ChrisD

UPT might have some leftover camo rigs V350s for less than 3 week delivery, give them a call??? C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

Awesome! On another note: I used to work at a major ski area, just to make a comparison... we had 2 full time MD's in the base clinic. Literally in February we had, on average: One adolescent death, 2 unconscious individuals, 2 - 3 heart attacks, and about 50 - 80 ambulance transfers to town, and our clinic treated minor factures on site! never makes the news. Anyways all of this is to point out that like Bill Booth said: "Some things are more dangerous and some things are less..." In the grand scheme of things I really have to re-look at this tinted glasses thing. I've been doing a bunch of group jumps with this in mind lately, many have full tinted sun goggles and I never really noticed before. SO how can this issue be as important as some would make it??? Is this more of an issue of those that have some "POWWER" want to maintain this power? Cause lately I don't give a rat's ass what you have on yor face! You do the job at hand and your paying me to teach you and make improvements based upon what I see. And the bottom line is I really don't have or nor can I do much if I see your eyeballs or not! I am sorry for your initial troubles with some instructors but I am very glad you have a great story and experience to share with us all!!!

I've been bouncing back and forth from Boston lately. I frequently travel late in the day, leave on a W, TH, or F, stay the week end and return late Tuesday. Most airfares involve a 2 to 3 hour layover in Atlanta, but if you can swing these days and times the airfare has been and is still around 180 $ round trip. If that helps. Also check out car rentals over a week end. Many week end rates are higher than renting for 7 days. I frequently check out the week rental rates and just return the car early... If that helps.... C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

I like your rant! What is actually happening is what we call: Cognitive Dissonance Same thing about smoking, or living near an earthquake fault, stuff like that. We choose to ignore the safety aspect of this issue because we are social beings and we "see" so many others engaging in this behavior. Our information comes from others, we give up thinking and it becomes "Normal." [I]

This is why some of the pedestrian laws in this country are insane. The person least able to see is the one operating the car. The person most able to protect themselves is the pedestrian. But do we take this into account when making laws???? But we sure can punish drivers when they hit something they didn't see!!! C I think about this every time some dick steps into traffic shouting they have the right of way!!! ya stuck in the middle of a crosswalk is one thing, but stopping a 5000 pound car by stepping in front of it? This is what we are teaching our kids??? But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

You have no idea how true what you have just said is.... using a cell phone while driving is , when we take into the various limiting factors that so many people want to ignore,...insane. So are conversations, eating and a host of other activities. C

I've attached , again, something I did more than a few years ago. I like the article you have posted but they so often just don't get it! It's not a function of the eye or rod / cones or retina densitity, it is actually a combination of your cognitive processes. In other words what you actually "see" is a function of your brain and what your brain is doing at the time. I'm currently working on something akin to what is known as the flicker effect. And I have to tell ya our peripheral cells in our eyes can outperform the center cells every time. Things like fidelity / frequency / luminosity and the range of intensities that our peripheral vision can perceive is absolutely phenomenal. Do you know that most of us can perceive low luminosities in our peripheral cells but as soon as we turn our attention to look at whatever our minds and center cells can't see the whatever anymore! It's like you can see, sort of something but when you look at it, it disappears.... In various cultures around the world and thru history this may in fact be the physical basis behind the genesis of "spirits" and "ghosts." This doesn't bode well for many activities where so many are running around thinking they can see everything they need to see. And the fact that if our minds are focused elsewhere, we literally can't see many events right in front of us. C In the article they say this: "This might sound crazy, but your brain actually blocks the image that is being received while your eyes are moving. This is why you do not see the sort of blurred image, that you see when you look sideways out of a train window." It doesn't work like this, close and I like the explanation for wuffos, but it is much more complicated than this. We actually don't see anything in these terms. Our mind actually tells another part of our brain what we "SEE." AND IF our brain doesn't like what it sees then it makes something up!!!! Something like this makes me think of the past skydiving collisions that I have commented upon. AND THE ONLY THING I CAN STRESS IS SEPERATION BETWEEN GROUPS CAUSE YOUR NOT GOING TO SEE WHAT HIT YOU!!!! (again sorry about the caps, ... No I'm not...) Thanks man (shropshire)

Just keep at it. Looking at your vid, you actually did well for your first time? C

Has anyone read Daemon or Freedom by Daniel Suarez? C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

You asked a question and the answer is simple,... It is not acceptable under any circumstances. It is a sad day when so many have such a cavalier attitude regarding the lives of others. C It does not depend upon the people involved, you have no idea what somebody else is, or was, or could be thinking. All of these justifications revolve around the prankster and are an indication of the extreme hubris involved. Lives depend on others knowing exactly what they think you are doing and to imply by qualifying that the prank depends upon this quality or that circumstance is just an example of self delusional thinking that serves no one and sets a bad example. But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

No one is forcing you to have a "rear riser landing." Implicit in your hypothetical question is the fact that at some point you have bypassed a controllability check. If in fact you cant flare, and cant flare with your canopy overhead,... close to the ground is the wrong place to find this out. Remember your landing priorities and remember the B lic progression is to get proficient with using your rear risers. This is a minimal skill set. Everyone should be proficient with the flight characteristics as soon as their abilities allow, this should be a goal for many. If you practice this skill you would have seen your answere already. Everyone should be proficient with rear riser landings. Take the time to learn at a safe pace with the right equipment. If you have a wing loading greater than 1.0 and you can't already land repeatedly and safely on your rears then there isn't any point in having a safety discussion at this point because most of you know better Right, I mean really...this question has all the makings of the recipe for the arguments against downsizing because in a sense many are holding up a sign that they don't care. Many have had more than their share of "inconveniences" with their toggle lines. No one advocates ever dropping their toggles. This latest article in the magazine specifically addressed this whole issue in an attempt to stem the practices of a few that don't have mad skillzzz.... C As is your question is very difficult to answer. For most of us it will be impossible to tell you considering all of the variables, canopy, riser length, toggles (whether they are shortened or worn,) wing loading, and or weight, where your "stall point" is. Also when making up hypothetical questions it is also best to specify where and when the hypothetical event takes place. If a line breaks close to the ground, say ten feet, you basically have no choice but prepare for a plf, grab your rears up high and flare as best you can, ...because you have practiced for this rare contingency many times. If this happens upon opening which is more common, do your controllability check. Most students are taught to cut away if they have a toggle break. But this varies across the world. If your going to dick with your lines make your decision well before your decision height. No one that I know of recommends cutting away at or below 1000 feet. Apparently with this emergency of yours you have time and altitude to debate whether you can or can't shuffle things around in your hands, while your playing around I suggest you also be altitude aware and watch out for other traffic as well as any obstacles on the ground. I suppose if you don't have time to play with stuff,...then that kind of answers your question doesn't it. Your question also is suggesting a flare with one toggle??? Your not really very clear here. Are you suggesting you flare with one toggle and grab the other rear riser? Are you suggesting something else? I suggest you practice, (up high and with prior notification to all other jumpers,) finding out what happens when you leave one toggle stowed and then try to flare and turn with one toggle. Try grabbing the other riser and see how and what it takes to do a controlled flare , straight ahead,...to the stall point. How have your practice rear riser landings been going so far? For many experienced jumpers the question of using your rears is kind of a moot discussion point. When I ask other experienced jumpers about this they don't really care. The most common answer is something like this: "Rears or toggles? , ya I know I don't really care,...once I got the hang of landing on my rears ,...either or doesn't matter, can do both..." It's a no stress non-event.... Now if your lines break right in the middle of your 60 mph swoop, I personally would drop the other toggle, because it will give me, briefly, something other to think about, other than: "O'h Shit."

Wow, sounds exciting. Um, where are you a student at? And what is your .EDU Email? C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

That's why I asked about your distance! Because where I'm at, at the moment, and just like a large majority of people across this great land of ours is that we all would kill for an hours drive to any DZ! I'm sure you will love Deland and all of the fine folks you will meet there! C

This is a very unfortunate side effect of the Racer and my experiences to date do in fact reflect a change in attitude about the difficulty or perhaps better said the perceived difficulty of packing the two pin pop tops... but there is a huge difference in performance V packing ease as a topic of discussion. The two are separate issues. No one has the history or statistics to support the idea that the two pin is less safe than any other. And this is a very disappointing way of thinking to me. Because the more we speak about this particular aspect of the racer design it gets associated with malfunctions and a host of other rhetoric,... that is just wrong! I don't even like posting here about this aspect of a racer because of the maligned associations that this myth has created over time. It may very well be that having two pins is in fact a better, statistically speaking, system! Not to carjack this thread, but packing should be an independent variable and not something that continues to be dredged up from the bottom of the pile of stuff that the majority of people out there bring up every time this design discussion takes place. I know many riggers out there that don't like packing the two pins. To me riggers that loudly express their personal feelings about rigs that are easy to pack in comparison are also holding up a sign that they don't fully take an interest in their customers and they are also holding up a sign that says they take the easy road! Well I want a rigger that knows her or his shit. If you can't pack a Racer then your not going to get my business nor my respect. It really is like holding up a billboard that says: I'm lazy and ignorant. C I'm certainly not dissin rigger Lee at the moment, he sounds like a straight forward matter of fact guy!

I do want to mention that one of these solutions was to stop manufacturing dated designs because of the advances in safety and the things that the manufacturers have learned from the past. Making comparisons to cars, is just a really poor analogy.... You seem to be determined to work around this. By consistently doing things that the manufacturer isn't recommending. As well as the subject of sliders continues to come up. My concern is that this really puts yo in the position of a test pilot, or rather this puts someone else in this position that by all appearances isn't able to do this for himself. Kind of like that tv show shark tank: "For this reason, I'M OUT.!!!" Hard Openings Vidieo C Thanks for your reply and those links. Here is one for you. http://www.paragear.com/products/10000220/C800/ Based on your post someone should call paragear. They will be awfully embarassed when they can't fill orders for these since, if I read your post correctly, these are no longer manufactured. I should also repeat, since you missed it, the original larger slider was sent to us by the manufacturer because of the problem. We haven't gone against the manufacturer's recommendation once. Also, to alleviate your concerns, he was a test jumper for a number of years. SO APPARENTLY YOU WANT A QUICK OPENING AND THEN YOU WANT TO SLOW IT DOWN FOR YOUR DAD??? cause the link you provide says it all.... So why do you want to kill your dad? C Next time you post a link to a dated reserve that is designed to open hard and fast,...Well it's obvious at this point your screwing around with someone else that can't / won't do anything for themselves.... maybe you should call paragear and let them know what your up to.... Perhaps you posted the wrong link???? I'm not sure what type of game your playing here but reserves are designed differently than most mains. It's your choice to use it and it's also YOUR CHOICE TO LIVE WITH THE OPENING CARACTERISTICS THAT YOU HAVE CHOSEN. seriously dude,...you want to build in some snivel: then cut some holes in it with a pair of scissors.... The preceding comment about scissors was sarcasm. It does illustrate however a suggestion that will work, how much material you remove is up to you....actually this isn't sarcasm. We used to do stuff like this back in the day. Some modifications were made with scissors and string. I don't do that anymore. Or just get something else which is and was the first advice given that you didn't want to hear... Something with more pleasing opening characteristics. In case yo haven't gotten the message if you want to re-de-design someone else's canopy,... your on your own. Skydiving has undergone a long and very costly evolution in design resulting in components that for the most part work! And now yet again we have some that want to shortcut evolution because they know better. Perhaps they are under the idea that if they keep asking they will get the answere they want to hear, or perhaps they will hope for someone's help in redesigning components that way too many people have invested their lives in. Another way of illustrating this is you could have started off by saying something like: "my ex-wife has trouble reaching her PC, can I re-rig a second hand AAD to open for her at 3000?" "She has years of experience and used to be a waitress, but now she owns my old DZ." "She want's even more from me,..." I would very much like to help her! This is a serious question to me, seriously! Anyone have some used batteries??? If yo happen to find some new way of packing, that buy shit luck doesn't increase the malfunction rate please let us know. And please if you do find some new way of packing that helps could you do it about 20,00 times on your own before you share it with us..... But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

I do want to mention that one of these solutions was to stop manufacturing dated designs because of the advances in safety and the things that the manufacturers have learned from the past. Making comparisons to cars, is just a really poor analogy.... You seem to be determined to work around this. By consistently doing things that the manufacturer isn't recommending. As well as the subject of sliders continues to come up. My concern is that this really puts yo in the position of a test pilot, or rather this puts someone else in this position that by all appearances isn't able to do this for himself. Kind of like that tv show shark tank: "For this reason, I'M OUT.!!!" Hard Openings Vidieo C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

The college thing is worth speaking about cause my take is that many colleges have a way too friendly association with their insurance carriers. I also understand that many colleges/ universities are mandating students purchase "their" plan and these same insurance lawyers have written in very restrictive specifications that makes getting a comparable policy, i.e. via your parents as an example, very difficult. I am sure there are exceptions to this but there seems to be a movement to screw students because the perception is that they have deep pockets. Mostly funded by the false perception of cheep student loans which has in fact created this vicious circle.... Youll remember cheep loans and the whole student loan system was massively restructured based upon legal and lobbing and has taken a really bad turn for the worse considering the negative effects this has had all in the name of free enterprise, which is what the industry wanted when they achieved government collaboration. All in the name of Government downsizing. C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

No , no Ron,... I love you man! I just posted again to add something cause I'm in a real supporting mode right now, cause they are continuing to feed me good. IS the op an hour away? and Yes I agree local jumpers tend to jump and go this can be a bit of the vibe that I have mentioned in other past posts. As well as the environment can be stuffy when this place is in full learning mode with big events at the same time. Way too many come and go just to coach make a buck and leave, but isn't this an issue at many places that run 7 days. Perris can be very stuffy and I frequently hear many newbies get lost there in a similar fashion??? C But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

restaurant 50 feet away from the landing area, experienced, is IMO the best one I have ever been to at a DZ. Hours, variety, and freshness. It is open morning to late every day and frequently plays something live every popular week end. You would have to be nutws to go to a Wendy's or that other shithoe Friendly's. There's something I'm not getting here,... you live in Orlando? This place is like an hour away??? As are many other fine dz's all within driving distance??? C Ditto the airport burger thing, but the hours are limited... But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

I just finished this! And I thank you very much. I was so pleasantly surprised with this book! And yes the first 3 chapters were a little funky but this really was and is such a memorable book! THANKS AGAIN FOR THIS RECCOMONDATION!

A couple of things: (1) So long as that person has remained insured, that person cannot be denied coverage. That's been the law for about 30 years now. Kindly explain how that applies to a newborn. Ditto. But what kills me is this same logic would /wouldn't be applied if he was robbed at knifepoint on the street. ? The fed took steps to end subsidized corruption, a type of white collar crime, by not funding rip-off scam policies. The very existence of only due the paid diligence of corrupt lawyers doing what they do. They, us, our government are acting as police trying to protect everyone. And the most insidious thing is that they are only going after the most blatantly corrupt policies out there. And this gets twisted into a free choice argument? And by corruption I mean the moral choices most rational human beings make. Lawyers like to justify their actions based upon the caveat that they are required to do everything that their clients demand of them. Kind of exactly in the same way Josef Mengele justified his actions. There are limits and this rational has led to the ruination of our fine country. So why does he ignore the facts in favor of his free choice argument? I want and need the very few times our Government steps in to protect those that can not protect themselves. Seat belts save lives. Getting rid of corrupt and scam insurance policies should be a job for Government when individuals cannot do this for themselves. But alas it's no longer about government for the people and it's associated checks and balances: It's about those who have power, how they got it, and how they keep it. Morality has taken a back seat to the law, a legal system that is bought and paid for! The law has nothing to do with people anymore. It is a commodity for the fattest wallets and nothing else. Law is something that corporations dictate to ensure next years profitability. C "Damaged Care" is a nice movie that has much illustrative value to what and how insurance litigation works in this day and age. Did yo know that the rate of legitimate claims that are not being paid has recently undergone an exponential increase? This is because in most of our fifty states the liability for intentionally denying a claim has been drastically reduced or is in many cases non-existent. It is much more cost effective to blame the victim and force unfunded litigation than to merely pay out the claim. Of course the war cry from the legal team is always we have the right to not pay frivioulus claims or we have the right to protect ourselves against fraud. I do agree with him on one thing though: Get rid of the fucking paid whores on a national level this would then force the insurance companies and the health care industry to be more responsive to the communities they serve. Government would then be responsive to the supposed checks and balances the peoples whims would demand. I bet he wont go for that though???? Real capitalism scares the shit out of our corporations. That's why they hire lawyers..... to make sure our Government doesn't work..... Ya know I'm going to go back to Amish Country to watch the next barn rasin and make the suggfestion that I should get some cash before I help my neighbors in need..... The whole concept of insurance has been perverted beyond recognition,...to the point Mine Kamph noodle low mein makes sense But what do I know, "I only have one tandem jump."

Even if the airplane's wing is gone at 1300 feet? Do you know Ron? Now that you have given me nightmares, ... If ever I will be pulling my reserve close to the ground, it will not be my choice, and I also know that my container has a relatively loose reserve cause I picked my latest rig based upon reserve size first, and then my container was picked so that the reserve is in fact, loose as well. The goldilocks rule. I also changed my reserve pin to a curved pin, because the skyhook can pull in any direction and this helps me sleep at night despite what some others think about that,....Chances are if your flying' causes the wing to flap off, I'll be lucky to get the door open in time..... but you will find my "cold dead hands" grippin my pud.

Xcellent , excellent find dude!!