>>393047I don't have any pictures accessible at the moment.
My most recent solo jump (May 2012) ended in a reserve ride (my 13th jump). It was the last jump of the day and my coach and I were working on movements in the air. More learning to fly. We got down to 5000 feet and it was time to pull, so I waved off and pulled my pilot chute.
1-one thousand
2-one thousand
3-one thousand
I could feel the bag being pulled off my back and now I was upright: feet to earth instead of belly to earth. I looked up to make sure my canopy was opening, looked good, it was fully inflated and the slider had made its way down the lines and was sitting on top of the risers.
What you want from a canopy are 3 S's Square, Stable, Steerable.
You test this by visual inspection, then by using your toggles to make a right hand turn, left hand turn, and a flare to ensure it doesn't collapse. A flare is simply when you pull both toggles down and is used as a "brake" when you land.
I grabbed my toggles and pulled down on the left all the way to my waist, good left turn.
I pulled down on the right side toggle and it stopped at my shoulder, no right turn.
I pulled again, same result. No right turn, no flare. I flew back toward the drop zone for as long as I could before I reached 2500 feet (at which point you either land your main canopy or cut it away).
You don't think about it when you grab the first handle, but going back into free fall that close to the ground is like a leap of faith. I grabbed my cut away and reserve handles, pulled them one at a time and I think I may have closed my eyes and waited, but soon afterward my reserve canopy opened and I flew down on that.
