miconar

Hi everyone! I was wondering what current and active instructors/coaches out there are teaching with respect to aircraft emergencies, if at all. I have my students board zipped up completely but the sleeves. I have had an experienced (not active) instructor tell me he always had his students zip up only at an altitude they are comfortable getting out in an emergency. The thinking is that with the suit on in an emergency there is a bigger chance for a rushed unstable exit by the student, and by going out unzipped they will have an easier time getting out stable and pull. Im not sure I agree. Im not sure how stable an unzipped student would be. Im pretty sure the main at least would be very difficult to locate. So this got me thinking, and I dont remember every hearing any FFC dealing with AC emergencies. I currently think that the right thing to do would be board zipped up and teach on the ground a faster emergency exit (pivot exit) with the wings closed, clear and pull reserve/main, before teaching the other emergency stuff, and making sure to practice the regular exit several times before and after to keep the most likely exit fresh. I would really like to hear what other people think about teaching emergency exits to students. Thank you!

So what am I doing wrong if Im getting the error: "judging window outside of freefall!" when trying to submit a track? I dont really need to submit it, im just trying to get a scoring on it, which i think I am getting on a separate 'jump profile details' window. Is that the info I should look for? (distance delta, Vv and time?) Also, am I correct in understanding that during the competition you are not allowed to hear the immediate output feedback of your flysight?

Thank you so much :) will do.

Hi everyone! So I'm thinking of attending the performance cup. This will be my beer wingsuit comp. I tried looking around for explanations on how this works so I can get some practice runs, but no luck. I'm assuming measurements are done between set altitudes, allowing a dive out of the aircraft, and requiring deployment before a set altitude. Can anyone point me out to the rules for this comp, or for a different comp if the rules for this one are not yet available? Basically I want to be able to score my practice runs so I can monitor improvement. Am using flysight. Also, if anyone is willing to do a write up generally explaining the difference when flying for speed vs distance vs time I would very grateful. Not asking for your personal tricks and secrets, just the general idea. Thank you all for any info you are willing to share.

Disclaimer: I am not a rigger, just a skydiver that trusts some of them with his life, well being and the future of his family. Since I didn't notice RIGGER's name mentioned here yet I wont be the first to use it. I did my AFF and first 1200 jumps working and fun jumping in RIGGER's DZ and consider him to be (among other great instructors at that DZ) somewhat of a father figure as far as my skydiving career is concerned. I have since moved to the US, but I wanted to give my take on this as a former costumer, as it is not the first time I heard complaints here and elsewhere, and to be honest at times I was frustrated with him myself (you know I love you man :) I will not speak about his competence as a rigger, as I am not in a position to pass judgment in that respect. I will say everything he said about his costumer service is 100% true and correct. I can not count the times I saw him repack a deployed reserve long after everyone has gone home but those that stayed over for the night or live near the DZ, or walked into the DZ early in the morning only to see that he has been there for hours repacking due reserve that expired or were deployed the previous day, not only so that we could work or fun jump immediately the next day, but so we wouldn't even have to miss the first load. I have personally seen him almost miss a flight (to PIA symposium I think) to assemble a temporary system for me to jump during his absence after I deployed my reserve on the last load of the day of his flight, all so I could keep working while he was gone (parts, labor and use of gear free of charge BTW). And it is very true that he never charges extra rush fee, but still gives immediate service almost always when possible. And I have yet to see a single DZ anywhere in the world where the rigger provides unlimited rubber bands and closing loops free of charge no questions asked like he does. His fees are easily comparable with US prices even though everything in Israel is significantly more expensive and the taxes are high. Of course materials and parts are more expensive, but that's due to S&H and taxes. I could go on, but what's the point. Just wanted to chime in as a costumer and say that while his PRO attitude is a common thing for many riggers (that I have met at least) his level of care and honest attempts to be helpful (within his standards of safty, which are higher then what some skydivers would like) is rare, and I for one am glad to have had him as a rigger and an instructor, and would give him back my business in a heart beat.

Thank you very much! They all sound great, I'll see which I can get into. Anyone with info on other events please post them :)

Hi I was wondering what events were being planned for 2012? Any WS specific events or boogie events that should have significant WS turn out? specifically in the US but if anything interesting is going on outside of the US I would love to know about it. Thanks everyone for any info you have!!

thanks for the reply Lou, I like your lightning storm analogy, I understand it would have to be a series of freak occurrences following a very low pull, and that puts my mind at ease.

While I agree RTFM is important, the info I asked for would not be covered in the AAD manual. I wanted to know if its possible for the unit to fire and the reserve to lock, and all this with out my knowledge. I did read the manual when I got my unit and I don't think its mentioned. I did download the manual from Airtec website and will re-read later tonight to see what it has to say on the subject, however I would be surprised if my questions regarding recognizing that the unit has fired and the reserve is locked are answered there. If anyone is interested, cypres manuals can be found here: http://www.cypres.cc/index.php?option=com_remository&Itemid=89&func=select&id=3&lang=en @irishrigger: Thanks again for the info, I guess it comes down to generally trusting your rigger/mfgs, and pulling high enough specifically in this case. Both seem reasonable enough. Thank you everyone!

Thank you everyone for the info and advice! @irishrigger are you saying there has never been a failed >cutter< in a cypress activation? ill look at mfg website for manual download. lets say i had a recently mostly banned aad in a container that banned it and it partially cut the loop, would that be visible with out opening the packjob? thanks again!

Hi everyone! Found myself lower than planned (and lower than my comfort level) after being an idiot. Most definetly dumb, plan was to film friend deploy at 5.5 pull 3.5, One long idiot moment after saw 2.3k on digital alti under open main with toggles in hand. I know its within BSRs and some old timers might consider that reasonable exit altitude, point is I was at least .5k below plan on what was already planned to be as low as im comfortable to pull at, hence idiot. lesson was dont plan without comfort margin, and seriously consider the point of filming deployments on none tandem videos to begin with. friend pulled a hair lower then planned and I took another hair or two and that was that. stupid. to my question. while 2.3 is far from AAD land, I got to wander today what would my cypress2 display folowing an activation. if for whatever reason it fired and the reserve pc didnt launch, would the cypress read out still indicate ready to go, or would it shut down/say anything else? am i correct in asuming it would not turn back on with a fired cutter? would the reserve pin look any different, assuming a fired cutter partially cut the loop? Thank you!

Thank you so much Skydivesg :-) very enlightening and a good read. Thank you for moving my question here too, much more appropriate, should have done it myself. Any other thoughts on the subject more then welcome.

Short and Sweet: Exceedingly unlikely. *Snip* You can read about it here Thank you for replying, and for a very interesting read. Also for letting me know that book is on line at google books. Am traveling right now and couldnt take that behemoth with me, and I was just starting to read it on the advice of a good friend before I left, so that is definitely awesome. Thanks! Anyone have any info, or just ideas (qualified ideas, though... :) about a semi stow less d bag (UPT) reducing the chances of a bag lock? Im asking because I recently started wing suiting, and while any mal is undesirable, im trying to pay particular attention to preventing anything that gets stuck before the riser covers open, because unless im stood up (and even if I am) reaching back there to clear anything would be difficult without pulling another handle or two while free falling at low altitude with a wing suit on and a main (likely still in the bag if the riser covers are still closed) in tow. I can reach my emergency handles just fine, but a high speed mal that needs clearing by reaching back at at or below opening altitude... that would suck on a wing suit (and off it). thanks!

for some reason im not able to edit my post, and reading it now it seems a bit impolite, so just posting to add that any knowledgeable info regarding my questions would be greatly appriciated, as is your time. could just be my politness related ocd, if so, my polite apologies ;)

riggers: what are the known posible causes for bag locks on main chutes, and how likly are they on reserve deployments assuming no main reserve entanglment? in refference to the main again, are they significantly less likly on a magnetic stowless d bag? thank you!

yes, you can set it for vertical speed, and use threshold and max value for your needs.

Thanks everyone for your input. Im leaning towards Florida right now, I guess. What about SDC? The season is just starting there, I understand. Cheers.

Looks like Perris is having a bigway camp May 5th-8th, do you think it would it be difficult to get on loads during that time? Is the weather at Perris usually fine this time of year? Thank you for your reply!

Hi everyone :) Im setting up a two weeks skydiving vacation starting May 1st. Only US DZ I jumped before is Eloy. was awesome, but im told May is not a good time to go there. I heard Sebastian was a good place to try that time of year, with Deland and another DZ (?) near by in case of bad weather, as well as a tunnel near by. When is it jumping season in Florida? Does anyone have any other suggestions? I want a 7 days a week DZ with (of course) lots of loads and easy predictable weather as much as possible. I want to make some Freefly coaching jumps, and am thinking of a wingsuit course (first time, so need an instructor and demo suits around). A tunnel reasonably near by would be nice, but i dont mind starting at any tunnel and then moving to the dz for the rest of my time. So that is my wish list. Any one knows the place im talking about? TIA

Other than the many additional functions you can have with an app as opposed to a pdf (starting with actuall written exam simulations, easier search and interface and much more) the most importent function you can add is knowing how current your data is. An app can tell you there is an update (any changes, additions or omissions) avalable, or even update itself automatically. It can warn you when it didnt get a chance to check for updates for a while. In this sport thats plenty importent and often quite a hassle to achive amd maintain. Not that the sim changes significantly and often, but this medium is wide open for any equipment company to publish manuals and more importently safety advisories. Imagine your cell phone warning you 5 minutes before boarding your AAD company just recalled your cutters 3 minutes ago. Ok so that would suck, but still.

Thank you dragon2 :) Changing sticks didnt work. Just thought id post what happend with this incase anyone ever gets here on a search with the same issue. The problem continued, and i was still not able to reproduce it for the lab guys who were starting to give me odd looks and faces, until i used a friends camera to record video of the problem happening on my unit. At this point they just gave me a new camera, and that was that, been good ever since.

Been using it for over 700 jumps now and loving it. Very useful .

A friend gave me a viso wrist strap, they come with two kinds I think so very likly some one around you has one. I secured the unit to the straps with some strong adhesive tape that comes off cleanly should the need arise. I wear it like an alti on my right hand and route the phones through the suit. I like it this way for a few reasons. Firstly I have easy access to plug and unplug the phones and still see the light to know i have a signal. I can plug it in seconds before jumping and plug it out once i have a good canopy. I can also attach it to the door bar so it has a signal all the way up regardless of where i sit. I had it inside and outside my helmet with good results but not as comfortable. Inside the helmet just like an audible, outside by securing it with tape to some bungee cord and routing it through any hole in your helmet. The unit doesnt weigh anything, no need to screw it in place i think

Acording to video description, student has under 50 jumps. Was jumping only the minimum required to keep current, so was basicly as uncurrent as you can be to still jump at his level. Altimeter stuck at 10.5k, realized this late in the dive and became confused. It does seem to me the instructor is attemting to create a down plane at zero altitude so he can cutaway. Also, isnt it SOP (at least for the instructor) to go straight to reserve pulling this low? Of course two out is better then none, and pulling the main should have more muscle memory to it, so I can see how that would happen.

Hi