ZigZagMarquis

Question... How are you defining "average" jumper? A way I've heard an "average" jumper defined is someone that is in the sport for 5 - 6 years. Given that, those of us posting here with 7+ years in the sport are "above average". A few more thoughts... Take two "average" jumpers who are in the sport 5 - 6 years and then get out of it. Even in that time, one could have the same rig he or she bought after getting off student status when at the end of it while the second could have had two or three systems in that same time period before deciding to hang it up. Same, similar goes for someone with 20 - 30 years in the sport. One such person could have only gone through a couple of systems or 3 systems in that time period if they only jump a hundred or so times a year. Then take another person that's been jumping for that long and cranks out hundreds and hundreds (or more) jumps a year; no matter how good they care for their shit, they're going to burn through a lot more gear. You almost need to somehow normalize it by time in the sport and jump numbers? Otherwise I'm not sure how to "read" the data you're getting from your poll??

... I think I was on the load with that guy too. You know, no one really "deserves" to die doing this "skydiving" thing... gravity doesn't care how many jumps, gold medals or how much "experience" you have... none of us are or will ever be "so good" that we won't die doing this... and all that... but at some point... come-on, if you're going to be sooo stupid, or ignorant, you'd be better off playing Russian Roulette with an automatic...

[rant] Yeah, crap like that (a lack of understanding of one's skydiving gear) and a lack of respect for the seriousness of what it is we're doing from some folks out there in the skydiving verse ticks me off too. I mean, not everyone has to be a rigger, but if you're off student stauts and going to be throwing your soft pink breakable body out of an aircraft you ought to at least have more then just a little understanding of how your "life saving device" works (i.e. an understanding of its theory of operation), be able to recognize things that are wrong, why that's wrong and apply such knowlege to some new, but similar situations.... BUT there are some that don't or won't or are incappable and are of the (MISTAKEN) opinion that, "something bad happens to me, who or what can I blame". Happens some in skydiving, happens a lot in the rest of the world these days. [/rant]

John, If you said it and I missed it, my bad, but did the guy you found this on have any idea how or why the rubber band got there in the first place... like he had some sort of "idea" that made it a "good idea"... or was he just totally oblivious?

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Well, "Happy Obnoxious" would probably be more suited for the Bonfire. However they allow angry self righteous people (who haven't even been drinking) to post in the Womens forum - so I say GO FOR IT!!!! g Yeah, well, I'd still like to know if Nomad's avatar is a self portrate and, if so, what kinda piece it is she's packin' there... but even the [Tequila] .... [/Tequila] tags wouldn't slide it past mama... she's a strict misst... errr... moderator...

... kinda a "Happy / Obnoxious" drunk... "Angry", no.

Well... at least it won't get me pied!

Jeff is a great guy. I wish I could jump into the "way back machine" and zap myself back to the day he, Rat-Boy, Celaya and I were in Bob's loft and someone made some off-hand comment about fat chicks showing up at the DZ to do a Tandem and Jeff... who was being his normal quiet self and not really part of the conversation at the moment... went off on a 20ish minute disertation on why taking fat middle aged chicks on a Tadem sucks! ... my favorite quote went something like, "What part of sitting on a couch for the last 20 years eatting Bon-Bons makes you think you're prepared to come out and try the most extreme sport around!!!???!" Jeff is cool.

I have never seen a skydiving 206 that didn't have 6 jumpers as its normal load. i have no idea why you think it would be "bold" to get in one with six jumpers. Like I said... I'll happily wave at any 206 taxiing out with 6 jumpers + 1 pilot on board...

Not female Japanese freestylers. Yeah... and there are always so many of them running around the DZs here in the States...

True... but has everything you've seen in skydiving been approved... ? Anyway, I'm just saying I've "seen" 206's with 6 jumpers and a pilot in it... not that I'm ever going to "see" one that up close again... rather, I'll be "someone else" waving it goodbye as it taxis out... ya know, that ol' saying about there are old skydivers and there are bold skydivers... you know the rest... and I'm getting old..er...

I jump regularly with a guy that I'm 90-some % sure he's blind in one eye and he does fine. Years ago I meet a gal-jumper that happened through Apple Valley that was (is) blind in one eye and she did fine. Lori was her name, I think, and I think she's still around Perris. Last, but not least, I know a jump pilot / jumper (used to fly for Celaya out at Cal City... damed if I can remember the guy's name) that only had one good eye, other glass... he (say's) he lost the other in a BB gun incident when he was a kid... I figured he was THE GUY that mom always told stories about.

Yeah, I had a similar reaction when I read that too and was waiting to see if anyone else noticed. But if you count the pilot... 5 Jumpers + 1 Pilot = 6 in a 206 and, I've seen... 6 Jumpers + 1 Pilot = 7 in a 206... but I care not to see that again...

No,it's Swiss build but for an american france is close enough Well... lots beat me too it already... but, I'll pile on, no, a Porter is not French made. Anyway, guess if can take a dig at the French (I'd love to vist Spain or Belgium or Germany or Switzerland or Italy some day), y'all can take a dig at most American's lack of skill when it comes to geography...

Familiar with the trim tabs y'all speak of... seen them on big-ass military squares too... but I recall being told that Chyrel had something specifically on her steering lines, not the front risers... at least that's what I'm remembering, but I didn't see it personally and there's been a lot of sleep and beers since then...

Evidently, the French would.

Yes and no. Reportedly, Cheryl Stearns used some sort of a system like this when she went for the "most jumps in a 24 hour period" record years ago. I have no idea how it was configured exactly though.

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If you ever run into a TM in mid / upstate California (I think it its), by the name of Jeff Lund (sp?)... tall lanky guy, big bushy mustache, been doing Tandems forever... buy him a few beers, spin him up, get him talking about taking fat chicks on tandems, sit back, enjoy the stories and try not to piss yourself laughing... Anyway... caveate, I'm not a TM, but seems to me, the TMs I do know are now more apt to tell someone, let us say, rubenesque, that "they're not cut out to go do this" since the unfortunate incident where the 5'3" 230ish lb gal came out of the tandem harness incident a bit ago.

My 2 cents... Seems to me, PRO packing and Psycho packing are the same up until you lay the canopy down. Originally, I learned to flat pack and later on (after 700ish jumps / pack-jobs) learned to PRO pack. Psycho packing was also going on at the same time, but after learning to PRO pack, getting the canopy on the ground, getting the air out, reducing the width and S-folding it into the bag was familiar at that point and not really an issue for me. Having said that, psycho packing works too. Lots of folks do it. I always found the flipping and the rolling and the flipping back to be unnecessary for me as I already mastered another technique for controlling the canopy to get it into the bag. To answer your specific questions... Which pack job is better and does flaking out the cells matter? Well... which pack job is better seems to be a matter of choice... as in "some folks like Dodge and some folks like Fords", but they'll both get you there... as for does flaking out the cells matter... well... I'm a bit more of the opinion that flacking the cells is important, but, at the same time, I know a lot of folks that straighten out the nose, shake the canopy once or twice, quarter the slider, wrap the tail around and call it good... aka "a trash pack"

Not a big deal. I pack for a couple of people that I only see their rig every 2 or 3 Reserve Repack cycles... evidently when their "other" rigger runs of pencils...

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No worries. Like I said, I've been known to pull low for safety at times myself, but remember, you're not supposed to fucking die either.