
JeffCa
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Everything posted by JeffCa
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I have a Racer, which I'd say has several differences from most rigs that I'd classify as "major" and should be noted by anybody looking at one. 1. pop-top reserve pilot chute 2. 2-pin reserve, requiring a different AAD 3. different kind of RSL 4. orange cutaway cables, requiring no grease/oil Then there are more minor differences, like single-layer harness webbing. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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It's funny that you thought you were giving the impression of a jealous needy jumper, because before I got down to that part of your post, I was thinking "relatively well-off jumper who can afford new gear, criticising those who might need the money pretty badly". Your disclaimer telling us about all of your great gear showed that was true. I can also afford new gear. I just bought all of my first rig brand new, but a lot of people are not in that position, and a few hundred dollars is a windfall for them. I have no problem with selling something like this. Another commenter wrote that it's a "dick move" to sell something you didn't pay for and won't use, but I'd bet he'd do it depending on what it was. So if y'all had won the PD 500-ticket raffle from last year, you'd have just sold it for the $35 you used to buy the ticket? Or would you attempt to get nearly-full value for the brand new rig/altis/jumpsuit that you didn't need? Don't try to tell me that because you paid $35 for that many thousands of dollars worth of gear, that it then becomes something you paid for and can sell for many times what you paid. I won't buy that reasoning. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Funny story (to me anyway).... an instructor at my DZ bragged to me a few times that she has over 1,000 jumps and never cutaway. Then one day I found out that she once had a mal and tried to cutaway, but for whatever reason couldn't manage to pull her handle (couldn't find it or hard pull, I don't know). In the time it took her to do this, the mal corrected itself and she aborted the cutaway. So the only reason that she had never cutaway is that she completely screwed up her EPs. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I've been on DZ.com for a little more than a year now, and there are various people that I do trust and respect nearly completely, even if they sometimes (errr... often?) contradict each other. Their reputations have been supported by others and they post some quality stuff. The list includes (not exhaustive): Brian Germain Bill Booth John Sherman BillVon DaveLepka Sparky Airtwardo DSE RiggerLee and a few others with Rigger in front of their name In my opinion, anybody who tries to make themselves seem more credible than they are, by lying about years, jump numbers or ratings, should be permanently banned. It can mislead those of us who are still trying to find out who's who here, and that can be dangerous in this game. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I'm LMAO at the wild mad speculation. This thing works as it is. Just look at todays video. However, this has been good, for example I used tissue paper to disprove the gas exaust theorie at the handle and around the generator. I would not have done that if David had not mentioned it. I don't understand much of what you guys are talking about here, but am watching with interest. As a new Racer owner, there's a good chance that this contraption will someday be installed in one of my rigs. So I'm happy that it has been innovated, and happy that others are challenging John to consider some things that he maybe hadn't considered before to prove its safety. This is how the review of new designs should be done. We need both the innovators and the critics. So thanks. Now, carry on as you were. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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AADs and highly loaded reserves (was: Arizona 200-way collision)
JeffCa replied to grue's topic in Gear and Rigging
I just bought my first reserve at 0.83 WL because of just this scenario. I spent the extra money to get the Optimum so I could fit a bigger canopy in the same space. I don't know if I'll ever move off that size, because I'll never by skygod enough to handle a smaller canopy while being unconscious at the same time. I'm hoping it's enough to get me down with only minor injuries if I'm unconscious, but maybe that's naively optimistic? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth -
The phone line? Isn't that the thing people stand in outside the Apple Store when a new iPhone is released? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Make a phone call on a what? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I suspect it is a bunch of High School students using some kind of on line question generator to do the absolute minimum of work required for some class they really don't care about. Most likely the football team, US version,.... Help them if you want, but generally the sad reality is there is probably someone on the other end who uses their "juice" to stick pictures on the wall. Seen the movie: Happiness? 1998. The problem is when these people post results that "other " people believe the results. Generally they don't contribute to anything and in a majority of cases they spread stereotypes and misinformation. Information that is wrong gets transmitted unabashed and uncensored, this is the problem! C When I went to that last site, which was part of the legitimate University of Bristol site, it mentioned on the first page that you need to sign up for a £500 annual account to make surveys. The survey once existed and was now closed, so I don't think this particular case was a joke. Perhaps bad study technique, but an honest attempt to do something. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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But why? What is the endgame? What does somebody have to gain from doing this? "Tee-hee, I made skydivers click a link that wasn't even malicious!" Why would somebody come here "full of crap", as you write, and try to get us to do a survey, then direct us to a website that specialises in surveys? I probably didn't even have time to finish it, I just wanted to see what kind of questions were being asked. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Ah yes, the international standard date method vs. the North American way of writing it. As a Canadian who runs an overseas business dealing with clients from around the world, I am familiar with both and don't need to "learn something". I just see more of one vs. the other, and my first reaction is to interpret it as month-date-year. Thanks for the condescending sarcasm, though. And did it even matter? It's closed. Were there bonus points for correctly interpreting the date that it closed? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Let's see: Brand new user. 1st and only post. Empty profile. Do you think it's a good idea to follow that link? Nah, it's not as dangerous as it might appear, for a few reasons. 1. bris.ac.uk is a legitimate website 2. If he wanted more people to click, he wouldn't have written it takes 15 minutes, only 1-2, and the prize would have been larger 3. He got the name "AFF" correct, which even some posters here can't do 4. I just switched to Mac last week, and they claim to be nearly immune to this kind of thing. It needed a test. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Went to the link, it said the survey closed on March 12th of this year. That was a waste of a minute of my life. Did I just infect my computer with a virus or something by visiting the site? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Polite word for fraud. Basically signing that the reserve was repacked, but not actually doing the job only the paperwork. Is there any kind of rule, unwritten or written, that a rigger must resign or lose his licence when doing something so incredibly stupid and dangerous? Or at least that other riggers take him out back and beat the shit out of him? This kind of carelessness could have gotten somebody killed. The lazy bastard is essentially giving the finger to somebody's life. I would probably be tempted to murder my rigger if I ever found out this had happened to my gear. I don't know about rigger etiquette and the fine print. But there is a really simple answer. Don't be a lame skydiver with no interest in your gear. Every repack cycle is an opportunity to 'do' your emergency procedures. Actually cutaway and pull your reserve (on the ground of course). walk out your freebag and reserve and have a good look at things. That's good advice. I'm still a couple of months away from my first ever repack, so never had the opportunity. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Polite word for fraud. Basically signing that the reserve was repacked, but not actually doing the job only the paperwork. Is there any kind of rule, unwritten or written, that a rigger must resign or lose his licence when doing something so incredibly stupid and dangerous? Or at least that other riggers take him out back and beat the shit out of him? This kind of carelessness could have gotten somebody killed. The lazy bastard is essentially giving the finger to somebody's life. I would probably be tempted to murder my rigger if I ever found out this had happened to my gear. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I don't have anything useful to add to this conversation, but for my own interest and possible future reference, I'd like to discuss this quote (from a post that has now been deleted). How do you know you don't have a defect? Is it possible that the canopy just wasn't made to correct spec? I've read stories on this forum about canopies that regularly opened hard for no apparent reason. They get sent back to the factory for inspection, and sometimes the manufacturer just replaces it with another one. I think one story said that the factory test jumper who was jumping it for the investigation ended up with an injury himself because it opened hard for him too. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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History lessons for the young pups
JeffCa replied to faulknerwn's topic in Skydiving History & Trivia
So what? Bill Booth's instructor had 6 jumps. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth -
I agree. At my DZ, I'm apparently the go-to guy for information about gear. Look at my jump numbers on the left. I'm new. I've done my best to absorb information from the best sources. I researched all major gear manufacturers when I was shopping, been reading this forum daily for a year, listened to all of the Brian Germain Safety First episodes from Skydive Radio, watched DSE's videos of the manufacturers explaining their products from the last 3 PIA conventions, read the Jump Shack website articles, the Skydiver's Handbook, The Parachute and Its Pilot the Skydiver's Survival Guide, manuals for some gear that I don't even own, etc. That doesn't make me an expert at all, but it seems to have put me way ahead of most of the fun jumpers at my DZ, even ones with hundreds more jumps than I have. It's me explaining to the 265-pound C-licence guy why he should consider large rings instead of mini-rings for his new container (He thought the difference was cosmetic). It's me explaining what a Skyhook does. It's me telling the D-licence guy that those yellow cables need to be lubed and risers need to be flexed (He confessed that he'd never heard that before, RTFM!). It's me pointing out that helmets should be done up for takeoff. It's me explaining why it can be a bad idea to have a pillow reserve handle when you've never cutaway before. And so on. Last week, a couple of the much more experienced guys said that they now come to me when they have a question about gear. What does that tell you? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I'm not sure if I've been around for long enough to know what you meant by that. If you don't want to write it here, maybe send me a PM? I got Dacron after listening to all 3 of their opinions, because I couldn't see the harm. If there's a chance it's better for my openings, then the only problem with getting it is a slightly larger main compartment on my rig. I'm fine with that. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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On the Dacron vs. Spectra issue, it's John Sherman going head-to-head with Bill Booth and John LeBlanc. The latter two both suggest that Dacron is better for reducing hard openings. John says he has testing that doesn't show a difference, Bill says he has testing that does. So what do we do in this case? Who wants to publish? "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Can somebody please educate me about the problem with a closing loop being too long? I understand that if it's too tight, you can have a pilot chute in tow. And I understand that if it's too loose, you can have a premature deployment. But what about a situation in which the loop is long so the grommets are far apart, but the rig is still tight and there is tension on the loop because of the size of the canopy inside? When I first got my new gear just a few jumps ago, I couldn't get all of the air out of the new canopy, so I ended up not being able to close the container at all. I literally drew a small amount of blood from my hands trying to close it. So I lengthened the loop. This allowed the grommets to spread apart, something like in SERE's photo, but not so extreme. But I could still barely close it. I jumped it, and it opened just fine. Then when I was repacking, a couple of instructors came by, saw it and laughed at me. They shortened the loop, but I couldn't close it by myself that way, and they had to help me for the next few times before I figured it out. Now I'm better at getting the air out, and it's becoming much easier to close, with the grommets together. So anyway, what exactly is the problem with a long loop that still has tension? Please explain. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I just went from a Silhouette to a Pilot in September, and the Pilot was noticeably softer on openings. The Silhouette wasn't hard, but the Pilot is better. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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This was a big concern for me, even though I'm younger than you and in good health. My Pilot with Dacron lines has opened really softly for me, but I've only jumped it about 20 times so far. I don't believe PD will put Dacron on a Pulse, which if I remember correctly, was why I eliminated it from the list. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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I have nothing at all to do with this. I'm new to the sport, have never been on any kind of record attempt except for a spontaneous attempt at worst-ever 5-way exit last weekend. I also have never (intentionally) done any headdown flying. So I think I can also be objective. Here in Japan, it seems to be considered a way of honouring somebody to aim for and to break their record. You are inspired by the other person's efforts and it gives you a goal to shoot for, so it's flattering, in a way. I come from a physics background, so I'm going to use one of my favourite science quotes here. Sir Isaac Newton was one of the most important scientists who ever lived. The guy was so fucking brilliant that when his university temporarily closed for the plague, he went home and used the time to invent calculus. He is more famous for his contributions to our understanding of gravity and motion, but also contributed heavily to optics, thermodynamics, and other branches of math. It is difficult to imagine how far behind we might be today if not for him. He was famously quoted as writing in a letter to a colleague (paraphrased), "If I have seen farther, it was by standing on the shoulders of giants." He meant that without the contributions of those great minds who came before him, he could never have accomplished what he did. They propped him up, as he props up our scientists today. Skydiving is a sport that has changed dramatically in a very short time. Unlike something like baseball, which really has changed very little over the last 100 years, skydiving has had enormous improvements in equipment, techniques and has spawned entirely new disciplines. We are in the position we're in today because of those who came before (many of which are still here, our sport being so young). People have literally lost their lives exposing the flaws with old gear designs, leading to the incredibly safe rig you wear on your back today. Before there were 100-ways, somebody had to make the first 4-way. We seem to have a situation here in which one group which put a lot of effort into planning and completing a record had their record broken by a group which did no planning at all. What does that say about the old record then? I'm sure the first 4-ways and 10-ways took some planning, but now we just throw them together on a couple of minutes notice. We are not pissing on the efforts of those who laid the groundwork, we are inspired and supported by them. We stand on their shoulders. In the future, others will stand on yours. When you set a record, you are inspiring and propping up those who will come later and break it, just as you were supported by the people who made that first 4-way. Next time you attempt a large formation, or set a record, or just land safely under your well-designed modern gear, give a thought for the shoulders that you stand on. You don't have to know their names, when or where it was, just that they existed and they did it. Know that you will return the favour to the future, even if that future begins just 2 months from now. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth
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Is there any kind of team competition in the USA based on region of residence/origin/home DZ? For example, a national contest with Team California vs. Team Midwest vs. Team Northeast vs. Team Florida vs. Team Southwest, etc. "So many fatalities and injuries are caused by decisions jumpers make before even getting into the aircraft. Skydiving can be safe AND fun at the same time...Honest." - Bill Booth