jurgencamps

The FAI sporting licence is what you need if you want to participate at international competitions and official record jumps. What you are looking for = a FAI certificate or FAI licence :==> Certificates of Proficiency | World Air Sports Federation (fai.org) You only can obtain a FAI certificate via a national skydiving federation. Look at the link for more information.

Tracking is the best way to get out of a flat spin. After a cutaway? More skydivers died because they pulled their reserve to late. Pull the reserve, deal with the linetwist (if necessery) afterwards.

Do not underestimate the time between "seeing" 4000 ft at the altimeter," tossing" the pilot chute and having an open container. You see an open canopy, the altimeter detects an airspeed below a certain threshold. These two actions do not happen at the same moment. Just after the opening, the canopy is flying and descending faster than normal and is still slowing down. You are using different start and endpoints to calculate or to measure the opening.

Good advice Why should he jump after the free fliers? Very often the "higher puller" does not open as high as they think. If one of the free fliers who jumps before him, opens higher (intentionally or not), you will now have the risk of collision. He should respect the normal exit separation. He is a solo belly flier, so he should go after the group of belly fliers and use the normal exit separation. If they scream by, they did not respect the right exit separation. If two tandems both with a cameraman jump after him. Does the second cameraman pulls higher than the first tandem? Do you really believe that???? Same reasoning!!! Remark: The exit order belly fliers first, free fliers, AFF, Tandem … is only correct for jumpruns into the wind.

From uspa.org... "USPA members receive third-party liability insurance to include bodily injury and property damage while skydiving at a sanctioned drop zone." USPA offers membership without regard to citizenship, and that membership includes benefits without regard to citizenship. Hay Chuckakers, Do you have your USPA membership card at hand? Please turn it arround and have a look at the backside. https://uspa.org/Portals/0/files/INS_ThirdPartyLiabilityOverview.pdf Foreigners are only insured in the USA (its territories or possessions) or Canada. For ex. a Belgian skydiver (non-green card resident) jumping in Europe at USPA group affiliated DZ is NOT insured.

Just wanted to explain that using a different measuring method can give you a different result. Same analogy applies to measuring the surface. In the PIA document, PIA has measured all those canopies using their method. This allows the reader to compare the size of the surface of different brands (or types) of canopies. PIA quotes different surfaces for a (same size type) optimum and PDR reserve

Objection! PDs and Optimums are the same size. They're measured in the same way. And no, PD has not misnamed their reserves, they are exactly the size they are labelled, when measured by PD's method. And how come that PIA measures different sizes when they use their "standard" measuring method?

I do not think that the answer is that simple. But how do you / they measure the surface of a canopy? http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/packvol.pdf, I. canopy size Compare it with the method used to measure the volume of your car trunk. They put balls off x cubic inch in the trunk. If they use bigger or smaller balls, the measured volume of the car trunk changes. So do you measure the top or the bottom surface of the canopy? The projected surface on the ground or the curved surface? See the attached picture. Which line (distance, length) do you take to calculate the surface of your square? If the canopy is not 100 % square, but elliptical …

+1. One day I had to land my reserve on a tennis court, surrounded with trees. After you have executed your EP, you do not always have a lot of options left to pick your landing spot. I have a 150 reserve and a 90 / 120 main.

If you read this http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/Horizon_Flight_Characteristics.pdf, and more specific what they say about landings; you will understand that it is not an easy canopy to land. You can make good landings with the canopy, if you master that art. So, I think that the PD Pulse (the successor of the silhouette) is a better choice for you.

http://www.pia.com/piapubs/TSDocuments/TS-104CanopyVolume.pdf Just for your information, a 170 canopy brand X or type X can be smaller than another 170 brand Y or type Y. There are several methods to measure a canopy. See the table in the link above for the "real" surface of canopies (all measured according the same method) Also: PD always has "misnamed" their PDR reserves. They are in fact bigger than what the name suggests. An optimum 126 = 126 square feet A PDR 126 = 137 square feet. In a presentation "dying for airspeed - Bryan Vacher" http://www.skydivemag.com/article/dying-for-airspeed?fwd=1 you can find a table with horizontal and vertical airspeed. Know that your airspeed is a combination of the horizontal and vertical airspeed http://www.beterrekenen.nl/afbeeldingen/driehoek_abc.png For ex. if a skydiver with an exit weight of 90 kg / 200 pound, downsizes from a 170 to a 150, he (or she) will have + 23 % more kinetic energy when he hits the ground during a no-flare straight-in approach.

The skyhook is an RSL with something extra.

There is already such an opening scene in a James Bond movie, GoldenEye.

All/almost all rigs have now the mini 3rings. A long time ago,