Skyper

Sparky, this kind of things happens when ppl already experienced the time schrinking effect. The next time when they come under simmilar situation... they may take "lay back" attitude by thinking "ohh, last time I had planty of time. I did everything so quick and I thought a lot of time passed but I did everything in just few seconds"... this time I can do it a bit slower as well... and there they go...

Bill should consider beard-reserve entaglement scenario as well

The more you load it the faster it goes. Changing it too often can be dangerous. I'd rather have peace of mind than a piece of a parachute "I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotamy." W.C. Fields ... if it doesn't open try untill hard deck and open your reserve mind :)

Please try being specific. You made an assertion, now it's time to support it with some kind of logic. among others... statement suggests that closed parachute does not function and, as you probably know, open parachute may very well be disfunctional. Which makes this statement stupid...

Bill, this has happend. With a fatal result as well. While preparing for the AFF jump on the door, the student pulled by accident the instructor's D-handle... I think I read about that incident on this site.

everything :D

LOL guys

Something very stupid I've heard recently...

Air hostes survived the fall (without a chute) from 30.000ft... but she was in the plane´s tail which broke off from the planes body upon the bomb exploded on board. The tail (and hostess) fall on the (1)trees which were on the (2) slope which slowed down the speed of impact significantly... IMHO from a certain trashold of speed and angle, water is as hard as soil... for lower speeds I´d choose water http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XGperYQxYL8

Mad skillz at Z-Hills

That was f...king scary. Very odd to see someone on a 98 sq ft x-brace come in so conservatively though. I think there is something more to this story. If he was worried about the winds he flew his canopy completely wrong (ie. all the toggle inputs). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e70RDItSTe8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tgVyJ2bmqE

PilFy thanks for the video it describes very good what is going on during the preassure change. It's interesting fact they say the ear equalize through eustachian tube naturally every 500-1000ft of hight change. thus from the jump of 12K it would happend at least 12 times up and 12 times down :) What kind of ear plugs are you using? Are those custom made? Do you wear them during the entire jump? How often do you equalize during the jump and how do you do it?

From the last IPC safety rapport http://www.parachute.nl/255.html?&cHash=50df17566b9dcfd2a8b095008b86c833&tx_ttnews[backPid]=1&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=604 it's clear that even some basic statistical data are only estimates and not the exact information. I guess it would be mission impossible to find the exact details on accidents. And any statistics without those inforamtion would be nothing more than a guess or very rough extrapolation.

No problems for me. Most audibles have two settings for volume, have you tried the max volume? That's probably because the frequency of the sound of the dyter is different from te sounds blocked by the ear plugs. I have very narrow ear channel as well and there are also standard ear plugs on the marktet for that size as well! Equialization problems for parachutists do not arrise during climbing on the altitude, but during the fall. That's because the preasure is than increasing. The same is true for scuba-divers but they get the problem imediately... because the preasure is rising from the moment they enter the water. edit: I just checked my ear plugs. They do not let any air to pass through the filter...

Yes, I understand what you mean and it makes sense. In fact ear plugs damp the noise good they should not allow air to come in and if there's no air... it cannot decompress. hmm. I talked to ear specialist and he told me about eustachian tube. But we did not discuss anything about ear plugs. hmm.

hmm, I really cannot jump without ear plugs. I did it without only on my SL jumps and my first 12K jump. After that I wear the plugs on every jump because I cannot withstand that noise I thought that "there's always a bit of space" between the plugs and the ear, so equalization shouldn't be a problem. hmm. I'm puzzeld now after your comment.

thanks for the explanation. I do it when I'm on the ground, but than it's probably too late. I use ear plugs whereby four different sizes are available in one package, you pick the right size and you put the "filter" in that one and you can use it - other sizes you can just throw away. The filter is made to damp the frequences of "heavy noise" whatever it might be . 33dB is stated on the package. And these are the strongest ones that I could find here. The next option I consider now is ordering the custom ones but for now these that I have make me feel comfortable during the flight and free fall. And custom made are far more expensive. I have problems with equalization though, but IMHO there is no connection between ear plugs and equilization. Equilization problems are more related with the congested eustachian tube - due to cold.

are you working for the insurance company?

do you put your ear plugs out before you equalize?

Hearing damage is a cummulative process. You may not notice anything for years and than it starts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T9XcwvnzbO8

Pegasus could fly. And if he couldl fly there might be some pony models available in the market as well.

The OP has 6 jumps. Practicing PLF's and learning when to use one might be a better option at this point. +1

I respect that you do try to find clean air and that you have your own personal limts, but... What would you teach to others regarding jumping in high winds? Let's say someone finds themselves under canopy and the winds have picked up. What now? In the time I was a student and didn´t know much about the high winds, I was thrown from the plane with a too big (student) parachute and the wind was so strong that from the moment of opening I was flying backwards even though I´ve been stearing the chute into the wind... it took me three jumps to realize that there´s nothing wrong with my flying abilities but with the fact that the wind is just too strong and the chute is just too big. By saying that, I´ve been looking for some "advice" on how to land that big parachute in such windy conditions... and... the only advice I got was: "try to encrease your descent rate". In other words to get down as soon as possible and avoid the possiblitiy of being "blown away". I tried two things... making a several subsequent 360 turns to get down as quick as possible and(or) pulling the front-risers down. In that way the front side of the wing is lowerd and you´re descedenting a bit quicker. BUT, whatever you do - you cannot avoid the last 300ft of flight. Which means that high winds will determine your landing in one way or another. And with a big wing and hard winds that could mean the backward landing. Edit: Since that time I do not jump when the winds are high.