FrogNog

My advice for anyone who can't land a particular canopy without crashing one way or another is to switch to a different canopy that they can land without crashing. I apologize if that sounds flippant and/or unhelpful, but it is my understanding that ungraceful landings are not a good thing. They may be a warning. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

The other half of that rhyme is "long and thin won't stay in". It seems the original poster is not having any trouble keeping the PC in the pouch. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I agree it's a shame to the people emotionally involved and to people who don't like seeing our sport made a macabre spectacle. But it's just TV, so like the myriad shows in poor taste before it, ignore it and it will go away in time. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I guess it could also be taken as a weird testament to the stability and gentle handling of the factory Triathlon design: "so gentle, you can whack 50 cm off the lines and it still works!". -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I think if the new jumper weighed 100 pounds the lines on a 135 would still be too short. Of course, I don't know how many jumps or what skill this supposed new jumper has; that's just "what I think". -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I have (had?) my own "ground doubts" about two sets of mini risers on one set of big rings, but I reviewed the alternatives and practicality played a significant factor. I do, of course, hope this works.

You could work on reducing your head-down speed. Maybe see if it would make you compatible with some belly-fliers. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

That is the theory. (Mini risers connected to the big rings.) I'll post more pictures when I do some more rigging and get closer to jumping it. As Amazon apparently questions, safely containing the tertiary risers is going to be interesting. (The tertiary canopy will deploy first, out of a belly-bag.) I think I may need to sew riser covers onto the front of a shirt. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I just got my "black" Infinity back with some mods.

Around jump 15, something like my 7th 15-second freefall, in the rain, resulting in a cutaway, I clicked. Lots of things were going "odd" that day on the ground and by takeoff I knew something was going to happen... and I would be OK with that. Now, it would be another 85 jumps before I wasn't scared riding up in the plane. :) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Are you referring to collapsing it? When you collapse a slider, the two cords that run through it cinch it up so it might look like it's been "tied." Some sliders have a piece of Velcro attached to them that the pilot can actually wrap all the way around the slider and attach back to itself. Old-school. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

That could be true. After a few hundred jumps the lines could need replacing. But I think we can agree the major purpose is to eliminate the annoying flapping. A third purpose is entertainment. Immediately after opening, some people don't want to be bothered with making sure they're not going to crash into anyone and turning back toward the dropzone and/or into the wind. Having an extra string to yank to quiet down the slider delays this "work" section of the skydive a little longer. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I upsized back to at least as large a canopy as I should have been on, and I did what my physical therapist told me to do. Upsizing was sweet. It slowed everything down. Also, if you broke something by not flaring all the way, I would suggest finishing your flare from now on. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

There are also "panic turns". These are similar to when you see someone with car crash injuries who tells you they swerved to avoid a dog and ended up in the ditch. The are also "didn't know I was that low" regular turns. Turns that are not particularly high-performance (or at least not high-performance compared to the jumper's skill level and the canopy they are flying) but that still are enough to injure or kill if the jumper gets to the ground before completing the turn. Does anyone know why these happen? Collision-entanglements suck too. These are similar to when someone doesn't successfully avoid the dog in the road and it gets sucked into the engine, causing a flameout, and an unexpected forced landing. (OK, maybe less similarity in this example.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

For myself, I like outs in 4 major compass directions and enough space that no matter which way the wind blows, I can find a 10-meter square that isn't downwind of something. Because the major thing _I_ worry about is wind: where it's going to take me (sometimes unexpectedly) and what it's going to be like when I'm landing. For other people, it depends. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'm pretty sure I did this once. I was OK in the air, but once I got on the ground I felt TERRIBLE. You know how sometimes when you have a virus parts of your skin become sensitive to the touch? (Leading to the relationship-hurting "Don't touch me!" moment.) Well, under canopy my pants and shirt went flap-flap-flap-flap-flap against pretty much the entire back half of my body, so after I got to the ground my skin decided to let me know, in very clear terms, that it did not appreciate being touched all that much all over for 3 straight minutes. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I lick the rapide links right before I slide the bumpers on. (Sorry if that's an overshare. ) Anyway, seems to work pretty well. And I've had no complaints from either the links or the bumpers. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

When I got some stuff stolen (not from a DZ, not much skydiving stuff, and it was my own damn fault for leaving it somewhere on accident for 3 minutes) I found myself doing a different step: deciding whether the amount my insurance would cover after deductible was worth having a claim go on my record. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I was taught: * long-side to the riser * barrel to the inside The reasoning had to do with getting the least-bad failure mode in case the barrel should somehow work itself open: * it's better to lose a line than the whole riser * it's better to lose an inside line than an outside line So by this theory the "port" on the link should be on the inside, nearer the lines than the riser. Just what I was taught. I'm not saying that's "right". I intend my french links to never come open in the air. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Two reasons. Number 1: Joe Jenning's "Good Stuff" DVD. Basically this DVD (and thus the people who made it*) are the primary reason I'm a skydiver.

You should, or even "must" ask your instructors for help on these things. They can watch your landings as they happen and tell you how to flare better. We can tell you that if you can't stall a canopy by pulling the toggles to full arm extension and holding them there, you can "take a wrap" on the steering lines - move your hands in a little circle while still holding the toggles so the steering line passes once entirely around your hand, effectively shortening the steering line by several inches. Then when you pull your arms to full extension, you'll be pulling several inches further on the brakes. You'll want to ask your instructors to explain what you need to be aware could go wrong when you do this; many of us know and consider it "no big deal" but young students usually have no more knowledge of these important details than what their instructors tell them. The instructor(s) is/are there to tell you what you need to know, when you need to know it, and to try and keep you as safe as possible based on how you're progressing and what you need to learn next. Even if it's not as gratifying as posting online and reading. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Good: Infinity (i.e. Velocity Sports Equipment). I went down there today and I have to say, nothing builds confidence in equipment (in this case, a new ripcord) like seeing it proof-loaded in front of you.

It tripped me out the first couple times I watched it on "Good Stuff", but after awhile I became suspicious because of the long sleeves.

OK, crazy thought. Isn't one side of the lead seal blank*? Could an enterprising rigger with a small stamp set fit a date code on there to prove that a lead seal was "expired"? Ooh, I should make a variable-date die and sell it.

I don't want to stick up for Argus, and I don't want to put anyone else down, but there is really no statistically valuable quantity of information here to prove that Argus made a mistake that nobody else has. What we know is that Argus _reported_ making a mistake. I agree with JohnRich that it "sounds" like they did compromise safety. But I'm still taking the long-term view: after any AAD has been around for a number of years, I'll look at the in-use safety record (as best as it can be determined) and choose from there. Before any AAD has been around a number of years, I feel any user of it is a test jumper. (And I must admit the term "test jumper" is not black-and-white.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.