georgerussia

Believe me, you do not want it. It is much better to be on the ground thinking "why can't I be under canopy?" than to be under canopy thinking "why didn't I stay on the ground?" * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Even some airlines limit their liability for passenger death - usually for something like $75,000. And some countries also limit airline liability - for several countries the maximum liability is about $19,000. There ARE standards and regulations. FAA says that the plane must be maintained, and the penalties are pretty severe. FAA certifies parachute riggers; if you concern about packer's skills, you can insist your parachute to be packed by a rigger (you may have to pay more for that), or you can pack it yourself. We trust in SKILL, not in liability. The legal liability itself does not guarantee skill - after all, we all have heard about medical malpractice. The only thing about liability is that you MAY get some compensation if something goes wrong. If this is what you're interested it - buy life and disability insurance (make sure it does not exclude skydiving), which is much easier and more reliabe than going through lawsuit. Wrong point. If someone is a reckless driver who cannot drive safely - I would not ride a car with them no matter what insurance they have. And if someone is a skilled, safe and responsible driver - I would without any doubt. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I left them a voicemail asking about this. I'll post when they call me back. Anyway I got my 'A', so I'll be there from Friday. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Does anybody know about any license restriction on this boogie? I heard that you need to have at least B license to jump there, is it correct? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

That's great! You rock! * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Did initial check yesterday. Looks like it is just impossible for me - in harness I cannot reach the point where the brake should be stowed. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

4500-6000, depending on whether it is solo or RW, and who was packing my main :) I had one on jump 22 on my 3rd pack job: http://dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2251147 It was NOT scary at all (which was very strange for me), probably because I practiced EPs in harness just several hours before this jump, and pulled at 6 . Two extra points to everything said above: - You have to go through the refreshing course if you didn't jump for 30 days during your AFF. In most cases it means repeating the previous level. So if you're going to jump once a month, you'll jump the same AFF 1 level for the rest of your life :) - Make sure you have some extra money if you need to repeat a level. It is possible to complete AFF without repeating any level, but my instructor said very few people succeed in that. It is very difficult. AFF creates a lot of pressure on you as student. After my first jump I was definitely not in mood to jump again this day - I felt so tired. Not to mention first jump course, which will take 4-6 hours. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Just to say that I got my 'A' yesterday :) * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

You'd better recover it anyway, even in case it is completely non-airworthy. Otherwise you'll have not only to buy a new main, but also to buy: - a set of risers; - a set of steering toggles; - a deployment bag; - a pilot chute with bridle; which may cost a lot (about $500 in my case). * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Only "if the policy was transferred to you for valuable consideration". This doesn't affect most of people. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Couldn't I just stow the released brake back, and use rear risers in this case? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

That's great. However I'm almost sure I'll get my A next weekend (the only thing left is a check dive), so even this might be not the case. The only question is whether it is OK for low-time jumpers. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

This is strange. I am flying Tri 190 with the same wing loading as yours. And I can stall it with full arm extension (and this means FULL). It does not stall immediately though. Did you try to stall it with rear risers? You may want to show your canopy to your rigger, and ask about it. On Tri 190 I never had slider in my face, neither from hard turns nor from riser stall. In my case I had 2-stage flare landings too when I had 16 jumps on square. But in 10 following jumps it somehow transformed to normal flare. My understanding was that 2-stage flare came from flaring too high, in my case it transformed to flaring too low (had to walk several steps having some forward speed), but now it looks much better - most landings are relatively soft and stand-up. Just get used to it. There are several posts about it. You may want to check this thread too: http://dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2202636 * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Got different opinion from different people. Some of them says that riser twist itself does not force a large, square canopy to spin, so it might be premature brake release. One of my instructors said he was able to land riser twisted canopy. But some people say it might spin. Did someone expect riser twist on square (non-elliptical) canopy? Tried "premature released brake" yesterday by releasing just one brake after the canopy fully opened. It started spinning exactly as I had it during this malfunction. So it might be also premature brake release, and stupid me even didn't check the brakes :( this sucks. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I was taught NOT to cutaway side-by-side, or biplane, and SIM also states that. The only thing I need to cutaway is downplane. Why did the instructor told the student to cutaway side-by-side? What was the student taught to do? * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, it was definitely out of question in our case, and I really doubt it for the rest of people. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I think it is about the numbers. For example, it was very calm for a while, and then got one non-fatal accident, and two cutaways (one of them was mine) in the same day. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Some banks also report this to the police, so the person may also spend sp,e time explaining to those nice police officers that he/she was not the one who created this faked check/money order. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Well, even though this weekend seems to be really tough for skydivers, in my case I have the only one to blame (and this is me). It was my 22nd jump (total 56th with all my jumps on round 10 years ago), the second jump on my own rig. That time I packed it myself, using some help and supervision in difficult moments or whenever I was not sure (it was 3rd time I did my packjob). I was not in hurry, and everything looked good. Freefall portion was uneventful (solo jump practicing tracking), and my typical pull altitude was 5.5, but this time I decided to pull on 6, as usually with my pack jobs. When the canopy got out of the bag with slider up, I looked on it, and immediately found that right front and back risors were twisted. Said a word describing what a good packer I am, and then: Stupid thing 1: I didn't look on left risers, because my second look was on altimeter and then on cutaway handle. If I had just a glance on it (were they also twisted or not?), it may help understanding the problem. Stupid thing 2: After looking and putting my both hands on cutaway handle I checked the altitude again (something above 4.5k), and decided to wait until slider comes down, to see what happens and whether the twist cleans by itself. It clearly indicated lack of canopy internals knowledge, as riser twists (compating to line twists) cannot clean. And this was really stupid, because when the canopy inflated completely, and slider came down, it started spinning really fast. It turned about 180 degrees, and at that time I did the only smart thing at this jump, removing cutaway from velcro and pulling it, then going to reserve handle. And after pulling the cutaway handle I found myself in quite strange position, as spinning canopy threw me away. Stupid thing 3: When I pulled the reserve handle, I already knew I need to apply force to it (thank you Bonnie for giving me a practice pull), so I pulled it really hard. Unfortunately I didn't take attention to keep my fingers aroung it in fist, and at the moment I pulled it the reserve inflated (I'm sure RSL did it faster than me), and it felt down. Saved cutaway handle though, keeping it with teeth :) Stupid thing 4: When under reserve (about 3K altitude), was not able to locate neither my main nor my freebad. Instead spent about 10 seconds looking on my reserve "so cool, it is white, I like it!" and trying to collapse the slider, because it was VERY noisy. It took full three seconds to understand that this slider is not collapsable. Had plenty of altitude, so did some practice turns (including rear risers turns), and flaring. This was another good thing to do, as the reserve's stall point seemed to be higher than the stall point of my main. Despite it was windy, the landing was uneventful (and even stand-by). Thanks to other jumpers, they were able to locate the direction of my main flew. It landed on golf course, and I found it in three hours. Didn't find the freebag though. So what I gonna do is: 1. I'm going to take a packing course again. It is obvious that I did something stupid, and therefore I need to work on my packing skills. 2. I need to read more about different malfunctions and its causes. It is true for rounds that packing mistakes may be a reason for about 80% of your malfunctions, and we were actually taught those things - i.e. "if you do this, you WILL (probably) have this malfunction". This should be the same for ram-air canopies - are there any resources to read about it? 3. I need to study more about canopy internals, as there are still a lot of things not clear to me. It is still kind of 'black box', which safely delivers me down, and this amount of knowledge is definitely not enough. Well, to complete this day's list of events my friend and coach also got a cutaway this day from really bad line twist. But at least he was luckier - he found everything, so that's really good. Obviously we both were lucky, as we didn't get hurt, and this is the most important thing. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

I'll be there if I get my A license :) * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Just switched from Nav 220 to Spectre 210 two weeks before. Spectre seems to have higher forward and descend speed comparing to Navigator. The same flare speed at the same altitude as with Navigator led to nice PLF landing (but it was fine then). Basically for me I needed to start flaring higher, and you should flare slower than with Navigator. Also I would suggest you wear knee pads at least on first jump with new canopy. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

AFAIK life insurance benefits are not taxable. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

As a suggestion, do not waste the time you spend on the ground. You can practice something useful as exit/body position, emergency procedures or parachute packing. When the weather is bad usually you have no problem asking your instructor or someone else experienced watching you while you practicing. From my own experience a good groung training will save you attempts (and therefore time and money) on your AFF. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Doesn't this someone then has to pay a gift tax in US? I heard that gifts over some (very low) value are taxable. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *

Wow, this is cool! Saw it about a year ago for the first time in Russian on a forum. Didn't understand some jokes at that time, but now I see the problem - they just didn't translate it correctly. Hmm... tried it myself; found no way to translate "I am in shape. Round IS a shape!" to Russian without making it senseless. Forgive them. * Don't pray for me if you wanna help - just send me a check. *