franck102

Thanks to all! I'll get in touch with Wingut for the ride down. America West still has $100 return flights on the 30th & 31th - check out orbitz.com, expedia doesn't list them all. Franck

It looks like I'll be able to make it after all... although I still need to figure out how to get there. I am hoping to find someone interested in sharing a ride from Las Vegas to Eloy on the 26th or 27th, and/or from Eloy to the S.F. bay area on the 30th or the 31th... I won't have a car but I am a good driver -) See you all there! Franck

Thanks Sebazz, I'll do that... Franck

What do you mean by rely? I "rely" on it as much as I "rely" on having a reserve. Meaning I count it as one of the factors that contribute to my safety. You're not suggesting that people are screaming through 700' looking at their alti and just thinking "let's wait for the Cypres to save me" - so what do you mean by "rely on them"? Franck

I would definitely take a hard look at how I approach the sport if my Cypres fired, but I'm not sure I share your point of view Ron. My goal when I jump is to have an uneventful ride under my main. Everything else is backup - reserve, rsl, cypres. I would think very hard about any mistake that causes the backups to kick in - and whether I actively pulled the reserve or the black box did it isn't fundamentally different, they just work differently, I consciouly bought & turned on my Cypres before jumping after all. I think the Cypres is singled out because many jumpers started jumping without one. What about the guy who buys a high performance main and cuts away once a month because he can't handle the openings? Or the sloppy packer who packs himself lineovers on a regular basis? I'd say they should reconsider what they're doing as much as someone who gets a Cypres fire... Franck

It looks like I'll be able to make it after all... although I still need to figure out how to get there. I am hoping to find someone interested in sharing a ride from Las Vegas to Eloy on the 26th or 27th, and/or from Eloy to the S.F. bay area on the 30th or the 31th... I won't have a car but I am a good driver -) See you all there! Franck

QuoteThe hornet jumps I've had always were nice firm openings. I would have said they were soft before I tried a bunch of other canopies. Sorry, I forgot to mention I asked PISA when I ordered to install a "larger slider" if they thought it made sense. The slider does look large (clearly larger that the Sabre's I jumped before) but I didn't check exactly which size it is. The opening are really soft, comparable to a spectre 190 I have jumped. Maybe the larger slider has something to do with the end cell closures? Franck

I love my new Hornet 150 - I load it at about 1.15 and the reviews you read are right - soft opening, nice little surfs. When new I found it much harder to pack than a used Sabre with 700 jumps... but I'm getting better -) The only small pb I've had so far is end cell closures on opening. My 2-3 outer cells are always folded under on opening, they open quickly by themselves if I stay symmetrical but a couple times one side poped open before the other and the canopy did a 45-90 degree diving turn. This isn't much of a pb once you get used to it and are careful loading the harness evenly until the leading edge is fully open. Franck

That's definitely the secret IMHO. When you think it is time to flare pull the brakes down a couple inches, and see what happens. If the ground has come 50% closer better speed up big time; if you feel you started too high mark a pause and try again. Of course you eat up a bit of flare each time, but at least this approach avoids disaster (at least on a lightly loaded canopy). Be aware that most of your flare potential is at the beginning of the brake range, don't eat it up too early! Franck

Did 4 jumps in Lodi today - beautiful weather, great people (first time I jumped there), and an incredible Thansgiving potluck afterwards! Franck

Not really true, non-licensed jumpers can only jump with coaches or instructors. If instructors are busy doing AFF or tandems students off AFF need coaches if only to complete their proficiency card. Franck

Now, as for a standard printout I actually don't think you could put in enough variables into it to cover all possibilities. The chart would be customized Absolutely, though in practice it seems many misconceptions about separation exist even among experienced jumpers. If bottom separation / time are posted along with the winds at a DZ, students will ask about it and trigger some discussions. If we just give the bottom separation as a function of time clearly jumpers are still responsible for deciding how much separation to seek. That's why I was thinking having only one column, either # of seconds to get 100 feet or # of feets per second, this way the chart isn't suggesting any specific separation. Franck

Well, actually my goal isn't to create a tool that can compute the ideal separation to the millisecond for all possible cases - I think this would have limited use. Instead the goal would be to get as many jumpers at as many DZs as possible start using this count as their primary means of determining the appropriate separation. In my 20 jumps since AFF 2 different jumpers have explained to me how I should look at the angle of the previous group to decide when to go. I'm sure most experienced spotters & JMs know better, but they often get busy once the jumprun has started and each group decides for themselves when to go. My hope was that if we can make it easy enough to use for manifest and they start posting it every morning the service could contribute to promote safer practices. Franck

Thanks Chris, that's exactly what is needed! Franck

I was following a thread on separation in another forum, and was wondering how useful a web page that displays a chart of ground separation based on the wind forecast for the day woud be? Roughly, the idea would be: - manifest in the morning browses to the web page, and enters the location of the DZ, the IAS of their plane on jump run, and the direction & altitude of the jump run - In the backend I get the wind forecast from http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html, and I use it to produce a chart that shows how long you need to wait to achieve x feet of separation on jumprun. - Manifest prints the chart & posts it Would this be useful? If so, here are a few questions: - How do you actually use the wind forecast on http://www.arl.noaa.gov/ready/cmet.html?? There are about 20 "windgrams" to choose from, and the altitudes are given in mb - how do you convert this to altitude? - Should there be an option for manifest to enter their own wind forecast? - What exactly should the output be - I was thinking of: a) wind forecast if it was automatically retrieved b) time to wait to get 100 feet of separation (or 2 columns for 500 & 1000 feet?) Let me know what you think... Franck

I did one around jump #25 after seeing another newbie do it. Nothing to it, and it's real fun! Having someone check your bridle and pouch on jump run may be a good idea. Franck

Can you elaborate on this? Do you push on the rears, the fronts, with the hands, the body...? Another question for the experienced swoopers: with a Sabre 150 loaded at 1.15, no wind, straight in approach with no front-risers, how much distance can you "swoop" - if at all - with a perfect technique? By "swoop" I mean he part where you fly perfectly horizontally with your feet 10 inches from the ground. Thanks - Franck

QuoteNot exactly sure of the physics but I think what you are saying would be correct if the rings were directly above you and not situated in front of the body. I would think that your position won't make any difference given the attachment point, unless you body touches something above the point where rears & fronts split, which doesn't seem to be the case from the pictures I have seen. The movement involved in initially shifting your weight into that position will have an effect though, that's probably what makes it work? Franck

Off topic question: why does USPA have a rule about age limits? Couldn't they leave this as a business decision to each DZ? If someone gets sued wouldn't it be the DZ? Franck

I fully agree - but I get much more fun out of my 500 jumps than I would from the intentional cutaway. It's just a risk / reward thing. I hadn't considered that - I guess you can lower the risk with good preparation. Not by a factor of 500 though I hope, or I am going to have my handles replaced and hire a team of riggers to do my repacks -) Good points, I don't have the experience to judge that, which is why I didn't directly reply to the original question. Franck

It sure is. Here are your options (I'm making up the numbers): A. Try main only: 1 chance in 500 to have a pb B. Try reserve only: 1 chance in 5000 to have a pb C. Try main, if it fails try reserve: 1 chance in 500x5000 to have a pb. Plan C only works if you have enough altitude to carry out the plan, hence the advice to go for plan B if too low. Franck

It's not about jumping the reserve or the main on every single jump for 5000 jumps. It's about one reserve ride and evaluating the risk of that specific reserve ride in different contexts. The first case is the intentional cutaway/reserve in a controlled environment, the second case is the wild reserve ride that you will most probably have within the next 500 jumps. Obviously, the first one is significantly less hazardous. So, if you think that accepting the first one is a stupid mistake, then you ought to have a very good reason to accept the second one. First I didn't call anything a "stupid mistake" - I am just giving my newbie's opinion. Second yes,I accept the 1/500 chance of having the "wild" unplanned ride, and I wouldn't accept the 1/1 chance of having a planned reserve ride with no backup. Agree. The difference is that I can choose not to make a deliberate reserve ride without losing much of the fun I get from skydiving. Not sure what you mean here. I picked 5000 out of the blue, make it 500 (one cutaway needed every 500 normal jumps) if you prefer. Then assume if you pull your reserve 5000 time you get a landable canopy 4999 times. With those numbers stepping out of the plane and pulling your reserve is 500 times more dangerous than pulling your main. True, this means that a single planned reserve ride isn't more dangerous than 500 jumps - it's just that given the choice I'll take the 500 jumps -)

CrazyIvan, I didn't mean to be sarcastic with my initialreply, I just don't have the experience to give a final answer. After reading the other posts though, I'm a bit surprised by the number of "if you don't trust your reserve why jump in the first place". This is all about statistics, if both your canopies work 4999 out of 5000 times pulling your reserve instead of your main makes your skydive 5000 times more dangerous... I personally would think twice about that -) Franck

Hum, what is your plan if your reserve malfunctions? Franck

does it actually alter the angle of attack of the canopy, or just the angle of incidence? Both - pulling on the risers directly modifies the angle of incidence, which is just defined by the geometry of the pilot/line/canopy system. Once this happens the angle of attack (the angle at which the apparent wind hits the canopy) must decrease to return to stable (faster) flight. Franck