jcoller

In response to: "BTW are you remembering to keep your eyes on the horizon, or are you looking down." Looking down? I thought that was for round parachutes and PLF-no-matter-how-well-you-flared landings? In my student days it was flare between 15 and 12 feet. You couldn't judge the distance if you were looking at the horizon. Was that poor training from my instructor, do I not remember it right or is there a new instructional procedure?

I wouldn't say it is vanishingly small... I was having an "all thumbs day" a few months ago and and was having trouble getting the Vigil to wake up. My answer was to keep stabbing the button to see if I could get it to start. I am not sure how I did it but pretty soon everything was reading in meters instead of feet. I turned it off for the jumps I did that day as I wasn't exactly sure what was going on with it (it wasn't until I got home and played with it for awhile that I was sure it was simply displaying in meters vs. something wrong with it). Once it does comes up the display reads PRO or STUDENT or TANDEM. You only miss it if you don't care if it comes up or not... p.s. I haven't had that problem since and am happy with the unit and its capabilities.

Hey Bob! I got the e-mail about your visit but, I was out doing a sailboat race that weekend. I didn't know you had a Vengeance, you were still jumping a Stilleto the last time we jumped together! Where do you jump most these days? I've been to Palatka and Deland and it seemed Palatka was pretty quiet in comparison. Your flamboyant style requires a BIG DZ!

Looking to go full elliptical, that is why I figured I would stay the same size vs downsize on the Sabre II.

Looking to get another rig and wanted advice on my next main. My experience level: I have slightly over a hundred jumps on a Sabre II 150 (loaded at 1.33) with a total of 540 jumps. I love the Sabre II, but don't really want to have two of the same thing. I was thinking of getting something peppier, but not TOO much more aggressive for my experience level. I waited until I had about 450 jumps before even attempting front riser turns. I like to carve it for fast swoopy landings as opposed to those hook turn things which keep killing people. I can usually get a nice surf with not too much runout, but I most admire the guys who seem to be able to make the chute glide about two feet over the ground at about 5mph for 50 feet or more. I feel like I am going like a freight train in comparison. My thoughts were the Crossfire2, the Vengeance, Cobalt or Nitron at 150 sq ft (149 in the Crossfire2 case). Since I am a Hawaii jumper (windy and bumpy), the Vengeance (airlocks) appeals but I haven't actually heard much about them except for PDs marketing. The Cobalt looks cool and supposedly lands great, but everyone I know who has one (three at my DZ) complain about getting slammed. Never even seen a Nitron except in pictures. Will I get laughed off the dropzone with a parachute that has little sausages on top?

Stacey, Ok. I will take you up on that offer... I just got my GTI a couple of weeks ago and have 5 jumps on it. Today I got asked how steep I could dive in the suit and how fast I would go. Can I go into a steep dive and pull it up into a climb? Is that going to be tough on the suit and/or me? How steep (fast) is too steep (fast)? Another question. I can track on my back but haven't been able to backfly in the WS. Any pointers? Third. I had a 99 second jump today, even with pulling at 5K. The truck was out looking for me when I landed at the DZ. One of the Tandem Instructors didn't believe me when I told them where I got out. Very cool. John

There is a difference between a 3-4 second track at the end of the group jump (RW/Freefly) as opposed to jumping out of the airplane and making a beeline for the dropzone. The first is fine and the second is a big no-no. You would be amazed how far a tracker can get. A couple of months ago we had a jumper do that very thing. She was the fifth in line out of the door. She tracked to the dropzone (didn't know any better), flew over the fourth group (I was in that one) and missed a guy in the third group by about 50 yards when he was under canopy (she was still in freefall). She also pulled low and ended up getting counseled twice. The important thing is to not fly up or down the wind line, but across it. That way everybody has a much better chance of staying in thier own air corridor. There is considerable debate about whether this jumper should be jumping, but I think it is mostly a training problem. I don't think anybody ever told her not to fly up or down the line. I never committed that grievous error, but I didn't learn about it from my instructors. Another jumper pointed it out to me after I had about 50 jumps. It hadn't really occurred to me that this would be a bad thing. I don't have any experience with the new AFF program, hopefully it makes up for these kinds of shortfalls. I did have to learn some other lessons the hard way (the Safety guy yelling at me after the jump about some infraction I committed that nobody ever told me about until the saw me do it).

Last year I bought a Sabre 170 that had "less than 300 jumps on it". I have put 250 jumps on it since. So, figure it around 550. I wingload it at about 1:1.2. I haven't noticed anything wrong with the canopy, weird openings, not flaring straight, etc. Since I only have about 270 jumps (and almost all on that canopy) I am not sure I WOULD notice anything unusual until it got to be pretty major. So, when should I think about relining it?

I have been lucky enough to dive at Palau, Guam and the Great Barrier Reef. Palau is absolutely awesome. In case you don't know, it is about three hours (flying time) south of Guam. Not much there but Scuba Diving, but man is it neat. Bunch of sunken WWII Japanese freighters, reef dives, drift dives and lots of sharks!

Before the "quartering" tip I would make sure that it was "quartered" by checking to see that the slider was not all balled up or anything, but I never bothered to make sure the slider egdes were sticking out of the pack job through the line groups.

I have a Sabre 170 loaded at about 1.2 and usually have nice long snivels. I don't even roll the nose. I had a couple of hard openings and a guy told me about quartering the slider. I know we have all been taught this, but I neved did it quite his way. I haven't had a hard opening since (about 100 jumps ago). Quartering the slider is the last step before wrapping the tail around the Propack. To quarter the slider, you need to make sure the edges of the slider are pulled out through the pack job between the slider grommets and the line groups. Of course, make sure the correct slider edge is pulled between the corresponding two line groups! You get 4 v-shaped folds (the slider edges) sticking out over the pack job (like a cross). Then I wrap the tail around and stick it in the D-bag. Seems to work great for me. Maybe try lengthening the line stows as well? I make the locking stows so I have just enough slack at the end to easily get the D-bag in the container. Have never even come close to a bag-lock. My worst opening was my own damn fault. It was a low ceiling day so we were doing hop-n-pops from as low as 2500'. The chute opens way slow when you are sub-terminal. Scarily slow. So... In order to make it open faster I A) didn't roll the nose, B) didn't quarter the slider (as above), C) shortened the line stows and D) overlapped the tail slightly (didn't roll it). I get in the airplane, the ceiling opens up... We get out at about 7 grand.... I forget about my special pack job and WHAMO! Ouch. That hurt. Blue Skies

Mad the mistake of buying some really old gear cause it was cheap. I have since moved on to a modern rig, but am now stuck with a Talon container (built in 1988, a Nimbus 210 and a Raven reserve). The equipment is all in great shape. Since I can't get any money for it (unless I sucker some poor newbie like myself), could it be converted into a BASE rig? I am up to about 300 jumps and am considering trying that out.