IJskonijn

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Everything posted by IJskonijn

  1. That's why you let a rigger look at it and determine if they are still airworthy. It's an absolute waste to throw away slinks because it's not you but someone else who put 50 jumps on them. A rigger will (should) be able to look beyond jump numbers, and determine if the actual state of the slinks merit replacement.
  2. That's why he was wearing sunglasses!
  3. Lightnings also pack at least a size bigger than equivalent-sized 9-cell normal mains. Plus, there's a whole lot more fun in the air with them ^_^.
  4. If the canopy doesn't already have an attachment point, then it will need some work by a master rigger to create one, especially for jumping it repeatedly. As Lee already said, reserves have some different materials used for fabric, but also for the lines. Typically, they are uncoated (to reduce risk of sticking/tension knots I think), which means they are much more susceptible to damage than normally coated lines. Keep an eye on it, and don't expect to get 500 jumps out of it.
  5. Hand it to someone who can open a Velocity or similar on-heading, and let him/her jump it a few jumps while you pack as normally. If the off-headings are gone, it's your body position. If they also have off-headings every jump, its packing or canopy related.
  6. Based on their manuals, neither the Solo nor the Solo II can be adjusted in their volume. The Optima and Optima II can be adjusted, but the lowest volume on Optima II is 112dB, still painfully loud. Wikipedia helpfully states this is above a non-electric chainsaw at 1m distance. Concern regarding hearing loss is valid, but in my opinion better solved by use of earplugs rather than by adjustment of an audible. Ear plugs have the added advantage of protecting against engine noise and freefall wind noise as well as against super-loud audible noise. Think of it this way: earplugs generally lower ALL volumes. If you can hear your audible in freefall, it is loud enough to rise over the rest of the noise. By lowering ALL volumes, you don't change the difference in audible volume vs other noise volume. So you'll still hear your audible perfectly fine. Anecdotically, I use my Optima II mostly for canopy alarms, and typically in my front pocket due to a halfshell helmet (#CRWdog). Those rare cases where I have my audible inside my video helmet and I forgot my earplugs, even the canopy alarms are physically painful to hear. Earplugs are the way to go, and even very high quality foam earplugs will only set you back €30 for 200 pairs, just €0,15 per jump if you grab fresh ones every jump!
  7. There is no specific jump number for this type of stuff. My advice: discuss it with the instructors at your home DZ, and find a demo jumper that has experience jumping with extra stuff. Any jump-specific advice (like higher pull altitude, things to keep in mind, etc) are highly dependent on details like your actual experience, the exact way you want to do this, how you're going to make and hold the banner, etc... Generic things to think about and discuss with said instructors and experienced demo jumpers would be: How to hold it in freefall while maintaining stability (restricted use of arms)? How to handle it during deployment? What happens if you do lose it? How do you exit properly with it (also depends on airplane type)? And probably a couple other things I'm forgetting here.
  8. Take it to your rigger first chance you have, rather than "if it continues". That level of loop wear is abnormal, and a rigger is the most qualified person to diagnose the cause and get you sorted with a good solution. Worst case outcome if you go to a rigger: Some grommets and/or your closing pin needs to be repaired/replaced. Maybe a day's work and similar costs. Worst case outcome if you don't go: your loop breaks while you're doing a floater exit in the door, and your canopy wraps itself over the tail of the plane. That rips it off, killing you and everyone else still in the plane.
  9. I have no specific experience with a Sabre2, but in general reserves are designed and packed to open reliably and quickly. Thus, a typical model reserve parachute will open faster than a typical model main parachute. My personal experience is comparing a PDR193 reserve canopy (two rides, both ~1.2WL) with a Lightning, and the deployment speed was similar. A Lightning is known for quick openings, and I opened my reserve while still at sub-terminal speeds.
  10. All true, but there's one thing I'm missing so far. Make your feedback actionable. And that isn't easy. It is simple to take out the flamethrower and burn someone to the ground over some mistake they made, but that won't help them for the next time. Good feedback explains both why something is wrong, and how to do it right. And both in such a manner that the other person understands it. Only then can the receiver of your feedback actually improve.
  11. An intentional downplane in CRW can be flown in different ways. One way is to stack, plane, climb down and transition to a grip where each jumper holds on to the other jumper's legs. If you fly a side-by-side this way, it's easy to transition to a downplane by steering both canopies out, and its easy to break up the downplane by letting go of the legs. I've tried this a few times myself, and in my experience it is not easy to get a proper grip and you need a lot of force from both persons to keep the grip stable. If one person releases that force, the other won't be able to hang on and both jumpers will fly away from each other. Another way to do it that is physically easier is to make a harness with quick-release that you can connect to your own rig, and have a strap that can be connected between the two jumpers. I have made one jump with such a system (together with a CRW jumper who is very experienced in their use), and it is much easier to create a downplane with them, since you do not rely on muscle power to keep the connection. The downside is that you are more solidly connected to the other jumper, and if you cannot break that connection in time it can result in you both impacting the ground at downplane speeds. Typically, both jumpers have a cutaway system similar to a three-ring system on their end. One of the dangers (no exhaustive list) of this system happens if the strap gets twisted around somehow. This can lock in the release system, making release extremely difficult or pretty much impossible. Hence my advice regarding this topic. Here Be Dragons! Venture forth at your own risk. Always think deeply before you act, and talk with many experienced people. Weigh their advice carefully, and don't throw it aside lightly.
  12. Be careful if you venture there. Those things are nicknamed "Death Straps". There's differing opinions on whether that nickname is deserved or not, but such straps do add risk to a skydive in ways that are not readily apparent, so always keep thinking critically. My advice would be to seek out someone who is experienced in parabatics jumps with and without such straps, and jump/talk with them extensively. And because of their perceived risks, people are more likely to talk construction and dimensions when in-person rather than via the internet with someone far away.
  13. If the ring end up on the wrong side of the riser (outboard while the RSL shackle is inboard), I would recommend against it. In that case, routing the RSL properly is going to be much more difficult, and much more error-prone. Better to get a new set of risers, or find a Master Rigger willing and able to add an RSL ring to the correct riser in the correct place. That shouldn't be an expensive job.
  14. Whoops, time to book my plane tickets again. I've been going to Parasummer for three years now, and every time they managed to hit the right balance between a low-pressure cozy boogie, and solid organization. Perfect for a foreign holiday that includes some of the most awesome views I've seen from above. Veteran's tip: bring liquorice for the manifest/info desk. They seem to like it.
  15. I have never jumped in those specific countries, but I have jumped in nearby countries (Poland, Romania). Home is the Netherlands for me. In all cases, I never needed additional insurance over the default insurance that the KNVvL membership provides, which is 1.5M€ secondary third-party liability insurance (secondary, as in it only pays if I have no other insurance that covers it, and it only pays for damages caused to third-parties). I don't remember if they even needed that, although jumping in the UK did require that insurance. In practice, rules and regulations are likely different between each of those countries. The most fool-proof method would be to contact prospective dropzones on your route and ask them directly what kind of insurance you'll need to be allowed to jump.
  16. My suggestions: 1. Check that it has the correct batteries, and that they are installed with the correct polarity. VISO II needs CR-2325 batteries. 2. Check with new-new batteries. Maybe your 'new' set of batteries have been laying around for too long, and lost too much juice to power up the altimeter. 3. If the problem is still there, I suggest you contact L&B directly, especially if your altimeter is still within warranty.
  17. Yeah, but is it the "20 years" or the "heavy use, getting fuzzed up from wear or heavily faded from sunlight" that's at the root of the strength loss?
  18. (Not my reserve ride, nor my canopy, nor my gear decisions) Risers had no slider bumpers. Slinks and type 17 risers. So yeah, the likely mechanism was the slider slamming into the top tuck tab of the toggle, and dislodging it. Are there commercial risers for sale that have this design toggle, but with normal three-ring system, rather than reversed layout? Or would that require the efforts of a master rigger to create?
  19. Having spent the better part of my sunday with four clubmates recovering a chopped canopy out of some trees (result: succes!), I started thinking about steering toggles, half-brake settings and toggle fires. The canopy was chopped because of a toggle fire (jumper landed uneventfully under reserve). What's the best riser design you've seen so far in terms of reducing/eliminating the risk of toggle fires upon opening, and why? What are the elements that go into making something that is highly resistant to unintended toggle release?
  20. Easy, it all has to do with air density. At high altitude, the air is less dense. This means that your canopy (all else kept equal) will have lower air resistance at the same speed. Thus, for steady flight in less dense air the canopy ends up going faster. Both faster forward, and faster downwards. Both of these is also something a smaller canopy will do relative to a larger canopy (at same exit weight). To counter this behaviour, the best way is to increase canopy size.
  21. 1) At my home club, a wingloading of 1.22 would be considered too high for a 38-jump A-licensed student. Conventional wisdom calls for a wingloading around 1.0. But if you are 82kg now, and add ~15kg for equipment, your exit weight would be around 95-100kg. Round up to 100kg, and you would need a 220sqft canopy to hit 1.0 wingloading. 2) Breaking stuff on every landing is indeed unsustainable. High altitude is typically equated to an effective smaller canopy size. So you will likely need to jump a bigger canopy. But you also need to be able to roll out a landing. Practice it lots on the ground, and upsize further if needed. Upsizing is underrated. My advice: find a colorado-local skydiving club, and talk with their instructors. Let them know your history and experience (bring your logbooks) and listen to their advice regarding canopy and training. They should know how to handle students jumping in higher altitudes, and they should have the correct student gear available for rent.
  22. Honestly, if your body can't handle the occasional quicker openings (I'm not talking the out-of-the-ordinary slammers), then I should at least think twice before skydiving. Because any high-speed malfunction (pilot-chute in tow, or just unable to pull it, or whatever) will result in your reserve opening while you're at terminal velocity. That opening won't be soft and snivelly by any stretch of the imagination. There is an element of risk inherent to this sport. You can do many things to reduce it like get a canopy designed and known for soft openings, get dacron lines, pack super-duper-well (or super-duper-trashy, sometimes that also depends on the canopy), and several other things alluded to in this thread. You cannot completely eliminate the risk of either canopy opening like shit. If you want to reduce the risk of hard openings as much as possible, I suggest you also talk to some riggers. Plural, each rigger has their own experiences, and none of them is godlike and all-knowing.
  23. I agree that the three-ring system and the collins lanyard are not the same. But the relative length difference of the cutaway cables has a direct influence on the workings of the three-ring system (see the patent), in addition to the question whether or not they should or could be uneven or even when a collins lanyard is installed. And yes, I'm starting to think the cutaway cables should be even. A collins lanyard would be a useful addition, as it provides additional security in case of a riser break on the RSL side (below the RSL attachment). Then again, I'm just starting on this whole rigging thingy, so I'm definitely willing to change my opinion in light of solid arguments ^_^.
  24. Bill Booth's original patent explicitely states that the disconnection needs to happen simultaneously, which means that the cables should be even. http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO2&Sect2=HITOFF&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsearch-bool.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&co1=AND&d=PTXT&s1=4337913.PN.&OS=PN/4337913&RS=PN/4337913 (hope this works... Otherwise, search for US patent number 4337913 and see the third-to-last paragraph of the detailed description)
  25. If I understood some of the US teams that used them correctly, she flies like a dream but opens like a nightmare. A real specialist's canopy, useless for anyone who doesn't want to squeeze the absolute maximum amount of points within the working time.