ufk22

There are a number of different techniques given for diving exits, these are only mine. Usually, tumbling on diving exits is caused by trying to get belly to earth too fast. For students, I usually try this one first. Left foot in the door, right foot back, body facing the line of flight. Pick a spot on the horizon about 20-30 degrees in back of perpendicular and launch straight out with right hand high, left low. Do not look at the plane, look at the horizon. Another option. Left foot on the door frame right foot slightly back, body facing towards the back of the plane at about a 45 degree angle. Pick a spot on the ground about 45 degrees back and 45 degrees out. Dive down, away and back. Try to focus on diving down rather than getting belly to earth for a count of five. Once you get the feel of the relative wind you’ll wonder what gave you the problem

Even though I don’t know YOU, I know you. Anyone who has been in this sport for a lot of years has know a lot of you’s. This is not a personal attack. It just is. We all thought we were different, above average, and could progress faster than those other guys and gals. This sport is full of type-A personalities. It’s the nature of the sport. I was you 30 years ago. Fearless, self assured and as I went from student to licensed jumper, smarter than I was. I’ve made more mistakes than you will probably ever make in this sport, because back then the training, the knowledge and the abilities of the really good jumpers was no where near where it is today. After 30 years, I know how much I don’t know and how much I still have to learn in this sport. I also tip-toed around the experienced regulars at the DZ. It takes a long time and a lot of jumps to separate the wheat from the chaff when it comes to skydiving advice. There are two way to go from here, either live long enough to figure out how much you don’t know or let your ego (not specific to you, this applies to everyone) limit you. The next few hundred jumps will get you one place or the other. I really don’t care if you’re honest with us, just be honest with yourself. Google (generic term, I hate google) Dunning Kruger effect and realize it does apply to all of us. If we ever meet, I’ll get the first round, but you, having many more “firsts”, will have to cover the rest.

If you can’t take down the hanger, at least leave a large hole to be remembered by.

Preface with the fact that I am not a rigger. You should know how to lube your cut-away cables and exercise your 3-rings, know how your rsl/mard system should be routed, know how to disconnect and reconnect risers and know how to do a complete line check . Any more is useful, but not necessary for the average sport jumper.

Whoa.... I brought up some inconsistencies in your posts and that’s “going full keyboard warrior”? I’ve been jumping almost 30 years, held instructional ratings for 28 years and been an IE for over 20. I’ve seen a lot. I loaded up a friend on a backboard 25 years ago because he landed under a small reserve, didn’t time his flare right, and broke his back. He had hundreds of jumps under 7 cell canopies. I’ve seen highly experienced people get injured or killed, some times their fault, sometimes just luck of the draw. If I was a little insensitive when I posted, maybe it was because just a couple of night ago I was getting advice on landing my new canopy from someone whose last landing looked like a freestyle Skydive. I know enough to ignore his comments, but a low time skydiver wouldn’t. You are a licensed skydiver. I tell students that getting an A license means you can be as smart or as stupid as you wish. Jump whatever gear you want in whatever conditions you want. It means that USPA considers you a grown up. Your choice as to whether you act like one.

Lot’s of contradictions in your posts. First, your reserve is NOT 189 or 190, Decelerators come 180 or 210, so with a 180 your reserve wing loading is about 1.4. Second, you say you have a small reserve because that’s the biggest that would fit your rig, then say you bought new gear, so you CHOSE to get something that small. You consult with the elder because “ you don’t want to get on a shit list”, then complain that you got some grief when you bought your new gear. Maybe their disapproval was based on your gear choice (small reserve) rather than the fact that it was new. You talk about your textbook flares, yet admit you sometimes “trip over your own feet”, your accuracy is bad, and you haven’t done a some very basic canopy drills. You have one year in the sport, only did 60 jumps over that year, but now want to step outside the generally accepted guidelines. Your ultimate reason for downsizing, easier front riser turns, makes no sense. You come on a public forum looking for strangers to recommend what the locals apparently won’t. I think it was Mark Twain that said “It is often better to remain silent when accused of stupidity than to speak and remove all doubt.” Ultimately, you are a grown up skydiver with an A license. You can do what ever you choose.

Your choice of canopies and sizes should involve a lot more than wingloading, especially at your weight. From other posts, you wingsuit. This means you want a canopy known for consistent, on heading, no drama openings. This should eliminate all the more highly elliptical canopies. At you weight, things are more complicated when looking at wingloading. Once you get below 150’ canopies, the shorter lines change the canopy flight characteristics rather dramatically. It’s not just about the turns you choose to make, it’s more about how the canopy flies in ugly situations. A bad opening spin happens faster, a reaction to poor body position on deployment can go from interesting to cut-away, coming out of deep brakes asymmetrically can put you on your back withline twists and a canopy diving at the ground, what would have been a mildly embarrassing mis-judgement on final can become a femur or death. I would recommend something like a Pilot 150 or 135.

Got this a couple of months ago, but just got to jump it last weekend. I had to do some AFF recurrency evaluation jumps for some instructors. I had been using an old single tone Ditter and an Optima with different profiles for AFF student, AFF eval and regular jumps. I sold my Optima after five jumps with the VOG. Having altitude count down was not annoying. Not having to check my wrist mount for altitudes was great. The voice used IS annoying to listen to on the ground, but just right in free fall. Easy to hear, very clear. Much more precise than tones. The app is straightforward, it charges pretty quick, changing the settings would be easy, but why would you need to keep changing it? I kept my old ditter for a “stupid low save my life” alert. i would recommend this to every jumper.

I have 3 static line jumps, some tunnel time and fly canopies with totally different flight characteristics. I fly a 95’ canopy loaded at “about” 2/1. Why don’t you just say “I have mad skill”.

If the problem is gauging distance above the ground, landing downwind from something (wind sock, wind blade, anything) to give a reference of height can sometimes help. Obviously not always possible because of obstacles.

Too slippery.

And you missed the part where this was discussed by the board for over a year, at two prior meetings. Glad to know you checked into what research the board did prior. Who on the board did you talk to about that? USPA has been trying to get more of this kind of info, but no one wants to submit anything they aren’t required to. How many non-fatal incidents get reported? Don’t want to make the DZ look bad. Get over it.....

I don’t understand alll the fuss... A student can sue????? For an AAD fire????? This seems to go to the erroneous assumption that the instructor in there to save the student’s life. That is the student’s job. My job is to train them to proficiency. Maybe because is was trained S/L and trained S/L students for 20 years before I started AFF. As an AFF-I, I see my responsibilities being to train thoroughly on the ground, supplement this with hand signals in the air and assist with stability and deployment. If USPA can gain information from this reporting that allows me to do that more efficiently, great.

I’ve directly witnessed two AAD fires on student jumps, know of a half dozen more on student jumps, and have seen or heard of about a dozen on fun jumps at local drop zones.

http://www.chutingstar.com/skydiver-smoke, good stuff http://www.paragear.com/skydiving/10000143/L1256/EG18X-MILITARY-SMOKE crap

Staging loop is not mandatorily on sport vectors. The problem was mostly due to the single line from the skyhook to the Collins cutaway to the rsl loop on the riser. The reserve/skyhook line could put tension on the Collins disconnect This was replaced with a y setup where the skyhook line and the Collins disconnect each ran independently from the rsl loop. Tension from the skyhook line is directed to the rsl loop without tensioning the Collins disconnect. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

As long as you’re willing to pack something that could lock a reserve closed, no problem. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

We’ve tried the new style demo smoke and had really bad luck, and 75% bad. Plan on going back to the traditional stuff even though it’s $30/pop. Anyone had good luck with the new stuff? This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

Have you ever even seen a real IRM? “Many pages outlining reserve side duties”?.. People like you are why this site has become so worthless over the years. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

A former USPA RD had her membership revoked. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

it’s bad enough that every USPA thread turns into a “those worthless jerks do things I don’t like” slugfest, but do they also have to turn into museum bitch sessions? I love watching the same people argue that USPA SHOULD be the drop zone cop about almost everything, but shouldn’t require my buddy to pass a flight medical to do tandems. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

You job is NOT to save their life! If you think it is, you are likely to kill yourself, your student or both of you. Your job is to assist with stability and deployment. Your job is to train them well on the ground, give them good feedback in the air and post dive and to let them make the small mistakes. Know your limitations. Wear audibles with at least three tones. Has anyone mentioned not to bust the hard deck? Seriously, decide now. I will not chase a student below ____’. Period. No exceptions. None. Ever. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

If you can find a DZ that will let you jump without a FJC refresh and at least one AFFI, do not jump there. Yeah, with 50 jumps and a 10 year layoff, it’s like falling off a bike..... A really BIG bike. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

The important question is exactly what training they received in the tunnel. As we see utilization of this BSR change increase over time, I think we will see the tunnel training items evolve. Exactly. Evaluating any training based on certain worst cases doesn’t work. Unusual for tunnel students to over arch. Basic tunnel training usually has students flying too flat. They probably weren’t trained adequately or whoever taught them was overcompensating for expectations of them flying too flat. Every program has some instructors that don’t train well and every program has dramatically changed training as the sport has progressed. Look at how tracking or turns used to be taught and remember how many more students did poorly when starting out back in the day. I spent a season as the lone AFFI at our DZ, a small S/L operation. Never took a student that hadn’t completed C-2 (1st clear and pull with S/L, 6th jump). Some were really boring and some were a shit show but this didn’t mean the program was dangerous, just variations in students and differences in advancement standards with different instructors. I agree that having two instructors for the first jump has advantages but disagree that only one is not safe. And, if any student managed to “chuck me” by arching hard I’d be re-evaluating my own methods, not the program that trained them. This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.

OH MY GOD!!!! CHANGE This is the paradox of skydiving. We do something very dangerous, expose ourselves to a totally unnecesary risk, and then spend our time trying to make it safer.