massis

His legacy is that he made the Earth just a tiny bit flatter in one spot? Seriously though, this guy was pretty nuts, having been injured during his last attempt , his only takeaway from that was "we need a bigger rocket" ?

Even without S/N: Vigil 2+ was introduced in 2014, so if yours has a DOM before that, (like mine from 2009) it's a Vigil 2.

I sent my DOM 2009 in for maintenance at the beginning of 2019. Batteries were replaced, it was upgraded to Cuattro and the control unit was replaced. Cost me €95 which is the normal maintenance & battery replacement price. Didn't pay shipping as I dropped it off and picked it up, I live 20 minutes from their factory.

then I revert to my original statement: there's no way i could pull out my loop far enough to easily hold it down with enough to spare so I could take out the pin and put it back in. I need to hold a fair bit of tension on the pullup cord (or packing tool) in order to have enough loop available to get the pin through...

I know that technique but found - in my limited experience - that even then the loop wears faster. However I never considered using the pin to pull the loop out a bit to reduce the tensions, which I assume now sundevil was talking about. I originally imagined him pulling the loop out far enough so that you can place a finger on it to keep the tension of the outer end and remove the pullup cord and then insert the pin, which made very little sense :-)

I'm going out on a limb here and say that if you can pull your loop so far through that you have enough spare to do that, your loop is WAY too long and will have far too little tension on it to be safe. When I was in AFF they told us that if your hand didnt hurt after packing and you weren't nearly crying when closing the final flap, your loop is likely too loose. While I do now think that's a bit of an exaggeration, I do see the importance of having a tight loop, which means pulling it through the final grommet more than 1/2" is probably way to loose.

I'm 236lbs out the door on my current rig, having downsized from a solo 230 to a pilot 210 at 40 jumps and then down to a (my own) Silhouette 190 at 51 jumps. Been jumping that 1.24 WL for 60 jumps now, probably downsizing to a 170 somewhere next year. That makes me one of the slower downsizers in our federation afaik. A 210 at 70 jumps with a 1.14 WL is very reasonable and shouldn't be an issue given your landings on the 230 are without issues and you've got everything under control in different wind conditions (nil winds, cross winds, ...). Obviously, check with your local instructors. When I switched to the 190 it was during a Flight-1 102 course so under the supervision of an experienced canopy pilot who knew me beforehand.

I guess you're holding it wrong then. Gripping the packing tool with 4 fingers hurts a LOT less than wrapping the pullup cord around your hand and pulling. Mainly because the stress on your hand is focused in the most outer spot where touches your hand, while the packing tool can distribute the force nicely across 4 fingers. On top of that, the round cord is much smoother to remove from the loop with the pin inserted, causing less wear on the loop in my experience. After 60 jumps my loop was good as new.

Yes, exactly, sorry for the confusion. it's sized for a PD Reserve 193.

I said the same on Reddit, but I'm using a Speed 220sqft alongside my Silhouette 190 in a Wings W18, which is made for a 170-190 main and a 176-793 reserve. So it's designed for an optimum 193. My speed 220 fits beautifully.

Perhaps at bigger DZ's in the US this is an option, but over here it's harder to get your hands on canopies to try. Just like most people I know, I simply bought a used canopy based on reviews & online info about it. When you're switching to your first own canopy, as long as it's something not too agressive I'd figure you'll be ok. If you REALLY dislike it, you can probably sell it without a loss... As for buying before you're ready: one of the newer jumpers at my DZ bought his rig with a 170 over a year ago when he had only 17 jumps. Why? Because someone was quitting the sport after having put 50~jumps on a brand new rig and was selling it for dirt cheap. He sure isn't regretting it now that he's finally jumping it a year later!

I'm a new guy (100 jumps), but I'd 1-up this by saying : the jump's not over until EVERYONE is safely on the ground. I've had multiple jumps where I had to adjust my final to not land on someone standing/walking on the DZ oblivious to the fact there were 10+ people coming in to land. And I've also been surprised by a canopy coming in to land once or twice myself, because I didn't check often enough or once because I wasn't aware that tandems are allowed to land into the wind regardless of the landing arrow at our DZ.

Look around for a 50% voucher. I bought someone's 50% wings voucher for €100. This allowed me to get a new Wings rig with quilted back, hackey pull, pillow reserve handle, collapsable PC and RSL for €1650. Add the €100 voucher and you've got a new container for €1750 which currently is 1950 USD.

I've been doing 15 minute sessions, 6x2:30. It's the most my budget will allow for now, but I've noticed a few things. Take into account I'm a novice, I have about 1h30 of tunnel experience, spent the last 40 minutes on learning backfly... - the first flight is usually lost to warm up. The longer your session, the less time is "wasted" on warm up - if it's been too long, you lose some of your gained abilities, so staying current is very much also valid for tunnel - I usually struggle with some stuff, discuss it with my coach after the 15 minutes (since coach is usually rotating students and you can't really talk in the tunnel "holding area"), and then review the video at home. Pretty much every time, my brain makes a few clicks in the 24h AFTER flying, realising what I need to change next time. So personally I think the most ideal way would be 30 minutes on a day, 2x 15 minutes an hour orso apart, split into 6x 2:30 each. That way you get a lot of practice, then enough time to review everything with your coach, and then enough time to practice all the things you figured out in review. Longer than 30 mins would be too much for me right now, I'm tired enough after 15

center leader, the guy in charge of the DZ that day (he communicates with the pilot, decides on jump limits, counts jumpers after they open, ... ). And basicly, yes. DZ only operates on weekends, and there's always someone in charge of the arrow. He's not "holding" it , as it's a flat piece of vinyl 6+ft long and pretty damn heavy. It is put in the center of the landing zone (which is split into 2 sections, so both left & righthanded circuits are possible without collision risk) pointing in the landing direction based on prevalent winds. They generally stick to one of 4 directions (~NESW) so a bit of crosswind is pretty usual at our DZ. If the winds change, the arrow can be moved into the new direction as required. In nil winds or very low and changing winds, it is often left in one landing direction all day to avoid confusion. It used to be by the side of the DZ, with a bullseye in the middle marking the center of the landing zone, but earlier this season they removed the bullseye and put the arrow in the center. You can see the arrow on google maps even :-) https://goo.gl/maps/Q1V4BCMEZurjh4UK9