packerboy

I don't know about the VISO obviously since it's not out, but I carry a Neptune on my hand and in my helmet as an audible. I find I get more reliable speed readings from the one in my helmet. The one on my hand sometimes give me really oddball readings (300mph etc.) If you are really interested in the logging part this may help a bit. Eventually you may want to get an audible to supplement your visual altitude reference, and since you seem to want the logging data.. Paralog stuff, why not kill two birds with one stone. Obviously you will still need a wrist or hand mount altimeter, but I assume you already have one. If you are out at Gan for or Otter boogie this weekend and are around on Monday, come see me. Trevor is my name. I will let you do a few jumps with my Neptune (wrist or audible) to see if you like it. Using the Neptune as a visual is nice too since the canopy altitude reads very precisely, and you can practice stuff up high (flat turns, riser turns, stalls etc.) and find out exactly (within reason) how much altitude you are losing while performing these manouvers. Scott Miller carries a few extra around for students of his Freedom of Flight canopy course to try out. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Only going to be there one day.. Aug 6. Make the weather good. I have already drank a few of Fuzzy's beers! In fact Wendy gave me a bag of beers from their trailer when I left Burnaby. None of the old guys Molson Special Dry though... I didn't realize Fuzz was out at the Sartech thing this year. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

If that was "all that was wrong" the master rigger in question would do everything he could to make the rig airworthy. He knows his shit, has been rigging for a long time, rigs professionally for a living (not just in sport parachuting), and in this area he is the best there is in the business. The rigger is NOT in question, the rig is. I can't say it lightly enough. This guy knows his stuff. If he wouldn't work on it, I would buy a new rig without question. It sucks, but c'est la vie, stuff wears out and reconfigurations are made by the manufacturer to address these issues. That's why new designs come out. Don't trust your life to the lowest bidder. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I always tell them that they haven't seen our airplanes yet. Then I tell them that I am joking and that our airplanes are great. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Bwwaaahahaha... yeah, he can pack. He's such a busy guy though that paying attention to a pack job doesn't fit well in his dropzone repertoire. DeNReN: You still at Waterville? I'm coming out to do some jumps there at the beginning of August. Can't wait! You know Sam Bruce? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

I'm on the way to buy it right now! Congrats on being paid, thats awesome! Thanks for taking care of Mark and lending him your rig. (I'm the guy that brought him to you) Awesome weekend... what was your total for packjobs anyway? I heard you also did Fuzzy's reserve for him... man that guy needs to quit packing for himself! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Don't forget the packers. Skydive Burnaby has some kickass packers. They were packing for alot of the bigway jumpers and also pulled off quite a few tandems and video guys as well as some random lazy people. Cheri (sp?) had hundreds of packjobs and rigging on the go as well as a few reserves. Their board where they were keeping track of their packjobs was outragous! Awesome job guys and gals! BTW that MASSIVE swoop pond is going to be killer when it is done! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

"then he can try do do TandemAFF with them." Is he a tandem and AFF instructor... or just going to wing it? That's pretty important. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Stupid Carolina Hurricanes... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

If you mount it yourself, you get to know your gear better. I'd say: Don't do it at the WFFC with 50 jumps. Even at home, maybe grab at the very least another 100-150 jumps or so (very least). Buy a commercial bracket and read the instructions and mount it yourself. Maybe talk to an experienced camera jumper before, but definately go over your setup with someone experienced in the discipline after. OR.. do some research and make one yourself (in hindsight, that's what I wish I had done) It's amazing what you can learn from someone with experience. And by mounting it yourself and talking to your local video god about it, you will have a better understanding of your gear, what is safe about it, what is unsafe about it. There is also stuff like: What kind of lens is best How you want to focus the camera How you want to sight the camera What kind of jumps you should start out with the camera What you need to work on with your flying skills How you dress for success while flying camera What you think about before deploying with a camera Maybe even a thing or two about software and dubbing. RSL or no RSL? Spare battery or no spare battery And something I learned the hard way : When you are running around all proud and showing everybody the best jump you ever had and managed to capture evidence on video... forward the tape to the end before taking a stupid out of focus video of the Otter taking off in the distance on top of your headown 5ft away in focus stable in frame video of your buddies doing a wicked mindward that you have yet to download from the tape . All these things have already been figured out by someone else, and are exciting to discuss with someone who knows it well. I am very lucky to have Fuzzy around our DZ to answer all my questions. It would take me years and thousands of jumps to figure out all the shit he's already spent money on learning. Fortunately he's one of the good guys who has no problem passing his hard earned information on for free. Provided you go about your business in a responsible and safe manner. I think you will find it very easy to find someone like him near you. But if you go to your local head video guy and tell him you are going to put 3 cameras, and external flash, cameye, and ring sight on your helmet and start videoing bigway headowns with 100 jumps asking what size bolts you should use, you probably won't get a very warm reception and you will lose a very valuable learning tool. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

More common on tandems than sport rigs due to a few circumstances. The amount of line available to get over top and the distance that system has to travel in chaotic 120 mph winds in order to get to linestretch. Tandems are also a little harder to pack with tension on the lines due to the size of them. I haven't been around a long time, and I don't go to a real busy dropzone, but I have seen and packed thousands of tandems and seen one line over... if that tells you a bit about how common they are. Malfunctions in general, the gear manufacturers usually throw out a number somewhere around 1/600 main deployments on a sport rig and 1/330 or so on tandem main deployments. Those numbers tell 2 stories however. Although main parachute malfunctions are in fact more common than the average whuffo would think, they are also dealt with successfully much much more often than the average whuffo thinks. I have 500 jumps and have cutaway twice. Once in retrospect I probably could have dealt with, but I was new and didn't like what I saw. Another time, I had no choice but to cutaway and go to reserve. Both felt almost mechanical, like no real thought went into the decision or actions. This is because I practice and think about my emergency procedures right before every jump (also a purely subconscious instinct now). In my opinion everyone else should do same. If you have a parachute you don't think you can land safely, keep trying other parachutes untill you run out of other parachutes to try or find one you like. If you have run out of parachutes and still don't have one you like, fight like hell with whatever you got. Take this information with a grain of salt (I'm not a rigger or an instructor or very experienced at anything really) and go talk to your instructor and/or a rigger. If you talk to a rigger, run any info you have past your instructor before accepting it as law. Your instructor is God. Or at least they think they are Or is that the pilot? No wait... thats the rigger...doctor.. whatever.. talk to your instructor. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Get it on there yet? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Whats crazy is the video guy that films the guys opening and opens at what? 400ft? I think the altitudes are a little sensationalized which is disappointing because that is a pretty amazing stunt no matter what altitude he got out. Why lie about it? Someone must know... it had to have happened at Arizona. C'mon... out with it! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

"No, but I threw up at 40ft on a scuba dive. The fish loved it." That would make incredible video! -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

HAHAHA!!! NICE!!! That is funny shit! To add: I PM'd him and told him about the rainbow boogie that Mark Rejhon is organizing in Montreal and here was the response: "did I miss something? did I drunk post? I don't get it......." LOL -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

If you are a fast faller and are comfortable doing RW in a baggy suit, get a freefly 2 piece jacket and pants from Tony Suits and get them to put grippers on it. Tony Suits 2 piece suits are slick! And they look good with grippers. And you also have just pants for when you want... well just pants (good for learning to be stable in headdown). I would ask a very experienced RW'ist who you've jumped with a few times how baggy they think you can go and still have a comfortable speed range. Carefull with the colour scheme though. You want your grippers to stand out enough for RW, but IMO not stand out too much on a freefly suit. If you are small and need a tighter suit, well I'm sure Tony Suits can do this for you too, but I've seen alot of really nice "go faster" suits from Freak'n Suits. Not sure they normally put grippers on a FF suit though, but I'm sure you can haggle something for enough dough. Just my opinion, but the nicer Tony Suits (freefly wise) I have seen are all quite baggy, and Freak'n suits makes a really nice fast suit. I'm sure both are good with both. I just went back and looked at your profile and wingloading, and I'm guessing you probably are in the range which would put you right in the middle (not needing anything real baggy or real tight). Good luck with your choice and post some pics!

"Having instructor rating(s) could also be viewed as a "higher license" than a D" I respect them as so. I'm shooting myself in the foot here, because I will be going for my TI rating soon, but I think the TI rating and AFF rating should require a basic rigging course. Personally I have a little bit better first hand knowledge of tandem gear because I have packed 1,500 or so but I would not be comfortable getting my TI rating knowing any less about the gear than I do now. Just being able to rhyme off and point out the systems and recite what they do does not prove that someone truly understands the gear and what small things can become large problems very fast when they haven't seen them before. I know that I am going to be very VERY meticulous around student harnesses. A: Because I haven't used them a lot B: Because I had no idea untill recently that an able bodied person could fall out of them. I went a little off topic there, but to reiterate.. I think an instructor rating should be more highly regarded than a D license. You DO need a D license as a pre-requisite. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Just make 2 new smaller parachutes! Isn't it cooler to fly a smaller parachute anyway? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Let's Get Retarded - Black Eyed Peas... very fitting for what we do http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=3809&string=just%20the%20beginning -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

There HAS to be video of that!!!

Did you unstow your brakes and fly your canopy with your toggles the whole way? That can really tire you out. I have done a few high h&p's and I find the best thing to do is leave your brakes stowed and tug on a riser every once and a while to get you going in the right direction. If you do unstow your brakes, you can hook your thumbs in your legstraps to stay up longer. I have been up for more than 20 minutes from 11,500ft that way. I also held my toggles with my foot for a bit... -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Right.... got me there, you know what I mean -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

You're right, it wasn't free, I just got 2 bad suits for the price of one. It's too dirty and smelly now, I've just gotten used to the ill fit and having it open during freefall alot. Come to think of it, it probably affects my flying alot when that happens... I was going to just buy from another supplier. but something always comes up... rig, helmet, (thanks T!) camera, pilot chute & bridle, AAD, jumps, beer, Neptune, second Neptune (thanks Lara!)... honestly I just didn't want the hassle of going through waiting for something I wasn't sure of the quality of for the 3rd time. The suits are cheap, and I got what I paid for. I assume that you are buddies or a rep or something? Sorry, I just call'em as I see'em. What I found odd is that on both suits they neglected to put their logo on them which I specifically asked for ( I think their logo is really cool) perhaps they knew the quality before they sent them and didn't want to advertise on that specific suit. Both where measured for by a rigger, one is now a Master Rigger who works in the parachute building industry, the other also a very very skilled rigger who does measurements for almost all suit orders from our dropzone. Which consequently, had a few people wanting to order Kurupee because of the price and ended up buying Freak'n Suits or Tony Suits instead after seeing mine. That being said, I have seen at least one other Kurupee suit that was nice.. but the person had bought it second hand and knew it fit before buying it and I think the zipper had been replaced on that one. (not 100% sure) -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

The jumping safety issue aside, is it not illegal in most places for a pilot to drop anything from his aircraft without being able to clearly see the intended landing area and ensure that it is a safe distance from civilization and Farmer McNastys' fields (since he didn't give authorization)? -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson

Yes I did. My first suit was all wrong, options and fit + zipper broke immediately. I contacted them and waited another few weeks for a free suit. Very nice of them. Options wrong again and fit all wrong again and broken zipper within a few jumps. They gave me a free suit. I couldn't exactly ask for anything more, and I was frustrated with the poor quality, so I didn't bother them again. -------------------------------------------------- In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock. ~ Thomas Jefferson