RockSkyGirl

Innovative Parachute Technologies (out of Arizona, USA) makes risers with anti-fire toggles which have three tabs. Standard top and bottom but underneath the top one is a third, thinner tab that goes downward. To release the brakes, you pull up-and-out a little bit first (to release the locking tab), then down. Toggles will not accidentally come unstowed - not by your slider hitting them, not by stowing your slider, not by making a rear riser avoidance turn. I have those risers on both of my rigs and I love them. It's the most secure system I've ever seen. Bonus: the excess-brake-line keepers are magnetic sleeves instead of semi-elastic loops. Easy to use and securely keep the excess confined until you're ready to unstow the brakes. I can post pictures of these risers next time I jump this week if anyone is interested.

Whenever an internet search suggests forum posts for the source of searched information, any links clicked go to the main page which lists all the forums rather than to the specific post Google suggests. Even if I type the link in directly, dropzone.com erases it and takes me instead to the main forums page. In addition, the site's own Search feature doesn't seem to give a way to search the forums at all, let alone search a specific one. So I can't figure out how to get to any specific post save going to the forum it's in and scrolling and scrolling through hundreds of posts until I find it. This was not an issue until you all changed the site's format. Is this something you're working on fixing?

I HAVE found the listing all over the web but the only available size has been 2XL. It is promising that they are in the Adams catalog for next year. I'd checked that site but I hadn't checked the 2019 catalog. Hopefully that means they will be available soon. Until then I will need to find something else; my last pair (over a year and a few hundred jumps and several tunnel hours old! They DO last...) finally sprang a hole this past weekend.

XXL are the only size you can order from any supplier right now (unless Paragear has more sizes? Betzilla, any summer-weight mediums left?). But you CAN still find some XXL out there. If that's your size I'd get them fast. Note on the RockSkyMarket page is that the manufacturer is no longer making that product. I can't find a webpage for the manufacturer anywhere. The brand itself is owned by another company.

Neumann gloves - the tackified football receiver gloves with the big N on the back - are no longer being made. I have tried on a couple other brands including Akando and the others all seem to fit like gardening gloves - roomy - and roomy gloves aren't good for gripping. Does anyone have a recommendation for tackified skydiving gloves which hug the hand and fingers and fit skin-tight like Neumanns?

This same question came up last year. Maybe there is something in this thread that will help. /cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4867147;search_string=tandem%20baglock;#4867147

This is what our dz does. They want everyone to make one tandem jump first, to give them a taste of freefall; then they have ground school and 10 minutes in the tunnel (tunnel is on site). After that, the Cat A is a 2-instructor jump but all the others have just one instructor.

Skydive Spaceland Houston, in Rosharon, is right around the corner from you. It has a fantastic reputation; I know a lot of very experienced, awesome people who jump there.

They've changed it to 200 jumps... maybe that will help... Even if you are a little past the requirement, it's worth contacting the dz and asking (email Rhonda at [email protected]) ESPECIALLY if you don't live in AZ and are coming from a dz that doesn't have that kind of opportunity (explain that in your email); the last couple Rookie Roundups haven't filled up and there have been coaches sitting around on the ground, waiting for people to jump with! https://www.skydiveaz.com/experienced/events/detail/2018/10/13/default-calendar/rookie-round-up---fall-edition

In the west/southwest part of the country: SDAZ's next Rookie Roundup is 10/13-10/14. Registration opens in September. If you already have a team, SDAZ is a good place to come to train either sky or tunnel; there are a lot of excellent coaches here who work with teams at all levels. They include all the current members of Arizona Airspeed; Mark Kirkby, Eliana Rodriguez, and Craig Girard; and AXIS Flight School. Current Airspeed plus the other three people I mentioned will all also travel to coach your team if you can't come to AZ for a camp. In addition to private coaching, AXIS does what they call the X-Pansion Project, where they will teach you 4-way at whatever level you're at, with or without a team of your own; if you don't have a team they'll match you with other people of similar ability plus an AXIS player-coach for the day or weekend, for sky and/or tunnel. If you're interested in that, here's a link with more info: https://axisflightschool.com/competition_xpansion.php Another option besides Elsinore's great Excel series is Perris; contact Christy Frikken of Fury Coaching. She does both tunnel and sky coaching in SoCal and can help find you a team if you don't have one. If you're on the eastern side of the country at any point, check out the tunnel camps and "team for a day" events that SDC RhythmXP does at Skydive Chicago, Skydive Sebastian, and the ParacleteXP wind tunnel.

This is a fascinating topic and I've found myself thinking hard about it over the last day or two. Another thought as to why it's such a hard transition, if you learn in one medium and then shift to the other: -Going from tunnel to sky, suddenly you are dealing with less ROM and the change in your flight surfaces and the airflow across your body due to the presence of your rig. You're also dealing with the hill (granted that effect disappears after a few seconds but can still be initially quite disorienting). Still, once you figure out how to compensate for these things the rest of the skills apply directly. After a few jumps to re-find my balance, the better arm position I'd spent an hour learning in the tunnel was coming naturally. -Going from sky to tunnel it's not just that you're removing the rig as a flight surface (though I maintain that that's part of it). In the sky, you are falling at YOUR fall rate, through air which is not itself moving. At most you are making small adjustments to stay with another person. In the tunnel, the wind speed is fixed in any given moment, and you are trying to change your body position so that you are in equilibrium with it in terms of fall rate. Unless the wind speed exactly matches your natural neutral body position's fall rate, you're either going to be struggling to get off the net, or feeling like the wind is too fast and struggling to maintain control. Which makes learning how to freefly in the tunnel (after you've learned already in the sky) more a matter of learning how to adjust your fall rate to exactly match the wind speed than anything else. With the penalty of the inelastic collisions with the glass if you F up. And what I'm finding so far is that this is far more difficult than taking the tunnel skills and applying them in the sky.

I'm not stupid; I have a secure rig cover which includes separate neoprene covers for the MLW and securely holds the handles. Quite a few people in Eloy have that kind of thing, since our tunnel is (protected)rig-friendly and our local teams train with their (protected)rigs on...

I've just started trying to learn to freefly in the tunnel; I learned backfly and sitfly in the sky, where I can (usually) hold still relative to someone else, change fall rate a bit, turn, move forward and back, and transition easily from back to sit or belly to sit. I decided to get in the tunnel because I haven't figured out how to take docks in front of me in the sky; and because for all I've tried I can't figure out how to get head-down up there. I need to be able to do both to fly MFS... Almost an hour now and I still haven't gotten an off-the-net hover in a sit for more than about 2 seconds - and that at an iFly's 92%. The body position required to do even that feels extremely unnatural, and the tiniest slip-up with my hips sends me slamming forward into the wall at Mach speed. Granted, my sky position at least with my legs has never been ideal - but with my rig on, I figured out how to hold (relatively) still i.e. I'm not skating all over the place or backsliding like mad, and I can stay with someone and maneuver relative to them. Over and over again I find myself wishing I had my rig on; in my mind that's what's making the difference. When you don't have the rig as a flying surface in a sit, you have to exaggerate your torso position from your hips all the way to your chin to get the same effect across your shoulderblades (or at least that's what it seems like to me, a freefly tunnel rookie). At Eloy, I technically could put on a mock rig or put a cover on my own rig, if I wanted and if my coach allowed; a very few other tunnels, like Paraclete, allow covered or mock rigs. I see it with some frequency in Eloy, when teams are training. The iFlys don't allow rigs of any kind - that might be a big part of why we don't see so many people freeflying in the tunnel with rigs on, at least in the US. As Ron says when he talks about belly flying in there - I train 4-way in the tunnel and have noticed two big differences when wearing my rig versus not: that I can't outface as well with my rig on because I can't sit up as much or turn my head as far, and that burble-hopping (e.g. FS block 17) is much more difficult. The rig does limit my range of motion. But with these techniques, I perfected them in the tunnel without a rig before trying them in the sky, and learning them with the increased ROM makes trying to compensate for LESS the challenge. So I'm thinking that with freeflying in the case you're discussing, the problem might be the opposite: if you learn with a restricted ROM (which also allows you to use the rig as a flight surface), and then you get in the tunnel where you have much greater ROM and tiny inputs have a greater effect, it's like cranking the sensitivity way up. Like going from walking around in sneakers all the time to trying to dance in stiletto heels. You can walk fine and dance fine but now your "flight surface" so to speak is much more sensitive. You have to learn how to balance all over again and while you're trying you spend a lot of time falling on your face. Would it really help me to put my rig on? I have no idea. I've thought about asking; I might, next time I'm down at SkyVenture (Eloy). Maybe it would get me off the net at 88% (which is more like an iFly's 84%). If I ask and they let me do it, I'll let you know how it goes...

Night jumps are just awesome, aren't they? Welcome to the select few of us who think they are wonderful instead of just "that terrifying thing you have to do to get your D license." That picture is from the 40-way Night World Record in 2016. In that one and for the 2017 64-way Night World Record, these are the lights we used: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00H78KAIA/ There are a lot of different colors. The FAA also requires you to have at least one light that is visible for 3 statute miles, once you're under canopy. The ones we use at our dz for night jumps are these: http://www.nightgear.com/search.php?search_query=adventure%20lights%20guardian§ion=product I have a red one and a white one. They are twist on-off and can be set either solid or flashing, though you have to flip the battery over to change the setting so you'll need to decide pre-jump which setting you want. Black Skies!

First off, I wouldn't push past that 1.13 WL - especially if you haven't even jumped a 190 yet. The I-43 CAN take an Optimum 193 reserve tight; so at least you can get a reserve that's at no more than a 1.1 for you (even that puts you into the "experienced" category - read pages 11-12 of the PD Reserve owner's manual for WL recommendations and considerations for reserves http://www.performancedesigns.com/docs/Reserve_manual.pdf). But you're not going to (comfortably or safely) get a 190 main into that container, too, and you have good instincts, thinking that shifting straight to a 170 would be too big a step right now. So where does that leave you? Depending on how naturally you take to canopy flying, your progression 210-->190-->170 might not take too long, especially if you work on it through some canopy courses. Depending on where in the country you are, you can contact Flight-1 https://flight-1.com/sport/, Alter Ego http://thealteregoproject.com/, or Greg Windmiller http://superiorflightsolutions.com/ for the best canopy coaching in the U.S. (and elsewhere). I was a REALLY crappy canopy pilot for a LONG time; got my A on a Nav280 (only a 0.6 WL!) and wasn't down to even a 210 until jump 96; and made 76 more jumps on that 210 before I went down to a Pilot 188 (which I bought). I took my time, and I rented until I was ready for the canopy which I bought. I didn't have my first container until about 2 months before my 188 arrived. I didn't get down to a 170 (and a 1:1 WL) until I had almost 500 jumps... but I also didn't take my first Flight-1 course until the weekend before I hit #400. It should've been much sooner - I had a lot of bad habits to break. Summary - I spent a lot of money on renting gear before getting my first system, but it was worth it, because I ended up on something that I kept for a long time and I didn't rush my canopy progression, which most likely saved me from injury. I'd rather spend the money on gear rentals than hospital bills. So I wouldn't say you've wasted your money. Why? Because while it's possible you'll get on a 190 and never want to go smaller, it's unlikely. However a 170 will put you at a "sporty" wing-loading, and containers that max out at a Pulse 170 will get you down to a 150 anything and a 135 anything - so you'll have that container for a good long time - once you're ready for it. Until then - keep renting while you work through your progression from that 210 to a 190 and then to a Pulse or Silhouette 170 (or another 170 which is a hybrid ZP-F111). In terms of VSE (Velocity Sports Equipment) gear: VSE makes excellent rigs. I've owned three Infinity rigs; my first was an I-56 and currently I have and love my I-33 and I-34. In two cases (56 and 34), the max recommended canopy size from the chart was already insanely tight. I had to learn how to get and keep ALL the air out of my 170 to be able to close my I-34 without help (and I'm far from new at packing). For some reason a 150 in my 33 isn't quite as tight as the 170 in my 34 and I've never had an issue closing that container; doesn't mean I'd want to try stuffing a standard ZP 170 in it, though. I had a ZPX Pilot 188 in my 56, with a ZPX 210 in it before that; and I wouldn't have wanted to put a regular 210 in it though it was supposed to take one; the ZPX 210 was tight enough. To summarize all that, you can ask Kelly Farrington from VSE (he's on these forums regularly and he and his crew are very responsive to messages from the contact form on their website www.velocityrigs.com), but trying to squeeze anything larger than the sizes on the chart into an Infinity isn't a good idea. While some brands list a mid-range size on their canopy compatibility charts, VSE is serious about their max sizes (though you can usually go DOWN at least two sizes from there with no issues; the 170 was just fine in my I-56 and the 150 soft but okay for belly-flying - this in a container that takes a 210 max or a 230 Pulse). Having an unhappy packer (whether it's you packing it or someone else), and having a rock-hard container which is uncomfortable against your back are just part of it and the least important. In terms of safety: Overstuffing the main can deform and damage the container, as Maddingo says. It can also make it harder to pull your pilot chute, because of the pressure against the bottom of the container. I can't say whether an overstuffed d-bag might leave the container unevenly (if so, it could make you more susceptible to line twists), but I CAN say that overstuffing the d-bag can damage the d-bag particularly at the grommets. Overstuffing the container may also lead to a delay in reserve bag extraction in the event of a total (main still in the container) because the two canopies are jammed in there so tightly together. If you're low enough that your AAD fires, that hesitation could be enough to keep you from having a fully-inflated reserve at impact. This issue in particular has come up in other threads on this page. TL;DR: Don't try to put a 190 in the new container; it will likely damage your gear and there are safety concerns as well. Use rental gear and fly a 210 and then a 190 until you're comfortable downsizing to a 170, and then find a low-pack-volume 170 main for your new container. Get some good canopy coaching during this time to help you progress more quickly and safely. While you're working on your downsizing, find yourself an Optimum 193 for that new container. If the container fits you as well as you say you'll have it for a good long time from a 170 on down to a 135 and possibly to a 120, and VSE makes very good rigs. Contact Kelly at VSE with any specific questions about his rigs; VSE has great customer service.