tlshealy

You did the right thing steering to avoid the collision, I'd think rather than worrying about if you should get big or small when you collide, take that last second or two an continue to steer away, you may turn a head on into a glancing blow. As with many things, an ounce of prevention is worth 23.5 lbs of cure. BSBD Tad

Another idea depending on the color of the material, you could color the flag with permanent marker to match the color of your mud flap, then it wouldn't be so noticeable. Blue ones Tad

I kind of look at AAD's like air bags in cars, they'er great, they can save lives, but I wouldn't buy or drive a vehicle because it did or didn't have them. I've been jumping since 1976 without one, so it's not a big deal to me, also I've pieced together a used rig for about $1000, so a cypres would double my gear cost, I may buy a used one some day, but if a jump seems too dangerous to do without an AAD, maybe I'll just wait for the next one. Blue Ones Tad

Yes, ripcords are simple and reliable, but so are throwouts, the reason reserves have ripcords is because of the difficulty in have two throwouts on one rig and both working independently and not interfering with each other. I used to jump an intentional cutaway rig that had a ripcord for the main because the cutaway canopy had a throwout and if the main had a throw out, somehow the bridle would have to cross over or under the other canopy's risers. Blue ones Tad

If I understand you right, by the time the pin gets to the point your talking about, your reserve will already be open, and on it's way. If you have any doubts, you should be able to get your rigger to let you pull it, see how it works and reclose it. Blue Skies, Tad

I always like to leave my rig unpacked at the end of a day of jumping, so that I can pack it at home and take my time to look it over good and replace worn rubber bands etc., well today I was doing just that and what did I find? My new kill line PC, with no more than 30 jumps on it was coming apart, one of the reinforcing tapes that go through the bridle to hold the body of the pilot chute to the bridle had come unstiched, well a few minutes on the sewing machine corrected the problem, but had I not found this it could have caused me a problem later, I also decided to check all of my line attachments and bar tacks on my new reline job, no problem there, but just a reminder, even if your gear is fairly new you should take the time to check it out, finding a problem on the ground is better than finding a problem in the air. Blue Skies Tad

Jeremy, Maybe I'm old fashioned, but you can take a set of hard links, tighten them properly, mark them, put rubber slider bumpers on them, and forget about them.( ok you should check them on occasion) The next time you mess with them is when you unhook your canopy to get it relined or sell it and get a new one.I also like that my slider stops at the links and doesn't come down until I pull it down, so it doesn't interfere with brakes or risers on opening. I don't have a problem with slinks, but I don't see any reason to run out and buy some to replace my hard links. I'm sure that in a few years when all of the canopy mfgrs. have them as standard equip. on their canopies, we may see hard links go away, or will we? Time and several million more jumps on slinks will tell. Blue Skies Tad

Don, If your Tri is loaded fairly light you might not need to roll the nose at all and the tail just enough to control the pack, go to aerodyne's web site for complete packing instructions and follow them. To get your slider down either pump both rear risers or unstow your brakes and pump the slider down. Blue Skies Tad

Clay, I had the same thing happen the other day, we were doing a 22 way and sometimes when there is a lot of jumpers in the air , I'll hold my PC for a moment as an additional wave off then let it go, instead of just throwing it. I suspect it did the same as yours, nothing for a couple of seconds then when I turned to look it deployed normally. I had also just switched from a 30 inch F111 PC to a 27 inch ZP kill line and the normal deployments were noticeably slower, but consistant and soft. I would suspect that throwing the PC out harder would fix this, but I wish I would have had a video of it. Blue Skies and no hesitations, Tad Quote

Jim The D license has always designated that a person is an 'expert' skydiver, the requirements for the license test basic skills that every jumper needs to be considered an expert, most of these skills haven't changed that much in the last 20-30 years. A person could go through a lfetime of skydiving without ever doing CRW , freeflying , or swooping a canopy, but even jumpers in these disciplines need the same basic skills to be considered an expert. I think that awards or ratings recognizing skills in different areas are great, but I believe that the D requirements are still valid. Just my $.02 Tad D8142

Matt, You might try ventilating your slider, ask a local rigger, I'm not sure what the effect would be on a Spectre, but PD reserves have a hole in the slider. It used to be quite common with tired old F111 canopies that were opening slow. BSBD Tad

When I was on the team in 83-84, our team leader told us that if we would open the American Flag and it was rigged upside down, to chop it! I'm not sure if it ever happened, but he was serious. To us, that was a malfunction. BSBD Tad

One hand per handle, I like the idea of trying to get stable after you've pulled both handles. One chop from a spinner in 1370 jumps, worked very nicely. Blue ones, Tad

Well, I started jumping them in the days of old in case of a line over on a round reserve, or for CRW ( dock on me , and I'll cut you free), but I would imagine the instances when they are actually used are kind of rare. BSBD Tad

Under water is opposite, it's forcing more gas into your body, altitude causes the gas to leave your body. When the golfer,Payne Stewart was killed in his jet, I thought the same thing. why didn't they decend when they lost pressurization, but a doctor said that they were dead in 10 to 15 sec.but that was at 40 to 50,000'. BSBD Tad

Also keep in mind that high performance canopies can have high performance malfunctions, which could test even experienced jumpers, I think a jumper with less than a hundred jumps under a spinetto, would be severely challenged. Blue Skies Tad

As a jumper who after a few years out of the sport, and now becoming active again, have found myself being asked to do a pin check on someone in the plane and wondering, "now where are the pins on this thing and how do these tuck tabs work" so I'm not sure how much good a pin check in the aircraft is doing. Personally, my gear is older and I really don't want anybody messing with my flaps behind my back on the aircraft. Plus with the differences in rigs and sizes of canopies and containers, if you don't get a flap closed up properly, you may cause it to come open in freefall. When I as on the Army parachute team, we always did gear checks, but we could stand up in the plane, we all had the same gear, we knew each other and we always dumped at 2000'. But now I'd just prefer to check my stuff when I pack and gear up, of course if I see something funky on someones gear, or someone sees something on mine you should point it out. But mandatory gear checks would be hard to enforce and I'm not sure how much good they would do. Just my $.02 BSBD Tad

Years ago we were taught and we taught students that there was nothing you could do under an open canopy to collapse it, so we would rock our PC's around and fly our strato clouds backwards etc., but with most of today's canopies that's not true, you wouldn't fly a plane and suddenly decide that your going to push the yoke forward and turn it as fast as you can and see what happens, same with canopies, experiment slowly with imputs until you know how a canopy is going to react. Just my .02 Blue Skies Tad

Dan, If your knees are dropping, it might be because you are keeping your hands too far out in front of you, try dropping them back level with you shoulders instead of out in front of your head, and you should level off nicely , regardless of your arch position. But make sure you ask your AFF instructors what they think, and maybe get some video to debrief. Blue Skies Tad

Either system if packed correctly and maintained properly will function well, I would like to know what the incident rate is for each system, hard pulls, hesitations, PC in tow, totals, etc. per jump. I would guess that many more jumps are made each day with a throw out , than a pull out, I myself have about 1200 or so throw out jumps without any problems. How about everyone else? BSBD Tad

Roger, Did you try jumping the chest mount? I guess I'm a little bit old school on this because I've been jumping chest mounts since we mounted them to our gut hangers, but when everyone jumped alti-II's with chest mounts doing RW , you could almost always see someones alti across the formation without looking down or over at your wrist. But the best thing is to jump what your comfortable with. Just my .02. Blue Skies Tad

If you guys like choppers, join the Army, be all you can be and jump choppers for free! Tad

Rene' most of the PC's I've seen, or made, or repaired, the mesh and the top skin are the same size, I'm sure there are different designs out there, but I think you'd be ok going that way. Blue Skies Tad

Just an idea, but maybe he was trying to turn and flair with his rear risers but instinctively grabbed his front risers instead. That would explain flying into the ground pulling both front risers. Personally, I've been flying ram-airs for 25 years, and I think there is way too much emphasis placed on riser flying for young jumpers with low experience. I don't mean to say that they shouldn't learn to use them, but reading a lot of posts, they think if they're not landing with risers they're not cool. Unfortunately you can't practice landings up high and get a feel for the ground. Blue skies Shane. Tad

Fred, A lot of good advice in the other posts, if your at a busy DZ just get into the pattern and follow , but if your by yourself, and have room, try turning into the wind at about 500' over your target area, then look at the angle of your penetration at full glide. You can then turn around finish your base and final, then set up that same angle to your target area. If your getting out at the end of a jump run and your not making it back to the LZ, there's not much you can do but get as close as you can and at a couple hundred feet , slowly turn back into the wind and look for a nice place to land. If you think your long on opening , don't mess around with your canopy, unstow your brakes, point towards the DZ and pump your rear risers a little to keep your altitude. Good luck and have fun! Tad