CoolBeans

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Everything posted by CoolBeans

  1. Hi, for AFF we do one hop and pop from 5500ft and then one from 3500ft. However, is doing hops and pops regularly from 3500ft good and safe thing to do? I normally pull at 4500ft and when doing 3500ft hop and pop I would initiate opening at around 3000ft and be fully open around 2500ft. What do you think? Seems too low for me.
  2. Most of the people with ~190 sqft mains jump 176 sqft reserve. I've been advised by many that this is fine. And that's what I'm aiming at. Look, I'm asking because I don't know. If this is bad idea for whatever reason, just tell me. Instead of going cheap and temporary I'm thinking of spending a bit more money on proper container now but then I would want to keep it a bit longer if possible. That's all it is.
  3. Hi, I'm about to pull the trigger on new/used rig. Is it a bad idea to try to get one that will fit Pilot ZPX 188, Sabre2 170 and Sabre2 150? Not at the same time if somebody asked... I'm being told that Pilot ZPX 188 packs like normal canopy at around 170 size so that could work. There are few other canopies that may pack smaller, like Storm 190 or Pulse 190. What I have in mind is for example: Vector 348 / 349 Javelin J3K (or maybe J2K?) Mirage M4M / M4L Icon i5 Would appreciate advise.
  4. That could have ended up pretty bad. He didn't PLF!
  5. This is what really scares me in skydiving! Perfectly fine canopy just decided it didn't want to fly anymore?
  6. Just checking, did anybody do the loop under skydiving canopy since 2008? Here's simple gif of how it should look like: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerobatic_maneuver#/media/File:Loop1.gif It could be great finish following strong swoop.
  7. There's another Friday Freakout: But this comment on youtube just made my day: Christina Page: "def not a fail. those kids were like, did u c that dude kick that tree n half? thats badass. i didnt c any of the other jumpers doing anything cool. yes, he bounced off his ass, but di he cross the finish line? yes. this is y i dont do demos."
  8. @Divalent mine looked very similar! Except it was on the left hand side and minimally farther from the center. Was your right steering line free to move? That knot on the right hand side you have, I had similar one but on the left hand side and my left steering line was tangled there so when I pulled left toggle - whole left part of the canopy would react. Is the knot part of line over malfunction? Or is it 2 malfunctions on that picture, line over + tension knot?
  9. I am piecing equipment for me, brand new jumper. Is it container only that could be 'freefly friendly'? What exactly does that include? I'm not planning on sit flying anytime soon, but I'm willing to do multiple back flips on the way down, or maybe aggressive tracking. I think that justifies freefly friendly rig, doesn't it? Also are there any risks OTHER THAN premature deployment that 'freefly friendly' rig mitigates?
  10. You could rent bigger rig for 10-15 jumps which will give you peace of mind and make all instructors happy. In the meantime, choose one with different canopy than Sabre 2, so you learn and recognize differences between them.
  11. Hi there, I had first cut-away on my last jump, #19 on Icarus Student 240 sqft canopy with RSL on it - rental rig. These are packed by drop zone packers. That was a coach jump. At pull altitude I went for the main deployment handle but I missed it. I went for it again and then I got good grip on it and deployed then. From coach perspective it looked like I grabbed and kept it for 1 sec or so and apparently bridle released on first touch. Don't know if any of that could have contributed to the malfunction. Opening was just fine. I'm used to Icarus Student 220 sqft canopy that usually gets energetic during the opening - end cells don't inflate for few secs and canopy shakes me side to side. Because of that I have a habit of getting quick on toggles as I'm always thinking - what if it's toggle fire? and also getting ready to pump brakes to get these end cells to inflate. Anyway this time on Icarus Student 240 sqft I did the same thing, went to toggles very quick. But then I noticed canopy wasn't square. It looked like a bow-tie attached on the picture except: - in my case the bow-tie knot on the canopy wasn't as tight, it was about 2 feet wide - normally steering lines bend as canopy flies forward; my left steering line didn't bend; it was tangled with other suspension lines What happened later - I realized I have to either fix it or cut-away. Canopy was pretty stable, no spin. I checked altitude, 4000 ft and then pumped brakes 3 times. That thing didn't clear, my canopy still wasn't square but it was relatively stable so far. Next thing I pulled left toggle only about half way down. That woke the devil. Now it spun me on my back like a roller-coaster. At that moment I decided I'm cutting it away as I realized things might get only worse from now on - I let both toggles off - I looked down on cut-away handle and grabbed it with both hands - I yanked it out - Right after that I went with both hands to reserve handle and pulled that one too At 2500 ft I was under fully inflated reserve and landed normal pattern. No injuries whatsoever. What I DIDN'T do was - I did not arch before starting emergency procedures - forgot about it as I never practice that part - I did not bother at all about peel-punch, I just yanked cut-away and then reserve handles - same thing, don't really practice details about how to handle the handle - Once under the reserve I realized my cut-away cables didn't clear all the way; I didn't swipe the cables - same thing, don't practice swiping cables when practicing emergency procedures - I did not LOOK at reserve handle; I might have been lucky that after cutting away I found it with no looking whatsoever - I normally practice that part; during real thing I must have forgotten about it - I did not keep reserve handle, it dropped Surprisingly this whole situation wasn't stressful at all, I didn't think about anything else but solving the problem and doing next step as I was trained. As a matter of fact I felt very calm and comfortable given that canopy for the initial part wasn't spinning and I had good altitude left. I have no problem jumping exact same rig again. There are things that I could have done better, I could have tried harder to fix it, I could have performed my emergency procedures better, I could have saved the reserve handle. Right before cutting away as I let both toggles off - canopy started getting stable again so I COULD HAVE tried again to fix it but I was already committed to cutting it away. I'm sharing this so I can learn and prepare better for any future dealings with problems but also for others to see, evaluate and learn from my incident. Also, I don't really feel like talking to family or non-skydiving friends about that... Disclaimer: attached picture is NOT my malfunction. My malfunction only looked very similar to it.
  12. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_-B62HKdQK1_lUfQXJfuZA/videos Friday Freakout - that could give you a lot of inspirations for the stuff that could go wrong but still survivable.
  13. noamineo, also, common injury & fatality cause is so called low turn. If you pay attention, the way skydiving canopy turns is by diving. For example like this one: Doesn't look that scary, right? Weather is nice, he's got fully functioning parachute. Small mistake all of a sudden causes very serious health consequences.
  14. noamineo, skydivers under normal conditions land upwind. Canopy has built-in speed which is usually about 15 mph forward. That means if there is no wind at all, these skydivers have about 15 mph of ground speed before touch down. During *regular* upwind landing conditions, if the wind is blowing at 15 mph - the same skydivers have about 0 mph ground speed before touch down. Simply because they land upwind so the speed of wind + speed of the canopy cancel out. Skydiving canopy behaves like wing of the airplane. In order to safely execute landing, skydiver has to flare right before touching down. Flare is when skydiver pulls both toggles (toggles are kept in hands) all the way down to the knees level. When flare occurs the canopy's tail is deflected which causes more lift and slows down the forward speed. That allows gentle landings. Now let's talk about somebody who does that for the first time in their life and they don't know what they are doing. If the person lands downwind at 15 mph wind (their ground speed at that point would be about 30 mph) and DOES NOT flare, they are gonna hit the ground hard. You can think of standing at the tailgate of the pickup truck, facing the direction of the drive, driving 30 mph and you just jump back on the ground. You are very likely to break your legs. Something like below, but DRIVING 30mph. Now let's talk about somebody doing that at even higher wind with obstacles and uneven ground...
  15. AFF consists of multiple jumps, some of them are with 2 instructors, some of them are with 1 instructor. Instructors are just people who hang out at the dropzone and they have bunch of other stuff to do outside of AFF - for example video jumps with tandems. Don't expect to do all jumps with the same crew, expect the otherwise. There are many instructors on both dropzones, call the dropzone of your choice and explain that you want to do AFF. They will guide you from there.
  16. Hey, at the time of writing this post I have 18 jumps - few done on navigator 260 sqft, most on Icarus Student 220 sqft. I'm 5'11" male and 170 lbs. I'm looking to be renting Icarus Student 220 sqft until I have about 35-40 jumps and then move onto new rig. I'm thinking that Spectre 190 is perfect fit for me and I would like to jump that for next ~3 years so I'm fine with whole setup being not downsize-ready. Do you have any opinions on other canopies I might want to consider? I know that Sabre2 is very popular but I really want to minimize likelihood of hard openings and that's why I'm looking at Spectre. I don't want that equipment to be brand new but I won't get into 20 years old stuff either. Happy medium for me is 1-3 years old with 50-150 jumps on it.
  17. https://www.philzcoffee.com/ that one is good, but not widely available.
  18. Well, I did once or twice start flaring too high and then I would stop & freeze with my hands around shoulder level for good few seconds. It wasn't one smooth movement then.
  19. This is pretty old conversation but I'm curious about your opinions. I've been taught and used for all of my 17 jumps - 2 stage flare. Simply: - flare first to half brakes (hands around shoulder level) - then finish all the way down One or two times I started flaring too high. So I kept it at half brakes for good few seconds and finished right before touch down. Other times I started at exactly right level so I executed 1st and 2nd stage right after - which ended up looking like ONE smooth movement. I think it's good approach for students as it allows them to start too high (by mistake) and still have some of the flare power left as they touch down.
  20. What exactly is the reason behind you not willing to learn free fall drills and just doing static line jumps? - cost of full training? - nerves of having to learn something new / something scary? - time commitment? - not enough confidence in your skills & capabilities? What if you jump and canopy is no good? Will you be afraid of cutting away as that means going back to free fall? You will be much safer for yourself and others around you having full training finished. Getting off student status and doing first jumps alone with no instructors makes people really grow up and understand the responsibility shift from - "I'm with instructor, he will take care of stuff if needed" to "I'm 100% on my own, how do I do everything right?" Many students go to wind tunnel to practice free fall drills and get more comfortable in the air. Would you consider doing 10-15 min now after you've already done some jumps? 15 min tunnel is equivalent to 15 free fall jumps from 15k feet. It really helps. And then as others said - if you only want to do canopy time, you can do hops & pops from 5k feet. That's the type of jump where you exit the airplane and deploy within 3 seconds so your free fall is very short.
  21. I'm interested in purchasing Spectre canopy, most likely around 190 sqft. I'm freshly off AFF with approx 190lbs exit weight. I noticed that there are spectres 10+ years old as well as 1-2 years old. Are they exactly same canopies? For example, 2009 Camry vs 2018 Camry are different cars with many different components. Is canopy design changed year to year while keeping the same name like it happens in car industry?
  22. Swoopers need to gain speed before coming close to the ground so they do so called front riser turn - 90/180/270 degrees or more. Thanks to that canopy starts diving and gets more speed. Why wouldn't they approach at 0 degrees angle and just hang onto both front risers to force canopy dive that way? Does pulling single front riser (= turning) cause better dive? I noticed some people during regular landing pull both front risers for a second or two on final to get better flare.