fred

Again I say... This would not be any different in the system I've suggested. You've been taught, "Pull right, pull left". All I'm saying is that I want my left handle to actually do the same thing as my right, *as well*. It doesn't hurt if you cutaway first, since 1/2 of the SOS system will simply have no affect. If you're panicking, you can do either: Pull right then left, or even just do something not recommended, and pull left only. I'm saying it should have the same result. In my mind, it just lowers the chances of two out, without making the odds of anything else worse. This makes it a good plan in my mind, and I'd like it on my equipment. I still expect that I'm missing something. Am I being unclear? I want a right handle to cutaway. I want a left handle to cutaway with a small delay and then deploy reserve. It seems safer to me...

Phree, I can understand the KISS explanation. And I don't know enough about the gear to know why an SOS and seperate cutaway would be all that much more complex. It seems to me that it would require a Y joint in a cable, well protected under a hard casing. Perhaps I'm not completely clear on what's going on behind the scenes or how sensitive this equipment is. But it certainly does. Imagine a right handle that just cuts away your main, and a left handle that cuts away and deploys the reserve. It gives the diver the choice of waiting to get free/stable, without deploying the secondary chute, without allowing them to make the mistake of an unintentional two-out situation. I'd also ask that you ignore my mention of RSL in the title. I'm familiar with the complaints about an RSL, and they seem to apply to an SOS system just as well. So ignore it. I haven't heard much about canopy transfers, but are they really a good idea? Do most skydivers know how to perform one safely? Sorry, it still seems to me that having an SOS on my reserve is not going to hurt me, if I have a seperate cutaway handle. The only problem I can see is if it is technologically complex. Is it? Am I missing something else?

Okay... just realized that I responded to this thread after reading only the first page. Sorry about that. To go further off topic, I think a lot of you need to reread your SIM and pay some attention to what SL instructors actually do. While they don't need to spend as much time with lower level students as an AFF instructor, they do need to do more than just "push students out the door" (though, I must say, getting out of the Cessna that first time, my JM's ability to urge me out the door was very helpful). They have to pay a lot of attention to what the student is doing after the leave, on teh lower levels, and when they have more experience, they do jump and dock and evaluate their students in the air. I think the SL instructors deserve a lot more respect than they've been shown in this thread. I'm sure it's easier than being an AFF coach, but the teaching aspect is a lot harder than, say, doing a tandem jump. (Disclaimer: I'm not saying tandems are easy, I'm just saying that you don't need to worry so much about what the student learns, just keeping them safe).

I think I'd sooner BASE than let somebody fsck with my perfectly good canopy. :) CReW scares the hell out of me.

Well, as I've expressed 100 times before, I'm very new to this sport, but I am trying to think logically about my equipment. We had a debate in the pub the other night about whether an SOS was proper for students, but that's not the point of my question. I'm wondering why, even with a seperate cutaway handle, rigs don't have an SOS-type setup on their reserve handle. I can see the advantage to a seperate cutaway on a canopy wrap situation or some other circumstance where you'd want to have distance between you and your main before you deploy your reserve, but is there any reason you'd want to be able to deploy you reserve without cutting away your main? Is there, perhaps, a technical reason why you can't have a seperate cutaway with an SOS system? The more I read, the more I want both on my rig. Is this doable? Does anybody make a rig like this? Why not? Wouldn't this be a good way to train students? Somebody put me straight... why is this a bad idea?

Skreamer, are you saying that somebody with 125 jumps should not jump with a low timer at all? Or just that he shouldn't be paid for any advice that he might be able to give? I'm jumping for fun. I want to have a ball while diving, and feel those great feelings from a good skydive. I'm not particularly concerned with being the best skydiver, freeflyer, RW'er, or whatelse, but I want to be safe and have a good time. That said, I'd be thrilled to jump with our 125 jump wonder. Considering that technically, I can jump with another 20-something jumper, I'd really feel a lot better with somebody with more experience, and I'm comfortable with my own abilities so that I don't think I need a Golden Knight up there trying to save my ass. (I'll save my own ass, and I want to jump with somebody who I'm confident can save his/hers). Should he be charging? Well, I probably wouldn't pay for his slot, just because I know that I can get my own DZO to jump with me for free, and I know that there are a lot out there with more experience than he who would also jump with me for free. But I do think that it's unfair to suggest that he is unqualified to jump with me, when just about every USPA recommendation says that it's A-OK. And if he can give me advice? I'm the happier for it.

I've seen this article before, and it scares me. I'd really like a Spectre 190 as my first canopy, but I would be loading it at almost exactly 1.25 (actually, 1.23, but whatever). Isn't this too advanced for somebody's first canopy? I've had a gift for landing since my second jump (first jump was a mess, but it wasn't me! It was my instructor's fault, I swear! 'struth!). Most of my landings have been run out. A few have been stand up. The ones that didn't go perfectly have left me on my knees. But I know there's a lot more to canopy control. I'm definately *not* good at judging my height, or steering myself in for a spot on landing in the peas. If I have my way, I'll put about 20-30 more jumps on student gear, and go down to the 190. The brighter side of me says, "Nuh, uh... No you won't. You'll put about 20-30 more jumps and get yourself a nice safe 210". Both seem like major steps from a 280, but I feel like jumping to a 190 would really upset a canopy nazi, but here's icarus saying, "If you're good under canopy, go for it." Can anybody provide input on this?

I'm a newbie to the sport, but your numbers sound pretty significant. Terminal velocity on ones belly seem to vary between about 100mph and 130mph, so a difference between a max of 120 vs a max of 113 is pretty darn significant.

Tracking? Seems like a pretty important skill when jumping with others. I'm in the same situation, though. I'm just off student status and cleared for solo jumps, but have a lot to learn. Mainly I need to work on my consistency. Good luck!

Troll. :)

Also, see if you still have the packaging, and keep it. Save the return address if there is one, and the stamp from the post office... it'll help to narrow down where the guy is.

This is what my rigger (Dunc, skyrose, since you're at the same dz) told me. He said that basically, you could stuff your parachute into the bag without any sort of order, and most of the time, it'd still open. It would probably hurt quite a bit, but it will save your life. Every bit of effort you put into creating order in your packing helps the odds that it will open safely, and softly. It was one of my big whuffo concerns. Basically, I thought I'd have to be crazy to jump something I packed myself. All the skygods laugh at such an idea, as they would much rather pack their own. Hell, *I've* helped pack 'chutes at Gobles while the rigger was teaching me the basics of the equipment. As I asked, "Am I flaking this right?" the on-looking students were more than a bit concerned. It was fun for me. ;)

I think you're misreading the advice. The instructor was (IMO) not suggesting that he get an audible to correct the altitude awareness, but suggesting that he use one in case he *does* lose awareness. As far as I know, the audible is a backup, and sits cozily between a visual altimeter and the cypress. Assuming a single alarm (The kind that all students at my DZ have), that alarm means, "You f**ked up, pull now." At my home dropzone, if a student hears the siren, they failed the jump. But it's better to have that alarm and pull, then to lose altitude awareness, have a cypress fail, and bounce. I do agree that using the 3-alarm versions is cheating, and could have repricussions for learning, but I'm surprised that other students are jumping without the single alarm model. It seems like a good idea to me.

A cypress, along with an FXC, are types/brands of AAD.

I think that's an excellent question, AndyMan. I'm still a student, just a newbie, but in my 10 or so weekends at my small single Cessna DZ, I have yet to see a single black person. We did have some amish children come to watch the newfangled air machines, so perhaps it's the area where it's located. As far as being openly gay, I don't tend to notice. There seems to be plenty of 'fag' comments on these forums, so perhaps there are some things that skydivers aren't so open minded about. I still bet we're more progressive than the general population. I don't think that the lack of blacks has anything to do with the general skydiver's acceptance, but is more likely a social issue.

It's not despair. It's boredom. I like talking to skydivers. I've consistently spent more time here than the other forums I used to frequent (hissyfit.com, threewayaction.com, squishettes.com) because y'all have a fun attitude for life. When every thread ends up with n posts in a row mentioning boobies, it's just dull, and not worth my time. That's all I'm saying. I also feel like I'm missing some pretty good threads if I skip the talkback forum. Not everybody crossposts in Safety & Training, et al. But if you folks want 1001 boobie threads, go for it. I'm just saying that I, for one, think it's getting old, and I'll probably wander away if it keeps up.

I'm about 5 days out from jumping in Arizona. I'm a student, and I'll be transitioning from my Cessna 182 Static Line program to Skydive AZ's ISP program, from bigger planes, from higher up, and to a different landing area. It's been 4 months since my last jump, and I'm not nervous yet. I'm a little frightened of all the learning I'm going to have to do to leave an airplane with somebody else, and to fall for so long. But for some reason, the scary part, actually climbing off the airplane, just isn't scaring me. I imagine this will start to hit me when I get to the DZ. I definately think that the fear is normal, and I'm feeling pretty darned unnormal for not fearing it right now.

I hear you. We had a beautiful weekend here in Michigan. High-50's, blue skies, winds at 8-12. Perfect dropzone weather. Unfortunately, I'm going on a trip to AZ next week and saving my money to skydive there, so I couldn't justify spending cash to go out of a 182. But I'm definately getting spring fever. We've had the mildest winter I can remember, with plenty of snow to give us a white christmas, and another week of snow in early january, and after both it had all melted away. It's very strange.

I was certain the word was normalcy, not normality, but m-w.com agrees with both. A lot of people fight against being normal themselves, and jumping out of an airplane is a simple way to escape society's norms. And once they do it the first time, they're hooked. Perhaps this is a workable theory?

Just having looked at a number of training programs in the US, it seems that a lot of DZ's are incorporating tandem jumps into their training course. Having seen some videos of some horrible first AFF jumps, I can't say I blame them. Scared students can get really out of control. Just saying, as a newbie myself, it makes some sense to me.

I'm reading the Talk Back forum less and less for this very reason. It seems like people are posting just to say, "Boobies" without even the effort to make it relevant to the thread. It's definately old, and tired, and I have no respect for the creative genius of the posters. I'm happy with a couple boobies threads. That's no big deal and I can happily skip over them or even read them if I want, but the fact that just about every thread in this forum now mentions boobies, ... well... I'm sick of it. Grow up, kids. We know you like boobies already, most guys do. Stop interrupting decent conversations with random posts.

I started having problems at 10 second delays. I managed to not have unintentional turns enough so that I moved up to 15 seconds, when I had more problems. You don't need all that much time to turn unintentionally. ;)

Oh, but they're all so ugly! Any other recommendations?

Started when I was 25... I'm 25 now. ;)

What is the difference between TAS and SAS?