-ftp-

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Posts posted by -ftp-

  2. Well the most important thing is to never let yourself get that low. The mountain video is probably a much different scenario than you will likely find yourself on jumping at your home DZ. That video was a spotting issue as far as I recall where the pilot was using a GPS and thought the jumpers were going to be doing some mountain swooping.

    All that being said, when you find yourself low I think like you said it is still instinct to deploy your main. The one thing you need to do is get something out, or hope your AAD (if you have one) functions properly if you do freeze up. At terminal you don't have time to be thinking, you need to react.

    While it would probably be best to deploy your reserve in theory, I think if it is not instinct ("I am below my hard deck, go to reserve") you could spend the rest of your life trying to figure it out.

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    Very good explanation! Thank you very much for explaining this in a kind manner (unlike this ftp guy).



    Sorry you took it so rough, this topic has been beat to death and quite frankly the people that oppose it (the "ban") are not seeing the big picture. Its politics, it's market control by other manufacturers, it's a conspiracy, it's unwarranted, the reasons go on and on. You're pissed because you feel you have a now worthless piece of elecronic equipment that was expensive. While that sucks for you and 1000's of other people, the fact of the matter is given the right circumstances that device can kill you.

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    This is exaclty how people are dying, higher WL's overtaking people, spiraling from 800' not seeing people.



    Let's say you and I are doing a two way. You load your canopy at 1.4, I load mine at 1.0. When we open, we do our housekeeping stuff and then we begin to create horizontal separation. There is some natural separation because you descend faster than I do, but if you do a 360 and I go into some brakes we can increase it.

    We work to maintain (or increase) that separation throughout our canopy flight. If we do this, there's no way that you can spiral into me at 800 feet.. I could spiral into you, though.

    It can work just as well with a load of 20. If everyone talks about it beforehand.



    In your 2-way example, yes I agree. The problem is ther could be a goup below, and that is where the problem lies. If there was a way to organiize the whole load that faster canopies either exited first, or found another way to get down first, then we would not have to worry nearly as much. Thats all im saying.



    Exit order is currently (usually) decided by freefall drift with the goal being to maximize horizontal separation at opening altitude.

    I can't see how we can keep that safety margin AND implement your proposal as the two are often mutually exclusive.

    I think a better solution is to think about (and actively plan) the jump in two stages:

    1. Exit in the order which allows maximum separation in freefall

    2. Immediately after opening, start flying your canopy to fit into the landing order. Logically this could be organized as high WL to low WL. It would not even have to be perfect. Just dividing the load into high, medium and low WL and applying that to the landing order would help things a lot.

    This approach would take some education though. For example, a jumper with a Stiletto @ 1.8 and a guy with a Katana @ 1.8 are on a level - who let's who goes first?



    I like this.

    In regards to the 2 jumpers with the same loaded canopies, they could just defer to whomever is lower/closer to the LZ.

    I know my idea seems like a little much, but besides having seperate passes for each jumper, it seems like the next best thing.

    We concentrate so much on separation during freefall, which obviously is very important, but why do we not cocentrate on landings as much? It just seems so contradictory.

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    This is exaclty how people are dying, higher WL's overtaking people, spiraling from 800' not seeing people.



    Let's say you and I are doing a two way. You load your canopy at 1.4, I load mine at 1.0. When we open, we do our housekeeping stuff and then we begin to create horizontal separation. There is some natural separation because you descend faster than I do, but if you do a 360 and I go into some brakes we can increase it.

    We work to maintain (or increase) that separation throughout our canopy flight. If we do this, there's no way that you can spiral into me at 800 feet.. I could spiral into you, though.

    It can work just as well with a load of 20. If everyone talks about it beforehand.



    In your 2-way example, yes I agree. The problem is ther could be a goup below, and that is where the problem lies. If there was a way to organiize the whole load that faster canopies either exited first, or found another way to get down first, then we would not have to worry nearly as much. Thats all im saying.

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    Not to mention similar WL's tend to jump together by nature/experience.



    Really? I don't think you get out much, then.

    My 8-way team had WLs from about 1.0 to 2.0 and we did over 100 jumps together last year with only one injury (an individual jumper who had a bad landing).

    I might add that I've never been as comfortable in the air as when I was jumping with that group because I got to know everyone and their "pattern patterns." I knew who would be down way before me and I knew who was more likely to be getting to the pattern at around the same time I did if neither of us slowed things down. I knew who liked to do wide patterns with long finals and I knew who liked to do tighter patterns. I knew who would hang in brakes and do a high-performance landing once everyone else was down (and I also knew that if conditions weren't 100% clear, she would abandon her high-performance landing and do a straight in approach like everyone else, because :o she was a responsible canopy pilot in traffic).

    But you'd prefer that all 9 of us have the same wingloading (which, ironically, would make it more likely that all 9 of us would converge at the same time instead of our varying wingloadings naturally spreading us out). Doesn't fix the problem. It's not about wingloading. It's about behavior in the pattern, no matter the wingloading.


    Yup, it must mean I "don't get out much" Silly me to not compare a normal everyday DZ operation to your 8-way TEAM. Plus that is not really a good example of what I am talking about. I assume you were all on your own pass? Maybe not, but if so, the high WL pilots would most likely be first down, followed by the next lowest etc.

    What would you say the average WL is? Id say close to 70% of jumpers have about the same WL. (No stats just a guess). It really is not that far fetched to organize such an arrangement. Especially when high WL canopies start getting banned at busy DZ's, don't think that can't happen either.

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    ... inconvenient as hell, and most importantly would not improve safety.


    inconvenient? thats a joke of an excuse if you ask me. You tell me how it would not improve safety to have similar loaded canopies, gliding at similar speeds, all performing a conservative, PLANNED, approach?

    You say it wont improve safety, tell me how?

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    The 2 low timers at Spaceland both had similarly (and lightly) loaded canopies and that didnt help them.


    are you really trying to compare that incident to the most recent? You have 2 canopies in the air and who the hell knows what happened, no explanation really besides a)inexperience b) didn't see c) object fixation. You're going to compare that to some idiot buzzing through the LZ with 10-15 other canopies in the air? Get real with yourself.

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    Difference of wingloading has nothing to do with these fatalities. Bad piloting in the pattern does.



    either that, or someone didn't look, we will never know. One thing I do know, if they had a pre-determined landing order, and knew where everyone was SUPPOSE to be, then it most likely would have never happened.


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    I would assume that the low timers at Spaceland were doing nothing bigger than 90 degree turns. Must not be that rare.



    Its been shown that incidents like that (non-hp) account for about 40% of the collisions. You wouldn't like to see 60% of the problem fixed?

    We all have to agree on something; first man down, into the wind, people diving in on the patter, fuck it just do what you want SYSTEM is FUCKING KILLING PEOPLE!!!!!!!

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    Those jumping higher wingloadings make an effort to be the first ones landing. Those jumping lower wingloadings make an effort to be the last ones landing.


    This is exaclty how people are dying, higher WL's overtaking people, spiraling from 800' not seeing people. ITS NOT WORKING! (not yelling at you just saying

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    After all, 90 degree turns kill people too.


    So do no pulls, but they are quite rare

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    If safety is so important that we must essentially ban an entire discipline (interesting that it's only those who don't swoop calling for it, but anyway), isn't it worth the sacrifice to only do two ways and long straight in approaches to prevent some of the other ways we kill each other?



    Nobody is calling for the ban of swooping, just the ban of mixing HP landings with conservative ones. I could care less if people swoop, I actually like watching it quite a bit, but for christ's sake do it safely. Safely is NOT in the middle of the common LZ with other canopies in the air.

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    I don't understand how this could be accomplished. I have a wing loading of just over 1.1, but I routinely jump with people with wing loads of 2.0+. Where would we fit in? And what about tandem camera guys? They tend to be highly loaded, but they jump with lightly loaded tandems. Where do they fit in?

    I just don't see any way to make it work.



    Its really not that hard to figure out, no offense. The bottom line is you wouldnt be able to jump with them, or they would need a more conservative WL. Not to mention similar WL's tend to jump together by nature/experience. Plus you are taking 2 complete ends of the spectrum and comparing them.

    Tandems, big ways, other unconventional jumps that are not fun jumps this would not be for.

    is this convenient? Well its kinda subjective but I guess we could say "no its not." But guess what? Its a hell of a lot more convenient than having a cluster fuck of a landing area and people dodging canopies and dying.

  12. well, thats your interpretation. Ever hear of the term CYA or cover your ass? Thats what they (Sunpath) are doing, while your thought might be logical to us, lawyers don't give a shit.

    Stop fighting it so much, like I asked you before is the chance to save your life not worth the $1,000?

  13. This was touched on briefly by me in another thread, but how about organizing the loads with WL in mind. Higest (groups) to the lowest exit order. This would help solve the problem of faster canopies catching up to slower ones in the pattern and in general.

    Seems like a decent sacrafice to make in the name of safety if you ask me.

    As far as HP landings go, I feel if you want to do that then you should do it from a low H&P only. Get out of everyones way, and nobody will be in your way either.

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    It's also silly to think that just because YOU own a cypress that makes it automatically the BEST.



    Who said that?

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    But a total ban so quick? I'm just still not sure about that one.



    Really? So would you rather wait for a fatality caused by a locked container? Then would it warrant a total ban?

    You're playing with fire buddy; is your life not worth the $1000 for a "safer" AAD?

  16. [reply

    From where I sit it sounds like that had a plan BEFORE boarding the aircraft which is generaly a GOOD idea:S



    Im all about making plans and sticking to them, I agree with you 100%, however.

    1. Im not sure of the exit order of this incident, but I'd be very interested to know how the "newbie" on a low loaded canopy made it down faster than the highly loaded "experienced" jumper given they had a plan that obviously went to shit? Pull height? I don't know...

    2. When the plan does go to shit, abort it. Don't tell me the high guy didn't see the pink canopy. Did the pink canopy make a mistake? Sure we can argue that. That doesn't mean, screw it im still going to bust out my 270-360.

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    he has very few jumps, the last thing i told him before we left the aircraft was to stay away from the pond as three of us (out of five) were swooping the pond.
    he was just scared to land off



    Do you still think this is fair? You said you have changed, do you think it is his fault or yours for not clearing your airspace? Im just curious if because you and 2 buddies are going to be swooping that that means "stay away from the pond?"

    Do you think he should have to land off to make way for you to swoop? Seems a litte selfish to me, just saying.

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    that's when you'll have to pay the $100 to put it on your phone. There's no getting around that. That's why I got a droid. ;)



    actually if you just jailbreak your phone, you can put whatever the hell you want on it.

    To the OP, you can download the SDK its called for free. I believe it comes with a simulator, if not that is available too.

  20. Ive been thinking of something lately, and maybe its re-inventing the wheel but here goes, dont flame too hard lol.

    What about designing a cutter and reserve pin that are one in the same. Maybe have a guilotein style cutter that is placed through the loop on top of the flaps, then a ripcord pin that rests right on top of the cutter and goes through the loop. I wish I could draw what I was thinking but it seems like it would be a good solution for those of us that jump AAD's.

    has anyone ever discussed this before?

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    Damn good video! My wife is laying here watching with me and whacks my arm, drums her heels rapidly under the sheets, and through a giant grin says, "Ooooooooh! I can't WAIT to start on head down! Let's go tomorrow! Want to?!":D



    Shes a keeper bro! My wife is so lame, she shakes her head over anything skydiving.

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    Call me a luddite, but I just look at the closing loop and cutter.
    If the closing loop is broken, chances are the AAD fired.
    If I cannot see through the cutter, chances are it fired.
    If the power cable looks really short - on an FXC 12000, chances are it fired.



    and what if its a cylidrical cutter placed on top of the pilot chute and has fired but not severed the closing loop? Chances are you jump and need your reserve, you're a dead man.

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    Hello all; I just want to hear some opinions and "safe" input about this new seal that I just made out of adhesive tyvek paper, with normal red cotton thread, you can sign it, stamp it and has serial number on it, more hard to falsify and eliminates any kind of pin snaging thrue the 0 grommets.
    Its imposible to unstick without tear apart

    Tanks for the input

    Nico:)



    Im no rigger, but it looks good to me. The only thing you say its harder to falsify, Im not sure why you think it would be any harder to make that seal rather than stamp some lead.

    I do like the no snag qualities, although in all honesty the current system has a very small chance of creating any problems when done right.

    Are you going to try and get this method approved?