filonic

I have about 80 jumps on a storm 190 lined with Dacron, it opens fairly soft, but nothing like a spectre, much shorter snivel and inflation. The one opening I have had so far that was "very brisk" didn't bother me very much, but I can't say how much that may or may not be due to my Dacron lines as I have never jumped a storm without Dacron lines. Overall, love the canopy, however I actually prefer the flare characteristics on the spectre and have had more consistent and easy landings on the spectre. unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.

Hmmm. PD's lead canopy test pilot John LeBlanc and pretty much everyone I have ever talked with about hard openings disagrees with you. What makes you think line dump can not cause(or contribute to) a hard opening? Take a look at the document on PD's website about how to avoid hard openings. http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/hrdopn.pdf You'll notice in the line stows section it clearly says that a line dump scenario where locking stow(s) come out can lead to premature inflation of the canopy, causing a brutal opening shock to be transmitted to the jumper's body at line stretch. They say this can cause an opening hard enough to break lines. Here is a video of John LeBlanc talking about hard openings, in it he talks about line dump and out of sequence openings and says that they can cause hard openings. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVAoiLl2B6M unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.

Hi! Thanks for the welcome and the sympathy and the hope

Yes sir, thank you, good advice. I have put about 20 jumps on a Spectre 210 and I found it to be reliably soft and on heading s far as the openings are concerned. I don't love the glide on the Spectre too much though or the 800-1000 ft snivels I experienced most of the time. I spoke with PD about this and they assured me that the storm had openings that were similarly soft and on heading, but a substantially shorter snivel and a flatter glide. however I haven't gotten a chance to jump mine yet so I can't verify that. BTW As regards packing technique, I am also a meticulous packer, I get crap for it constantly, I regularly spend 35-40 minutes on a pack job and will re-do anything I am not 100% confident about. I was told by PD however that I should not roll the nose or even push it in, but to simply leave it where it is, and only roll the tail a few times. -Alex -Alex unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.

Of course stuff like this happens to people and it is unfortunate. Nothing is without risk though now-a-days. You can start jumping and have nothing go wrong, but eventually something will go wrong. If you get injured or not only time will tell. I have about 8 cutaways and I slammed into the ground doing a hook turn. It is just something that happens but can't let it stop you from doing something that you love doing so much. If you don't think you can come to terms that you might get injured then skydiving may not be the thing for you. I hope you do enroll in the AFF program at your local DZ. It will be something that you will do forever! Blue skies and Safe Landings. To the jumper that got injured, fast recovery and heal quick so you can enter the world of wingsuiting. That is a blast, I own a Phantom3 and a V4. Heal quick man. Thank you for well wishes and your thoughtful message to the guy considering AFF. I can't wait to join the world of wing suiting, hope to join the world of wingsuiting as soon as I possibly can! (within reason of course ) -Alex unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.

Don't let my story discourage you from doing AFF. If I knew I would sustain these injuries learning to skydive, I would still do it, I love it that much. You might find that you love it that much too, or not! You'll never know unless you give it a shot! The vast majority of people never have a hard opening bad enough to cause injury in their entire skydiving "career", I just got lucky! unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.

Hi, thanks.

Hi, and thanks

Hi, I'm Alex. I've been lurking on these forums since september, right after I started AFF. Since then I've spent all of my money and then some on skydiving and tunnel time. I have about 5 hours in the tunnel, 118 skydives. My home DZ is Skydance Skydiving, in Davis, CA. For those who haven't been there, you should definitely check it out, it is a very safe DZ with a lot of wonderful people, staff and funjumpers. I ordered myself a brand new complete rig right after aff, but PD had a waiting list months long. Shortly before I got it, I had an extremely hard opening that hurt quite a bit and busted the blood vessels in both of my eyelids, and I started having severe pain in my arm. I got my new rig and I got to jump it a few times but once I got in to see the doctor they gave me an MRI and grounded me. I haven't jumped in 6 weeks because it turned out that the hard opening caused a bilateral fracture in my L5 pars articularis and 2 herniated disks (C5-C6 and C6-C7)in my cervical spine, one of which I am having surgery on this thursday. The C5-C6 disk herniation pinches the nerves that split off from the spinal cord at that level and causes alot of pain, weakness, tingling, and sometimes numbness in my left arm. I am very anxious to get back to jumping and get back in the tunnel, and hope to eventually fly a wingsuit and do some photography. Doctors say that after the fusion surgery I am having on thursday, I should be able to jump again in 4-6 months. Well, that was quite an intro, but I thought I should make up for lost time! Nice to finally step into the light! unanswered questions are far less dangerous than unquestioned answers.