erdnarob

I have jumped at DeLand for many years. A very nice DZ. If you check on Google Map you can see the airport has several runways and taxiways which means a lot of paved areas. In between them obviously, you have grassy areas. In order to land in the grass I suggest you to plan your descent before reaching 1500 ft. Test your penetration into the wind early and, if you penetrate into the wind, on final, concentrate on landing a bit passed a runway or taxiway to keep a lot of grassy area ahead of you. You should avoid to land at the end of a grassy area where a runway or taxiway is near. If by any chance, you see yourself about to land on a taxiway, don't try a late turn or early flaring to slow you down with the hope to make the grass. Keep your canopy straight. Concentrate to make the best normal landing on the paved area. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You are right. It was at the Herd Boogie Summer 1984 at New Hanover Pennsylvania. Exactly, one Arava wing tip touched the left vertical stabilizers of the other Arava. Both were grounded for maybe one hour and fortunately, we could jumped them again. I had flown in a Cessna 172 from Canada for this boogie, and found out I had a flat. We managed to convince the Arava mechanics to find a suitable spare tire and install it. We sent him a good bottle of vodka for his services. What memories !!! Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Rob, here are some additions. 1) Cessna 206 and 207 may be equiped also with relatively large cargo door at the rear right side. Very good to dispatch students. 2) Also Beech 18 may have a left side cargo large door too especially the last built. 3) The Antonov AN2 I have jumped had a small side left door (see picture) 4) For the ramp or rear bay don't forget the Casa 5) one of the largest side door I have jumped was with a King Air 99 (Lodi) 6) see pictures of an Arava (jumped in Pennsylvania New Hanover 1984) and an Antonov AN2 (jumped at Gatineau Qc in 2012) included. 7) the Pac 750 XL (jumped at Rantoul Ill.) has also a left side door a bit smaller than the Twin Otter 8) there is a special category like this Carvair (see picture) where you climb in by the nose using a ladder but where you exit by a large cargo door on the left rear side. The Carvair is a modified DC4 built for car transportation (see James bond Gold Finger movie) the one with a Rolls Royce equiped with gold bumpers. The Arava has a double tail like the Beech 18 but the door is located on the rear left side (see picture) Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

""Quite enclosing"" you said. Have a look on this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKVAtjfGjp0 On this video, this friend of mine had to pull manually his reserve freebag. When I tried to reproduce this problem on the ground having the rig of the same brand in the same configuration, I couldn't extract the freebag by pulling on the bridle with two arms. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Personnaly I use for main closing loop a 550 nylon line sheating. That kind of empty line stays supple and good for 50 jumps+. But when removing the pull cord, go very slowly. You can decrease the friction also by applying a downward force with your thumb on the container near the pin when removing the pull cord. Make sure the pull cord is smooth and slippery. All of that will keep your closing loop good for a longer time. You can easily burn and break the closing loop by removing the pull cord too fast. I have seen one of my packer doing so. I had to change the closing loop after only 6 jumps. I told him and there was no more problem. Check also with the manufacturer's manual to know the ideal position of the last flaps. eg. for the Vector 3 the binding tapes of the last two flaps have to overlap. Check if your main container is compatible with your main canopy. Some people also pack their main with too much material on the center of the container which makes it tighter. Get some suggestion from more experienced people to know how to spread the main material the proper way if needed. Always keep a good force on the pin. Better a bit tight than too loose. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

A jumper falls at 174 ft/sec which is 54 meter/sec (120 mph) According my calculation a pilot chute with a total weight of 1 lbs using a spring having a constant of 535 Newton/meter compressed from 78 cm to 3 cm is theoreticaly able to launch at a speed of about 30 meter/sec. This is why I said "depending of the spring". I agree that we still have a gap between 54 and 30 m/sec. However even if the pilot chute doesn't stop completely, it is slowed down at (in this case) at about half the speed of the jumper (with respect to the space). Therefore there is a vertical distance rapidely increasing between the jumper and the pilot chute to allow a fast extension of the bridle. The pilot chute gets also a relative wind of 24 m/sec (54-30) which contributes to shorten the bridle extension time. My first assumption was qualitative (by comparing the pilot chute to an anchor), here is a more quantitative explanation where figures make it more concrete. Ref.1 Potential energy of a compressed linear spring = kinetic energy of the pilot chute. Then one can find the speed of the pilot chute when at full extention Ref.2 The constant (modulus) of a linear spring is the the force to expand or compress it divided by the distance of expansion or compression. In the actual situation there are other factors like the burble, the container flaps friction and mass. I agree very much that a strong spring gives the pilot chute a better chance to clear the burble of the jumper. Here for the spring constant I used the figures obtained by compressing my reserve pilot chute on a bathroom scale. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

As you said, the pilot chute is decelerating but it is between the time just before launch where it has the same speed than the jumper to the time when the pilot chute spring fully extended cancels that downward speed because of the speed given upward by the spring. The pilot chute then stops for a short duration. In the meantime, the jumper has fallen enough to get the bridle taut. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Hi John, a quite tricky question by the way. Physics again. If you take the surrounding space as a frame of reference, depending on the force of the reserve spring, the downward speed of the jumper (including the reserve pilot chute just before launch) is more or less (after launch) canceled by the speed acquired from the spring extension. That means that the pilot chute (more or less) stays stationary (with respect to the surrounding space) and "waits" for the jumper to continue his fall until the complete bridle extension occurs. A little story: Suppose a person in a fast boat going at 70 mph South on a river flowing very slowly South-North. When the boat passes in front of an observer on the shore, the person using a bow shoots an arrow at 70 mph North. What will see the observer ? According to the Newton laws of relative speed, the arrow will just fall down flat vertically in front of the observer since the two speeds (boat and arrow) cancel each other. In this thread, what happens to the pilot chute is a bit similar to the arrow of the story. This pilot chute stays stationary. The jumper falling at 174 ft/sec will get the full bridle extension in 16 ft / (174 ft/sec) = 0.092 sec Therefore, there is a system of forces and speeds equal to zero (more or less) applied on the pilot chute, but for less than a 1/10th of a second. Answer is : none of the above answers Note : there is no more acceleration on the jumper since he is at constant speed (terminal velocity) John, what do you think about this reasoning ??? Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

My turn : Aircrafts Locations (first time) Aerospatiale A-Star (écureuil) (H)* Mont St Sauveur Qc Antonov AN2 biplane Gatineau Qc Arava* New Hanover PA Beechcraft 18 St André Avellin Qc Beechcraft 99* Lodi CA Beechcraft King air* St Frédéric de Beauce Qc Beechcraft Queen Air Malone NY Beechcraft Twin Bonanza St Jean Chrysostôme Qc Bell 206 (H)* St Jean sur le Richelieu Qc Bell 230 (H)* Skydive Chicago Ottawa Ill. Bell 412 (H)* Quincy Ill Boeing 727** Quincy Ill Caribou Winchester ON Carvair Rantoul Ill Casa* Batavia NY Cessna 170 Orléans ON Cessna 172 Winchester ON Cessna 180 St André Avellin Qc Cessna 182 Winschester ON Cessna 185 St Antoine sur le Richelieu Qc Cessna 205 Victoriaville Qc Cessna 206 St André Avellin Qc Cessna 206 à flotteurs Ottawa ON Cessna 207 St Jean Chrysostome Qc Cessna Caravan* Freeport Ill DC-3 Freeport Ill DC-9** Rantoul Ill Enstrom (H) Embrun ON Fairchild Porter* Gananoque ON Firefly (M) Anderson Rd Ottawa est ON Helio Stallion* Bromont Qc Hercules* Quincy Ill Hughes 500 (H)* Ottawa ON Loadstar Godrich ON Maule Rocket Winchester ON Norman Brittain Highlander Teuge Hollande Norseman Victoriaville Qc Pac 750 XL* Rantoul Ill Pilatus Porter* Laferté Gaucher France Piper Chieftain Embrun ON Piper Navajo Victoriaville Qc Piper Seneca Embrun ON Sherpa* Ottawa Illinois Skyvan* Rantoul Illinois Tripacer Victoriaville Qc Twin Otter* St André Avellin Qc * turbo propulseur H hélicoptère ** turbo réacteur M montgolfière (balloon) Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

You can compare with the iPhone App named Wind Speed. The iPhone microphones are used as pressure (speed) sensors. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Generally the length of the closing loop is measured from the washer to the end of the closing loop. But there is two types of closing loop anchorage at the bottom of the reserve container 1) with only one grommet ie the former WINGS and 2) with two grommets like the new WINGS and most of the rigs. That makes the length from washer to the end quite different. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The question is : is the cutter still good at expiration ? I understand, does the cutter still able to fire...and cut... The answer is YES. AADs cutters contain an explosive charge just like any kind of ammunitions. As I wrote already on this forum, few years ago I have phoned a store selling everything for fishing and hunting. When I asked about the life of ammunitions, they told me that at a local riffle range, some members were still shooting with ammunitions made during WWII. It was more than 60+ years ago. I have personnaly fired several cutters from the two leading AADs makers, using a charged capacitance. To make it more obvious, I put a ripcord cable into the hole. They not only fired properly but they also cut the steel cable. Cutters with a tapered blade or a circular one do the same job. The cutters mentioned in the thread question were from early AAD models and were more than 15 years old (probably around 20 years old). See the picture of two types of the fired cutters. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Congratulations to Alan Eustace, UPT Vector, Vigil USA and Performances designs and all support organizations. We have here a genuine dream team and three new records (altitude, speed and freefall time) as a result and including the three very top leaders in skydiving equipment. The best was that everything was performed without any trumpeting, fanfare and show off. What a nice suprise !

Hi Rob, I think you should leave French language to people more current in French. You mean "patente" for "thingy" since behind a lot of objects one can find the inscription "patent". But I have never never heard your version concerning AADs in Quebec and I am here for more than forty years. Do you think distance in time and space could alter your memories ? BTW CF is in French : formations sous voilure (FSV) Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Here is your request. You ask and you receive. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

"" Petant d'ouverteur automatique"" What kind of french is that ???? I have proposed a while ago : DDA for : Dispositif de Déclenchement Automatique Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Here is my list of acronyms I used for translating from English to French. This includes few acronyms concerning our Canadian system but you should find most of the current ones used in North America. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

There has been a quite interesting article about the closing pin insertion and extraction force in the Canadian Magazine CanPara. The author explains (pictures included) the pros and the cons of different configurations. You have to know that when the pilot chute is launched, it goes vertically and the slight leverage between the pin attachment to the bridle and where the pin is held by the closing loop makes rotate the pin around the line passing along the pin body under the closing loop. That action puts the pin on its edge just before the extraction. Here is the title of the article. Closing Pin Depth of Insertion – 1/2, 2/3, or all the way? By Hector MacLean-Angus Rigger A1 at Skydive NOVA If you are interested, ask a copy of the article to CanPara magazine. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

The last reserve I have packed, I have used my iPhone and took several pictures of the reserve being packed That registers the location and the date of the packing. The idea was to show the owner the work done but reading this thread gave me the idea that taking a picture (which include date and location) can be used as a proof the packing has been really done. BTW, I am a rigger and my reserve is due. I didn't have the time to pack it this week therefore no jumps this weekend for me. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

Good idea to go and spend time in the wind tunnel. But ever better, go to the tunnel with a SF coach and learn basic technics like : going up and down, turns using leg, lateral slide, mantis position, two on two works...etc Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

I had the same problem about slider grommets "melting" Slinks and risers (webbing no. 8 with standard 3 rings). Therefore I have installed risers bumpers from PD. First season then I will evaluate the problem again before Winter. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

No need for special tool. The only "tool" I am using is a little rod slightly tapered I made from hard wood to pass thru the line ending loop in order to get it elongated. That rod is a bit bigger than a pencil but a fat ball pen would do the job. After the room is made, you can thread the Slinks by hand. For the second Slinks turn, you just repeat the same thing. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

FYI Vectran is in the family of polyesther while Spectra is made of polyethylene fibers.

I tried them all or almost : on my wrist, with a combination of wrist and middle finger set up, in a transparent pocket on the sleeve of my jumpsuit, on my chest strap to finally come back with a mounting on my wrist with a simple piece of velcro. Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.

It happens to me a couple of times. I have probably undone by mistake the toggle pin locking the end of the steering line excess which came out of the lower keeper. The loop became loose and got over the toggle handle. I then released my toggle thru the steering line excess loop and got a knot at the upper keeper. I decided to practice my flare in altitude with the good side toogle and the other riser of the bad side. My landing was more or less OK. Fantastic picture illustrating exactly the problem, thanks. I have took it as a screen capture. Solution: before grabbing the toogles take a second or two and have a look. If necessary, get the loop out of the way then grab and pull the toogles Learn from others mistakes, you will never live long enough to make them all.