gjhdiver

Trying to pick up fat chicks at last call in the Crystal bar, Zephyhiils.

If 99% of the mistakes take place either BEFORE or AFTER "wrestling the canopy into the bag", when do the other 1% of the mistakes occur? I guess that would default to DURING the bagging? Getting it in the bag is the easiest bit. Even the shittiest looking pack job will open if it's been folded and stowed right. It's all the ancilliary stuff that riggers screw up. Leaving tools in the container, closing incorrectly, bag bridle stowage, etc etc.

Ultracet as prescribed is execellent for the day time, but you should try to get a prescription for Vicodin or Percoset for the night time. Tramadol based analgeisics can cause sleep disorders in many patients. Also, ice the affected area regularly. This will go a long way towards reducing the swelling and subsequent pain. It's the swelling that causes most of the pain and continued injury. The caveat for Ultracet, which is essientially tramadol with Tylenol, is if you are prone to seiziure. Tramadol based analgeisics can reduce your threshold for seizure events. Lastly, be careful the of .cet drugs. Take no more than 4 grams of Tylenol per day because of acetominophen load on the liver. There's about 37.5mg of tramadol in an Ultracet. If you aren't having problems sleeping, try to get just plain 50mg tramadol and save the liver damage for alcohol. Brought to you all courtsey of my wife, who is an NP with a Class II license for pain meds, and a pain specialist.

Just got back from JP's service. Man it was packed out with people. Unlike most of us here, he actually had a life. There were people from his police times, church, community, and of course skydivers. We were the ones in the back looking uncomfortable in suits. There were many dz commers there from all over, and one of the coolest things was that when Corrine got up to read her rememberances of JP, she basically read a post that he made on dropzone.com about his kids. Personally, I am the best lapsed Catholic ever since Genghis Khan. I've been an atheist ever since I was allowed to make a choice, and I'm stiing there in a Catholic church sweating like Jessica Simpson at a spelling bee. He would have loved that. In fact, I'm pretty much sure he arranged it. I watched the religious take some comfort in this from their faith, and I was struck by how I was able to take comfort in my absense of it. They felt he was in a better place, whilst I don't even try to make sense of it. I live in the moment because I believe truly that that is all there is. Maybe we can all live together in peace However, one thing I am absolutely sure of. The world is not a better place without JP in it. Not for his wife, his kids, or those of us that loved him. Not for me either, as he was my best friend. However, we're in a sport that atrracts the passionate, the lost, and those at the end of their rope. Enjoy each other while you can. Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I'll be finding out his daughters birthdays. I expect each and every one of you who knew him to make a note, and let those kids know each and every Christmas and birthday that while their dad isn't there, there's a whole host of people that remember him and will be glad to share him with them.

Sorry you took offense to my comments. I'm shocked about the incident to begin with but I was also just so surprised to read about the way he chose to do it -- with the possibility of taking out somebody else with him. I know a little bit more about it than I'm prepared to post here. Suffice it to say that he wasn't tryng to kill himself with an auto accident. It was just that after that accident, events spiralled out of control for him. He would never have tried to hurt someone else.

It's not an either/or thing. We can honor JP in the magazine and look after his girls too.....

I have way too many stories about him, as when we went out together, we weren't exactly a brake on each others more irresponsible urges. Every time we went out, I was amazed that i woke up in my own bed the next day, instead of in jail. Somehow it all made sense at the time though. I'll miss that.

Of all the things JP was, he was one of the best parents I ever saw. Him and Corrine have raised two very smart kids. He doted on them, and they loved him right back. As hard as this is for us, it's going to be harder for them to understand why the man they loved left them. They can't understand the demons he fought, and there's no way that they should at their age. We have to remember Yvette and Camille long after the hurt has faded for us and real life has let us move on. The man that they need to help them through the rough world of being teenagers won't be there to shepherd them and protect them. We need to remember them year by year, and take up the slack if needed. We have to remind them how much their dad loved them, and how much he didn't want them hurt, not just now, but in the years to come when they miss him the most.

Sigh.... Build a foolproof system, and world just invents another idiot. During the time I worked at Sunshine Factory packing reserves, I could have assembled a whole riggers kit from the tools I foiund left in reserve pack jobs, including a molar strap. So many riggers think the pack job is over once they wrestle the canopy into the bag. 99% of the mistakes I see take place either before or after that.

I was honored that he called me his best friend. I can't look at his pictures right now. Maybe later.

Simply put, I think the design and construction is much better than any of other units available, and the total cost of ownership over the life of the unit is less than any of the others. All the major parts are feild serviceable, and batteries are $6 a set. A local rigger can perform the four year check with the factory supplied equipment, and all data can be downloaded remotely to Argus. I think the mulit-mode feature is very good, and having talked at length to the designer, I feel that they have a very good freefall modeling system.

Heh heh. I'm feeling better about my Argus units day by day.....

Wings is testing it's application right now. An announcement will be made as soon as it's been completed.

Continental once hosed me on a transatlantic and left me stranded in Miami. I never flew them again for nearly 20 years until I was booked on a flight by someone else for one of my organizing gigs. To be honest, the standard of service in coach on any airline is appaling these days, with the possible execption of Virgin or BA.

I had the turtle's head earlier. Is that the same thing ?

Suck it up Shirley. You're a Wings jumper. It would have killed a Mirage owner

Given that Florida is a concealed carry state, he's lucky that he wasn't bringing a knife to a gun fight. When I was DZM there, I knew of several jumpers who carried as a matter of habit. This idiot is lucky that he isn't on a slab right now with a tag on his toe. I had a couple of stalker types too when I was there. I got rid of them. One things for sure, when this douche gets out of jail. he's done in the skydiving business in any capacity.

Mine was too, which is why I use the Argus now. I like that I could sit down with the owner and talk about the design and attempts to model as many unusual occurences as possible. Time will tell once there are enough units out there if they got it right. I believe Argus is at 500 + units int he field and climibing. As for Airtec's response in leaving the misfiring units in the field or returning them. I suspect (and this is only my opinion) that they found the units to be no different from any other and whatever caused mine and others to misfire was just as likely to happen on any of the units at the time.

Give it to Bill Von. He's a bottomless pit for those things.

The designer of Argus has so far designed three sport AADs. There's also been a lot of testing of that unit in the same way. We had them in pouches on the 400 way in Thailand to collect exactly the sort of data that you were referring to fromt hr C-130s. I'm not saying that the Cypres II is worse or better than the Argus, just that I like the construction of the Argus better, and the philosphy of being able to service it locally at the drop zone, and use easily obtainable lithium batteries for $6-10. There's one thing to be said for being the most established company, and another for being the newest that has been able to learn from the testing and experiences of the older companies. If we were just concerned with who had been the around the longest, we'd all be jumping FXCs.

I've posted this before, but basically I had my unit fire as I was walking to the plane. The plane was not running, and no-one was transmitting. There were no other planes on the ramp at the time. The unit had the RF shield installed and had just come back from it's four year service. I sent the unit back, and Airtech's response was basically, "screwed if we know why it did it, here's a new cutter. let us know if it does it again". As I said before, not much of a confidence builder in the unit.

Pity Adrian had to die for their little "mis-etimating". It was nice of him to help Airtec "figure it out". If you don't actually know what compenents go into an AAD, where they are sourced from, and what tolerances and testing they and the software have been designed and tested to, it doesn't matter what qualifications you have, you're no more qualified than the anyone else to judge the product. You just take it on faith. As I've said before, my Cypres misfired and they couldn't tell me why. Others have been very happy with the product. I personally wasn't happy with their answers to me. It was clear that they had no idea of why mine failed, and I got it back with a request to send to back if it happened again. Not much of a confidence builder in the unit I'd say. Now I realise that most people haven't had that experience, but most people don't expect to have a no-pull either. My point is that the Cypres is just as prone to failiure as any other unit. I did my research into the sourcing compaines for the parts that go into the AAD that I now jump, and spoke at length personally to the designer of the unit that I now use.

Give it to Bill Von. He's a bottomless pit for those things.

Oh there's more. Redesigned riser covers and two piece construction on flap 7 giving more color choices to name the two that I'm currently familiar with. There's some other changes too, but I haven't delved deeply into them just yet. I'm getting one very shortly, so I'll talk to the factory and get the full updated spec and post it.

Then go somewhere else. Seriously. I ran a drop zone that was nearly as large as SDAZ, and to be frank, it was always the people wanting to do the more extreme stuff that put us all at the greatest risk, both personally and financially. To assume that SDAZ just want to ban swoopers for purely financial reasons is absurd. They've worked fror years to try to accomodate them it seems. However, I see no reason for them to continue to expose the visiting jumpers to added risk, or themselves to liablity by allowing it to continue. We lost two good people on Dec 30 there from exactly this approach, one of them from our own DZ. The bottom line is that the swoopers are a marginal part of the business that expose the DZ to risk in any number of ways. If all you want to do is swoop, then a small Cessna DZ makes much more sense. You'll get out low, do your thing and have the sky pretty much to yourselves. They'll appreciate your business and probably make a lot more out of you. You'll get to fly the way you want without restrictions. I had to restrict a lot of things that smaller DZ's can accomodate when I was running Z Hills. It wasn't that I didn't like them or had anything against them, it's just that they didn't mesh with the special considerations that come with running a large multi-plane turbine DZ. Just because there are locals jumping at these big DZ's doesn't make them a club. They exist becuase they service tourists, and that's pretty much the way it is. Try not to take it personally.