jumpdr

Does anyone else feel like me that a little time spent checking that report before it was released might have caught the spelling errors 'appers', 'returnd', 'expirianced', 'manor', 'successfull', 'nessessary', 'schedualed' that just make the report look rushed and sloppy and perhaps erode people's confidence in Aerodyne's attention to detail?! Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Hi, Somehow I've managed to get a small hole in the spandex of my BOC. It's only 2-3 mm across and is just in the outer layer of the pocket (there's another layer underneath). I don't know how happened - I wonder if I might have caught it on a sharp dry grass stem on landing or something. Anyway, what's the best way to repair it? It doesn't warrant a new BOC by any means. Should I just over-stitch back and forth or would a purse string type stitch be better? (Obviously doing it without the PC in the pouch! Thanks. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Did my first balloon jump in Perris a couple of weeks ago. The balloon pilot they use is really experienced and won't let jumpers out below 4.5k. We managed 6.5 on ours and a group a week before got 9k! We also stayed above the DZ and I easily landed on the grass. Great fun. You have to be B licence. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Mine's quite similar, but bought it new... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Aerodyne do colour coded line attachment points on their canopies, which makes pro-packing a little easier... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Ditto, I get REALLY long snivels on my Pilot 188 - 800-1000 ft probably. I've also not had an on-heading opening yet either and they've all (7) been fairly unpredictable. I've recently taken to not stuffing the nose, just letting it hang as well as minimal rolls of the tail. My body position through out deployment is also good - I've been videod a couple of times. We'll see how things go... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I managed to email him. He said: "It is going to be a little tough for him. He will need to convert to the BPA system, become a BPA member, do the course which includes 1 Pin Tear Drop and also 2 Pin Tear Drop which is even harder. He would then have to do another course to pack tandems." He also didn't think given that you're a Senior Rigger, you were that experienced. I can't argue since I know nothing about that sort of thing. I think the upshot is that he's not interested. Sorry. I tried. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

If it all works out, I'll be expecting a couple of cheap (read "free"!) reserve repacks in return! Should be seeing George this weekend so I'll let you know what he says... if I remember to mention it! Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Mattias, I know the guy who's about to start work as the full time Rigger at Netheravon (the Army Parachute Association's main UK DZ), which isn't TOO far from Bristol. I'll mention this to him and see what he says. I'd suggest he may need time to get his feet under the table and suss out what his workload's like first, however... Grant Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I went from no booties to mega inflatable booties and didn't have a problem. To be honest, RW with no booties was a nightmare. I fall pretty fast and even with legs out straight, I was getting minimal forward movement to close the gaps. Now, I can get great forward movement and the extra drag helps me stay at a much better average speed. Tracking with mega-booties is awesome! I did a tracking dive on my own and achieved an average fall rate of about 109mph, compared with my normal 125-130. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

First static line in 2001 age 22. 4 jumps, then sprained both ankles! First freefall AFF jump in 2003 age 25. 7 jumps but didn't graduate. Started AFF from scratch in 2006 age 27 - all 8 levels in 8 jumps. Now 28, have about 100 jumps, my own rig, I'm the Chairman of my DZ's club and I'm running an AFF exped for 30 people to Perris in May! Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Hey Jamie, We were actually open last weekend too, but the weather wasn't great and Larnaca kept putting us on hold and suspending VFR! I'm on call this weekend (which means I can't jump) so no spanking in or I'll be the one who has to come and scrape you off the ground! You may also be interested to hear that the rudder cable has snapped twice on the aircraft in the last week or two, so you might want to think twice... Maybe see you up there.. Grant Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

That doesn't seem to be the case for me! My MLW seems to sit down the side of my body and causes a 'kink' where it's attached to the laterals. I contacted Aerodyne about this and Arnold's reply was: 'The "kink" in the lateral back strap is a matter of fit, I am afraid. It looks a little short on you and this explains why it pulls back the main lift web a little. Possibly your main container will loosen up a little once you have some more jumps on it, and it may allow for the container to come around your back a little more. Otherwise it looks like you may not have been entirely honest about your waist measurement :)' Well, I've checked and my waist measurement is spot on. I've attached pics of me wearing the rig standing and also one where I'm in freefall where the MLW seems to straighten out a little. Does this look right? Are the laterals too short? In reply, my shoulder straps do feel quite tight, but then I do tighten my leg straps alot. Under canopy however, they do get lifted quite a way off my shoulders. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Yep, forgot to mention the air trapping and mucus-plugging associated with asthma can cause this. This is very different to the nitrogen bubble emboli causing decompression sickness and as rightly pointed out, has nothing to do with ascent rate. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Disclaimer: I'm NOT your doctor, so don't take what I say without speaking to your own doctor who knows you, but I can offer some information. I'm an Army doc and as such I'm doing parachuting and scuba diving medicals all the time. I also skydive (obviously!) and scuba dive myself. From what you say, your asthma certainly has been severe in the past, but it sounds like it's pretty much under control with minimal treatment - intermittent use of steroids. Asthma doesn't so much mean you get less air/oxygen in, as having difficulty getting the air OUT. Asthmatics have particularly sensitive airways to triggers such as pollen, dust or cold, dry air (everyone is different) and this causes the muscle in the walls of the airways to contract. When you then try to breath out, the increase in pressure in your chest causes these airways to partially or completely collapse. These partially collapsed airways create whistling noises, which is why you get a wheeze when you breathe out. This lack of movement of air, due to the collapsing airways is what causes you to be starved of oxygen. When skydiving, you are likely to be exposed to cold, possibly dry, air and perhaps a bit more ozone - if these are persistent triggers for you (which it doesn't sound like they are) then skydiving might be a bad idea. The hypoxia per se, isn't likely to trigger an attack. It would be bad if you were in the middle of a really serious attack, but then you wouldn't be on a plane if you were! The body's oxygenation system is remarkably efficient at picking up oxygen from the lungs and delivering it to the body, which is why it doesn't really bother us when we're at typical skydiving altitudes, even though our blood might only be 85-90% saturated. I would suggest for your skydiving activities, you kept one of the blue (reliever/rescue) inhalers handy either in your jump suit or somewhere accessible on the plane, just in case. I wouldn't recommend getting out of the plane if you're in the middle of an attack, but if you did, the adrenaline rush may well help, since that's what the inhaler is sort of providing! Scuba diving, on the other hand, is a different kettle of fish. I absolutely would not pass an asthmatic as fit to dive (they probably wouldn't be in the army anyway if that were the case). Not only are you exposed to all sorts of irritants (dry air, changes in pressure, air contaminants) but if you were to have an attack some 40m down you'd be in big trouble. The combination of panic, difficulty breathing, possible loss of consciousness and the risks associated with a rapid ascent from depth as well as lack of facilities on the surface does not bear thinking about. You could theoretically lie and self certify yourself as being fit, but I would strongly advise against it - the risk isn't worth it. I hope this helps. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I'm pretty sure the Aerodyne soft links are TSOd for use on reserves... but I may be wrong. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I think the one you've got listed as Vid 2 is actually a Joe Jennings promo video. Direct link is here. There's loads more stuff on his website Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Apologies, I didn't have the figures to hand so I did a search and found this: "Positive pressure breathing (PPB) is used to maintain the alveolar partial pressure of oxygen during altitude exposures in excess of 12,000 meters (36,000 feet). At altitudes up to 33,000 feet the alveolar gas tensions may be kept within the normal range by increasing the concentration of oxygen in the inspired gas mixture. Above this altitude, however, alveolar oxygen tensions fall below normal levels despite breathing 100% oxygen (Sharp & Ernsting, 1988)." Of course, the descent to 10,000ft relies on the pilots recognising and responding to the drop in cabin pressure before they become incapacitated by hypoxia. Recall the Helios disaster in 2005. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I did a chamber ride up to 25,000ft about 6 years ago. Within less than 3 minutes of removing my mask I was completely useless - it doesn't take long! I have a video somewhere... At 21,000 ft the Time of Useful Consciousness is about 10 minutes and that's if you were decompressed to that from ground level instantaneously, not having spent a while in an aircraft slowly decompressing and going hypoxic. The scary thing is, if you're in a commercial aircraft flying at 36,000 ft, if you suddenly lost pressure, your TUC is about 40 seconds. Those masks that drop from the ceiling do nothing, because even oxygen at 100% (which those masks couldn't achieve anyway) is not at sufficient partial pressure at that altitude to keep your blood oxygenated. Anyway, slightly off topic... :) Edited to add: Did anyone else notice that the person with the red rig (you can tell it's a girl from the shape of her arse!) 'helping' the hypoxic guy out had really loose leg straps?! Looks like she probably forgot to tighten them - bet she felt that on opening!! Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Indeed, I have wondered whether the rings should be where the laterals meet the MLW as that's where the articulation needs to be. Having thought more about it, the hip rings need to be in-line with the hips (i.e. on the outer part of the leg) and the MLW comes from the chest at the front, so it's going to have to head round to the side of the body to some degree. It all seems to line up when I'm suspended from the canopy though... I'd also thought about the slack in the soft reserve handle issue - I guess the only reliable way would be to remove the handle from the harness and see how much play it has. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

This thread is very timely - I've recently got my new (custom) rig from Aerodyne and was wondering the same about my reserve cable. Pictures show me just wearing the rig in a normal standing position as well as arching, when the nipple nearly touches the D-ring (no movement of the pin on a number of jumps though). I do have a soft reserve handle to be installed at the next reserve repack, so we shall see. There's also a pic of my laterals, which seem to have a similar kink. If the laterals were any longer, though, the main lift web would be coming round my front, which surely wouldn't be right?! However, the kink that is there does seem to be putting some strain on the stitching (last pic). I've emailed all this info to Aerodyne and am awaiting their reply, but anyone else's input would be welcome... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

I'm about 240lbs out the door and spent my first 60 jumps off student status on a Nav 240. My DZ has nothing in between that and the Silhouette 190s which I'm too heavy to jump fullstop (according to the PD website). I wanted to get my own rig ASAP and could afford to go for new, so I ordered an Icon with Pilot 188 and Smart 190. Both my instructors and the Aerodyne dealer were happy for me to go with this (almost suggesting it - the latter requesting that I downsize over about 30 jumps and do a canopy course). So, I went out to Perris for 2 weeks just and rented a load of canopies, working my way down through a Spectre 230 and 210, a Sabre 2 210 on which I put about 15 jumps and finally did a few on my Pilot. Yep, alot of people will say my loading is too high at 100 jumps, but at the end of the day, both my AFF instructors who have been following my progress are happy for me to jump it (as am I). I do plan on losing weight too...! As for suits, I have the original Tony suit, all in 4-ply with baggy arms (no lining). The legs are all cordura with vented mega-booties. I seem to be able to achieve a reasonable fall rate with this. Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Just got my new Pilot last week and packed it for the first time last Saturday! Couldn't do it the first time - had to get a friend to help. The next two times I folded it up OK but needed an extra pair of hands to wrap the bag round it. The last couple of times I just about managed it on my own. I've not had a really nice opening yet though - they've been soft, but generally off heading and I've been shaken around the sky as the thing inflates aysmmetrically. I even had a line twist as I got thrown 180 degrees on my second opening. I'm hoping as it wears in, they'll get better... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

Pilot 188, when my CCI lets me jump it. Currently using a demo Sabre2 210... Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.

It's ripstop nylon, isn't it, so the rips/fraying should kind of well, stop! Skydiving is more than a sport and more than a job: skydiving is pure passion and desire which will fill a lifetime.