TommyBotten

After trying to sell my 2003 Vel 103 with ~2000 jumps on it for almost a year, I had to settle for $150 just to get rid of it. Might be the new line of HP canopies, might be the high jump number on the canopy.

It has been said before, but I feel it cannot be said enough - Take courses, and have coaching by someone who is proficient and trustworthy. Hopefully your instructor or DZO can help you in your choice. Imho, having a mentor that follows your progress over tens (or hundreds) of jumps is crucial to a safe progress. Some DZs have a community for this kind of jumping. Try to look these up. A good read is the BPA CP manual: http://www.bpa.org.uk/assets/Training/Canopy-handling/cpmanual.pdf Now, that said ... For your technique given the video: * Raise your setup altitude. There is no reason to plan for a turn under 300 feet, no matter the canopy or wl. Given your WL and technique, I'd guesstimate 400-450 feet setup. Which means you should practice to get a consistent pattern and turn at 500-550 feet. * The surge should be 'helped' by front risers, not forced. Start the surge using a normal flare, let up and as the canopy dives forward, help it with the front risers. In the video, it looks quite a bit rushed. * The dive and turn is very short. Let it dive straight in for a couple of seconds before initiating the turn. Let the turn be a full 90 degrees and spend a couple of seconds in the turn as well. The early toggle stab out and slider has been commented on. There is also a lot in the plane out, the positioning in the harness, pattern flying and so forth , but these are hard to detail in a forum post. Best advice I can give is be patient and get a good mentor.

Norwegian federal authorities require an AAD mounted on all gear jumped by norwegian license holders. The skydiving clubs chief instructor may allow for certain jump types (i.e. planned water landings) to be done without one.

It doesn't look like it's sewn together. It looks more like it's another set of loops. Still not sure what it's for though. See attached screenshot.

When are you going? If you're looking to get in a decent number of jumps with great scenery, I can recommend Skydive voss ( http://www.skydivevoss.no/ ) , With awesome mountains (yes, mountain flying is organized) and fjords, the scenery is unbeatable imho. Prices are somewhat higher than the rest. Not sure when they close for the season though. DZ Denmark has some great facilities and even a swoop pond ... but since you live in Dubai, that's probably not as exotic to you as it is to us north Europeans.

I understand a h&p as pulling before 2 seconds passed, and I've done this with all my canopies. I notice the difference between openings on my velos depending on my vertical speed, but I wouldn't say that I need terminal speeds for it to open nicely. my 2 cents.

6 years, 24 Dzs. 60+ if you count innhopps ( temporary/ one day DZs).

At our DZ we had an incident where the plane was went down into a field right after take off. The "crash" landing itself was quite soft, but the pilot was crushed in between the instruments and his seat by two skydivers not wearing their seatbelts. Needless to say we all wear them now. Same goes all around Norway, regardless of Cessna, Porter, PAC or Twin otter.

I've only done two jumps on an Omni 169 (loading 1.1) and around 100 jumps on various size Storms The omni is a bit different from the storm, perhaps more compareable to the PD spectre. Although a seven cell, it has a flatter glide than a storm, but handles a bit better on rears with breakes set - which is my major (only?) problem with the storm. Packed the same way as I pack the storm, it opens nicely. With a longer snivel, searching somewhat more and thus not quite as dead on heading as the storm, I would not have any issues with using this as a wingsuit canopy, and the longer softer openings might even benefit your if you're flying a heavy camera set. If you have not read it already, there's a review in the gear section: http://www.dropzone.com/gear/Detailed/300.html

We've had a couple of ones for our pilots: One that had an issue with his radioset causing it to remain on transmit all the way on the descent on an active commercial airport... while singing some awfull song. To no surprise he was named "Hotmic". Then there was "Fuel cap" who forgot to close the fuel cap before take off. And "Dip stick" who lost his fuel dip stick into the fuel tank.

Try reading up on Steven Geens instructor A thesis. It's elaborate, but at the same time not too hard to follow: http://www.apf.asn.au/Members/Information/Exit-Seperation/default.aspx

Throw it a kick ass party As mentioned here, the usage is what wears it out, not age. Search for a (master) rigger in the area that has a permeability tester, and have the fabric tested if you're worried.

watch this video again. i guess you don't have your bridle (where bridle go through d bag) facing to reserve. Thanks for the tip, but that's not the case.

It's not about the aesthetic. Mostly it's about it being a pain to back, secondly correctness. If I'm doing something wrong with the packing or the reserve is not placed correctly, I would like to fix it. I haven't had anyone else pack it yet, but I'll try that too. Thanks for the insight guys, I'll play around with it a bit more with it and keep you posted if I find anything that works.

Thanks, but I've seen this one. On both my V3s, the main closing loop is attached at the bottom just where the reserve container is sewn to the back pad. I'm not certain, but it seems that this adds up to my problem. And no, I don't have USD2000 and 40 weeks to wait

I just got a Vector 3 - 306 which I'm having a bit of trouble packing efficiently. The reserve is "Standard fitting" while the main is in the "Full fitting". My problem comes from a gap that appears on each side of the bag as it fails to fill the corners of the container (Seen in the attached image container-open). As I close the bottom flap, the bag seems to squeeze in a way that leaves the gap. Closing the two last flaps on top of the "squeezed" bag leaves a crease and odd dent on the container as seen in the picture "container-closed" The reserve seems to be well packed, leaving a small bulge on the bottom of the reserve container / top of main container. Does anyone have any tips on how to fix this? It's a real pain to pack.

Although a smaller canopy can handle turbulence somewhat better, the canopy ride as a whole is probably not going to be a better experience. A smaller canopy gives more response and more speed, which means you have to time and control the flare better. Besides, if the winds are that strong, I on my part prefer staying on the ground watching inexperienced skydivers become experienced (Or - advice them not to go up)

I've observed the same thing on storms loaded 1.35 and 1.7. You should give PD a buzz about changing the brake settings. My guess is that this would alter the openings quite a bit. On my part, I've gotten used to it. You don't have the same turning power as with many other canopies, but a combination harness and rear riser input works out fine.

It's a bit hard to tell from the pictures, but just make sure the bolt on which you've mounted the camera does not stick too far out. If you should ever really need your helmet, you don't want it to have a protruding screw or bolt that could fracture your skull.

Erik Vliegenthart has his own shop ut at vertical sports. He is probably one of the experienced riggers in SA.

There are a few snowboard variants that might be usable. No personal experience though.

And thank you for providing interesting and understandable information :-)

Exiting at all altitudes helped me get better altitude awareness. Having your head outside the door spotting gives time to observe the horizon as well as the ground. I can see this working mostly for small Cessna DZs, but I would recommend to do do a couple of ~5.000 feet (and lower if you're comfortable) jumps in a season.

This just in; the Norwegian civil parachuting authority has grounded all Chernis PCs in Norway for inspection. We've had three incidents during the deployment where the tape coming of the confluence wrap at the point where the PC attaches to the bridle. Two of the incidents led to the PC being separated from the bridle, and barely hanging on by the kill line. For the affected PCs we've seen that only 3-9 mm of the tape was wrapped around and sewn within the CW. Chernis has been contacted on this, but no conclusion has been made yet. The service order is available in Norwegian here: http://nlf.no/sites/default/files/fallskjerm/dokument/so_2014-03_chernis_pilotskjermer_0.pdf

We do our run on our C206 without flaps as they are exposed right next to the jump door. As such, the speed is usually around 80-85 knots.