Reginald

Sorry Angelia, I am perfectly correct. He’s done 138 in the last 5 years and his 247 have been over a 10-year period. Yes, I know his 138 have all been this year but the prior 109 were all 5 to 10 years prior to that. I hope my point did not elude anyone. 138 jumps in 6 months is not horribly uncurrent for most fun jumpers but IMHO is not current enough to safely try high performance landings GIVEN it is the sum total of his jump experience in the last 5 years. Angelia, said, “I think the best way to keep this person alive would be to give good advice on what he can do to start swooping” Here I disagree. I think reasonably people should be telling him that he should not be swooping at this point and to gain more experience and get proper training before he starts swooping. Angelia said, “Because, lets be serious here, it sounds like he's not going to give up on this” Here I agree with you. Unfortunately he probably wont’ give it up and wait until he legitimately has the experience and education. I hope too that he does not chow in and hurt himself. Anyway guys, we can beat this to death. My opinion is simply that he would be better off NOT doing High Performance landings until he has more jumps and proper training. I don’t think that is at all an unreasonable position. Feel free to have your own. Ron "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Alright guys, I’ll kill two birds with one stone. Superstu, “to say they have no business learning how to swoop, it does no one any good. “ So you don’t think warning people against dangerous maneuvers that they don’t’ have the skills for does anyone any good? I’d debate that. Packerboy, “IMO if you are just going to tell people they have no business asking questions, than you have no business giving advice. “ I never said this. I think asking question is fine, it’s how we learn. I think doing high performance landings with 138 jumps in 5 years is foolish. Packerboy, “If you are even looking in this forum than you obviously have at least a little interest in moving your canopy a little faster” This forum is Swooping AND Canopy Control, BTW. I have a great interest in learning to fly my canopy better as that is what gets people killed in this sport. Do I have any interest in swooping? No. Because at 300 jumps in 1 year I don’t have the experience to be doing it. Do I actively spend time learning to fly my canopy better? Yes. I’m amazed that more people are not warning a guy with 138 jumps in 5 years away from high performance landings. And let’s be clear here “double fronts” is a HP landing! Jezz, as I said I personally don’t care if you learn to swoop at this point. It’s your life. However, someone should be telling you this might not be the best course of action. I’ll reiterate my statement, “low experience, lack of currency and lack of proper training” these things in combination are not good. I’ll say again, “I have nothing against swooping as long as the people dong it have the experience, currency and training to do it with a minimum of risk. It is not for inexperience, un-current, untrained people. That is a recipe for disaster.” Why am I against inexperience, un-current, untrained people swooping? As I said in my SHORT time in this sport I’ve seen a guy’s brains being wiped off the landing area, a number of broken legs and several people chow in that probably should have died but got lucky. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Congratulations! Cool you got Dave Burton on your SCR. He’s a great skydiver and a damn fine person too. I remember my SCR, there were roughly 25,000 jumps of experience on it. I contributed about 80. ;-) We could have made that SCR with me flailing on my back...um, I mean "ARCHING". SCR’s are cool because they are basically experienced skydivers bestowing a merit badge on newbies. It’s a great feeling. Say “hi” to Dave for me. Blue Skies, Ron…in Dallas PS: where did you guys get a Skyvan and why wasn't I invited? "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

1. Low total experience “247 jumps” 2. Not particularly current “138 (jumps) since Mar 2004” 3. Lack of proper instruction as implied by this statement, “My qustion is is this an efficient way into swooping?” So combine, low experience, lack of currency and lack of proper training and tell me what you think the odds are of Jezz getting hurt swooping? The good news is that he is on a fairly docile canopy and is not loaded to highly. Personally, I don’t care what he does but at my DZ I’d get an ass kicking by the instructors and more experienced jumpers if I was trying to swoop with as few jumps and as little currency as he has (or at least I would hope I would). I’ve only been in this sport a short period of time but I’ve already seen enough death and injury from people swooping. I have nothing against swooping as long as the people dong it have the experience, currency and training to do it with a minimum of risk. It is not for inexperience, un-current, untrained people. That is a recipe for disaster. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Dude, You are WAY overthinking this! i bet you a buck your problem is not RELAXING enough. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Coming soon to an incident report near you! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

It's your life, but for my 2 bits I don't think you have any business trying to swoop. Good luck. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I never believed in chiropractors before I started skydiving. But after a hard opening or two, I do. 1. Get massages 2. See a chiropractor 3. Take an anti-inflammatory (Advil is an excellent anti-inflammatory), take the maximum recommended dosage and take it on a regular schedule. 4. Light stretching of your neck. Talk to the massage therapist or chiropractor about this. It helped me immensely The best thing I’ve done to help with what used to be pretty bad neck problems from skydiving is regular stretching of my neck and strength training for my neck and upper back. It’s worked wonders I tell you. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

47 isn't the problem it's the low clouds. I’m okay with jumping in the cold. Nothing a few layers of thermal clothing won’t cure. It’s the damn low clouds and rain we get here in the winter. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Diver! Why the hell would I want to cling on to the outside of a moving airplane, that's hard work! "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Cypres is the gold standard in AAD's. You might be able to save $200 by buying a Vigil but IF you ever need to use your AAD do you want the gold standard or the (IMHO) yet unproven new comer. The safe bet is Cypres, it’s your life do with it was you will. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

QuoteDo not confuse anecdotal evidence with statistical evidence. Quote LOL! I earn my living as a statistician! Quote If the Sabre2 is the most widely used new canopy, then one would expect to hear more stories about its problems, even if it were no more problematic than its competition. Quote I think you might have missed the point of my post, but I do agree with your last statement. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I used to be afraid of spotting. I was sure I would fall out of the plane if I stuck my head far enough out to be able to spot. I talked to one of my instructors about it and he said, “well, if you fall out while your spotting, we just start the skydive a few seconds early.” For whatever reason it relaxed me and I’ve not had any issues since. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I’ve had one hard opening, which I fully attribute to my packing error. All of the hard openings I have direct knowledge of were attributable to low-time jumpers that were novice packers. The Sabre2 is generally considered a canopy for inexperienced to intermediate jumpers. I would hypothesize that after the confusion between hard openings on Sabre 1 and Sabre 2’s is weeded out AND the fact that many people own an pack Sabre 2’s are amateur packers is accounted for the incidents of hard openings on Sabre 2’s is the same if not less than any other major model of canopy. In fact my current problem is too soft of openings and a long snivel. However, I pack it for the softest openings I can…and I’m getting what I’m asking for. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

What failed 2 times? You wuss you're just not trying, I FAILED L4, 4 TIMES! I then proceeded to fail L5 4 times. Read here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=798179;search_string=Reginald;#798179 Keep at it, it will get better. Good luck my friend.

My one cutaway was under a spining mal on a sabre2 190. I was suprised that it could happen under this large of a canopy and how strong the g's were. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I'm glad you didn't get broken or die. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

The only hard opening I've had on my Sabre 2 was due to a bad pack job (mine). I don't pack near as much as I should, although I am working on doing it more. I’ve found consistent soft openings as long as the nose is pushed in (not rolled) and the slider is properly quartered. The one pack job where I did not do these things, I got smacked to all living hell. I really think people want to compare the history of hard openings of the old Sabre to the Sabre 2, but they really are totally different canopies and only share part of a name. In my limited experience the only hard openings I’ve seen on a Sabre 2 were due to poor pack jobs. Given my limited packing experience I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how forgiving it is of sloppy pack jobs as long as the nose is pushed in and the slider properly quartered. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

QuoteGreat list of learning tasks...but let's not be too hard on the swoopers. You should see Brian swoop that Sensei 81! Quote Hey, I've got no qualms with people that have the experience and training swooping. It's the 400 jump wonders loaded at 1.6+ on elliptical canopies without any particular training that I've got a problem with. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

I agree. Here is one of my favorite quotes: Bill Booth - "Anyway, if I have one wish for this sport, it is that people would stop killing themselves swooping tiny canopies. What a useless waste of life." We all know that a disproportionate number of deaths now occur by people swooping. Most of these people do not have the experience or training to do it properly and die in the process. Another large group of incidents are inexperienced people doing low turns, i.e. not have mastered their canopies. I for one have no desire to die or be crippled and so I take learning canopy control very seriously. Here are a few of the things I’m doing: 1. Reading your book! (Which is excellent and I think all skydivers should buy and read it). 2. I’m very conservative with my wing loading. I’m adhering to the guidelines you set out. 3. I’m doing hop-n-pops on a regular basis to learn to fly my canopy better. There is nothing like 4 or 5 thousand feet of canopy work with no traffic around to experiment and learn. What a great way to learn and build muscle memory for flat turns, riser work, stall points, understand altitude loss of various maneuvers, etc, etc, etc…. 4. I talk to the most experienced canopy guys at my DZ (who are also instructors) about issues. Personally, I’d like to see more emphasis on canopy control in the licensing process. Why not require demonstrated proficiency for flat turns for a B license? Just my thoughts…. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

Dude, You jumped, You lived. A+++++ "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!

The Camps are great and so is Mel. Even as a visitor from out of state who occasionally jumps in Elisnore I was welcomed and made part of the family. The people are great and so is the information. If you can get to the sessions, go. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

In Dallas this past Saturday night, 8 adventitious souls exited from a Caravan at 13,500 feet into the blackness of a North Texas night with nothing but glow sticks to light the way. Undocked on exit, we used the pail glow of the light sticks to find each other in the murky blackness, forming a BFR by 10,300 feet. We spun the round so we could all have a good look at beauty of the city in the distance and the lights of the small towns nearby. With a preplanned break off at 6,000 feet and staggered deployment altitudes, based on canopy type and wing loading we all safely deployed and landed without incident. Six of the eight of us earned our NSCR’s! (Now I just gotta do the paperwork). Hey, what’s the lowest NSCR number out there??? It was one of the most memorable jumps I’ve done for several reasons. First, I had the pleasure of jumping with dear friends. Second, both of my primary mentors were on the jump (and in fact are who encouraged me to join the jump). Third, seeing the smiles of my friends in the round as we formed it was priceless. Fourth, it’s not something that a lot of people have ever done. And finally, it f***ing ROCKED! I want to thank everyone that made this jump possible, from the planning on to the implementation. All the people that were on the jump with me will forever be in my memory, thank you all for sharing this with me! Ron S. (or make that "Sir Ron" since I'm now "Nighted") I know, I know, so what kind of beer do you want?

Sorry, you are right you don't have enough experience to talk to your friend about it. I suggest you talk to your S&TA about your concerns and let them handle it. "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP