DaVinciflies

I was thinking the same thing. It's the same insecurity that leads to all the bashing of other jumpers for being "idiots" in so many other threads.

It can help, but it won't stop it.

Yeah, impressive, only 3 years to react, amazing.... Well, you could choose to look at it that way. I would rather take the view that they have done something, rather than just ignore the problem or deny that it exists. Additionally, Icarus have made the modification available free of charge, which they did not have to do. Secondly, from my limited understanding of these things, changing the opening characteristics of a canopy and thoroughly testing the results is not an overnight process.

I don't jump an Icarus canopy, but I wanted to applaud you for your customer service in this matter. Well done, Icarus.

I think a lot of new jumpers go through that difficult phase where they feel confident to deal with most routine things. This leads to a false sense of security about non-routine things. This complacency is very dangerous. Only with time in the sport does one truly come to appreciate that we can never know all there is to know and that skydiving can find some inventive ways to fuck you up. Old timers may not know everything but they sure as hell have had time to consider a lot more "what ifs" than someone with 2 years in the sport.

I am noticing an increasing number of people who choose to use large stow bands and single wrap them on the non-locking stows so that the lines are very loose and merely held in place during positioning of the bag in the container. The theory is that it is no different than a stowless bag and that loose stows cause the bag to rock less during deployment thus improving opening characteristics. The jumpers I have seen adopting this technique are typically jumping high performance, highly loaded (>1.9) ellipticals and x-braces. I admit to packing this way for myself now and the deployment does seem "smoother". What do you guys think?

That's very interesting. Is it because they are designed with big open nose inlets and cross-porting would lead to excessively fast openings or some other reason of benefit to reserves (maintaining heading on opening, perhaps?)

Whatever reasons you can think of to not go smaller than a 188 main will apply equally (probably more so) to your choice of reserve. IMO a reserve should be bigger than your main to allow for jumping an unfamiliar canopy at a high stress time.

Are there any non-crossported modern canopies? As I understand it, cross ports are very important in determining the opening characteristics of a canopy. DaVinci

That's a terrible idea - VERY loud whistles have been shown to cause hearing loss.

39 and prefer digital. I may be fooling myself but I like the precision of a digital and having a number to remember for debriefs. Having said that I have not used an analogue since I was a student and needle positions would be something I would need to relearn for at a glance recognition. I believe both are effective for freefall needs and whatever someone wants to use is fine. I do not participate in jumps where the time taken to register a number on an alti is problematic.

Was this related to the East Midlands Universities Officer Training Corps (EMUOTC) expedition who are out there currently?

See my answer up-thread. Let's say you're under canopy on your Pilot 210 and someone on a sub-100 cross-braced canopy flies over the top of you and starts spiraling (I know it shouldn't happen, but things that shouldn't happen often do). What are you going to do? It is unlikely that you are going to be maneuverable enough to be able to get out of the way. That leaves you with the option of screaming your lungs out and hoping they hear you. Would you want that person to be wearing ear plugs? We really can't be too careful about avoiding canopy collisions, IMO.

Totally my assumption, but I think what Chuck may have been getting at is that if you are wearing earplugs you may not be able to hear someone shouting at you under canopy to attract your attention. This could result in a canopy collision. Which could result in death. So, in a nutshell, better deaf than dead. Uh, oh. Now yer gonna git it. Yeah, I know! But was I close with my assumption?

Totally my assumption, but I think what Chuck may have been getting at is that if you are wearing earplugs you may not be able to hear someone shouting at you under canopy to attract your attention. This could result in a canopy collision. Which could result in death. So, in a nutshell, better deaf than dead.

I think that summarizes this whole debate. There is nothing wrong with "gizmos" as long as you don't rely on them.

At least part of this is probably about currency, or rather lack of it. The longer you leave it between jumps the less natural and more scary it can become. The good news? After the next jump you will probably be right back in the saddle and back to being comfortable about jumping. Take some time with an instructor to review your EPs, gear checks etc and this should help you feel more in control of the situation. Good luck. Breathe. Relax.

This is not suitable advice for a student with 15 jumps. Feet and knees together and prepare to PLF is the correct and most protective position for newer jumpers who are yet to be able to land consistently and softly.

Typically, if one is too high at one point one can widen then pattern to take a longer path to the next, thereby losing more altitude on the way. For example, one could fly the downwind leg as a gentle arc instead of a dead straight line. If one is too low then the options are to either fly in some brakes to "float" more to the next checkpoint, or to cut a corner off the pattern and join the next leg somewhere along its length. Additionally using flat turns in the pattern will reduce altitude loss. Poor ways to deal with pattern inaccuracies include rapid, unpredictable maneuvers such as sashaying or (God forbid) whipping a 360! Patterns are not only for accuracy, but also to help us be predictable to others to avoid collisions.

There are lots of threads about the pros and cons of AADs. On the whole they are more likely to save your life than to cause you a problem. How confident are you of your ability to remain conscious and complete your EPs? Barrowing???

I think the one thing that helped me was to realize that the pattern is built from the ground up, with a thought process similar to this: 1. If I want to land on target, where do I have to make my turn to final at 300'? 2. If I want to be at that spot at 300', where do I need to start my turn to base at 600'? 3. If I need to be at that spot at 600', where do I need to start my downwind at 900'? With differing winds, the spots will change, but not the altitudes. This allows you to get used to how much time it takes to fly each leg. If all the legs lose 300' of altitude, they will all take the same time (in full flight). In Zero wind they will all cover the same amount of distance of the ground, too. The amount of correction you can make to your pattern decreases the further you are into it. For example, you can miss your 900' point by quite a distance and still make it to your 600' point. If you miss your 600' point, you can still make some corrections to hit your 300' turn to final. Ideally, after you turn to final you will not be using any inputs other than minor harness corrections to stay on line. This allows the canopy to settle into full flight for a powerful flare. Edited to add: The above altitudes are merely examples and are not set in stone. It is a good model for a novice to follow to improve accuracy but under certain circumstances (eg. strange wind conditions) one may have to abort the plan in the interests of safety. In those situations it may be advisable for the novice jumper to be on the ground instead of in the air!

Hey antibac. Sorry to hear you hurt yourself. Flaring is an acquired skill. It comes with practice and coaching. Video coaching is best as you can really see what you are doing. I have had people swear blind that they were flaring symmetrically and it was a "wind gust", but the video told another story! Ask instructors who you trust to watch your landings whenever they can and give you some feedback. Internet coaching really has limited value in many cases.

Not having been privy to any PMs, I took what you said as anyone else would have done reading these forums. Remember, the advice you give here could be read by any number of new jumpers who do not have the benefit of any behind the scenes conversations and now have an idea that landing in half-brakes without a complete flare is ok. Which it is not (except in certain, specific conditions).

So if a student starts to flare too high, you would not have them pause? A parachute is not a plane so this analogy is irrelevant. Airplanes can touch down with much higher speeds than would be advisable to a skydiver. This creates the need for skydivers to develop a way to scrub off speed before touching down. This is achieved by creating horizontal flight and waiting for the airspeed to bleed off. It's a shame you feel that way. I felt we were having a useful discussion. Thank you for your input.

I believe the answer to this depends on whether you are teaching students or experienced jumpers who want a long plane out (swoop). For students, preparing them to pause in the middle of the flare, after the plane-out allows for a slower feedback loop. That is, after they hit the sweet spot they can assess where they are. If they are low, they can nail the second half to try to recover it. If they are high they can hold the partial flare and allow it to sink out before completing the flare. Please understand that I am not trying to say your way is bad. Just trying to explain the benefits of this method, which I have seen work really well. For experience jumpers - see below. You do not see them partially flare and then finish the stroke. They flare to maintain altitude throughout the flare. Yes, you really do see exactly that if you perceive that planing out on the rears is stage one. It goes rears-hold-hold-hold-hold-finish on toggles. Look at Nick Batsch's record swoop from a couple of weeks ago and you'll see what I mean. He planes out and stays on the rears until 9 seconds in and then transitions to toggles to maintain lift until he touches down at about 13 seconds. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mfgBDWukoA ETA: I agree with you that this is a dynamic process, and maybe I am not understanding your method completely. It is possible that we are talking about very similar things but that I am emphasizing the plane-out phase more than you are.