mdrejhon

According to information I read. You are in Greece? Only one dropzone in all of Greece? And there are only 20 regulars? Wow. No wonder it must be so difficult for you... And billyvon the moderator has actually replied to you.... (he probably checked the IP address and found it comes from Greece, so the fact he didn't ignore you, is very revealing -- moderators can see IP address). Now your post is probably genuine and you were apparently truly seriously considering the Stiletto! That's damn scary... They scare me just merely watching others fly them, and I have 61 jumps (which is more than your 38). Some people were shocked to the point they thought you were making a fake post to attract flamebait. (I know boards well... I moderate other discussion forums!) (Take me with a grain of salt, please. I'm only at 61 jumps as of this time of posting.) Good move at least, the Sabre2 150 is definitely much safer than Stiletto, and it does NOT take a 100-jump wonder to say that...! I can't say whether it's still appropriate for you, but on a "relative" basis, better you take your chances under the Sabre2 150 than the Stiletto 120... So, still a positive move that even everyone can agree with, even a relative newbie like me. (170 is even safer. 150 may even be too aggressive. But far better choice than the Stilleto 120) Unfortunately, it looks like canopy coaching is nonexistent in Greece...and your mention of your finances indicate you probably can't afford to travel to get coaching. Try to. But if not, there's an amazing book "Parachute and its Pilot" by Brian Germain at www.bigairsportz.com. So many people say it is one of the best books on flying a canopy. But definitely lend it to the instructor too just in case -- he'll probably love the book since it probably has great stuff that isn't even learned in Greece (and I am not even talking about swooping)! -- Books can also be abused so you still need an instructor to help you progress safely. Book Reviews on 'Parachute and its Pilot' for more information. This book is much, much, much better than nothing if you can't get canopy coaching in Greece. May even save your life considering your eagerness to downsize so dramatically.

I still am! At least when my limits are pushed a bit too much, or when I have performance anxiety (instructor jumping with me)... I found I am the most relaxed when the goals are kept really simple, like adding one new objective to a previously successful jump that I wasn't as tense during. I am only just now learning it is okay to ask for a repeat jump of an earlier objective, or set my own RW learning objectives for the coaches who want to jump with me, even when an instructor wants you to progress to a more complicated jump (RW-wise). Refusing to do a jump that I feel I am not ready for, in favour of jumping a jump with simpler objectives to build skill rather than deal with sensory overload. This will help me in the longer run and relax a hell lot more. (Jumping with different people for RW pratice, understandably people tend to not keep track of what I've learned so far through other people, and what areas I actually need work with...) I know this probably won't really apply to AFF type jumps since for people starting out, the instructor is the best way to determine your progression. My instructor is right when the word "relax" is the hardest thing to learn during skydiving. My most relaxing skydives are generally my solos. Sunset solo. "(mentally thinking to myself) Hey, that's Kinston city. (altcheck, turn,) Ottawa's thataway. (altcheck, turn) There's the Thousand islands and the river. (altcheck, turn) Oh. Beautiful sunset. (altcheck, time to do simulated breakoff, track) Nice ground rush. (altcheck, arch, stabilize) Pull time." .... I did find balance is needed between solos and jumping with others. I can't have way too many solos. It did contribute in some ways to developing a bad arch. I had a bunch of bad RW jumps where I was trying to fix too many things at once, especially while tense. My canopy skill is definitely progressing much better than my RW skills.

That reminds me.... I do need to get a hook knife for my new rig (Got it during my last dropzone visit...I've jumped it only 3 times now). As noted everywhere, there are apparently many excellent reasons for having a hook knife "just in case..." (and from what I read in literature elsewhere too.) I'd hate to have a lineover on my reserve, or have my reserve stuck over the airplane.... Sounds like a good $15 investment!

It is my intention to watch my "finishing the flare", bleeding off my horizontal motion. So I can land in zero winders without having to slide in my butt or trip over running it out (That happened on the sunset load under my new rig...the wind just suddenly died after I went up. Windsock was completely vertical. I would have skipped the load since I wanted to get a few jumps on the 170 first before trying a zerowinder...) Earlier, I sometimes flared a little low too (and that was under a Sabre 190) when landing a little bit out, and slightly hurt my ankle for a few minutes that way. (It only got a whap on hard dried-mud ground, and was fine after a bit.) That's why I have been erring on the side of "starting" the flare a little higher, sometimes a bit too high now, but I have really noticed that it's much easier to recover from a high flare (using a dynamic flare) than a low flare, as long as I "finish" the flare properly depending on situation... I'll tune it back into the sweet spot, now that I'm sticking to the same canopy... What I do really notice is that there's amazing flare power on my Sabre 170 that I will be learning to take full advantage of. I'm looking forward to it!

Even a cheap Sorz googles. Much easier to keep clean, more fashionable than most student goggles, although they still scratch quite easily. I got my alti, gloves and goggles on time for my 35th jump, and I got my rig for my 60th jump. (I test jumped it on the 59th jump before buying) I do have an exception. I do not have an A yet because I needed to have my own rig first so I could pack-train. According to the PIM's (Canada's version of SIM's), I believe I have met the requirements except for the pack training and paper tests. Need more work on RW, but I think that's for the B. Ah, I'll just have to be patient!

Right. I do understand the concept of windspeed versus groundspeed. I definitely noticed this behaviour during a couple of backward landings on my Manta.

I guess it really truly boils down to someone who said: Basically 2-stage (or "dynamic flare" or whatever) is apparently a legitimate skill but I shouldn't have to use it excessively to save an early flare, at least for the straight-in approaches I'm doing. Time the start of the flare correctly in the first place around if I can. At least almost everyone can agree on that. Right, eh?

I think I understand. Basically, my forward speed is already bled off because of the braking of a partial flare, but that my vertical speed is now resuming because of gravity because I paused my flare...and when I resume the flare, I no longer have enough forward speed to overcome the winds. I fly backwards as a result, when I try to zero-out my vertical speed with the resumed flare. (Note: This has never happened to me before. My last backwards landing was under a Manta, the flare was a single motion, and that landing was standup running backwards.) Right? You're ultimately right (cuz, timing the flare right is important) .... The question now becomes, if I am doing it about 10 to 15% of the time, is it considered a "habit"... Considering my gradual progression from a student canopy onto my Sabre 170 and stepper Sabre's in between. I guess time will tell, now that I am going to stick only to this canopy for the next two years, 200 jump minimum... Ah well, I'll definitely tune into my canopy as I jump more. (Only 5 jumps on this brand-size combo, and only 3 jumps with it being my own rig). I have no plans to change the canopy anymore for the next two years at least... So this will give me plenty of time to get really familiar with one canopy.

I do notice some people call it the "dyanmic flare" rather than "2-stage", since sometime the pause is shorter and longer, and other times it's merely a dynamic regulation of flare speed. Yeah, I noticed lots of others do some kind of dynamic flaring, but I'm mostly ignoring that -- because some of them do it while swooping, and I'm not supposed to do that sort of thing at my jump numbers. I'd be stupid to be copying their technique. What I am doing apparently is happening out of habit when I notice I flared a bit high. I've had a bunch of great landings with great smooth flares already, I only do the pause sometimes.. Just have to pratice so I am able to do these more often in all wind conditions. I've only had 5 landings under a Sabre 170, so all in due time. (2 rental before test jump, 1 test jump of my rig, and 2 after I purchased it) Some of the landings were fun and great when winds were good. Most importantly, all 5 were more gentle than under the rentals even for the imperfect landings (the zero-winder was a rather exciting one).

Actually, my landings seem to be better in higher winds. It's the low winds I have more problems with.

(I only found out about this just now) ... I noticed that some dropzones teach students the 2-stage flare. Not all of them though. So my jump numbers indeed aren't too low. I don't know how many times I did the 2-stage, but I wouldn't be surprised if I have done it about 5 or so times in the past (I know I've done it three times at least), and nobody complained about those landings except the occasional "you flared a little high" comment. One of the times (When I was only recently off student canopies), I did let up the toggles slightly accidentally (during my flare pause) and the canopy surged slightly, and somebody rightfully explained to me that wasn't a safe thing to do during a flare. However, my flare pauses seem much better now, in the goal of savings my feet/legs from discomfort when I notice I flare too early on those occasions... Ultimately, my flare timing will improve in the first place. (Just really need to know if 2-stage is a proper way of saving myself from an early flare, my legs tell me it seemed to be a succesful save on Jump 59...)

Hi, On my jump number 59, I had a buddy video my landing. This was my third jump under a Sabre 170 (first jump on my own new rig ... a test jump before purchase ... not a rental Sabre 170. The canopy had only 175 jumps and flared much better than the rental Sabre 170). This landings was videoed (I only got the DVD right now). I knew my flare was slightly high, but that the landing was pretty soft on my feet. I initially felt I had made a good save on an early flare because it was really gentle on my feet. But then I saw the video... Now that I have the DVD, I played it over and I watched my flare carefuly in this one, and noticed something interesting. I noticed I paused my flare at between one-third to one-half brakes at one point (when I realized I flared a little bit high), then resumed it as the ground started approaching again, and it was soft on my feet although I had to do some steps forward (then I had to run towards the canopy due to wind). Clearly, I didn't finish my flare in this video (I ended at about 3/4) so I didn't stop all my horizontal motion, but vertical motion was gone or extremely soft. (I'll work on finishing the flare as part of my future hundreds of jumps getting familiar solely with this canopy :) ) ... But my concern here is my slowdown/pause in a flare, I paused for approximately 1 second mid-flare before resuming. Canopy did not surge forward (I did not let up on the toggles). I think I flared a bit high, since this nearly-new Sabre 170 had better flare (and stopped my vertical descent more quickly) than the more well-used rental Sabre 170 I had previously jumped in the last two jumps. (I pulled at 5K and play with the canopy including many test flares and stalls, at altitude) I'll be bringing the laptop to the dropzone to play the video back and showing instructors at the dropzone next time I go in a slow-reply. At least one had earlier seen it (But without slow-replay, on the small camcorder screen) and only got a comment that I simply flared slightly high and may have missed that pause in my flare on the small screen... But I'm pretty curious. Am I developing a dangerous and bad habit, if I am automatically pausing my flare sometimes? Or, from what I am reading, it seems to be a natural part of a 2-stage flare and I did make a successful save on a too-early flare?. I've never been taught the 2-stage before, but out of habit, I seem to end up doing an approximation of 2-stage instinctively on some of my landings, I am instinctively slowing down or pausing my flare if my vertical descent suddenly stops faster than expected (flared too high)... I do notice some of this is mentioned somewhat in Brian Germain's book (Parachute and its Pilot). I don't always insert a slight pause in mid-flare, only when I notice vertical descent slows faster than expected with still a few feet between me and the ground. A school of thought says I shouldn't be reactive like that, and should be more proactive (Time the flare properly the first time around) Anyway, I know I'll take advice with a grain of salt here, but I'm doing some research as some sources say it's a bad habit, and some sources say it's the beginning of learning of a 2-stage flare. I may not be supposed to be doing this at all at my jump numbers. Either way, I definitely will aim to "fix" or "improve" it regardless :-) Or am I overanalyzing things? (This is a strictly straight-in approach)

Sabre2 150 would be a MUCH safer choice, and still a canopy you will love to fly for several hundred jumps. Please forget about the Stilletto 120. I've seen people swoop a Sabre similiarly to the Stiletto flyers. I know absolutely zilch about swooping, just what I watch other people, hear, and read... If people want a Stiletto "just because they saw cool landings".... look again, I've seen similiar cool landings under Sabre/Sabre2 by other people at my dropzone. Why go Stiletto right away... You just hafta get the right kind of canopy coaching...

Wow... That many jumps under round canopies and just trying a square now. I'm spoiled in comparision, today jumpers with squares... billyvon said the canopies "plane out" at about 0.8 to 1.0 wingloading and above, and I totally agree. Below that, not planing out... I have noticed this when getting off the student sizes too. In my progression as a student, on a Manta 288 at only 0.65:1 wingload it never planed out (as in I had to always absorb some minor vertical shock in my legs/feet/knees on the Manta 288), but when I started jumping a Sabre 230/190 (now I own a Sabre 170 and plan to stick with it for a good deal number of jumps), landings became much softer than the Manta once I flared properly - to plane it out completely (total zero vertical deceleration) for a tiptoe pillow soft landing on a well-executed flare. I'm still a newbie at all of this but I have been asking people plus reading "Parachute and Its Pilot" by Brian Germain (beginner chapters) which is really helping me... Anyway, my advice could be totally wrong -- you have way more experience than I do too, in many aspects -- but some people quickly prefer to jump a 1:1 canopy over a 0.65:1 canopy, once they become good enough at flaring.... just because the 1:1 canopy can plane out much more easily in a straght-in approach (completely stop vertical descent for a tip-toe soft landing) on a good flare for softer landing. (Obviously, harder landing if you forget to flare or very badly flare! ... ) .... It just turns out that very popular firsttimer canopy sizes (0.8 through 1.0) is often the biggest possible canopy that will still "plane" out (capable of completely zeroing out vertical speed on a good flare in a traditional straightin approach). In either case, I'd bet you WILL be spoiled by a 0.6:1 wingloading compared to the hard landings I hear about from rounds (from oldtimers). You may even prefer it, who knows... It's still super soft anyway. Just saying what I had noticed about my student-to-novice canopy size progression...and chiming on what billyvon said... disregard my lowtimer advice as needed...

If your keyboard has a shutdown key, that might be it. (Mac's and some Windows boxes have this...) If your computer is Windows XP, hitting WIN-U-U also shuts down the computer. That is, one tap of the Windows logo key followed by tapping the U key twice, also shuts down the computer -- so the cat only needs to hit these two keys to shutdown a computer.

I did not do a tracking dive, but I did have a nice sunset freefall from a higher-than-usual altitude on the last load of the Otter boogie weekend. I was solo on that load... jumped after a 20 way that exited the plane. "There's that 20 way below" "There's Kingston" ... "Beautiful sunset" ... "Ah yes, Ottawa's that way" .... Just a nice plain old relaxing solo freefall. And did a little pratice tracking for a few seconds cross-run. No instructor to become nervous about (ahh... I gotta work on that! Stage fright, I do have. Performance anxiety. Although one of the nice instructor girls managed to calm me down a bit and succeed on some objective I had been having trouble with). (Eventually, I'd love to be part of that sunset 20-way. That time will come eventually!)

Hey Trevor, Thanks for the reminder. I'll be bringing beer on my next trip to the DZ.

End cell closures are quite normal for Sabre's, that are instantly fixed by pulling rear risers down an inch or pulling the toggles to half brakes. Just takes me 2 seconds to fix. Sabre's are popular because there are so darn many of them out there, including used ones for sale, and it's still a great first canopy after all these years. (But at your jump numbers, don't listen to me on that one. My advice may even be a big fat no-no. Always go through your instructor.)

Take your time. I didn't get off student canopies until around the 25th jump (manta 288). I bought my own rig at jump 59 and it's now a Sabre 170. By the 0.1-increment-per-100-jump standard, it is just ever so slightly slightly aggressive (WL 1.09) though. Planning on sticking with it for a few years though (assuming I only jump 100 times a year). I was going to get 190 and stick to it, but a rig came up for sale, was in really great condition, the DZO/instructors approved it, and I could test jump first, and I already am rapidly approaching 100 jumps. So I did buy. Actually the lightly used 175-jump Sabre 170 opens and lands much better than the rental Sabre 190 which probably must have many hundreds of jumps in comparision. This is definitely a size I really plan to jump the hell out to learn as much as possible under one size. It's small enough that I won't need to worry about wind holds nearly as much, but big enough that landings are really soft even with a slightly mis-timed flare (1 or 2 feet too high for example), great for traditional landing pattern approaches I currently do, yet exciting enough that I might even hit 300 jumps on it and learn swooping through Scott Miller in a future year on this very same canopy. Maybe not. You never know. I heard the best pilots stick to the same canopy for many hundreds of jumps to become intimately familiar with it. I can make mistakes. Just when I land really well (3 times in a row into the peas), then poof, a zerowinder, and I get a grass stain on the butt of my jumpsuit, or a slightly sore ankle. Nature's fastballs as a student. Always lots to learn. Either way I recommend waiting and graduating off the student canopies and jumping the rental novice sizes for a while before you buy a rig. And of course, don't listen to me... Look at me, I'm still a relative lowtimer at 61 jumps. Become friends with the best instructors at your dropzone and talk to them a lot. Stay for the bonfires. Get to know people. Have them watch your landings. Etc. Learn from your mistakes.

Googling my name "Mark Rejhon" shows my involvement in various things like my website, some open source projects, home theater industry work, BlackBerry mobile phone, etc. Shows my geek side!

Actually, that is a myth perpetuated by the cartoon shape of raindrops -- It was disproven a long time ago -- once a raindrop is in full flight, it becomes more spherical or flattened on the top. If you see slow motion video of a drop falling from a faucet, you see what I mean -- it becomes more spherical as it falls. It's the 100-120MPH freefall collisions with the raindrops on your face and arms, they feel like tiny BB pellets or sandblasting, even though they're spherical. They're falling much slower than you are falling, so a 120MPH freefaller will get blasted at 100MPH by the slow 20MPH raindrops. Okay, okay, I won't be a wiseass...just being nitpicky

Although this is not the same thing, I will be learning paragliding next year. I've got a friend (licensed instructor) that will be teaching for free...he's also a skydiver as well. Very interesting. Using real parachutes instead of paragliding canopies, and using it as canopy instruction even before the first skydive!

Actually, I was already off the student rigs. I've been jumping a rental Vector2 with a Sabre 190, so this gear is extremely familiar since it's pretty much the same brands. This rig is almost the same size, just slightly lighter. The difference is the condition -- it looks brand new, compared to the rental That one zero-wind landing I did was not intentional -- but the winds just died after I went up in the air. Man it turf surfs in a plain straight-in approach in zero winds. For zero-winds, I know I should have flared slightly lower, but I have developed a (nasty?) habit of preferring to err on the "slightly 1 or 2 feet too high side" than "flare way too low" because I've found it softer on my feet. I'll keep praticing, and tuning the flare altitudes for the wind conditions. Pratice, pratice, pratice, pratice... It flies more predictably than the rental, probably because of the excellent shape that the canopy is in. Much more on-heading openings too. I am going to jump this canopy for a few hundred jumps over the years... I promised myself I would stay at 190, but the rig available for sale was a 170 and my jump numbers was almost there anyway. I had reservations about that so the DZ had me test jump the 170 a few times first to see how my landings were (great standups on those initial tests even when I flared 1 or 2 feet too high sometimes)... Wind conditions early in the day was excellent for the trial. Then the wind died after I bought the rig. Go figure. Still did better than I did with zero or near-zero winds on the 190. I've got SO MUCH to learn from jumping this rig... Scott Miller's coming to the DZ and I'll at least be sitting in one of his classes (unfortunately, the class is full but I can at least sit-in). I may sign up for one-on-one tutoring by Scott at Deland when I go to Florida in October... [Edit: REMINDER: Buy beer for the dropzone. My FIRST rig.]

I got a rig now! Vector2 with a Sabre 170, a Raven reserve and a Cypres2. It's almost new looking with only 200 jumps on the rig with 175 jumps on the Sabre 170. Got it for what I thought was a pretty good price considering the great shape, and was able to test jump it first! Was gonna buy a new container with used canopies, but... A few dropzone regulars referred me to someone who had a rig for sale, and I decided to buy it during this weekend when someone very familiar to the dropzone staff, had a rig for sale that I could begin jumping right away. DZO approved it. A few riggers were very nice to check it on the spot for the sale. The only thing that really hurt was my wallet: The price of a nearly-new Cypres2 (ouch, that was nearly a third of the price), but the dropzone preferred me to jump with an AAD and I prefer that too generally, although I was willing to test-jump without it. But hey, at least I now have an AAD for the next 10 years that I can transfer to future rigs... So I'm now having lots of fun. I only put a few jumps on this new rig on the final day of the boogie weekend. (Between this rig and the rental rigs but I jumped 17 times all weekend long on this holiday boogie weekend..._ I noticed the landings on the new-looking Sabre (only 175 jumps and in really excellent condition according to the riggers) are more comfortable than the more rental Sabre's (even in zero wind). Gentler landings even when flare 1 feet too high, so this is good news to me even though this is a 170 instead of a 190. Can't wait to jump this rig again in two weekends! Should be well past 100 jumps very soon at this rate, now that I don't need to pay rental anymore... (Due to dropzone policy of not pack-training on rentals... Now that I have my rig, I finally can apply for my "A" and "B" soon after pack-training and tests. I've now completed all the "A" and "B" requirements except for the packing and written tests. Though there's somewhat of a technicality about the rule of needing 15 two-ways between the "A" and "B", according to CSPA rules, even though I already have done more than that already. May just have to do a bunch more 2-ways after I get my "A" if this is a rule...)

This has got to be the funniest one. Being spanked in freefall!