mdrejhon

Damn, that really sucks. I do see a lot of paperwork going on with the pilots at my dropzone, and it must be a royal pain for them! Must be related.

Clicky http://www.skydivemesquite.com/pages/1/index.htm

Good thread. Thanks for starting this one! Initially I thought I'd only go a few weekends a year, and hum, do less than 50 jumps a year. Instructor warned me I'd not be current, and to be a participant of Deaf World Record, I need 100 jumps and a B. So both of these two give me some incentive to jump more. Here I am, 68 jumps in less than 3 months. I own my own gear now. Dunno what future years will bring me, what mood and finances I'll be in, but I'm fairly certain I'll do another 300 jumps at least. Scared? Nah. I'm more scared of performing in front of an instructor! (I get so damn tense, and I'm still a bellyflopper of a bellyflyer at times) Although my first jump wasn't as scary as my first rollercoaster ride, you could see me grinning 5 seconds into the freefall of my first jump.

Ouch. There's a cornfield only 100 meters from the peas. I have landed in it a few times as a student and once during a boogie, but only when the stalks were only 2-3 feet high at the most. I'll have to plan for the time when I land in the cornfield, when it's fully grown Although, I'm now starting to aim at different landing areas that reduces the likelihood I'd be blown backwards onto the cornfield in a high-wind day (especially when I start seeing the main landing area becoming too congested and can't crab sideways on a windy day, forcing me to aim for the cornfield when I'm blown towards it). My canopy can now fight wind better (1.1 WL) so I'm less likely to be blown backwards. In the past during a boogie as a student, I've tried to land a big 100 meters away from people, but I'm letting myself land closer, as long as my approach line is clear... And my approaches are getting better planned with more backup landing spots. So I'll be less likely to aim for the cornfield from now on... Still... I'll have to be prepared...

Some important corrections from PM I got: There are probably different advantages and disadvantages to rears versus brakes, depending on what you're trying to do... I'm sure it depends on canopy too...

I recently got a great book called "Parachute and its Pilot" by Brian Germain. It goes into good detail about using toggles/brakes, rear risers, front risers, harness, for turns, for glide angle control, etc. Personally, I'm more used to rear risers now than half brakes. Glide angle just seem a little more intuitive for me that way. Landed in the peas 3 times consecutively under a rental Sabre 190 when I figured out angle control with my rear risers. (I'm still tuning into my rig that I just purchased, which is a Sabre 170). Since I had been changing gear a lot (rental to rental to my own rig), brakes vary more partly because brake lengths vary and on the canopy, so half brakes may actually mean the stall point of a canopy, which would get you down faster, not slower. The brake behaviour seem vary more from canopy to canopy than using rear risers whose behaviour is relatively predictable in comparision. Now that said, half brakes are one of the way to get back from a long spot, as long as you're not too close to your stall point, it does make your descent rate slower by flattening your glide... Other ways include loosening chest strap under canopy (this widens the canopy a tiny bit by stretching out the risers more), lifting legs (this lessens drag), etc. I had to do all that (on top of a prearranged higher pull, and holding both rear risers down a bit) to become one of the only ones to make it back on a bad spot a couple times :-) It sure does make a difference when I do all of them at once. (Some of this could be wrong though - newbie alert here on newbie radar - BEEP, BEEP! - but a lot of this comes from Germain's great book!).

Newbie here too. Worry about it after you get your A (or when you need gear to get your A). Renting is absolutely essential at first. In some ways, I'm sorta glad I waited until jump 60 before I had my own rig. (Test jumped it during jump #59) You might be going through several sizes of student canopies before stabilizing on a novice canopy (commonly a 1.0 wing load which is the number of pounds per square feet of canopy, in case you didn't know). It gave me time to migrate gracefully off the big Manta canopy to the novice Sabre canopy, so I'll be able to jump my Sabre 170 canopy (at 1.1 wingload) for a a few hundred jumps at least. Therefore, it's a waste to be gear shopping right now. You may end up having to get rid of it all and buying all over again. When I'm ready for the right kind of canopy coaching and becoming very familiar with this canopy, I'll even be able to start basic high performance approaches such as learning double front risers on it eventually (and maybe 45-degree and 90-degree basic swoop approaches) before I even downsize, I'm interested in learning to swoop someday... Stuff that newbies (including me) often won't be doing till they're in the 3-digit jump numbers... Your instructors will make recommendations based on your flying skills....

I had a lot of ear pain problems in my first 10 jumps or so. Ear pain under canopy and landing was one of the things that might have prevented me from skydiving. Now, ear pain is a nonissue these days. I don't seem to pop anymore on the flight to altitude... It doesn't register. At the end of the day I might need to equallize a bit... Make sure you're NOT congested when you go up. A little hayfever runniness okay, but if your sinuses or ears are congested/blocked, I'd say skip the weekend. The ear pain was a real torture for me. (No blood though)

Eating gross stuff like they do on Fear Factor. The heights-related stuff, I can do though.

The 12 inches is a perfect length to easily put the bag in without disturbing the last stow. Very interesting to see that Bill Booth (who probably designed my Vector2 container) say that less is better. However, just to be sure that offheading opening was simply caused by my inexperienced packing or Sabre tendancies, I will monitor any linetwists or offheading openings and re-try 24 inches if necessary. Only to get the bag out of my burble and away from flaps before the lines unstow. But then again that might not matter according to what is said here.... More important is for me to worry about the slider.... don't want a Sabre opening to kill me.

I think even 1.1 wingloading is aggressive. ...Except that I've jumped 68 times in less than 3 months. I'm still a relative newbie, but you have less and you jumped a 1.2? Rent for a while? Okay that's a 100 jump wonder speaking. (And I'm not, so take me with a grain of salt.)

Details, please. I'd love to see the rest of the context.

During student progression but UP HIGH ONLY... (Then a test 180 swoop at 3000ft at jump #60) Haven't yet touched front risers yet under 1500 feet. But I want to try straight-in double fronts when I get some canopy coaching. I don't want to be making a damn mistake while playing chicken with the big ball called Earth.

LOL.... I'm dying to try a tailgate. Maybe in Florida in October.

Hmmm..... I'm starting to pack. I'm trying to figure out what's best for my container too, for safest and softest openings. It's a situation where I get either 12 inch, or 24 inch (or slightly more than that) depending on whether I go for that extra line stow. People have told me either has been fine. (I don't seem to be able to get a middling value such as 18 inch). I've done it both ways and haven't seen a difference until the last jump where I did get one significantly off-heading opening. It seems this thread suggests off-heading opening might be related to doing 12 inches instead of 24. However, I have only had 5 jumps on my packjobs, so it may not yet be statistically significant. So this reminds me. I'll ask several riggers at the dropzone for their opinions on my next visit. (packerboy, if you see this...please comment.)

Hands off! That's sacred territory.

No fair! For making it too easy for the whuffos and slowing the server down. Us smart skydivers know how to copy-and-paste! J/K.

I was the only solo on an Otter load that was performing a sunset 20-way. I was the very last out. They told me to wait an extra long period, of 15 seconds before jumping out. And pull at 5K. It was kind of neat to have the Otter all to myself, and nobody watching me jump. Hopefully I'll be part of a 20-way eventually ...gotta concentrate on my bellyflying skills.

Self employment on the side. It does help that I was a computer consultant for a few years, and running my own business.

Are you telling me she had nothing out, and landed alive? Saved only by the mess of somebody else's canopy wrapped around her? That's amazing, if true...

I realize that. I'm going to become fully familiar with this canopy first (the checklist). That may take a long time. For now, I'm just on angle control, and working on improving my zero wind landings, plus various types of flare/stall/braked/flat turns pratice at play altitude. I'm just saying, I definitely want to learn swooping -- eventually. All the multi-hundred-jump regulars at my dropzone are doing it (Mostly 180's) and I know it looks dangerous. I'll wait until I'm ready. If the canopy coaches tell me 90's and 180's are unsafe with my particular canopy, then I won't learn those until I'm on a canopy that's ready for those. I'll cross that bridge when I get there. However, I definitely want to start the beginning process of learning front risers in landing approaches, before I downsize.

Indeed.

Good one. I noticed already a bunch of jumps ago. Though, I wouldn't be doing 270's under this canopy. (I don't think 0's, 45's, 90's and even 180's are out of the question, but I'll find out from a canopy coach when the time comes...) Just the beginning part of the swoop learning process, essentially...

I don't know about you, but money matters prevented me having my own rig until jump 60. On the other hand, I had the luxury of gradually downsizing on rentals off a student Manta to a novice Sabre (230->190->170) using rentals before purchasing my rig. So 170 is where I am at now, but I'm significantly lighter than you are! I'd say, wait.... Renting is a royal pain at times, but the good thing is that I don't even need to downsize anymore until much later when I'm eventually already swooping 180's on this very same canopy (a few hundred jumps later, after going through the normal swoop progression with a canopy coach such as Scott or Brian, including 0's, 45's, and 90's first). That means my canopy will last for hundreds of jumps without needing to downsize, from my currently conservative straight ins, all the way to beginning to learn to swoop when I'm ready to learn that. I think there's a lot to be said about renting until about 50-75 jumps, but it came at a minor disadvantage to me -- it delays my "A" quite a bit since many dropzones do not allow you to learn packing on rental. One point of view....but take me with a grain of salt, please! I'm only a 68-jumper.

Thanks! I realize I have to take things with a grain of salt on this forum, but it did give me a good question to ask a future canopy coach - "What are the special considerations I should keep in mind when swooping a lightly loaded canopy?" In any case, I find I am requesting higher altitude pulls (Usually 4.5K and 5K) and enjoy the canopy flight. Partially because this is my new rig. (Half pratice tasks, half just plain fun play). I'd love to pull at 13500 feet sometime, if they'd let me.