davelepka

In the US the standard is for the main side to leave once the PC is extracted from the pouch, and the reserve side maintains the grip until, like you said, the student is pulled away from you by the opening. The idea is that two instructors can create enough of a burble to slow a PC, or otherwise disrupt the deployment. Once the main PC is gone, the main side instructor no longer has a deployment device on their side, so they exit. The reserve side will ride through the deployment, and in the case of a PC in tow, they can yank the reserve handle.

Did your instructors say it was a hard opening? Skydiving, and parachute deployments in particular, are not 'normal' activities for humans. There are muscles and stresses involved that you don't usually encounter in your day to day life. I know that when I don't jump for a couple months over the winter, and then I come back in the spring. even a light day of 4 or 5 jumps will leave me a little sore the next day. The FJC is a long day, with a lot of practicing and stress that you're not used to. Even if you had a 'good' opening, you still might feel it the next day. You might just be feeling the overall effects of the entire day. Beyond that, any canopy can open hard at any time. You might have just come up unlucky in the opening dept on that jump, it does happen. From the looks of the pics you provided, you didn't do anything that would contribute to a hard opening. Yes, your legs should have been further out, but I doubt that would have led to a hard opening. The lesson - get your ass through student training and learn how to pack, Then pack for yourself and take care to make the openings soft. Until then, just grin and bear it. It will get easier, your body will get used to jumping, and the jumps to come will involve just less than an hour of training per jump, so the overall physical effect will be lessened.

Cool idea, but I've having trouble seeing the actual purpose. The door (as pictured) isn't really big enough for any sort of real jumping or delivering any significant cargo. As for the airframe, it's a newer, top-dollar model. I could see if it was an older airframe, that relief organizations could get on the cheap, and then use the range of a jet to drop supplies in far away planes, but a G550? Any chance the guy who holds the STC happens to be a G550 owner with money for 10 G550's, who just wanted to jump out of his own plane? That's an expensive jump ticket for sure.

No. Just to be clear, the correct answer is to go with a larger container. Your container size does not effect your safety when it comes to landing your parachute, but your canopy size certainly does. Based on that, safe canopy sizing is choice one, and everything else comes after. In terms of 'tight' fits, my question would be why would you want either one to be 'tight'? It makes the rig harder (aka less comfortable) and harder to pack for your and your rigger. There has also been some speculation that too tight of a container has led to reserve PC hesitations or other deployment problems. Some of the incidents where an AAD has fired but the canopy did not deploy in time have been on rigs with tight fitting main/reserve canopies.

Why not use the jumpsuit you bought for you tandem during your student jumps? Also, what did you do with the tandem harness you bought for your jump? Did you keep it or sell it the DZ when you were done? Those, of course, are smart ass questions to poke some holes in the quote above. As I recall, you liked the tandem so much that you're moving forward with AFF, and everything involved in that jump was 'someone else's stuff'. A big part of the AFF instructors job is working with the rig. It's designed to be 'instructor friendly' so that we can easily check it in the plane, use it to hang on to you in freefall, and be able to deploy it if need be. The rig you buy may or may not also meet those requirements, but the rigs the DZ uses definitely meet them, have been proven over time, and the instructors are used to them. Please continue to look deeper into things than face value, that's how you get the most out of your learning. Be sure that until you have a 'solid' foothold in the sport, that you run everything past the actual instructors you will be jumping with before you make any decisions about how, when, or why you are going to conduct a skydive.

Mine too, but I support the requirement when it comes to students. The trouble with this malfunction is that there is no way to know upon identification how/why your PC is towing, and what it's going to do when the reserve deploys and loosens up the main pack tray. Depending on those factors, each method has it's merits. So now that either choice can be considered 'valid', you have to look for other factors to choose which one to use. In the case of students, and the high speed nature of the PC in tow, I do feel like the better choice is to cutaway first. Yes, it takes more time than just pulling silver in terms of physical movements, but it's the mental side of things that lead me to believe that it's the better choice for a student. In a malfunction scenario, the jumper has to identify, decide, and act, in dealing with the mal. In the case of one set of EPs, that being cutaway/reserve, the decide part is limited to EPs/not-EPs. Maybe it's a minor mal, or for some other reason the student chooses not to perform EPs, but in any case it's a single decision. If you introduce the idea that 'some' mals don't require a cutaway, now the 'decide' part becomes a two-step process. First you're asking a student to make a 'judgment call' as to the condition of their canopy, and next you're asking them to make a much subtler distinction between some mals that require a cutaway and some that don't. While it's easy to quantify the amount of time a person would take to physically reach down and pull the cutaway handle (that being the extra time needed to cutaway when it might not be needed) and compare that to the time it would take to add extra 'thinking' in a high-stress situation, the possible indecision or doubt on the part of the student possibly represents a much bigger chunk of time (which the student does not have). Given that students can be taught to 'always' do the full EPs as long as they're above 1k ft, it becomes a 'catch all', and a single solution to every problem they might encounter (every one that requires a reserve). The only exception to that rule is being under 1k ft, by which time they're already under one (or two) canopies in some way, and time is less of an issue as opposed to a PC in tow where it's a huge issue. So you can simplify the decision making process, and the training with just a single set of EPs. By the time a jumper is able to understand the nuances of the situation thus that they begin to question he procedure itself, they're ready to introduce the additional step to their EPs. In that case, with all of the unknowns involved in a PC in tow, hashing out the possible outcomes does point to leaving the cutaway handle in place until an 'actual' eventuality requires it be pulled, not a 'possible' eventuality.

I don't think that Otter had a good engine. I think both of them were well past TBO, and the one took a shit while the other couldn't maintain min. controllable airspeed. In any case, the OPs idea is ridiculous and dangerous. When you get in the plane, you're in there come hell or high water. There is a clearly designated chain of command and course of conduct in the case of an emergency, and for the sake of everyone else on board, you follow that regardless of what you 'think' is going to happen. As a jumper, you can increase your odds of not finding yourself in such a situation by wearing a seatbelt and helmet through at least 1000ft, keep the door closed while anyone within 6ft of the door is wearing a seatbelt, and paying close attention to the conduct of the pilot and performance of the aircraft every time you fly, and not getting in an aircraft where either one is anything but 100% 'by the book'. (Don't know what that is? News flash, you can learn a lot on the internet, educate yourself about aviation and pilotage)

You're assuming that you can 'fly away from it'. You have no control over how or when the main could leave if you pull the cutaway handle first. It could be at the worst possible time, and in the worst possible way. If you go to the reserve first, you retain control over when the main will depart. It may or may not deploy at all, but if it does, at least you can control if it stays or goes. Keep in mind that dual deployments happen, and that's why we have procedures for the various incarnations of two-outs. So if you cutaway first - You lose control of the main. If it deploys and releases and tangles with the reserve, you have one option, that being to keep fighting for control until you hit the ground. If you go reserve first- You keep control of the main, and if it deploys alongside the reserve, you have a variety of outcomes - it could biplane, side-by-side, or down plane, at which point you have a proven course of action to follow. It might entangle with the reserve, at which point you revert to fighting for control until you hit the ground. As you can see, the second scenario provides you with more possible outcomes, and all of them are better than the possibility in the first scenario. (Note that I'm leaving out the idea of the main staying put or it leaving cleanly if you cutaway first. Both of those are 'best case scenarios', and that's not what you plan for when dealing with an emergency situation)

Look man, you asked for advice, and I gave you the low down on gear. It seems you already made up your mind, so I'm wondering why you wasted everyone's time? If you need Dacron, good for you. There are probably more used canopies out there that are in need or a reline than not. Check the box that's marked 'Dacron' on the maintenance form, and you're all set. If you bought a PD wing, you're also going to get the most comprehensive inspection in the industry, and they're literally going to fix every stitch that needs attention before sending back, but I guess you probably knew that already, right? You need a harness? Any of them can be resized to your specs, and what you end up with is a brand-new, custom fit harness, that also includes (big surprise) a full inspection and (generally) a full set of updates from the manufacturer. Again, this must be old news to you. I'm not sure if you think you're the first guy to start skydiving and look for gear, but you're not. It's October now, which means that most of the country is winding down it's skydiving season, and there is generally a glut of used gear hitting the market in the next month or two. People are selling old stuff, and getting their orders together to have new stuff for next season, but I'm sure that you've seen that cycle play itself out too, with your years of experience. Have fun with your overpriced new gear. Have fun packing a brand new canopy for your first 100 pack jobs. Have fun watching it sit and not move an inch when you try to sell it because you think that someone out there is going to fit into your 'jigsaw' puzzle for any reasonable amount of money.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions, or something like that. The rule of thumb is to buy gear you can safely jump at the time of purchase, and worry about what you 'might' be able to jump, or how many jumps you 'might' have when that time comes to pass. Thoughts about used gear - First off, used is used, but it's also inspected and repacked every 6 mos. by a rigger, and if you're smart it's inspected before you buy, so there is no risk in terms of the safety factor over a new rig. Keep in mind that everyone who owns the equipment is putting their life on the line when they jump it, and will tend to take care of it accordingly. Another thought, you have no idea what you want. You think you do, but you just don't have the experience or exposure to the sport or gear to really make that call. Think of how much you've learned in your first 16 jumps, and those have all been on the DZ rental gear. Once you're out 'in the wild' and can borrow or demo gear whenever you feel like it, you'll learn 10x more about gear than you know now. If you want to talk economics, it's just not there for buying new gear right off student status. If you can afford to lose a few $1000 on the deal, then I guess that's your call, but if you want to strictly look at the numbers you can't beat used gear. (Note - comparing buying new and taking the loss on resale to renting gear for the entire time period is not the correct comparison. Nobody is rent gear for that long, and it's clearly the worst financial option) You can buy used gear, all less then 5 years old and not with a 'ton' of jumps, keep it for 100 or 200 jumps and then sell it for 90% of what you paid for it. You end up with a rig for $200 to $400 total investment. You can buy and sell components, like the main canopy, for about even money too, so you can swap out canopies 'willy nilly' with little to no out-of-pocket cost. Let's face it, you can also burn in a few landings and not really 'ruin' a brand dew rig with some grass stains. Here's my main case for used gear to start - if it has any impact on your ability to jump to your heart's content (financially), then your money is in the wrong place. What's way more important than a fancy new rig is a pile of jumps in your logbook. If money is ever the reason you're not going to the DZ, or going to make one more jump on a given day, you made a mistake buying the big money gear. So in overall economic terms, used is the way to go. Let someone else take the depreciation on the new stuff, and you just jump it for 'free' (more or less). However, like I said, in terms of your personal economic terms, if you can take the hit on the depreciation and not break a sweat, then that's your own call.

Generic answer - relax. The wind is not perfectly smooth, so your arms and legs need to be able to 'absorb' some of the 'bumps', or you get bounced around a little. More specific answer - ask your instructor just to be sure there wasn't some other factor at play.

I know Sirius doesn't have commercials on the music channels. They do have DJs, but they keep the chit-chat to a minimum. I've had Sirius for the last 7 or 8 years, and I gave up on terrestrial radio. Anytime I have to listen to it, I can't believe how many commercials there are, and how little music they play. The other thing I like is the 'niche' channels, where you can pick a narrow niche and really get just that. "Classic rock' on terrestrial radio seems to go from the 60's to the late 80's at this point, on Sirius they have separate channels for the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, grunge, alternative, metal, etc, etc, so pick what you want and that's what you get. They also have more broad spectrum channels for when you want a little of everything. There are commercials on the talk channels, but I don't think you can get away from those. Howard Stern started off with no commercials but figured out that he need a break to take a piss and the like. I don't think the commercials are excessive, and one thing that's nice is that they're 'flexible' as to when they air, so nobody has to interrupt a good interview or interesting discussion just because it's 'commercial time'. I spend a lot of time in the car, so to me having quality in-car entertainment is a must-have. If you drive less, I can see where it seems like no big deal . Edit to add - the other thing I like is any time I'm out of town or driving long distances, I take the Sirius radio with me. It takes 2 min to pop in a rental car, and then it's just like being 'home' when I'm driving.

'Should' is a big word in that sentence. A lot things should work one way or the other, but we both know that skydives don't always go to plan. We also know that people react differently to the environment and stress of making a skydive, and sometimes it's not by making rational, good decisions. For these reasons, you put a radio on your students. You plan for the radio to fail, and you train them as if the radio did not exist, but you still use the radio and treat it like the valuable tool it is. Being able to have real-time contact with a student under canopy, and able to add your knowledge, experience and perspective on their situation can easily make the difference between a 'good' canopy ride with some learning points you can make in the debrief, and a 'bad' canopy ride with some learning points the student learns the hard way.

A couple more thoughts - First off, going to 1 instructor is not a big deal. The 2nd instructor is there for the 'worst case scenario'. and in most cases isn't really needed at all on any of the first 3 jumps. By the time you make it to Lv 4, if you haven't done anything crazy it's just time to drop the 2nd instructor. Also, it seems like you're looking at advancement as 'OK, you're ready to do the next level', when in reality what it means is that 'Ok, you're ready to try the next level'. Even though you train to do it perfectly the first time, and your instructors will be positive and upbeat and act as if you will be perfect the first time, nobody expects you to be perfect and you do not have to be perfect to move forward to the next level. Remember, it's a learning progression. Holding a heading in solo freefall is a bog part of Lv 3, and you did it successfully at one point in the jump. Part of the Lv 4 dive flow is holding a head both before and after your turns, so you'll get some additional practice on your next jump. Truth be told, holding a heading is part of just about every jump you're going to do from here on out, so you'll have lots of chances to practice. There's no need to be 'perfect' the first time, just 'pretty good'. Give yourself points for holding yourself to a high standard. Don't lose that, just 'adjust' it a more realistic level for now. That attitude will serve you well throughout your jumping career, as it's a game of inches. With the limited time you have to work on your skills with each skydive, and the limited number of skydives you can make in a day, you have to really 'want' to be better to keep the learning momentum going over the course of the 100's or 1000's of jumps you're going to do. Finally, don't forget that freefall is only one small, and somewhat insignificant part of the skydive. If you can get and remain stable at pull time, you can 'safely' conduct that part of the jump. Canopy control is the skill that will get you down on the ground safely, and let make another jump, so make sure to give it it's due consideration. Work on your accuracy. and make sure you have an understanding of the winds and how to plan/execute a landing pattern before each and every jump. A little bit of preparation and pre-planning can go a long way towards insuring a good outcome, as trying to figure stuff out once you're under canopy is a little late in the game.

Relax. You held a heading, and had a stable, solo pull. You passed the jump. So the very first time you were flying solo in freefall, you had a slight drift to the right. The next time, seconds later, you were released and had a slight left turn. Finally, you held a heading and had a stable pull. Nobody expects you to be stable right off the bat. Nobody expects you to know how to make corrections right off the bat. It's called a learning progression because you start off not knowing things, and then you learn as you go. You started the jump not being able to hold a heading, and by the end of the jump you could. That's called learning. Keep in mind that on your next jump, you will be doing a linked exit and only released when your instructor is confident that you are flying stable. After that, your instructor will prompt you as to when you should begin making 90 degree turns, so if for any reason you don't appear to be stable or ready for turns, you will either not be released or not prompted to begin turns. You may just end up falling straight down and holding a heading for the entire jump. In either case, if your instructors say you passed, then you passed. They are the ones who have to jump with you again, and they know what's involved in Lv 4, and it seems they feel confident taking you up for that jump. Again, just relax and have some confidence in yourself. It seems your instructors do.

Most of them were 'outlawed' in the US back in the mid-80's by the EPA for emissions reasons. I think anything north of 50cc was given the axe. As to the subject of the thread, the answer is simple, the people making all the noise just don't give two shits about anyone else. There's not a bike on this planet that you cannot ride quietly at the speeds that neighborhood streets will allow. You can go easy on the gas and short-shift any of them, and keep the noise level to a minimum when you're not going to be doing more than 35 or 40mph, even easier when the limit is 25. The Harleys (or any big twin) are torque monsters, and only need a hint of RPM to make enough power to move the bike down the road. The sport bikes (or any of the inline 4s) all rev to 10 or 12,000 rpms, and can easily be kept under 3 or 4k rpms and get you where you need to be. If the riders were willing to kick it up a gear or two, the bikes would stay quiet, plain and simple.

Take advantage of the rental gear at the DZ, and try the different canopied they have. Only move to a smaller size when you have made several successful jumps on the current size, and have the support of your instructors that you're ready for the smaller size. Once you find a size that you're comfortable with (and I would say that 170 would be the smallest you should go right now) look around for a used rig. You want to buy used because buying new just isn't worth the investment for a first rig. You're too new, your skills aren't developed enough, and the money could be better spent elsewhere. It's like buying a car for a teenager. You don't want to run right out and buy a brand new car for a teenagers first car. Maybe you spend $6k or $8k on a nice, 10 year old used car, and let them drive that for a year or two. They can scrape/bump anything they want, and learn the finer points of driving and taking care of a car. After a year or two, if you want to buy them a brand new car, you stand a much better of chance of picking the right car and having them be better able to take care of a new car. I've said it before, and I'll say it again. Buy used, and spend the $2k to $4k you're going to save over a buying new and spend it on jumps. You need 100 more jumps in your logbook waaay more than you need a brand new rig.

To answer your question, no, you are not downsizing too fast. Yet. The 'rule of thumb' is that a 1 to 1 WL is the place to start for a first rig. Given your weight, you're pretty darn close to that right now. The fact that you went from a 250 down to a 170 over the course of 30 jumps is due to the 'huge student canopy' factor. You intentionally start off with a canopy that's waaaay too big for you as a student as a matter of safety. Once you make a couple jumps, and show that you can successfully fly and steer the huge canopy, you'll be stepped down toward that 1 to1 WL (in most cases) as you work your way toward your A license. So for now you're more or less on track. However, expect your downsizing to slow down considerably at this point. You want to do a minimum of 100 jumps on your current canopy, and many people have gone as far as 500 jumps at 1 to 1 (and some never downsize past that at all). Do yourself a favor and buy used gear. You're an 'average' sized guy looking for average sized gear, and you shouldn't have any problem finding something that will work for you. Buying used will free up more cash for jumps, and it will also make changing gear an almost free situation. You can buy used gear, put 100-200 jumps on it. and sell it for just about what you paid. If you shop smart and find good deals, you can switch rigs and canopies with very little money out of pocket. Forget about 'how long' a rig will last, but something that will comfortably hold the canopies you can safely jump today, and get to stacking up some jump numbers. When you're ready to downsize, somewhere down the road, worry about it then. Sell what you have and buy some more used stuff for about the same money. Stick with the plan of spending as much money of jumps as possible.

I made a couple attempts to ground launch a Stiletto with limited success. Part of it could have been due to poor site selection and having zero training of any kind. Then I tried it with a Nano, and with some guidance from someone with some experience, and it was at least 10x easier. I made the same assumptions that GL wings were 'just like' a Stiletto, but that turned out to not be true. The truth of matter is that a Stiletto is the closest skydiving canopy to a dedicated ground launching wing, but that still doesn't make it a good ground launching wing. If you wanted to swoop, and had to choose between a Navigator, Lightning, and a Spectre, I would guess the Spectre would be my choice, but that still doesn't make it a good swooping canopy. The best out of that group, but not the best available overall.

This is the key. The A license requirements are all the same, and regardless of the road they took to get there, every A license grad should be at the same min level of skill and knowledge. The real difference between AFF, AFP, and even SL is the beginning. By half or 3/4 of the way through any of the programs, things all sort of even out and everyone is doing roughly the same thing. The biggest difference between them is going to be the DZ, and how they handle things. The standard they hold their instructors to, and how closely they follow the 'book' is what's going to control the ultimate quality of the grads. A DZ with a high standard, and quality, caring instructors can produce skilled, informed, quality grads using any learning progression, even IAD!

I don't think that will be necessary. The first jump course will cover everything you need to know in order to make an instructor supervised jump. Combined with your previous experience, sitting through the class should be enough to get you back up to speed. In terms of jumping, talk to the instructional staff at the DZ and see what they want to do. Chances are will be something along the lines of one AFF-rated instructor, who will put together a dive-flow you're both comfortable with. Subsequent dives will all be dependent on how things go on the fist jump, so planning much beyond that is pointless. Keep in mind that you are free to progress as slowly as you want, so you can continue to jump with instructors and/or coaches as long as you need to feel comfortable before being released back in the 'general population'. You're right. Some have chimed in that it will work 'just fine', but that's not exactly true when compared to newer gear. It's like this - you have a 'nice' 1979 Ford Pinto, and you need to take a road trip. You can take the Pinto or rent a 2013 model. Yes, the Pinto runs, and 'should' be fine and get you where you need to be in one piece, but the rental will do a much better job, it will be safer, and stands a better of chance of not breaking down. So while you might be able to make a 'parachute descent' with your old rig, a newer rig will do a better job, be safer, more comfortable, and will general just make your skydives more fun. As far as new vs used, that's up to you and your wallet. I would recommend a used main, however, as used z-po mains will perform just as good as new (unlike the old F-111 models) and are just easier to pack. New z-po canopies are very slippery (almost like a garbage bag) and it makes packing a chore. Overall, go to Spaceland and see what they say. Sit through the class, make a couple of jumps on the rental gear, and go from there.

No, but homicide as a product of self-defense is another story. I saw the video on the news last night. The pack of bikers was riding in an aggressive manner, and not obeying the rules of the road. One of them stopped short in front of the SUV and got rear ended. The guy in the SUV stopped as he should have, and the pack of bikers immediately got violent and started attacking the outside of the car. With a small child in the car, and a large group of aggressive, non law-abiding citizens mobbing around the car upset over an event that was not even the drivers fault, the guy did the right thing (and the same exact thing I would have done). Gas pedal to the floor, and get the hell out of the there. None of those bikers acted appropriately, both before and after the accident that sparked this incident. I ride, and have a general disdain for car drivers who don't seem to pay attention and put motorcyclists lives at risk, but in this case the bikers were in the wrong and deserved exactly what they got, and I hope the cops can use the video to ID a bunch of those bikers and bring charges against them.

Did you call Sonic? You've done it before, that's how you got the helmet in the fist place, try doing it again.

The only way that Groupon makes sense for a DZ is if they are slow on business, and need the revenue to pay an airplane lease/note, or to keep instructors paid so they don't walk out. Selling tandems for costs still covers the costs. You will 'sell' slots and pay your staff selling tandems for cost, that keep your plane and instructors on the field for when you have full paying customers. Even then, it needs to be a very limited deal with restrictions on scheduling. If you sold a max of 50 'deals' and only scheduled 10 per weekend, you could limit the 'giveaways' and leave time in your schedule for full paying customers. These guys who leave the deal open, and then sell 100's of them are just committing themselves to a long season with no additional income, and I wish them luck paying their bills while trying to service the last 50 or so Groupon customers.

Again, that's within the confines of the tunnel, and what type of acceleration that space will allow. Can they dive at 200 mph towards a formation flying at 110 mph? I can, and have many times, and in the early days of doing so, I slid past many formations from hitting the brakes too late. I was aiming off to the side, like I was supposed to, there was no issue, but if I didn't know that rule or didn't do it correctly, it might have been a different story. I'm not denying the skills of the top tunnel flyers. I've watched just as many videos as anyone else, and the shit they do is crazy. What I've also done is spent close to 20 years making just under 6000 jumps, and it's easy for me to see the limitations of the tunnel. Note that I give it it's due, I never suggested it was useless to skydivers or had no place, just that there is a fine line between where it's very useful, and where it's not useful at all.