). Anyway, I was thinking of going with their semi-stowless bag. I think the M6 still has four locking stows, but the rest of the line is figure-8ed into the pouch. Is it worth it to get the Mirage semi-stowless or go with one of the fully stowless magnetic bags? Or just stick with a standard D bag? I am pretty novice to packing at this point, but overall find that having to double-stow a crap load of stows takes me all day and I find it hard to keep all the lines of equal lengths when I have to double stow a ton of stows (single stowing is much easier for me). As such, I figure a semi stowless will make things a lot easier as I'll have four stows instead of eight or nine. Ideas?

Pay no attention to a Golden Knight who jumps a Racer!!! LOL, love ya man! That post is 15 years old... Also, I would like to see a report of any recent (say last 15 years) case where an AAD fired 200' off the ground or in the door of an airplane. My understanding is that modern AADs are extremely reliable.

Looks like Cpyres claims they have saved more than 4,000 lives. https://www.cypres.aero/blog/saves/ Not sure if that number is accurate. Sounds a bit questionable since they only have a few hundred reports on their saved list. Even so, say it's only 500, the USPA says that 21 people died skydiving in the USA in 2016. Not sure how that number changes when considering the whole world, but even so several hundred or a few thousand AAD saves that likely would have been deaths without AAD assistance seems to have a quite significant influence in keeping the numbers down. https://uspa.org/Find/FAQs/Safety

The actual number of AAD saves is pretty small. Vigal claims that 294 people have been saved by their product. By the looks of it that only includes those who appear to have submitted a report online, which is probably only a portion of those actually saved, and that's just one of the three main brands. www.vigil.aero/life-saving-list If you want to find out what's causing AAD saves, just read the list. People on the list say why their AAD activated.

Yep which seems ridiculous. The intermediate mode activates at 45 MPH I think and at the same altitude as student mode. Is there a scenario where having the AAD on student mode would save someone but putting it on intermediate and increasing the deployment speed to 45 MPH would not save them?