MakeItHappen

What is the little 'white-thingy' on the left riser? I enlarged the pic but couldn't tell if it was something attached to the big ring or to the riser. What is that? That left riser assembly does not look right. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You have spent $3k on a one year old dog? Why the big expense? How big is the dog? long hair or short hair ? (I'm guessing long hair for golden lab) does he get along with other dogs? If you send me info etc plus pics I can put something on Hemet Animal Rescue. Your best bet is to print out flyers and drop them off at your local vets and feed stores. Most vets will not take emails about lost/found dogs or dogs looking for new parents. Call all the local dog sitters. They usually know about people in need of a new or replacement dog. There is a (no-kill) place in Vista that took in a stray I found several years ago. The wife of a skydiver runs that place. Also North County HS (no-kill) takes in dogs. There's also another lab placement rescue place around Riverside County that can help you too. Google would be your friend. If you want more info email me at aerosoftware_AT_MakeItHappen.com _AT_ = @ Lesson learned - I hope - Dogs are a big responsibility. Not as big as a kid, cuz you can tie dogs to the truck and go skydiving. Do that with a kid and you might just get arrested. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Going on my "old-timer's" memory here... The outer kevlar sheath takes the load while in drogue fall. Once the drogue release is pulled the inner tubular nylon takes the load. The length of the tubular nylon is longer than the kevlar sheath for two reasons. One is to allow the drogue to collapse and the other is because it reaches into the pack tray to the top of the bag. The two materials, the inner tubular and the outer kevlar sheath, move with respect to each other and create friction burns on the nylon. (You can think of it as similar (kinda-sorta) to you pushing up a long sleeve shirt sleeve on your arm - really, really fast.) Kevlar has a much higher melting temperature and generally did not wear out as the tubular nylon did. The friction burns on the tubular nylon were hidden about a foot or two up inside the kevlar sheath and went unnoticed unless a packer or rigger pulled the tubular nylon out of the kevlar sheathing. At the time I wrote that article there were a couple (2-3) of other incidents of the same thing, here and there across the country. It all came down to proper maintenance (or really lack there of). RWS added "Replace drogue centerline every 300 jumps." to their 1993 bulletin on Recommended Lifetime on Vector Tandem Components. (IIRC - this was a recommendation much earlier too.) . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Deja Vu? (an article from 1990 - you know the olden days) . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I think your assertion is incorrect. The toggle that would need to be pulled probably depends more on the symmetry of the twist than the direction of twist. A canopy starts turning because one side has shorter lines than the other. To stop that turn or counteract it, you would have to deflect the opposite side of the canopy. For example, if you had a twist that began 6 inches from the right risers and 3 inches from the left risers, then you would probably have to pull the left toggle to stop the canopy from turning, regardless of whether it was a Z or S twist. The effective line length from the canopy to the confluence point (ie top of twists) would be shorter on the right side of the canopy than the left side. Higher WLs have a much greater propensity to go into a rapid spiral very quickly compared to lower WLs. In a rapid spin, the centripetal forces can literally incapacitate jumpers. (Go look up Chris Martin.) All-in-all, I think it is much better to immediately cutaway and pull reserve when a line twist situation turns into a rapidly spinning death spiral. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It's one of these. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

'Selective' memory does not help either. In the video that you are talking about BG says that normally he would have cut it away immediately and pulled his reserve. He says this twice. The title '80 seconds' comes from how long it took him to clear the line twists. He doesn't mention how much altitude he lost, but shortly after he got a good canopy he was at 5700 ft agl. He pulled at 13.5k. With most line twists you won't be able to pull a toggle down or know which one you should pull. The toggle could also get 'stuck' in the down position. There might be times when pulling a toggle might get you out of line twists, but I wouldn't recommend it as a primary procedure, especially if you open lower. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Your diagram is not based in reality. The distance between two points (ie the jumpers) is very, very small compared to the distance to the sun. The angle subtended by heading into the sun on earth is pretty close to zero. That means parallel trajectories, from a practical sense. If you want the math: let C = distance between the two jumpers (use a very BIG number as 1 mile) R = distance to sun (use an average distance of about 93 x 10^6 miles) Then the angle subtended is theta = 2 sin ^-1(C/2R) = 2 sin^-1 (1/186*10^6) = 6.160836506783046e-7 degrees. Your picture is incorrect. Oh yeah, and the picture I made was for people that maintained their heading and did not turn towards the sun. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Depends on your latitude and time of year. In SoCal in the winter it would be towards the south. If you are really asking, what if the sun is directly overhead? Then your best bet would to maintain the heading you opened on and fly slow and straight. Maybe a picture will help? In the attached picture the colored circles represent the volume of airspace you would need for a slow, spiral descent. The black areas represent the volume of airspace if everyone maintained their heading and descended in slow flight. The places were the colored circles overlap represent potential collisions. The places were the black areas overlap represent potential collisions. As you can see the black areas do not overlap, but the colored circles do. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Wow! I can't believe some of the replies on here. We run into each other on perfect blue sky days. I think if someone suggested that everyone on the load does a slow sprial from opening to say 1000 feet, they would get their head ripped off here. In fact, there was a NG that recently said he did spiral in the 'playground' area until 1000 ft. He got ripped. Now add in clouds the idea of a full otter load of jumpers all doing a slow spiral has all sorts of potential collisions. If you fly straight in one direction at the slowest speed possible, then you descend in the smallest volume of airspace possible. Fly straight and fly at full brakes, just before the stall point if you are in a cloud. To coordinate everyone's heading, everyone should pick a heading towards the sun. Most of the time, you'll be able to determine which way that is. If you can't tell which way the sun is, then hold your heading, fly at deep brakes until you come out of the bottom of the clouds. (Sorry - I forgot the deep brakes part in the other post.) I do not recommend pulling at the base of the clouds. That might end up being rather low and put you in a two out situation. Of course, you can avoid jumping in clouds by not getting on a plane when the weather is marginal. In 1996 in Anapa, Russia, two practice ~100-ways broke off at the top of the clouds. Not only did we have to fly our canopies through clouds, we also had to track through the clouds. Most people tracked as normal for their position in the waves, pulled and then flew straight and slow until coming out of the clouds. I can guarantee (and probably mathematically prove it) that if everyone was doing a slow spiral there would have been numerous collisions. Bottom line is that you need to fly straight and slow within a cloud. If everyone heads towards the sun, all the better. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I think parachutists is the correct term. You might look at some of the suggestions in this article. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Whatever you do- DO NOT make turns or spirals to get out of a cloud. Technically, I don't know anything about opening in clouds. But I heard this great advice, just recently, at a big-way I helped organize: If you open in a cloud - fly towards the sun. Make a turn to get headed towards the sun, but after that don't turn until you are out of them. If everyone does this they all have pretty much parallel trajectories until they pop out under the clouds. After you are out of a cloud, then you can clear your airspace and make turns when traffic permits it. Don't look for this to ever be in the SIM either because no USPA member has ever opened in a cloud and therefore never needs this advice. Most often cloud layers around opening altitudes are only 1000-2000 feet thick. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Probably not as much as stalking you. What kinda job do you have that allows you to post whore so much? I want that job. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The Stella Awards were inspired by Stella Liebeck. In 1992, Stella, then 79, spilled a cup of McDonald's coffee onto her lap, burning herself. A New Mexico jury awarded her $2.9 million in damages, but that's not the whole story. Ever since, the name "Stella Award" has been applied to any wild, outrageous, or ridiculous lawsuits -- including bogus cases! We search for true cases, and you can subscribe by e-mail for free to get the case reports as they're issued. Read all about it here: http://stellaawards.com/sample.html What's next the Darwin Award??? There have been several Darwin Awards to skydivers already, so it won't be a first. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

I didn't mean to offend you. But . . . you are just the cats meow! I get so hot thinking about that gag . . . Grrrr babay . . . but I digress, Please don't get all jealous Skymama. Yeah but I do have my own personal stalker. And this person is getting paid to stalk me. I feel so special. I might have to become a post whore, just to make sure they earn their keep. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

So what are the rules here about stalking? Is there a policy? What rights does the stalkee have? . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Well, vote for people that answer your questions. DZ.com is not necessarily considered an 'official' communication line. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It is a volunteer position. No one is paid for the time they invest. the only compensation BOD members get are: - airfare to/from BOD mtgs - accommodations at BOD mtgs - per diem of $35/day at each BOD meeting - $120 for phone calls to members each year - RD can also apply for up to $500 of expenses for travel to DZs in their region. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

This idea has been brought up before. IIRC, the major reason USPA won't add in first aid or EMT type training (today) to the 'official' training syllabus is for liability reasons and there any many other resources that provide this type of training. USPA is not in the business of training people in medical techniques. That is well beyond the scope of their duties. OTH, there was a time in the 'old days' that first aid was covered in the JCC and ICC. There were a few articles is Parachutist about this too. IIRC, it was even part of the 'old' IE rating. The way the US has 'progressed' to be such a litigious society has made it impractical for an organization, such as USPA, that teaches people how to jump, to also include teaching people about 'other things' that can be provided by other agencies. IOW, go to your local Red Cross or FD to get someone to teach you the basic first aid stuff. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

The new site may look more appealing but it has a few drawbacks. All the old links are dead now. That essentially makes the search engines start from scratch. Any of the old links to the USPA site from this site are no longer valid. Ranking of the USPA site will go down in the immediate future as the cached urls/pages get crawled again and return a 404, page not found. FMI: see Cool URIs don't change The USPA site is essentially 'starting over' in ranking in the search engines. test search The menus: well go look at AskTog.com and Useit.com for articles on that. Content has changed. The news archives are missing a bunch of articles. There still is no anti-email crawler devices added to pages that have email addys listed. But there are advantages to 'canned' web designer thingys. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

emphasis added. I don't follow how you 'knew' the reserve damage was done after you dropped off the rig. Your pics show the main still connected to the harness. The pics also 'suggest' that the reserve was still 'kinda-sorta' in the reserve tray. It looks like the rigger just opened the reserve enough to pull the AAD out and then left it sitting till you came knocking. Most jumpers will execute simulated EPs on the ground before they hand a rig off to the rigger. (This is recommended by USPA too.) To me...those pics suggest that you did not deploy the reserve prior to dropping it off with the rigger. So how would you know 'who, what, where, when, why and how' the damaged occurred? I don't see any evidence to determine whether the damage was done before or after you dropped off the rig. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

36 days?!?!?! uh Mark....uh I thought it was 8 days and 36 jumps..........???? In the 'olden' days it was 20 jumps over 4 days. That's been cut to 18 per 4 day gig. I think it's because a lot of peeps have to catch flights out a bit before 5 pm on Sunday. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

You might try www.lawa.org http://www.metrolinktrains.com/stations/ to find info on public transit to get you to the Riverside Sierra station. http://www.riversidetransit.com/home/index.htm has bus routes in Riverside county. Sierra station is pretty close to Perris (well - at least if you compare it to LAX). KW will probably be able to pick you up there. The bus lines from Sierra to Perris will take forever and a day, but they are doable. Just don't be in a hurry. You have to transfer at Tyler Mall. You want to pick up #27 at Tyler Mall. I forget what # gets you from Sierra to Tyler Mall. It's only a mile and I walked it. They do get you from the station to Perris, right by where Stater Bros market used to be. Anyone from the DZ could pick you up there. It's across the street from the motel in Perris - whatever it is called today. Heck, NickDG works two blocks from there and I'll volunteer him to pick you up and drop you at the IHOP. Unlike SFO and DCA, the Metro trains do not stop directly at LAX or ONT. That was a big mistake, but I can't really explain why the LA area does not have better mass transit. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

Yeah I think that's it. . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker

It is clearly obvious that you cannot make any mistakes that need 'pointing out'. You need to be the guy that they use to show 'this is how it is done.' Problem solved. ;) . . Make It Happen Parachute History DiveMaker