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As Mike says, d'oh! Not leaving the UK until Tuesday 29th Nov, then stopping in Kuala Lumpur so don't even get to Oz till the Saturday, 3rd Dec. Damn! Mike, I tried backflying the Vampire again yesterday, very stable and better than last time (last time I was being deafened by the flapping of the leg wing, then sent very steep by the arm wings when I tried to fix that by tensioning everything). The leg wing still flaps a lot but I guess that's just cos it's so big and it can't inflate. I felt much flatter this time too, not binning altitude like last time. Pro Track had my first half average in the mid 60s, and I spent most of that time on my back. Chat tomorrow

I'm going for 7 weeks, leaving UK end of November and back just in time for the AGM. Flight was £700 but it goes up if you travel in December. This boogie is just one week of the trip. Mike now lives in Adelaide so he's coming too. Haven't sorted any accommodation yet. Just tried to call you on the military line (RAPA and NI) but no answer, how were the night jumps? I'm guessing you didn't get to do a night flight cos otherwise I'd have read about it on here?! www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

I'll be there! And Mike Ehlas as well, can't wait! Any other UK flockers going? Liz Ashley www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

What about if you don't immediately put the batteries in the new rig? Say you have some batteries in a Cypres for 6 months, then that Cypres's lifetime is up so you take the batteries out. 6 months later you have another Cypres you want to put the older batteries into. Do those batteries then have a year to go or 18 months? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Buzz, get Kiwi or Bish to do the following 5 minute job for you: Get a piece of webbing (Type8 or 12 or something, about 15-20 inches of it) and a slightly longer piece of legstrap-bungee elastic, stitch the elastic to the centre of the webbing, keeping the webbing flat and making small bumps in the elastic, stitch the whole thing to the front of the suit, load it up with cylumes, and try and get some UFO reportings from the townspeople of Bad Lipp! www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Netheravon (England) did night jumps last night (there's more on Friday) and I did a couple in my V1 - it was absolutely incredible. I was off my head on adrenaline after the first one, still buzzing in the plane on the way up for the second, and then we went up to 15k so the Pro-Track gave up after 1min59. It had been completely clear for the first one, then there were a few clouds by the time we went up for the 2nd which made for fantastic visuals. Has anyone else done them in the UK before or do I owe even more beer for an even bigger first? Have Vampires been seen at night over England before...? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

No it hasn't. If you hold the pilot chute by the apex (where the bridle meets the mesh), the base (where the toggle would be if it wasn't pull-out!) hangs an inch below the hem (where the netting and ZP join). www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

I'm a BPA Parachute Rigger. We've got a slightly different system to the FAA one, we don't differentiate between minor and major repairs. Advanced Packers can pack reserves but don't do any machine stitching. Parachute Rigger is the next qualification up, they can do any rigging that's not last line of defence, so they can patch a main but not a reserve, same with replacing a line set etc. They can't work on the harness or reserve unless supervised by an Advanced Rigger, who can do anything to a rig. Beyond that is Rigger Examiner, they can sign people up for new ratings. I've listed the ratings in order, and you need all the previous ones before going for the next one up. I'm a full time rigger, I work for the Army Parachute Association and look after their 90 sport and tandem rigs on my own, plus many private ones. I've made a lot of pilot chutes. I've inspected this one over and over since the mal and it's absolutely fine. I've given it to a couple of other riggers including John, my colleague who does the same job as me on a different set of 90-odd rigs and is very experienced. He says there's no question of the pilot chute being at fault. Thanks for all the input so far from everyone, but nobody yet has come up with anything we haven't already thought of, and we haven't come up with anything that's remotely possible to have happened www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

No chance, the closing loop is on top of the top flap, no part of it is on the underside of the flap. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

No, no and no! The grommets are well seated. Paul stows his bridle on top of the bag near the reserve tray and his pilot chute on top of the bag near the bottom of the container. He puts his main bag in at a 45 degree angle. There's no damage anywhere on the entire rig, and I don't know how many times I checked and re-checked the grommets, bridle, lines, bag, flaps etc etc etc. It's really bugging me now! What's worse is that he was lucky to have cleared the entangled main without it inflating and causing problems. If I can't find what caused it this time, how do I know it won't happen again? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

I'm his rigger and team mate and I've just finished repacking his reserve. I'm stumped, neither I nor any of the other riggers can work it out. The pilot chute was definitely cocked, in fact we were having a conversation about cocking pilot chutes as we packed before the jump that Paul malled on. There's no damage to any part of the kit. The canopy isn't too tight in the bag and the bag isn't too tight in the container. I made the pilot chute myself and it's fine. There were no knots in the bridle when we retrieved it and even if it had found its way round a flap or something, the angle of all the flaps is such that it'd just slide straight off. We simply cannot find a way to make the bag stay in the container. The container is only a few years old and is in very good condition. It's done about 1000 jumps, about 200 of which were with this combination of canopies in it. A container lock that cleared after the reserve deployed seems to be what must have happened, but what the hell caused the container lock?! www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

I really don't get this. The whole point of bungees is that they stretch, and once they can't stretch any more, they break. I'm not talking about tube stows here. How could a pilot chute in decent condition (or even an old one!) not exert enough force on a bungee to stretch it enough to release the lines, or break it? And you're talking about a drogue, not just a pilot chute! No matter how you release the lines on the ground, the theory that tight stows can cause a bag lock can only be true if you are putting 100-150 lbs of force on the bag and they're still not coming off? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Can you explain how double stowing can cause a baglock? Was the packer using tube stows or normal bungees? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Thanks for the replies, but still all I can find is anecdotal stuff about bag locks, which isn't conclusive because baglocks can be (usually are) due to bad line stowage. Can anyone give a logical reason as to why double stowing could cause a problem? Looking on p.341 of Poynters, there's various pilot chutes and a table giving the drag in pounds measured at 120mph, all the figures are over 100 lbs. I don't believe that wouldn't snap a bungee (not tube stoe!), even a doubled one. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

A lot of people say that double-wrapping mouthlock bungees is a bad idea. I can't find anyone who can tell me why. Anyone got a possible reason? What harm could it do? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Does anyone have any experience of how the V1 flies relative to the BirdMan suits, particularly the GTi and S3? I think I'll probably get a V1 anyway instead of an S3, but most of my bird-buddies will still be jumping GTis. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Thanks everyone! I got a reply from Rigging Innovations today, it didn't say either that I could or couldn't pack it, it just advised on how to tell if it was too small. It does have a Cypres and it has Spectra lines. To be honest, I think it'll be fine. I'll pack it tomorrow and see what I think. By the way, the system over here is different: before becoming a trainee rigger, you have to first be an Advanced Packer (qualified to pack reserves), which I am. You can then become a Basic Rigger (trainee) and start machining stuff, pretty much the equivalent of your minor/major repair stuff. When you get good at that you can be examined and become a Parachute Rigger, qualified to fix anything that's not last line of defence (I'm over-simplifying here). Beyond that is Advanced Rigger, who can fix anything including harness work and reserve canppy patching. We also have Rigger Examiner, same as you guys. As an Advanced Packer I've done a few hundred reserve pack jobs and this one is a paying customer, so if it is a test then it's an elaborate one! By the way, as you mentioned it: we have another rig in without the bartacks in the corner, does anyone have the technical instructions for PMP 1235 so we can fix it? RI e mailed back saying it's an old bulletin, that most rigs were sent back to them at the time and that all they have on file is notes on paper which they can't send electronically. Thanks again

I need advice as to whether I may pack a Raven II into a Talon with a size E reserve tray. I've contacted Rigging Innovations but they haven't replied yet. I am a BPA trainee rigger and I have been given a rig to repack. It is a Talon, DOM May 1990. It has been packed by other riggers many times before but this is the first time that I have been given it to pack. The canopies appear to be too small for the container. The reserve container is size "E" and the main tray is size "11". The canopies currently in the Talon are a Raven II (f) reserve and a Sabre 150 main. There is a pad fitted to the main tray for it to be able to take a smaller canopy. The pack volumes of the canopies are 419 cu.in. for the reserve and 413 cu.in for the main. The information I have on Talon pack volumes for this size Talon says that for the reserve, 460 is "soft", 490 is "ideal" and 515 is "firm". For the main these figures are 470, 510 and 550. As you can see, the reserve is 41 cu.in. smaller than the "soft" volume, and the main is 57 cu.in smaller than "soft" (although there is a pad) My question is: how soft is too soft? Are these limits (of 460 to 515 for the reserve) absolute limits, or is it allowable to pack the reserve when the canopy is even smaller, giving an "even softer" pack job?! Thanks in advance, Liz. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

I want to order a new Micron, and I keep seeing really good discounts on almost every other rig (like 50% military discount on Mirage and Wings), but can't seem to find much on Microns. At the moment I'm looking at a base price of $1896 and about $800 of options - does anyone know who it would be best to order with to get a decent discount? I'd probably be coming to Perris at Easter to pick it up (I'm a Brit) and I've already seen that Square1 do 25% off the base price - is this the best I can get or is there even better out there?! Cheers everyone. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Why check your 3 rings in the plane? Surely you'd never put a rig on (or at least get on the plane) unless it was all OK? So then you only need to check things that can change in between getting in the plane and getting out at the top, like handles and pins that can get knocked. There is no way your 3 ring can become "wrong" on a plane ride if it was right on the flightline. At 14 grand in the plane would seem to be the worst time to check it imho, as you're looking from a funny angle and should already have already checked it (what if you had an a/c emergency?). Just my 2 pence worth (not cents, I'm a Brit!), it just seems weird to me when I see people checking their 3 rings in the plane. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

3 rings? What are you checking for? I understand 3 handles (might have shifted) and 3 straps (might have loosened) but what can happen to your 3 rings in between checking them on the ground and exiting? www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

An arch is inherently more stable than a de-arch, yeah, which is why that's what students get taught. But it's possible to be just as stable in a de-arch and if you can do that then there's nothing wrong with that either. As long as you provide a stable platform for the parachute to deploy from then no problem. Edit: but as a student, don't start trying to "see" if you can be stable in a de-arch at pull height! www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

As a student, arching is the best way of being stable. However, it is possible to be stable in any body position you like, "stable" just refers to being in control. Good freeflyers can be stable in head-down for example. It is important to be stable and belly to earth at pull time, but you don't necessarily need to arch. All students get taught to because that's the best chance they've got of being stable. However, if you can be stable in a de-arch then that's fine too. Just de-arching won't do that much if you're dumping in place - you're still going to be doing well over 100 mph. But a time when it would be good to de-arch is if you've been doing FS and so have tracked off at the end of it. Then, a good flare out of the track coupled with a de-arch will slow your forward speed right down and is the best way I've found of being stable and down the tube at pull time after I've tracked. www.wingin-it.co.uk Wingin' It wingsuit school

Nice one on your FIRST jump (have you discovered the beer rules yet...?) Twists are pretty common on static line jumps, you can expect to get them roughly once every three jumps. Causes include: bad body position (which you can do something about - head up, hips forward, stay symmetrical); the fact that the bag with the canopy in is attached to the aircraft and therefore has a second to spin in the slipstream, putting in twists before the canopy's even out of the bag (you can't do anything about this); and also the method of packing - usually student kit is packed on its side (flat packing) which puts a 90 degree twist straight in. Again, nothing you can do about this. Twists are a normal part of being a student, and you know you can kick them out, so just bite the bullet. Once you get onto freefall, and especially once you get your Cat 8, they'll become much less common.

Mind you, gems like 'whats this for?' from the S/L student holding his static line over his shoulder always bring a smile! That was because a cameraman with a weird looking camera helmet was filming students getting checked out - as the girl got handed her static line, he shoved his camera helmet in her face and she didn't know what it was. But it did make for a good video - her getting handed her s/l and coming out with a confused "what's that for?".