ZigZagMarquis

Hey Rob... tell us a story... like about the time you glued your camera helmet to your head...

Yikes! Chase your stuff down! If you see someone else chop... give a brother (or sister) a hand, and chase their stuff down!

I had my reserve handle stripped on an RW exit one time where we were pulling a 6-chunk or something like that. The person that did it, did it by mistake and he was an experienced skydiver, so no blood, no foul. Anyway, my reserve handle was out if its pocket, but my reserve didn't get dumped... neat trick, huh? Which was a good thing, because I was front float on that afore mentioned 6-way exit. Any... Anyway, I went the whole skydive oblvious to it until after breakoff, track, pull... as my main sat me up... of course here comes this reserve handle floating up in front of me! NOW I know what everyone was pointing about during that dive... DOH! Anyhow, as I recall, I trapped it against myself at that point, looked over my right shoulder to make sure my reserve wasn't coming out too... would have choped my main if it were, but it wasn't... and then carefully put my reserve handle back in its pocket. Gently flew my main back to an uneventful landing. Made sure the reserve pin wasn't disturbed before then next jump, which it hadn't been. Hey, I'd rather be lucky then good any day!

I usually breakoff between 4.5 and 4K, higher if its a real big-way. While tracking off... I'm looking to get max horizontal separation going (i.e. flat track), but will admit I've gone for vertical seperation in a pinch and probably will again again if need be. I don't wear one of those new-fangled "audibals" with all those beeps, whines, chirps, sirens and shocks... just an old fashioned Dytter... one beep, one beep only, please... that's set for breakoff. Once tracking, I'm strickly looking for seperation and at the dirt... not to really scare me, the dirt, that is... wave, pull... I'm usually in the saddle at about 2K... that's my story and I'm sticking too it! So, I'd say I'm pitching between 2.5 and 2.8K.

*slaps forehead* It was a JOKE! Geeze... dang FreeFliers...

ProTech! Cheap! Works! ... and you won't care if you drop & scratch it!!!

I thought military riggers were supposed to use DIFFERENT colored patchs then the orginal material so they would stand out better for inspection... in part... because I thought the military actually paid attention to that "too many patches" on a canopy / pannel / gore rule?

Is this some sort of conspirisy!!??! I've heard rumors that several DZs will be uping the prices of Jump Tickets in June / July...

Praise the Lord! errr... What he said!!

... awh, you'all should have seen Destiny in an RW suit, with grippers and all... she looked soooooo cute! Oh! And I forgot to mention she accidently put in for her Falcon award too. For Four Points on a 4-Way RW jump. Yeah, right, like you don't like abuse... Oh... and.... err... Skydive Chicago, Skydive ChicagoLand... Cal City East, Cal City West... what's the diff...

... well, if you're into that sort of stuff... umm...

Hey! How do you'all out there at Skydive Chicago put up with destiny2829? I'll bet it involves hand-cuffs and duct-tape?? But seriously, if you'all let her come back to SoCal again, we just might keep her ... especially after all those RW jumps she accidently did.

I once had a dream where I had just opened and as I looked up to collapse my slider and unstow my toggles and such, I realized that there was a rattle snake inside one of the cells of my canopy... so I cut-away.

I voted 9 years because the oldest of my 2 rigs is a Talon I bought in Jan 95. My other Rig, a J3K, I got this past August.

I won't pack a Reflex. No real specific reason, just don't like them... don't like the idea of a pop-top with no flaps over it with just one closing loop. Hey, just my opinion. If I were to happen to go to work for someone in a loft, I realize that I many have to change that tune, but right now, as an independant, that's it. I STRONGLY prefer not to pack Racers, not because they're bad or anthing like that, but because they require more steps / closing is more complex... fortunately I know several other riggers that will pack Racers... one of which actually LIKES packing racers... well, he works for JumpShack, so I guess he has to say that.. ... anyway, whenever I hear someone with Racer in hand say "re-pack", I quickly mention their names. OBTW... RiggerRob... the Racer may (or may not) be disappearing in BC, but there's a bunch around my home DZ here in SoCal. Swift 5 Cells with the "fly-away" steering lines... EKK! I packed one of those when getting my 20 for my Rigger's Ticket, but would STRONGLY encourage anyone bringing one to me to replace it. In fact, if I could side-step packing it for them, I would.

I own / jump a 94 Talon, which is basically a Talon 2. Its my 2nd Rig now, but was my only Rig up until about 5 months ago. I've put about 1800 jumps on my Talon. One Reserve Ride on the Raven II I've got packed into it; very clean deployment. I am also a Senior Rigger. I've got no major issues with it, although, obviously, after 1800ish jumps, its a bit worn here and there and has had a stitch or two now and again, but just cosmentics type repairs, nothing structural. Take care of your gear, treat it nice, always use a drag mat is my motto. Going back a few years, some riggers do not like the Talon Reserve Pilot Chute spring or the Talon Reserve D-Bag for various reasons, none of which I think are "bad" its just that different Riggers liek different things about different rigs and have different opinions... form your own... one thing to consider, remember, all rigs have to pass the same TSOs. All in all, I think the Talon2 is a fine rig and if you have a line on a used one that is in good shape, its a good buy. I would have bought a new production T2 when I was looking to buy a new Rig about 8 - 9 months ago, but by then a new T2 wasn't an option. I considered a Talon3 and have no reason to think thye're not a great rig either... have heard good things about them, but honestly, suffered "sticker shock" when pricing out a T3.

ouch... geeze As a good DPRE should...

"Have you seen the marginally maintained pieces of crap that we get into?" "The head-work isn't jumping out of them, it's getting into them in the first place! Jumping out is a smart thing!" "Wanna come try it?" OR "Because the door was open."

LOL... fortunately for her, you're probably the only person that will make her pack one!

I bought a new Sabre2 from PD a few months back and the steering lines were not finger trapped and bar-tacked... it arrived in the traditional fashion with the toggles needing to be tied on the the excess finger trapped. Maybe this is really new for PD or maybe they're just doing it on the really high performance stuff to make sure the break setting is done just so? Or maybe they're just not doing it on Spectra?? Anyway, I'd agree that the factory break setting on "new" PD canopies seems "long", but I've always just tied them off at the factory mark and then taken a wrap after un-stowing the breaks once uncer canopy. When I get to the point... number of jumps... where you don't have to take a wrap anymore because the lines have shrunk up... its about getting time for a line kit.

hmmm... not sure if it relates or not, but I seem to recall an incident a few years back where some missfortunate sole jumped in the winter somewhere with a pair of very heavy mittens (not gloves) on and couldn't get ahold of any of his handles. This was back before Cypress was widesperad and he found found dead in a position that made it look like he was trying to pull one of his mittens off with his teeth... so the theory was he couldn't get ahold of anything and was trying to get them off. Anyway, before I get flamed... maybe I'm remembering it wrong or maybe its an urban-skydiving-legend... As for Cypress and the cold... well... I suppose if the batteries were marginal and you managed to cold soak the unit, then you might have a problem, but why don't you get a hold of someone at SSK, ask them about Cypress and cold weather and post their answer here... let them know you're going to do that. http://www.sskinc.com/

For what its worth... my 2 cents... err... my plan : 1) 500ft to 1000ft... if something really really dramatic happens (i.e. lots of smoke and flames inside the airplane, wing falls off, airplane breaks in half), if I make it out... RESERVE... obviously.... might as well give it a shot. Anything less dramatic (i.e. the spinny thing stops), gonna stay with the aircraft and hope the pilot does a good enough job of crash landing it so he or she can walk away and we probably will too. 2) 1000ft to 1800ft and I gotta get out... my plan is RESERVE. 3) 1800ft to 2000ft is a bit of a grey area... but I'm still planning RESERVE. 4) 2000ft to 3000ft and I gotta get out... my plan is to go MAIN, but if it does anything by open, I'm gonna be quick on the handles. 5) Above 3000ft... that's a skydive... MAIN. Above all though... in any aircraft emergency, jumpers should follow the instructions of the pilot. The last thing the pilot needs is a bunch of jumpers rushing to the back of the aircraft and turing a minor emergency into a major one. ------ Having said all of that though... I have 4 friends who un-assed themselves from a burning Queen Air at 900ft. They all through their Mains. They all made it, but in hind-sight they all said they went for the most familiar handle because they hadn't tought about it much. One of them in particular remembers throwing out his main, looking at the dirt and thinking, "This might not work", fortunately, it did. The pilot managed to tear-drop the airplane back onto the airport and belly it it and get out too with some minor injuries.

My first reserve ride was on jump #20... line-over malfunction on a rental rig with a PD230 in it. The container was a Vector2, but I'd have to go find my initial log book to tell you what the reserve was. I've only had two total reserve rides to date... ... my second one so far was some where around jump 1800ish... it was a SBOS (Spinning Ball of Sh*t) mal on a Sabre170 that was badly in need of a line kit. The container was my 94Talon with a RavenII reserve... and yes, I still have that Sabre170, but it was in the mail to PD for a line kit the Monday morning after I chopped it.

Q : Once you jump out of the plane, how long do you have until you need to open a parachute? A : The rest of your life. ----------------------------------- Skydivers do not need to breath while in freefall because they absorb Oxygen through their skin because they're falling so fast. Corollary... that's why skydivers cannot jump through clouds, because they would drown.

I have a J3K with a PD160 Reserve and a Saber2-170. I'd say the Sabre2-170 fits in it snug, but not un-Godly so... but I've got over 2000 pack jobs and I'm a rigger, so I'm not sure how a new-bee would handle packing it. Aside... I'm of the opinion that Sabre2's pack up smaller then Classic-Sabre's of the same size. Aside #2... I know a gal at my home DZ that is fairly low time and she jumps a J1 (... not sure what flavor...) with a Classic-Sabre-170 in it. It kicks her ass some days, but she's been managing to close it... so, it is "do-able". Anyway... I'm kinda about having a container that's not so tiny... i.e. small, but the correct size... so I can pack it faster and make more jumps in a day rather then have the absolute smallest container past what is recommended, but not usafe, that I can jam the main I want to jump into... but that's just me. Anyhow... there's some more possibly useful info... but... SkyBytch said it best... go find a rig of the same size and try to pack your target main into it a few times and see how it goes and make your own, educated, decission.