ccowden

Holy macaroni!! Am I a hottie or what???!!!!

"cool" is right!

I like your little Hannah Banana!

I like the one that says- "If you don't like my masturbating, stay off the sidewalk!" Oh wait, they didn't have that one. I just think it would be cool!

COOL!! Cross fingers- Check.

I want to see- "niko-on-lap"

Looks just like my parking lot! Here are a couple winter jumping pics. First one, I took of Tommy spocking AJ. Second one, Me on my head with Fritz in some really bad jumping weather! You can see the ground, right??

Very good looking dogs! Do I feel a 'post your puppy' thread starting??

Actually, Dave Brown probably could! Seriously- Of course you are doing something right! You are doing awesome and I can't wait to see you on your head in front of me in January!

Well, I actually live in Binghamton, but Ovid certainly has it's share of whackos! And yes, there is the whole matter of the maximum security prison!

Not really going to matter if they decide to turn the corner of the hallway. Besides, the point is, I am not going to go buy a pump just to have the effect of a chambering round. Like I said, I am just making what I have better.

Thank you everyone for the info. I am not looking for the "perfect" weapon for home security- I am just making something I have better. I was going to sell this nice little single shot 12 guage when I decided it would work good just to keep for protection. The reason I would cut the barrel down is so it would be easier to manuever in the house. As far as using a pump- Chances are if I ever had to actually fire at someone in my home, it would be in my hallway which is about 4 feet wide and a blast from a sawed off 12 guage would be like a bomb going off for anyone on the recieving end. If it was necessary to chamber a second round after that, I have bigger problems! Plus I think it would be more than enough of a deterrent for a second intruder to make him run. Yes, the sound of a chambering shotgun round is quite scary to an intruder, but I think yelling- "Get the f#*k out of my house or I am going to blow a hole in your chest!" will suffice quite nicely as well.

I am in the process of making my home security system more user friendly by shortening the barrel of my single shot 12 gauge. My question is- What is the legal length it has to be without a permit and is it the measurment of the barrel or the gun length overall?

Why would you roll the nose on one? Are you getting hard openings? The openings on my Velocity are about as soft as it gets without an excessive snivel.

I just fly over to the guy next to me, tap him on the shoulder, and ask to borrow his.

I understand what you are saying and I agree with your message. I just didn't think it was necessary to make it sound like we were saying it was ok for people learning to swoop to just use altimeters and rely on instruments. I think you were probably quite clear that we were not saying that and I can't find in any of the posts where someone says that. People were just saying what THEY did and what THEY percieved the altitudes to be. Your point would have been much more appropriate if you just said something like- "Don't forget, when you are lerning these methods, you need to first depend on visual referance and only use instruments as a tool or backup. Just as in any skydiving discipline." Then I think we would have all agreed and appreciated your contribution. But nstead you felt it necessary to make it sound as though we were giving bad advice and saying it was ok for people learning to swoop to rely on instrunments by saying it was our concensus, which when you read the thread, is quite clear no one ever said anything like that at all. I think a couple people includidng myself were just offended that you purposely made us sound like we were giving information that could get someone hurt. I personally just lost my teammate to a canopy accident and always preach education and safety when learning high performance flight. That was the entire purpose of this thread. I think we are all on the same page and I certainly have no hard feelings towards you. Your little bout with Diablo is between you two and something that I would just assume see dropped from this thread. Let's just get back to exchanging info and talking about safety. I do appreciate you wanting to add to the thread and it is a very ligitiment point to be broguht up.

I think as far as an all-around nice jump plane goes- You can't beat an Otter.

Hey Alan- I guess I am confused why you seem to want to play devil's advocate here. According to your profile you have over 2,000 jumps and fly a VX 89 and should be pretty clear on the answers to your own questions. Up until you posted on my thread, this was a nice little feedback and information thread directed towards people who are already swooping high performance canopies. It was simply a nice discussion between more experienced canopy pilots and a way to exchange info. If you were a person with 400 jumps and interested in learning to swoop, that would be one thing. But you aren't.

I find it hard to believe this even happened. Sounds like a bit of a story to me. I really doubt PD would take a guy who wanted a Vengeance and go- "Shhhhhh, don't tell him but we have secretly given him a Velocity to see what he thinks." It was either a mistake, in which case if someone was trying a Vengeance 120 for their first time then they could easily fly a Velocity 120 in as cautiously for a safe landing. Or it didn't happen at all.

So they handed him a demo rig that had a Velocity packed inside?

Thanks for all the info guys! Sounds like I am doing what the general concensus here is, but I think I will start a bit higher. I was starting down around 500-600ft and was really happy with the distance on the swoops, but sometimes I get too heavy into the rear risers and lose some distance. Damn, this Velocity is FUN!!!!

Just for the sake of comparison and gathering of info- For those of you using 270 degree, front riser approaches: How high do you start your turn and what are your inputs? I have been using a couple different techniques from various altitudes and wanted to get some feedback as to what others are doing. For example, do you start your turn with a hard front riser input and finish with a carve or do you carve in and finish with a hard or do you use one smooth front riser throughout? Just curious. Thanks!

Staying sharp is a mental choice. Be it with motorcycles or playing chess. If you let yourself become bored or complacent, then the problem is with you, and not with the size of the canopy. I agree that when you downsize you are forced to be sharp, but that should NEVER be a reason to STAY sharp. I can just hear someone saying- "Man, I have really become bored with this canopy and I feel like I have lost my edge. I guess I will get a smaller, faster one to get me back up to speed." If that doesn't sound like flawed thinking, you have issues. When you downsize, you better be at the absolute top of your game and be the furthest from complacent you have ever been! And you better feel SHARP!! YOU are talking about doing the exact opposite. This is a terrible idea to post and to even bring to light. You need to re-think the way you view high performance flight.

I think someone should get a handle on the 'Freefly Tip of the Day' bandwagon that is happening in the freeflying forum. Maybe get it combined into a running thread instead of people posting a new thread every day. It is getting a bit hectic and hard to view. I understand that people are just trying to be helpful and offer tips, but I think it should be done under one 'Tip of the day' thread instead of this thing we have going on now.

MISFITS RULE!!!!!!!