freeflyer58D

What about a student that comes from another DZ, mid progression, and they have 4-5 AFF jumps, and your DZ only provides S/L progression. This is when I feel the ISP really proves valuable, as long as the previous instructors have kept track of which Category of Training they were on. Then it is as simple as opening the SIM and looking at transition training. you just pick up where they left off.

this is a difficult one to describe, but im sure you already have experienced both positive and negative G's plenty in life. a G is just a measurement of the force of gravity... i know you dont want the physics, but it is physics, so i need to explain just a bit... 1 G is what we live in all day everyday. that is 1 unit of earths gravity. if it is a positive G, then it is going to be pulling you down toward the floor and you feel like 170 pounds. 2 G's would simply be twice the earths gravity, and you would feel like you weigh 340 pounds. generally if you feel like your lifting out of your seat, that is a reduction in the gravitational force. when you crest a hill in your car going fast, that weight less feeling is typically somewhere around .3 or .5 G's. when you see a person floating in the vomit comit, they are at 0 G's, or no gravity. one time you would experience negative G's would be if you flew an airplane upside down. when flying right side up, you have +1G, when your inverted your -1G. any time your heavier than your normal weight (towards the floor its more than +1G. the +/- stuff is really more dependent on the reference being used than anything else. you might experience a negative G while skydiving in rough air. but this would occur in the plane... and it is why you get tossed out of you seat towards the ceiling. ok, let me know if that helps at all! i have been rambling

This is exactly the "open ended" part that we are having trouble verifying. you ask for 5 peoples interpretation of the BSR's/ FAR's and everyone has a different opinion. i guess the real question we are looking for an answer to is "when is a 3 canopy system required by regulation?" RiggerRob has said "Most regulations and DZs require you to wear a second (certified) reserve when doing intentional cutaways. " I cant vouch for each DZ's procedures for cutaways, but i also cant find regulation anywhere that makes mention of the terch system. the debate was never in reference to what the best practice is for doing intentional cutaways, most everyone is in agreement that a 3 parachute system adds redundancy to the whole event. it was more of a "find the reference" debate. so far, it appears that doing it with a sport rig is acceptable with a C/D license, and TSO'ed equipment. just curious if anyone else could point to the correct references. most people have tended to think that it is illegal to perform the cutaway without a Tri system. but no one has been able to prove that to be the case.

Ok, so today the topic of doing an intentional cutaway was brought up. We have read all the "legal". 14CFR Part 105, BSR's and we see nothing that requires a "Tri" system. i completely see the reasoning behind the tertiary system, but we are only interested with the legal side of things at this point. so, im hoping someone can point us to the right spot. after reviewing part 105, it is left very open ended. you could very easily read into it whatever way you wanted. especially when discussing the definition of Reserve parachute. just curious if anyone knows of any "legal" binding literature one way or the other. so far: Part 105... No person may conduct a parachute operation using a single-harness, dual-parachute system, and no pilot in command of an aircraft may allow any person to conduct a parachute operation from that aircraft using a single-harness, dual-parachute system, unless that system has at least one main parachute, one approved reserve parachute, and one approved single person harness and container that are packed as follows BSR's: 2. Pre-planned breakaway jumps are to be made by only class C- and D-license holders using FAA TSO'ed equipment. [E] excerpt from a skydiving magazine article: One reason it's not more popular is the lack of suitable equipment. Although it's legal to make intentional cutaways with a standard sport rig -- one main and one FAA-approved reserve -- most skydivers would rather have two jettisonable mains and a reserve. http://www.skydivingmagazine.com/questions/ques14.htm really hoping to get some good legal reference on this! not peoples opinions.

was this canopy spinning? what altitude did you deploy main? what altitude did you execute EP's, was it going into vertical dive or flying straight and level? either way, glad all is well and hope it all landed close by! havent had to chop due to line twists yet! (knock on wood) but the stiletto and katana both seem to have a mind of there own sometimes!

probably not a good idea if you have lots of snag hazards or used oil and batteries in the trunk... but if its a clean trunk or back seat... its more than ok. if your really worried about this, grab a gear bag, and put the canopy in the bag, that will protect it from snags, and/or catching the reserve handle on somthing in the car. if it is wet, dont leave it in your car for long, get it and air dry it quickly, in fact try not to ever leave it in your car, the heat, UV, moisture and even theft are all bad for your rig. :) and last but not leaast, dont put it in the back seat of your convertible! lol

another really good video! i have to second the request for canopy tips though, its just really hard to find legit quality info out there. if it were coming from a source like yourself it would be much better! reading info is good but video really brings the points alive!

i got a coach rating at 100ish jumps, and although i had that "rating" i knew i was no expert... i have desires to continue in the sport and become an instructor. the coach rating is a stepping stone to the next ratings. the coach course was well put together, it was challenging, and it made me want to study even more because it reminded me how much of an impression a coach can have on new students. as a coach, im working with students who are just off AFF and want/need someone to jump with to practice group freefall skills and have a solid base to reference themselves to. teaching fall rates, and how to properly exit and spot isnt easy,(but not THAT hard...) but for someone with 100 plus jumps and someone who has passed the coach rating course... i think its more than acceptable. with that said, i think its important to not just hand a rating out, and a coach candidate should be put through a good ringer so they understand the importance of the role they fill.

i love my stiletto for its nice openings, and the fact that it is fun to fly, yet it can land straight in as good or better than my old sabre... just a joy to fly! but the sabre was great too! and its cheaper! ;) so more jump tickets!

i would prefer the freefly handle just for the way it looks and feels... but i would love to hear some real reasons why people prefer the handle they have... i have a hackey and really do like it. just wish i could justify buying another PC. ;)

a friend of mine jumps a dolphin with tuck tabs, i personally watched his tuck tabs break and come open on a jump in which we did a head down exit just for fun and transitioned to belly(cuz he isnt fond of freeflying it) as soon as he leveled out, the riser on the broken side popped out and wrapped around his arm. he cleared it and pulled in place, higher than expected because he knew he had a problem. ended up being a non event, but it could have easily been a very bad ordeal. listen to experience on here about gear choices and use the right tools for the job, im not 100% familiar with the mods, but if they make the difference then kool, if not, well....

well, this post died off for a while, however i thought i would just bring it back to say that i still land, quickly kite the canopy and collapse via rears. last weekend was a standard for windy hawaii. winds are generally 20+ all the time. i never once had to fight, strain, or battle a canopy, however i personally watched an entire load of upjumpers get dragged in the same wind. take a guess what they were trying to do... yep one toggle reel in. i personally feel more worried about people getting hurt by being dragged, or landing collisions due to one of those being dragged, than i ever would about someone being stationary with a predictably flying canopy for 4 seconds prior to quickly and efficiently collapsing it. i dunno, just my opinion, and i still think we need better canopy courses at the AFF level!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bu9LgeGBpU yes, you certainly will get outward throw during a spinning cutaway, however, just like leaving the plane, it will quickly go back to vertical, if you have the time to look around and check for traffic, take a quick look, if shits happening fast and the horizon is whipping past your feet, get rid of that canopy and get that reserve out. this is why the tracking, and clearing your airspace below you is so important prior to the main deployment. the less you have to worry about, the more focus you can put into stopping the freefall.

obviously in a perfect world, everyone will track away to give proper horizontal and sometimes vertical spacing, and the more space the better, but... its never a perfect world. the jumper with a problem needs to focus on the problem and thats it. if your on a load and see another jumper struggling with a mal, give them space, keep an eye on them, but keep the airspace around them clear. i've followed a jumper with a mal(cutaway) and went to rear risers to make sure i could see where his gear went. but i was far enough away and knew the location of every other jumper from that load. if you have a mal, work your problem and have the trust that your fellow jumpers will stay clear, this is the way the rest of aviation works, broke airplane gets airspace priority, and priority handling in order to let them "just fly the wing" and make it back to earth. it should be the same here! this might even be something you can bring up between loads sometime. very good topics can be covered in the down time between jumps.

i've been flying for ten years, helicopters, airplanes, some gliders, and ultralights as well. all the time in the air made learning to skydive very very intuitive. i dont want to say it made it easy, but it made the transition easier. i feel much more confident in any combination of winds or weather under canopy, and just flying your body in freefall has alot of the same principles. approaching a formation and flaring your body and getting big to shut down your energy feels just like descending and stopping in a helicopter in my head. i would say that their is a strong crossover between any "flying". and the more experience your have flying different wings, the more you will be able to sort out those differences so that you can apply the most of your knowledge. and one last thing... air sense/situational awareness!!! the more time in the air you have, the more SA you have and that only makes you safer in the skies! as for wearing a parachute, i fly helicopters most, so i dont have room for a rig between myself and the controls. plus, bailing out is for fighter jets, we take the chopper to the ground!

this was jump 240ish and i've been jumping for 1.5 years. and that was the only time i needed it. and like i said before, knowing what i know now it could have been avoided. so, it can happen on jump 1, jump 100, or jump 1000. just stay sharp, pull at your proper altitude and observe your harddeck and that will set you up for sucess. i had my reserve open at 1900 feet and gave a 2 second delay from cutaway to reserve. it gave me plenty of altitude to deal with a problem.

hey guys, all good replies, i am 100% certain that the slider was not collapsed because i actually packed this canopy more than once before i jumped it. (just for practice cuz i just got done with a nine month vacation in iraq) the snag caused it to appear to be collapsed. however now that it has been identified as a snag hazard, im gonna look into modifying/replacing that thing... as for the hard opening??? i really dont know, i wouldnt say i was rushed, i packed at home, and took my time. sometimes that shit just happens, lol. glad to get some really good feedback and (re)identify problems or potential problems with gear! thanks for all the advice guys! Mike

Alright, had a Mal today that in retrospect was IMHO completely avoidable... but due to different equipment and not paying attention while packing i caused a unique mal worth sharing... after an average freefly jump i break off at 5,000, track til 3500 and wave and pull at 3,000. until this point all is well, then WHAM! i have a very hard opening. i came from a sabre 135 to a triathlon 135 so the slam wasnt new to me but when i looked up to visually check the canopy i notice that the slider is over half way up and the cinch piece on the slider has caught itself in the center cell right side C/D line cascade. because the slider was halfway up and stuck and the canopy was trying to open fully and push it down, it was for all purposes stuck there. the canopy was flying straight though so i thought why not try and clear it by unstowing brakes and wiggling the canopy rig around. well, as soon as the brakes unstowed the canopy dove hard and rolled right. at this point i said fuck it and glanced at my altimeter(2400ish) and becuz it wasnt violently spinning i took the extra second to correctly locate the handles. cutaway shortly after looking at alti, went back into freefall just long enough to get stable and raise my head, and went for the reserve. so, how did i cause all this??? the cinch plastic piece on the slider has a small pocket it should be stowed in. i however had just been pulling the cincher back to the end and quartering it and thats all. attached picture is from just after opening on a previous jump showing the plastic piece in the open waiting to snag something. well today it bit me and managed to hang on those cascades. so what to take away... know your equipment cuz anything can cause you problems no matter how small. if its not spinning violently, take a breath take a look and check controlability, maintain altitude awareness at all times, and keep practicing those EP's! hope someone else can gain from this little oops! Blue skies! [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfueHaylDfg]

John, first off, i'd like to say that the video is very very very well put together! i have only seen this pirated version unfortunately... i hope we can crush this guy on youtube, but at the same time help promote the video... i still think it is a great wealth of information, and i hope you understand i meant nothing but the best for finding useful information for new and old jumpers alike. its a shame that so many people will rip others off... again, very good video, it is obviously a very informative piece, and i hope that this will in turn help promote future sales, thanks again for the hard work and time put into the video!

its been a while since i checked this post, but i came across a user on youtube who has a great series of videos for just about all the normal mals a student (or even an experienced skydiver looking for a refresh) could expect to come across. check for the user http://www.youtube.com/user/paracaidismoemavi hope that lots of people get a chance to review this stuff, lots of good stuff!

what about everyone contributing to a thread here of any and all the pictures and videos we have as a whole! i will scan through my stuff and see what i have!!! not sure where to go commercially though, good luck!

on November 8 2009 CW2 Mathew Heffelfinger was killed in an crash involving the Helicopter, an OH-58D(Kiowa), he was Piloting. Matt and I (Mike Lopez) spent the last year leading up to the deployment skydiving as often as we could at SDH(skydive Hawaii). please keep his wife and two beautiful daughters in your prayers. Matt... I miss ya already bro! Blue Skies and see ya on the green! Matt is on the right, myself on the left.

i know this isnt exactly what you asked but it has its good learning points... well, there i was, we were doing an 8 way speedstar attempt. we briefed the jump very well. break at 5,000, pull 3,000. one jumper had just bought a new canopy and wanted to open higher. we all agreed he would pull in place at five. so at about seven grand i find myself sinking slightly below the group trying to get in. im 5 feet lower and people in the formation are arching hard to get it down to the 3 of us that went low. thats when the formation funneled. the left side that could see us arched hard, the right side did not. suddenly the one jumper who planned to pull in place got slung under me. about ten feet lower than i. i knew he never saw me. we briefed to everyone to get the fuck away from him if you found yourself above at 5,000. so as he gets slung under me my 5,500 ditter goes off. lol and all i could do was this tracking front flip to a sit about five feet in front of him. i passed infront of his face about five feet away in a sit as he threw his PC. and we made eye contact and smiled as i saw him get line stretch and i returned to belly. all in all, it turned out alright. but what i took away from it was always do a great brief, know jumpsuits for everyone on the load, and his wave was big and obvious, not to mention slow and deliberate on purpose. because of our brief we all knew what we needed to be safe. and the brief WAS the difference between safe and very dangerous.

ok time for me to ask... as a military guy deploying in a week. i just sold my rig, with the plan of getting a new rig when i return. so which brands do you all think would be the easiest to work with from across the planet... and do they offer military discounts? we have been talking about the discount thing at the DZ but no one can remember who offers them, how much the discount was, or if the discount was for rig, or extras... that would sway my decision big time. then i can buy more jump tickets, lol