Reginald

Really??? I think my evaluators would have been real upset (meaning automatic unsat) if I was that low... In fact, it was priority one to end the skydive at the planned end - and pulling in time to have a fully open canopy by 2000 feet was a requirement. You might have had different experiences... Wow, if I would have pulled that high it would have been an automatic unsat for insufficient separation with my Course Director. My course was designed to have us pull at 2,000 on every jump. From memory - when the “student” did not pull at the assigned alt., we had to issue alt. and pull signals, then move their arm back to the handle, of course never pulled for themselves. At 3,500 we could initiate a pull for them, but not below 3,000. Pull for them above 3,500 automatic unsat. Pull for them below 3,000 automatic unsat. After the “student” was ripped out of our hands by a deploying parachute we could track off. If we left before they were ripped out of our hands it was an automatic unsat. If we had insufficient separation, we received an automatic unsat. This basically forced us to track and pull at 2,000. If we pulled below 2,000 it was an automatic unsat. Given an AFFI is, if necessary, responsible for chasing a student down to 2,000 the CD wanted us getting comfortable with pulling at 2,000. He made it very clear he had us down in the dirt for that reason. It sucks pulling at 2,000 BTW. Honestly, I’ve never heard of a CD not forcing people down into the basement. It sounds like you had it easy. Was there any explanation for why you guys got to pull so high? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Hat off to them! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Do practice jumps with some local instructors. Have them teach you how to stop spins and do rollovers. they aren't hard but a little practice before a course doesn't hurt. Also, have them discuss and practice with you the 'bottom end' of the skydive. Finally, make sure you have a canopy you are comfortable pulling at 2,000 with. 'cause this is where you are going to pull for a week. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Sweet! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

4 way open is killing me! Round 9 complete and the top three teams are within 2 points. It's anyones meet to take. Round 10 with an E, O, 5, D should be a great one! I'm pulling for Fastrax! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I like the “homeless” guy that panhandled at a nearby highway intersection. He had $120 Nikes on. Hey wait a minute, I don’t have $120 Nikes. Hmm, those jeans don’t look too worn either. Hmm, he just got a hair cut. Damn, he probably has more money than me. It actually got me angry when I saw people handing him money out the windows of their cars. I wouldn’t give him a dime. Damn scammer. Now I had a guy roll up to me a couple of weeks ago in downtown Dallas were I live and ask for a buck so he could get some food. He clearly was in dire circumstances, he smelled bad, was disabled physically and apparently mentally (it looked like head trauma from an accident), wore filthy clothes and was clearly bad off all around. I’m walking around with $500 in cash on me and a full stomach, several skydiving rigs in my apartment, computers, cars, all the trappings of a gainfully employed reasonably successful 39 year old professional. I had a $20 in my front pocket I handed him. His one eye lit up with joy. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I think we are in agreement here. It is a risk but a low probability one. I think the main lesson is that properly fitting gear is critical. Improperly fitting gear presents a much higher risk. Now for stories, I know a nationally recognized jumper with I believe 10,000+ jumps (initials RL), that told me that in all of his jumps he had an improperly routed or chest strap come totally unthreaded in free fall 6 times. I would have expected the stories to the better. He said, he basically used his left arm to hold his upper right harness tightly at deployment. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

One broken line may not look like much. The other lines probably won’t break. My concern is what other damage to the canopy is there that I can’t see or accurately assess? For example, is there a tear on a top seam that is getting bigger? Will the canopy fall apart at 500 feet? So if I see one broken line, I’m wondering what the hell else don’t I know that could kill me. Personally, I’d trust my beautiful PDR that is packed by a master rigger with almost 250 saves over a damaged main any day. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

It is possible to fall out of properly fit sport gear. Read this thread: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1906126;search_string=falling%20harness;#1906126 And this article: http://www.makeithappen.com/spsj/fallout.html I will emphasize your point that an improperly fit tandem student harness is of great concern. Tandem harness we agree on. Sport rigs not so much. I agree there is some concern but let's be honest here is there a single fatality in the last decade related to someone falling out of a harness? How many million sport jumps a year are there? It’s just not a high probability event. Jan's article starts, "There have been several fatalities of people falling out of a harness. These were either jumpers with unfastened chest straps or suicides." Then moves on to discuss a 1983 incident. The dz.com thread you pointed to starts, "Background: My rig is second hand and thus doesn't fit me perfect. I am aware that my rig (especially the yoke) is a bit too big for me." While I agree there is concern about harness issues, I am not aware of a single fatality in the last decade, or more, related to it. Most of the risk comes from improperly fitting gear. This is avoidable… don’t buy used gear that does not fit right. Also, it is important to have all the straps secured tightly. One can loosen their chest strap after deployment. I’d much rather have people spend their time worrying about their EP’s or understanding wind limits, etc. than obsessing about an issue that unless I’m mistaken has not killed anyone, on sport gear, in a generation. Of course I could be wrong there might be more recent issues I’ve missed. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

How many fatalities have you ever heard about related to this? Properly fit sport gear is not a concern. There have been two tandem fatalities lately which is what you are probably thing about. Both cases were tied back to improperly secured harnesses. There are plenty of things to worry about in skydiving that will kill you. if you have a properly fitting harness this is not one of them. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

So even though the TSA followed its procedure properly (opened your gear in your presence) as agreed by both you and the TSA your complaint is really that in your opinion the TSA didn’t need to inspect your gear as thoroughly as it has the right to and it did. Sorry you’ve lost all sympathy from me. Yes it sucked I will give you that but they were well within their rights and followed procedure. Your reaction is beyond reason IMHO. I wonder if how you reacted to them at the airport is part of the reason they searched you more thoroughly than they might have otherwise. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

what altitude did you get? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Yes, your brake lines are too short. No big deal have them let out. There should be a bow and you should not "buck" while using front risers. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

No. Listen to Evil Bert (Aggie Dave) here gang. The only way to effectively understand glide, etc. is to use the accuracy trick. Evil Bert is wise...all hail Evil Bert! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Not even close. Roughly 3 million skydives a year in the US and roughly 30 fatalities so it actually is about 1 in 100,000. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Show off! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Sure. I paid in regular installments, I believe they were called "mortgage payments". After years of using the same one I finally just transferred the house over to her. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Alright. Fair enough. But the one thing i would suggest is that you check the actual winds on a regular basis throughout the day. Are you comfortable the weather board is updated every 15 minutes or so? Does the weather board post the average or the high gust? How often is it updated? The average wind is a pretty useless number, the high gust is critical. Does your DZ have a wind meter you can go read? How is it set to current or high gust since the last reading? Who tracks the high gusts? Personally, on a marginal wind day I check the average and gusts as tracked (and loged) every 20 minutes before I get on a plane. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Maybe you are asking the wrong question here. I’ll relate what one experienced skydiver told me when I had about 50 jumps. “Nice AFF arch, now stop it!” With your descriptions it is hard to tell but maybe the proper question is why are you having to arch so much? Is your jumpsuit appropriate? Is this just in the tunnel or in the air too? What do the people you are jumping with weigh and what types of jumpsuits are they wearing? Should they be wearing weights when they jump with you? What are you doing with your arms and legs. Looking at your profile it looks like you are 210+ out the door. That puts you on the heavy end for a skydiver. I’m surprised you are having to arch at all. I’d think you would spend most of a routine dive pretty flat. Give us a little more info. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Honestly, the skills part is not the challenge; those things can be practiced and learned. Watching people get killed or have life changing injuries is the challenge. It sucks. This sport is the most rewarding experience I’ve ever had but also extracts the highest toll of anything I’ve ever known and I’m a relatively new guy. Balancing my love and enthusiasm for the sport with the toll it extracts is difficult. Listening the old timers that have seen more than I ever want to almost hurts sometimes. Some can list two dozen people they’ve lost. How does one relate the joy of the sport with the cost of it? That mental balance is the biggest challenge for me. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

In conditions that are marginal you should KNOW what the winds are not “think”. 20 knots is about 23 MPH, well above limits for any AFF, so I wonder why AFF were still jumping. And 23 is above what I would recommend a person with 50 jumps be out in. Were these winds the average or the high gusts? You really should have known. If these were the average (which is unfortunately how some people like to quote them) with gusts above this the winds were way too high for you to be jumping in the first place. So everything that follows, you getting dragged, is to be expected. I know you said you talked to other people that thought it was okay. But you are a licensed skydiver and you need to make calls for yourself too. You got yourself in a bad situation. It is always okay to be more conservative than people recommend. Many recently licensed skydivers (myself included back in the day) jump in marginal winds because they want the jumps. It takes a few bad situations like this to make one say “no” on a marginal wind day. You might be okay 2 out of 3 times or even 9 out of 10 but those are not good odds at all. I guess my risk of a minor injury like a broken ankle are maybe 1 in 1,000 or 2,000 on a average jump. Jumping in marginal winds moves that to maybe 1 in 50ish. These are just wild guesses on the numbers but winds add a LOT of risk. I have maybe 10 friends that broke ankles, etc on days with winds that were marginal. The more jumps I get the lower my wind limits go. If the winds were 23MPH with higher gusts there is no way I’d be in the air. I know you weren’t asking for advice on winds but it may be the root cause of this near incident. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Again, it's not there job to be educated on AAD's or skydiving equipment. It's there job to inspect carry on items, which they did within their own rules. It sucks for you but they had the reserve opened with you present. That is all you have the right to. I originally really did feel for you, but this ax your grinding is about worn down to the nub. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Start working on your accuracy for your C license now. The D is easy. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

How often have you seen a "real" bomb? Other than on TV of course. I'm sure you've seen them there all the time...and that obviously makes you an expert. The cypress cutter looks just like a detonator. Same shape and size. with wires coming out the end too. LOL! Yeah, what he said! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

gravitational without trying to stir anything up here can I ask you a question? Do you accept the fact that the TSA was within its rights to have your open the reserve container? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP