malfunction and night jump?

[airtwardo 7]

I try to bring as Much LIGHT as I can!


There is some great advise here..

I use to tape a light on my helmet, facing forward like a coal miners lid...but it's a pain getting the sticky stuff off.

Like Spence, I just tape a Mini-Mag light to my wrist...if doing a solo I turn it on as I exit...lights up the altimeter too.

I also put a chem light on the rear riser and break it 1/2 an hour before lift off...I have a couple hundred night jumps and have never had a problem with any 'leakage'

And to be legal you need a 'blinker' going...
Nice, light, bright ones are available at almost any sporting goods store these days for 10 bucks of less.

What I like to do is tape it to the back of my shoe / ankle facing down...switch it on when you open and it can be seen from almost any direction, and the blinking won't 'blind' your night vision.

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

[kelpdiver 2]

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Watch those glow sticks. I have permanent stains on my rig when my glow stick started leaking from the preasure change. I have never heard of this happening before, but my dad and I both had leakers on the same load last year.

With battery powered 'chem lights' available from Walmart for $1.50, and for $2 at lots of places around holloween, why ever bother with wasteful, potentially messy, highly unreliable cyalumes?

The worst was always gearing up for a night dive, then snapping the stick to turn it on and finding you have a dud.

[openingshok 0]

Why??? Because for a brief moment in time I had glowing ooze flowing down my face makeing me look like a gatorade commercial......"Is it in you?"

[mdrejhon 8]

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Soon i will ahve hit the 50 jump mark and will beable to apply for my B( after ive done a few other requirments), but was wondering if you had say a line over or a mal if doing one, how would you know, unless of course it was a bag lock and you were still freefalling?

Thanks,
mike

Headlamp.

On my first night jump, I wore a compact LED headlamp mounted on an elastic band strapped right underneath the chin of the full face helmet. This headlamp was a 1-watt Luxeon LED (the big superbright LED).

I did test jump it during the day, to make sure it wasn't a danger to my helmet, and the dropzone approved it. Wasn't a snag hazard, and it was in danger of detaching from the band, so I put a little tape for a little more detach-resistance. The headlamp was a rounded 1"x1"x2" blob (3AAA battery), and about 10 times as bright as those tiny AAA maglites...

With the headlamp mounted as a chinlamp, I just aim my face in the direction. Easy canopy check! It was bright that I can just about barely see unlit ground from about 200 feet altitude -- just about enough time for me to detect and avoid a tree line if I needed to on an offzone landing. (I landed in the middle of the designated landing field, though) The beamspot gradually becomes clearly visible from 80-100 feet, and I pointed it at the sweet spot of landing at 45 degree angle as I landed. Greate flare, landed just like daytime!

Just make sure you only turn it on after opening (or in freefall if solo, since it's just a pushbutton) -- it's way too bright for the plane in close quarters.

(I had a backup photon microlight flashlight in my jumpsuit pocket, and I also had a strobe pointing straight up to the canopy, and the usual glowsticks...)