Avion

That's a good point too. That seems reasonable. I'll discuss it with my instructors: Pulling the reserve if I manage to get below my hard deck without an open container. Thanks

Thanks Everybody, Durning my first two jumps, after all my tasks were done in the air, about 8K, and I had some 'play time' I neglected to keep track of my altitude, by over estimating the time I had to play, which in truth was only about 10 seconds. My instructors had to remind me to look at my altimeter by shaking my arm. Both times I looked at my alti and said, oh gee, 6000 already! My tunnel instructors had told me to expect this problem, and I recognized it when my AFF instructors had to remind my to look. On my third jump, I made it a major point to myself to maintain altitude awarness for the whole skydive. Basically, I had to tell myself that the whole dive is work time, and I must maintain awareness for the entire dive, play time or otherwise letting my mind wander durning freefall is simply out the question. I'm glad to say, that did job. Now by the time 8K comes around I start watching my altitude even more intently than at the start of the dive. However, one minuted in freefall does feel like a short time, being used to 2-3 minutes at a shot in the tunnel. On the other hand, I am beginning to get the structure of a whole skydive ingrained in my mind. It really is a lot different than the tunnel, almost like a whole other activity. I doubt it will be any futher trouble. Tracking, turned out to be easy as pie for me. It's the back loops that are giving me trouble. It's hard for me to get them started and I seem to roll out of them sidways alot Front loops, and barrel rolls are easy enough though

It looked fairly normal to me. I've seen a bunch on video, although I only did one myself. All you have to remember to do is: Arch and enjoy Oh yea, remembering to breathe helps too

To me an audible is just for insurance, like the cypress. I've been opening between 5.5K and 5K to give me time to play with the canopy. I might start taking it down to 4.5K in the near future. I only got the ProTrack to log my jump data. Although, it comes with alarms. So... How do you guys reply to the fact that most two out situations occur when an 'experienced' skydiver gets distracted, loses altitude awarness, and pulls the main so close to the cypress altitude that both canopies get out? Do you think that this is less than deserving of its own precautionary alarm?

That puts it in the 9lbs to 13lbs range.

Pardon me for taking so long to post this. I've had trouble figuring out just what I want to say. So, I'll just give you the facts. After spending one year to accumulate five hours in the Orlando tunnel, I managed to pass AFF in four jumps. As it happened, the course went so smoothly I was left wondering where's all the excitement. My next ten jumps on my own went just as smooth. I was beginning to think myself naturally talented, because I had managed to stand up every jump that I had ever made. Then... I took Scott Miller's five jump canopy course. My evaluation jump, I slide in on my belly. Jump two, I slide in on my butt. Jump three, I backwards PLFed. Jump four, I managed to stand up, finally Jump five, was fast downwind PLF. I consider myself to have a more rounded experience now --------------------- In retrospect, I attribute the smoothness of my training to the skill of my AFF instructors: Christine, Kim, Nikki, Nicolas, and Nat. I am also wondering, what would be appropriate to express my gratitude for being educated in such good hands. Cheers

After have more than one packer tell me my main closing loop was too loose, I just checked with the Relative Workshop about what they recomend for main pin pull tension in Vectors. They said 5-7 pounds was good, with a maximum of 12lbs. That's far less than it takes to lift my 27lbs rig off the floor. It was fairly light maybe 3-5lbs. I tightened it up a bit, and now have around 7-10lbs pull tension on it Cheers

Congrats Mike, Let's go jumping!!!

I was wondering what experienced skydivers think of this stratigy. Altitude Alarms: 1st 3500' 2nd 2500' 3rd 1500' I have a Spectre that takes 500'-750' to fully deploy from pulling. I always plan to pull at 3500' or higher. The 3rd alarm, the siren sound, at 1500 would warn me about soon approching the 750' firing altitude of my cypress. So, if I manage to hear that, I was thinking I should pull the reserve in stead of the main, in order to prevent a possible two out. Opinions anyone?

I find it very much harder to arch on the ground than in the air. In the air, if I arch with 100% effort my back hurts a little, other than that it's fine. Actually, I think it's more important to be able to do a good PLF forwards, sideways, and backwards before starting AFF. Cheers

Hey Casper, It was alot fun doing AFF with you blokes in DeLand. I had the green jumpsuit. How's the weather, back in cheery ole England? Are Beth and Kimmie healed and jumping again yet? Did Dave ever pass level 5? DeLand has really slowed down now that you all and the Norwegian and Sweds have left. Last load is about an hour or two before sunset now BTW I signed up on the UWE skydiving site, but I'm still waiting for my account to be authorized. Cheers

LOL Great story, took my right back to when I did it! I closed my eyes for a moment too when I rolled out the door on my first tandem. It really is an overwhelming experience. But, it's worth it, aye? Sounds like you did OK. I'm glad If your going to pursue AFF, I highly suggest some tunnel time first. 10-20 mins should be plenty. Cheers

Scott only said that flaring down the middle front might make it more difficult to run it out if you had to. Seems about the same to me

I'm suprised your having touble flaring a spectre. The only canopy I had trouble with was a 260 Navigator, the last foot or so took all my strength to finish out. Once I moved down to a 240, it was much easier. Now I'm flying a 230 spectre, and the flare is easy as pie. Maybe they get stiffer as they get smaller. In his course, Scott instructed us to finish the flare with hands going straight down the side of our legs. If you go to a gym, I have found that a 'total gym' excersizes the exact muscles used in flaring. Cheers

I think it's a good idea

My unqualified response, as presented in Scott's course is... Practice your two stage landing flares above hard deck in the following ways. The two goals being to learn how much initial input it takes to plane out the canopy and to learn how much input it takes to maintain level flight as long as possible: A) Practice first half of the 2 stage flare: 1) fast 2) medium 3) slow 4) with eyes closed 5) looking up at canopy The goal of this excersize is to learn how much and how fast to apply input to swing you out to about the leading edge of the canopy in order to level out your flight. B) Practice both halves of the 2 stage flare: After you have learned how to initially plane out, the goal of this excersize is to learn how much and how fast to apply additional input to maintain yourself swung forward under the leading edge of the canopy as long as possible. When you have reached the limit of your flare capacity you will swing back toward the middle of the canopy. This will enable you to maintain level flight as long as possible as you decrease your forward speed prior to landing. You should develop a sense for how long you can maintain level flight. Once acquired, actually applying these skills durning landing is a whole nother story. That's the part I'm working on now. I tend to look down at the spot where I'm going to land. I have to look more forward, because I've been tending to flare to early. Cheers Remember avoiding hazards always takes priority over landing into the wind. On light and varible wind days, it will make little difference which direction you land. And as always, talk with as many of the most experienced people you can, once you are out of AFF they are more free to give explainations based on their experience.

Cheers Chris! And thanks, that's a good story. I just went though AFF myself. I've found legstraps can be too tight, that hurts too. They should be snug, and also important evenly snug. If they are uneven, they can cause a turn by transmitting your weight unevenly to the canopy. Most of my openings with student gear hurt my inner thights a bit, once my my right thigh burned for a while. I think thats just my body and the nature of this sport. I just started jumping a Spectre, and the openings are noticably gentler, without any pain, but they take a comparatively long time. The first time I jumped it, I was going," Is it gonna open? Is it gonna open? Is it gonna open? My God, that took a long time!" almost a thousand feet. ----------------- Oh yea, about your legs: If you try to feel the wind againt the frount of your shins on every jumps, you'll get use to it, and will automaticly stick you legs out till they 'catch some air' Cheers again

I just bought my first rig from the classifieds here: Vector 3 - Very good condition Spectre 210 - Only ~160 jumps PD 193 Reserver - 2 rides? Cypress 1 - Within 8 yr service period Paid three grand, then another three hundred for Relative Workshop to install a skyhook, and inspect/repack everything. ------------------------------- I used RW as the third party for the transaction. Only after they said the rig was good to jump, did I send any money

I just did AFF. I had five hours in the tunnel first, I got hooked . I've just watched several other people go though AFF too. It seems like a good idea to have at least 10-20 minutes in the tunnel first, because many people have trouble starting at the level 3 release. The tunnel helps them get stability and turns down first. Several people I saw after failing a level or two, went to the tunnel to get stable. I managed to do AFF in 4 jumps. It really is an overwhelming amount of new things to do all at once for a lot of people otherwise. Even with the air time I had, I really had to focus on maintaining altitude awareness, because I was use to playing in the air for 2-3 minutes at a time, 50 seconds seems so fast now The tunnel instructors told me that would happen. Other than that, I chose the dropzone I thought the best to learn at, rather than the closest one, and will continue jumping there for a while, 30-50 jumps at least. Cheers

Congradulations! It was something else, huh? Do tell...

While doing a canopy course and have my rig packed, I had a fast rather than hard opening. The jump was a hop n' pop from 5K. I hopped out with a perfect exit and pitched 3-4 secs out the door. The canopy opened instantly in like 1 sec from pull, and the slider sped down and wacked me on top of my head. Very unusual for that spectre, it usually takes about 750' and a good several seconds to fully deploy. This jump was just after I had told my packer that he was doing a good job. After reflecting about it for a while, I realized that it would have been a very hard opening at full speed. Did I violate some unwritten protocol by praising my packer before the day was done? Being new to the sport, what do I know? I usually pack myself, durning the course there was a time issue, so I used the packers.

Durning my canopy controll class, I had the opportunity to experience some down wind landings. Prior to this, I had stood up all my 14 landings to date, and was beginning to think myself naturally talented Down wind Landing 1, wind between 10 and 15mph, land otherwise normal feet first then slide in on butt. Serve me a slice of humble pie. Down wind Landing 2, wind between 10 and 15, had to abort planned landing area because wind was blowing me to close to drainage pond. I wanted to avoid gettin backed up into it with my big beginner canopy. I chose to land in the grass between taxiway and runway. Started running out of distance between me and a plane waiting to take off. So, flared early, and dropped about 10-15ft while still moving down wind about 15-20 mph. I said to myself while at the top of the flare, "I gonna PLF THIS ONE!" Pretty much happened in slow-mo: Feet, calfs, thighs, butt, then back, very smoothly. Before this, I had thought that when PLFing, one would bite into the ground and roll hard. Instead, I slid very easily across the grass to a gently stop, only rolled once. The end result is, I will now, without hesitation, PLF anything other than a smooth normal landing. Also, durning that day I PLFed a landing where winds had me backing up durning the flare. That too was surprising easy. ----------------- I had some one show me how to PLF before I ever jumped. I read how to do them in the Skydivers Handbook. I spent two weeks figuring out how to do them forward, sideways, and backwards. The key is to learn how to tuck your upper body in so you roll in your line of flight. My AFF course was very brief about PLFs. I told them I already knew how, and they said prove it. So, to their amazement, I got up on a chair and PLFed on the concrete floor of the classroom They told me I could teach the other student in the class how to PLF

Yes, I also could have used multiple jumps to work more on the goals of each section. We'll just have to practice on our own

PD recommends to avoid developing a full stalls with Vengences, because they recover so abruptly and twitchy. There was an incident concerning a person doing low stalls with a Vengence last year. I just took Scott's basic course. He gives very specific directions as to how to recover safely from a full stall. I managed to do a RR stall with my Spectre 230, by pulling the RRs about a foot. Full stalls are "Much more dramatic." I just manged to get the the bottom skin to wrinkle and the end cells just start to angle in a bit with the toggles held all the way down. I would have had to take some wraps on the control lines to get a full stall. But, I was already at 2k. So, that will have to wait till next time One of the other students in the class daringly decided to recover quickly, to experience the "Rock n' Roll" dive that follows. He said he lost 1000' very quickly in the process. I suggest contacting Scott for the proper directions, if anybody wants to try doing full stalls.

Lately its been: Evanescence, Michelle Branch, and the Donnas.