pilotdave

I don't disagree... but I made my first jump on a 170. It's a big jump, but at low wingloading, a 170 can be a safe early canopy. I jumped a PD170 which is slower and less maneuverable than a spectre 170. Do you think getting experience on the 280 makes jumping a 170 more or less dangerous? Dave

Those rules apply to aircraft, not skydivers. The USPA recommends the following the same rules, but it's not law. Dave

yes, it's real. Dave

Are air vents special? Doesn't every dropzone have a super otter with straddle benches and air vents at every bench seat? No??? Dave

So just let me know when I need to start giving you ALL of my freaking money. Thank goodness I don't live any closer. Dave

Hmm, my apartment meets that requirement. Course ya can't skydive in there, but apparently it's the perfect DZ! Dave

How about other factors that affect "knowledge" like keeping current on issues, new gear, fatalities, etc? Many jumpers, even experienced ones with lots of jumps and lots of time in the sport, have no clue what's going on outside of their DZ/region. Reading parachutist helps... but I think reading these forums and at least being exposed to all these opinions and all the news, questions, incident reports, and everything else helps broadens knowledge. You can't learn everything here that you can learn by visiting different dropzones and meeting different people. But you can at least learn that not everyone agrees with your DZs policies and general opinions about certain topics. New jumpers can learn that the canopy their S&TA recommended might be seen as insane by jumpers in other parts of the world. Hopefully this stuff gets people thinking. Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2625 Dave

Felix (Wingsuit, B-25): http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1024 Joe Jennings (camera suit, C-206): http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=974 Dave

I always thought he was a bear... Dunno... Here's where it comes from: http://rgstudios.com/ Dave

I was in the tunnel as hurricane charie approached. The power was not reliable, so they kept us flying near the grate. Eventually the power went out and a thunderstorm came in so that was the end of it. Dave

If you don't mind the cold, you might be surprised how much winter jumping you can do in new england. Start looking for a good pair of gloves now. A lot of new englanders also go down to lake wales, FL in late january for the great white north boogie. Get some tunnel time too. It's freaking august though. Way too early to start thinking about winter! Dave

I'll buy j0nes a nice dinner any time. Course I'd be serving Spam. Dave

you have to sign up and then get spammed. Don't listen to them j0nes. You are right. As I said in the other thread, I'm the guy behind v1agra spam as well as many others you've all seen. BTW, if anyone wants a list of dropzone.commers that have ordered penis enlargement pumps through my spams, PM me. You might be very surprised! Everybody listen to j0nes. This guy knows what he's talking about. There is only one single reason to require registration. Spam. BTW, anyone wanna buy 18,262 validated email addresses? I sell them to other spammers too. Thats where the big bucks come from. For those of you that don't mind putting up with the spam, the pop up ads, and the high registration fee, there are over 50 cutaway videos on SkydivingMovies.com. Actually a lot more than that counting the cutaways that appear in longer videos in other sections of the site. Dave

Hehe, yeah, I just don't think that's what he was describing. Dave

Just set up another one: "Poll: Have you ever died because of an RSL?" Then you'll get some real data to work with. I bet it'll show that RSLs are REALLY safe! Dave

Wind at your back under canopy? That's a neat trick. Dave

Thats from your first post. The article you read didn't say "if you've got an AAD, try a raft dive!" It said if you are going to do a raft dive, wear an AAD. Dave

Just put your rig into a duffel bag or something... nothing else but the rig. Packed like that, the bag isn't really any bigger than the rig. I really can't think of any reasons not to carry it in a bag. Dave

No, he was right. I'm a big spammer. It's true. Ya know those ads for penis pumps, V1agra, and stuff? Yeah, I'm the guy behind those. BTW, that video nearly killed skydivingmovies.com. Before I improved the security a little, a link was posted to that video on a big non-skydiving website. Course the links spread fast from one site to the next, so the video got downloaded over 9000 times in one day. The server was totally pegged. THAT is why we require registration. Also see the link in my sig line... And if you have trouble registering, just let me know and I'll fix it. Dave

I don't disagree with you that it is best to sit out any jump that you consider dangerous. It is best to sit out every jump because they're all dangerous. But some are less dangerous than others. Your comment above just makes me laugh...or cringe...or... well... I'm not sure how to react. You really believe what you wrote? You believe you are equally safe on a solo as on a raft dive with your hand selected group of friends? You're really gonna sit out when the hot topless girl you don't know gets invited to sit in the raft by one of your friends? Dave

So what's the future? The RSL is clearly an imperfect device. In 10 years, will new jumpers know what an RSL was? Is the SkyHook going to be a standard part of every rig? What's your prediction? Dave

Is that something you have seen, or is that something you've read about? I don't doubt that many skydivers feel safer than they really are. But it's not the ones with metal reserve handles and RSLs that are the most mistaken, it's the ones that think they've got the skills to stay out of the situations that have repeatedly killed jumpers in the past, and therefore don't need the safety equipment that would have saved those that came before them. Dave

RSLs aren't for the untrained. They are for when properly trained skydivers find themselves in a terrible situation. Nobody's advocating the use of SOS systems or using an RSL instead of pulling the reserve handle here. Some accidents scare the crap out of me. It's not the guy that screws up a hook turn, it's the guy that cuts away and doesn't pull on time or something else that just doesn't make sense. The accidents that I'll probably never understand. They seem so simple to avoid, but people didn't avoid them for some reason. I don't assume that those people were especially stupid or anything. I assume they were just like me. Why would someone just like me make such a dumb mistake or not be able to pull their reserve for some reason? They knew better. Yet they still managed to screw up in the worst possible way. I have seen absolutely no evidence to lead me to believe that can't happen to me. So I've got a cypres and the best RSL available. I've jumped without an AAD and I've jumped without an RSL. Some people see a positive in that. I simply don't. Dave

Hmmm, you've got me really confused, which is easy to do. An RSL could not have done anything for you on any of your 14 cutaways. But in the last 5 years of jumping, a reserve could have helped billvon? You're not making any sense to me. For a reserve to have helped billvon, you'd have to make up a story about something happening like his main malfunctioning. But if you're gonna make something crazy up like that, why not think you could be in a situation where an RSL might save you? If no such situation exists, an RSL is a useless device, at least for you. And since you are using your cutaways as an example for the rest of us, I'd take it to mean an RSL is useless in general. Dave