Reginald

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Posts posted by Reginald

  1. First of all use all three alarms. You are not planning on using the most important one! The last alarm for your decision altitude is the most important. When you hear the flat line you better be damn sure you're pulling your last handles. Do not set it below your decision altitude, as it’s of less value to know your screwed at 500 feet below when you are supposed to be doing something as important as your EP’s. Also, do not set it higher as you don't want to become desensitized to it going off with a partially inflated canopy. Set it AT your decision altitude and recognize that when it goes off it is time so do something right then and there if you aren’t already. Malfunctions can suck people attention away from their visual altimeter unlike ordinary freefall.

    As for the other altitudes feel free to set them where you like, but honestly most people end up setting them at their break off and pull altitudes. Some people will tell you that this is bad as one may become dependent on it. Well don’t. Use your visual, your eyes and your audible - three are better than two. I’ve personally, never understood the value of a late alarm. However, if you’re a newbie (can’t tell as you don’t have your profile filled out) and still working on building altitude awareness than maybe setting it lower for a couple of hundred jumps isn’t such a bad idea.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  2. Quote

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    We are a 4-way team (plus one camera flyer).



    I don't know. I never saw more than 3 of you in frame at any one time! ;)


    :D:D:D Thats some funny shit there!


    Hey I've got video of one of my early 4 way teams and there is rarely more than 2 of us in frame for the first half of the season!
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  4. It's pretty common to repeat a level. Don't worry about it.

    I personally hold the record for repeated Level 4's at my DZ. And now I'm an Instructor. ;)

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

  5. I beleive Parasport Italia has a vendor in the US handel all US service. I just got a new clip from them a couple of weeks ago. It cost about $6 including shiping. After 1500 jumps on the helmet it finally broke. Easy to change but I did have my rigger sew the end after chaning it out.

    I beleive

    http://www.unfeathered.com/info.html

    is the place to contact in the US
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  6. Is he a low time jumper, recently with his license and first rig? Did he pack it himself?

    Just guessing here?
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  7. Quote

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    At my dz the only way you can owe more than one case a day is to cross the beer line.



    Same here. If all those first happened in one day. Ifr two days then two cases. Congrats Will on all the first, sound like you had a great weekend.


    SHHHH! Don't tell the new guys about that loophole! ;)
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  11. Thank you. More info is always better. ;) That said I'd argue that if one finds themselves in a terrible situation low to the ground that the skyhook is the preferred equipment.

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

  12. Quote

    This is some serious science.:P



    Right up there with Intelligent Design. Oh, wait a minute it's actually AHEAD of ID because it's testable.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  13. Quote

    My problem is I want someone to tell me where a skyhook will save you where a much less expensive and less complicated standard rsl will not.



    Okay here you go: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=2718515;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

    "To my great sadness, we had a canopy collision happen yesterday here at Skydive Temple. There was an 11-way RW formation, jumpers tracked off, and 2 experienced jumpers (1000-2000 jumps) had a canopy collision during opening. Their Neptunes/Altitracks showed that they opened between 2000 and 2500 feet. They hit body to body and their canopies entangled. Both cut away at a low altitude. One jumper was jumping a Vector rig with a Skyhook. The Skyhook did its job amazingly well. The other jumper was jumping a Javelin with the RSL hooked up, but the reserve didn't have time to open. "

    Just to make it clear, the guy with the skyhook lived, the guy with a standard RSL died.

    Any more questions?
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  14. Personally, I don’t believe that a Vector is more likely than any other rig to have this issue; in fact I believe it is less likely than most rigs. But let’s understand this is a very low probability event and there are things that you can and should do to help avoid the situation.

    The one fatality I’ve personally seen caused by a line snagging a main flap was on a Javelin. It made a cutaway impossible and ended with a main reserve entanglement.

    I’ll quote the Vector manual “Leave no more than 15 inches (37 cm) of lines unstowed between the bag and the connector links.” This is due to any additional line being a snag hazard and potentially catching a flap.

    I recall Bill Booth (Bill please step in here, I always feel uncomfortable using your name) discussing the issue and I believe he even had some video of lines on opening too showing that it is a wildly dynamic and messy process. And that while it is uncommon, the potential for a line to catch a flap was real and hence the 15” max unstowed line, which will help reduce the risk of a line catching a flap.

    While we’re at it how many people leave this little unstowed line? I read a post the other day where someone said that they told their packer to leave 4 feet of unstowed line! Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. There is a belief (although it likely should be called a “myth”) that the more unstowed line one leaves the lower the chances of line twists. I’ve never seen this vetted out in a convincing way. The last stow does not have to be super tight and triple wrapped, it merely needs to hold the lines in place for the initial stages of deployment.

    There was a habit of people leaving 3 feet or so of unstowed line at my DZ. That is until the fatality; now I almost never see it. I like to think that in honor of the good man that passed away from this issue we all learned something. I personally never allow more than 15” and if I’m using a packer out of town, I request that they don’t either.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  15. Quote

    How long do you think it would take for Sunpath to do a complete re-harness on a javelin?



    There is a magic number you can call where they can tell you! Try it (910) 875-9002
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  16. Quote

    I was going to purchase the Sky Systems Benny helmet, because I liked the fact it is impact rated and the price is affordable. But then it dawned on me that there might as well be some better looking (cheaper :ph34r:) alternatives.

    Ergo folks, wot do some of you guys use in terms of non-Skydiving specific helmets? wot are the alternatives already in use by skydivers?

    cheers



    The Benny is a great helmet and is very good for skydving. It's also VERY cheap relative to most "skydiving" helmets. If you are looking for affordable it's about as good as it gets. We're replacing all of our old Protecs with Benny's at our school.

    Be careful of "non-skydving" helmets. Many have snag points that make them unacceptable for skydiving. Some are fine but others are not.

    If you are looking for an inexpensive skydving helmet the Benny is about as good as it gets.

    But what you REALLY want to do is laydown the money for a kewl new Z-1! ;)
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  17. Quote

    i've had line twist a break fire on opening, and closed end cells. these I think of as incidental maintenance not malls.



    The SIM defines these as "routine problems" or nuisances. These are things that are in fact common and typically very fixable. They only become malfuncations if they hinder confirming stearability by your decision altitude.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  18. Quote

    Fatimah Alkhunaizi developed a skydiving suit that inflates with helium if the parachute doesn’t open. Outfitted with an accelerometer and a programmable device, the suit inflates if the skydiver drops to an altitude of 600 meters and is still traveling at a constant velocity.



    Wow, 600 meters! Hmm, that's about where my hard deck is!
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  19. Quote

    I often hear people argue that lighter people should jump smaller canopy's earlier in their skydiving career because else they'll be backing up on landing even with an (I don' know) 10 knots groundwind.



    I’d argue the whole premise is wrong. Smaller is not better as a student. Student wind restrictions are low enough to keep any student from jumping in wind conditions that would cause them to back up.

    After someone gets a license and they can make their own decisions, but they should not be jumping smaller canopies just to keep from backing up in high winds. They should not be jumping in any winds that would cause them to back up given an appropriate canopy size for their experience.

    This does create a situation where light weight jumpers may not be jumping when heavier ones at the same jump numbers may be able to. So what? The weather nor the ground cares not about "fair". It is what it is.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  20. Quote

    With 100 people in the landing area there were a lot of obstacles.



    All of the 100-way jumpers by this stage were either waiting at the flag line or walking along the flag line at the west edge of the grass.



    Hmm, since I was one of the obstacles and was not anywhere near the flag line but was still walking through the dirt with a group of people from the 100 way, I'd have to disagree with you about the number of obstacles and how crowded the landing area still was. There were in fact a number of us from the 100 way still working our way toward the grass. That said there were a lot of people ahead of us waiting at the flag line.

    Object fixation is common for low timers (and again someone correct me if I'm wrong but I'm still of the understanding the canopy pilot was <50 jumps - 30 is the number I actually was given). With other canopies in the air, a lot of people on the ground, a low jump number canopy pilot likely with limited canopy control skills and a bit of object fixation thrown in, this was a problem waiting to happen.
    "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 worth adding here that the person on the ground that was hit was part of a 100 person formation that had just landed. He was looking in the direction of the landings for the 100 way. The person that he was hit by was from a load that was let out just after the 100 way landed and landing opposite the pattern of the 100 way.

    With 100 people in the landing area there were a lot of obstacles. I also understand (please correct me if I’m wrong) the person under canopy had <50 jumps and might have been having difficulty with the crowded landing area given his expierence.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  • Quote

    What would your Cypres brand AAD do if you turned it on at 11 PM for a night jump then gave it to your friend to jump the next day? I always have been fearful of any device that shuts off automatically. I don't think this is documented in the Cypres owners manual.



    Not to get between you guys ;) BUT, the shut off period for a Cypres is pretty well known. Fear of a night jump and then jumping the next day seems a bit odd to me. However, I'm accustomed to my Cypres and know that if I’ve been jumping during the day and do a night jump it is wise to turn it off and then on again before the night jump. It’s actually part of the night briefing. As for “giving it to a friend” the next day again it seems like a bit of a paranoid fear. But anytime I’ve done a night jump and am jumping the next day I always turn the Cypres off and on again in the morning. If I loaned my rig to a friend and had done night jumps the evening before I would of course take care of the Cypres before I handed it over.

    I do have to agree that FAR too few people never read the manual! In fact I’m shocked at how few people read it. :S:S:S:S
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  • Quote

    When I referred to my family doing what ever it took that was in reference to getting the insurance company to pay off on the life insurance, nothing more, nothing less.



    But you use an example of liability insurance for your story. It's easy for people to get confused based on your example. Liability insurance companies have a different situation than life insurance companies. Suing a life insurance company over something that is specifically excluded in a contract is likely go get nowhere fast.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  • Quote

    Do you remember Mirror Image & the Golden Knights at the World Meet in Zephyrhills, FL 1981?

    Mike



    Wow, what a great picture! It looks like all of booties fell off though! ;)
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP

  • You will never regret spending time with your children. You might regret skydiving; people DO have life changing injuries and die in the sport. It’s a personal choice that no one can make for you. But as someone else said the sky will always be there should you decide to take a break.
    "We've been looking for the enemy for some time now. We've finally found him. We're surrounded. That simplifies things." CP