scottjaco

When I'm landing over dirt or semi dirt on a hot day I actually feel myself slow down a bit, it's almost a hovering effect about 50 feet off the ground. I'm told the heat bounces air off the ground and pushes upward, where as grass is cooler, causing you to get sucked in.

OK, I like the Javlin Odessey but I think these containers are getting just a little too popular and perhaps a little over rated. I've used one before, It was OK but it didn't re define the sport of skydiving. scott

If you are flying into a strong headwind which is equivalent to your airspeed (20 mph for example's sake), your groundspeed is zero. You are apparently hovering over the ground descending straight down. If the wind disappears immediately (or close to it), you will now have a ground speed of zero AND an airspeed of zero. Your canopy will deflate, you will begin falling straight down faster, *** This is exactly what happened to me at Perris last summer. I was flying into a strong headwind, the wind changed and I dropped straight down! I broke my leg as a result. I flared and nothing happened. It never happened to me before, and it hasn't happened since. Probably because I will not jump when its overly windy. (anymore) I now favor "no wind" landings because I know I have that foward speed to generate lift, I don't trust the headwind to slow down my canopy, it's too risky to depend on somthing so inconsistant. Read my thread in the incidents section "my broken fibula at Perris" if you want all the details. scott

90 minutes from Los Angeles. Eastbound, I can go to Perris/Elsinore. If I want to got North it's still 90 minutes to Skydive Taft or Cal City. Any way you go your screwed! I don't understand why they can't open a dropzone in Valencia out by Six Flags. That would be so convinient! It's wide open land and it's close in! I know land is expensive but look at Skydive San Diego, they are really close to the city! scott

Tell me about it! Javlin raised their prices from $1,699 to $1,899 in this years ParaGear catalog. That is so lame! with all the compaints I'm hearing about the 6 month delays. Why would they charge extra for a Kill line? Get the Vodoo from R.I. it has all the options included in the price! as a result, it is much cheaper and in my opinion, a better rig.

All caopies are Zero Perosity Fabric Spectra is 7 cell Sabre/Sabre2 is 9 cell Stilleto is 9 cell eliptical (not for beginners)

thanks for posting the new number.....I'm gonna call on monday and make sure they got my order. I can't wait to get my pants! If the wait is 12 weeks, I'll see them mid Feburary!

Did they ever do exits through the trap door? Who got to pull the handle?

The biggest compliment I got about my Bonehead Havok was actually intended as an insult! This english guy at Perris was like "dude that helmet is just way over engineered!, you don't need that much protection" I guess he was right, with his bad ass Gath helmet, the thing is a plastic shell with a couple strips of padding (not even a foam layer). To each his own! last I checked, we ARE jumping out of planes. Why wear a good helmet? 1)bad exit 2) freefall collision 3) canopy collision 4) bad landing I guess these things only happen to other people

I love Wesley Snipes first Tandem jump in that movie. The trap door in the cesna, do they actually have planes like that? I wonder if it would be possible to dump somebody out of a plane (wearing only the tandem harness) then have the Tandem Master re-hook all four connectors and deploy before impact? sounds like a great stunt!!

I'm planning a ski trip up in Seattle in March next year, should I bring my rig with me? Maybe Kapowsin or Skydive Snohomish? Are these places even open that time of year? Whats it like? scott

I use the BoneHead Havoc (full face)! But I'm into the darth vador look. Call me BLACK OPPS!

Shit or get off the pot, as the saying goes*** I totally agree with you! If I were selling gear, first person to cough up the cash gets the gear! Period... It would be different if I were running a demo program (in which case I would be obligated to find a good rig for someone) How annoying would it be to have a seller tell you "sorry dude, I'm holding this for someone else, but I'll call you if they flake" FUCK YOU!! I have my cash in my hand right now!

3k is a normal altitude to launch*** 3K in a cesna 182? I thought 10.5 was the usual alttitude for those planes. My hard deck is 3K! I guess it would be a hop & pop for me

15000 feet max - 1300 feet above sea level --------------- 13.7K Perris could get this altitude without breaking BSR's scott

I bought a used rig. The swift plus 7-cell came with my rig. It's a 145 sq ft. I also wonder why Para Flight stopped making sport canopies. The Swift 5 cell and Swift Plus 7 cell seemed to be pretty popular reserves. scott

I guess the way I see it, I want my reserve to open reasonably fast, stay inflated and have a half way decent flare. I really don't care about performance at this point. I hope I don't jinx myself by saying I'm curious to see how it performs!

I would be interested to know from anyone who has flown the swift plus what they think of it? how does it compare to a PD reserve ?. I'd prefer a response from someone who has actually flown these canopies! About packing volume? I've looked in the back of the ParaGear catalog and the packing volume of the Swift Plus is smaller than a similar sized PD reserve. I was told by my rigger that if I upgraded, my cypres may not fit in my rig. scott

AA West was my home dz. Ive been out to Cal City, and theres Wills King Air, dont know if they fly it much*** I was up there one time when they actually did use the King Air It was so nice to get back into a King Air...I learned to skydive in that plane. My protrack says we got 14K! Since CalCity is 2.5K above sea level, we were actually about 16.5K MSL. That was awsome! Screw Hypoxia, I want my 14K!

Right, that is why Perris (usually) only gets 12.5 because of Ontario Airport. There isn't much air traffic in the Taft area... It's kinda in the middle of nowhere...about 90 minutes north of Los Angeles. At Air Adventures West (my old home dropzone) they had permission from Taft Airport to go above 12.5K without asking permission for each load. We always got 14K. scott

One reason I don't like people checking my pins is because I like to straighten the walrus teeth after I slip them in (so the sides of the walrus teeth are actually tuching the sides of the grommet. Somtimes people check my pin (without asking) so I reach back straighten the tuck tabs so they aren't crooked. I've noticed that pushing them straight makes the pin flap a little more secure. scott

we flew a load this morning to 15k *** That is what I want to hear! Skydive Taft is only 500 feet above sea level so this shouldn't be a problem. scott

Yah, I rememeber, but it wasn't confirmed yet. I wanted to wait till I got the e-mail from Skydive Taft before I started this thread! scott

I've seen a couple of black skydivers at Perris,CA Both experienced and Tandems. If you go to skydivingmovies.com you can download a clip of Ludacris doing a Tandem for MTV. I notice that Black people have a bigger reaction when I tell them that I skydive. They think I'm crazy to jump out of planes. It's the whole "extreme sports" thing that they aren't into, for some reason. If you notice, there aren't many black Rock Climbers, extreme skiers, or Base Jumpers either. I'm not Stereotyping, I'm just telling you what black people have told me. scott

I also didn't care for the walrus teeth*** Why don't you guys like the walrus teeth? If you were to have a flap installed, you would only be able to make it about 1 inch long. Look at the way the rig is designed. If the flap were any longer, wouldn't it hit the closing loop/gromets? The walrus teeth are great because they extend past the closing loop/gromets to make the main pin flap more secure! I just mesured my walrus teeth. They are 3 inches long. I've seen some talons with really short walrus teeth so I think that would be a cause for concern for Freeflyers. It's probably really cheap to upgrade to the longer 3 inch teeth. I've caught a lot of people with Javlins getting on the plane with open main pin flaps....when I fix it for them, I can tell it's not very secure. scott