Crotchwork art

[tooueay 0]

I've had a couple of "extremely" hard openings in my 18 jumps. On one I smacked my face on my chest mount altimeter. Then a month later on my 3rd jump of the day, the chute sniveled and then snapped open. The leg straps left vivid bruising. I'm jumping a Falcon 215 with a "student" rig from the time of dinosaurs. What can I do to make the openings softer? I've had hard openings with my pack jobs (rolling the nose as tight as I can), on senior rigger "pro packing" jobs, etc. It doesn't seem to matter. I fall at a 129 average. People have suggested watching the chute open as that would limit the "cracking the whip" effect...but then I just read a thread that you could injure your neck doing that due to whiplash. I end up only jumping 3 times in a weekend (max) due to how painful the leg straps are on opening. What's the deal?

[AndyMan 7]

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What can I do to make the openings softer

Get off student status, and buy your own rig. You'll find a modern rig that fits you properly won't leave those bruises.
We've all gone through it...
_Am
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[mffi422 0]

I jumped a Falcon 215 for a long time at the Military Freefall School until we changed to Spectres. So we all here know about the openings of a Falcon.
Try this and it "should" work: With your canopy layed out, take your top three nose cells and roll them and put them inside the fourth cell. Take the bottom three cells, roll them and place them inside the fourth cell also. Fold the canopy as usual from there. May sound weird, but...it should slow those openings down.
Also, are your leg straps fitting securely?
Let me know if it works this weekend!!!
Work hard...Play harder!
Dino

[mffi422 0]

Listen to AndyMan also.....sound advice.
Work hard...Play harder!
Dino

[SkydiveMonkey 0]

There was a post here before like this one - have a look at Skydive Mag and search for "controlling your deployment". It might help a little.
Wynona's got herself a big brown beaver
and she shows it off to all her friends ....

[scottbre 0]

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I end up only jumping 3 times in a weekend (max) due to how painful the leg straps are on opening.

[jk]Just don't wear the leg straps. That should be an easy fix to the bruising.[/jk]
The 4th paperclip didn't say much, but I could tell that it was still the smartass of the bunch...

[councilman24 37]

Make sure your leg straps are tight. You don't want to hit the "bottom" of the harness after opening. If you're skilled enough to "set up" into a head high position this will load the forces straight down your spine rather than having to pull "up" on your shoulders. If your eating your altimeter you're already whipping your neck. Of course to us old farts this is the way a parachute is supposed to open, none of these 1000' streamers that clear themselves. Of course I'm an inch and a half shorter than I was 23 years ago.
Terry

[Jessica 0]

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Try this and it "should" work: With your canopy layed out, take your top three nose cells and roll them and put them inside the fourth cell. Take the bottom three cells, roll them and place them inside the fourth cell also. Fold the canopy as usual from there. May sound weird, but...it should slow those openings down.

I've seen a lot of posts warning against stuffing material inside cells. I couldn't find the specific post, but one guy mentioned recently that doing just that has damaged his canopy.
Here's a post by riggerrob on some other problems with it.
I'm going to have to agree with Andy on this. Student gear made my co-workers call domestic abuse hotlines on my behalf, I looked so beat up all the time. When you get something that fits, things will get better.

[billvon 2,990]

>I fall at a 129 average.
This could be one issue. Just before (and just after) you pull, get as big as possible. The slower you go, the less likely the parachute is to open hard. Also, 129 is generally a pretty fast fall rate; you may want to adjust your suit until you fall closer to 120 - but that depends on what you're doing and with who.
As Andy mentioned, the "right" cure is to get off student status and buy a rig that fits you and opens well.
-bill von

[mffi422 0]

Granted stuffing cells is not a perfered method however, literally thousands of jumps have been performed here without incident. Luck maybe? Can't really say but no problems non the less. The part about off heading openings- it's a Falcon! LOL Isn't that a norm? LMAO J/K
Work hard...Play harder!
Dino

[Kirils 1]

I'm must say that you just need to jump a different canopy.
All those packing tricks to get a sweet opening out of a bad canopy just increase the chance of a malfunction. Talk to DZ owners, no one should be forced to put up with painful openings! There are too many canopies that open nicely for you to have to suffer!
Skydiving is not a static excercise with discrete predictability...

[tooueay 0]

Thanks for the replies guys and gools. I guess I just have to stop being such a pansy. The good news out of all of this is the DZO is going to transition me to a BOC sport rig for the duration of my student status (with Cypress of course). They want the 215 for the static line whuffos. I'll let you all know what it's like to not be afraid of pulling...(hmm...maybe I should rephrase that).