davelepka

I noticed in your profile you didn't include your home DZ where "everyone" agrees that this a good canopy for you. Your Sabre 120 will have a higher performance envelope than a Sabre 170 at the same loading. The smaller canopy will have lower parasitic drag in comparison to the larger canopy. Due to this, it is neccesarry to adjust the reccomended wing loading when you get into this situation. That said, even with excellent canopy control (for your level of expereince) it might be wise to shelf the 120 for a bit, and spend some more time with the 135. It might also be wise to do a search on this forum for statistics regarding the fatalities under open canopies. Someone did a fantastic job of organizing all the relevant info into one post. You will find that many of the fatalities were low time jumpers, on canopies that were "okay in the best case scenario". The incidents were not people attempting high performance landings, but making some typical mistakes newer jumpers make, and putting themselves into the "worst case scenario". You should be able to locate a 135 or bigger you could use for a little while. Check with local jumpers who may have something in the back of the closet, or call the manufacturers and see about a longer term demo. There may be a local jumper who is ready for a 120, who would swap thier current canopy with you untill you are ready for the 120. Just some things to think about. Be safe.

I work at Aerohio, and have never heard of any "rivalry". It's true, like any DZ, we have our share of jackasses, and maybe you ran into one of them. All of the freeflyers are cool, and willing to jump with new faces all of the time. Most weekends we have a dedicated freefly organizer looking for people to jump with. If I'm not mistaken, there may have been a group of freeflyers form your DZ who came up for our freefly money meet. I know they all had a kick ass time, and one of them took home some cash. Come on up any weekend. There's camping, free bunkhouse, showers and food on the DZ. I'd be happy to jump the ball with you.

Step one: throw ball Step two: jump and chase ball It really shouldn't be a problem where the door is. If you're ready to jump with a ball, you're ready to exit in any direction. If you want to do it safely, come up to Areohio one weekend, we have several AD's who can jump with you to prep for the test (and no there are no hidden fees involved, we just like jumping with sky balls).

I saw a report on CNN where the anchor said " An AUSTRAILIAN jumper crossed the.....". At first I thought she may have mis-spoke, but when they went to the video, the CNN people had added a title to the top of the screen that read "Aussie makes a record flight". Gotta love that national news coverage...G-DAY, MATE!

I have actaully found that the original Sabre, when lightly loaded it not a good canopy for turbulence. I have nver jumped a Sabre lower than 1.5 or so, but in observing many jumpers (generally lighter, newer jumpers looking for landing advcie), at 1.0 or less, jumping Sabres, they don't seem to be very happy in the bumps. This is just my opinion though. Also, do not use the tandems as a guage for your safety with wind conditions. Most tandem masters are extremely good canopy pilots, and have experience with, and are able to handle, conditions not suited for newer jumpers. Take the experience you had, and apply it next time you are looking at the wind conditions. You are your own safety officer, and need to understand the importance of that job.

Pilot chute hesitation? I don't think that a BASE pack job would provide a solid enough platform for a clean pilot chute launch. Some older skydiving containers even used a kick-plate under the reserve pilot chute to ensure a good launch. Just a guess though..

You're thinking of Chuck Berry.

I would consider looking at other DZ's in the area. If you call the SDI dzo, and he cannot return your cash, he should have lots of stuff that would be of value to other DZ's (student gear, tandem gear, etc.). See if one of the other DZ's could use something he has, and will take it in trade for giving you 1300.00 worth of jumps. Stranger things have happened....

That all sounds correct. While there have been some interesting claims in this thread regarding this canopy, and it's construction, durablilty and performance, I'm interested to hear if any impartiel jumpers have actaully jumped thisa thing, and what were their impressions. It would be relevent to know their jump numbers and canopy expereince, along with the wing loading and approx. number of jumps on the canopy they jumped. The one thing I cannot get past, is that, to my knowledge, there are only a few hybrid canopies in production, and they are all fairly "low performance". How is it that the idea of a high performance hybrid, which offers extended life, and lower pack volumes, has slippied past all of the bigger canopy manufacturers? It seems to me that if this were a viable idea, it would have been in mainstream production long ago. Oh yeah, the concept that pressurization is not important? Come on, is this guy for real? Note: Riddler, not all of this applies to you, the first line is for you, the rest is just general commentary on the thread.

Here's what I think HD has to do with it. 1. Higher speeds 2. Increased mobility The newer HD flyer is more likely to become involved in the "close call" situation due to these two factors. Yes, awareness is important in all modes of flying, but it is especially improtant when you combine the above factors with a lack of expereince with which to handle these factors.

I think the trouble with your idea of an "Out of Service" notation on the repack card is finding a rigger to go along with this. I may be mistaken, but packing a parachute system in violation of an FAR puts the riggers rating at risk.

I think he did some (maybe all) AFF jumps in Deland while filming Days of Thunder in Daytona.

Certainly a good source indeed. I wonder though what the thought process is? Te quicker progression through upright flying will have you jumping with, and learning from, better flyers sooner. It's tough to replace the knowledge and understanding you can gain from witnessing something first hand, as in seeing a good HD flyer fly up and dock on you. You will certainly find yourself in this position sooner if you start upright, and the whole concept of FREEfly is to be free to express yourslef through your flying, which is facilitated by being able to fly on all axis. I do stand behind the concept that upright and HD are two completely different things, involving different flight surfaces and principals. But thats just me..

Close, but not quite. The sit is the "recovery" position for some freefliers only because their sit skills are stronger than their HD skills. So in the event of a collision or funnel, these flyers will revert to sit (where, you are correct, they can maintain their speed), regain composure, then possibly transition back to their head. More skilled HD flyers can avoid corking by either quickly returning to a HD position after a collision or funnel, or by performing a rotaiton on some sort (back loop, front loop, etc) and simply returning to HD. In truth the corking many jumpers expereince is due to their lack of experience, and barring the aforementioned collision or funnel, more expereinced HD flyers will rarely have a problem with corking. HD is a stable body postion, and if the jumper has the skills, there will be no "random" corking which needs addressing. Again, as I mentioned, a jumper looking to skip the sit and learn HD first off, will have more work ahead of them on the road to proficient and safe flying.

I too have a hard time thinking of people who can fly HD and not sit. I think the reason that people seem to start of out in the sit is that it is A) the upright orientation is easier for people to adapt to, and B) there is less of a tendency for beginers to move across the sky in the sit as opposed to HD. This built in lack of mobility gives them the oppertunity to go on some dives where the zoominess of beginer HD would be unsafe. These factors not withstanding, I think that the two body posittions are unrelated, aside form the need for increased safety and alti-awareness due to the speeds involved. If a jumper is prepared to follow the heading awareness rules previously discussed, and is willing to spend more time on solos or two ways with more experienced flyers before getting to bigger more complicated stuff, I see no reason why HD couldn't come first. In reality however, it would be difficult to locate a jumper with the required patience and dicipline to follow this path correctly. Most newbies only listen to half of what you tell them anyway (especially when it comes to canopy selection and control) and take the free spirited types who are drawn to freefly on top of that, and you might as well be talking to a wall.

I don't think that sit fly skills relate to your head-down skills. I know many jumpers who can sit fly reasonably well, but cannot fly head-down at all. The only advantage to being able to sit (in the scenario I outlined) is if you are following the 5 sec. rule, you can keep your speed up while transitioning to check/control your heading. As opposed to requiring coach jumps, maybe the better idea is to require a safety briefing from an expereinced freeflier. This could include the info on heading awareness, as well as some basic theory and equipment safety considerations. The advantage to this is that it can be given after hours, and it shouldn't take much more than 20 min. (with a preset cirriculum). I would hope that every DZ could find one freeflier willing to donate his or her time, so that the newbies could get this info, and be safe, without costing them a penny. Of course if they want to buy some after-briefing beer, thats another story. Any thoughts on what info a newbie (lets say 20 jumps) should know before trying to freefly?

I had a similar problem a couple weeks ago. It got me to thinking that a poorly executed head-down can cover as much ground as a steep tracking dive, and that newbies will hold this position for the duration of the skydive thinking everything is OK. The only solution I could come up with was to talk to them about this situation, and advise the following: A. If you cannot hold a heading while head-down, do not stay head-down for more than 5 sec. After 5 sec. transition to a position you have more control over, and see rule "B". B. Using the jump run heading, choose a heading for your skydive that will have you flying across the jump run, as opposed to up or down it. If it is early or late in the day, the sun is an excellent reference point (as in, the sun should always be on your left, or in front of you or whatever.). While this is not a perfect system, it's the best idea I could come up with at the time. If anyone has an alternate idea, or addiitons to the existing plan, please post them, as this problem isn't going away any time soon, and we need some sort of plan or structure for the newbies to keep them (and everyone else) safe. Edit: Not to downplay the role of the S&TA, but I can think of more than one S&TA dos not have very much, if any, freefly expereince. If this is the case, it might be wise to consult one of the more expereinced freefliers, and have them, and the S&TA take a look at the problem at hand.

An orbit is usually the result of extra forward motion. As you move forward, you turn to continue facing your subject, and now you're orbiting. When you find yourself in an orbit (this is where looking past your subject at a fixed point will help), bring your legs in, and you should stop. The suit you are using for camera may have a different "neutral" position than you are used to, and when you think you are in the neutral postion, your suit may be generating forward drive. Good luck.

I'm pretty sure the student was using a Martin Baker ripcord (mounted directly over the cutaway handle). The practice touches were in the right area, it was the pull procedure that was wrong. You need to hook the handle with your thumb, grab your thumb, and pull. Grabbing the handle with an open hand leaves you open to grabbing both the main and cutaway at the same time. I don't think the main side JM pulled anything. It's not the greatest main activation system, which is why you don't see it too often anymore. I think the guy who owns Virgin records (and airlaines and whatever) was training for his around the world balloon flight, and went through AFF, and did the same thing on his first jump.

Bummer man, all those practice jumps, and you come along and hose their chances of winning the nationals, and their chances for competing for the world cup. Oh, wait, this wasn't a competition dive, this was a fun jump, with a guy new to the DZ. For all their experience, these jumpers have not learned how to have fun, and be understanding of the mistakes that people (themselves included) make form time to time. Don't be so hard on yourself, shit happens, and those jumpers were wrong to A) expect a guy they have never jumped with to perform at a set level, regardless of jump numbers, and B) to give you a hard time about it after the skydive. Next time, look for some jumpers who still remember how to have fun, and you will have a much better skydive (regardless of points). By the way, making a fool of your self at a DZ needs to involve nudity, and usually, toilet paper.

A re-line should solve the trouble. I'm surprised that A) the closed end cell would cause a turn, and B) a tug on the rear risers (brakes stowed) wouldn't inflate the cell. My 107 had opened this way a couple times, and there was no turn, and the rear riser trick worked fine. Does the canopy fly straight otherwise?

First, avoiding the peas is a good idea. A brightly colored frisbee on the other side of the landing area can be your own peas. Second, people are saying accuracy is dangerous because they are thinking in terms of the classic accuracy. Braked approaches, sinking it in, etc. This was OK on 200 sq ft seven cells, but doesn't work as well on newer canopies. There is nothing wrong with trying to land where you want (in fact it's a good skill to have for off-field situaitons). The other danger is in target fixation, where you forget safety issues (low turns, looking for traffic) becasue you are too foucused on your target. Establish a hard deck for your self to be in full flight (hands up, no more corrections or truns). 150 feet is good, provided any turns below 300 feet are less then 45 degrees. Breaking this hard deck can and will result in injury, so respect it. A good trick is to look at where you want to land once you are on your final approach. If the spot appears to be rising in your field of vision, you are going to come up short. If the spot appears to be sinking in your field of vision, you will over shoot. When the spot appears to be steady in your field of vision, but getting larger, you are on track to hit it (or get close).

So if you've gone to the trouble to change your name due to this same issue once, doesn't that mean anything to you? Freefall is all about balance. If you can present a blanced body position to the wind, you will fall straight down. It's that simple. There are several variations of balanced body positions, all of which will have you falling straight down. The key is to teach the ones that are the most centered, that is they allow for the greatest movement in all directions. This is what will make you an effcetive flyer. Here's an example. If I'm on my belly with a tandem, and I go below them, and sit up on the camerra wings, head high, feet up (but still on my belly); I can go straight down, but lack the mobility I would have if I were on level, in a more neutral boxman position. As for your question regarding your putting your arms up, and why that doesn't cause your legs to push you over backwards, I have a couple of ideas. First off, how are you sure that you are continuing to fall straight down when you speed up? While a slight forward or backward movement may not pose a problem (or really even be that noticable) on the dives you are currently doing, when you try that with a skyball, or when trying to dock on a formation, the problem will reveal itself. Second, and more importantly, why are you using your arms to control the fall rate? Your legs are a much more effective control surface for speeding up (as in, pushing them together and under you, into a stand up). The idea that you would maintain your leg position (in fromt of your c of g), and just throw your arms up to speed up while flying head up shows a fundemental misunderstading of the principals of head-up flying. Maybe take this, and the whole "already changed your nickname once" thing into consideration before A) Dishing out advice, and B) Dishing out advice to the contrary of those with more experience, information, and understanding then you.

Seriously? You haven't actually answered the question of "What keeps me from going over backwards with my legs in front of my CG?" What do you propose will balance out the drag created by legs in front of the CG? The position you're describing provides for legs, and forearms in front of the torso. Actually your position will encourage bending forward at the waist in order to bring the CG up and over the legs. I have flown this postion while taking grips in the sit, but it is much more difficult than the basic, vertical torso, with equal drag front and rear (as viewed from the side). I may be wrong (I don't think so) but if you think I am please include a pic of you with this arm postion so I can better understand your point. While you may be able to "hold' this postion, does it promote forward or backward movement? I can fly up right with my arms at my sides, and my hands tucked under my legstraps, but I can't move around very well, and I would not suggest this to a begining freeflier.

Your batts are replaced every two years anyway. Reset the thing twice a day, and get your $75 worth out of the two "C" cells they wire together for you.