swoopfly

Just throwing this out there, could it have to do with altitude? I know of one dz that goes higher than 14,000, they now use the xti because of the high altitude the XT freezes up as you say, and it was reasoned because of the high altitude

This is one place where you said you would wait for your AAD. If your reserve arm is unusable you should use your right arm to reach for and pull the reserve. Post 11: This is another place where you indicated you would wait for an AAD fire. Post 14: This is another place you indicated you would wait for an AAD fire. In Post 24 you mentioned a concern of becoming unconscious at some point on or after leaving the aircraft - but you didn't mention that concern up front. That is for many jumpers the primary reason for having an AAD, not a concern that their left arm, due to a prior injury, will be incapacitated. It happens to be my opinion based on what you've said in this thread that you should sell your gear and invest in a ball, bag, shoes and accessories and join a friendly bowling league. So you assume the guy with 2,500 jumps was trying everything to find his handle? but you assume since i said if nothing ever got pulled, i still had a small hope that my cypres i purchased would still do its job if all else fails? Does that mean i am just sitting there checking my altitude as i pass through 800ft to you? I simply implied in my post that if shit ever hit the fan,(but we know that doesnt happen) just like the post with the fatality report, that i have something there as a backup. I guess its common sense that you would pull your handle if you could, just like the guy who burnt in because he didnt have a cypres or RSL, just like you assumed i am sure if i was him i would try anything aswell, instead of waiting around for a backup device. i still yet to see my post where i said " if i cant use my arm, i would just wait till my cypres fired". there is a difference in that and saying, "if for some reason i tried everything and still could not get the reserve pulled, i would hope that my cypres would activate, just like if i was knocked out and didnt pull anything i would hope my cypres would activate then too!!

This is a different scenario than you presented. This incident involved a missing/obscured/entangled handle. I don't know what happened, but I would bet my eye-teeth this jumper used both hands to try to find the missing handle. An RSL or AAD might have prevented that fatality. You said your left arm is unreliable and you will wait for your AAD to fire. You didn't say anything about being unconscious - you said you would just wait for your AAD to fire. That's a completely different kettle of fish - or lane of pins. I like a rush my friend but i stand to see where i stated i would sit and wait for my good old cypres to activate before attempting anything else??!

If i didnt trust my arms i would not be skydiving. This is called thinking ahead, planning for the worst case scenario. If we didn't plan for these things, why would we even need an ADD or RSL? do you plan on skydiving unconcious? probably not, but if you ever found yourself in that situation would you like a plan B? if your smart , probably. here is another report as i see you tried to use one to point out an idea (by the way did they ever find if the ADD wwas actually on, and was it a cutaway from 1000ft or 300?). Since everyone here claims oh just use your other arm its that simple, well let me put this report out there and its things like these that make me have a plan B. The jumper opened his canopy after videoing a tandem skydive at about 3500ft - 3000ft. Due to a long spot, he did not release his breaks immediately, but left them set and flew back closer to the DZ, perhaps with the additional aid of the rear risers. During this time, the jumper reconfigured his harness and camera-jacket by opening up the chest strap, and releasing his camera-jacket wings at the lower attachment. At some point, the jumper released his main breaks and discovered that the right break line had a solid tension knot just below the cat-eye. Somewhere around 2000ft, the jumper elected to cutaway. It is suspected that the jumper was correcting the resulting right hand turn with the left control line just prior to cutting away, and as a result did not have the reserve handle in his hand. Why was this a fatality? 2000ft dosent seem to low to uhh fumble fumble where the handle? why did he just use his other hand as someone so easily mentioned in this thread? Did someone with 5 times my jump numbers not come up with this theory? after all thats why they put the reserve handle on the main lift web right? Do you think and RSL or ADD would have made a difference in the report? the skydiver had niether!

Im sorry for just quoting a smal part of your post like this, but i just dont understand this. Are you saying that you dont do gearchecks at all? Because if you are making gearchecks this should not be a problem (i know there has been incidents, dont need to name them). To say that you are not using gear that can be misrouted does not make sense. What about your main bridle? It can be misrouted. Your cutaway cable can be misrouted. Your AAD could be improperly installed. Your rigger could have misrouted the lines on your reserve. I agree with you on the entanglement, but i dont agree with you to disconnect the RSL because it can be routed wrong Im not saying that removal of an rsl should be done just on the fact alone that it can be misrouted. I am saying that simplier is sometimes easier and adding any gear to your rig also adds unforseen scenarios. If you dont know what i mean by mis routed rsl i ask you to do a search here in dropzone dot com. IN fact here are a few post and maybe you can clear them up for me as i dont understand them seeing as you say a simple gear check is all that was in order for the misrouted rsl! - The reason the RSL caused a malfunction was because a dumb ass rigger mis-routed it! - The RSL was misrouted by the rigger that packed the reserve and was packed in a way that it locked the main to the container unless the RSL was disconnected. - Many different riggers had packed this rig and every rigger had a different opinion of how this rsl should be routed Why is the blame being put on a rigger here?? Do people with 4 times my jump numbers not perform gear checks? While all these could have been preventable, i think if i was coming up with a cons section of using an rsl , mis routing would be a qualified statement. After all i dont think i am any better than anyone that this HAS happened to!

i thought i explained it well. I dont use an rsl because its something that can be routed wrong, its something that can snag on my camera gear, it something that can become an entanglement. I jump a katana loaded at 1.6-7, you can make your own determination if that is a high wingloading. i dont have problem pulling my own reserve handle, i do have a problem missing gear that would make sure something gets out if i never pulled my reserve handle after a cutaway. let me just put these scenarios out there 1... Cutaway from 2000ft with cypres and no rsl. lets say its a no pull on reserve(a reason could be dislocated left shoulder.)... Your cypres is set to fire if your still in freefall, so cypres should deploy reserve in this situation. 2. Cutaway from 2000ft with no cypres and rsl and no pull on reserve handle . RSL should pull reserve pin upon cutting away, deploying your reserve. 3. Cutaway from 2000 ft with NO cypres and NO rsl and no reserve pull (reason could be dislocated left shoulder). No device equals no reserve deployment which means your fucking dead. Did i clear this up for you? i would rather either of the first two scenarios than the latter. Seeing as i dont have the first scenario cypres, i am willing to take the risk of camera entanglement, snag factor, mis routed in case of a cutaway i have something pulling my reserve!

So then why don't you use an RSL on all skydives? Its a weigh of options, I prefer the no rsl and cypres combination. Since i no longer have an ADD the pros now weigh out the cons to me of having an rsl. rsl's have been mis routed, snag hazards, points of entanglement! That risk is now worth it in the event of a cutaway that some type device will deploy my reserve if it is not pulled! i orginally counted on my cypres to fire if for whatever reason after a cutaway i was unable to pull the reserve. Thrillstalker i think the correlation of these two separate and different back up devices is....After say a cutaway from 2500ft both these devices will deploy a reserve without you pulling any handle. Now say a standard cutaway without either of these devices and it relies solely upon your reserve arm (or right arm as stated earlier)! Seeing as my reserve arm has had history of dislocation, it has been known by many others experience to have a dislocation reoccur. So in that case i would rather have any device after a cutaway to get a reserve out than no backup device at all! Keep in mind both these devices can fail but i would take the chance over nothing being activated at all. All this is of course if i found myself with a dislocation in freefall!

if you're that low, fuck getting stable. still do not see how the rsl will help. the rsl does not act as a pilot chute, more of a static line for your reserve. it just pulls the pin. I should add in that my left shoulder has suffered a dislocation before. If i ever found it dislocated on a skydive, i had peace of mind knowing my ADD will still fire if nothing is pulled. Or after a routine cutaway if my reserve arm was unusable. But now that i dont have an ADD and if i found myself with a dislocated shoulder, on cutaway i would want my reserve pin pulled instantly after a cutaway instead of relying on what could be a dislocated arm thats dependent on my life! maybe i should have added that in as it makes for different decisions for different reasons.

One scenario is low cutaway! if you had a low pull and malfunction, i was assuming if i cutaway at 1000ft,. My AAD may still activate lower than that if the speed is reached! However if no AAD and lowpull, i am going back into freefall waisting time to stabalize and activate my reserve.

I am going to be AADless for a few months. I normally jump without an RSL. Good idea to install the RSL on since i will be AADless? Ideas on pros and cons

Hands down G4

There are two types of skydivers. Those that have cutaway and those that are going to!!!!

Out of 200 rental jumps, i might have been thrown free rental here or there, maybe 5 out of 200? i mostly packed my ass off for that one jump a day, so i consider that paid for with money. Now me buying a rig practicly and getting 5 free rentals is a good deal on the dzo part i think. No i paid my own slots to practice tandems. Hell if i was just given free jumps i would leave my rig at the DZ. But not so. i do admit i had one paid for jump that did not produce sellable quality because my hypeye zoomed my camera all the way out, i am still to see how this is lack of skydiving skill. Lack of camera skill, maybe, i have had it happen (zoomed out from hitting the zoom on the box, or hypeye zooming it out about 2 times out of 300 jumps)

hey i will agree here that he is a standup dzo, has one of the best dropzones and i would still send anyone to jump their. but dosent change the fact that i said quote "Not no but hell no" and the following lack of respect that i think any person should have been given.

your right i didnt say no, But HELL No. And after the fact that it was still taken i figured does it really matter what i say past this point? Now i am not here to flame the dz in fact i love the DZ, i think its great. I am just upset with the lack of respect i was given (definitly no reason not for you guys to jump there). And yes i recieved a thank you with no complaints because the person who jumped my gear was not the one who took it.

I hate to break it to you, but if you plan on sticking around this sport for awhile, this is just the begining for you. Every DZ has this guy as you described. It comes along with the sport,. Whats sad is the only thing that is cool is their skydiving gear, and for some reason this translate into them thinking that they themselves are cool now aswell. So either dont let it get to you, or quit now!

I guess so the load didnt have to wait on one last rig to be packed, he didnt jump it personally but handed my fully ellpitical 135 to someone with around 300 jumps. i said no because like someone pointed out, your rig is not just a backpack, its a sacred device which your well being depends on. Oh yeah and the small fact that it cost me thousands upon thousands of dollars. dont really feel like i should be just loaning it out, i mean i know out of all the scenarios it being returned in better condition than when it left is relatively low.

If someone asked to jump your gear and you said no, and they took it and jumped it anyway, is that reason to get mad? Does it make a difference if it was the dzo? just trying to see if i overreacted

Just some food for thought... Chopper skids are designed to both collapse in a crash or hold the weight of the machine for landing, not to have people hanging on them in flight. Never heard of a problem on larger commercial helios but was denied an R22 jump once because of the owners concerns, I mentioned that to an R44 owner once who subsequently had things thoroughly checked during a scheduled maintenance...I didn't personally see it but I was told there was some deformation around the skid attachment points that weren't due to 'normal' wear...he doesn't take jumpers up anymore. OTOH I rode the skid UP once on a NOTAR with 3 others... and the pilot had no concerns what so ever. Just a heads up FWIW. The heli owner actually gave us a briefing on this. He was ok with so much weight hanging from his skid, and we made sure to meet his requirement.

i would just like to add to this thread. While we are use to jumping from planes (most the time). i have found that new jumpships come with new scenarios that can go wrong. i did my first heli jump this year, it was a 2 way. we both climbed out opposite sides and hung from the strut and just let go. Now while the jump went great and no incident occurred, i noticed after landing that my reserve handle was dislodged from its pocket and just hanging there. apparently when we were climbing down the strut my Soft reserve handle gripped the grip tape on the top of the strut and pulled it from the pouch. thank goodness i didnt have a reserve deployment from the side of a helicoptor. but i thought i would just put this heli experience out there and remind everyone when you jump something new. be safe and rememeber a different aircraft comes with different scenarios.

Don't all guidelines have a minimum? how many people you know coming up on 200 jumps want to try a wingsuite? We should heckle them and call them crazy for wanting to jump a wingsuite on their 201 skydive with a coach?

what i want to know is why is everyone else's (who isnt PD) idea of a bare minimum drastically different than PD's? I mean if PD said pack our reserve like this, and a rigger said i do this different because i think that's how it should be done. who would you trust more the rigger or the Company who invented it? same with downsizing, if i really wanted to go from a velo 111 to a velo 96 to a velo 84 in a 100 to 150 jumps, how could someone get on to me and say i am crazy if i followed the manufacturers guidelines? (just for note this is hypothetical i am not planning on downsizing) Why for the most part the experienced skydivers idea of downsizing way different than that of the manufacturers/?????

Nope, it says "Complete at least 50 ram air jumps on a canopy that is only 15% bigger." They aren't saying those are all the jumps you need, but that you need to have at least 50 jumps on a canopy no bigger than 128, a gradual downsizing. It also says you need to be an advanced or expert skydiver, not suitable for intermediates or lower. So your saying 50 jumps on a canopy is reasonable to have learned everything about it, pushed it to the max, got everything you could out of it and are now ready for a velo 15% smaller??? Assuming you put 50 jumps on every other canopy in between! this is your idea of gradual downsizing?

yea i just bought a nice looking kawasaki kx 250, when i tested it, it ran great. brought it home, wont start. got a new plug and other few items, wont start. Broke the fing kick start lever off of it now, screw this, i am just sticking to skydiving, my rig hasent let me down yet!

i was just amazed that the people who manufactured this high performance wing, thought about 50 jumps would be good enough to put someone under it, while i have always heard of alot more.