Rugby82

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The only downside the Netherlands has is that you have to have 1000 jumps before you can start doing tandems while this is 500 jumps in most European countries.

That is not a downside at all.

Don't get me wrong. For me it isn't a downside. For most others in Europe it is becuase they can do tandems with 500 jumps.

I think it's a good rule. It's a great responsibility to do tandems. They changed the rules in The Netherlands from 500 to 1000 years ago because of the incidents with "low-jumpnumber" tandemmasters.

I've read some post here on dropzone.com regarding tandems and other issues in the US. The problem really seems to be the US culture to sue everything and everyone for no apparent reason.

Here in the Netherlands tandemmasters keep a simple rule. If you fit the harness you can do a tandem. I really like the European culture more then the, in this case, f***** up American culture.

Keep it simple.

The only downside the Netherlands has is that you have to have 1000 jumps before you can start doing tandems while this is 500 jumps in most European countries.

I jumped all 3 canopies and love swooping so I'll give my experience on this topic.

I had a Sabre2 -190 (WL at about 1.5) first and started swooping with this one. It's a really good canopy to start swooping and is also forgiving if you make a mistake. You can go the distance with this canopy without all the hassles of an elliptical canopy.

I also had a Safire2 - 139 (WL at around 1.8) but hated this canopy for swooping. It has a very short recovery arc which makes it dangerous for swooping because you have to turn low and let the fronts go very low. Although I could get lots of speed and distance with the Safire2 I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who wants to swoop.

The Crossfire2 -139 I jump now is perfect for swooping but it's also in a different league then the other two. The recovery arc is pretty long but it isn't very forgiving anymore. The distance you go on swoops isn't comparable with the Sabre2 and the Safire2.

The differnce between the Sabre2 - 190 and the Safire2 -139 was smaller for me then the differnce between the Safire2 - 139 and my Crossfire2 -139.

Your profile doesn't state how many jumps you have but I wouldn't recommend a Crossfire2 to someone with less then 500 jumps and a lot of canopy skills. If you have the jumps and experience I would recommend a Crossfire2. It's the best canopy I've ever flown.

I'm a pretty big guy too weighing 255 lbs. with my gear. Never had any problems with my gear.

I jumped a electra 190 (WL at 1.3) for 350 jumps and never had any problems while the label said max 200 lbs.. I've also jumped a Sabre2 -190 (WL at nearly 1.5), a Safire2 - 139 (WL nearly 1.8) and a Crossfire2 - 139. Never had any problems while I did have a couple of really hard openings on my Sabre2 after Freefly-jumps and when jumping in shorts and a t-shirt.

Having more weight can be a good thing because you're more connected to the canopy. You're flying the canopy and not the other way around (Ever seen the little girls land on high wind days day loaded at 0.6-0.8, that isn't fun).

The only problem with the extra weight are the first few jumps where you don't know when to flare but once you get through this, in my opinion, having some more weight is positive.

I'm not saying that you should hang 350-400 lbs on a student canopy but with you're weight you shouldn't have a problem. Just take a canopy that opens soft and you'll be allright.

A friend of mine had a premature because of this while sitflying. He had a Merit which is known to open hard.

I shot it on camera and it doesn't look nice. He was out for a whole year with back problems. The pilot chute pouch is very important especially when freeflying.

Almost all Sabre2's turn after opening. In 99% of the cases this is due to uneven endcell-closure which is a characteristic of the Sabre2.

What helped for me was turning the other way on harness after opening. This should help to some extend but you really need the risers to fully inflate the opening.

I had the same issue too a while ago. I use extra long risers on my rig for swooping. These risers aren't standard PDF risers. My old steeringlines had very tight cat eyes for the new toggles. On one or more occasions one half brake wouldn't release while the other would.

The solution I had was the following. Pull the toggle with the released half-brake down till you fly straight and then bring the two toggles together at eye- or chest height with both hands trough the toggles. This way the canopy will fly straight and you can pull the cat-eye over the toggle with your fingers to release the half-brake setting. Just keep in mind that when you release the second half brake in this manner that the canopy will start to dive because of the offset of the toggles. Let both toggles up and everything is ok.

This is a solution to a defect in your gear. Let a rigger adjust the cat-eyes of the toggles and everything is ok.

Also in my opinion, pulling your rear risers down below 1000 ft to try to fix the problem could be a very dangerous thing if you don't know the stall-point of the canopy on rear-risers or rear-risers with uneven toggle-settings. With a bad stall-recovery you could be in even bigger problems (a twist with uneven brakesettings isn't fun below 1000 ft).

Hope this helps.

For freeflying I always had a tight closing loop due to the differences in wind. Nowadays I do more FS4-video and C&P but still use a tight loop.

I can just lift my rig off the ground a couple of inches with the bridle of the pilot-chute before the pin pops out. It always opens well (have to make 2 seconds of freefall with a C&P).

As you can see the pin can be very tight and still everything will be ok.

I jumped a Safire2 139 and a Xfire2 139 at 1.8 and really noticed the difference. The Safire2 started opening harder while the Xfire2 opens really soft.

When doing high-performance landings the Safire2 just isn't made for it, way too short recovery arc. The Xfire2 dives much longer. The Xfire feels a lot more twitchy when loading it t 1.8 then the Safire2.

Flaring is super for both canopies but with more speed on the landings I prefer the Xfire2.

In the Netherlands we teach all beginner Freeflyers to keep a heading that is 90 degrees off the line of flight.

This rule is true for both students and experienced Freeflyers. Just let the base keep heading 90 degrees off the line of flight and the rest will follow. This also helps with seperation during break-off between different groups because, with not so large groups, people will go in tracking off the line of flight.

For small groups up to 4-5 people you can also make a hybrid break-off. Freeflyers can go from sit/stand-up to backflying and go in a backtracking while the belly-flyers go in normal tracking. This way everyone can see each other. This compensates for the minimal altitude difference between the belly-flyers and the freeflyers after letting go.

Another way to break-off is to let the Freeflyers go up and down the line of flight 500ft earlier then the belly-flyers who will take the left and right side of jumprun for their tracking or vice versa.

Doing backtracking for the freeflyers and normal tracking for the belly-flyers will be much safer because when you do it right everyone can see each other. Freeflyers these days are used to doing backtracking.

From a background of Psychology and my I-rating in skydiving I can say that you're not the first with this reaction and that this reaction is quite common.

Making the first jump everything is new and you don't know what to expect. Now you know what to expect and then fear can kick in. This is a normal psychological response of the body. Skydiving isn't a natural thing to do and the body responds to this. How it responds differs per person.

For most people this fear will diminish the next couple of jumps. As long as you have fun in skydiving and fear isn't controlling your skydives everything is ok. If fear starts controlling your skydives then it's time to eveluate with yourself if this sport is something for you.

Just take the time to make 2-3 more skydives and see how things work out for you. In a week you'll probably think "Why did I ask this question, everything is ok now".

For me it's good to see/read that all over the world the same problems appear.

In the Netherlands you aren't allowed to jump with a camera until you have your B-license and 200 formation-jumps. Here we also have the problem of more and more people jumping small camera's before they meet the requirements. We even saw SL-students wanting to jump with a GoPro.

I started jumping with a camera from about 300 jumps and almost all of my jumps since have been camerajumps, both FF and RW. I also use 2 audibles as a backup.

Jumping with a camera isn't as easy as most people think. Flyingskills will come in second place when people wear camera's on their helmets because they are too busy making nice footage that they forget all other things around them (tunnel vision). For this reason I don't think there should be different rules for small/large camera's.

First master the flying skills required to save your ass before you start jumping with a camera becuase your skills won't develop as fast with a camera on your head as without one. Have a talk with some experienced cameraguys for all the potential hazards of jumping with a camera.

You won't be the first to lose altitude-awareness or forget to get out of the way of a jumper coming towards you because you're to busy filming him/her. You also wont be the first one to get stuck in the lines with your camera and throwing away you're main parachute with your helmet still on (hope the mounting of the camera breaks before your neck does).

Maybe the answer is more simple when you ask the question the other way around "Why shouldn't you pull your reserve handle, even when having an RSL?"

I studied Psychology and know that people in high stress situations tend to forget even the easiest things. It's good to practice the reserve procedure at least once on every day you go skydiving or every time you plan to make a jump. Better well prepared than making a mistake when you can't afford making a mistake.

Jumping with an RSL which is, like a cypress, a backup device isn't a guarantee that it will pull your reserve-pin.

Jumping with someone else's rig which hasn't got an RSL and having a high speed mal (high stress situation) can lead you to forget to pull your reserve handle and give you a cypress activation in the worst case scenario.

Even when we don't really pull our reserve handle during practice it still helps building muscle memory. When you need a reserve ride you don't wanna think about what to do, you just want to do the right thing as quick as possible. Having to think about it for 2 seconds will cost you another 500 ft.