nutellaontoast

I'm skeptical, too. I remember when I was skeptical of that dude who thought a pile of boxes was all you needed to land a WS, though. I also remember that the denizens of this website are know-it-all assholes.

Good luck, wyp guy. It's a crazy stupid idea but, hey, whatever. Maybe it'll work.

rtroup

Heres what i do. I look at the line set and the canopy as two different items. So lets say a brand new canopy is $2000. A line set installed cost on average $375. SO the lines are worth $375 making the canopy worth $1625. Depending on the canopy and the type of lines determines value loss. So lets say sabre2. I would subtract roughly 75 cents for each jumps off the lines and a dollar off the canopy.

I have a very similar method. And here I thought I was all clever when I came up with it.

However, I do one thing slightly differently. I assume the lines have 500 jumps in them, and that the canopy has 2000 jumps in it, then I simply use jumps-left-on-lines/500 * price of lines + jumps-left-on-canopy/2000*price of canopy.

So your Sabre2 with 500 jumps and original lines would be 0/500*375 + 1500/2000*1625.

Generally for a popular canopy, I'll fudge higher. You can sell a sabre2 150 even if it's "overpriced," especially if you're willing to wait a little.

I don't have any specific formula for patches or whatnot, but obviously they lower the price some.

skez

Think 14m speedwing is about 150ft..just use google it will calculate it...and speedwings are alot different to skydiving canopies probably why alot of skydivers get them then die

A lot of them? I haven't been keeping super close track of it, but I've only heard of a couple of incidents and the only ones I know the details of were the result of flying in poor conditions and nothing to do with wing characteristics.

I hate to start this argument again, but I've seen this claim before and have yet to be pointed to a single incident in which gear had much to do with anything.

If destination is a lot less important than getting the license finished, look into Eloy. They're open 25 hours a day, 9 days a week with 424 sunny days a year. Arizona can be awful pretty, too.

traceomac

why would you say avoid Lodi?

For as long as I've been skydiving, Lodi has had a reputation for being a bit of a, uh, loose cannon, so to speak. Many people have very strong opinions about it in both directions.

My take on the DZ is this: they do things differently there than at other drop zones. I think that a lot of what they do increases the risk. This doesn't stop me personally from jumping there, but it does make me caution those who cannot be expected to asses the risk themselves away from it. I always steer AFF students and tandems to other drop zones.

So another vote for SkyDance if you're in norcal. The weather in May shouldn't be a problem. I would recommend Byron, but in May it will be windy and they're not open weekdays, so it'd be too tight on a 2 week schedule. If you're in socal, I imagine either perris, elsinore or san diego would be able to accommodate you but don't have first hand experience.

Finally, STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM HOLLISTER. Seriously. Almost no one around here will argue with that.

If you plan to start swooping, get a Sabre2 or Pulse

If you don't, get one of those two or a Spectre or Storm.

I'm glad I just dump in a track, negating the need to read this thread.

Learn to pack. Start packing. Make money. Make friends with ppl at the DZ. Both of those will help you get through AFF faster. Absorb info while you're there.

I bought life insurance and told them up front that I skydived. They charged me like 50% more or something. Since I'm young it still came out to very little.

kuai43

Quote

Exited the plane around 14k, stable with about a 3 second delay and opened into a line over with a hard left turn.

Having recently had a cutaway in which I couldn't find my main and free bag for 3 weeks, I didn't want to chop it too high if I could safely ride it to a lower altitude and minimize the drift of the main and free bag.

Clearly the cost of a new main is high, but what's the cost of a replacement line vs. a reserve repack? @hook-knife.

I recall reading an article not too long ago where someone packed a line-over intentionally to see if he could clear it with a hook knife. even knowing ahead of time which line was over, he found himself unable to work it out and ended up cutting away.

too lazy to find it for you. sorry.

MisterCrash

I'm more afraid of all the hatred I see appearing towards Simon. Yes he made a mistake and he did endanger people. While I do think some kind of measures should be taken by the appropriate people I also think more people should think about the reason that drove him to it.

I think all thought to fairly meaningless records in a niche sport should be completely thrown out in the face of someone endangering dozens of lives. YMMV.

These days they've loosened citizenships requirements considerably. Now-a-days you must just have one of either of the following:

a) A yoga practice
b) Some strange food restriction
c) A job at google

Yea, that does sound risky.

Thanks for calling me an idiot, Sass.

I find a combination of batter's gloves with disposable plastic gloves underneath is a good combination for blocking wind and maintaining feeling and grip.

I prefer vinyl gloves, but latex or nitrile should work as well.

In what way was his flying unsafe? First hand accounts I've heard say that all he did was fly his slot head up instead of head down. For a guy with Simon's abilities, that seems perfectly safe to me.

Quote

How common is this?

Dunno numbers, but I fucked my back up proper on a hard opening. Years of healing. People definitely wear out their backs faster/more often if they skydive.

Shit's bad for you man!

RichM

***How much slack do you think could be pulled out of that closing loop?

Is the closing loop too long or is the main too big for the container?If the main's too big, he'll need too long of a closing loop to get it in there! :P

stayhigh

Agreed you can pick up used bullet for less than 500 bucks ill bet.

Since there is such a small market for speedwing, it is expensive to buy new one and you never get the price back when you sell em.

A few years back, I built four entire GL rigs on old skydiving gear for not much more than 500 bucks.

GL with a Stiletto is comparable dangerous to skydiving. It might not be the safest possible option, but not everyone drives a Volvo.

If you want the BEST gear, or just better gear, buy a speed wing.

If you just want to get off the damn ground and you have an old Stilletto... strap it on and have some fun. You'll be fine if you launch in the right conditions.

What's LSBS?

RiggerLee

Wasn't it a racer that that blew out a chest strap. Asymetric hard opening and totally tore out all the stitching on one side. I don't recall if they fell out or just got really scared. There was a Russian rig that came apart at the upper junction of the harness at the three ring. It also tore all the stitching. I've seen several nonfatal incidents with either partial or total failure of stitching in the lower junction do to the downwards torking of the webbing. Javelins use wrap around harnesses there and have at least some back up stitching which saved his life. I don't know the details but I always heard stories about a full failure there, late eighties early nineties? They changed the harness in the middle of the vector two around in there. It now wraps around the inner layer of type 8 webbing. And the javelins did break but that was wear a long time coming. We got complacent about the amount of wear till it finally bit us in the ass.

I'm going to edit this to add that regardless of how that sounds there really have not been a significant number of harness failures. Harnesses are tough. We over build them and even with a number of fatalities from deceleration we are not breaking harnesses. Your feamers will break, your liver will tear lose with in your abdomen, your aorta will tear in half and your neck will break before you blow up a sound harness. I say that because I've seen or know of every one of those incidents.

Lee

Just to make sure I understand, so with the exception of cases with obviously noticeable wear, no, there have not?

airtwardo

Does it have a super strong one piece harness like a Racer?

Have there been any documented cases of harness failure? I thought that there hadn't.

yoink

Firstly, I apologise for the tone of that post. I was frustrated.

***And also, what THE FUCK are you talking like there is no such thing as turbulence in skydiving?

Where did I say that?You accused people of getting others killed. Therefor you think an inflatable wing that isn't equipped to handle turbulence and might encounter it has an unreasonable safety margin. Therefor skydiving wings aren't safe, ever, because there is almost always SOME chance of turbulence. Don't give me that stick your finger in my face saying "I'm not touching you." Yes, turbulence in the two sports manifests differently. Both can and have seriously injured/killed. Sometimes even to experienced experts in their fields.

GLing with old sykdiving gear in the proper circumstances is well established and within the limits of what plenty of us feel is safe. Not because we haven't heard you come in and talk about rotors, but because we know the risks and choose to accept them. If you want to help, shut the fuck up about my sig and educate people so they can make their own informed decisions.

Thank you for your apology. You were being an asshole and you still kind of are.

yoink

I give up.

You fuckers are your own worst enemies. No wonder we lose people when this is the advice we give.


Go for it. Fly a wing that isn't designed to deal with turbulence. I'm sure everyone will be fine on a Stilletto. Hell why not a Nova - it's a parachute, so it must be fine!

I don't give a shit anymore.

And also, what THE FUCK are you talking like there is no such thing as turbulence in skydiving? If flying these wings in potentially turbulent air is stupid risky, then it's stupid risky to skydive on any hot day, any day where there could be a dust devil, and day where the winds might shift unexpectedly. Turbulence happens. Knowing how to avoid it is in most cases enough, and in some cases not. This is the risk we take all the damn time even as skydivers!

So please, go stand in the landing area at Eloy screaming about how it's not safe because none of them are flying parachutes designed for turbulence. I'm sure they'll be glad to hear you out.

If you want to give a shit, educate people properly on the risks of turbulence and how to avoid it best you can. Don't throw a fucking hissy fit.

Yes. Definitely looks like real BS to me.

Kurbe105

This was an actual situation in 2005 and 6 of the eight on board died. One was paralyzed resulting in suicide a year later. The only survivor was due to her tandem instructor using his body to shield the student. His name was Robert Cook and he's a true hero! Does it change your procedure now that you know had you done nothing you would be dead?

If I'm remembering how I've heard this story told in the past, a contributing factor was no one was wearing seatbelts, yes?

So, there's that, too. At 120ft you should be buckled in. So, whether I think it's a good idea or not, I don't think I'd have the where-with-all to unbuckle, open the door, stick my ass out said door, and pull silver while I was in a plane with a burning engine that is less than a football field off the ground.

I'd stick with the plane. And I'd be pissed at all the people in the plane who weren't buckled in as they'd be a very likely cause of my demise upon crash.

Also, I think it's a stupid idea.