Pilot chute opinions-Skydiving environment

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I do not watch my deployment over my shoulder on wingsuit jumps and will never teach anyone to do so. I have a lot of wingsuit jumps and have taught a lot of students. I throw my PC symetrically, start sitting up, then look straight up at my canopy for a split second as the canopy starts pulling me upright in the harness. PC hesitations are not a problem when you are jumping the right kind of gear and are not bullshitting when you throw your PC. Throw it like you mean it! Still, the posibility of such a thing happening is the main reason that we pull higher than normal on wingsuit jumps; particularly first flights and up until we are very comfortable with our openings in suits. Also, I have never used anything other than a hackey or a monkeyfist handle on any of my 500+ wingsuit flights. Short bridles, un-cut corners, weak throws, out of trim canopies and poor body position at pulltime are the major causes of PC hesitation and linetwists. That said, I think lighter PC handles are a smart idea and I may toy around with a floating handle to see how I like it; it sounds like a no-brainer.

Chuck Blue
D-12501
BMCI

[VectorBoy 0]

Quote

The idea is not to keep looking at the PC. It is to twist the head slightly to watch the PC catch air and then turn back to a symmetric position. This happens after the hands come in symmetrically for a split second and then the body is symmetric for the opening.

Kris.

I know what you are talking about. Its just that I have a lot of video in my collection featuring jumpers who thought they were doing their level best to stay symetrical during the deployment when actually they had quite a side skid going on. We video most first flights and low timers that jump with us ( and experienced jumpers that insist on jumping canopies not recommended for wingsuits ). It becomes evident on the PC snatch they were not even near.

By contrast deployments are much more rewarding to new jumpers when they are rock solid stable. The proof is in the video. Just like Lou said " don't make things harder than they need to be". I couldn't agree more with him on this.

Once the jumper has some experience ( and doesn't pull a full fifteen seconds before us ) its a personal event based on their confort and needs and we have no video for reasons of separation.
Glen

[KrisFlyZ 0]

I don't compensate for the movement from the head. I don't claim that I am good enough to compensate for these movements. I don't say that I get on heading openings all the time. I have felt myself slide and have on occasion rotated over 90 degrees before the canopy starts to deploy(when I over do this looking thing). I prefer to know right away that the PC is out of the burble. That is the only reason I look at it after the throw. I don't know if you checked out what equipment I jump or not but here goes....

1) Main Pack tray has open corners
2) Birdman Specific PC(9' Bridle and 28" ZP ) BOC deployment
3 ) Sab2 170 (less than 1.2 WL)

Unless I screw up badly when I look, I will get a opening without line twists.

I never looked at my PC until I had 50 WS jumps or so. Looking at the PC is a technique that evolved naturally.

As far as people new to wingsuit jumping.

There have been a couple of people(one had over 1000 jumps, the other over 4000 jumps) that did their first WS jumps after asking me how to exit and deploy. I told them to pick a point on the ground and maintain heading as it gets close to deployment altitude and keep looking at that point thru wave off and deployment.

Kris.

[Tonto 1]

Both my rigs have corner mods, 120 inch bridles, 30 inch ZP pilot chutes with PVC handles.

My pull sequence is pretty much SM1 clone, with eye on the horizon, a quick "stay or go" look at the canopy and then start the unzipping sequence.

t

It's the year of the Pig.