Mattias

Depends on your weight, however I would talk to an instructor at your DZ. Someone who knows how you fly and what would suit you better. However if I was you I would go for something forgiving and big in a second hand rigg that fits!!! Buy new gear when you feel like you are ready to move to the next canopy step. //Matt _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Yups, I know I need to convert but i need someone to take me in a student rigger.. And 2 pin teardrops are dead easy by the way... Thanks for trying anyway. //Matt _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Cheers Grant, Pardon me for getting my hopes up. It is not easy to be a whacko from out of town...country even. //Matt _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

This is a strange one but bear with me. I have moved country but would like to keep my rigger skills up to date. I was wondering if a rigger in the Southwest of England (not too far from Bristol) would be willing to take me under a wing as a (reserve)packslave. I have been Swedish Senior Rigger since 2000 and can pack most riggs, not Tandem or one pin teardrop however I could learn. I do know how to make minor repairs to canopies and minor repairs and modifications to riggs. Also I am not expecting to take it up as a full time job as a am currently employed otherwise and can only pack on saturdays and sundays. If you are a rigger looking for some help or know of a rigger looking for a hand please send a PM or post a reply here. Best Regards: Mattias Devlin Swedish Parachuting Association; K-148 www.sff.se

Aah, thanks now I see what you mean. I would guess that last lever would make little difference but I have no empirical data to support this. Still Mr. Booth (may we all hail his wisdom in this case) don't like them so I think I'll stay away from them anyway. I actully like my three rings to glimmer in the sun, that way I know the weather is good enough to jump in... _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

I can't see why reversed risers would give you trouble pulling the handle, however I can see problems with the reversed three rings releasing in some situations. Tandem systems are not allowed to have reversed risers anymore, reason enough for me to stay away from them. -If god allmighty Bill and his words wouldn't be enough that is... The only advantage with reversed risers that I can think of is that some poeple think they look good. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Eat more, Pizza, beer, crisps...? If you want something that fits well I was going to suggest sleeveless chainmail, not very adjustable in weight (or price) but it is comfy and it might get the ladies swooning _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

I find your advice a bit strange, a Springo is an elliptical canopy similar to a Stiletto but twitchier, for which you need 500 jumps in The Netherlands. Would that be approved a first canopy?? And you'd be underloading it so what's the point of jumping one that big anyway. As for all square, not many canopies are anymore. I'd go with a 170 or 190 intermediate canopy, like Spectre, Triathlon, Sabre (2), Pilot, Safire (2), Electra, ... Sorry, you are absolutely right, my mistake. I will edit my post. And I meant merit (I am sure I did anyway...) _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Winter? What's that? Oh yeah, it's when the jumping finishes at 4:30pm instead of 7... *Snipp* Ya bastard! GrumblegrumblegrumbleGrumblegrumblegrumble GrumblegrumblegrumbleGrumblegrumblegrumble GrumblegrumblegrumbleGrumblegrumblegrumble GrumblegrumblegrumbleGrumblegrumblegrumble Grumblegrumblegrumble... If you go as low as 170 make sure it is square and not eliptical at all, if you go 190 I might have considered a slight eliptical (Springo type, but stay away from the french stuff...) and depending on how you fly currently, otherwise there have been better advice around here. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Hi! Nice to see you here! I will be moving to England shortly, do you know were I can get info about drop zones, prices and so on? -Oh, google is a good tool, found BPA homepage...all I neede really. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Not below take off level, below preset landing zone. Which would be higher than take off level. The fact that you have to shut off the unit in a controlled descent is a bit silly when you don't have to worry about this with the cypres (I haven't checked with the student cypres). Student mode is fine to shut off in descent, I still feel you could write software that could handle these situations... Just proves to me that they have cut corners when they designed the software. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

I said no to this. We have a relative dust free environment were I jump so I wouldn't think this is something for me to worry about. However I clean and lube all cables during the repack cycles that I do. If any of my friends have been to the US, in some dusty drop zone ala Arizona I would recomend them to clean (well, dust it anyway) their entire rig... I'm just worried that quite a lot of skydivers around here do not know how to cut the main in order to do this kind of stuff them selves, wiggling three rings and cleaning cutaway cables that is, well they can but putting stuff back together again... _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

"Units that have been corrected for higher landing altitude [than take off] fired when you passed that altitude going down in the plane, even if you where only exceeding 20 m/s" -From an email sent to AAD by the SPA. The unit tested was manufactured prior to october 2004, it was tested in a preasure chamber at various descent speeds and preset landing altitudes. The unit fired when descending below the pre set landing altitude. And it did this repeatedly. (This is from memory of what was said at the Swedish PIA symposium this winter.) When pointed out to AAD that there were some flaws in the software, AAD claimed that the problem didn't exist. They were probably in the process of correcting this I would imagine, hence the culture clash comment. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Yup, that is one of the reasons. The other problem was a model tested by the Swedish PA which repeatedly misfired in a situation were it shouldn't. (simulation of descent below a preset landing zone in an aircraft) This was due to poorly written software, do not know if it has been rectified. I am sure AAD have fixed this but they kept telling the Swedish PA that the problem didn't even exist. This could be some sort of culture clash but it makes me wonder. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Seems I have been out of the loop a bit. Just read an email stating that the Vigil is certified in Sweden, however some sort of 4 year check, al la cypres, will be mandatory. I do not know when this happened however but it couldn't have been to long ago... The 4 year service check seems to be a good idea. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

I would love to do some downhill skiing, Christmas sounds great too, but I recently got made redundant at work so I better find a new way to pay for my adrenaline dependency first, my dealer do not offer credit. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

So would I! But until I do I will remain a whement sceptic. Does anyone know what company is behind the Argus, and where it is based? _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Ah! Here is the thing; a Cypres does a self diagnostic every time you switch it on, just like the Vigil. It will complete the self test and start regardless of small shifts in tolerances or leakage currents or what ever. (I know little about how electronics work, but I know a wee bit more about how materials behave). As the AAD gets older these shifts will drift even more due to changes in the material and probably other effects and in the end you could end up with a potentially dangerous AAD. I would feel a lot better if I knew that most of these "out of specs" components got tested and replaced in a regular maintenance cycle. Sure, failures do happen even in properly handled, maintained and used equipment but if you do not put them through some sort of screening the only way you find out that your equipment doesn’t work would be when it misbehaves. I would hope that the self test would pick it up, but if it doesn’t (which I think is probable when it comes to small shifts in sensor response or other drifts in specs) then you suddenly fly with faulty equipment without knowing about it until it was too late. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

I will state here for the record, I do not like AAD (the company who manufacture Vigil), just so you know. Personally I think that is sad, consumers should know what they buy, if they did I think the sales of Vigil would drop. I am inclined to compare this with the “non-airworthy Sabre 107” story that is floating around here. I am sure Vigil saves lives, Cypres too but both have misfires Vigil more so (I believe) at the moment but it is still cracking its’ teeth so that will probably be fixed, after another recall… However in a few years I am quite confident we will see more misfires and malfunctions from the Vigil due to lack of maintenance. Anyone who truly believes that the electronics in the Vigil will survive 20+ years in a skydiving environment is probably a sales rep. for AAD. -Let the ranting begin! _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Yes, all AAD's have had problems, I remember reading some serious stuff about the Cypres when it came out in the early 90's. I do not know why Germany didn't let the vigil through just know they didn't at first and now they do. Sweden has not yet certified the Vigil (as far as I know) as there was a ton of issues that had not been addressed or disregarded by the developer. The Swedish Parachuting Association is run by skydivers so it is not, in principal, a government agency and the people in charge of certification are a serious bunch of people. I can compile the email I got earlier this year from SFF if any one is interested, just have to check if I havn't missed anything first… I am sure the Vigil will be a good competitor to Cypres, but I am not sure when that will happen. Argus? Is that the Vigil spin off? _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

There were good reasons why two countries didn't certify the vigil and I know one of them have not done so yet. I would find out why if I were you. _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...

Hi everyone! I am back, I use to hang around here a lot a few years ago, mostly lurking so I doubt anyone remembers me, but hey I managed to find my way here again. Greetings to all you wonderful skydivers out there, blue sky and all that! I am settling in for the off season so no more jumping for 6 months, just so you know why I grumble... //Matte _______________________________________ What goes up, must come down...