Altitude Awareness

[VampireGirl 0]

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This body clock stuff is somewhat dodgey if you ask me.

Our aircraft will sometimes drop at 12000ft, sometimes at 14000ft. If you are used to 14000ft that 12k jump will catch you out.

There are many ways to assess how high you are, I would suggest one uses as many as possible.

If you have a protrack use it, but don't rely on it. My batteries are always going flat. Don't assume that the altimeter is always correct. Use your eyes, use clouds as reference points.

With experience the "body clock" will also help. But it is probaly the most inaccurate method of all.

I am not saying it's the only method to use, only making an observation that my body clock was actually right on this occasion and how great that was. Before tracking off, I looked at my Alti (my primary source of altitude awareness) and it was in tune with my body clock.

I had a thought after having made the last post.... I think my visual awareness is better than I am giving it credit for, as I think the closeness of the ground may have had some factor in this awareness.


Obviously "body clocks" will work differently at differnt altitudes, I always get kind of freaked out when I get 15K (i am used to 13K), as I feel like it's time to get away and it's normally about 6-5k! Then I go, oh yeah baby! More freefall!!!

:-)

yep, I agree, use whatever you can, but as a student, wrist/chest altimeter is king!!

all the body clock, visual references, will be developed with experience (of which mine, is limited).

xx

www.sneale-create.com

[goose491 0]

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Clouds help.

On the way to altitude, look at your alti when you pass the cloud base. It gives you a reference.

Locally, it is usually 4K. It changes, so I check each day.

Just thought I'd add that you should never rely on knowing where the clouds are on the way up for determining where you are on the way down. They can change enough during the short ride to altitude to present a nasty surprise.

Not saying that's what you suggest Happy, just thought I'd add for clarification.

My Karma ran over my Dogma!!!

[JohanW 0]

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.. My alti is on my wrist, so I can not see during tracking ..

It can be done. Roll your shoulders inwards, have your palms face upwards and sneek a peek at your altimeter.

You might go unstable when practicing this, so do it on a solo first (remember: track perpendicular to jump run), and high, but it will allow you to see your altimeter. It might also improve your track

Johan.
I am. I think.

[SkyDane 0]

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My last jump I went lower than I had before and I really noticed the difference, hard to explain but it felt like things were speeding up the lower i got.

I know what you mean! I did my AFF in Spain and pulled at 5500-6000 feet.
When I got back to jump in Denmark, I was told that I was not allowed to pull any higher than 1 km., 1.1 km max! That's almost half the altitude!
Going down it was like: That ground's coming up pretty fast...

[Mike111 0]

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My DZ is flat, and when i say flat i mean it. On my first consol i remember looking down at 6k thinking "Oh my god thats getting big, quickly! oh god hurry up 5k im scared!"

So far i've done 2 consols and im having the best time of my life playing in the sky, as i said, i stop at about 6-7k by myself and look at my alti rather than the ground and alti. Its kinda bugging me a bit as to why i dont use both as reference, wanna smack myself in the head

I fully agree witht he scared bit - but theres one way i solve it, never look down!!! (still doing AFF so got an excuse)

Glad the consols are going good.

[Andy_Copland 0]

hahaha Mike, i was at the DZ ALL day today and the wind just wouldnt let me play. I was really looking forward to making note of what height pull time was.

I did have fun messing around with the practice harness, one of the guys pulled the cutaway and told me to fix it, but now thats got me thinking about what would happen if the left cable was a little bit too long and you only had partial riser release, and would the RSL pull the reserve if that happened.

There truly is soooo much to learn and think about in this sport.

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[Mike111 0]

Fuck those windsm espoecially when its a gorgeous day to! although it said the backl part of October was supposed to be good weather - long range forcast, so fingers crossed.

I fully agree theres loads to learn, although i always seem to forget it! - e.g. i always put my jumpsuit on wrong - never took my hsoes off and wondered why it wouldn't fit!

What would happen if the cable to long, a spin?

Mike

[Andy_Copland 0]

From what i can could see, if the cable was too long then only one side of your risers would come away, leaving you hanging from only your left risers. Im just wondering if that would still pull your reserve out if you had RSL.

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.

[tso-d_chris 0]

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From what i can could see, if the cable was too long then only one side of your risers would come away, leaving you hanging from only your left risers. Im just wondering if that would still pull your reserve out if you had RSL.

It depends on which main riser is connected to the RSL. It is the one with a shackle attached to a ring on the riser.

If the RSL side releases, and the RSL is connected, the riser will pill the reserve pin, which allows the reserve container to open, and the spring loaded reserve pilot chute launches, initiating reserve canopy deployment.

If only the non RSL side main riser releases, the reserve should not deploy without ripcord activation, but life is still gonna suck for a few seconds.

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[Andy_Copland 0]

Is there a common practice of putting the RSL on either right or left? or is it totally up to you?

Also i've noticed that a lot of the 3 rings on many of the rigs i've seen are tiny.

1338

People aint made of nothin' but water and shit.

Until morale improves, the beatings will continue.