DrewEckhardt

No. Choosing not to work (begging pays better than minimum wage) or to remain addicted to alcohol is your business, but I'm not going to pay for it. I've offered to buy a few people lunch. A few accepted and were thankful for the food. More have turned it down and acted insulted thus saving me the trouble of wasting money on some one who didn't need it.

1. More BASE landing areas are small, filled with rocks/boulders, and surrounded by obstacles (trees, cliffs, boulders). Finding yourself too low/upwind to make the main landing area makes things much worse - I landed on top of a 15x15x10' rock in a river when the other options were cliff, river, and tree covered hillside. 2. Less speed on opening gives you more time to avoid object strikes. 3. A slower decent rate gives you more time to deal with other problems. Many skydivers open by 3000 feet, while we exit most of the cliffs in Moab between 300 and 400 feet. I weigh 150 pounds, jump a 105 skydiving (could go smaller), and 245s BASE jumping (this is about right, but was small when I weighed 170).

I'd rather he smoke pot than drink alchohol - the former means no chance of him geting hung over and puking on my rig. More seriously, as long as the guy isn't under the influence when packing (or flying, driving, etc). it doesn't matter what he uses.

A non-cross braced brand new canopy is $1500 and a used one shouldn't be more than $1000. If you insist on buying new gear in your colors the per-jump cost of downsizing is going to be higher. If you can't afford that used parachutes with reasonable price tags are a better option than skipping sizes. After the initial hit parachutes depreciate about $1/jump which is insignificant compared to what we spend on jump tickets. If you can't afford to have $700 tied up in a canopy you're not jumping you either can't afford to skydive or aren't staying current enough to safely downside.

Human power. No parking hassles, no additional insurance, no car payments, and it makes staying in shape easier.

But not everyone on the same load aims for it, I'd hope? Opening at sufficient altitude (3000 feet) gives you enough time to establish vertical separation from other canopies and avoid conflict even if you're landing in exactly the same spot. 6 fun jumpers, a pair of tandems, and the camera men all landing in the same 10M diameter pea pit are not a problem. You figure out what the other people are doing and do things to gain (brakes) or loose (I like a harness spiral) altitude relative to them. Most people try to land quicker. Land, move out of the way, and watch down-wind so you can avoid incoming traffic.

Your first point of contact (knee, toe, whatever) must be in a 2 meter circle. It doesn't matter if you finally touch down 100 meters later or need to run like heck after that. Realistically this means being within a 2 meter x however-far-you-can-swoop lane. If you can't satisfy the USPA pro-rating requirements on a few consecutive jumps (10M circle, stop before leaving, standup landing) you're not ready for the canopy. It's not a big deal at 1.3 or 1.5 with the appropriate experience which 200 jumps probably don't provide (300 and 500 respectively are a good rule of thumb). Landing areas of both shapes (narrow/long and smaller/more rectangular) exist in real life (roads and backyards). You need to be able to meet both accuracy requirements.

The requirement is to have your first point of contact within a 2M circle. Being lined up left-right with the target is trivial. I don't think I've jumped a ZP parachute that wouldn't swoop 5-10X that with a little front riser so you're really only trying to get within 10-20M of the circle. Modern parachutes have made this simpler. The pro-rating requires to finish stopping in a 10 meter circle. While you may use different tools on modern parachutes (sink and pop up to kill speed, curve the approach) than big F111 seven cells (sink it in) it's not much harder.

If you claim to have no weaknesses you're either ignorant or arrogant. Some things can be construed as negative or positive "I work too much" "I'm too detail oriented" "I'm not content with projects that don't challenge me" You can also look at a place where you're improving "I am still improving my ability to mentor junior people"

I usually pack for myself, but sometimes attempt (if the packer hasn't gotten to it by the time I land and have one rig packed they loose) to delegate when I take a second rig up and/or am feeling tired. The biggest thing is that packers aren't fast enough. Although most can easily beat my 8 minutes, most are packing for multiple people and there's enough back log to cause me to make fewer jumps.

I wouldn't let some one borrow a rig for an intentional water landing or tighter dry landing area I didn't think they should try for, but will provide for chaperoned jumpers I know at the legal span in the potato state.

One day it was too windy to jump (> 30 MPH winds) so some one volunteered a smaller skydiving rig to play with. We took turns putting it on our back, crossing the risers, and kiting the parachuteover our heads. No one gut drug too far or overly grass stained.

It ought to stay the way it is. Nylon doesn't wear out when not mechanically worn/damaged, out in the sun, or exposed to chemicals whether 4 years old or 40. Just jumped some 40 year old gear and it worked fine, although for daily use I prefer something more modern.

1. Whats your name? Drew 2. How old are you? 31 (but don't act my age) 3. Why did you decide to start jumping out of airplanes? Sounded fun and I'll try almost anything at least once 4. Are you single or taken? Married? Engaged 5. Do you have kids? No 6. What do you drive? 1998 Audi A4 2.8QM, 1970 Chevota Land Cruiser FJ40 (now runs and is insured), 1998 Triumph Sprint (doesn't run) 7. Have you ever done a kisspass? Yes 8. Where do you live? Boulder Colorado 9. Do you have any pets? One black medium haired domestic cat named Willard and one fish that hasn't died after 8 years 10. How many jumps do you have? Abut 1500 parachute jumps 11. What color eyes do you have? Hazel 12. What is your nationality? Danish, Irish, German, English 13. Have you ever dated someone you met off the internet? Yes 14. Favorite Movie? Better off Dead. 15. What do you do when you arent skydiving? Work, cuddle my honey, play pinball, watch movies, build things, snowboard 16. Have you ever BASE jumped? Yes 17. If not... do you want to? Yes 18. Do you have siblings? 1 sister. 19. Where do you want to travel to the most? Italy 20. What's your favorite color? Royal blue 21. Where was the last place you flew to ( not skydiving )? San Francisco

I've never bought an automatic and don't plan on it. I've also made it a point to keep my jobs within a comfortable bicycle ride of home, so I spend very little time dealing with stop-and-go traffic where I might change my mind. An automatic with a manual valve body would be the ticket for drag racing, although the little time I have is on road courses - with a stick. Drives me nuts when I get a rental car and try to put my left foot through the floor. More entertaining was when I was used to my 1970 Land Cruiser as a daily driver and would look for someplace to stick the key in the dash board.

At least eight years ago. Fliteline built Reflexes sized down to 100 main (conventional)/150 reserve and 120 main/170 reserve. Mirage and Sunrise have a few stock sizes with small main and big reserve compartments. Sunrise and Jump Shack will allegedly build any combination although the result may not be aesthetically pleasing. You can't get a reasonably sized Javelin, although people with more mainstream tastes keep them busy enough they don't need to care.

I put about 600 jumps on my Stiletto after 400 on squares and 200 under a Batwing. Ellipticals are more sensitive to control input (the Stiletto more so than some other designs - Stiletto pilots like this, other people think it's twitchy) which increases the severity of mistakes. They also require more attention during opening. A few hundred jumps more before transitioning to one at the same wing loading would be prudent. A less agressive tapered design (Lotus, Sabre 2, Spectre, Safire 2, Omega 2, etc. in no particular order) would be a great choice at this point assuming you follow BIll von Novak's down sizing list. It'll be more fun to fly without being as much of a liability. Changing at the end of the season is a bad idea because of how well you'll know your new canopy when you start jumping again. A few months into it is probably ideal - you'll be current and have plenty of time.

Because I don't want a premature deployment while going 140-180 MPH with people on top of me and such an event was much more likely when my bottom flap kept being open in freefall after a pin-check. I'll check myself by feel for flap closure, bridle routing, and pilot chute stowage.

For making a lot of jumps in a short period of time, the convention is the only place I've been where I consistently didn't have to wait to get on a load (except following bad weather that had people anxious to jump). Having two rigs and/or bringing your own packer will also help to crank out the jumps. OTOH, skydiving starts to become work after you're doing enough of it. I made 10 jumps+pack jobs one day and decided that 5-7 were more enjoyable. Coaching in the discipline(s) of your choice is also available at the convention.

I jumped a 24' Paracommander on June 5th at the 5280 Boogie/Pioneers of Skydiving. Used a 3-pin sage green container, chest mount reserve (with pilot chute), Pioneer double-zipper jump suit, and Bell Star helmet. I tried on a pair of French boots although they didn't fit so I wore my Han wags - otherwise the whole experience was very retro. Plenty of fun, surreal to be under canopy without much wind or forward drive. The landing looked and sounded bad (I sat down more than PLF-ing) but wasn't uncomfortable. I'll do it again sometime but will not trade my Samurai 105 for a PC.

It translates into a 1.8 maximum at sea level unless the jumper + gear are over 285 pounds (1.9) or 300 (2.0). Disregarding professionals and elite athletes I think it's pretty close to right. The tail end of the chart might be spaced a bit close (completely adjusting to a new canopy before down-sizing 10-15% is a good idea, and it takes more jumps to do that than you get from the chart) and limit may be low at higher density elevations (there's definately a size component - a 105 @ 1.7 is more of a handful than a 120 at the same loading).

I disagree. My Warlock pin-rig is more tolerant of packing variations than my Stunts Extreme velcro rig. With the velcro if I make my top S-fold too high it starts to peel open when I roll my shoulders in. This doesn't happen on the pin rig and the fabric placement doesn't make a noticeable difference in pin tension. In theory I could use brute force and a pull-up cord to close the pin rig side flaps instead of holding the canopy and folding the flaps into position (could almost close without a pull-up cord); although I could also use a skydiving pack job that's not re-dressed. Learning to properly close a pin rig isn't a big deal compared to picking up the rest of the pack job.

Smaller companies seem to do better. My last suit from Freedom Means Choice took less than three weeks. The suit I just bought from Julian and Sarah Morgan was also about that quick - you might check if any of your local riggers are building suits.

Any adjustment for ZP versus F111? Or would it be too simplistic to make it into a single value? The chart is based on human performance. Specific canopies have their own limitations from the handling characteristics that result from airfoil, nose configuration, planform, etc. - past some point the stall speed becomes unreasonably high, swoops get shorter, etc. I think PD's current recomendations are reasonable.

Mesh sliders work fine after a 14-16 second delays, and produce even softer openings on clear-and-pulls from fast (King Air) skydiving aircraft. Use whatever slider you have, roll the nose, don't use too big of a pilot chute, and you'll be fine.