dragon2

The firmware or a fault is likely the answer here, but just to be sure: Are you using 'decent' batteries, and holding the new battery by the sides only, or using your sleeves/some fabric if you have to grab it by the + and - poles? If you don't do either, battery life might be severely shortened. ciel bleu, Saskia

We're at 15.8k signatures now. A lot, but nowhere near the 40k we need, yet. Please, from wherever in the world, sign this petition & confirm! https://voortbestaanteuge.petities.nl/?locale=en We ARE gaining attention though, in the national media, and in the nearest local town of Apeldoorn a city meeting was held. Also the 4 surrounding municipalities sent an urgent letter to the minister of state. New nickname for Lelystad Airport I've seen mentioned somewhere: Fakeport Lelystad. Ahem... ciel bleu, Saskia

From Nationaal Paracentrum Teuge/Erwin vd Braak: First 10.000+ signatures are in. We need more though! Please share it among the skydiving community. For foreign friends it's a bit tough because of the language. However there's an English version for the signature part : https://voortbestaanteuge.petities.nl/?locale=en In short the text states: Air traffic control authority by demand of the Ministry of infrastructure will limit all general aviation to a maximum altitude of 5000ft. This is happening unannounced, at the largest dropzone (and organizer of the 2015 world cup) in the Netherlands, at the latest April first 2019. Why, because the big commercial airport far enough away needs a little extra airspace. Continuation of the DZ and entire Airfield (since we bring in 50% of the revenue) is no longer possible and liquidation is facing us. If you think this needs to be stopped, please leave your name and email at the petition below. You'll receive a confirmation email, unfortunately also in Dutch. This email asks you for confirmation of the signature and if you're convinced you want to undersign. The FIRST link provided in this email (ends with "confirm") is the last thing you've to do to support us. After that you're signature is confirmed and counted. Pleas help us out and thank you for the support! ciel bleu, Saskia

Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) and the military. Seem to be, yes. As I understand it, paraphrasing a bit: since Airport Amsterdam/Schiphol can't expand as much as needed anymore, Airport Lelystad (which USED to be a dropzone before all this started btw) needs to be adapted to take over some of these flights. Up until a little over a week ago, various routes for climbing and descending were considered, the one over Teuge being NOT a favorite. Then a little over a week ago the news came from the military and the LVNL that the routes are now all figured out, all within the guidelines/rules set to the parties which were 'military and Schiphol not affected, min 6000ft over eastern provinces and not too much noise for residential areas'. All done. Boom. Big surprise(/nightmare) for the provinces of Overijssel and Gelderland, the stakeholders of airport Teuge, local businesses, local residents, the KNVvL (Dutch General Aviation, which includes skydivers) and others, because the biggest Dutch dropzone can't operate with a permanent 5000ft jump limit and if the skydivers go, the airfield will go broke. Half of the skydiving jumps annually here are made in Teuge (40-45k). Texel isn't able to handle much of an increase let alone the other smaller DZs. So, it would need to be Germany, probably, if that. Also, Teuge airport was SUPPOSED to handle the general aviation being displaced from Lelystad, so they need a new place to go too! Thanks, I mentioned it to the originators of the petition. Edit: we need 40k signatures, we're at 7.5k now after 1 1/2 days. ciel bleu, Saskia

Hi, Help please! Can everyone please sign this petition? Out of the blue, new flight routes were announced a week ago which will close Paracentrum Teuge (2nd biggest European Skydiving Centre), and thereby the entire Teuge Airport, plus a separate hang gliding airfield in 2019. These new flight routes seem to be set in stone The petition: https://voortbestaanteuge.petities.nl/?utm_source=KNVvL+mailinglijst&utm_campaign=5da05e571c-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2017_07_03&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e747f36b20-5da05e571c-107487069 (Sign name, email address, town of residence and confirm by clicking the email link sent to you) More information about what's happening (in Dutch): https://www.facebook.com/VliegroutesoverTeuge/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf ciel bleu, Saskia

I had a 00, you can pack a new 150 in there (if you really want to) and an old Merit 170 also fit. In a 0, a 170 should fit, if a bit tight if it's new. How good are you at packing? The spectre 170 should fit for sure. Let someone else do it for you to check, if you're a newer jumper. I can't remember the reserve sizes for bigger atoms than 00... A 00 is made for a 128 reserve, so perhaps the 0 holds a 140sqft normally (?). If someone shoved a too big reserve in the rig packing the max size main would get a bit harder... There used to be a couple of atom 00 on my DZ for smaller girls, which usually had a merit 170 plus a techno 140 in them! Hard rigs to pack... Also overpacking is hard on the stitching, bag and flaps, and you can feel the rig being more uncomfortable against your back. Also -possibly- a risk of reserve-issues. Your rigger should know which size reserve is recommended for an atom 0. ciel bleu, Saskia

Can't help you there, I've never packed or flown an electra. Just merit and springo (my tip: avoid both...). AFAIK an electra is a hybrid canopy too (if I remember correctly?), should pack similar to a silhouette I'd think, it will pack larger than a merit in any case, but I think it will pack smaller than say a sabre2, especially if it has many jumps on it. so my is that since a jav j5 holds ZP up to 230, a 190 ZP will be too small (210 ZP will probably work but soft) and a hybrid 190 would be too small. Ask your (European) rigger to confirm tho. On all accounts, electra seems to be a much better canopy design than its predecessor merit, anyway all jumpers I know who flew electra were quite happy with it. ciel bleu, Saskia

As are front risers blocks. And maybe add rear riser blocks (vet tape...) or even B-line toggles as well ciel bleu, Saskia

The question is this: are you, at your experience level, able to judge this? To be more precise, are you able to estimate the speed at which your (somewhat malfunctioning) canopy is flying, both forward and downward? This is very difficult to say when you are still high enough to - safely - cut away. Not saying you made the wrong decision - just something to think about. That. I still vividly remember an experienced jumper breaking his back after landing a canopy which OK from the jumper's point of view but it had some issues on the top skin which made it 1) descent quite fast and 2) dumped him on his back quite hard when the canopy folded up during the flare. Another similar incident was a thread on here a few years ago, with a tandem canopy that had a split cell on the top skin. Again, hard to see from below, canopy looks fine-ish and luckily this one landed 'just' a bit hard. IMO the TM should have chopped it though, after seeing his practice flare on video where the end cells just about touched from left to right and he had of course the responsibility for his pax. What I teach my students: after your 2x flare after opening and your other checks, if the canopy still looks or even feels a bit 'funny' and you're in doubt, fly a 360 right and a 360 left and do a couple of practice flares. If your canopy can do that, it can probably land you safely. If it spins up or folds up or you can only turn when holding one toggle 3/4 down, well there's your answer. If after these checks you're not 100% happy with your canopy, and are still above your decision altitude, chop. On general, instructors prefer jumpers chop when in doubt, over what the OP did. Although, if a student chops because say the slider wouldn't go back up, he/she might get a bit of a talking to But since I'm not your instructor, listen to yours! ciel bleu, Saskia

A Fusion is about as close as you can get to a sabre2, I think. A bit less divey maybe than a sabre2, if you want to do front riser approaches. A pilot feels 'tamer', a safire 1/2 is in between. IMO (I jumped all of these, some of them for years). ciel bleu, Saskia

A merit packs small, and one with a good number of jumps even smaller. Count on it packing a size or so smaller than say a sabre2. BTW, are you sure you want to jump one? Hard to very-hard openings. A quite outdated design. Very short steering lines, which might be fun for STEERING but front risers are just about useless and mind that it can fly in full flight, there should to be a bit of a bow in the steering lines when in full flight. Easy to pack, tho... ciel bleu, Saskia

If I remember correctly, that jump was supposed to be a funjump, an intentional personal downplane. Now I've been in my own personal downplane (not on purpose, duh) and in 2-person ones (very much on purpose ), but a downplane with 2 rigs I would very much avoid . 2 harnesses pulling in 2 different directions sounds painful. If I also remember correctly that jump almost killed him, by choking. ciel bleu, Saskia

Never having jumped rounds at all, the first briefing I got was: If you are under a spinning reserve and can't fix it, throw the belly reserve against the direction you are spinning. Another instructor intervened very quickly after that... ciel bleu, Saskia

Are you Dutch? If so, rules here say you cannot do a jump where you pre-plan to use your reserve without a third parachute. I did 2 intentional cutaway jumps myself, because I had a reserve malfunction once (closed end cell which I ended up having to land, broke my nose) and my rigger suggested doing a intentional cutaway jump when my next repack was coming up. It had to be a cutaway as we were going for a low-speed 'mal' situation like my previous reserve ride. I had to pay for the repack of a round reserve which I wore on a second harness, and I paid the jump for another jumper to follow my main and freebag. Got a briefing on how to use it if needed (very very important if you have never jumped 2 rounds, like me) and was very glad my reserve opened 100%

If you put a very small packing 170 in there (pulse 170, an old-style canopy like a merit 190 or pd7/9 cell), and a very big packing 120 (an airlocked 120, a smaller CF canopy), may-be. Usually getting 3 different sizes in that way is already quite good. A lot also depends on which reserve you in the rig. A 'full' rig isn't very comfy against your back, and can also cause damage to the rig (stitching coming undone), aside from being hard to pack. In most cases just getting 2 rigs will be much smarter. ciel bleu, Saskia

There are not many (if in fact any) full time year-round skydivers-only in The Netherlands. Most have a 'regular' job, or even more than one other job, even during the summer. In the winter you'll need to find other employment (ski instructor?) or find a warmer place to work (ie, New Zealand, Australia etc). If you want to become a professional skydiver here, you better get as many ratings as you can (tandem, AFF, rigging) and have a backup plan in the form of another steady job and/or winter gig. Or move to a warmer/better weather location ciel bleu, Saskia

What do you do when after an ugly cutaway your teammate is hanging under a 5cell reserve and heading for the DZ, but his main is now hanging on someone's chimney and said someone is not at home? Answer: you film your 2nd teammate 'breaking' and entering while not lifting a finger yourself https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mFuLA1f8xY0 Just going through some old videos while sick@home, this one made me laugh... I'm just hoping I'm ever going to jump again, I always loved filming CRW... I didn't film either team in the video, just did the editing on it, so sorry for the song... ciel bleu, Saskia

That. Make sure your legstraps are quite snug. Remember you do need to get blood to your toes And if you're a guy, make sure your package is out of the way, a loose legstrap + hard opening might make some bruises seem like nothing... Your instructor should be able to help you with correct fitting. If the rig is on the longish side for you, you also can get those bruises, although 200 lbs is really not on the small side. Perhaps these rigs have adjustable laterals and you can fit them better, again ask your instructor. If the fit is as good as it's gonna get you can also consider wearing some more clothing; layering some sweatpants or similar. Personally I tend to get chafing and bruises when wearing jeans so I never do, I stick to leggings, sports underwear etc. Also getting some video of you opening might help, you may not be slowing enough after tracking or open head-low or something, which could cause harder openings. Again, ask your instructor. ciel bleu, Saskia

A staticline first jump student watched his buddy cutaway and eyed where the main was going. It landed a field or 2 away. Student landed close to me (bus driver) on the DZ, told me where the main came down and that a car had picked it up. I scolded him for not getting the license plate ciel bleu, Saskia

Don't try to learn to fly camera with tandems, become a decent belly camera flyer first. Forget about freeflying or other stuff for a while, and learn to use your cameras on the ground first (learn about ISO/f-stop/focal length and their relations, read the entire manuals, shoot some landings at your DZ, etc etc) Ready to try your cameras in the air? Step 1: Buy a suit with wings, I myself prefer very big wings and adding weights if/as necessary to a suit with small wings, even for lightweight camera flyers. But you do need wings so get some. Step 2: Do a couple of solos with that suit, focusing on exiting backfloating (for most airplanes, like Caravans), with wings collapsed (keep away from the airplane stabilizer), keeping a heading and doing ( a lot of) practice pulls (again, while keeping a heading, don't start turning, collapse your wings after pulling and don't pull the pc through the wing!). All good? then proceed to: Step 3: Add your camera helmet for at least one solo jump, same as above. Remember to get a good briefing for your camera helmet from a very experienced camera flyer/your instructor first. Step 4: Find some non-students belly fliers to film, a beginner or intermediate 4way team is perfect. Do this for a good number of jumps, if you do this at least reasonably well you can expect to have your slot covered but expect to have to show the video for debrief. Step 5: Can you consistently exit on time with a rookie FS4 team, keeping them in frame until break-off and keep on heading? This will take a good number of jumps (couple hundred probably) to do correctly and consistently, you will bump into jumpers, make camera mistakes and whatnot along the way. You have to learn, but you CANNOT use a tandempair to learn all this! So, feel good about your belly flying camera skills? Good, go find your instructor ans show him/her the last 5 bellyjumps you did which should be perfect. (Rules on this may vary per country, per dropzone or even per instructor). If the instructor agrees, you may find yourself being cleared to jump with tandems (again, rules may vary, you may have to jump without camera a couple of jumps, or other rules/restrictions may apply). ciel bleu, Saskia

Old-skool method, which I used to film rotations during crw: add an extra set of french links to your back risers. Disclaimer: probably a bad idea on a regular sports/swooping canopy. And probably only works if you use french links in the first place. For my Lightning I added a pair of fairly big links, landings actually didn't worsen, if I remember correctly. Anyway I liked this method: it saved me from having to wear even more lead, downsizing to a size I wasn't comfy with (I liked my L126) and saved my arms from having to work my front risers too much for 12k ft... ciel bleu, Saskia

Do you know where your canopy was made? It makes a big difference. Generally the only time a Spanish-made Safire 1 opens hard is when out of trim. ciel bleu, Saskia

I know exactly what you mean Dizzying videos where the world is upside down and spinning and the very common "knees in frame" I like the exit show when frontfloating = sitflying, but other than that I mostly prefer belly video (with wings). Some freeflyers I know can't/won't stay still for longer than a second, delivering video that may wow another skydiver for "artistic value", "skills" and sheer "fun" but that is not the point of tandem videos! The tandem passenger wants the money shot, and would IMO generally prefer ~30secs of stable right-side-up video showing their face, to any "artistic" flying that they don't understand/appreciate/pay for. Some video flyers treat a tandem video jump as a paid-for opportunity to do what they feel is fun, period ciel bleu, Saskia

Only A+B+C lines and steering lines, right? No Ds? Anyway it's this canopy: click edit: I don't have many pics of that weekend anymore, shame. Found this one though: [inline SAS_9960-hw-600.jpg] ciel bleu, Saskia

Here, another white one: [inline 154755_129821137075599_1695649_n.jpg] ciel bleu, Saskia