Canopy Relative Work World Record video
Amazing. This is the kind of thing that happens in the skydiving world that most people never get to see. It’s a shame. There are 85 canopies in the formation.
Archive for May, 2007
Cadet Parachute Cutaway
A jumper doesn’t maintain stability at pull time which causes him to get flipped through the risers. Then he does the proper procedure and cuts away his main parachute to deploy the reserve, but the main gets tangled with his leg (horseshoe malfunction). Eventually he clears the main and the reserve catches enough air to open entirely. He has a few line twists, but does not present a problem.
Newly A-licensed Skydivers and Canopy Skills
I fairly recently received my A-license and took Scott Miller’s course. I realized how little I knew about canopy flight and the flight pattern. Also, recently I’ve started to notice how quickly newly licensed jumpers start to participate in four ways and free flying. I don’t see any problem with learning those skills, but it makes me wonder how many people are working on essential skills.
I’ve asked “Are you working on your flight plan still” to people who recently took the canopy course and they said no.
In the time I’ve been jumping I’ve spent a lot of time at the DZ and started to notice trends. Students will complete the skills on their A-license proficiency card and mostly never think of them again. Or some of us may take the canopy course and not really continue to work on the skills we were taught. I know this because I’m guilty of it myself and it took 10 hours of instruction to make me realize it.
The reason I find this alarming is because taking that course made me realize how blindly I was flying and how important a lot of the skills were that I didn’t think to learn more about.
I plan on doing this for a very long time and if that’s going to happen I don’t want to find myself at another drop zone or in one of those situations that I don’t know what to do (a long spot, having to make a low turn to avoid an obstacle, etc).
We can learn the free fly skills and four way skills in free fall. The really important part comes when it’s time to pull. Personally, I’m concentrating on those things and waiting to do the rest later on, but we can do both. It’s no big deal to jump in a four way and work on canopy skills on the same jump. I don’t think a lot of people do it though. It seems like so many people are just worried about getting in those four ways.
I’ve realized how little I did know about canopy flight. It was sort of an eye opener because I look back and think “damn, I was flying blind out there” because now I know how little I knew. I basically had the thought process “fly in a triangle, start downwind, then crosswind and land upwind and keep your eye on traffic”. Ok, so I knew a little more than that, but still.
It seems like so many students that just got their A license recently in the last 6 months seem to want to get into four ways and sit fly, but they don’t really think too much about their canopies and the skills they can learn after they track away from their formations and start flying the parachute.
Flat turns are something I didn’t experiment with very much. I did what was required on the card and didn’t think a whole lot about it afterwards.
Another thing is flight patterns and traffic awareness. It’s probably not such a big deal at smaller drop zones that don’t have a lot of swoopers flying around, but we probably shouldn’t make that assumption. I was taught pretty well the very basics of the pattern and what to be doing, but I’m glad I know about vertical seperation and that kind of thing now.
I don’t think it’s necessarily a problem with the AFF program or student status. What I’m seeing just concerns me a little, because it makes me wonder how many people actually care about the skills that are going to save their life or someone else’s instead of just “I want to get in that four way and learn more”. So it’s more of a trend in what people are concentrating on learning (or not learning).
I’ve been pulling high (at 8000 ft) and playing with my canopy as much as possible in the last few months and now that I have my own canopy I can do that a lot more often and will probably do it as much as the conditions permit. It gives me a lot of air to play with the toggles and when I’m at 3000-0ft there isn’t usually anyone around so I can really work on accuracy.
So the point I guess is that those of us that are new at this (maybe even people with a couple hundred jumps already) may be flying around with really basic skills and not attempting to learn more or asking “why?”.
So you want to learn to skydive?
So you want to learn to skydive?
Great! The adventure of learning to become a parachuter is an exciting experience and leaves you with a rewarding feeling you simply can’t get anywhere else.
You will find out what it is like to fall from approximately 13,500 feet (exact altitude depends on several factors) and reach speeds of about 120-150mph. You will activate or “pull” your parachute at about 5,500 feet and enjoy a ride under canopy for about four minutes. Many drop zones provide video footage and photographs for an extra fee.
Take the first leap
The first step is to find a drop zone in your area. The website DropZone.com has a list of international drop zones that provide you with contact information for drop zones all over the world.
Where can I begin?
To begin, you have three options: tandem, static line or AFF (accelerated free fall). In a tandem sky dive you are attached to an instructor. Static line is becoming less common. Many drop zones do offer static line, but it is typically not advertised and requires extra preperation to setup. The AFF program can be completed in as little as one week if you have the time, dedication and depending on the operational hours of your DZ.