in2jumping

I was cooking breakfast the other morning and I started fixing my usual, 4 eggs and a couple pieces of whole wheat toast. I break open 4 eggs into the pan, popped in the toast, walked around the corner to throw out the egg shells, noticed the garbage was full so I ran it outside and then come back to tend to my eggs and this is what was looking up at me.

When I was learning and doing my SL training you had no choice but to let go

Call PD and ask them if they will put a bridle attachment and bigger slider on one and sell it to you as a main canopy?

Yeah I know that's an option but if it was a couple inches lower on my back then i think it would help. I jump out of Eloy and Rigging innovations is onsite so im gonna talk to them and see whats possible I had the same issues a slightly torn rotator cuff with bursitis in right shoulder. Had some small issues reaching PUD but could always get to it but not as smoothly and quickly as I would like. I then aggravated it on a jump one day and had a nice terminal reserve ride. Let me tell you it sucks screaming through 1800' with nothing out and not being able to get to your main. If you have ANY doubts about not being able to QUICKLY get to your main, switch to BOC left side!! Pull time is not a place to be fscking around. Switching to BOC left is not a big deal, its cheap and you will get use to it quickly (handful of jumps). It also gives you a great excuse for not letting anyone borrow your rig .

Actually one of those big ass long old school pillow (soft foam) chest mounts would probably work really well. I have used one that was like 7 inches long and they don't move or flop around at all. You could probably get one made or make one fairly cheap. Rigid hard mount sounds like it would would hurt on a bad landing.

http://www.icaruscanopies.aero/maintenance "Dropping the Slider" "If you are using a class 3 or below (below 1.25 PSF) this gain will be minimal and possibly not worth the complication ." http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=466420;search_string=slider%20steering;#466420 "The official report from Bryan Burke will be posted tomorrow. I can tell you that Holly never stowed her slider. Hol had slinks. The slider interfered with her steering lines causing a finger trap." http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1049120;search_string=slider%20face;#1049120 "I was at the dropzone the 4/16 - 4/18. A witness to it said that he was coming in for a landing and his slider which he had under his chin came up into his face while he was about to land and he reached up with his hand and pulled it out but he had toggles in his hands controlling his canopy, so he had a low turn. My condolences to the family." Ask yourself is it really worth it to drop your slider?

There is good reason to stay at that wingloading forever. Lots of very experienced jumpers do not go any more aggressive than that, and they are still able to walk without a limp after decades of jumping. Above is about the smartest thing you can do in the sport these days. Unfortunately the culture of rapid downsizing has developed over the years with many new jumpers being peer pressured into downsizing and also pushing the limits in multiple areas of the sport early. I know many jumpers that have put 1500 to 2000 jumps on the same canopy and all have the same things in common. Walk with out a limp, can fly the crap out of their canopies, understand how their canopies react in almost any/all weather conditions and have had very few or no malfunctions.

Mfg could sell it as a discounted "predisastered" canopy.

Was this a fast and aggressive toggle input? Sounds like you just simply turned yourself into line twist with an aggressive toggle turn. I managed to do this on a .7 loaded 320sqf canopy once. Think a few year back there was a fatality at the Farm from someone spinning themselves up into line twists at low alt followed by a low cutting away. Also saw a good friend who was pissed about going low on our 12 way spin his Sabre into line twist at 1000' after an aggressive toggle turn. Was kind of scary watching someone chop at 1000' right next to you. Be careful with fast and aggressive toggle inputs, specially at low altitudes.

Very sad news!! Made my first jump and did my static line training with Rick and Patty their DZ Desert Skydiving back in the early 90’s. Some of the most enjoyable times in my life were jumping out at Desert Skydiving with them. They ran a family oriented DZ, made things fun and always put safety first. My heart goes out to Patty and family.

Mow the yard? Take out the trash.? Wash the cars?

We need a GPS to determine our spot. We need an audible altimeter to tell us when to pull. We need an AAD to deploy our reserve. And now we need more ear beeps to fly a landing pattern. I suppose it was inevitable. I can see it now: S&TA: "Why did you turn into that other jumper and almost collide with him?" Jumper: "Because my ear beep told me it was time to turn final!" I eagerly await the invention of the electronic parachute packing machine. In a few more decades we'll be like that first monkey shot up into space on a rocket, strapped down and helpless, while automated gizmos took care of everything. Yeah, that'll be fun. Next up is the ACCD (Anti Canopy Collision Device). A bunch of infrared based proximity detectors attached throughout your jump suit. When it detects that a canopy collision is imminent it sends a strong electric shock to your ass.

Or to rephrase that in a less emotive way: "I wonder if it is to allow DZOs to make decisions based on their own dropzones and personal experience so that they can continue to run an effective business." DZO’s have been known to make decisions that are not in the best interest of the jumpers involved. Once again you have stepped outside of your area of expertise. Sparky Sparky He is just defending his DZOs decision over there at Skydive Midwest on the canopy collapse incident that happened over there over the weekend.

Well... the ground IS harder than air. Also 90%+ of injuries and fatalities in this sport involve some sort of impact with the ground.

What don’t you understand about someone who only does 50 jumps a year then with only 150 jumps transitions too and starts swooping a 1.5 loaded Katana? You think that reading a book or talking to someone on the ground is going to give you the necessary skills and experience to safely swoop and fly this canopy? If so we should do away with the 200 jump requirement for wing suits and camera and just give jumpers books to read.

Problem I have is him escaping the odds and going on to steer other jumpers to follow in his footsteps.

Keep convincing yourself that this is going to keep you safe under that canopy.

If your “main mentor” told you that you had the skills to go bounce around on a pogo stick in the middle of the freeway would you go do it? Also, are you going to follow in your “main mentors” footsteps and steer jumpers with 150 jumps to 1.5 loaded Kanata’s?

Don't tell him that. That's part of the problem. We know that statisticly you're most likely to die under an open parachute. We also know that those deaths are spread around pretty evenly between solos and collisions, and HP and non-HP, so there is no one 'magic bullet' we can look to in solving the problem. Anyone not 'toe-ing the line' in terms of canopy control is part of the problem, regardless of who they are or what they fly. The guy you responded to is flying a HP canopy at 1.5 WL with 250 jumps. Don't tell him to fly with care, because that implies consent. Tell him to stop being an asshole, stop adding to the problem, and get back in the middle of the bell curve and fly something even remotely appropriate to his experience. Don't suffer the fools lightly. That's how we got here, and continuing to do so is how were going to be stuck here. This is the land of the free, and we tried to be free and easy with this canopy business, but it didn't work out. We gave it a fair shot. Over the last 20 years, the first 10 could have been looked at as an 'adjustment period'. New canopies, new technologies, let's see if everyone can just figure it out on their own. The old guys need to figure how to transition from F-111, and 'the establishment' needs to figure how to teach the new guys coming into the sport how to deal with these new canopies. So that's the first 10 years. The last 10 years hasn't been any better, and now it's time to give up on the idea of 'natural selection', and stop being so 'free'. For years, virtually every other country on earth has had strict on-going educational requirements in place, and even stricter limitation on what sizes and types of canopies any one person can jump. Now it's time that we got on board and did the same. Of course this means that for the most part were in the hands of the 'powers the be' waiting for them to get their shit together and get some structure up in this bitch. God only knows how long that's going to take. Which brings me to my original point, what we can do on the grassroots level is not telling guys like DocPop to be safe and have a blast. Tell him he's an asshole, and he's most of what's wrong with skydiving. He knows what he's doing is far outside 'the norm', what's his next move outside 'the norm' that he will deciede is OK, and just do it anyway? I don't want to find out, so I'm not going to encourage that type of behavior. Neither should you. Dave thanks for the post and stating my same thoughts about DocPop. I have just been too nice to post them.

Yes a good part of the problem is a generational/cultural thing and new jumpers are being influenced by HP landings/ the canopy piloting discipline. New jumpers are transitioning and downsizing to HP canopies much quicker. Then you have experienced jumpers continually downsizing too very extreme wing loadings. Also a good number of average everyday skydivers are now jumping canopies that would be considered a HP hotrod 15 years ago. This has been the trend over the last 10+ years.

There where plenty of dropzones with big planes in the 90's and there was no where near this many canopy collisions. Though people where still slamming in and killing themselves under their Sabres and Stilettos, but you did not have this many canopy collisions.

Also add the 200 jump wonder jumping a heavily loaded Katana who manages to survive and goes on to become a coach and/or instructor. Then teaches new jumpers that it is perfectly fine to jump HP canopies they are not ready for.

h. Advanced Parachuting. Many of the safety suggestions presented in this AC are intended primarily for the student parachutist. All student jumps should be made in a controlled training environment. Individual experience and judgment dictate what additional training should be obtained before undertaking more advanced parachuting activities. All parachutists should acquire experience and training before using unfamiliar or high-performance equipment. The "acquire experience and training before using unfamiliar or high-performance equipment." sounds like downsizing to me.

Low fat and or low calorie diets just make you hungry/miserable and don’t work the best. If you want to shred fat and drop weight quickly then go on a low carb diet/Atkins style diet and eat as much low carb veggies, protein and fat as you want. You will be much happier and is most effective way to lose weight.

I sense sarcasm in this statement