mr2mk1g

anyone have a link to those old articles by a couple of the camera flyers who were on his last jumps?

As you've said you like 2k helmets and you're in the UK have a gander at this post: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=995635#995635 It's a side mount for the FF1 by 2k composites. Might be what your after. I only mention it cos I know they're not really advertising it so you wouldn't know about it otherwise. I don't know what their price is, you'd have to ask but I think they want maybe 50-60 quid for the side mount and chin cup then its 105 for the helmet. But like I said, ASK. I think that's before VAT. It's in the price range your looking at and you've already expressed an interest in their products. they'll do it with or without the top mount so you could just have the open face with a side mount.

Jeez, have none of your heard of aiding and abetting?

Nicely done mod. You realise the reason most people attach their ringsight bracket with nylon screws is that in the event of a line snag the nylon screws will simply break and all you lose is your ringsight. Your setup would mean a line snag would attach the canopy to your head. But I guess this sport is all about balancing risks so in your case the risk of injuring another person with a ringsight on a bigway FF is greater than the risk of a line snag on your helmet. It's something to consider though. How about getting some nylon lock nuts, machining the metal part of the nut away from the nylon section and epoxying those to the inside of the helmet. They’d only put maybe a 1-2mm on the inside which would be covered by the padding and in the event of a line snag would hopefully fail in the same way as nylon screws. Just a thought.

See this earlier post by me for a load of pics of the pud and its use with a spandex pouch. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=842022#842022

Ah - c'mon, it's more fun surely... In the UK we frown on the US system of gagging religious teaching. Here we have some of the greatest diversity due to all the immigration from our old Empire. There are more other religions here than there are Christians. Public bodies rarely do anything about religion cos so few people actually give a damn over here. Ah, the French. They're an odd bunch at the best of times. The thing I remember from them was that they were suppressing ALL religious artefacts, whether it be a crucifix necklace or a turban. But like I said, they're odd. You should hear about the rules they have about what music can be played on the radio. UK and US systems of government are remarkably similar. We regularly oust government officials for a huge gamete of reasons. British politics is still instilled with the very old fashioned style concept of honour (at least publicly) and politicians regularly have to resign as they have been dishonoured. (unfortunately honour only counts if the papers find out). I can't really comment on the rest of the continent - they're odd. You'll probably find Brits would much rather piss off the rest of Europe than our friends over the pond. So this is perhaps where Brits must bow out of the argument over why people hate America cos when it comes down to it, we'd much rather "hate" the French.

What sort of helmet are you interested in anyway?

I know I'm proabably going to provoke a vocal response with this as owners really like them, but it is my honest opinion on the product. The look very poorly made. Simple as that. I've had the opportunity to handle them on a couple of occations and try them on. They're good designs but simply suffer from terrible quality control. At the AGM back in Jan they had some helmets where the camera mount was lop-sided so that when on your head the stills mount would not have been horizontal and the side mount wouldnt have been vertical. The two mounts did form a right angle though. It's interesting to note that not all of the helmets exhibited this problem, so it can't be a really odd design feature. I've yet to see one with the sort of finish on it that you commonly find on other major helmet manufacturers - I've seen poor paint finishes, lumpy surfaces and poorly fitted beading. They are a cheep skid lid though and I can't comment on their structural quality which may well be excellent giving many years of use - I can only comment on their finish, which I didn't like.

That's why we all jump rigs with non-stainless large 3-rings. We all know they provide superior safety when compared to stainless mini-rings, but as it's only a small difference in safety and we have other things to consider (such as aesthetics and comfort) so we choose stainless mini-rings. Like all things, it’s a balancing act. The Wings pud IMO provides better security for your main deployment system than a hackey or many other pud designs. That's not to say it's a huge difference - I mean, how many hackies oscillate in the wind to pull out the ZP pilot chute from a not-as-tight-as-it-should-be BOC per year? Not that many I bet. How many hackey systems present a little bit of tape to a snag risk in the door of the plane causing a premature on exit per year? Even fewer probably. I’m not saying that its miles better and everyone who uses a hackey is a psycho taking their life in their hands. Just that, IMO the Wings pud design, when compared to the designs of some other companies and to the ubiquitous hackey, it provides protection against some of those very small risks that have already been identified in this sport, such as those I mention above. If we’ve identified the risks already, and have a system that can eliminate or reduce those risks, why not employ it? It’s even the same price as a hackey. If you don’t like the aesthetics or how it feels in your hand then don’t order one – it’s not as if you’d be taking your life in your hands or anything. Hackies are perfectly safe.

The difference is not in the design so much (at least not up to 6 months or so ago) as in what you do with the pud during packing. The old pud had a stiffened edge made by rolling and sewing the material making up the pud. The new design has a plastic swadge in it to create the same stiffened edge. This stiffened edge is pushed under the bridle cover and is held tight by the shape of the rig. The pud faces back towards the boc and covers the mouth of the boc so there is aboslutely no pilot chute or bridle exposed. Other puds face away from the boc out towards the side of the rig. I can't comment on the mirage as I've never seen on of their pud's but on all the other pud designs I've seen (I'm sure far from everything out there) the pud simply sits in the mouth of the boc or hangs there like a hackey. These designs do not offer the increased protection descirbed above.

Ok, some are. For example, Vortex II containers and Javelin Odyssey's can be ordered with a pud which do simply take the place of the hackey. Wings pud's are different in that they are stiffened and cover the mouth of the BOC instead of just sitting it the mouth like some other designs.

Cool, I'd like to jump a round some time. DZ's should have "wayback camps" and give us newbies a history lesson or two. You said in the first line: Just curious... what kind of reserve ride ends half way down?

freefly pud! freefly pud! freefly pud! freefly pud! It's a more advanced system than the plain ol' hackey. Much better than other manufacturers puds, which are simple alternates to a hackey - this system is actually an improvement giving you a safer deployment system, more resistant to some forms of premature deployments.

Well I made that comment like that mainly because the only "freedom" I could think of that is available in America but not in some other western countries is the "freedom" to bear arms. Now, the problem with holding that against other westerners and saying 'look at my country, isnt it great, we can bear arms' is that most other countries will say 'thats nice, we don't want to bear arms, have fun over there'. They don't percieve that freedom as being an advantage so they don't miss it. Perhaps a better analogy would therefore be - if you're gay, why would you complain about being "fucked in the ass". Something one person would complain about, you quite like. Damnit, now I just compaired the rest of the western world to a puff.

Just to be fair to the FT-50, I've dropped mine a couple of times and it's never had a thing gone wrong (not to say it wont of course). I have borrowed Altimasters on 3 occations. I have seen Altimasters break on 2 of those occations and the third time I borrowed one the neadle was vibrating heavily in freefall produceing a variance of several hundred feet. Apparently that was normal according to its owner. I have a number of friends who have had their Sltimasters break and none who have had their FT-50's break. I have only been in the sport a couple of years though, so I must bow to the greater experiance above me. I may just have been lucky/unlucky. I did feel these experiences should be shared though, even if they are outside of the norm. Asthetically, FT-50's are lighter and have bigger numbers. They will read off by a hundred feet or two at altitude (where that height represents maybe a fraction of a seccond - so is hardly a problem).

You flatter yourself and your country. In the western world there is no jealousy of the US nor of its residents. None. That's not to say it's not a cool place - I love to visit, but there is no jealousy. Also, there is no significant difference in the amount of freedom enjoyed by American's when compared to the rest of the west. Certainly none perceived - if they’re not perceived they’re not missed.

What's "silly" about them is the fact that they became religious rules instead of just common sense good ideas.

Mainly because, for reasons known best to them, the boats released the DD-tanks far to far out to sea from Omaha for them to have much hope of surviving the surf which was, to be fair, way above operational limits... but thus is war.

[tounge in cheek] I don't think there are many Brits who hate America. We just kinda look on the whole situation as a kind of cyclic thing. We're the old dog's sat on the porch watching the youngun work. We've had our turn at swaning round, dominating the world, running shit, going to war when we liked against who we liked, generally making a mess of that, and overall wrecking things with our forign policies. Now we've retired and get to watch America do it instead. [/touge in cheek]

I can't associate bravery with suicide. I'll not argue about that though as I'm sure it can be put down to a difference in outlook or ideology on the subject, to which we are of course all entitled. But I think "tragic hero" is something of a step further than being "brave". Who is he being a hero for? Who is going to thank him for this? Heroism is something that must be done for other people. His actions, brave or otherwise, cannot be put down to anything but serving his own interest. Nobody wanted him to die. Who is he being a hero for?

I'm sorry, I can feel compassion for him and for the pain he must have been in. I can wish that there was something that someone could have seen and done. I can even understand to a degree his wish to end his life. And I certainly don't consider him to be an "idiot". But I cannot come anywhere near comprehending your refering to him as a "tragic hero". That simply beggers belief.

One thing that really angered me about today’s media was their response to Saving Private Ryan. I remember reports which came out after the film saying “It’s refreshing to see a film that portrays D-Day the big screw up that it really was”, claiming that the wool had been pulled over our eyes about some fictitious travesty of justice that got our boys killed 60 years ago. I was thinking WTF? – no it wasn’t a screw up!! It went exceptionally well! Overall casualties were well below expected and objectives were either achieved or ground was taken well within operational predictions. Other than the para operations who’s widely spread DZ’s were in them selves a double-edged sword, there was only one area of D-Day that didn’t go as well as had been hoped and that was Omaha beach. The mauling of US troops at this beach in its self was widely predicted before the assault and it was well known that Omaha would be one of the most difficult landing areas – it being essentially against heavily entrenched positions along the brow of a cliff. The fact that mechanised help was refused can be simply attributed to General Bradley’s own pride and cost hundreds if not thousands of lives. That in my opinion is one of the few criticisms I can level at the operation and falls in the lap of one man alone. My earlier comment about Utah beach was because this was secured at the loss of less than 200 men… over 2500 were lost at Omaha. Overall D-Day was a spectacular success and it saddened me to see it portrayed as otherwise by our modern press just so they could get a “scoop”. I think the hacks dishonoured the memory of all the brave men who gave their lives for that success and they should have been held to account for such a travesty. How’s that for a commentary on our damned reporters?

aw.... smashing it good would be soooo much more fun

Format several times for data of medium importance. If it's anything of any use to crooks - take the HD out and smash it. For a 2GB drive its not worth the risk.

Two monkeys are getting into a bath together. One monkey turns to the other and says: "Oo oo, ah ah ah" His simian friend tuns to him an says... "If it's too hot, put some more cold water in it"