bacillus

I just wanted to share my experience as a newbie with your "keep my legs out" statement. I found that this was my main problem in acheiving rock solid stability. For some reason, no matter how far I thought they were out, I was told to get them out further. One jump, I got frustrated and thought "Okay, whatever, I'll show them what legs out means", and I stuck them as far out as I could, and bang, rock solid. Turns out there was something preventing my brain from accepting accurate feedback on my body position, and when I thought they were straight out, they were in perfect position. My instructors always got behind me while practicing my arch on the ground and lifted up on my toes, and had me push back down to feel what the air should feel like. I think that helped too. With that said, my body type is such that I do really need a lot of positive legs, and you may not be like that. Just wanted to share my experience...

I once was an idiot while packing and when stowing my breakes, I stuck the top of the toggle through the ring on the riser that the break line runs through. During opening, there is enough force to pull the line off the toggle, through the ring, and causing one break to release on opening. Uneventful, as it released at the very end of my opening, and only did about a 270 without line twists before i released the other breaks. Just wanted to share in case other newbies with few pack jobs under their belt had never thought of the consequences of doing this.

The lines going up to the left stabilizer didn't look "right" to me, but otherwise the canopy looked alright. I'll see if I can figure it out when I go back and take a look, or talk to my rigger. It was my pack job, so if I do figure out what wasn't right, it'll be a lesson learned I guess. I didn't have time to check it out since I spent so much time try to find my reserve bag. I can't remember exactly how far I had to bring the toggle down to make it fly straight, but it was far enough where I didn't successfully do practice flares that I felt comfortable with by 2000 ft. I thought about trying a few more, but like you said, I was at my decision altitude for having a canopy I felt like I could land safetly, and with my low number of jumps, I didn't feel like finding out. My main is a Falcon 215 (close to 1:1). No RSL, so I made damn sure I had both handles before I chopped. It is funny how the more I think about it, the more I doubt whether I should have cut away. But then again, I'd rather sit here unhurt doubting my decision and feeling a little silly, than sitting here with a broken leg wishing I had cut away. Live and learn I guess. Oh yeah, excellent spot ANDY!!!!! my main landed right on the DZ landing area. I must say that was pretty sweet.

Well, I had my first cutaway today. On my 50th jump. What a way to celebrate...

Ah yes, my favourite. I am asked this at work at least 3 times a week. "Why do you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" I always say, "First of all, anyone who rides in these things know they ain't perfectly good airplanes, and the only reason we jump out of them is so we don't have to land with the crazy pilots." Another thing that has made me chuckle in the past, is the few static line students that don't exit properly "because [they] were afraid of falling off the step" Oh yes, another one that I heard during takeoff that had me chuckling all the way to altitude. I was going up to do a "fun jump" during my progression, and there was a static line student doing his first jump, very nervous. The C-182s that we jump out of have a little cloth loop above the door for the instructors to hang on to and such. The instructor told the student to not touch the handle under any circumstances. When asked why, the instructor noted, "Well, you know when you put planes in hangars and sometimes they are too big?" The student replies in the affirmative. "Well, that is the quick release for the wings in case we wanna fit more planes in the hangar. Please don't touch it when we are in the air". By the look on his face, he believed it for at least a couple seconds.