udecker

nacmac - It's precision's softlinks. They put them on after my last cutaway when my Synergy's lines were broken. I keep trying to push that ring back in... the back right riser's softlink ring likes to wiggle out and become exposed, even though I tuck it and crunch the ring to get it to stay every time I pack. -Craig It's suddenly coming towards me very fast, so flat and round. Will it be friends with me?

I actually had this occur this weekend. For some reason, I decided to let one of the guys at the DZ (friends of the kid of the pilot) pack my main while I calmed down from a less-than-impressive 4-way training jump. On the next jump, which also went to shit, I reached for my pilot chute, thought "that skydive sucked. but this is gonna suck even more" and tossed it out. Everything was fine until I unstowed the brakes, which I always do immediately. I usually have to use my front risers to "force" the slider down, since the brass grommets like to hold it way up there. I didn't have time to though. The left one came out fine, the right one did not. I could see that the line was looping up from the little steering line ring up to the soft link, and then back down to my hand. The packer had stowed the excess brakeline through the softlink, and it snagged the ring that holds the softlink in place. I tugged, thinking it would come lose, but it didn't. I checked my altitude around 1800 and said if I couldn't resolve it by 1000, I was gonna chop it. I tried stablizing the sharp right hand turn by giving the left line some input, which I could, but realized that not only was I poorly proficient in landing using rear risers, but I couldn't figure out exactly how I was going to both hold the left toggle down while I was flaring. Then I noticed that I'd continue to lose a lot more alititude if I was going to spin right until I was again facing the DZ. I looked at my alti again, and it was just above 1000... I had already lost 1000ft in the few seconds I was attempting to resolve the problem, and I was on the wrong side of the DZ. So I chopped it right around 1000ft, and my big 'ole 220 reserve opened up when I yanked the d-ring. This gave me just enough time to realize that I quickly needed to check the flare of the previously unused reserve, and then I had to land slightly off, standing it up. This is my second steering-line mal, (first one the right line broke, along with a c-line), and even though last time I assured myself that I'd learn how to land with rear risers, I haven't yet. (I fly a Synergy 170 at about 1.1:1... I have around 130 jumps.) Some of the folks at the DZ said I should've decided to chop at a higher altitude, but I had no idea that I'd lose so much just trying to fix the problem. Of course, they said I should learn to land using rear risers. (They said that the last time too...) Needless to say, people should always feel confident landing in rear risers. I'm still not, since I haven't jumped since the cutaway, but my next few jumps will be learning that. Even more amazing, some guy on the ground decided to focus on my canopy flight with his camcorder, and got the whole thing on tape. -Craig It's suddenly coming towards me very fast, so flat and round. Will it be friends with me?

Quade, nothing about what they did was dangerous. By saying they "funnelled" our formation, they came in and made it quite obvious that they were there, and broke up the formation. Sure, it was surprising, but it was gentle and amusing, not forceful or violent. Certainly not something to be reprimanded about. -Craig It's suddenly coming towards me very fast, so flat and round. Will it be friends with me?

Um... ok, so we're not that good. Thanks for pointing that out. Nonetheless, if the slot is covered, you can always try the dive again. Hell, there was a point that we just couldn't get right all day long, and we didn't get to fix it. But we will the next time we jump together, so nothing is lost. We were being totally serious all day long, and it was nice to know that all the folks in the 7-way took their slots to come and remind us that we're having fun up there. If it were a once-a-day occurrance, I can see the frustration, and obviously their intent would be important. If you're funnelling a formation just to be a prick, that's one thing. But if you're a bunch of folks having good spirited fun, what's the harm? I wish I could relate to that mentality... not once (until I read this thread) did I even think about this being a bad thing. We're quite serious about our training - but banning someone from the DZ because of something like that? Wow. -Craig It's suddenly coming towards me very fast, so flat and round. Will it be friends with me?

I'll say this, as a member of the aforementioned Ga Tech 4-way team - having the whole crowd come out and split us up was not a problem whatsoever. Jonathan thought we might bring it back together, but Allison and I were off with everyone else immediately, so it didn't happen ;-) Anyway, this was our 7th dive of the day, it was a beautiful sunset load, and it was tons of fun. And since Allison and I had both just hit our 100th jump, it was more of a celebration. The cameraman even decided to go headdown for the remainder of the dive. When we got down, Allison and I got pied, and we watched the videos of the whole thing (including footage from Tim's new "camera attached to the bottom of the plane," which looks so cool, everyone just streaming out right after us). I suppose some people would be upset, but the DZ covered our slots for the jump, and the comradery was high - so no complaints here. -Craig It's suddenly coming towards me very fast, so flat and round. Will it be friends with me?

Jonathan - funny thing.... when I bought your rig, the first thing I did was trade up that reserve for a new Precision Aerodynamics Ground Zero canopy. I think "interesting" would've been a bit too interesting for me. ;-) -Craig