pchapman

Yes, saying "you want a 7 cell" often actually means " you want a canopy which has been designed with the aspect ratio and nose inlets and thickness and other characteristics typical of historical 7 cell canopies that are built for conservative performance when it comes to on-heading performance and steering sensitivity" After all, PD Velocity & Valkyrie are "7 cells" according to the naming conventions we use, even if they may have 3 chambers between line groups instead of the traditional 2 for a canopy. I supposed fewer lines on a reserve might theoretically very slightly reduce the chance of tension knots, who knows. There have been reserves with 9 cells, but that's unpopular except for really big, heavy duty reserves where a few more lines could help structurally -- tandem reserves in particular. Nice to see you "just ask a question" instead of starting off with some (mock?) accusation and outrage about how the way the skydiving world works is all wrong and you have the superior way to do things! (Yes there are always things that aren't as simple as they seem or are confusing to the newbie due to how wording and naming conventions have evolved historically.)

I use Ultra Fine Point Sharpies, commonly available. The ink spreads a bit much if one presses too hard, but overall I prefer that over the uncertainty of ball point pens. Often with a ballpoint I had to 'prime' them by scribbling on paper first, before marking the Tyvek. But haven't compared the Sharpie to fancier ballpoints like that Zebra.

Edit: Ninjad by Gowler, who put pretty much my whole post into one sentence.

The old precision.aerodynamics.com is gone. The newer www.precision.aero is gone www.precision.net seems to be the (or "a") new copy of the site that works. Although the latest "News & Events" is still 2006. And some links fail, even to Service Bulletins. It may be tough to be a small skydiving manufacturer. But even for an older, simpler website, keeping it minimally updated would inspire more confidence...

Sounds like an editing issue in the laws. While I'm guessing it may have been intended to stop anyone physically interacting with the audience, it refers to only a regular performer, and is interpreted as referring only to regulars at any given premises. So newbies and out of towners on tour legally get to give an enhanced 'audience involvement' show compared to the experienced locals...

Although straying from the original topic, there are indeed various DZ marketing opportunities, for, uh, souvenirs. Edit: slightly NSFW

Packing the reserve sucks. The freebag shape is the least like the container shape of any container I've packed. Takes a lot of pounding and kneading to get the freebag fully into place to not waste closing loop length going through the freebag grommet. And the flap and bag design make it difficult to close the container to look neat. There's a very narrow range of closing loop sizes between "can't close this, too tight" and "looks ugly with pilot chute fabric visible". So there's more work involved in getting the flaps and pilot chute worked down to be able to close the rig. More fun when one packs the same rig in humid summer vs. dry winter. Jumpers sometimes apologize when they bring a Wings to their rigger. "Sorry, it's a Wings..." Even if they loved buying the Wings because the price was good. Some also think the 'pocketing' of the freebag is excessive, that the freebag is held into place both at the bottom and top of the container more than it needs to, leading to higher extraction forces if the pilot chute is pulling less directly away from the rig. And there's the pilot chute, which is one with relatively little mesh, and is considered to be relatively low drag (unless in a burble on its side, where it may be better). The latest pilot chutes from the company apparently have more mesh, but its not something they have mentioned publicly. But lots of people have Wings and they're fine with that.

I've used good quality disposable foam earplugs with an open face helmet for most of my jumps, for the ride up and ride down. As markharju says, one's ears still adjust for pressure. Maybe a little more slowly, I dunno, but I've never had an issue. Hearing under canopy is reduced (so plugs are out for CRW), but I'm ok with the slight added risk. Same I suppose right after landing. But in either case, vision & head-swivelling is the more important tool. (One could argue similar issues about having ear plugs in a noisy machine shop...) Besides these days with all the full face helmets (which I only occasionally wear), hearing is going to be somewhat restricted anyway.

You've got a nice adventure going. Launching off a float is an interesting change. It made for a nice big step when launching a 4-way. I was once at a DZ that operated a short while using a float plane off a river, before the new runway was ready. It made for a poor climb rate. Weirdest part was stepping over water from the dock to the float to climb on board, while wearing a rig and 12 lbs of lead weights. Don't slip!

Detestable as she is, I'd serve her, or put words on a cake for her. I'd be encouraging keeping society a little bit civil as well as functioning smoothly. (Not like there have never been divisions in society, even if Trumpworld is unique. In the '60's, some were considered long haired hippies who wouldn't conform to the normal laws of society, while others were seen as child-napalming killers...) I suppose if the payment-for-services for Sarah would involve a lot of personalized service, where the ties are seen to be closer between her and me, then I would feel I could refuse. I could choose not to become her lawyer, or not be her ad agency to promote a small business if she had one. I think I could also refuse if she wanted to have a Sarah Hucky Sanders Charity Event at my dining establishment. Society probably can accept any of the above, but I'm not sure of the legal justification. "I'll do business with her, but don't want to be ASSOCIATED with her." Grey areas are always interesting, about where lines get drawn. Even if someone were a murderer, I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to refuse service. (Depending on they are believed to be one, are charged, are convicted, or have done their time.)

And I'd like to know how she and other drivers were briefed, and how they all actually behaved -- in the real world, not just what was on a long form she signed. I haven't gone back to check on how long she was driving, but if drivers were driving around a couple hours at night in boring areas, were they all keeping eyes on road or were a large proportion also playing with their phones a bunch of the time? Interesting that "distracted driving" can apparently apply when someone else fails to observe right-of-way rules. (Yeah I know one has some duty to not run over peds who step out onto the road but still.)

This thread has some info on the difference between Rodriguez R-2's and R-3's: http://www.dropzone.com/forum/Skydiving_C1/Skydiving_History_%26_Trivia_F21/What_is_this_canopy_release_2_P3130743/ Edit: and R-3 instructions added to compare the look Rodriguez R-3 Release System.pdf

That's a very good point. Although to be fair, even reserve PC/freebag changes get made without big announcements. Hopefully they are at least in the manual. E.g.: --Javelin reserve PC's didn't have support tapes on the fabric portion, but later they did. (From the Odyssey version onwards? Not sure. Maybe related to that old torn-PC-lawsuit. Most but not 100% of other RPC's have the tape.) Not announced in any manual that I recall, but only the latest version is available as spare parts. -- Aerodyne Icon freebags had tape buffers added around the velcro of the openable line stow pouch. That was for example meantioned in a document when they announced their model upgrade to the Nexgen line of Icons. [Edit: Although the Wings issue is more significant in that it is an aerodynamic change to the deployment system.] I'm just putting things in context, although I still tend towards wanting companies to announce changes clearly and openly as you do. Companies don't like to make it seem like a prior product was 'bad', even if the latest product is 'better than ever!'. Presumably if there's no SB, or warning in the manual, either the older version or newer version is perfectly legal in a newer or older rig.

I never put much faith in the whole soccer thing. It's a sport where scores of 1 or 2 are common, so I'd think that statistically, luck plays a much greater role than in a sport where there are scores of 5 or 10 per side, per game. If I'm 10% better than the next guy, out of large number of goals, I'm likely to be ahead on goals. But with very few goals, it's a bit more random who will win any particular game. Nevertheless, may the top scorer in a game win the game!

The problem is always that the words a politician uses in the news for domestic consumption may be different than those directed face to face to the politician they are meeting -- yet what is said in the news will make it to that other politician. So Trump wants to play nice a little with Kim, and not always insult him, while the public also want reassurance that he doesn't actually look up to the brutal dictator as a role model in good governance. It's hard to find the happy medium. Acting nicely to nasty people is part of diplomacy. I'll leave it to others to debate whether Trump was sucking up too much, and whether that tendency of his towards dictators (despite earlier twitter attacks) actually achieved something useful in the world (even if the promises are all relatively vague).

I have no beef with that, but note that good cloud services will provide better backup, tracking, and security than poorly managed, underfunded internal servers and systems that are getting out of date. Thus even some governments are trying to put data (including some classified material) in the cloud -- although within their own borders to prevent legal issues about foreign access to data.

In this side topic of skydiving memberships & ratings: I have found it interesting how different organizations deal with people who have run afoul of the law. Some organizations may have some morals clause, some may not, and to what degree it can be applied can vary. Some types of status can be considered earned and can never be taken away, or is it an ongoing thing which may be maintained only with the favour of the organization? Is the status with the organization considered some sort of right that is independent of criminal status or not? To what degree is the organization a 'professional' one or one concerned with an individual's status? If someone turns out to be a murderer (convicted with appeals exhausted), can they still have the Medal of Honor? Keep their civil engineering license? Keep their Six Sigma accreditation? Keep their Masters Degree and be a summa cum laude graduate of whatever? Keep their Olympic medal? Be in the list of world records of an FAI or International Association of Athletics Federations sport? Stay in the baseball hall of fame? Maintain certification for as a state-recognized hair stylist? Hold a small business license? Remain an FAA rigger? Be a member of the USPA, or hold their instructor rating? Maintain a New York City library card? I'm not looking for answers here; just wanted to point out issues, as CPoxon has already done.

No properly functioning parachute has ever malfunctioned! (Although some formerly properly functioning parachutes have failed to properly function.)

As others have said, the chance of a bag lock not clearing the risers is small for a non-tandem rig. The pilot chute should normally still have plenty of drag. But yes, there can be cases where risers might not easily clear. Was your instructor's case for a 'normal' bag lock with inflated pilot chute? There might be situations with a collapsed pilot chute where the bag would come off the jumper's back, leaving stuff floating around the jumper's back without a lot of drag to pull risers off and past the riser covers. So I don't mind the idea of waiting a moment to confirm risers have departed, between pulling the cutaway and the reserve. One may already be planning to wait a moment to confirm that one was able to pull the cutaway handle fully, before pulling the other handle. (Although the specific situations differ, where it is more likely for a cutaway to be difficult, vs. risers having difficulty clearing.)

A search will turn up various BASE web pages. Basically a tailgate holds the brake lines together temporarily, for a better controlled opening with less lineover potential, holding them up near the canopy, by using an elastic band and a dacron tab mounted to a line. Normally used without a slider but can be used with one, and can be mounted on the slider too (hence the connection to to the 'holding the slider in place' stuff in this thread). One video that shows some of the variations fairly clearly: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cz_2hjEyUGM

Maybe so, but where's the data? Unless one has high speed video of the opening, one often has no clue what happened. If you have a slammer, do you blame the canopy or blame your packing? Even if you're not sure you did anything wrong? Not saying you are wrong. Maybe sometimes the spreading forces just happen to be higher than usual, given the way the bottom skin & nose inflates, and pushes the slider down suddenly despite the upward forces on the slider. Maybe it would make no difference if the slider slipped down 1" vs. being physically restrained all the way up by some mechanical connection with light force. Or would it?

Thumbs up to that. Snaps (as on a couple canopies), elastics, elastics on slider mounted tailgates, whatever .....? Currently we basically follow the method of "Pack it well, wrap the tail, don't lose control sticking the canopy in the bag....and hope the slider stays in place. "

Check out http://www.chutingstar.com/upt-reserve-pilot-chutes That has all the details on the red cap / small cap pilot chutes: Can use the small cap 5" (vs. regular 6") on any Vector 3 or Sigma. Same spring, etc. Not for Vector II and earlier -- not tested. V300 size rigs are the only ones that MUST use it.

I find the stuff on here useful, even if the wider world doesn't care. I usually just lurk on SC for the latest summaries and news about the formerly unimaginable events of the Trumpworld "Presidential" Reality Show. Compiled by people who clearly follow events closely and have good memories & data sources, and clear reasoning, I find the info the most concise and useful around. Unfortunately only rarely are there right wingers around who have reasoned arguments that actually encourage one to see things from another viewpoint or highlight issues that might otherwise get glossed over.

Jeez, you're nosy, it's like you want actual scientific design, testing, and application of life saving gear. Reserve pilot chutes aren't made that way. If you have a Vector PC, you have the same PC for a 375 reserve or a 99*, despite maybe a 3.7 weight ratio (Ref: PD manual for OP-99 vs TR-375). If you have a Javelin, you are using an MA-1 spring dating back to the '50s or something. And major companies produce reserve pilot chutes with maybe 10%, 25%, or 50% mesh/open space. Lots of variation... Pressures on the PC 'canopy' won't be directly in line with the spring, but also outward around the whole surface of the canopy. That will keep some shape to the canopy, making things less dire than if one just pulls on the PC spring on the ground until it stretches to the full length of the fabric seams. I don't recall who has actually done wind tunnel (or in air) tests at full terminal speeds. Jump Shack posted a graph of pilot chute drag vs. speed for various pilot chutes but the lines are perfectly straight so it is likely extrapolations based lower speed tunnel tests to establish drag coefficients -- where there would be less distortion. You'll also want to look at PIA-TR-401 Low Reserve Opening Investigation Report. Jump Shack's likely extrapolated data shows (expected) 75-175 lbs forces at some terminal speed, while the PIA report shows sustained (rather than peak) forces at terminal of only 34 to 57 lb on average. This seems however to be including the effect of being in the wake of the jumper in actual freefall - despite presumably being at the end of a full length reserve bridle when tested. It wasn't a wind tunnel test of PCs alone. Some of those values are rather low when one hears about how much drag there is supposed to be on main pilot chutes, e.g, "A 36" pilot chute, at 120 mph, pulls at about 120 lbs. A 27" pilot chute, at 120 mph, pulls only at about 56 lbs., if it is properly made, and in still in "trim". " [Bill Booth, DZ.com, 2004] Even the worst pilot chute (brands not show), at 34 lb sustained, would accelerate a canopy away from a rig fairly fast -- say 3.8+ g acceleration for a PD-253. (Data: PD-253 is 8.3 lbs in the manual, let's be conservative and say 9 lb inc. bag, bridle, etc) I'm not sure that I have any conclusion, other than that a wide variety of pilot chutes vs. reserve canopies have been used, without a lot of fine tuning of drag requirements. (* They have the small cap Vector PC's for small rigs now, but that's the only variation.)