jurgencamps

I suspect that sometimes an email gets lost in a spamfilter. So If you have not received an answer from them, just shoot them a new email. It would not be the first time that this happens or that a mailserver just blocks mails from a specific domain, because he has received to much spam from it.

(If I can find back the old vector 2 tandem manual, with a list of those accidents.) I think that he did not killed the TI, but the passenger, his own mother. But the message is the same. The tandempair is a sitting duck.

Can you prove that? Can you prove that firing a reserve in a ball of ... will be better? If I have to perform my EP at a very low altitude, there will be no time between the cutaway and pulling the reserve. It will be (almost) simultaneous. One hand on each handle. It is up to probabilities. Which solutions gives you a chance to survive? I have seen more than once that people just pull reserve and do not cutaway anymore at an altitude which was still high enough to safely cutaway (@+ 1000 ft) and got killed. To make it clear, 500 ft is not high enough to guarantee you a good outcome. But launching an reserve in a spinning main, gives you certainly not an better chance to survival. Specially if you have the altitude (2000 ft, 1500 ft, 1000 ft ...) So the question should be: till what altitude can you cutaway and pull reserve instantly (without getting back in free-fall) without killing yourself? Forget the canopy transfer, except in some specific cases (see Bill Vons post above). Isn't it sarcastic that people jump gear so small that it is possible that the reserve cannot get out in time? Or a reserve so small that ...

@ gowlerk I do not know the size of your reserve, but a bigger reserve, gives you a better chance to not hurt yourself on a case like yours. Not having enough time to untwist the linetwist or not able to pick a good landing spot. To often people jump very small reserves. It 's fine as long as everything works out fine. I jump a velo 90 and a storm 120. My reserve is tempo 150. My next reserve will be a 160 speed. A frend hited once the ground at linestretch. He was lucky to survive. Some factors were in his advantage: a soft underground, but it happened before cypress existed, so his reserve was big (a 170 was a small size,a 210 was normal) and slowed him down enough to survive without much damage.

I admit that 500 is very low. The point I want to make is a post above yours, where 1000 ft is already considered as too low. At 500 ft, whatever you do, you can only hope and pray that it will work out. But at 1000 ft, this should not be a problem. To often I read here, " my hard deck is 2000/1500 ft, I will do a canopy transfer from that altitude. You did a cut away at 800ft and still had line twists. You still limb a little bit. But if you had done a canopy transfer, are you sure that you had a better landing or could it be that you just had just a big ball of .... above your head and broke every bone? A MARD would not make me go lower,I hope iit would just gives me a better chance when things go wrong at low altitude.

Please check that video. It is at dz.com

Sorry, but please reread my post. I gave 3 options and no, I do not have a MARD. How many cutaways and reserves have you ever made? Preferably under a spinning main. Is it really a good idea to just fire your reserve in a certain mess? Option 1 and option 2 requires both some luck. So your best option is to detect the problem above 1000 ft. But have you ever seen the video of the Petra that collapses just before the landing. How high was that guy, would a canopytransfer gave him more changes to survive then a cutaway?

1. when is it too low to cutaway? Some even think that they cannot cutaway below 1500 ft. 2. For ex. spinning around at 500 ft. - do you pull the reserve and hope that it will not make just a bigger mess or - do you cutaway and pull at the same time and hope that your reserve inflates in time, or - lucky me I have a MARD ... An AAD should open your reserve in time at 750 ft when still in free-fall. So I think that I personally would take the risk to cutaway and pull the reserve at 500 ft. But it is still better to detect a problem much higher. I witnessed a cutaway once (no RSL or MARD) at that altitude (or even lower). She survived, but had only a reserve-ride of 3 sec. She was in final and was hit from above by somebody who made a 90° toggle turn to "swoop" his landing. May be this is a good reason to have a bigger reserve that fits not to tight in your container and to drill your reserve procedures before each jump.

Do you also explain why it can be a bad idea and that it can create more risks for others? It is also very important to teach how to fly a regular, predictable pattern. If you overshoot the landing area, you have to adjust your landing pattern accordingly the next time. Too often you see people making s-turns jump after jump.

Check if your vigil is in km/hr.

http://www.parashoot.nl/pix/HW01_s.jpg and http://www.parashoot.nl/

Remember Vector 2 tandemrigs? You had to route the drogue bridle like that.

Generally, my riggers asks you to remove the zipper yourself. Normally it should be easy to do, but it takes time and time is money. (removing the zipper is often the most expensive part of the job)

I only can talk about the mpod (the one made in Europe). Never heard of a problem during hop'n'pops from the guys who uses them (me included) even with RDS and competition swooping. However it is not a good idea to put a bigger canopy in the mpod than the canopy it was intended for.

I personally saw the next incident: Skydiver 1 was flying a good standard landing pattern and was already way below 1000 ft in the last straight line. Skydiver 2 hooked in (90 °) and hits skydiver 1's canopy from above and cut it almost in two. Skydiver 1 starts spinning around very aggressively. Skydiver 2 lands with a broken leg, skydiver 1 cuts away the main and pulls reserve. Slider is down but Skydiver 1 never had the time to release the brakes. But she made a safe landing. Sometimes you don't have much options or time to think first and act later.

1. Everybody can and will make mistakes. Not realizing this is a big mistake. 2. Even very experienced skydivers can end up in situations where they do not pull for some reason their reserve handle. For ex. a very experienced cameraman had to cutaway very low. After opening his main, he had his chest strap loosened. He could not find his reserve handle in time. He was not high enough to reach the activation speed of his AAD. Also more conscious than unconscious skydivers were saved by an AAD. Ideally certain possibilities should never happen, but reality proves otherwise.

Just a remark, not all 9 cells are elliptical.

Do you have a Swiss skydiving insurance or only an USPA insurance? Because if you are not a US citizen or do not have a "green card", USPA does not insure you when you are skydiving in Swiss, France, ...

Ditto what the others say, 120 days. Even better, if one of those unnamed country jumpers come to the USA, the 120 days repack cycle is still valid and not the 180 days cycle. His skydiving insurance makes that mandatory. ?? See my answer above.

Connect the camera to a screen, switch it on, put it on your helmet and you can see what you film.

@Hellis, Thx.

https://www.google.be/search?q=magnetic+slider+keeper&biw=1280&bih=747&tbm=isch&imgil=PQJQt0Wbc3paVM%253A%253B5e0D17lQSMMWqM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.chutingstar.com%25252Fskydive%25252Fskytie-magnetic-slider-keeper&source=iu&pf=m&fir=PQJQt0Wbc3paVM%253A%252C5e0D17lQSMMWqM%252C_&usg=__LrjJEC8EzCc8nJB5PvF1SwSg7Do%3D No need to sew it on your rig.

http://www.pia.com/piapubs/TSDocuments/TS-104CanopyVolume.pdf My velo 90 packs bigger than my (previous) Katana 107.

And, AIRTECH uses all those old and expired cutters for their demonstrations. I think that they have fired several thousand without failure.