Reginald

No need to worry, you will f*** up the 4 way. Just relax, 4 way is fun, skydiving is fun. Don't get upset if you blow an exit. It happens to EVERYONE! My favorite picture is attached. It's an 8-way team at my DZ. They probably have an average of 2,000 jumps per person (or more). It’s entitled “Not my day!” No matter who you are you or how good you think you are you will make mistakes. Just accept it and call it part of the learning process. Have fun and quite worrying so much. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

did you pull the reserve? Ron, if your question is, "Did I pull the reserve handle during my cutaway?" than the answer is Yes. I followed my full EP's as I was taught. Did the Skyhook beat me? Yes? If your question is otherwise then please clarify. Regards, Ron (the other one) "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Well, as 1 of those 3,000 and having used the device in my one cutaway I’m a fan! I had a violent spinning mal (which I didn’t think I could do on a Sabre 2 190 but it happened) and cutaway back to earth. Before I knew it I had a perfect, fully inflated reserve above me! After talking to my local master rigger and having him go through the details of the device I don’t know why I would personally (given the type of skydiving I do) ever jump without one. I get a little grief from some more experienced jumpers about having an “RSL” but typically they don’t understand the difference between and RSL and a Skyhook. After some explanation they typically accept my reasoning for it and a few have talked about retrofitting their rigs. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Sorry to hear about the more extensive injuries. Hopefully others will learn from your expierence. Heal fast. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Okay, I’ve been pined as overly cautious in some circles but what you are describing sounds like the beginning of an incident report to me. 1. Low experience 2. Uncurrent (particularly for her jump numbers) 3. Unfamiliar DZ with obstacles 4. More air traffic then person is used to 5. Elliptical canopy 6. Ill fitting gear What could possibly go wrong? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

He is cute as hell. I thought he was the best part of the movie. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

My experience at the Hawaii DZ’s was a pleasant one. But they are serious tandem factories. I would not recommend going there for a skydiving vacation. The only reason to go skydiving there is if you are already vacationing in Hawaii and want to get a jump or two in. A tour of FL DZ’s would be great though. You can probably hit 5 turbine DZ’s all within an hour and a half of Orlando (which is dirt cheap to fly into). "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Dave if you're weathered out come on up. We're having a little gathering Saturday night and we'ed love to have you. You can bring one of those kegs of Shiner you stash away down there.

Nice. My first is August 03 and the next pic is October 04. ;-) "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Uppers...no limit. Ground wins: 25 if steady, less if it is gusty or not a consistent direction. Jumping in Dallas, on a big open prairie, outs are not a problem. Winds around 20 are not at all uncommon in the fall, winter (as short as it is) and early spring. So, either you learn to jump in them or you don’t jump at all certain times of the year. I got 6 jumps in this past Sunday but sat down for a few hours as the winds went from 23ish, to 28ish. After they dropped back down to 23ish I started jumping again. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Bill, If you choose to give these priceless items away, I’d be honored to receive one. Please feel free to review any of my posts on dz.com. We had a chance to meet in Dallas this past summer. I very much enjoyed talking with you about your exploits. Blues Skies, Ron "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Well, both DVD-A and SACD have been around for a few years now. I have both on my home audio system. They are competing formats and neither one has truly taken off. While there is no end of debate as to which sounds better, both of them sound great and are hands down better than CD both in resolution and because of the 5.1 sound. The problem with both formats is the very limited amount of material. SACD probably has the edge mainly because Sony is the primary champion of this format and it is releasing discs from it's stable of artists. Also, its done some interesting maneuvering like basically paying for Pink Floyd to remaster into 5.1 and issues Dark Side of the Moon on SACD. Originally the intent was to issue it on DVD-A. I don't think either format will become mainstream anytime soon but I think one or both will stay around for awhile because the record companies like the copy protection on the discs (as compared to none on CD) and the equipment manufactures like selling new hardware. Here is IMHO the best DVD-A / SACD site: http://www.highfidelityreview.com/ "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

And the results show that skydivers are more optimistic than average. Makes sense as we jump from airplanes and hope the gear will work. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Wow dude not to nit pick, but giant run on sentences, no capitalization and a plethora of spelling mistakes and typos makes it almost impossible to read your posts. Your input, like everyone’s, is valuable so try and make it comprehensible. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Hard as hell. I'm a flat flyer to begin with but thought I wold get sporty and learn some back flying in the tunnel. After 10 minutes of flailing around with the coach keeping me from breaking my neck I only managed to get semi stable. I bought another 10 minutes of tunnel time and flew on my belly just to get my self-esteem up again. ;-) "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Bill, Agreed. There are some limitations of a Cypress. My point is that a lot of work went into mitigating all possible and that the end product is highly sophisticated and able to compensate for most issues in a real world setting. It will never be able to handle all of them though. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

QuoteWhy train on equipment that you will not be using when you get OFF of being a student? I was trained with equipment that almost exactly matched what I jump now, i.e. it had BOC Pilot Chute not Ripcord, it had the Expert Cypress, etc. etc.... I always read that people get off of being students and they get confused because suddenly there equipment has changed,Quote Please explain why using a student cypress on student status is a bad thing. Why do you think a student version has different firing parameters? Why might this be beneficial or not, based on your opinion. What is the perceived difference to the student when changing over after student status? How is using a student cypress similar to converting from a ripcord to a BOC, or from going form a large canopy to a smaller one? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Quote Also, I need to consider the very true reality of my not being ready to start such aggresive landing approaches like I have been for the past 20 jumps or so. Quote I’m very pleased that you are reasonably okay. You could have easily died or been paralyzed for life. I hope your Dr. does not find anything seriously damaged in the follow-ups. I have to congratulate you on discovering some wisdom, even if the earth literally beat it into you. Obviously you were being very aggressive. As an educational device I will list a few factors stacked against you: Little practice on more basic HP landings before moving on to more advanced ones, little canopy experience, low jump numbers, no HP landing training. I advise people against doing HP landings that have similar issues on a regular basis, and in another forum I got chastised for doing so. I hope that some people reading this learn from your experience and realize that even if they manage to pull of some number of HP landings with some or all of the factors above stacked against them, that on any dive they may find themselves in a position where they are in over their heads. The end result can be death or worse… I have nothing against swooping, hell I’m for it, given people have sufficient experience and training. However, the question people should ask themselves is not, “do I have the experience to swoop under ideal circumstances.” The question people should ask is, "do I have the ability to handle ANY situation that might come up, particularly the bad situations before starting to swoop.” I do congratulate you on posting this lesson. You showed humility and wisdom. I just hope other people learn from your example instead of their own. Blue Skies my friend and heal fast. I’d be honored to jump with you anytime. Ron "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

QuoteAAD's, since they sense air pressure, can be fooled by things like falling on your back (will read a lower altitude)...Quote Good post Bill. Just to add to this though. The algorithms are specifically designed to compensate for most of these items and it is VERY difficult to “fool” the AAD. It can be done, however. More specifically, the air pressure difference created between “real” altitude and what is perceived in the burble the Cypress is in, in a person’s container when in a belly to earth position, is about 200 feet. The Cypress is set to fire at 750 AGL feet but given the burble it is firing at what it “perceives” is 950 AGL. In a test chamber a Cypress will fire at 950. Now, if you fall back to earth the entire skydive the Cypress will fire at 950 feet AGL, thinking it is at 750 AGL. However, it has sophisticated algorithms that will sense if a person is tumbling out of control. Obviously the air pressure readings will fluctuate as the Cypress goes in and out of a burble. The algorithms are capable of adjusting for a person in a non-stable body position and it will fire at 750 feet. A Cypress will not be fooled by air pressure changes during the day as it constantly monitors the air pressure on the “ground”. However, if there are extreme changes between take off and jump run it will obviously not be able to detect these because it is not on the ground to do so. Changing ground elevation is an important issue. For example, I jumped in Houston one morning and then drove to Dallas, which is a solid 500 higher. I turned off my AAD and turned it back on. This reset the device. This issue is addressed in the owner’s manual. In short a modern AAD’s (Cypress) is a very sophisticated piece of equipment and is very reliable. There are some very narrow cases in which they will not do exactly what they are designed to do which is to open your reserve if you are still in free fall at 750 feet. It is remotely possible to trick one, however, but it is exceedingly difficult to do so and they are designed to compensate, whenever possible, for anything unusual that is going on. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

What is the latest ETA? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Good for you!

I really prefer diving exits. Why would I want to cling on to the outside of an airplane fighting a 100 knot wind? I find diving just more fun and easier. For 4 way I prefer an IC exit. ;-) "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Well guys and gals, here’s the short of it. My opinion is that a person with 138 jumps in the last 5 years and 250 in 10 years should not be trying to swoop without proper training (if at all). It’s IMHO a recipe for disaster. I don’t think it is at all an unreasonable position to take and I don’t think it is at all unreasonable for me to state that opinion even at 300 jumps. Quite to the contrary at my DZ we expect people to tell each other if they feel they are doing something unreasonably risky. In fact people have been chastised for not telling others they are taking on too much risk, because we all need to look out for each other. However, each of us has a different risk propensity and J3zz is more than welcome to do whatever he wants, as are all of you. Also, just because some people have gotten away with it does not mean it is not unduly risky; it’s a matter of probability, not certainty, and stacking the odds against you is...what it is. I am aware of a number of the people’s reputations in the skydiving community that have chimed in on this post. I have a great deal of respect for several of them, even if I disagree with their positions and I respect their right to state that opinion. Others I don’t hold in as high of esteem. However I respect their right to state their opinions too. Frankly, if I’m going to have a reputation in this sport it is going to be as a conservative and safety conscious individual. I think that stacks the odds in my favor. J3zz and I have talked via PM several times and are cool with each other on this topic. I think he appreciates my concern for his safety, as for all my brothers and sisters in this sport. He can speak for himself but I think my raising some concerns might have caused him to reassess the safety of what he is doing. Whether that means cooling it until he gets more experience, getting professional training or continuing on with exactly what his is doing because he decided that the risks are acceptable to him is his decision. Whether or not my concerns change his mind or affect his behavior in any way, I consider just having him reassess the risks again a success. Blue Skies Black Death, Ron PS: be safe and have fun! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Interesting question. Your question would best be answered by reading the cypress manual. http://www.cypres2.com/userguide/CYPRES_2_users_guide_english.pdf I know I was educated by reading it. Honestly, I did not read it until I got my own gear. However, I am constantly shocked by the amount of misinformation about the units propagated by even experienced skydivers. The manual is a must read for all skydivers, even ones that don’t have a AAD on their rig for they are in a plane with people that do have them! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

It was at the 5th AOTMB at SDAggieland, everyone was invited and it was well advertised on DZ.com Maybe you should show up next year.