freeflyguy

I don't have any problem with the heights, usually. But my first baloon jump was trippy. I was a little spooked of the height, until I got to about 500 feet. It was a little freaky knowing that my parachute was useless, before 500. Then all was supreme blue and awesome.

I know this is an old post/thread, but I have an opinion on Sabre's too. How not to get whacked. I have 150 jumps on one. The hard openings got so bad that I began to have a phobia about deploying. Not a good thing for skydiving. So I worked on it, and haven't had a bad opening for 75 jumps or so. Here is what I have collected. Pack careful. 4 or 5 rolls on each side of the nose, lightly push them into the center of the pack, not very far. Don't tuck them in the center cell or anything. The slider is super important. Set it too the stops and quarter it, then pull the back edge back (toward the rig) In flight and opening, this is actually the leading edge of the slider, over the nose. Pull it too just to where the front edge (actually the back of the slider as you are under canopy) is almost even with the lines. Very important, if it doesn't catch air, you will get a spine adjustment. Then wrap and roll the tail good. Get a good firm bite on your stows, to prevent line dump. Here is the kicker that people don't seem to talk about much. You will NEVER get a hard opening if you don't deploy it... Simple, no? What that means is that the way you deploy is as important as the way you pack. Trust me. If you have forward speed, your slider has a chance to catch your burble. Ouch. If you try to get big, to slow down, you have a bigger burble, and the same whack may happen. So body postion on opening needs to be controlled. Slow down your forward speed, or stop and backslide a bit, if you are clear and have time. Don't get too big, the vertical speed won't kill you, if you let the air catch your slider. Fly your opening on heading with your body in your harness, then your rear risers, and you are good. I have no issues with Sabre openings anymore. Blue ones...

I got six. Does this mean that I am oph genius stature, since I remember this little phrase phrom 20 years ago?

I thought I had better post, to get my post count up past 3. I wouldn't want to be left behind.

I watched one guy have two reserve rides on a round. They don't steer well, and the landings looked hard. But they always open. We also use them for a third parachute on intentional cutaways, because they don't tend to get tangled in the mess. But nobody that I have seen has had to use one.