sandi

I'm not an Aussie but I did my first 100 jumps at a DZ near Brisbane back in April and May. Ramblers DZ in Toogoolawah is about and hour and a half west of Brisbane. It's one of the bigger dz's in Australia. They have a caravan and a 182 but they primarily use the caravan. Great DZ, really friendly people. I don't know what the work situation is there now but it's a dz worth checking out. Packers don't make much money in Australia, pack jobs are only $5 Australian which isn't much considering jumps are $32. I think they get $10 for student and tandem rigs. Here's their website: http://www.ramblers.com.au/

I'll be in Perris again from the 16th until Oct. 5. I'd like to go check out Elsinore too since I haven't been there. The freefly camp on the 28-29 sounds like fun, I might try and go to that. Maybe I'll get to meet some dropzone.com people while I'm out there.

I'm a homeless, travelling jumper. I did the first half of my jumps at Ramblers Skydiving in Toogoolawah, Australia (near Brisbane). I guess I consider that my home dz since that's where I started. Did a lot of jumps at Perris Valley so that's my second home. Now I'm moving back to Chicago permanently so I need to find a new place to call home.

On my next couple jumps I will definitely try out all of your suggestions and see what works for me. Thanks so much for all the advice!

My old canopy was a sabre 135 and I was loading it about the same as you are. I had end cell closures quite frequently. One or two slow flares generally corrected it. I have, however, landed safely with the end cells closed. If it happens again and you can't get the cells to open just check to see if you can control the canopy, if so then landing it shouldn't be a problem. You mentioned the slider flapping. I'm assuming you normally collapse your slider, all that flapping isn't good for your lines.

I just got a safire 2 and I'm having trouble getting the flare right. My old canopy was a sabre and I had no problem with that. On the safire it seems like I still have too much speed when I get to the ground. Someone suggested that maybe I'm not finishing the flare but I've got the toggles down as far as they go. Is is possible that my brake lines are too long? Or am I just not flaring at the right spot? I've tried flaring at different heights, different ways of flaring (slow & continuous, 2 step, etc.) and I always still have too much speed. I have to either run it out or, more often, I end up falling forward. Any tips for landing a safire 2? I'm loading it at 1.1 and I've done about 15 jumps on it so far.

I'm anxiously awaiting my dream canopy, I've already ordered it. A Safire 109 (1.19:1), lemon with watermelon ribs. Soon the dream will be reality!