ZoneRat

As I see it, you'd only have to change it once. Then it would be correct forever. For example: The TM chooses a small canopy 'cause the combined exit weight is light... it would already have a smaller drogue on it. Same for the med. Same for the large. Once you change them, you never have to jack with it again. You just have to hope that the TM chooses the right size canopy. They're aleady doing that anyway...arent they? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

One would think that attaching the best sized drogue would be the third leg of that stool. 1. Friendly, capable TM +2. Friendly, capable Videographer +3. All the equipment and (as Dave said) clothing that offer the greatest chance of success. = The greatest likelihood of a happy student. You'd only have to attach the right sized drogue once, and it'd be right forever. Seems that TM's and Vid folk have learned to work around it. Guess it's not a big deal. Just a question I had waking up this morning. Shooting tandems seems like such a joyful thing, ya know? Bearing witness to someones first jump and all, but I dont care to fly a winged camera suit. I don't wanna convolute what RW skills I've developed so far with the whole new muscle memory set a winged suit might entail. They're not so locked in that I feel I could switch back and forth successfully. (& I've promised some friends I'd help turn some points with them this coming season... and that's fun too). Oh well. Perhaps in 2005. Thanks for the replies.

Here's my favorite, even if it isn't a turbine. Enough room you can actually stand up. Nice quiet ride. Easy for anyone check the spot at any time. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I assume (perhaps incorrectly) that at most DZ's, TM's have a range of canopy sizes to choose from based on the combined weight of TM and student. It would just make sense to keep wingloadings sort've the same from jump to jump. If so, are these tandem rigs set up with different sized drogues as well? Seems like it would make things easier for the videographer... fall rate wise. I've heard of times when video guy's can't film lightly weighted Student/ TM combo's cause they cant stay on level with their freefly suits and don't own or can't capably fly camera suits. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Nicely put. I've never seen a high dollar helmet that looked to me like it had adequate padding. My open face is a roller hockey helmet I bought used for 20.00 to go snowboarding in. I figured if it could save a kids head from concrete it would do for ice or impact in freefall as well. IMO it's a better helmet than the boneheads. Uglier though. Much uglier. For RW I use a Z1. Like other skydiving helmets it lacks much padding inside. What realy irks me about it is that the lense is on the inside of the visor- that means zero structural support. A kick in the face will not be stopped by that lense. It will bend in. The Oxy's have a stiffer lense on the outside. But the Z1's fashionable, and it keeps me warm, and It does have a little something to protect my chin. Still... it's not much more than a cool looking full face goggle. Pics: Z1.3 shows what a cool job a buddy did on my helmet Z1.4 shows how poorly the aftermarket lense is at stopping a hit opn1.3 shows my ugly openface. (The first 20 or 30 people that jumped with me got to sign my helmet in paint pen. Makes it special to me.) open 1.4 shows how much thought the designers put into the interior padding, and how nicely my protrack fits in by snipping a bit of foamy stuff out. Every time I watch weird sports (luge, skeleton, etc) I look to see if they have a better helmet for skydiving than skydiving helmets. I'd like to find something that was better than a full face goggle. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Amortise the cost of a cypress over the life span of the product and it's the cheapest "insurance" you can get. (Well... keeping good tires on your car is probably the cheapest, but an AAD is a close second). “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You think The Dork might have The Chair? or maybe your brother? 250K is a lotta dough, bebe. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Are you sure HE was the one who stole your prized goulami? Is it possible that maybe someone else might've just, I dunno, borrowed the goulami to use for the guest of honor's chair at a dinner engagement? or something? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

LIB, A right perfect answer... I knew it'd be a Texan... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

A newly licenced skydiver's comfort level is typically mis-informed. They under-estimate the dangers and over-estimate their skills... without knowing it. I did. Please be careful. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

The way we do tracking dives: One person is on his/ her back, tracking. Others form a v formation with the "rabbit" (the back tracker) assuming the point of the v. Tracking dives can be pretty dangerous, dude. It's a specialty dive and has certain risks. Get a good pre-brief and follow the rules laid out by the dive engineer. If others on the dive don't seem very "switched on"... reconsider. Not sayin' don't go... but be careful. Actually... don't go. To be honest, I'd rather not see anyone with 25 jumps doing any kind of specialty dives... (hoop dives, tracking dives, raft dives, big-ways, formation loads, etc). But whatever. You have an excellent suit for RW. I'd wear something completely different for FF. (I hated saying that, btw. Seems I remember from another thread that your suit's a recent purchase) Oh and hey man, welcome home!

Reminds me of a joke puzzle: Decifer this: mr ducks mr not ducks osar cdetbt wings? cdetbt feet? lib, mr ducks “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

[sing-songy child's voice] I know what it is... I know what it is... [/sing-songy child's voice] maybe. This coming year it's understanding competition 4-way, big ways and completting SDU coaching cert. In 2005 possibly instruction. I LOVE FF, but intentionally do them rarely. That way, each one seems like eating a wonderful dessert! “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You'll get it. Just keep working on it. Give yourself a weekend (say 10 jumps or so) of belly flying with your booties. By the end of the weekend, you'll have 'em licked. Probably. It takes a while to completely dial in your first good jumpsuit... did me, anyway... but it's worth it when you do. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

1st Cesna jump #106, then 108, then not again until 231. A dozen or so since then. For me it's almost all Otters and Caravans, with a few Casa's thrown in (as many or more than C-182 jumps). And a balloon once. Balloons are cool. Every Skydiver should jump a balloon at least once. The C-182 a still a novel, enjoyable jump plane to me. My first couple night jumps were from a Cesna. I really enjoyed the extra time to altitude. I think night jumps are safer from a Cesna. Less people and canopies flyin' around. Actually, I was scared to death my first Cesna jump, and had passed up several chances before I got the nerve to try one. Now I enjoy Cesna DZ's, visit them as often as I can, and do not consider their jumpers "Deprived". They all looked like they were having fun to me...

Yeah. I thought so too. Checked out the website. Seems there's only 2, 2-hour parts for now. So Mark. Am I to understand that you liked that Dune film? and What were your thoughts on Sci-fi's Riverworld? “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I think when Ivan spoke of Dune as being gay, he was referring to the Dino DeLauentis film... Remember... The one that had Sting as a Mentat? He's right, too, that movie was faggy. All that whispering. The Sci-Fi's remake of Dune was damn good I thought. Beautiful to watch. Yall make a great point as to how many models there are. I'd assumed that 6 of 9, I mean nexus 6, I mean the hot blond cylon had 11 identical sisters... but that note that Adama got does lead one to believe that there were 12 total design groups... many we haven't seen yet... I had the same thought LouDiamond had, I think the Presidents simpleton aide-boy will turn out synthetic. I found this version of BSG to be excellent TV. It had an (almost) honest grittiness I liked. Adama beating the hell out of that replicant, I mean humanoid cylon, was a good example. The pres' has breast cancer. The little girl dies 'cause her ship cant jump... Starbuck confesses her sins because it's the end of the word opening the path for the disgrunted son to make peace with dad. Not bad tv. It's got a little E.R. in there... I also enjoyed the fact that not everything was "futuristic". Adama eating spaghetti, for example. Comforting to know that you can be in a civilization that doesn't really believe in earth, yet you can still get a nice fettuccini alfredo... It's interesting... During the industrial revolution man feared dehumanization because machines were stronger and more efficient workers. Later, computers were better data based thinkers. Then limited A.I. came around... about the same time that cloning and gene mapping work had some breakthroughs... Mary Shelly was on to something, I think... as was Philip Dick. It felt to me like a few of the 12 year old kids that loved the original BSG grew up and became filmakers... and made a grown up version of the series. I felt the same way about LOTR. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

Well. I think you win the prize for the best answer to: So, What'd YOU get for christmas? And you're right, btw. Cute as a button. Enjoy.

I'd bet you'll like it just fine. All my friends like theirs. A good thing about the STI option... should your helmet come off in freefall... it's easier to find the audible if it's bolted to the helmet. Plus you're just unlikely to lose the skytronic in general... falling out of the helmet pocket walking back to the hanger for example. I think the STI thing is a pretty sharp idea. Looks good too. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

it took me all of 3 minutes to do so, but yes. The hardest part was getting the lines on his top drogue fat enough... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

pst... girlfalldown', Shannon! Shannon!!... You, uh, think they bought that? I mean.. ahem. Why no Girlfalldown. I found no origional picture. Mine is photoshopped. Yours is obviously unaltered. That f**ker... There... that should do it... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You can pull something like this off... just have to dress for sucess, that's all. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I want one with a sexy female voice that purrs my altitude in my ear. "12,000 feet... 11,000 feet.... later: BREAKOFF-BREAKOFF...PULL-PULL and OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT!" and... when the altitude reaches zero, if the alt doesn't sense massive orientation changes... I want it to say "Ooooh! NICE landing, Robin". ____ I love my protrak and use most of the features and data. It'll have to do until the sexy voice one comes out. Most my friends chose the Skytronic FX and they love theirs too. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

I've had a legstrap on my old rig loosen to the stop during a track a couple times. Very disconcerting. A band stow solved the problem. My chest strap stays put on both my new and old rig. The old rig was a Dolphin, the new one a Vector 3. Like the others, I like to loosen it to the stop after opening. “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”

You are so hooked. Ya know... it IS typical for students to get stuck on that heading control level... It is not typical for students to then fly to Florida and get an hour of tunnel time to overcome the difficulties. Problem solving at it's finest! Admirable response, that. Sittin around at the DZ even when the weather's bad... reading, learning, taking all the tests... you're doing a lot of things right, man. Yep. I predict 2004 is going to be a great year for you. Same with txblackbear and all the others coming off student status. It's gonna be fun drenching yall with beer at the SCR ceremony... Don't have your SCR yet? Well. When the time is right, We'll just have to work on that... “There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophies.”