jcecil

Skydive Kentucky at Addington Field (EKX) in Elizabethtown, KY

Sabre2 opens just fine when getting out hopnpop or terminal. On mine anyway pulling the slider more in front of the nose (instead of quartering) slows the openings down considerably, though even with a quartered slider they are still a comfortable 500-700 at term. I've bailed out many times at 2000' with either way of stowing slider, and never been scared of a cypres fire, usually have a full canopy by about 1800'.

Last I was out in E-town SkydiveKY had a King-Air. Great group of people out there, though you may have to wait on loads throughout the day. It's worth checking out. It's a new DZ, but most of the staff and jumpers have been in the area for years and are transplanted from another DZ that had been open 40 years before it closed last year. Mostly belly flyers, but you won't have any trouble finding someone to free-fly with. I haven't been to many of the other dropzones in the area, but several friends (friends who live in Versailles actually!) have started going to START and they all say nothing but great things about it. Edited: for more detail.

I, along with the usual rowdy crowd from KY, will be there yet again! Looking forward to it!!

Show up to most places with a cooler full of PBR, you don't have to worry about everyone else drinking your beer! Local bar has PBR on tap, 22 oz for $1.75, the next cheapest is any 12 oz domestic for $2.50! I'll give you one guess what beer I stumble home full of when I go there

The closest I've ever come to blacking out in freefall was when a rodeo passenger on my back fell off to one side but didn't let go, putting us both into a fairly violent spin (it is on video, we were spinning a complete revolution in less than a second, maybe even half a second). No matter what I tried I couldn't stop the spin or eject my passenger, finally after about 5 seconds she let go and was flung across the sky. My vision had started graying out and tunneling, and I distinctly remember pins and needles in my fingers. Once she let go I stopped the spin after about half another rotation, took a second to let the blood return to everywhere, then continued the skydive. Gave me a healthy respect for how quickly things can go wrong!

I've traveled with my rig a couple of times in the past year or two, and never had any problems carrying it on. The closest thing I've ever had to a problem carrying it on is when they see it on the x-ray machine, they usually wave several other screeners over to show them what a parachute looks like! On the flight to Eloy last year the people I was traveling with and I occupied the flight attendents almost the entire 3 and a half hour flight showing them skydiving videos on our cameras

That is correct, lines were stowed in a tailpocket. Jacob

I've watched a BASE jumper freepack his BASE canopy into a skydiving rig and pull. . . around or below 1000' before after exiting at 9500' . . . funny thing was he was a light guy with a big parachute on a hot day, most of the people who opened at normal altitude beat him to the ground!

I've always heard that the decreasing wind experienced by the canopy as it loses altitude (almost always wind speed decreases gradually the closer one gets to the ground) can make the canopy turn on its own, although slowly, as the canopy 'sees' this as an slightly increasing wind from the opposite direction the wind is actually blowing. This is more theoretical than usually seen, I think, because the effect would be very slight and easily overcome by something like an uneven harness.

2000' (or slightly lower depending on clouds and airspeed!) doesn't bother me at all, but it is interesting to note in my case both times I've had to cutaway my main and land my reserve were jumps from 2000'. . . . not related to exit altitude (pretty sure same malfunction would've occured from a terminal opening) I don't think, but interesting anyway.

Something so broad as to cover all jump planes will not happen. There are many jump pilots who will never fly a turbine, much less a twin-turbine such as an Otter, KA, or Skyvan. Even then, flying a KA with jumpers is very different from something like an Otter, which is far different from flying a 180 or 182. In my experience, government never gets it right anyway when they try to set rules or standards. USPA if I'm not mistaken already has material on being a jump pilot.

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The only thing I could directly transfer from my experience jumping to my experience flying was keeping my head on a swivel. Outside of controlled airspace, the other airplanes don't have to have radios, and even if they do many pilots won't talk on the radio, relying on you seeing and avoiding them. My CFI actually commented on me spotting the other traffic MUCH quicker than her other students. Other than that, enjoy it! It's different and rewarding!

You too? I was fortunate enough to be raised on a static-line at a small reciprocating DZ, so I laugh a little at the children of turbine AFF when they mention the fear of getting out "low" (5000' and below). Anyway, a visiting recent AFF grad was amazed that the price list in manifest had a listing for 2000' ($9), and said they'd never seen anybody get out that low before, didn't think it was safe, blah blah blah. I was planning on just a H&P from 3 on the next load, so I told them I'd get out at 2000 instead to show them it wasn't really any different, aside from a little less available freefall time. So off we go in the plane, pilot lines up on jumprun, we get over the DZ right at 2000', and out I go. Take just a second to clear the plane, open the parachute, and BAM! . . . a nice slow speed malf that my best explanation is tension knots in the left A lines (slider passed down over it and was at risers, but the entire left side of the canopy would not fully inflate, and the left A lines looked tangled up. Had the exact same identical malfunction just 2 weeks prior to this on a terminal deployment, also resulting in a reserve ride. This prompted me to finally put new lines on the Sabre2. They only had about 800+ logged jumps on them at this point :-D,it behaves and flies much nicer now) It wasn't square, it was only partially steerable, and I wasn't planning on letting it lose its questionable stability 15' off the ground. I tried a few seconds to clear the tangle, shaking and pulling and un-tensioning said lines, sweet talking them, promising I'd call, kicking, all to no success. When after 5 or 10 seconds of this and no progress (it looked like it would clear itself at any time, what a tease!), I cutaway and deployed the reserve, had a fully landable canopy even with the malf and trying to clear it by about 1200'. AFF grad does their jump, lands, walks over and says "If you'd got out at 3 or even 5, the same thing would've likely happened. I still don't plan on intentionally getting out real low, but I don't think I'd be afraid to anymore after watching you just now". Edit for spelling