nael

I'm going to bring this old thread up for a third time just to see if anyone else can add anything to it. I did a canopy course with Brian Germain on the weekend and although my landings are good, he told me it was obvious I was jumping an F111 canopy and suggested I spray it with food grade silicon. He explained that it would be flying like a ZP, different flare point and all that. As for my canopy, it's a PD 170 with about 180 jumps on it. It flies ok and lands ok but obviously that's not going to be the case for too much longer. This sounds like a good idea and I trust Brian's judgement, I just want to know other people's expreiences with this before I decide if I will do it or not. For other people's info Brian told me he and a few other people did this years ago with some old student canopies and they got another 10 years out of those canopies. He said it will make the canopy fly and flare like a ZP but has been known to cause harder openings but modifying the slider seemed to fix that problem in most cases. He also said to test the silicon on some old F111 fabric before applying it to the canopy as in some cases it turned sticky and stuck the canopy together which is obviously not a good thing at pull time. Any personal experiences would be appreciated. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Yeah, he's a regular at my dz in Australia now (Picton), but goes back to the US sometimes. Try him at daveruckert@optusnet.com.au I have contact phone numbers too if you want to try them (PM me) but I dont know how keen you are to call overseas! If you want, I can give him your name and email address and get him to contact you, chances are he'll be at the dz this weekend. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I do it once a month, at the start of each month so that I naturally just remember when it's due. According to the poll the majority of people do this, which is suprising. I now do my boyfriends too, if I didnt he'd only do it once every 6 months or so. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I havent been jumping too often lately (injury) but will hopefully be getting back into it soon with a team. That means jumping every fortnight and I think that's enough for me, I like to spend time with my boyfriend on weekends doing other things sometimes. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

It depends what kind of jump I am doing, but usually it is 4 way, in which case I like a side door exit because that's what you are required to exit from at the Nationals so it's good practice. If I'm doing a 10 way or something, tailgate exit is much easier. BUT - I voted side door, cause I didnt read all the options first. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I'd like to be more patient and tollerant and more welcomming to new people I meet. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Awesome photo! I wish I was on that load! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Goober Dipensprinkles! Interesting. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

So seems that you arent getting too many second dates (last year or this year) I always pay my way on first dates and subsequent dates after, unless he really insists on paying, then I will let him pay but pay for something else later before he can get his wallet out. It's nice when guys pay, but I hate assuming they will and I always make sure I have cash when I go on dates. Now, I have a wonderful boyfriend, for our first few 'dates' I paid my way, now he ususally pays but he earns more than I do! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Remember in an emergency exit you are not going to have the perfect spot. Wouldnt a better idea be to do a hop & pop regardless of the height of the plane so that you may at least have a chance of getting back? I've never had an emergency exit either, but if/when I do I'm pulling straight out the door (unless told otherwise during the emergency by someone experienced). This has been discussed a lot on the forums and people have different opinions on what you should do and how you should exit (one at a time or every man for himself). Seems to be different at different dz's so it's probably best to talk to some instructors at your dz to see what they expect you to do in an emergency exit. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Worst... realisation....ever. That's one video I never want to see. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

There's lots of stuff to do on weekends. If I'm not jumping I go bush walking, indoor rock climbing (too scared to go outdoors yet!), walk my dogs, go on a picnic, lunch with wuffo friends, big nights at clubs with the following day spent recovering, sometimes I work on weekends for some extra money and soon I am doing a scuba diving course. When I first started jumping I wanted to be at the dz every weekend, but now I am happy doing other things, as long as I get to jump pretty often (every 2 weeks or so), although I havent jumped in over a month now. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

One night at a pub I had 3 people come up to me, at different times during the night and tell me I look like Charlize Theron (i dont even know how to spell it!). That was just after the Oscars or something though and her face was plastered all over the place, plus, as I said we were at a pub, I think I told them all they should go easy on the beer. I had similar hair to her, but that's about it. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Ok, so I dont come in to this forum very often, there was 13000 new threads when I entered today, but this thread grabbed my attention. I doubt those stats are true, and as Travis said, the gun buyback happened many many years ago. If, and that's a big IF the stats were true, who's to say the results would not have been higher if they govt hadnt done the whole buyback thing? I think it was a great idea. Its not often you hear of shootings in Australia, I cant even remember the last time some 15 year old walked into his school and shot everyone. That in itself has to be a good thing. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

On a similar note last year some time I did a 4 way horny gorilla that went to shit and one of the guys lost one of his shoes at about 10k. He was really pissed off that he lost his shoe and actually started argueing with the rest of us when we landed about it. I went and packed and mentioned that he lost his shoe and someone says "I saw something fall over there" and points about 20m away. I laughed but decided to check it out, and low and behold there was his shoe, right next to the peas! Nice spot! He couldnt believe it when I handed him his shoe, and he stopped bitching at us about it pretty quickly. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

No offense guys but giving advice on wingloading with your (and my) jump numbers is going a bit far. Perhaps allow some more experienced jumpers to reply to these sorts of questions. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I wore my contact lenses too long when I was in school (about 8 years ago) and ended up with an ulcer on my cornea. Talk about pain and irritation! Those lenses werent supposed to be worn as often and long as I was wearing them though (10-20 hours a day 6 days a week). I learnt my lesson. I can wear contacts again now but I'm really careful. Just remember no matter what type of contact lense you wear, they all restrict the amount of oxygen your eye is getting which is not a good thing. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I'm pretty suprised at lots of people not being happy with Paragear. I ordered about $700 worth of stuff from another company and after waiting almost 2 months and sending several emails asking what was going on I cancelled the order and ordered it all from paragear and got it in about a week. Couldn't be happier. I also know a lot of people happy with the service they got from the first company I ordered my stuff from. As usual YMMV. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I only got the music video thing, couldnt see the video. I know I need to download something else, but i'm not too computer savy, so I couldnt watch it. Spent about 10 mins trying though! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

.....or lose one of phil's canopies in a tree after a chop . I got a free chopper ride! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I wouldnt want to jump with that guy again until he can at least admit that there was something very wrong with how close you guys opened. He might be your mate, but he's not worth dying for. No matter how you approach it he will probably get defensive. I had a gentle word to someone a few weeks ago who cut in front of me at about 150'. I knew being an ass to him wouldnt get through so I just asked him what happened and he still got upset at me. Sometimes you cant win, sometiems people get the shits at you, but as far as I'm concerned it's worth it if it'll make you safer next time. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Man, I wish I was flying like that at 50-60 jumps! Good job (from someone with not much more experience!) www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

I ordered some stuff through Paragear a while ago and also got it all in about a week (internationally). Paragear does indeed rock! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

Thanks dave but I'm scared of the bends now! I'll just sit this weekend of jumping out. Steve didnt want to jump this weekend anyway, so now I don't have to talk him into it! I will definately talk to git about it next time at the dz though, I know Nicole and Phil do a lot of scuba too so I will talk to them too. Have fun if you're jumping! www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store

hehe my boyfriend said the exact same thing to me last night. Thanks for the link, it was very informative. I don't think I want to risk jumping, the bends sounds horrible. Looks like no jumping this weekend. www.TerminalSports.com.auAustralia's largest skydive gear store