darkwing

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    2,354

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by darkwing

  1. darkwing
    Communicate! Find their home dz, and talk with the DZO, manager, etc. Do you have any mutual acquaintances? I second the idea of shipping to a rigger also. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  2. darkwing
    let me correct the above definition of "aspect ratio". It us conventionally given as span to chord, so a canopy that is 22 feet wide and 10 feet from nose to tail would have an apsect ratio of 2.2. Generally speaking, 9-cell canopies have higher aspect ratio, but it is certainly not a universal requirement. Also, be aware, that single measure, such as square footage, or aspect ratio, only tell part of the story on a canopy. there are other factors, such as leading and trailing edge taper, airfoil, trim... -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  3. darkwing
    I think there is no standard. The details of stabilizer and suspension line geometry are very canopy dependent. When I built canopies I made sure that when I loaded the bottom skin in the early stages of "inflation" the stress at the line/stab junction was minimal. I did this on the table, and it required some finesse. I never had one rip off that I recall. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  4. darkwing
    They were common in the early to mid- 1970s. To my recollection they were only used for ParaCommander class canopies. I jumped one many times. The difference between a POD and a bag (in my mind) is that a POD used a much neater folding method of enclosing the canopy. A big is more of an S-fold stuff it in. Once packed, to a casual observer, a POD is pretty much like a bag. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  5. darkwing
    I'm glad you had fun. I'm not a fan of 0 g, and I have a couple of teammates who REALLY dislike it. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  6. darkwing
    I'm sure they didn't consider the cost. I think they only cared what the D signifies, and, without being too complicated, 500 is a nice workable number. Certainly it has been MANY years since 200 jumps would have been considered "experienced". It seems to me that the whole licensing scheme is frought with compromise, and the licensing bodies have done well enough, if not exactly how I would have done it. I am sure there will be more changes in my lifetime. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  7. darkwing
    Nice, but not for the bandwidth impaired (38 MB). Good luck this year. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  8. darkwing
    Speaking as a rigger, I cannot imagine ANY rigger doing that. Sorry. I wouldn't even do it for myself, and there are things I would do on my own rig that I wouldn't do on anyone else's. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  9. darkwing
    It is hard to tell from the video, but two things make me think the dock was the cause of the problem -- 1. I didn't see or read any evidence that the bridle (or anything else) deployed before the pilot chute 2. it happened at the moment of the dock. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  10. darkwing
    It was a LONG time ago, and I believe that blaming things on the fact that the tail was split is unjustified. At the very least, splitting the tail is a manufacturing hassle. I suspect that it has relatively little effect, compared to other issues, particularly on modern canopies with a high aspect ratio. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  11. darkwing
    Nothing counts until the first paying customers exit. I hate you, and expecially your stinking jet When can I come and jump it? -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  12. darkwing
    I am a very safety conscious jumper, but that doesn't stop me from pretending to call a friend a pussy for similar behavior. It is really a good-natured affirmation of sound thinking. I guess that sometimes the sarcasm might be interpreted as a real criticism of safe-minded behavior. I hope that is what you heard, but it might not have been. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  13. darkwing
    If you jump a long time (and I hope you will), you will be glad the more you write. I log more information than most people, but wish I had logged more. Only recently have I started writing down the tail numbers (e.g., N3127C) of aircraft I have jumped. Write down names, because some day they may be a big gun and you can remind them that they used to jump with you. Write down things like "first jump with new lines on my canopy" and "a student threw up in the airplane". -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  14. darkwing
    I jumped with a regular jumper/pilot many years ago who was always goofing around with aerobatic and semi-aerobatic moves in the C-182. I hated it and told him so. One day after the jumpers exited and he closed the door and descended he was goofing around, zero-g, and floated the observer up against the door handle. Door opened, and observer fell out. She had a 2 second canopy ride, and lived to talk about it. I don't know what the legal/FAA consequences were. Another hot shot in my past killed himself and about 10 other people when a buzz job went bad. I regularly complained to both of these guys, but they always thought it was funny. Who's laughing now? Nobody. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  15. darkwing
    It is an interesting question, which has come up many times in my 32 years of skydiving. I have yet to hear a compelling response. I am certain that many sports and recreations have either under- or over-represented minority participants. Some of it may be due to a self-fulfilling mechanism which inhibits participation because there aren't others of similar ethnicity already participating. It may be that the embryo of our sport came from World War II paratroopers, who were overwhelming white (please corrrect me if I am wrong). -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  16. darkwing
    I put 600 jumps on a Spectre190. I demoed at Sabre2-170 and it was marginally smaller in pack volume. I now jump a Pilot 168, and it packs the same as did the Sabre2-170, a tiny bit smaller than my Spectre-190. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  17. darkwing
    Ditto to what Tonto said. I happily jump INFINITY, but there are many happy Mirage owners at my DZ. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  18. darkwing
    It can be done (rudimentarily) using Bernouilli's equation, which is about as good as they are likely to do. B's equation is in most intro-level physics books. If they have any math/graphics software, such as Mathematica, Maple, etc. they could work up a nice model which lets them input dimensions and speeds, and it would spit out some results. A "real" model would be either a useless "black box" program, or too complex for them. My perspective is as a university physics teacher who has done some of this stuff. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  19. darkwing
    does it have a brass or stainless steel shackle? Big price diff there. Of course, not enough to convince you that it is all worth $50 though. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  20. darkwing
    Don't confuse talking about fatalaties with wanting to see them. It is difficult to imagine anything I would want to see less than a fatality. I talk about them, because they are lessons. Your characterization of them as a "prerequisite to nobility" is absurd. Walking around in a fog due to the oppressive memory is not a good thing. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  21. darkwing
    It is also interesting to note the slider stops(?) moving up the suspension lines. That is some ugly stuff there. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  22. darkwing
    Yes, the Safety Flyer was the very first ram air reserve. It is 5 cells, and enjoyed a good reputation for reliability, but not for performance. I'm not sure when they quit making them, but it was a long time ago, maybe about 1980 or slightly later. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  23. darkwing
    It's business. Whatever the market wil bear, etc. Also, as mentioned, it can be weather-related too. Some people pay full price for a car too. Caveat emptor. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  24. darkwing

    Please Help!

    darkwing replied to D-17's topic in Archive

    You probably can't win, and trying too hard will only make it worse. I think you will have to submerge your parental concerns and hope for the best. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  25. darkwing
    It depends on the atmospheric conditions. Sometime having polaroid glasses helps, and sometimes it doesn't. There are certainly polarizing effects in the atmosphere, but there are plenty of other things going on too. Lots of variables. -- Jeff My Skydiving History