pilotdave

Nope....no clue. Appears it was a partial upload to the old site with no accompanying text file with more info. Dave

For me it depends on the weather. Last year was perfect for camping out (without needing arctic camping equipment). 2 years ago it was down to the 20s at night and I gave up on camping out after one night. I'd plan to camp. In fact I do plan to camp. There's only one (indoor) shower though, so there's usually a short line unless you like to get up real early. Ya miss all the late night fun when you stay in a motel though. Thank god I missed the naked fire jumping 2 years ago... Dave

Sorry... I've been so busy I never got around to moving them onto the site. Dave

Can't get cheaper than free.... hours and hours of skydiving videos available somewhere on the internet. Can't remember the name of the site... anyone know the one I'm talking about?? Dave

Wonder who actually partakes in copyright infringement by stealing logos and graphics from other websites. Wouldn't expect that from a real website designer. Dave

Part of my point was that just because the protec meets some standard doesn't mean it is any safer than any other helmet out there. Skydiving helmets haven't been tested to any standard. Who knows if they protect or actually cause more damage than no helmet in a more severe impact. A poorly placed rivet or hinge could concentrate a moderate impact force and cause more damage than not wearing a helmet. A shattered visor could cause eye damage. Stuff like that. Ya can't talk about one helmet being safer than another unless both have been tested. Meeting a standard is good, but the standard has to match the activity too. Dave Dave

Mine was rock solid from day 1. Never had a riser cover open on the ground, in the plane, or in the air. Definitely didn't need to do anything special. It was very stiff for a few jumps and has gotten more and more comfortable and easier to pack (not that it was ever hard to pack) over the 150 or so jumps I have on it, but the riser covers definitely didn't need any breaking in. Does your rigger pack a lot of microns? Do other microns he packs have the same problem? Dave

Yeah, I did a whois lookup to find out who registered the site. But that's all it tells you, not who owns the company. He may design websites for customers that have no affiliation to his many other websites. Dave

http://www.studentorg.umd.edu/cpsc/Pictures/tent_city_03.jpg More pics from Williston: 2003 2002 And a few random ones from 2004 are attached. That king air was amazing. Chrissy, is it still there? Dave

You are right. Skydiving helmets are not tested for safety. Until skydivers start demanding safety, manufacturers are not going to spend the money it will take to properly design and test their products. Lots of people will tell you a protec is the safest helmet you can get for skydiving. It's got some certification, which makes it the most tested helmet, but there's no way to compare it to any other helmet since the rest are untested. Is a full face helmet safer than an open face? Well, without real impact testing, you can't know for sure... at least for significant impacts. But most people don't wear skydiving helmets for serious impacts. We wear em for minor impacts, head strikes on exit, kicks in freefall, wiind protection, and minor fall protection. For those sorts of things, you don't need the safety of a motorcycle helmet. I'd love to see someone write a standard for skydiving helmets. It's pointless to certify our helmets to the standards used for other sports, since we have different requirements. But I really wonder what would happen if someone came out with a helmet that has actually met a set of defined requirements. Would safety sell? Dave

Hehe in theory maybe, but how many DZs have any skysurfers? I've jumped at about 9 DZs for 6 years and have never seen a single skysurfer. But I'm sure we'd stick ya by the door (if skysurfing is even allowed up here...). Dave

The problems of the Sabre2 and the original Sabre are unrelated. A lot of people (including myself) experience off heading openings on the Sabre2. I've never had a hard opening on mine (~200 jumps on it). Original Sabres were well known for opening very hard on occasion. Dave

Mine's the same way... I think they just mean to even the slack between the top and bottom. In other words, have as much excess line sticking out over the top keeper on the back of the riser as there is below the bottom keeper. When i first got my Vector, i was just folding the excess line in half and stuffing it down the keepers on the back of the riser. They aren't elastic, so they don't hold the line well that way. i had the excess come out on (or before) opening a few times, and finally had a brake fire that put me into a little spiral. Then discovered I had been doing it wrong. The suggested way is easier, quicker, and about a million times more secure. It looks funny so I made sure to test it a couple times to make sure I wasn't reading the pictures wrong. But it works great. I can't believe it when I still see people that don't stow their excess at all because there's nowhere to put it, even with brand new containers. Glad I got a vector! Dave

Yeah, I've been using a Z1 for all but 2 of my last 290 jumps or something. Both of the two exceptions were tandems. Yesterday was one of em. It's freaking cold up there! I'm glad we didn't get video because I woulda looked...well... pretty dumb. I know I had my mouth open most of the time and I actually had some trouble breathing. Well, not really trouble, but all that cold air was pretty uncomfortable. My mouth is still dry. I knew better than to have my mouth open, but I just couldn't help it. I bought my Z1 for cold weather jumping, not so much for RW. It does a GREAT job of keeping my head warm. Definitely more comfortable than an open face when it's cold out. But mine definitely does restrict my ability to see my handles. Dave

And one way for a parachute manufacturer to do that is not to sell gear in the US, where they probably can't compete anyway. So what's the problem? Dave

For anyone having trouble with the 147 meg version, I re-encoded it with a tad more compression. A 7 meg version is available at http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1811. Quality obviously isn't as good, but you can still see the jump. Dave

I think this definition explains it all: wind tunnel n : a structure resembling a tunnel where air is blown at known velocities for testing parts of aircraft Course dictionary definitions don't matter all that much. Wind tunnels are used for testing all kinds of things... buildings, boat keels, cars, etc. Dave

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=wind%20tunnel Dave

File was incomplete. LouDiamond uploaded it again and it should work fine now. Also added a screen shot for those that don't wanna download 147 megs. Dave

Video: http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2655089?ifilmp=99?showw=no&refsite=6721 Dave

In a spin, both wings are stalled...one is "more stalled" than the other, causing an autorotation. A flat spin will occur when the center of gravity is too far aft. The autorotation of the spin will tend to pull the center of gravity outward, lowering the tail and raising the nose. The problem is that in most aircraft the pilot will not have the control authority to lower the angle of attack to get out of the spin. A spiral does look like a spin, but the angle of attack is lower, not higher, so the wings are not stalled. The danger there is that the plane will pick up speed very quickly, unlike in a spin where the speed stays pretty low because of the high angle of attack. Dave

Depends a lot on the shape of your head and how often you get smacked by your risers on opening. I once had mine slide a little during a nasty opening, but it wasn't close to leaving my head. Dave

Upload attempt #2 complete: http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1802 147 megs. Dave

I was very happy when I got my container. Actually there was some extra piping that I hadn't ordered that made it even nicer. But I was VERY careful about the details. For example, I ordered one piece of trim tape a different color than the rest because it was going to stick out in a place I didn't want it to. If I had just looked at rigs at the DZ, I might not have even known that trim tape was there because it wasn't there on older rigs (by a few years) or even on the online coloring program. Any manufacturer can mess up of course, and mistakes are going to piss you off. But you're always best off getting those mistakes fixed ASAP. You're paying enough to get what you want (and ordered). Dave

I'm not an expert but I think the reason motorcycle helmets are retired after an impact is because the padding compresses to absorb the impact and is only designed to work once. A Z1's padding will return to normal after the impact. If you're worried about your Z1's ability to protect you in a serious impact, you shouldn't be wearing a Z1 in the first place (or any other untested skydiving helmet). Dave