Liemberg

... is always the preferred choice over "giving the new driver any amount of horsepower he can lay his hand on without teaching him how to drive." F.i. in the Netherlands you need a drivers license to drive a car and that involves driving lessons at registered driving schools and examination + practical proof before you get the license. You can however (when you are over 21) buy a "car" much like the little Tuk-tuk's they had such a blast with in Thailand. Speed is limited to 50km/h mass is also limited and the motorway/highway is off limits. Engine is limited to < 50cc... No lessons, no examination. With motorcycles it is even more strict. First couple of years with a new license you are limited to < 500 cc. And again: Over 21? Get one with

If instructors start to worry when letting a student jump same "canopy / different size" the worrying is usually on the side of DOWNSIZING. UPSIZING (like in your case) usually leaves the student with a slower canopy, i.e. it has less forward speed and a lesser descent rate. When the winds are calm this poses no problem whatsoever. (Though you might experience the larger parachute to open a bit slower and sometimes you have to work a bit longer to get the slider down) Of course this all isn't true in strong winds and turbulence. And I have seen a few occasions where 'petite' female students with 'big boy' student canopies resulted in very irregular openings. For that reason, we keep one 'small girl' static line rig. (But we are talking less than 50 kg here...) Our solution for strong winds an turbulence? There's always another day... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Glad to have been of service then... Now from this moment on please abstain from peeing in the river; it is not only dangerous to your own health but also a nuisance for the people downstream that might be doing their laundry... Besides, you never know when there's a greenie on patrol. They have superior sense of smell, or so I'm told...

http://www.precision.aero/packing/mvc-002v.ram But unfortunatly, my real player says something about not being able to start up a browser....can't get the video running.... The photo's however at http://www.precision.aero/omega_pack.htm show not only A and B but there are 28 of them, so you could say it is A to Z++... Should be sufficient....

and that could be labeled as a 'catastrophic failure' which would deem the unit unairworthy. Of course, you have to be able to see wether the unit is on or of. (The subject of the thread: Throw away a 13 year old cypres. Which is not "Throw away a 13 year old cypres with a broken LCD screen"...) But a fault in the LCD screen like with my old watch as mentioned in my previous post? Would you (if it happened in the middle of the season and the thing was within 'age limits' / not due for service) get it out of the rig and send it in, if apparently just the 'upper beam' of one of the digits didn't show? And to make matters even more complicated, for the sake of the argument, it is your personal AAD in your personal rig and you are a Dutch skydiver without a C-license so you MUST have an AAD when jumping at a Dutch DZ... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

If I remember correctly, they - like all other manufacturers of parachuting equipment - also said that they couldn't guarantee correct operation within the life span since they could not guarantee correct operation period. Why? They can simply say that it was out of tolerance, i.e. "proceed at your own risk"... And why is it up to them to say that (other than the 'out of tolerance' leading to premature deployment, in which case a user could opt to only jump solo with said equipment...) Please DO remember that there was at least one cypres-save through an 'illegal' cypres (Rantoul AFAIK) and only recently someone went in pulling nothing when his cypres had been sent away for maintainance... As Riggerrob stated elsewhere in this thread, he has seen Sentinel Mk 2000 as late as 1999 - by that time there wasn't any 'certified service centre' for that gadget anymore, AFAIK... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

While that may all be true, not everything that fails or deteriorates leads to what you could label as a catastrophic failure. And, not all catastrophic failures lead to premature deployment (the ONLY point IMO that would justify said measurement) If f.i. an LCD display doesn't show the complete digits anymore, the rest of the instrument could be fully functional. (Used to have a watch like that - the upper horizontal beam of the third digit didn't show. Yet, miraculously, I always could tell the time...

Funny that you say that and that I have heard several other master riggers say exactly the same. (not all of them willing to go on record of course... are they all on airtec's payroll or what?) Also funny to see the 'four jump wonder' who started the thread get an enormous amount of flack for stating the obvious. An extension of the life cycle would be a marketing decision, just as IMO the "12 years trash it" directive was. Did airtec publish in any sort of controllable way their 'research' into the lifespan of their product? Because this 12 years limit wasn't their position when they sold me mine, so something must have changed on the way. What was the primary failure they saw when running these tests (i.e. They all started to fire to soon, potentially killing your fellow skydivers or they all failed to fire, potentially not saving you...) Nobody knows, but since they issued a serious warning (that very conveniently also means that if you don't want to jump without an AAD you will have to buy a new one) we should believe them on their true blue eyes... The idea that this 'good to go & excellent' life saving product is jumpable on one day (does have a self test, doesn't it?) and on the next day should be removed from your rig "and if you don't you are doomed" is simply laughable. I could live with - "we don't service anymore, put fresh batteries in according to schedule and watch self test on start up; good to go untill test fails - proceed at your own risk" What is happening now with the FAR is ludicrous. Maybe a fresh look from a 'four jump wonder' is just what it takes. And I know this post probably will provoke rhetorics about the financial value of my life. Then again, if I usually responded in a positive manner when told what to do, I wouldn't be skydiving, now would I? "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Let alone reading them... I guess I'm oldschool then since I am reading Brian's "The parachute and its pilot" that I aquired from the author personally at this years Dutch skydiving safety seminar, 'as we speak'. I have been teaching 'this stuff' (surviving parachute jumps and their inevitable landings at the end) since 1985... I will be teaching it slightly different next season, since I learned a few new tricks from Brian, both in his presentation there and now, while reading... Now if I only had thought of asking Brian to autograph my copy I might get my 17 year old /"60 jumps wonder" kid to read it as well...

And kill lines "essentially" rub each jump at high speeds over a short distance inside the bridle-tunnel... Anyone tried Vectran? Or does that have the same downsides? (From what I gather there's less shrinkage and the same break characteristics... but if I remember my Pointer correctly, lines tend to break at knots - which is not good in this case, because that is where the pin is...) (Again - it is not that I want something in the fear I'm so demented that I start to forget things. My kill line PC's have no window yet 'forgetting to cock' should surface through the method of PC folding. But "all other things being equal", a system where a potential source of malfunction is eliminated sounds better. Then again, I don't think that freeflyers are "en masse" retro-fitting bellybands either...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Pity. I thought so already, since it appeared to be so clever yet didn't become widespread... When I saw it I had a PC with a bungee. Although it opens a whole new 'can of worms' (like making short delays 'interesting' and F111 deteriorating faster than the bungee which would leave your PC cocked), I always liked it better than the kill-line. But that's because I'm in essence a K.I.S.S. person... You collapse it with a ripcord? BTW John, your rig stil has tapewells and a Jesus cord? "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Now we wait until somebody tries this at home with his recently acquired 2006 rig and reports back to us... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

There's a two letter difference between full proof and fool proof. Small, but significant. When given the choice, I prefer fool proof. And BTW: Not all PC's with a kill-line have this window... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

It was there, once - for I have seen it and did read a description... but this is several years ago. How it worked? The curved pin - the one you need to close the container - was connected to the kill-line. When the parachute opened (and the PC collapsed) the kill-line that collapsed the PC also pulled the pin inside the tunnel in the bridle. Then when you packed it, the only way the pin would surface again was to have the PC cocked. Since you can't close a container with a curved pin that is still inside the bridle, this is/was fool proof IMO - and though it is certain that they can come up with bigger fools, at least they will have a run for their money with this one...

Kuddo's to your instructor who taught you or kuddo's to you for finding out all by yourself...

If one hand is "missing", it is perfectly legal and even recommended by some to perform the EP's with the one remaining hand.... (Teeth? Feet?....) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

In retrospect, I wasn't all that clear in my post that was more or less 'trigered' by your first one. It just made me think of Rogers post about the *first pilot chute in tow* and I thought it was kind of funny ... I don't advocate 'clearing a PC in tow by reaching behind your back' - never did, never will. I think it is plain stupid and the fact that some of us got away with it, doesn't change my opinion. You did a good job of summing up all the reasons why, so I'm not repeating it. This opinion was formed many years ago when 'bridle grabbing' WAS advocated. In fact I HAVE seen it IN WRITING in the Dutch skydivers magazine 'Sportparachutist' as a possible solution, when participants of the national championship were asked what they would do if they had a PC in tow. (Again, 20+ years ago aprox...) In that same article someone said that if he couldn't clear it, he would barrel roll the bridle around his legs, prior to pulling his reserve... Thrillseeker! For me the interesting thing in THIS thread is that it shows once again that certain skydiving myths*) have an enormous resilience and are extremly hard to kill. (Re: how the thread started AND Chachi @ 1000jumps who says he will try to clear it - yet doesn't say he has already an excellent track record with it...) *) The fact that some people got away with it doesn't make it any less of a myth that it is a good plan "stricktly for the advanced" - GROUND DOESN'T GET ANY SOFTER AFTER +1000 JUMPS... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Roger? Then again, descending down static lines with a Rambo type knife clenched between your teeth also was considered to be 'standard procedure' once... Edited to say that every pilotchute with a kill line that I ever came across also had binding tape that connects the base of the PC with the top. One of the benefits of packing yourself is that this gives you a perfect measurement to see if the PC is cocked; it is when the kill-line you can see inside the PC is longer than said binding tape (and of course you may want to look down your bridle too at that stage...) The 'window' in the bridle where you can see a green marker is not always there and if so, if the kill line has shrinked an inch the PC probably works yet the green marked part of the kill line doesn't apear in the window anymore... Lastly (for those who think they can pull it of and save themselves a reserve repack) Don't try this @ home - Roger is a trained professional! "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

That BEFORE or AFTER the chief started to blow on his end of long the pipe, filling your nostrils with yopo and making your eyes all watery?....

Repent ye, sinners, repent !!! Confess to your sins before the congregation !!! (Oops, my bad - I thought we was discussing religion...)

That link was on/inside the link I provided and I got there by typing "Barry Brummit" in the google bar in the left upper corner of my screen. I took for granted that Billy can click with a mouse... Q: What's worse on the internet than people who "don't read the f@#$%ng manuals"? A: People who tell you to RTFM... Off topic: Only day's ago I wanted to 'estimate' a price for a couple of cypresses that were offered in the classifieds here and vaguely remembered that on Craig Poxon's site there was a calculator I had seen. Just couldn't remember Craig Poxon's name and spent an hour before I finally found the calculator at the SSK website. So sometimes just asking here does the trick, I guess... Off topic 2: If Billy CAN click and does it twice more from the above link through "Skydivingfatalities.com" He's at "1-800 skyride". Now THAT ought to get him going! "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Not only that, but you can't google either! http://www.poxon.org/Craig/Skydive/Fatalities/ "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

The trouble with forums on the internet: There will always be a wiser man than you or me... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

"The wise man therefore always tries to pay attention to detail, like the difference between AFFI and AFF1" - Me 2006 AD "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Yeah, what could possibly go wrong... (Other than that the camera is not suited for it's intended use, despite cool skydiving pictures on the box and ad in Parachutist - but the smart people at Samsungs tech department are working on it and the next model WILL work as intended AFAIK...) Jackpunx on his way to altitude, chanting the holy mantra: "I must remember to forget the camera" "I must remember to forget the camera" "I must remember to forget the camera" (And just for your information: This is from someone who combines a 'start-and-forget' type hand mounted bulletcam with being a tandemmaster, treading very careful into 'unknown territory' after + 1000 tandemjumps and + 200 camerajumps, the latter mostly made way back in the days before mini-DV, when real men wore belly mount VHS-C recorders and jumped Cruisairs... ) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...