Beatnik

babump, babump, babump

They are all airworthy and get jumped frequently. My profile is a little out of date. Why buy so many, to preserve the history of the sport of course. It is not going to be long before there are going to be very few of us around with any knowledge of this stuff. That would be a shame to lose all of that.

No shit, I have twenty something rigs and I know the names of the people that sold them to me for all but 2 of them. I am sure if I dug long enough I would find them.

Gotcha, rigs today are simplified.

It is a two pin ripcord, no cones. It uses closing loops. The sides and bottom flap have two sets of grommets to accommodate different size mains. Usually the Top Secret only looks good when being worn if it has a small main in it. The Belly band is connected to the side flaps and pulls them tight and snug. With a bigger main it doesn't really matter, the side flaps are pulled tight. I have seen some other cutaways on them. No 3-rings that I remember, just the standard R-3's and that sort of thing.. The blast handle seemed to be on some of the early models. Later they had another martin baker handle on the reserve ripcord. Also, some of them had an ROL for the main as well. The Top Secret isn't that bad of a rig to jump. I jump mine on a pretty regular basis. Compared to some of the other rigs I own, this is a great deal nicer and easier to get accustomed to. This rig has a lot of interesting features that isn't mentioned in the manual or from the ads.

There is much more to skydiving then just jumping out of planes. You're still a skydiver in my books.

That looks to be a Altitude Shop Top Secret Classifier. PM me I have a manual.

The original Para-Plane had rings and ropes on the top skin when it came out, '70 I think. One year before the Cloud model came out. The Para-Sled had them on the top as well when it came out shortly after, '72. If I am wrong on the years, please correct me as they are coming off the top of my head.

Both my Delta II and Dactyl can be real show stoppers. They may cup air and are single surfaces but I don't think they fill like a round. A round will fill up with air from top to bottom and require a fairly large volume of air. A parawing doesn't really have that ability. My guess, the air required is much less and therefore opens quicker. This is just my take on it.

No Problem. I have some other neat things planned and there will be lots of photos.

The rounds are PCs. The rest are two Delta II's, two Dactyl's, one Thunderbow and the Para-sled.

More pics and some signing off words from Bill.

Sorry Bill this took so long to post. Bill did his last jump on 6 Aug 07. For the ocassion he got to jump a para-sled that he used to own. It was a plessure to jump with him and it was great reason to celebrate by jumping some vintage gear.

It looks like an Irvin Eagle. A predecessor to the Delta II. I would guess around 66-67.

Start packing their parachute for free with no questions asked or answered. LOL.

Am I missing something or did this come out of nowhere? As for the topic of this thread. I am not sure about how anyone else feels but a typo is hardly anything worth complaining about. As long as the information is correct the rest is irrelevant. Read the Poynter Manuals you will find a typo here and there but it isn't anything to cry about.

You have to go through the senior rigger exam. Written, oral and practical just like you would if you aren't a rigger. Unfortunately, there is no way to transfer or get credit for anything having another rigger rating unless you were a military rigger.

I would personally see how many jumps you can do in a day. After a while and the amount of down time can really take a toll on your body. Doing five jumps in a day is not like doing 25 and doing 25 is not like doing 100+. Do you have an indication on how many jumps in a day you can do? If you do, I would try for something like that. Say you can only do three jumps per hour there will be a lot of acids that build up in your joints and make those later jumps very hard. One thing I would do is talk to someone who has done a lot of jumps in a day. There are a few of us out there that have done 100+ and see how much of their knowledge you can get out of them. There is a lot of things to take into account for a pile of jumps in a day. I would never advise to anyone to just go and start jumping like crazy as there is a lot to know before even taking on something like this. As for holding an advanced advantage, I wouldn't worry about that at all. Someone who goes after the same record over and over again has an advanced advantage over someone who hasn't done it before. What it comes down to in reality is how much money you can throw at a situation for the part of physical help. But knowledge will allow you to perform the most efficiently and help you out in a lot of other ways.

LOL

You weren't the person that I was referring to. The person I was referring pushed the limits of another jumper with deviasating results. That story is not what this forum is about. Because you pushed the recommended minimums means nothing. That is a small sample size and in the scheme of such a large argument is irrelevant. It might be your life but it affects everyone else around as well. There is no way that you can honestly tell me that if you do something that causes you to die at a dropzone is not going to harm anyone else. There is enough extra risks associated with this sport there is no need to subject yourself to extra ones.

You should read the first paragraph of Section 3 PIM1. They might be a recommendation and not the absolute minimums but if you want them waived you have to apply for it in writing. Just because they are a recommendation doesn't give you the right or ability to waive these recommendations like many people with the same notion that a recommendation is not a BSR.

Of course, do you even have to ask.

A skydiver that I will leave nameless once told me "recommendations are just that, recommendations". I have never heard of such a load crap in my life. Recommendations may not be a BSR but should be treated with the same respect. There are too many people getting injured or killed because of this idea that a recommendation doesn't apply to them. Another problem is some people not only evaluate the person individually but the recommendation itself as well. Then they start to judge which recommendations should be followed and which ones don't have to be. This is a sport where screwing up and cost you your life and exceptions shouldn't be made under the belief that one individual is under the impression that they know what they are doing because of their personal experience. It is funny that these people are usually the ones with no ratings or anything. Then when you actually look at their track it isn't impressive. People feed on themselves and tend to make themselves out better than they actually are and then problems arise. Bending of recommendations and rules is something that is always going to happen, especially if people don't know what they are. We should all actively try to follow them instead of seeing how far we can push it. Bending rules doesn't demonstrate a good example for anyone, the sport or future participants and puts all involve in a higher risk both psychologically and physically. If they did it once and got away with it, they will tend to believe they can do it again.

The material is called stablekote. It was a treated ripstop. It is a very different type of fabric. It almost feels tacky but not quite.

I own one that has ten jumps on it now. It was modified for use with a slider. I have never seen a slider come so face at me in my life as when I jumped it. It along My friend owns one of Bill Cole's old Para-Sleds. It has rings and ropes and that thing opens quick as well. I think this parachute just wants to open fast no matter what you do to it and it packs big. But what a sight above your head. The straight profile and split tail is an interesting sight if you are the one flying it or if you get to fly close to it.