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Stainless Steel Grommets do that, the Velocity comes std with SS. I have blackening on my lines from my SS slider. I actually saw less discoloration from brass (plus the brass goes over the toggels better when stowing. Jonathan

Alti 3 Smaller, more compact, but Like the FT-50 much much better, Finer needle than the alti 3, easier to read. Jonathan

#2 Jonathan Bartlett D-24876 AFF-I

Very Cool and thank you for the complement. We hope to do our best in Eloy this year. AF is strong and very consistent, the Blue team especially, they should be very proud at the level they are competeing at. Look forward to meeting you. Jonathan

A PD Reserve (PDR) is not made of 0P its F111 (well technically something like 0-.3 cfm). but they are still great reserves. The only reserve that I know of (and I could be wrong as I do not know all that is out there) is the Dash-M that has a ZP top skin. Jonathan

Ah I see. Yes our club is listed under a sports club. And Collegiates is list in the charter as having to attend. Our budget is mostly devoted to rig upkeep of the 7-8 rigs we own. We are possibly putting in an at cost aff program to promote membership, if we can get 30 people paying club dues every semester then the club itself can sponsor the collegiate events. but we ask for something like 50 - 75% more than we expect to get knowing they are going to cut it down. Also if you are granted something from the pervious year even if you do not need it next year keep it in the budget, you might be able to move funds from one area to another. Of course a large problem that is encountered with have a collegiate association is the fact that a normal under grad student is only in school for 3-4 years (well 4-6 at GaTech it seems) and most do not get into the sport their first year. So the interest to keep the association together with expirenced people is very hard. Also I was thinking that as far as collegiates go if you want to see more events then we need to ask for them. Ie if we want to have CRW back we need to show that we want CRW and have a interest. Also I was thinking that eight way might not be too hard to do and I would like to See eight way added. And I bet 10 way would be a blast to do also!! Jonathan

3 on my PD 113. 1st was a total malfunction from a pull out, landed fine, swooped it. 2nd was after an eventful cutaway on a spinning Velocity 103. Landed fine. 3rd was after another cutaway from the spinning Velocity 103, landed with rear risers down wind, almost stood it up, stalled it at the last second. I load it at 1.7:1. I would easily take that reserve into a back yard, only thing that makes me hope I never expirence is being unconcious. Jonathan

Just try to get it added to whatever budget your school gives the club. Last year we had 1800 dollars between 2 people. Its all about the school budget. Jonathan

Skyquest was a bit pricy too imo. $255 per person then the split of the camera man. Was a bit much for a team and collegiates (not includeing travel) is about the same. Jonathan

I dont think this is going to work but of course I have been before and will sometime in the future be wrong. The problem you are going to run into with Collegiates is that A) 75% of the competitors are from Westpoint and Airforce Academy. Their schools pay for their competition jumps, registration, and a certain amount of practice jumps. So if you still have 50 people (albiet all military) show up for collegiates then no one is really going to notice your abscence. B) Some schools are going to have to compete because of requirements in their club charter, No Collegiates = No Club. Yes 120 for registration is a bit steep. The dinner better well be damn good, but it does bring in a certain amount of judges, gear to judge with etx. Last year they also gave away quite a bit from sponsors in the raffle. 4 way for us looks like 16.60 per slot, which is only 60 cents more than it was at Nationals this year (If i remember correctly). If you registered for both 4 way and 8 way I believe the cost totalled to $100, each event had a registration cost. Now so at Collegiates you have 1 cost (120) and then you can participate in all the events, If you have more than 100 jumps find 3 other people and do the 4 way event, Do Freeflying, and Sport Accuracy, and if you have a pretty big main still do Traditional Accuracy. Jumps are just $13 once you are done competing, and Eloy has many activities and huge fleet of planes, nice nightlife, They have Night jumps on New Years Eve (Midnight), If its not for you then its not for you, but trying to stage a coup and move Collegiate nationals is not going to work. Next year it will be in Lake Wales so it will be a whole other story then also. Different crowds will make the 2 because of home locations. Thats just what I see, Do i think its over priced, yeah I do, do I think its totally out of control, no I don't. Do I really really want a shot at beating Airforce at Collegiates, hell yeah. Do I think I can get Airspeed members to help us with Dive Engineering, yeah I think so. All in all we are hoping to go in and really give Airforce a run for their money in 4way. To each his own, but you might find it much harder than you think to organize this all and USPA will probably not notice. You would be better off expressing your concerns to certain members, talking with USPA officials that will be in Eloy, If you voted for Danny Page and he becomes a National Director then express your concerns to him, he is very much concerned with the opinions of members regarding competition. Good luck in whatever you end up doing. Jonathan Georgia Tech

Super Otter with No benches. 95% of the jumps I do is 4way, exit work is fun. Climbs Fast. Skyvan with no Benches. Lots of Room, Fun exits also. Fast Climber. King Air, good for Full alt Hop N' Pop climbs fast. Porter nice climbing few ppl in the air with you. Cesna good for quick 3'5 Hop N' Pops. Hate CASA's, not fun to exit, jump run seems to always put people off the DZ either short or long, uncomfortable to sit in. Takes to long to Altitude. Jonathan

Depends on the size of the container. A j7 is gonna weight a hell of a lot (25-30 lbs) But my Javelin RS only weighs about 13-14 lbs. And that is with Stainless steal hardware. Smaller canopies = lighter rig. Jonathan

We just showed that the severity of the injuries can be minor, a hurt ankle, couple of cuts, etx simply means that swooping can be dangerous but the injuries are minor enough to be almost trivial for some of us. I guess kinda proves that swooping can be done and done well without a great amount of unnecessary risk if you are careful. But there are those that I have seen pound in an be taken out in the ambulance. Constant vigilance and awareness of where you are and what the canopy is doing. Just my opinion and perspective. Jonathan

Ah, In that sense I see your point, the odds do get lower as you have to essentially use randoms as fillers. Overall I think the rule is stupid, and takes away the pure randomness of the event. Jonathan

OK, now lets think about this. They are mandating 6 points on every round. So the pure randomness of the jumps go away. So they are going to mandate 6 points. So if you drew 5 randoms then obviously the next point is going to be mandated another RANDOM to make it 6 points. IE you draw just from just the randoms, not the blocks. So if you draw 5 randoms you automatically get a 6th random. Because you cannot have 5 or 7 point skydives. That is what I was getting at. If the likely hood of getting 5 randoms in a row in a draw then under the new rules you will get a 6 point random dive. There is no difference it just wont be a true random draw, it will have some engineering to it (NSL does that some with their draws). Jonathan Bartlett D-24876 AFF-I

Hurt left ankle twice, Ace bandage and I was pretty OK in a week, walked on it the whole week. Jonathan Jonathan Bartlett D-24876 AFF-I

Inside grippers very very good. Need them on many exits, and formations. Plus you make sounds while walking to the plane Get Big huge grippers too, should be atleast 1in diameters, those 1/4 inch diameter grippers that alot of suits have are terrible (and rip alot during exits and Block/Piece moves). Jonathan

So by your Deffinition of a hook, Yes, 270's left or right depending on the wind direction and where the spot was. (started recently in the past 40 jumps). Or 90's left or right (they are more carvish) when I get traffic, which is not often as we are 95% of the time first out. I do not care for 180s as the site picture and traffic paterns are not as comfortable. VE103 @ 1.85:1 ~200 jumps on it.

I just wanted to state that it is a very different expirence with a closed nosed canopy. Before I learned not to touch the risers but to just look out straight at the horizon to keep balanced I often look up at the canopy. With a closed nose canopy not being symetrical in the harness as a big effect and without the reference of the horizon (IE you are looking up) you can over correct. On my 2 cutaways it came out perfectly from the bag, no problems at all, but 2 seconds in the snivel the canaopy started to oscillate back and forth, some people call this "seeking" for a heading. So as the slider was about 1/2 to 3/4 of the way down then the canopy took off diving over my left shoulder, now you have a few line twist in, atleast for me, an uncontrolable dive, momentum was keeping me from flipping back over. So my point is line twist do not always happen right out of the bag so tapping the risers immediatly is not going to do anything, the tendancy to spin while in the snivel stage is an aspect that is part of a closed nose/ Xbraced canopy that is not seen much in simple ellipticals. So good enough body position on said ellipiticals might not be good enough on a Xbraced canopy as I personally came to find out. Harness pressure seems to be everything with these canopies on opening. I personally look out at the horizon hold my arms straight out for balance and just relax until I can tell the canopy is open and flying. Any steering due to canopy traffic in those first seconds just as it opens can be accomplished with harness input to avoid collisions.

Now I might have completely interpreted this wrong, but I did not read that it had to be a block added to make it a 6 point dive, They just said 6 points, so can that not mean it could be a 6 point random dive? I know the rules are not written like that but if you change it to have 6 pts in the rounds that should also imply that a change in a possibility of 6 point random would then exist?? Just a thought. Jonathan

Skydive Deland is a Premiere Dropzone with great planes. The airport has many area's to land from the expirenced more tighter area to the really large student areas. If you are planning to land in the larger areas let manifest know and they will send the truck out to get you. You can premanifest for the entire day which is great for teams. Coaching there is the best in the entire country, as you have World Champions Deland Majik, and many other very expirenced teams that train there. They also have some of the best freeflyers that are very safty concious. The school of canopy flight is also very good in helping you either to start learning your canopy or to start laying out those monster swoops safely. If you are a fresh off AFF status coming in alone you will probably not like the dropzone because of the professional nature of the DZ and the jumpers there. There are other DZs that are more laid back and easier to get on loads with people. 6 out of 5 :) DZ is great. They are always happy to see us when we come down.

Thats is not exactly true. A stiletto starts to max out performance wise at around 1.6:1. A Velocity at 1.7 Still flys amazingly well and has a huge increase in performance that you would not get from a Stiletto. I fly my Velocity at 1.85:1 and I notice the extra rigidity and is a huge benefiet. If you notice many pilots on the circut while originally starting out with a 2.4:1 or higher have been scaleing back to be in the 1.9-2.1:1 because greater distance can be had, and can make better carving turns also. This is the general loading for a 21cell, a 27 cell seems to like an extra .2-.4 loading. PD reps have stated that the optimal for a velocity falls in the 2.0:1 range. So flying slightly under that is still going to be a huge performance gain and is well worth it. Jonathan

Like it was stated above the sizes are going to vary, someone that is 6'0'' with short legs and a longer torso is going to need a significantly larger MLW than someone who has say a typical soccer build which is long legs and a shorter torso. I have one teammate that is 6'0'' he wears a C-19, I have another at the same height that has a C-17. Another friend is 6'2'' and wears a C-17, and I have a C-18 but I am trying to see if I can get them to resize it down a C17 and shorten the laterals (I'm 6'0'') but alas this takes money and I don't have it with all the team training. So I guess in closing maybe we should dismiss height because we have proven that height means nothing, and it all has to do with the torso measurements (which makes sense). Jonathan Bartlett D-24876 AFF-I

17s seem to fit males around 6'0'', but it all depends on torso length. Javelin also makes an O yoke size that is a size smaller than the A. A typical average male for a javelin tends to need a C, if you are a bit smaller a B. If you are a bit wider in the chest and shoulder (larger neck too) then a D will be better. Ussually though the manufacturer will just for measurements of the body on the order form and size the harness for you unless you tell them the exact size container you want. I know mirage has the measuring techniques on thier website. Be careful about the really small sizes for the Javs, my teammate asked for a B-14 and got an O-12 that did not fit at all, she had to go down to Zhills and personally bitch at them in person to get it fixed. In the end they cut back the yoke, left just enough room for the reserve and cutaway cables to run through and now fits much better. Jonathan

Well the cut in laterals in the backpad is a very significant difference. The container itsself seems to be more rounded but that might just be the way my size container is. Good Flaps, hold tight very well, do not know if the current regular Javelin uses the same flaps (I would think they would). As stated above the difference in fabrics, which a Diamond Back fabric on the backpad and inner leg straps and harness is very very nice. Jonathan