erdnarob

I have a couple of hundred jumps using a Jerry Baumchem MagBag which is a Dbag for the main looking like a reserve Dbag but instead of velcro, Jerry put 2 pairs of strong magnets. I just love it. I even tested it with a friend of mine shooting a video. The line extraction is super clean, taut and orderly (the lines come out of the Dbag from the middle), nothing to compare with ordinary Dbags with two rows of rubber bands. And the beauty is that it makes the opening as softer as any other bag. Jerry now has almost the same Dbag but changed the magnets for two tuck tabs on the top of the pocket only. I have seen it and this is the Dbag I would use if mine had to be replaced. The design is so simple and as I said before, you don't have to worry for replacing the rubber bands. I use two big tandem rig tube stows to close the Dbag flap, and these tube stows have to be changed every 50-65 jumps. Have a look on the picture included. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Be very careful about dying cordura or anything else specially if this is parachute rig materials. Dying can involve acidic chemicals which can weaken flaps, webbing, straps...etc. A jumper at my DZ had a rig with a lot of white componants. No wonder it became stained after few hundred landings in the grass. He decided to dye it in black color by immersing completely the rig. I did an acid testing with bromocresol blue acid indicator. The rig material tested acidic which is certainly not good news for the harness strength. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

IMO, the best way to prepare a person for cutaway when needed, is to train him/her on a suspended harness with an actual fall on a mattress or something equivalent. The benefit of this exercice is that the jumper knows (and remembers) the feeling of getting suddenly free from the main risers, notices the force required to pull the ripcord and knows that the three ring system works easily. Moreover he is mentally prepared to do it without hesitation. Practice makes perfect. Astronauts are trained for months on the ground or swimming pool to rehearse what they will do in the space. I have developed a way to use any owner's rig to do such a training without having to pop the reserve. I have such a set up in my basement wich costs only few bucks. One needs : An old pair of risers, a spare ripcord, disconnecting the 3 rings and fold up the main risers below the riser protectors. The rip cord is removed from its pocket and taped under the main lift web. The spare ripcord is placed in the pockect with cable hanging down. Some masking tape around the handle and MLW simulates the extraction force. You can wrap many turns of masking tape until the required force is obtained. I recommend all the jumpers to do this exercice at the begining of the jumping season, every year. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I had a discussion (for main packing) with people about the purpose of wraping and tightening the main canopy tail center around the top of the lines. I was surprised to discover that the jumpers are far from being unanimous on why doing so. I would like you people on this forum to write your idea about it. It seems that a lot of jumpers/packers are just doing what they were shown without knowing why or have a wrong explanation. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

In other words, the biding tapes of the West and East flaps have to overlap. The flap set up on the picture if OK. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Rob, on a Vector III, the grommet on the main protector flap is offset on purpose. The closing loop length is correct and so is the tension if the bidind tape of the left flap overlaps the binding tape of the right flap. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

When asked about what kind of AAD I have, I answer it is my St Christopher medal . BTW I have a Vigil II Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The easiest way is to follow a tandem pair and be equiped with a Protrack or similar device giving the fall rate. Aerodynamics is a complex science and as you said, many factors contribute to get a result. This is why even aerodynamicists validate their findings using a wind tunnel. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Dived ? with an airplane or in skydiving ? Anyway, I have flown : Cessna 150, Cessna 172, Cessna 182 (one time), Cessna Cutlass RG with variable pitch propeller, Aeronca Champion, a Maule (don't remember the type) and even flew for half an hour in the copilot seat of a Twin Otter for a total of 535 hours. Note : I started jumping 10 years before I have flown an airplane. Canada pilot license : YZP 296303 Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Peter, I can recognize Joe's way to warn the jumpers. He just applied the unsaid rules about alcohol use. Years ago in France, everything stopped at noon for two hours at lunch time. I saw people (including myself) taking beer or wine at the restaurant. Even at the DZ they were offering beer or wine. At two o'clock, we were resuming your skydiving. I have never seen somebody drunk in the airplane. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

More exactly it is just like the terms used in aviation when an airplane does a circuit which is a rectangle. It is the upwind leg (at take off), crosswind leg, downwind leg, base leg (which is a crosswind leg before final approach, and the final leg. Sometimes we call for a short final leg too. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Here we go about SS grade for skydiving equipment. «««17-4 PH SS offered by Best Stainless is under high quality standards including: UNS S17400, AMS 5643, ASTM A564, and ASTM A693 Grade 630. 17-4 PH stainless steel can be used for a variety of applications including: pump shafts, oil path, mechanical seals, and within the aerospace industry. Its composition is carbon, chromium, columbian + tantalum, copper, manganese, nickel, phosphorous, silicon, and sulfur.»»» note : PH stands for Precipitation Hardening = a kind of heat treatment My Laguiole knife has a SS named T12 specially designed for cuttlery. It keeps the cutting edge sharp longer and it's relatively easy to sharpen. One ss for each use. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Both way has its advantages. Dragging the container to the D-Bag gives you the chance to keep the lines taut and you can adjust accordingly. After the first stow, placing the d-bag near the container avoid you to drag it when using no packing mat Personnaly I prefer to place the container on a packing mat and drag the whole thing. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I think the actual issue is more about low altitude and short delay when trying a new parachute system or jumping a rig for the first time. I would not worry particularly about lines to be set but about anything which can go wrong because of the rig or because of the jumper. When jumping a new system, it is a good idea of trying it for a short delay just because that involves less opening forces, just in case something let go. Also trying a new system at low altitude makes that if something goes wrong and you need to cut away, you will have less chance to lose your main and free bag/pilot chute. I know a guy who was jumping a used rig for the first time and jumping at high altitude. For whatever reason, it became unstable and decide to cut away at 10 000 feet or so. Well he lost his main. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi Jerry. Those manufacturers do not provide the type of alloy used for parachute and aviation purposes nor the heat treatment the metal is getting. There are many many type of stainless steels. There is the 18/8 for kitchen accessories (18% of chrome, 8% of nickel) for instance but there is the surgical SS, the cutlery SS...etc Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

For not going low, first of all you should know your rate of fall and the range of speeds you can work with (eg. between 115 and 123 mph). Secondly, you choose the right jumpsuit which allows you to do that, if needed. Third : when diving, use the stair step approach which means that you do a short stop at say 20-30 feet higher and away from the red zone to check your rate of fall with respect to the formation. Fourth : after docking in the formation like everybody in, you should contribute to keep a good fall rate by arching and flying small in order to match your clone in the formation (the jumper the other side who is symmetrical with respect to you on a line passing by the center), fifth : when there is several points, anticipate a change of level when the signal is done and change your body attitude accordingly. It is easier and faster to go down than going up. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Metal handle for reserve ripcords allows you to put the tumb inside the D shape and gives you a more positive way to pull the ripcord at critical time. IMO a D shape handle stays flat on your chest and is not likely to be caught by mistake. But again fashion tends to be the rule instead of function. Even better, a ripcord using D handle and Spectra cable (1000 pounds proof, including a built in bungee) makes sure the ripcord will not float away from reach. Since there is a larkhead knot at both ends, that makes the inspection clear and easy to perform. One thing for sure you cannot perform in the field is the swaging resistance of both the pin and ball ending. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You should use in that case the proper phraseology. Just say that your rig has an electronic device and show them the X-ray card provided by the AAD manufacturer. When it is my turn at the security, I have all the papers ready including the TSA text mentionning about having a AAD equiped parachute in the cabin, my AAD X-ray card and my CSPA membership card as well. You had no gas canister which means that you had no spray of any kind in pressurized can. This is when the troubles started when you say YES. Don't mention anything about the chemical charge which is by the way small enough to avoid any damage to your reserve in case of triggering. Years ago I was passing the border back to Canada in my car, I said I had smoke bombs. The officer told me about this being in the 3rd explosive category or so, I told him that it was actually a smoke generator for visual effect when parachuting. The officer smiled and let me go. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I am a big guy and fly a Katana 170 loading it at 1.65 . I have tried and been owner of many parachutes and I can say that my Katana is the best parachute ever I have jumped. I just had it relined after almost 500 jumps on it. It is a fun canopy, light toggle pressure, extremely strong flare, opens softly and behave well. But if you don't respect it like for instance by making a fast 180 degrees turn at 500 feet, you are dead or almost. Otherwise, it is very docile. I wanted to get that parachute for more penetration into the wind, more fun and a flare like nothing else. One day with a very mild breeze, I even tried the Katana 150. I was a bit nervous for landing it but at my great surprise it gave me one of the softest landing ever. As a big guy with experience I never gave up about using modern equipment with performance. I participated last year on the Canadian FS record of big formations with a successful 102 way. I was on the 6 way base and two guys in there were heavier than me. One of them had a Katana 150. To complete this answer, I drive also a sport car (roadster) which provides with a fairly good performance. As you can see, skydiving is not only for skinny 130 pounds people. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Don't look at your deployment with a fully elliptical canopy. That will change slightly your body in the harness and fully ellipticals are very sensitive even with a harness small change. It can start spinning because of that. A good way to behave after having launched the pilot chute is to resume in a box position and look at the horizon. Don't worry, you will know soon enough that the canopy has deployed. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Have a look on the picture included. This is what is "recommended". Personnaly I prefer to set up the curved pin a bit further by having the closing loop at the very beginning of the flared part of the pin toward the eyelet, indicated by the red arrow. When the briddle is pulled by the pilot chute, it goes vertically and starts to pull the curved pin. Because of the slight leverage (distance between the closing loop and the briddle attachment) the pin changes for a vertical plane (no more flat on the container). That provides the briddle with a easy way to extract the pin. You can try it yourself on the ground by pulling slowly the briddle vertically while the rig is flat. Observe the pin change of plane. Repeat with different closing loop positions. Remember that a premature opening of the main container at the wrong time is one of the worst scenario Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Your preference to put the control unit of an AAD in the back of the rig is not mine. This is the best place to get its window broken and I have seen it several times. How ! You put your rig on the ground, in a van or on somebody else rig, and a jumper comes and sit on it or put something heavy on it. That location represents also a problem when packing the reserve since pressure has to be applied of the reserve container for closing it. IMO the best place to protect the AAD control unit window is under the yoke. Moreover, that position gives you the chance to check your reserve pin before every jump and see the status of the AAD (ON OFF). Behind the glass window, there is a liquid cristal for display which is quite fragile and you are better to have it well protected.

I suggest you to reinforce your abdominal muscles like doing sit up or similar exercices. Those belly muscles are helping your back muscles all the time, walking, swimming, bending, lifting weight...etc. This is the advice I got years ago from a doctor. Now, there are specialized doctors named physiatrists. They are expert in the mechanic of human body.

If my memory is good, Dave DeWolf, a master rigger and rigger instructor from Pennsylvania was asking 60$ for a reserve repack and 160$ for a reserve still not popped to be repacked. His idea was to make pressure on the owner to pull his reserve ripcord and that way, feeling what was the actual pull force to extract the ripcord. You can ask the reserve owner to do that in front of you, he will know the pull force and you will see how high the pilot chute is jumping. Having a reserve which is not popped to repack is not a good idea. The reserve owner has to train himself for a possible cut away, not the rigger. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Canada has 3400 or so CSPA members which is about the same amount of jumpers per capita than USA knowing that USA has 320 millions of people while Canada has 10 times less. It is amazing to find out that Canada and USA have about the same amount (per capita) of airplane pilots. USA has 770 000 pilots and Canada has 72 000 pilots out of a million of pilots for the world. Which means that USA and Canada have together 84% of the a/c pilots in the world.