JKT

Thanks, but they were already fully booked up. I've actually found somewhere in Hicksville (worth it just to stay somewhere called that) which suits my real business for being in Long Island as well. I'll only be able to jump for two and a bit days so train plus taxi is probably the way I'll have to go... ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Thanks for the feedback, but trying to get accommodation for that weekend is not easy. Campsites are a bit of a joke though - they won't let you book in advance even though it will be impossible as someone travelling from abroad to get there for a "first come, first served" basis. Oh well, my own fault for not trying to book sooner... I'll be staying elsewhere on LI so hopefully the LIRR/Taxi combo is working well that weekend! ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Hi, I'm travelling to the US from the UK at the start of September and am hoping to go jumping at Skydive Long Island - anyone know what the place is like? I'm aiming to get there on Saturday, 2nd Sept and will hopefully stay until Tues, 5th Sept (I hope they are still open during the week!). Does the DZ have any accommodation and if not, is there any good, cheap place to stay nearby? Also, I've just seen on my calendar that it is Labor Day on the Monday - is that a national holiday and if so is the DZ open then? Thanks very much in advance. N.B. I performed a search but nothing recent came up on this subject for SDLI. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

If you're having trouble getting your head around just what is happening in a PRO-pack, I'd also recommend being shown (or doing) a flat pack too - it really helps to sort out in your mind what everything is and where it is on the canopy. It's also broken down into three stages - at the end of each you can step back and reflect on what is going on. Once you have seen or performed a flat pack, you will realise that a PRO pack is doing pretty much the same thing, only in a vertical stance. FWIW, the big difference between the two is that a flat pack starts with the canopy in a sideways orientation which you then revert to a head on orientation at the end of stage 2. The PRO pack always keeps the canopy head on (hence the Proper Ram-air orientation or PRO of the title, I believe). ----- Official 100 jump wonder

I guess what they are implying is that the latter group(s) of RW are likely to be lower experienced jumpers (e.g. solos/two ways/early four ways) who are much more likely to have relatively large canopies. The first group(s) of freeflyers are likely to be experienced jumpers so vice versa... FWIW, the latest issue of the UK's skydive mag has an article about the introduction of a new BPA Canopy Handling rating system (presumably requiring some "official" instruction to go along with it). I suspect/hope that these types of issues are going to be a part of the instruction. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

"my landings under the 240 were pretty bad (stood up 3 out of 30!)" If your landings were bad on the 240, why are you downsizing from that? Shouldn't you be getting things right regularly on that canopy before you start going down the sizes? I fully understand the desire to get off the bigger canopies and onto your own asap... been there myself last summer but I am now glad that my instructors kept me on the larger ones until they judged me to be ready for the next step down, even if it was (very) frustrating at the time. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

However, your harness is also "split" in two (with the second half behind you and built into the container), so wouldn't the force be similar at the MLW adjuster as it is at your leg strap buckle? The shearing effect caused by uneven distribution of the webbing through the friction lock of the adjuster would be the more likely cause as mentioned above, which is why I'm asking whether or not, in these two incidents, it is known if the two adjusters were at the same setting - if they weren't, then the forces would be distributed unevenly and that could be one of the reasons why one side was more prone to shearing than the other. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Given that the same locking mechanism is used on leg straps (I assume - it looks the same to me), what is the difference here between the stresses on the leg strap webbing relative to that on the adjustable MLW on these rigs? Why would one be more likely to fray and break than the other? Is it possible that the two sides of the harness webbing weren't set to be the same length in these incidents which increased the chances of one side being under far more stress than the other? ----- Official 100 jump wonder

I guess I wasn't clear - this is what I can (and would) do at the moment, but what if that isn't an option at another DZ? I guess you would hang on brakes until airspace was clearer and if necessary, shout at the people already on the ground to get out of the way? ----- Official 100 jump wonder

All this land in the direction of the first jumper assumes that you actually saw them landing... what does everyone recommend you do if you didn't? In the ideal world, you'd look and see what direction everyone else is landing in, but if they are going every which way? (It hasn't happened to me yet, and my DZ has a big landing area and massive open fields around that, so it is easy to avoid everyone else if you want or need to, not to mention a big arrow pointing out the landing direction for low wind conditions, but for my future reference...) ----- Official 100 jump wonder

FWIW, as a jumper in the UK where some cloud coverage is inevitable a lot of the time*, it is good practice to a) know what the general location of the sun is with respect to the jump run and b) know what the cloud base is. Knowing the location of the sun relative to the jump run helps you find the landing area if you can't immediately see it upon opening (e.g. if you have pulled high for whatever reason and a cloud or clouds obscures your view of the DZ). As a student it also helps (even on a no cloud day) if you have a long spot and/or you are unfamiliar with the ground below you due to lack of experience - you will know to e.g. face in the opposite direction to the sun and the DZ will then be somewhere in front of you. I personally find it doubly good practice as it also makes me ask what direction the jump run is on every lift. * I'm not saying that this means you will be jumping intentionally through thick cloud - I'm talking about the kind of cloud cover you get in this shot. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

OK, good to know... thanks Bill ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Perhaps this is a very naive question, but would it actually help more to cut the unbroken brake line in this situation so that the canopy would at least fly in a straight line without the need for any input? As you can probably tell, I have no idea what would happen if you had no brake lines attached at all, so what effect would that actually have on the canopy? ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Well, a helmet is compulsory here in the UK, and I'm glad - I keep bumping my head when I stand up in the plane ----- Official 100 jump wonder

So how long does that take? It depends on the person, but from what I understand, it can take a few months for some. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

If you want to read some more detailed info on why it isn't a good idea to jump from altitude so soon after donating blood read this:

I think Dukeswell (also in the UK) has made it mandatory to jump with an AAD fitted as well. Someone correct me if I am wrong. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

I would have thought that undoing or loosening (too much) your chest strap before you've landed would be asking for trouble with any kind of mal, not just a wrap... what if you had to cutaway your main at any point (e.g. if a (s)link or line was to break while you were descending), wouldn't you be putting yourself at risk of at least partially falling out of your harness when your reserve deployed? ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Thank you! Why don't the instructional materials say they mean feet? Or am I the only person who's ever been confused by this? It seems odd that they would mean from the feet - you aren't looking at the ground from the perspective of your feet (unless you've had a particularly bad opening ) so how are you meant to be able to judge that? If that value of 10ft is from the feet it would translate into roughly 15 to 16ft from the perspective of the eyes of the student. FWIW, on my RAPS course we were instructed to flare at around 15ft AGL. On my first two landings off the radio I started flaring at about 30ft and 20ft respectively... my first ever PLFs and thankfully student Mantas are very forgiving. Hitting the sweet spot is purely a matter of practice. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

What is IAD? I'm guessing it's Instructor activated deployment but I'd rather know for sure. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Students made up 77% of all jumpers They classified all jumpers with less than 15 jumps as student, 16 to 250 as intermediate and 251 and above as expert. OK, that makes much more sense! ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Does the student category also include tandems? I assume so, otherwise I'd be amazed that students made 77% of all jumps. If so, I'd be interested to know how much % of the student fatalities were people on RAPS/AFF as opposed to being on a tandem if that figure is available. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

I am now a compulsive toggle checker as the last thing I do when I stand up (or sit up) to exit... having seen someone's dummy rip-cord pull go zinging out the aircraft because they managed to sit on it and somehow tug it out as they set themselves up in the door (you know who you are ), it seems like the most sensible thing on earth to do. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Yep, sorry, ASL = above sea level so we were on the same page there. I think it is the ASL, not the AGL that matters when it comes to oxygen content of the atmosphere... so that 16 000 ft is what is relevant rather than the 13 500 ft, but is there anyone better informed than me who would like to comment? Anyway, hope it isn't anything more serious than a head cold or something. ----- Official 100 jump wonder

Possibility - have you given blood or had an invasive operation where you required a transfusion recently (within the past three or four months)? This could cause you to become hypoxic at altitude. IIRC, the recommended period for not skydiving after donating blood etc is a minimum of three months. Smoking won't help either, and I believe that 16 000 ft ASL is above the level that most people would normally start to get hypoxic anyway, but I'm not 100% on that. ----- Official 100 jump wonder