Kris

No ferry fee. Just the jump ticket. Get yer' butt up to OSC and do some jumps with me! I saw Kris Waldo last weekend, she was positively raving about how great the freefly suit she is making for you is going to look. I think she's pretty impressed with herself, and she should be after the kickass job she did on mine.

Hola! Okay, here's the dealio. I have been getting some pretty good landings under my Stiletto 190 (loaded just under 1.4). My background: I have about 50 eliptical jumps (190's) and the ones before that were on my Sabre 210. I have 170-ish jumps total. The problem: I have been getting some pretty good landings, not great landings. I'm not biffing them in but I know I could be a lot better, smoother and that I am missing some technique. In short, I would like to get some coaching. I come from a small DZ that I work at so I don't have time to ditch my students during the day. I try to get advice from the better canopy pilots at my DZ but they are hard to come by and I try to keep working on my skills on student jumps. Does anyone know of a DZ within reasonable driving distance from Oklahoma that I can go to in order to just spend a day or two with a canopy coach doing nothing but learning how me and my wing fly? I would like to get in at least 15-20 jumps to begin with and go from there. Right now, I am practing flat & flare turns, milking my flare for the best amount of lift and I am getting ready to start working with small double-front riser input. Before I get to that point I want to get some of my landing techniques worked out. I did a jump three weeks ago that I did a little (15-20 degree) carve on final and although the canopy had a lot of speed, I had a hard time keeping it flying (used up my toggle range too soon I think) and had to slide out the landing on my feet for about 25 feet. If not, hell, I will buy a case for someone to look at a weekend's worth of video of my landings if I have to. I'm not worried about hurting myself or anything like that, I just want to be more efficient and controlled. Thanks! Kris

Clay, I bought my Heatwave 190 after I had about 120 jumps on my Sabre 210. Before that, I demo'd a Stiletto for about 20 jumps to get a feel for the Heatwave. Let's just say that I was damn glad that I had the ZP experience of my Sabre before I went to the Heatwave. The Heatwave as compared to my Stilettos (that I demo'd and the one I purchased later) was much more twitchy and the oversteer was quite impressive. The flare was really nice but not quite as good as the Stiletto. Again, I'm just another measly C-license like yourself but I strongly suggest that you put some demo jumps on a square/semi-tapered 190 or 170 ZP canopy before jumping right into that elliptical. The big differences: LOT's more forward speed. Trust me, even for just 20 square feet, the difference was quite noticible to me. Sensitive to harness input at my wingloading (1.35). I can turn the canopy pretty well just by leaning my body. You have to stay in control of your body now (not just your hands) on opening, during flight and on landing. Forgiveness: There's some there, but not much. The problem is that with a higher wing-loading the ability to get yourself out of a problem is now hampered by how much time you have. With the higher speed and descent rate your reaction time has to be up to the task at hand. The old adage of "not letting your canopy get somewhere your mind hasn't been to 5 minutes before" holds true here as well. I try to have my pattern in my head before I get on the airplane. Sometimes this isn't always feasible depending on the spot but I do it anyway and correct for the changes in my head while I am doing my post-opening house-keeping. I did pretty well on my Sabre 210 and I've done well so far with my old Heatwave and with my new Stiletto but I can see that I still have a ways to go. This is why I am going to start looking for a canopy coach ASAP to help me find my bad habits & work on my technique. Go slow, learn, keep asking questions, stay within your skill level but don't be afraid to push the envelope when needed (that's how we progress). Just my $0.02 of that made any sense. Kris

YAY! We will be having a Westwind Beech at Oklahoma Skydiving Center March 23rd and it will be here the first part of the day on March 24th. Future turbine dates will be announced when we get the schedule finalized. Cost will be $20 to 14K, directions can be found at http://www.oklahomaskydiving.com Kris

Only if I get to do a jump with Don.

Add Nicole Kidman Kris

Probably wanted you to make a deep pocket in the center after you quarter it and pull the lip of the slider out over the nose of the center cell to make another "mini" pocket. That little bit alone will add 150-200 feet to the opening of my Stiletto. Kris

Pammi, I might be there, I don't know yet. It looks like I am going to be on-call this weekend and I don't know if I can break away yet. Sigh. Kris

2:3:0 Not a bad weekend except for ALL THE DAMN WIND! Sigh. Go away March, I see April coming around the corner. Kris Nevermind, it wasn't the month, it was Freaksis with her shower massager.

I will be there some time that week and part of the week I will also be at Summerfest. Kris

Blessed Be. Kris

Björk!!! That's my woman! Thank's for the heads-up. I've been listening to her since she was with The Sugarcubes. Mmmm, Björk nekkid... I think I've got a video to go watch now! Kris

Aww! Thanks! I saw that one in Hot Topic when I was getting the Decepticon logo for my rig and I knew I had to take Curious George along for the ride. So far, he's been really good to me. Damn, baby! I thought the keyword here was "Discrete"! Now Merrick is going to think something is up! Umm, same time tomorrow?

It's not the size, it's the age. At 16 years old, a person cannot legally sign away their rights (i.e. The Waiver) and it would be very easy to have a waiver thrown out in court if something bad were to happen to the child. Large damages would be awarded and the companies affected would have to close due to bankruptcy. Kris

My custom painted Freefly Suit with HD gills by Kris (Damn She Rocks!) at GotchaCovered!

My Rig - Front

My Rig - Back

Okay, I've been meaning to get around to this forever but I finally pulled out the camera today while we were on wind-hold and took some snaps. Now, on with the show and BOW BEFORE MY PURPLE GREATNESS!!! Kris My Stiletto

Yay!!! Way to take one for the team, Missy! You know you'll always be my Number-One Man-Whore.

Anyone who reads www.theonion.com can't be all bad. I love their Infographics and that was one of their better ones. Kris

I think it should be personal choice. For myself, I wear my Bonehead if I am working with students (sets the example), or doing anything other than a solo that I don't want my ProTrack on (2-ways & bigger and just general "funnin'-around dives). There's something to be said for jumping on a beautiful summer day with no helmet so that I can feel the wind in my hair. Kris

Marc, (sniffle) You Da' Man! Kris

Preach on Brother Bill! Can I get an Amen? I was told by some of my fellow jumpers when I sold my 210 that I should skip the 190 and go to a 170 since I lost weight. Well, the reason I stuck with the 190 was that I want to be able to really get to know my canopy and under a 170 I felt that I would be too busy being conservative to learn anything new for a long time. The 190 gives me that little bit extra of buffer to be able to still make some mistakes without totally damaging myself. Could I jump a 150 now? Probably, 99 times out of 100 I bet that I would land it fine. But that 1 time that I don't is going to be a doozy and I'm not looking to get my gear cut off of me by an EMT any time soon. Kris

I have always rolled mine and so have others that I have seen do it. If you watch the video on Precision's website it definitely shows the person rolling the canopy. The reason I started psycho packing is so that I don't have to fold my damn new slippery Stiletto. Okay, so I originally learned to pack that way but it still helps with my Stiletto...

Don't buy your smoke from Para-Gear. A lot of people have been complaining that they have received old dud cannisters and Para-Gear makes no warranty on them. If they sell you a bad one, your loss, not theirs. Definitely not the best example of customer service. Kris