Westerly

I dont have to wait that long at most of the DZs I've jumped at. Occasionally I have to wait, but more times there have been empty seats in the airplane and less occasionally the load never even went up because they couldent find enough people to fill it.

I dont get it. I see camera guys with large DSLRs on their helmets. Sometimes even two or three DSLRs. I have to think to myself what would happen if they had a very hard opening with that much weight on their head. I suspect it would be lethal. Makes me question why take the risk? There are plenty of action sports cameras that can shoot 15 megapixles+ and 4k video. It seems unnecessary to put a DSLR on your head considering the risks that even a moderately hard opening could result in serious neck injuries with that much weight.

Well just about every rig user manual says do not use any aftermarket parts with your rig; only use OEM replacements sourced from the manufacturer. I guess this is one of the reasons why?

I dont know why it takes manufacturers so long to make products that can realistically be made in a few days. However, I would give the universal answer as to why any company anywhere in any industry is allowed to get away with anything--because consumers are willing to put up with it. If skydivers outright refused to buy rigs that took longer than three weeks to made, you can bet your ass every manufacturer would be turning rigs out in under three weeks. I have heard the answer that it takes so long to make this stuff because it's custom and it's a niche market. I call BS on that. There are hundreds of niche sports and activities out there that requires custom gear. I participate in a few of them. Yet manufacturers in those industries can get your gear out in a reasonable amount of time. I am not aware of any other industry that takes so long to make something that can be made in a small fraction of the time we actually spend waiting for the gear. So my best answer to your question would be that because you are willing to put up with it. Dont buy from companies that are slow and if enough people do the same then those companies wont be around anymore.

I hit some nasty turbulence today at around 2k'. My initial reaction was that it's my understanding that higher wing loaded canopies are less effected by turbulence and so if you're getting shacked around hard you want to increase your wingloading. Thus, I spiraled down and tried to keep my airspeed and wing loading high until it was getting close to landing time. By contrast, my understanding has been that flying in brakes is the worst thing you can do as it depressurizes your canopy and increases the risk of a collapse. So what's the real story in flying in turbulence? Do you want to spiral around and keep the speed up or not? If it matters my WL is 1.06 on a Lotus 170 air locked canopy.

Generally you want slick shoes in skydiving. Later on when you get better you will be able to slide in on your feet, but you cannot easily do that with shoes that have a lot of tread/ grip. Most skydivers around my parts wear skater shoes. I use cheap running shoes as they tend to be pretty flat on the bottom with minimal grip.

Probably because air is invisible but the ground is not. As such, people will correlate their movement with the ground as that's the only reference to determine how fast they are going and in what direction.

Well the list of crap they need to fix on the G3 is a mile long so it's not like there is no room for improvement.

So I know that attaching the leg loops together for freeflying is intended to help prevent the leg loops from crawling up while sit flying, but I dont understand how they prevent it form happening. I have sat in a chair using an FF friendly rig with the leg loops tied together and even with the leg loops cinched tight I was still able to work the loops up and over my knees. Anyway, I have to make some leg loops FF friendly and I have a bunch of 550 cord laying around. Can I use standard 550 paracord to tie them together or do I need something that actually stretches? How long should it be?

Or you could just pack yourself. Seriously, I used to absolutely despise packing. It made me want to punch myself in the face. Yet here I am now and I pack every jump and I do it on a brand new canopy which sucks ass to pack. You just have to fight the suckness and after you do it two dozen times you'll be doing it all the time. If you make 300 jumps in a year, that's $2800 a year saved assuming $7 a packjob plus tip. You could literally buy a new main every 225 jumps from the money saved. So look at it that way. Pay someone to pack your stuff or do it yourself and buy a brand new main every 225 jumps with the money saved. Which sounds like the better deal now?

hmmm I always figured AADs were fairly simple devices. I mean, basically they are just reading barometric pressure to calculate altitude, taking multiple samples at fixed intervals and then comparing speed against a preset trigger value (around 885' for most AADs). Seems like an exceedingly simple device. I guess I was wrong.

It seems the one parachute you would want to be absolutely positive you can easily land is your reserve. So why are people buying small-ass reserves? Last I checked the only purpose of a reserve is to get you to the ground in one piece so there doesent seem to be much purpose in buying reserves small enough to swoop with. Not to mention an unconscious landing after an AAD fire on a reserve that small probably wont dont do much for you. Even an unconscious landing on a 210 could easily result in serious injury. Is there any risk in using a reserve that is larger than the main? Say a 150 main and a 190 reserve?

It's not uncommon. There are plenty of videos on YouTube of students spinning all over the place. You'll get it. It's not that hard to stop a spin, it just takes a bit of practice. If you let up the arm that is causing the spin and return to a neutral arched position, the spin will stop. If you want it to stop faster, you return to a neutral belly position and use some input on the opposite arm until the spin stops. Also keep in mind that it is possible (very effective actually) to spin using your legs. In fact, your legs can spin you harder than your hands can, so if you're bringing your knees down toward the earth, or out to the side that could easily cause a spin even if your arms are neutral. Later once you have your A license if you get into formation flying you'll actually learn to use your legs to turn as they are more effective.

Any pics of the Boost MARD? They seem a bit secretive about it and I cant find any.

Where I jump there are some issues with people landing in different directions. The swoopers sometimes intentionally land downwind so you cant count on them setting the 'first man down sets the pattern' rule as they often intentionally fly downwind. Thus, in general I think most people try to land in the same direction as the first person, but that does not always happen when the winds are light and variable. When the winds are more steady or calm, then everyone follows the same pattern. But once they start shifting direction, people start landing in different directions. Landing out is not really an easy option. We have some outs, but they are limited and small. Some of them are private property and are reserved for legitimate emergencies only. It's nice to be able to jump at an easy DZ where you can 'for fucks sake not have to land at the landing area all the time,' but at some more challenging DZs it's not that simple. I am not sure what the answer is. Having a large orange arrow on the ground sure would be nice.

Downwind means that you are traveling with the wind. As in the wind is at your back pushing you along and so you go faster. Upwind means you're traveling against the wind, as in the wind is in your face pushing against you so you go slower. Unless your instructor advises you otherwise, you should head to the holding area immediately after opening, performing a controllability check and checking the status of the traffic in the air. You dont want to mess around wasting altitude practicing turns and whatever else, head to the holding area late and then find that you cant make it there because you wasted too much altitude messing around.

I think that's common. I only know one packer that double stows. I suspect the main reason is packers are in it to get the job done efficiently and quickly as they have many loads to turn. Single stowing is faster and easier than double stowing and since it seems to work most of the time they go with that. Also, I suspect most packers are going to do what they are shown, so if they were shown to single stow at the DZ then that's what they will do.

I did watch the video and found it interesting. I see how having a stiff tuck tab could cause a problem, but I also envision every manufacturer is aware of this concern and yet most companies use tuck tabs. So the question then would be why? If magnets are safer, why do companies use tuck tabs? I asked Mirage this once and their response was that magnets dont stay closed when freeflying sometimes. So the question then would be which is more serious, a riser cover opening in free fall or a riser cover failing to open correctly? Seems like a riser cover opening in freefall is more of an annoyance than a legitimate safety concern, but admittedly I am not sure. It's interesting that you said a brake fire is a serious issue. I thought it was a minor issue unless you have a highly loaded canopy which will dive and spin hard with a stuck toggle. I've accidentally unstowed one toggle after opening and not the other. When that happened the canopy barely spun at all with a 1:1 WL. I could easily counteract the spin just by pulling a hair on the opposite rear riser, so I guess I was always under the assumption that if the toggle comes off during deployment that it wouldent matter much. Now I can see the issue with the toggles being off prior to opening, thanks for that. But what about if the toggle pops while opening and you're not running a high performance canopy? Is it that serious of an issue?

Line dump, yes I agree that it's questionable as to whether that is a concern. Bag strip on the other hand I think is commonly accepted as a serious malfunction. My understanding is that line dump and bag strip are not the same thing. Line dump occurs when the line stows (not locking stows, line stows) come off the bag. In semi stowless and reserve freebags you dont really have much line tension anyway so you could kind of argue that line dump occurs on every opening with those types of bags. My understanding is that bag strip occurs when the locking stows come off before line stretch and the canopy is free to come out of the bag while the lines are still loose. I view that is a very serious malfunction because no line tension means that the slider can come down instantly giving you a mostly or fully open canopy by the time you come to line stretch. There are some photos and videos of this occurring floating around the net and the end result is always an extremely hard opening. The idea with the double stow method is that it greatly reduces the chances of bag strip (compared to loose single stows) because it makes it harder for the locking stows to come off prior to line stretch ensuring that the stows only come off when they should come off. It’s funny you mention the tuck tab issue as a possible cause of hard openings because by contrast ‘tons’ of people have tuck tabs. There are several manufacturers that only make tuck tab rigs. In fact, I would envision that far more companies make tuck tabs than make magnetic riser covers. Yet people arnt having hard openings left and right as a result. Don’t get me wrong, the tuck tab issue is something I have thought about and I even asked the manufacturer of my rig about it. I can fully see how having the riser covers open last in the sequence could result in slack in the lines allowing the slider to come down and it's made me wonder why more rig manufacturers dont use magnets instead. Yet, millions of jumps are made on rigs with tuck tabs. So it’s kind of an iffy situation as conventional wisdom says they are a concern, yet just about everyone has them on their rig. In terms of packing priorities , I think the main priorities (not in order) are: - Quarter slider and make sure it's against the slider stops before bagging (hard opening) - Cock PC (pilot chute in tow malfunction) - Make sure slider stops are clear of lines (lineover malfunction) - Ensure adequate stow tension on locking stows (bag strip). - Make sure there are no lines or bridle wrapped around your closing loop and there is a clear path from the PC to the closing pin (pilot chute in tow malfunction). -Conduct a proper line check (step-through malfunction)

Crazy. I am not sure how the main could have gotten out of the bag if you double stowed the two outer locking stows. While double stowing the two outer locking stows is probably not as secure as doing all four, I would think it would still be sufficient to keep the main in the bag. Even if the two inner stows came off, I would think the main still wouldn't be able to come out with the two outer stows still on. I supposed one option could be that the two inner stows came off out of sequence, the two outer stows dident release until they were supposed to, but then because the two inner stows allowed for slack in the system as soon as the second outer stow came off the slider then came down while the lines were slack. I supposed that is possible. Anytime there is slack in the lines and the canopy is out of the bag there is the potential for the slider to come down. Otherwise I am curious as to what else could have happened. Maybe one of the riser covers hung up allowing for monetary slack in the lines. Do you have tuck tab riser covers? What main were you using? I asked bout the RSL and MARD because if you have an RSL side riser failure then the failed riser can extract your main and now you have a two out. The collins lanyard is intended to eliminate that risk. This assumes your RSL is on your left side. I think UPT and maybe some few other brands put it on the right side.

Wait, so you're saying you single wrapped the locking stows and double wrapped the line stows? I am assuming you dont have an RSL since you said you had to cutaway (thus no collins lanyard) and you dident mention a main-reserve entanglement (so no MARD or RSL I presume)? What condition were your risers in and how heavy are you? Mini risers I assume? I actually buy the fullsize type 8 risers with mini rings for this reason in hopes that I wont ever have a riser failure.

One thing I see a lot of people do is kneel on the slider while pushing the air out. While I am far from an expert on the matter, I typically disagree with putting my knees on the slider grommets. If I am going to put my knees on anything, I put it on fabric next to the slider, but never directly on the grommets. The idea is that when you go from kneeling to laying (to squeeze the air out), your knees will rotate on the ground whether you want them to or not because you're rolling your body forward. I see people lay down, sit up, lay down, sit up. Every time you move, your knees move and if your knees are on the slider grommets, then the grommets are moving too. Thus, I keep off the slider grommets and kneel on the fabric instead. Again, you can always check the position of the slider grommets before putting the canopy in the bag by grabbing the lines, running one hand up and pushing the hand against the slider grommets forcing them against the stops. Also, the OP mentioned he had a hard opening. Do you know that the hard opening was caused by the slider? Did you specifically remember packing the canopy knowing that there was an issue with the slider? I ask because packing techniques are not the only thing that can influence a hard opening. While a poor slider position certainly can cause a hard opening and it’s a common reason for hard openings, experiencing a hard opening does not absolutely guarantee it was an issue with the slider position while packing. This is a really great video on what can cause hard openings. I learned a lot watching it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jLJdDXJ9qBI

A more reasonable explanation is that they don't cover the same stories at the same time. The most reasonable explanation is that neither of them cover news period and they are both garbage propaganda dissimulators and not real news outlets. But then again I guess people dont want real facts, they just want a bunch of political drama wrapped up into something CNN and Fox calls news and they just want to believe that what they are watching is real news, even if it's not.

I do the reverse S fold method too and find it's worked out so far for me. I am not a packing wizard so dont take my advice for much. However, I have the same concerns about the slider that you do. As such my solution has been this. Before garbing the tail to fold into the bag, I grab the lines pulling them tight from the rig and I slide one hand up the lines until I hit the slider grommets. I then push the grommets up against the slider stops and hold the slider grommets up and against the slider stops as I fold the tail into the bag. I suspect this reduces the chance of the slider moving around because I am physically holding the slider grommets against the slider stops as I put the tail into the bag. If I am ever unsure, I just unroll the tail a bit so I can physically see the slider grommets to ensure they are against the stops. Honestly, I dont know if it matters to have a tight roll on the tail or not, but I've tried both a tight roll and no roll at all and I havent really noticed much of a difference.

I thought this was common knowledge? Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, all garbage. All funded by stakeholders with a financial interest in trying to get you to believe certain things. The bias in Fox News' reporting is painful. Any so-called news agency that has such a blatant, obvious strong bias toward any one side, liberal or conservative, is obviously not a real news reporting agency. If you want real news go to NPR or BBC.