Marksman

Dude, stick to an analog one, Period. I use an altimaster on my left hand which is my principal and constant reference, and to backup i use 2 different audibles made by different manufacturers, a neptune on my left ear and a protrack on the right ear. I work with computers, i know how they fail, hence the level redundancy above. But i ALWAYS look at my analog one first and mostly, beeps are there just confirm the analog readings and make me feel confortable. Cheers.

Close call on this video. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiGdqPfztsc&feature=g-vrec&context=G23bb5bcRVAAAAAAAAAQ humm...Owner comments about bad spotting, what do you guys think?? I'm glad nobody got hurt, I also think is great he decided to post the video to help others avoid mistakes. (i hope this is not a repost) blues.

Hi there. Not saying the helmet solves the hazard. What I pointed is a security procedure/practice, that its as important as approaching any aircraft AWAY from the propeller(s). I trutly believe that hitting aviation grade aluminium with thy head really hurts (a helmet solves this issue). .2cents

just terrible. I was taught to always have my helmet on and secured before approaching the aircraft, which btw should always be accomplished thru the back of the plane. But you know what, I constantly see experienced skydivers moving about near the plane and not wearing helmets until just about to be airborne. I mean why does people with more experience are the ones that bend the rules more explicitly? cmon please set the example. Anyways, for me an airplane (or chopper) propeller equals to a blending kitchen appliance. you just have to fear any abnormal proximity.

In my case, 3 line twists, looked at the altimeter in all 3 situations, all fixed. cheers.

disclaimer!!!

Guys, thanks for all the responses! Indeed a very high level discussion going on, with lot of experience being brought to the table, please do continue. Call it coincidence but after I started this thread, this happened... last week week my cousin joined me to the DZ, It was his first tandem. I exited first and they (tandem) followed, I got to watch their deployment and witness the spinning mal/tension knots situation that was promptly addressed by the tandem pilot's EP actions, the main was released and I saw first hand the skyhook performing its job pretty well, they landed correctly in safety. Ufff, I took a breath again... Moments later I met them in the ground, my cousing was with a ear-to-ear smile, saying he wanted to do it again, at the beginning he did not even realized a disconnection had happened until the tandem pilot told him. After seeing the video, he still wants to go again. I mean, clearly this kind of technology is here to help improve safety (doesnt matter the manufacturer's name or how many variations of the working principle might exist)... The debate about adoption rate vs mindset/change resistance vs effectivity vs adaptability, is very valid but it's of great importance to address the fact that humans have a tendency to settle and use the least effort route... Would we still be listening to casette tapes instead of ipod's if the sound quality was just okay and didnt need improvement or having less bulky players?? would we still think that airbags are a bad technology after the reports of world scattered events of kids/babies getting hurt? what about the saved people? the technology got adjusted, new sensors, new requirements, etc.. Maybe the fact is that canopies are working pretty well, containers too, AAD's are here to assist, people are still kind of screwed up but we manage right? Bad decisions are now the main cause of incidents in this sport....have we already gone too deep into the confort zone? So regarding decisions, when have skydivers decided that the development of technical advances in skydiving equipment has reached a plateau in the name of simplification?... what about the potential of criteriously adding more active safety? The skydiving equipment industry is very sensitive to reputation, customer feedback and word spreading, is this something that collaborates with the plateau effect? cheers! Marksman.

Hi there, I've read and listen to several skydivers comment (on and off the forum) that they do not use skyhook....but i see the majority of this same persons using a steven's connected.... Can anyone please comment on why wouldnt you consider using a technology like skyhook that has some obvious benefits? Please mind that i am not making any kind of decisions based on your answers, i just want to observe what would be the prevalent opinion in the forum. btw, i prefer to use skyhook. Thx and blue skies!

Congratulations for saving yourself with confidence and injury free! Cheers! P.s. Please send my beer to brazil !!!

Hi all, Pardon if someone already posted the link below... it also develops on the topic. http://www.makeithappen.com/spsj/fallout.html blue skies!

I've been there also beggining of this year, did 15 mins and received good coaching from chris and snyder. Staff was very helpful and professional! I will go back again, great overall experience, prices were ok. -R.

what do you think about these based jumpers: http://www.blincmagazine.com/forum/vbtube_show.php?tubeid=304&name=basejump-low-pull-extreme -R.

totally agree. With the correct motivation for advancing and the head in the right place one can seize the best both side of performance levels can offer. At the end seems to be a matter of reaching and maintaining conscient levels of optimization and don't letting one's ego take precedence over reason. thanks for your comments. -R.

champu, my take is not about my experience or even yours which of course I acknowlegde is far greater than mine on skydiving. btw, I agree on your point on negotiation and justification thats based on personal experience, but.... I'm trying to position regarding each one's confidence and real confort level on the equipment being used when the time to make fast, spot on decisions come. If this wasnt the case, we would have no worries about the timing to initiate a swooping manouver, people not respecting basic landing patterns, books like germain's that seek to bring sense in even very experienced skydivers, or even better we wouldnt have those nice videos we see from time to time on youtube where some skygod is doing something absurdly dangerous thats seem as a close call. You see, people tend to get cocky and push the envelope when they enter the confort zone of any activity, and its always because they got more experient and use an equipment thats more sensitive to input, motorcycling is a good example, you cannot stop people from buying a 190hp lightweight supersport bike, it does not matter how much advice you throw at some point they think they can handle it well, until proved the contrary. The ammount of attention you need to pour in and the need to re-establish new parameters is real, even for professionals and that is the aspect of high WLs that I see is more dangerous for each person (being mesuared by their own experience of course) and thats being discussed.

And that is just stating the obvious.. Kinda like a car has 4 wheels.. Pretty pointless, unless you have the IQ of a monkey.. I don't think is obvious. You see people in this sport are constantly finding themselves out of obvious situations. Sudden strong wind, double mal, canopy collision, canopy collapsing, dust devil, to low for canopy to recover, etc.... ALL situations where the people who were the protagonists 2 seconds before thought they were in an obviously normal situation until the mentioned type of problem manifested itself and lead to an injury or fatality. You see, I agree with you that it doesnt matter because the activity itself brings to the table an amount of risk thats implicit, using a smaller or larger canopy. Its part of the decision to be a skydiver to deal with those risks. BUT: the smaller the canopy, the higher the speed so.... the smaller amount of time or window of opportunity to correct any mistake even if caused by factors not under your direct control. but with a larger thus slower canopy, you endup having have more time, it buys you ALTITUDE, with more altitude you have far greater chance of being able to make decisions to save your butt. People should think about the choices they make about participating in skydiving way before thinking about WL. They should not fool themselves, I think that the necessity to compensate when using a higher loaded canopy with sharper, faster, more precise and often with room for a single definitive action during a problem does not come close to justify the benefits high WL brings. my two cents. take great care all. blues. Ricardo.