daremrc

Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

well.. I was taught the pattern should start around 900-1000' in my FJC. There are things you can do to adjust the pattern as you come in without making erratic S-turns. I am constantly evaluating my pattern on my approach, and when I think I am too high I will either take my downwind leg further, or turn away from my intended base-leg starting point a bit in order to make the base leg longer. Make the pattern more triangle-like and less square, if that makes sense. In the canopy course I took, I was also taught that if you are on base-leg and realize that you are too high, you can take the base further than your intended turn-to-final point, and then do a 180 back to that point. Of course these are dependent on traffic and your DZ's landing area rules rules so ask your instructor before you do this stuff! If you are at 100' and trying to fly in brakes or whatnot to shorten your intended landing path, it's a bit late. I know at our DZ we are OK when winds are N/S because an overshoot will land you in another field. When the winds are E/W it becomes trickier because we have a runway on one side and a fence on the other side of the landing area. on the E/W days a very gentle flat turn might take you in a better direction and lengthen your potential landing area. On your final, your best bet is to allow the canopy to fly full-flight to your landing point. More airspeed will give you lift in your flare, which equates to more power to stop yourself from smacking down so hard. Canopies just don't flare well at all from braked flight. Practicing PLF's might also make you look silly, but feel better afterwards if this ever happens again . Maybe pick up "The Parachute and It's Pilot" to read while you recover, good canopy control info in there and definitely cheaper than another doctor visit. Heal up soon! Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

I personally collapse & stow my slider, then look at both toggles to make sure the slack lines are not wrapped around anything (and that I dont poke a finger/hand thru the loop) before I pop the brakes. I pull both toggles down to full brakes to make sure that they can actually go that far, then on the way back up I stop at half brakes and grab my harness on eiter side of the chest strap. I then push the harness together to take the tension off the strap, then open the buckle with my left hand as I let the tension back up and the chest strap slides as far open as I allow it to. I've found no problem thus far doing this without having to look at the strap, and while looking for other traffic and making harness corrections as needed. When this thread first came up I felt that I was comfortable doing it this way, now in light of the recent incident I really cant see any good reason to *not* do things in this order. That is to say, if you are going to collapse/stow a slider and open a chest strap, I cannot come up with a valid counter-arguement to following this order... I already know that, at least at the time of opening, my canopy can fully flare before the strap gets adjusted. Once I know this, loosening the chest strap in theory will help prevent self-induced linetwists by increasing the distance between risers. Being pretty new to all this, can anyone critique my method and/or bring somthing to the discussion that I may not have considered? Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

how bad do you need it?

I took my FJC just a couple weeks after the last WFFC. I'd love to go, my lady and I would be there if there was another one. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

We've had some power outages and wind damage in areas but the DZ is unaffected. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

Skydive Chicago's website says they will have one for Summerfest this year, late July/early August Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

OK, it's on. Looks like I have the Friday off of work so see everyone Thursday night... Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

That would be awesome! I hope you two can make the trip. I'm still working on the sit, if it comes under control maybe we can even make a freefly jump Besides if you're not there, how am I supposed to spot? Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

I got an 11 day LOA from work, so my g/f Carrie & I will be out for the whole thing

Good stuff, cat! Glad to hear you're back in the sky. I did the same backloops as you on my first 10 second delay back after a layoff too... It's one thing to think arch, and another to do it

just a couple of weeks away now... Nick was really cool last year about getting the demo canopies switched in & out pretty fast so I think I'm going to make a jump on a reserve demo this year. see y'all there Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

I think it's the latter... SOmetimes I get crazy 300+ MPH speed readings, but my freefall delays seem to be about right. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

What else do you want? Indoor packing, free camping with showers & laundry, lots of experienced people whether you're into freeflying, RW, or swooping. A really fun crowd of regulars and a good time, day and night.

thats what I'm trying to get at.. One of the manufacturers is advertising a camera with 520 lines of resolution, which I understand to be a bit better than regular TV resolution but about half of HD. I don't need anything spectacular, but if the image quality is at least comparable to a lower-end camcorder it might be worth it IMHO. I saw a little video from the guy at our DZ who was using it and the quality appeared OK on his camcorder, btu I never got to see it on a ful sized screen. The image stability was pretty solid too, whcih is something I would've thought would suffer. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

Well I thought I'd dig this thread back up since it's the only info I could find in a search... I'm interested in flying camera, but not so interested in mounting a camera to my head. I've been checking out lipstick cam configurations such as visosport's and helmetcamera.com 's using a remote DVR or small camcorder to capture images. We had a guy that flew one at our DZ and liked it, and I have yet to see anyone else flying anything similar. I figure since this thread was made in 2002, the technology has changed a bit and maybe other people have tried some of the more modern stuff. For less than $1000, it seems I can get an entire setup that will mount to my current non-camera helmet, which is cheaper and seems to me slightly safer than mounting the actual camcorder to your head. The guy that was flying it at our dz had the guts of the system in a fanny pack with an external button similar to the ones that people mount to their helmets. Anybody else try a setup like this recently? I'm not looking to fly serious camera or chase tandems, just capture fun jumps with my friends for myself or to share online thanks Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

I finished my IAD last year, and my opening altitude was 4500' for freefall jumps. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

yeah, it is a pretty good crowd, isn't it?

if the fear doesn't get you, the enchiladas will Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

Manta 280-Falcon 230 -- 30 jumps Pd 7-cell 218 -- 31-60 Pilot 210 -- 60-180 Trathlon 190 & Sabre1 190 - 180-220 Pilot 168 -- 220-current. I think I will be on this canopy for a very long time, currently at around 1.2-1.3 . Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

your glasses? forget 'em. who needs to see clear to skydive? Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

be careful. You can get addicted the first time. I thought I was going to do a one-time tandem to check it off my list... Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

What are the reasons? I do my slider housekeeping before I pop the toggles, but will sometimes bring my hands down with toggles in them to loosen the chest strap. Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

The timing of this thread is really incredible. Just today, my gear dealer called me to tell me my brand new Icon (sized for Pilot 168 Main/ 175 Smart reserve) came in. I am currently jumping a Sabre 1 190 and the thought crossed my mind to try and stuff it into the new container. It's pretty ratted out, right? (the answer is yes ) I thoguht it over more this afternoon and, in light of the fact that my new Pilot 168 is supposed to be shipped in another two weeks, I can wait. I was told that the possibility of streching the container could be there, but after reading that acyual damage to the stiffeners can occur, it would be stupid to try to stuff my 190 into it. I cant really afford to replace my new container if I damaged it due to my own impatience... Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.

And it can be assured that this is all, of course, in the interest of the sport of skydiving first. I'm sure any information gathered here will be used only to make the world a better and cheaper place for jumpers. I mean, two of the three described injuries happened to one guy I didn't go to law school or anything, but it seems there are more discreet and productive ways of finding out this information than showing up to dz.com and saying 'Hi. I'm an attorney. Someone tell me everything they know". At least everyone involved now has fair warning that someone's out fishing for lawsuit fodder Good judgement comes from experience, and most of that comes from bad judgement.