erdnarob

It is a good idea to make some studies about the wind and direction to follow when landing a parachute. That can help beginners and other skydivers too. Just a couple of points : 1) when the wind is changing at ground level, this is generally the sign of calm wind then landing not exactely against it is OK. In other words don't be focused too much on the wind when calm and put your attention on the approach and flare. 2) You have to be able to land off wind by 30, 45 and even 90 degrees for at some occasions ie. big skydiving formations, it is generally the case that everybody lands in the same direction which is pre-determined by the organizer or the direction set up by the first jumper to land. This is true too when having to avoid somebody else who lands at the same time. Beware of people converging with you before landing. Have always a good monitoring of the sky around and below you. Make your neck as a swivel at all time. 3) I find a bit late when you start your set up at 1500 ft. I would say 2000 ft at least especially with strong winds. That includes turning back to test your penetration into the wind, several times if needed. 4) in order to get used to it, practice flat turns as often as possible. That will give you the good reflex to have when trying to avoid another jumper near the ground Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

If you want to do PRO packing, use first a hook to hold the canopy lines high and the canopy hanging free. That way you do the flaking being in front of the canopy (opposite to the container) and have a better view of what you are doing. Have somebody to teach you for few packings and who knows the purpose of each step and can explain it. When used to it and comfortable, transfer if you want on holding the lines on your shoulder. There is so many people who are packing without knowing what they are doing and why. They cannot be blamed since they just got bad teaching without explanation. Just the type DO AS I SHOW YOU. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I forgot to mention the bulk of the sleeve and the tubular 550 lines with 7 stands inside. Plus the sleeve retainer line, the tubular bridle and bulky connector links as well. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have jumped a StratoCloud in 1976 or 1977. The parachute(with lines) weight was 17 pounds. Now, the same size of parachute weight is about 8 pounds. The miracle was that the manufacturers got a better knowledge of the parachute and parachute components and have been reinforcing them only at the right places. They also are using now better and lighter fabric which were not available years ago. I suggest you to have a look at PORCHER fabric manufacturer's web site. They have a video showing the complexity of fabric manufacturing. PORCHER is the manufacturer of fabric for Hot Air Balloon, paraglider, parachute, powered parachute ...etc. Porcher is one of the most important manufacturer in the world for that kind of fabric. There is a good chance that the fabric of your parachute is made by them. Reserves on the other hand were army or navy surplus and built way smaller than the main. I started jumping a paratrooper T-10 of 35 feet nominal diameter while my reserve (mounted on belly) was a 24 feet. Quite a difference. But we didn't have anything else at the time. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Flat packing allows you to have an easier control to keep lines centered while PRO packing is a symetrical way of packing. Both methods are OK. The advantage of the PRO pack is that it takes less room. For many years I have been packing main and reserve flat pack. Since 2003 I use the PRO packing for both. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have dropped more than 2000 students in S/L years ago and I can say there is some advantage using such a method. As a jumpmaster when using S/L you always can start the deployment earlier manually by pulling at the S/L when the student exit isn't stable and before he/she flips completely over. In few occasion I have seen the student being put back on his belly due to the S/L tension when he had started to fall sideway. This is not possible when the IAD is used. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I know it is first disturbing with respect to conventional rigs but the new Spectra (or steel cable) ripcord using big pin doesn't pass completely thru the housing and doesn't have to. This is why I have posted this picture where it is shown that from the closing loop to the beginning of the housing, you have 5 inches, when pulling just one inch or so is enough to get the pin out of the closing loop. I had two total mal and encountered no problem at all. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You are really amazing because the big guy beside Bill Booth at 30 seconds and after on the video is myself at the 2007 PIA symposium held at Reno Nevada. When I saw that ripcord, I got one as soon as I could. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

She doesn't have a rig already thefore she will have to rent an equipment down there. Since she is on student status, it will likely be equiped with an AAD. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The light is an electromagnetic wave and behave as a wave. That means that when light goes around an object (here the jumper) there is what we call a interference phenomenon due to waves addition and substraction. The extra light around the shadow can likely be a positive interference (addition) with a light enhancement as a result. Any shadow has that pattern if you are able to look at it closely in the right conditions. Actually, the light (and waves in general) are able to go partially around an object. Experiment : At the sunset preferably, look cautiously at an object (a tree trunk or the edge of a building) with the sun just behind. You can then easily see the light gnawning the trunk or edge.

A shadow is always on the same straight line going from the light source to the object (the jumper in this case) and to the shadow. It is the same for a rainbow. When seeing a rainbow, the sun, the spectator and the centre of the rainbow are always on the same straight line (when being on the ground, you see only a partial rainbow thus its centre is often below the horizon or on the ground when the sun is very near the horizon). Therefore it is normal for a jumper in freefall to see his shadow projected on a cloud (if any) and having a complete rainbow (circle) centered on the shadow. Rainbows are seen when there are droplets of water and a cloud is actually made of tiny droplets. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I mentioned the Skyhook for readers interest. In case of a total, the reserve pilot chute takes charge of the reserve deployment but important thing...the Skyhook has to unhook from the RSL as designed. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Your experience is quite impressive. But what I am saying about reserve comes from the feelings and I have no figures to post. I agree with you about the fast opening of reserves but, at least in my case, they were all soft. Now, can we have a parachute opening fast and soft together. I guess so providing the deployment being very progressive. In a way, I am saying that nobody has to be afraid to deploy a reserve at terminal speed and...on a total malfunction, you have no choice. Now for the people who said the Skyhook makes no difference, have a look at the Skyhook videos on the UPT Vector web site. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Krystal, you got your Solo certificate already. Australia seems to be a well organized country concerning skydiving. I have no doubt you could jump up there, first with an instructor for evaluation, then keep on jumping under supervision to reach your A license level and more. I heard you were in the process to learn packing. Good. Bring your solo certificate and logbook with you and CSPA membership as well. I wish you the best DOWN UNDER. When jumping, you will get upward with respect to us. We will miss you. If you meet Leslie C. a freeflyer, tell her hello on my behalf. AL Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Very intresting this approach while seeing your shadow. I know that DZ, this is Lodi (Parachute Center) Ca. I can see you doing your base over or near highway 99 and aim for the grassy landing area. What surprises me is the sandy color of the surrounding fields. What did they do with the grass ? Do they want start a vineyard up there ? I did the same approach many times even going across the highway to start the final when there was almost no wind. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I agree with you. Using graphs downloaded from a reliable instrument is the best. But you have to use a reasonnable sample. For my former Sabre 2-170 and my Katana 170 I downloaded 10 consecutive jump graphs from my Vigil using an interface. Sabre 2-170 was deploying on an average of 340 ft while my Katana 170 was deploying on an average of 600 ft. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

What you enumerate is part of what I call attitude. We have the same view but express it differently. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I speak by experience. I have had 6 reserve rides including two total. Three rounds and three square at all. Openings both after a cutaway or total, were soft and never like some slammer openings. Maybe the adrenaline made me feel something soft. But surprisingly, when I got my two totals (PD 160), the reserve was very progressive for opening but quite fast. I didn't have the time to contemplate the opening, when I had a look it, it was fully deployed. I have to say that I was equiped with a Skyhook in both cases. For the tertiary reserves, at the CSPA, this not a regulation but a recommendation to wear it for intentional cut away. Thanks to mention these discrepencies. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Quite a black and white view of the problem. But at least you give counter exemples. IMO attitude toward the sport is the answer for being good or not. You can be "supposedly good" and have a very bad attitude. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

This is a very "wide" question. Even if a skydiver is good, he/she is not necessarily a good communicator or also not willing to communicate. It depends on the personality. Now, what is a good skydiver : There is so many ways to answer that. Say that he/she is a skydiver who is willing to always get better and open to new methods or techniques in order to become a better jumper. But just doing an adequate work in the air is fine. Not everybody wants to challenge himself all the time. But important things are the safety which suffers no compromises and being respectful toward everybody. The jumper having difficulty now can be the person who will be well ahead of you in the near future. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Sorry... if you gain 10 pounds...I just forgot. According the formula F=KSV^2 : 10 pounds increase from the original weight of (for exemple) 180 pounds which makes 190 pounds. This is an increase by 10/180 = 0.05555 or 5.55% of the original weight. That means your original weight has been multiplied by 1.0555. Therefore your speed would be multiplied by the square root of 1.0555 which is 1.0274 equivalent to an speed increase of 2.74% (not too much). But as I said this is true for round parachute but can give you an idea for the landing speed of a square parachute. Note : when the load on a square parachute is increased the glide ratio (distance vs altitude) stays about the same which means both the forward and vertical speeds are increased with same proportions. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I know only two persons who have studied scientifically low speed aerodynamics concerning parachutes and who can help you for that. They are John Sherman from Jump Shack and Jean Potvin from Parks College of St Louis University. Both of them have given seminars about this subject at the Parachute Industry Association (PIA) symposium. What I can tell you is the following : In aerodynamics there is a well known formula : F=KSV^2, where F is the force generated by a fluid (air) flowing against the surface of a body, K is a constant depending on the density and viscosity of the fluid, the units you use and the shape of the body (CX), S is the surface or area opposed to the fluid flow and V is the relative speed of the fluid with respect to the area. Note 1: V is to the square which means for instance that if the surface of the body opposed to the fluid is multiplied by 2, the speed will be divided by the square root of 2 (this when the force stay the same (your weight in free fall for instance)) Note 2 : the formula above is more suitable for round parachutes or somebody in free fall. For square parachutes, they have more or less the shape of an airfoil and have to be studied accordingly. There are 4 forces on an airfoil : 1) the trust (given by a gravity component on a parachute) 2) the drag (or friction thru the air) 3) the lift (generated by Bernoulli's force), 4) the load which is the suspended weight Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I have jumped in many states in the USA : Maine, New York, Vermont, Illinois, Florida, Pennsylvania, California, Connecticut, Massachussets and never really with any problem but at two places where they asked me to join the USPA and buy a temporary membership for 20-25 $. Those places are Titusville Florida and Skydance at Davis California. Few Canadians DZ are affiliated with USPA but they should accept the CSPA membership just like most of the USPA DZ in USA accept it. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Here we are. Here in attachment an exerpt of the CSPA Parachutist Information Manual (PIM 1) dealing with Basic Safety regulations and recommendations chapter 3.16. I am pretty sure that USPA has about the same requirements. That makes sense for : 1) a jump pilot wants to use zero parachute then wear one 2) a regular jumper wants to use one parachute then wear two 3) a jumper wanting to test a reserve in the reserve container configuration wants to use two parachutes then wear three See any test jumper at DeLand for instance testing a reserve in normal configuration, he/she always has a tertiary reserve mounted on belly with a very long bridle cord. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Very interesting thread indeed since too often people get a diploma and sit down on it. This true for all professionals like : doctors, scientists, psychologists, engineers, pilots...and even parachuting riggers and instructors. Getting a diploma or certificate doesn't garantee you will be good and serious about your rating. When getting a rating you just have the paper certifying that you meet the minimum requirements. Your personal value, ethics, seriousness, honesty, knowlewdge, currency...do actually what you are as a rigger for instance. You have to be interested and curious about everything concerned by your rating. Reading, going on manufacturer's Internet sites, visiting their shop, giving seminar at the safety days, attending rigging symposiums, doing some simple research on equipment, writing articles, participate seriously on exchanges on dropzone.com...is what makes you a accomplished and seasoned rigger...a professional class one. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.