GLIDEANGLE

I am a rigger-in-training. I got very lucky and was GIVEN a badly damaged harnesss / container system to "play with" (the owner had been told that it was time to retire the rig). Perhaps you could be so lucky and then you could practice on a rig without the legal issues. I have started keeping my eyes open for damaged gear which is being retired... makes for great practice projects. So far my supervising Master Rigger has guided me in the repair of one PC that the owner had discarded. She was quite surprised to get it back repaired!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Love'em! My favorite way to end the day is a FULL altitude H&P at sunset. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Find info regarding various training methods and choosing a DZ here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=519 To find a DZ near you, go to this site and enter your location http://www.uspa.org/FindaDZ.aspx Once you have a list of DZ's a few quick phone calls should answer your question about age. Plan B: If you have to wait until you are 18... spend the time between now and then SAVING MONEY $$$$$. You will need lots of it to skydive!!!! If you are really eager.... try reading Section 4 (Integrated Student Program) of the USPA Skydiver Information Manual: http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section4/tabid/166/Default.aspx Jump Safely!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I wish that I had known that skydiving is sort of like intravenous methamphetamine: --It produces a brief but intense rush. --It is highly addicting. --It can easily consume all your cash and time. --One can easily find every waking moment focused on getting more of the rush. --It is very dangerous... but the rush makes it seem worth it. --Almost all of your friends and family will NOT understand the attraction. --It can wreck havoc with personal relationships. (I dodged the bullet on that. I have an incredibly tolerant wife.) The other thing I wish that I had known was that the part of skydiving I thought would be easy has been really hard, and the part that I thought I would not like too much can be a whole lot of fun. This sport can appear deceptively easy when done by the experts. The reality is that getting to that level takes a lot of time, effort, and $$$$. I also wished that I had fully understood that just because other folks are getting on the plane on a windy day, does not mean that conditions are OK for me too!!! (I did not get hurt, but scared myself half to death.) Welcome Aboard!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I was a participant in the discussion on the original thread. If you will look back at your posts, they had two parts. Part I was a question about saves and misfires from Vigil and Argus. You got a specific albeit incomlete answer from me. Part II was commentary.... sold Cypress.. too expensive ... single mom of three kids. Your commentary is what stirred folks up. Here are the issues that you got entangled in: --I am one of the "Do a Search" Nazis. The searches for the links I supplied you took less than 90 seconds. I am happy to help folks who are willing to help themselves. [Note I searched Google to get answers from the manufacturers rather than the mix of stuff we can find on these forums.) --If you had simply asked a question....I bet that you would have gotten better answers. As sson as you engaged in commentary you opened the door for all sorts of replies about your commentary, rather than your question. If you had posted the following I bet that you would gotten on-target answers from helpful people. "I am looking for information about the saves/misfires that have occured with Argus and Vigil AADs. I have tried searching to no avail." If you don't like the noise... don't bait the noisemakers. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Three hours ago I was reminded why full face helmets are a good thing. We were putting a nine way out of a Caravan. The exit was ugly and I got smacked with a shoe on the visor of my Bonehead Havoc. No injuries and I was able to continue the jump without difficulty.

Ask your instructors when you are ready to take advantage of a canopy control course. When they say you are ready... take the course!!! One of the MANY things that I learned in my canopy control course was in an exercise about how to get back from a long spot. After classroom work and some drills over the airport, the pilot deliberately took us a moderate distance away from the airport and our task was to fly back safely. The techniques we had been taught worked so well... the instructor decided that the next class would need to exit further away! Sometimes experienced jumpers will take advantage of strong upper winds and exit several miles upwind and open their canopies immediately upon exit. They will then fly "cross country" back to the DZ. This can be both a lot of fun, and present a risk of landing out if things don't go well (this is a good reason to carry a cell phone and some cash on these jumps). The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Here is a variation on the MS Excel theme: Note that it will tell you in text if the rig is current or not, and the color of the text field will change from green to red when the rig expires. No rocket science here (nor brain surgery either). The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

We all have to make choices about how to spend our time with regard to jumping. At one extreme are the one-time tandem passengers. They jump once and go back to the demands of their lives. At the other extreme are those who chose to devote most of their time (life) to jumping. They often end up living at the drop zone and learning to be happy on whatever income they can extract from this sport. The vast majority of jumpers are somewhere in between. Folks find an unlimited number of ways to balance jumping and life. Because I live a long drive from the DZ, I tend to make fewer trips to the DZ...but make more jumps per trip (I often spend the night at the DZ). Other folks make more frequent but shorter trips to the DZ. I know a group of jumpers who are at the DZ almost every Friday. They jump for one day and live their lives the rest of the week. Figure out what works for YOU. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

As a student I found one part of this topic confusing... My instructors and the books talked about EXIT order. However, what I really needed was to learn the BOARDING order (which is the exact reverse of the exit order). The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

As said above, no hard stats, as there are too many variables. Suggest some reading on this topic: Buy and read The Parachute and its Pilot by Brian Germain http://www.bigairsportz.com/publishing.php#parachute Download and read Downsizing Checklist http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=47 Download and read this secton of the USPA SIM [URL]http://www.uspa.org/SIM/Read/Section6/tabid/169/Default.aspx#1072[/URL] The Downsizing Checklist is quite interesting, as it does not talk about jump numbers as qualifications for downsizing, but talks about DEMONSTRATED ABILITY. This moves beyond opinion and argument... into the realm of "put up or shut up". Fly safely. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Regarding the mention above of mis-routing an RSL. See this for an example. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3226891#3226891 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Suggest that you surf the incidents and compare the rate of deaths from "reserve open too low" and "entangled with reserve". My suspicion is that you will find that an RSL is a good thing. As I understand it, the Skyhook deploys the reserve so fast that it actually decreases the potential for entanglement. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I wear a Havok (Bonehead) to allow my spectacles. All I know is that a full face improved my RW work. The "peacefullness" of having my face out of the wind allowed me to focus better on my work, and more easily remain calm. My only complaint is that mine tends to fog at deployment (I guess that I exhale at that point). Having a fogged lens when I need to be checking my canopy is a pain. I am still exploring various ways to keep the lens from fogging. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Thank heavens you only hit Nikki in the head... elsewise you might have hurt her!!!! I think I met you on Saturday (I am the balding guy with the incredibly fashionable spectacles. Yes, I was wearing the too tight wingsuit. ) Glad you had a good time, come back soon. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

LUCKY YOU!!!! You got a low cost lesson to teach you that this is a high risk sport and that YOU have to keep yourself safe. "Low cost?" Yep, no wheelchair for life, no funeral... This sport appears safe when all goes well, but has the very real potential to hurt or kill us on every jump. Some new jumpers don't get this message until it is far too late. You have a head start! Now that this sport has your attention, take the advice above and be forever vigilant. None of us is so skilled, so smart, or so cool that we are assured to survive our next jump. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

My definition of "good landing": I walk away unhurt. No one else gets hurt. Given this definition, anything less than 100% "good landings" is a big problem. There are many ways to get a good landing...and a PLF is one of them. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Locally SOME riggers raised their prices for I&R of a reserve from US$ 60 to US$ 75 a few months ago. However, some riggers have NOT raised prices. Here is where the free market comes into play: Riggers are free to charge what they want and the jumpers are free to take their work to whomever they wish. As a result, I expect that things will balance out. Let us not forget that the decision of choosing a rigger usually includes more than just price. Any of the following can play a role in the choice of riggers: location, reputation, demeanor, ability to do more than just repack, rigging equipment available, turnaround time, and price. I am fortunate to live and jump in an area with about 15 riggers (there are probably others I don't know locally). As a result, we can let the law of supply and demand play out. If I lived and jumped somewhere that had few riggers, we jumpers would have less economic leverage. If you have too few riggers in your area and they can engage in monopolistic pricing... get your own rigging ticket. No I am not a rigger....yet. I am working on my ticket. I spent several days this week working with a master rigger on my sewing skills. (Damn, the bar tacking machine is WAY COOL!!!!) The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

I'll bite... if the kid is dead, who sued on his behalf? Please tell me it wasn't the parents who signed the wavier!!!! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Another way to look at it.... There are four risers, they are easy to see, and grasp. A seven cell reserve has 32 suspension lines and two control lines. They may be hard to see and hard to reach. Which makes more sense to cut? Yes, from a purely economic view, if you survive the incident, replacing lines is probably cheaper than replacing the reserve risers....which are an integral part of the harness. However, this isn't an economic question... it is a question of survival. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Here is the typical weather by month for Perris, CA. I suspect that it is a bit cooler than you were expecting for March/April. http://www.accuweather.com/us/ca/perris/92570/forecast-normals.asp?partner=netweather&traveler=0&zipChg=1&metric=0 Here is the same for Skydive San Diego http://www.accuweather.com/us/ca/jamul/91935/forecast-normals.asp?partner=netweather&traveler=0&zipChg=1&metric=0 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Based on what I have read, experts "agree to disagree" on this matter. Given that this is a "high speed, no time to get fancy, holy crap Batman", malfunction... my vote goes for simplicity. Others may be confident of their ability to use different procedures for different mals... I like uniformity. Cutaway then reserve. It is considered an acceptable approach and I like it 'cuz it is the same as the EP for many other mals. Simple brains demand simple solutions. Do what you are comfortable with. But no matter what, if you are on a collision course with a very large ball of dirt ... don't waste time figuring out what is wrong and planning a remedy... get a canopy overhead NOW. The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

HA, HA, HA, HA...... I work on that every jump. I don't know anyone who has them "perfected"... even the best canopy pilots I know tumble some when "pushing the envelope". I would not equate "stand-up" with perfect. Under some conditions, a well planned PLF is FAR preferable to a poorly executed attempt to stand up. When the wind is honking, the spot is lousy, your canopy snivels a long way and you are landing out on a field.... a PLF may be the "perfect" landing! The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

Cool sewing machine resources here: http://www.usapr.com/sewing_machine.htm The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!

The two articles linked below address your question. They are wirtten by canopy flight experts. The contrast in their views is interesting. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=671 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=680 The choices we make have consequences, for us & for others!