hopnpopper0429

6 years and nearly 600 jumps and you're new to packing. I give up, folks. Yes, been paying packers up until this season. Thanks everyone for your input. It looks like I'll change the double wrap of the tight rubber band to a single wrap, just to eliminate the concern as one of you said. Then I'll replace the old rubber bands soon after. But chances are the next time I'll be at the DZ will be for a repack, so I'll ask my rigger.

I'm an experienced skydiver but new to packing. Yesterday I replaced a broken rubber band with a new one from the bag I recently bought and it seemed stronger than I'm used to. A single stow on the new rubber band seemed to be as strong as a double stow on the old one on the other side of the bug. However, I still went ahead and did a double stow on the new one cause I heard somewhere that the number of stows for each rubber band need to be the same for all. Did I do this correctly or could I have a bag lock due to the new rubber band being stronger than the old ones?

I'm not sure about all digital altimeters, but my neptune shows the deployment altitude as the altitude when my deceleration has stopped and I'm under an inflated canopy. Thus if this is the case, the pull must have been higher than 3.5k, unless it was a very fast opening. Many people already commented on what the correct exit order should be. I'd just like to add that when I first was starting out (4 years ago), there were still some people who I talked to who were thinking the correct exit order was free flyers -> belly flyers, i.e. slow fallers -> fast fallers. I haven't seen any drop zone implement such exit order since I can remember. The correct exit order, as mentioned by many people on this post is belly flyers (big groups -> small groups), free flyers (big groups -> small groups), AFFs, Tandems, high pullers (5k - 10k), wing suiters, hop/pops at altitude (13.5k). From my personal observation, I noticed two different scenarios on two different jumps that support the commonly practiced exit order: (This might be helpful for beginners) I was doing a solo belly jump out of a casa with intention to pull above 6k. So naturally I exited after the free flyers after giving them more separation than I would to belly flyers going before me. Right after my exit, I kept my eye on the 2-way sit fly group before me, and noticed how I'm floating closer and closer to their vertical space. At one point I was right on top of them, at which instance I started tracking. That freaked me out even though I was going to pull 3k+ higher than them. My other, closer call, was when I was practicing to see how slow I could make my fall rate be when I just got my neptune. I was the second person out, right after a 2-way rw group. I was later told by one of the people in that group that I was right next to that person on opening. So it must be that the slower you fall, the more you stay in the sky, thus the more you're going to drift with the wind. That being said, free flyers will drift less with the wind because of spending less time in free fall, and also because of cutting through the relative wind on exit. What type of plane was this?

Was your shoulder dislocated? If reserve is packed correctly, all it takes for it to come out is for the pin to come out of the loop. What is that, about 1 - 1.5 inches of motion? When you'll be leaving your rig for repack, check with your rigger to make sure its ok and pull your reserve handle. Just be aware that it will fire with force behind you so point your back (rig) in a safe direction. That should give you a feel for what it should be like deploying your reserve. The first time I've done that I had over 200 jumps and wish I would have done it sooner since my life could depend on it on any jump.

Please don't get me wrong here. I always support people with less experience asking experienced people questions, especially when it has anything to do with safety. I was talking about expressing your opinion and wondering why no one listens, which is different from "which direction are we landing?", "what is the jump run?", "how much separation should I give?", "what is the exit order?", etc.

This will get you killed, and possibly others. In no part of skydiving should your plan be "hope for the best". Landing into the wind is not a priority. 1. What landing pattern has been established prior to getting into the aircraft? 2. What pattern has been set by the first person down? (did the winds change?) 3. Don't like what the first person did?...land way the fuck out. "Landing into the wind" can get a lot of people hurt or killed. Traffic is what matters. The first person down is usually experienced enough to land into the wind as best as possible. I know at some DZ's landing into the wind is not an option because of the landing area. I believe at Perris there is only two landing directions which often results in cross wind landings. If you aren't comfortable landing crosswind or even downwind, upsize your canopy until you are. Attitudes like the reply up top really aggravate me. Please be careful and learn to land your canopy crosswind and otherwise. Blue Skies Don't overlook me saying "continuously scan the sky", obviously scanning for traffic. Skydive AZ also has two landing areas, one north-south the other east-west. One of those for experienced and is closer to the hanger and the other is for beginners and further away. If you pick a landing area, you are restricted to one of two directions and as far as I remember the first person also sets the direction, which is also much safer then people landing in all directions. If you can't land in the proper direction, there is no problem there to land out since its all dessert.

I'm not sure what things are like in the US, but one of the reasons I'm currently on a hiatus from skydiving is related to this. I've found things like speaking up to try and organise an exit order, just so I know roughly what I'm going to be looking at in the sky to be more effort than it's worth. Asking about landing patterns has got me equally depressing responses on many occasions. It seems to me that in this sport, if you're the 'new guy' you need to just show up, spend money and shut up. Challenging anything about the way things are done isn't valid at 100 jumps. This sport needs to grow up and move past the point where ideas, questions and advice are only considered from people if their jump numbers are high enough. You need to start evaluating the message on the strength of the message, not how long the messenger has been participating in your sport. Rejecting things out of hand just because the messenger hasn't been around long enough is stupid. Reject ideas, questions and challenges on their merits, sure, but not the way it is done around here. There is a reason why experience does matter. Would you rather have a doctor in residency operate on you or a doctor with 20 years experience? Do you feel safer with a pilot who just got their commercial rating and is able to fly skydivers or a pilot who has been flying skydivers for 10+ years? People with 1000+ jumps have opinions that are more valid than someone with under 500 jumps (not to even mention under 200 jumps) simply because they've seen/heard/experienced more. I will always take advise from a more experienced skydiver seriously. There is only one drop zone which I know that has a very strict rule for landing, Cross Keys. No turns over 180 degrees bellow 1000' (I could be off on 1000') and the first person down sets the landing direction, unless if its on a separate pass. This makes me feel a lot safer under canopy. At other drop zones, I just try to land into the wind, continuously scan the sky and hope for the best. Even when a landing direction is agreed upon at boarding, I still see people landing in all directions, especially on the days of light/variable wind.

I would NOT have jumped at those conditions unless there are no obstacles around to create turbulence, like in Skydive AZ. I would NOT have done it even at Skydive AZ when I had less than 250 jumps or so. As a beginner jumper, your wing loading should NOT exceed much more than 1:1. That means that your air speed is about 15 mph. That means you'll be landing backwards in winds above 15mph even if everything else goes perfectly.

Well, I'm also also in need of a new, freefly friendly rig. I feel very comfortable on my 185 and would like to get a rig to grow with.

What do you think of downsizing from a 185 to 160? I have 368 jumps in 2.5 years with my last 200 jumps on turbo-z 185. I'm about 210 lbs. Thanks in advance for your feedback.

Cesslon, I've had a few hard openings before, but never did it reflect on my hips. I did, however, have sore hips when I didn't adjust the leg straps tight enough on a few jumps. I have about 150 jumps on student gear, and every time after 10+ jumps over the weekend I had bruises on my hips and shoulders from less than perfectly fitting student gear.