Binary93

Unfortunately, accidents can and will happen, and with that in mind, I really don't think that any canopy will guarantee you a consistent soft landing as you can always either flare too low and hit the ground with somewhat higher speed, or flare high, have the canopy go through the cycle and dive into the ground. What you should definitely learn I guess is PLF (parachute landing fall) which will save you from injuries until you learn to flare and land properly. Specifically about these canopies, I have only tried Spectre for a few jumps, though loaded a bit higher than what you're aiming for (170ft at ~98kg) and I must say, it was more difficult for me to land it than Safire 2 of the same size. It could be just that specific canopy (though lines were pretty new), or my technique, but it had to be flared more precisely, and wouldn't flatten out that easily on the landing. There's lots of canopies which are considered conservative, like PD Silhouette and Aerodyne Pilot for example, but I think the top priority for you is to learn to PLF, keep jumping and learn proper landing technique. Of course, if you haven't, talk about this in detail with your instructors :)

I'm also interested in this. Did you check with Aerodyne for this one (is it something they consider okay) or you just tried it yourself? Any chance it could become a streamer because of that?

Sure, send me your email and I can share. I've also written an app myself so I can share some of the troublesome details (like converting pressure to altitude). Edit: Actually, I've pushed the code to this repo: https://github.com/damjandakic93/ProtrackReader I pretty much gave up on it (it was made out of boredom). Feel free to contribute, copy, derive from, do whatever you want :) The pressure/altitude conversion is in ProtrackParser/DevicesDatabase.cs function at the bottom (PressureToAltitude).

This I guess?

In Serbia: Students are required to jump at least 5x FS2 (allowed only with instructor or a coach) in order to qualify for the A license exam. A license holders - the biggest they're allowed to jump is FS4 with a limit that at most 2 A license holders are in the formation and that at least one of them is an instructor or a coach. This is all on paper, in reality it's more free style, a case-by-case triage based on the level of skill and experience of all participants.

Completely unaware of what exactly the app does (just heard of it) and the nature of the project (free/open source/commercial) but I'd love to contribute if possible (electrical engineering + signal processing + machine learning background). Will send the data regardless :)

It's fairly simple to check the order. Have a friend spread out the canopy, you stand near the slinks, take one of the lines from a slink and pull it to see where it attaches to the canopy. The ones on the outside of the riser should be attached to the outside of the canopy (the order of the lines on a slink should be the same as the order they are attached to the canopy). As for making a difference, I don't know the magnitude (I assume it would if nothing introduce friction of the lines) but not really sure why you wouldn't have this fixed whatever the difference it makes (it should be attached the way it's supposed to be attached). As for twists in the lines you can check it the same way you untwist your toggle lines.

Just to make sure I don't misunderstand, I guess you wouldn't want one of your cells left somewhere inside so you do hold them between your legs up until cocooning exactly for that reason, right? This also confused me, could you explain? (if there was some sarcasm involved, sorry for missing it [also new here :)])

I think you'll mostly find two types of persons: one wanting all of the flashy features and infinite customization, and one wanting a device that's predictable, simple and doesn't require a lot of maintenance. I happen to belong in the second category. If it's usb rechargable I instanly think of "another thing to keep track of", "how fast's battery life gonna degrade, after how many recharge cycles", etc. Bluetooth? - "Way too complex system now for it to be bug-free". With such a mindset, I use protrack, so I can tell you the nitpick stuff I have with it. I bought it to use it as a logbook, but it sometimes (often) fails to register hop n pop jumps - really not sure how that's possible but they somehow manage to fail at that. And because it's not working all the time, I just gave up and don't even look at the data anymore. Speed profile is nice to have, but because it's not trivial to correlate it with the video, I end up not using it ever at all, even though I made an effort to make my own graphing app to customize it to my needs (don't really like Paralog). It should be trivial and fast to read the jump data, not sure why you have to perform access sequence to read the data. Even if you enter the plane and start climbing it could just force quit that screen (lock itself). That's mostly it, bottom line is, all this stuff is nitpicky, but priority 0 is of course that it beeps for the breakoff, for the deployment altitude and on the hard deck if you're in high speed.

In the Parachute Rigger Handbook is the following image. I'm not 100% sure but I think I saw the yellow 3-ring cables as pins for the static line. Is this something that's okay or something that should be strongly avoided? (I'm not a rigger, just trying to learn) Thanks!

Wrong orientation causing the distortion in the plastic can hypothetically explain it I guess (though I agree, I would expect the jumper to rotate and eventually release the closing loop). I agree with both the procedure (waiting for the cutting before the reserve) and the hook knife (being "standard piece of equipment"), there's lots of should've-could'ves here. But what I'm mostly interested in is, aside from closing the rig from the wrong side (with respect to the plane door orientation), are you aware of any other don'ts one should be aware of while packing and checking the equipment to make sure this doesn't happen? As a side note, it's weird that the static line didn't brake in this concrete occurence because we can't see the main canopy and even though the video is low quality, I'd expect it to be visible.

Hi, Just saw this clip of a student hanging on the static line. I'm very interested in all the reasons how this may happen? What are all the things you can do in packing to have this happen? (I'd like to focus my question completely on the packing issues rather than emergency procedures and the insane amount of luck these folks had) Also, the static line appears to have broken (as we can't see the main canopy), are there any standards for this (that the lines are made to break at some point at some force on purpose)?

Skydive Bovec in Slovenia (basically on a border with Italy) has a great scenery and there's wingsuiters most of the times I'm there. It's a PC6, not a helicopter though.

If you pursue the sport and keep jumping you'll need to get used to that feeling a lot. You see folks doing awesome stuff, you work and train hard hoping that some day you'll be able to that and you keep trying and keep failing. But that's what makes it all fun. You manage to get better and do some stuff you used to hope you'll be able to do, but by then your appetite grew and now you want to do some even more awesome and more difficult stuff. But as I said, that's what makes it fun, it's an endless journey :) The shit happens when you can't handle the feeling of failing so you push harder and faster than you should or are able to. Most of the stuff in this sport takes time and patience to learn.

I'd say that's perfectly normal, it takes time to really "feel" the air and have your brain adapt to the new type of movement and muscle control. What I'd recommend though, if you plan on more tunnel time, is to save up some money and do a bit more time in bulk (20 mins - 30 mins) rather than go to a a few minutes session and take a break for a period of time after which you again do a few minutes session. Then again, that's just my personal opinion, the best advice you can get is in person from your own instructors - they'll be working with you through your training and will advise you the best on what, when and how.

A friend of mine has grelfab and it doesn't shake (even in sit). Are you running stabilization on the camera? If not, I guess the shake is expected, I have a mount on the top (drilled the helmet) and without stabilization it's all shaky (as the helmet itself can shake). Sorry for the digression.

You take the same posture you'll fall pretty much the same speed as in the tunnel. The only differences (why you'll fall slightly faster up there) are due to air density difference but that doesn't make any big difference (after all, it affects everyone else the same way). And given your extreme ability to arch, I'm sure you'll have a wide range of fall speeds to choose after some practice. As others already said, keep up, listen to your instructors, you'll do just fine :)

What do you mean "like an airplane"? Could you explain in a bit more detail? I'm guessing you learned to turn with your arms while "the real stuff in the real air" is with your legs, or some similar comment. Again, just speculating on the meaning intended, otherwise air in the sky is pretty much the same (just a lot wider and with a bit less points you can look at for reference).

As gowlerk said, it should be instructors (examiners just execute the exam), though I would add a big IF - if you're not in the US (semi-assuming so based on your username) the regulations might be different and you should check in the official documents of your own regulatory body/law to be completely sure.

Openings are incredible, on-heading (even though my packing can be a little messy), quick and "positive" but they don't break your spine (might surprise you the first time if you're used to long snivels but you get used to it very quickly). Fronts are medium in pressure (I'm loading it at 1.5), rears are super soft and super powerful, harness input is also really awesome. Flare is amazing, way too much power in toggles, pull a tiny bit too much (51% of the total range) and it shoots you up. The canopy feels very powerful but not twitchy, I see literally zero downsides, probably gonna stick with this one for quite some time.

I've seen on a few videos risers having a separate line with toggle rings at the end. Can someone tell me what they're called (if there's a special name for them) and why are they used? Thanks

If it's airworthy it should be allowed on all-most places. Your reserve must be repacked at most 6-12 months ago (depending on the country), and AAD is usually mandatory. I've jumped in Serbia, Bosnia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Bulgaria and noone cared about the age of my gear.

Bought an X-Fire, opens like a charm with no tricks in packing (it's very slippy so my packing is even worse). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzd54WWSYpI

Bovec, Slovenia This one solved it, thanks! Also found a video by Brian Germain explaining this

1-50 Prima, Solo, Navigator 290-240ft 0.8-0.95 WL 51-118 Mostly Sabre2 230ft 1.0 WL 119-214 Paraavis Ultimate 170ft 1.35 WL (1 canopy course) 215-216 X-Fire 154ft 1.5 WL