JUMPING WITHOUT ALTIMETER

[ravel 0]

Last time I jump I saw one of the skydiver jumping without an altimeter.
He said he was ok because he had his audible.
what do you guys think?

[weaverd 0]

me personally....i would never jump without an alti and would also never rely on JUST an audible

[popsjumper 2]

I think what I would like to hear is that you and everyone will jump with altimeters.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[labrys 0]

Jumping without an altimeter is not a problem at all once you have enough experience and a good eyeball for where you are. This is easier to do at a DZ where you're familiar with local landmarks and what they look like at important altitudes. It's harder to do in a strange place, but it's not impossible by any stretch.

Jumping without an altimeter "because you have an audible" is more questionable. It implies too much reliance on the audible.

weaverd:

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me personally....i would never jump without an alti

If you keep jumping, you will end up jumping without an alti for one reason or another. Your alti will break, fall off, get torn off, etc. It happens. Learn to be aware of where you are and what things look like at different altitudes.

Look out the window as the plane climbs and guess your altitude. Look at your alti and see if you're correct. Practice until you are accurate. It's not a big deal.

Owned by Remi #?

[chuckakers 425]

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Last time I jump I saw one of the skydiver jumping without an altimeter.
He said he was ok because he had his audible.
what do you guys think?

I think he's the kind of guy who would drill a hole in a sinking boat to drain the water.

Chuck Akers
D-10855
Houston, TX

[darkwing 5]

Since the vast majority of people who die skydiving wear altimeters, maybe he drew a cause-effect conclusion and decided it was safer to not wear one?

Many old timers (me) jumped without altimeters. I made about 500 jumps without one, and no audible either. It certainly helps that others you jump with do wear them, but it also has the affect of making you pay a lot more attention to the ground. It was a challenge to go to another dropzone though, because you don't have all the visual cues dialed in.

In this case I'll withhold judgement, because I don't know enough about the guy and his jumping. I certainly don't automatically condemn it though.

-- Jeff
My Skydiving History

[crotalus01 0]

I have had my Neptune die in freefall a couple of times. It freaked me out the first time it happened but it ended up really not being that big of a deal. When I was going through AFF my instructors drilled it into me to look at the ground (in the airplane and under canopy, not in freefall - it was AFF remember) and guess my altitude, then look at my altimeter and see how close I was. I made it a habit to do that on most of my jumps, and it ended up serving me well when my altimeter took a shit on me right out the door.
Having said that, I would not intentionally jump without my altimeter.

As for me and my house, we will serve the LORD...

[labrys 0]

***If you were jumping with a novice jumper and their altimeter failed on the way to altitude, would you tell them not to jump and leave them on the plane to do a solo yourself, tell them not to jump and ride down with them, or give them your altimeter and carry on with the skydive?

Owned by Remi #?

[fasted3 0]

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Last time I jump I saw one of the skydiver jumping without an altimeter.

>>> What? No eyes?

He said he was ok because he had his audible.

>>> Uh oh.

what do you guys think?

I prefer an altimeter and an audible on every jump,
but have jumped without either.
I use them as backups to my MK5 eyeball altimeter.
If all else fails, pull.

But what do I know?

[jacketsdb23 49]

Jumping without an altimeter isn't a big deal. I would by no means do it on purpose. But I have given mine to others on a plane and have forgotten mine before. It happens. Its funny...the couple times that I have forgot my altimeter is always first load of the day.

In most cases I had my audible as a backup. People make me laugh when they say "don't depend on your audible". Its not depending on it, but its a useful tool...and damnit, I use it. Yeah, my eyes work too.

Losers make excuses, Winners make it happen
God is Good
Beer is Great
Swoopers are crazy.

[popsjumper 2]

I never jump without an altimeter....I have two perfectly good ones (well, maybe "perfectly" doesn't apply anymore) that I carry around with me everywhere I go.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[normiss 800]

I've given mine to young jumpers plenty of times.
When you see the "OH SHIT!" on their face, I'm comfy without one.

I don't carry two though.

[muff528 3]

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I've given mine to young jumpers plenty of times.
When you see the "OH SHIT!" on their face, I'm comfy without one.

I don't carry two though.

I think he's talking about his eyeballs.

[nebug 0]

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Many old timers (me) jumped without altimeters. I made about 500 jumps without one, and no audible either. It certainly helps that others you jump with do wear them, but it also has the affect of making you pay a lot more attention to the ground. It was a challenge to go to another dropzone though, because you don't have all the visual cues dialed in.

When I was young, broke, and stupid, my Alti-2 took a walk and I didn't have the dinero ($49) to replace. No problem, I'll just pull with everyone else. Didn't work so well, so I started using the ground as my reference. That worked a little better, because at 2000 feet, you notice a little ground rush. Now that I deploy at about 3500, it's a little harder to detect the nuances and visual clues, so I'm glad that I'm old, not broke, still stupid, but have a altimeter to help.

[Krip 2]

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Quote

Many old timers (me) jumped without altimeters. I made about 500 jumps without one, and no audible either. It certainly helps that others you jump with do wear them, but it also has the affect of making you pay a lot more attention to the ground. It was a challenge to go to another dropzone though, because you don't have all the visual cues dialed in.

When I was young, broke, and stupid, my Alti-2 took a walk and I didn't have the dinero ($49) to replace. No problem, I'll just pull with everyone else. Didn't work so well, so I started using the ground as my reference. That worked a little better, because at 2000 feet, you notice a little ground rush. Now that I deploy at about 3500, it's a little harder to detect the nuances and visual clues, so I'm glad that I'm old, not broke, still stupid, but have a altimeter to help.

Hi Nebug

Are you saying you don't jump with a smart phone, Pro track, GPS locator, Video camera and all the rest of the essential gear that is a must have for a fun jumper

Your doomed doomed I tell you.

R.I.P.

One Jump Wonder

[MikeJD 0]

In all honesty I'd say that my audible is my main device and my visual altimeter the backup. Ahead of those, but not really consciously, come my internal clock and visual cues in my peripheral vision. Of course the latter two rely on consistency of exit altitude, freefall speed and landscape. In my experience it's easy to be thrown by any variation in those.

I mostly use my visual altimeter on the way up! Jumping with a team, we have set routines at specific points during the climb - pep talk, team handshake, final gear checks etc. On the other hand, I typically only look at it in freefall if it 'feels' like we're about at the bottom of the skydive, and I haven't yet heard my audible. I also tend to glance at it soon after opening - that's another time when it's good to know exactly how high you are.

Regarding the guys who don't wear them, I'd be curious to know why. To me a visual alti is relatively inexpensive, not really any kind of inconvenience, and a calibrated tool that tells you how high you are for any situation in which you might need to know. I certainly wouldn't jump without one by choice.

[JackC1 0]

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In all honesty I'd say that my audible is my main device and my visual altimeter the backup. Ahead of those, but not really consciously, come my internal clock and visual cues in my peripheral vision. Of course the latter two rely on consistency of exit altitude, freefall speed and landscape. In my experience it's easy to be thrown by any variation in those.

I've been warned by S&TAs at dropzones I've visited specifically not to eyeball altitude due to the fact that the fields in the surrounding area are much smaller than average and people who do eyeball the altitude often end up pulling low.

I can't really see much reason for not using an alti. For most folk, I doubt the mk1 eyeball will do much better than +/-10% even on a good day in familiar territory. Take it out of its comfort zone and I bet it would do much worse. That's the exact reason altimeters were invented in the first place.

[weaverd 0]

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Jumping without an altimeter is not a problem at all once you have enough experience and a good eyeball for where you are. This is easier to do at a DZ where you're familiar with local landmarks and what they look like at important altitudes. It's harder to do in a strange place, but it's not impossible by any stretch.

Jumping without an altimeter "because you have an audible" is more questionable. It implies too much reliance on the audible.

weaverd:

Quote

me personally....i would never jump without an alti

If you keep jumping, you will end up jumping without an alti for one reason or another. Your alti will break, fall off, get torn off, etc. It happens. Learn to be aware of where you are and what things look like at different altitudes.

Look out the window as the plane climbs and guess your altitude. Look at your alti and see if you're correct. Practice until you are accurate. It's not a big deal.

Ok let me restate what I said I will never INTENTIONALLY jump without an alti..If mine breaks im borrowing from a friend or renting from the DZ or just not jumping!

[normiss 800]

Here, borrow mine.
I have a few of them anyway....

[DrewEckhardt 0]

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Last time I jump I saw one of the skydiver jumping without an altimeter.
He said he was ok because he had his audible.
what do you guys think?

I could never hear my audible's beeps for break-off and pull altitudes (just the final siren) so I skipped those and reserved it for recording jumps and just in case.

I dropped my altimeter getting dressed, it never got above zero in the plane, and I jumped anyways.

My pro-track indicated that I'd pulled within a couple hundred feet of where I normally would.

At a familiar DZ where you know how big the runway, landing area, etc. look at various altitudes it's not a big deal.

[mdrejhon 8]

After having been to enough bigway events and pulling in a track based on ground rush, often beating my flashing audible by a second or so, I can eyeball 3000' pretty accurately (+/- less than 500'). So I'd probably jump without an alti/audible on a less busy day, if I can make the jump safe to pull 'at own descretion' in a +/- 500ft range without risking others' airspace.

The situation has never come up, though. Always have jumped with at least one altimeter.

[377 22]

When I learned freefall in 1968, students were not given altimeters but were told to count seconds and pull upon reaching a certain count. We got pretty good at estimating altitude visually. I wore an altimeter for the first time on my 35th jump. It was a huge aircraft altimeter on a belly reserve mounting panel along with a stopwatch.

Now I support the use of anything and everything that can improve safety. I always jump with a visual alt, two audibles and an AAD. It's probably overkill to have 2 audibles but I love gadgets. If they made a safe head up display (HUD) alt I'd add that too.

377

2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

[Gene03 0]

Your "twin optical altimeters" are the most reliable ones available, and no batteries needed.

“The only fool bigger than the person who knows it all is the person who argues with him.

Stanislaw Jerzy Lec quotes (Polish writer, poet and satirist 1906-1966)

[Trae 1]

Altimeters are a great invention.
Without one I'm not sure I would have got past 10 second delays (static line course).
Instead of counting to 10 in 2 seconds flat got to watch the dial . As a training aid its almost indespensible.
as an ongoing safety aid, yep, almost indispensible.

No REAL need to not have one , although loaning to another is a good cause.

Jumping consistently (hundreds of 4way ) without an altimeter nearly put me into a hill after a 4way jump through cloud. Our team gradually dispensed with altimeters until only one person on the team had an audible. I didn't hear it but saw her dump just before I saw the hill coming up.

If I'd had an altimeter I might have opended just fine in cloud instead of landing on the side of a hill under a reserve with the slider still up .

Now I prefer to see an altimeter during a dive .

[kd5xb 1]

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I prefer an altimeter and an audible on every jump,
but have jumped without either.
I use them as backups to my MK5 eyeball altimeter.
If all else fails, pull.

I'm so old that MINE are Mark .0's!

I'm a jumper. Even though I don't always have money for jumps, and may not ever own a rig again, I'll always be a jumper.