pilotdave

I know how you feel. It gets easier. Give the canopy a good shake after checking the lines. It helps it to fall into place on its own, which makes identifying the groups of lines easier. Not that I suggest doing it this way, nor do I do this, but one person showed me a time saver for packing. After stuffing the nose between your legs, grab the tail and wrap it, skipping all that complicated stuff in between. I jumped it like that and had one of the softest openings I ever had on my PD150. My point is just that the canopy will open just about every time even if it's not packed perfectly. Keep practicing and it'll start to make more and more sense. All you're trying to do is, for each side of teh canopy, get lines of equal length together, and neatly fold the fabric between each group. Once you're able to keep the left apart from the right, and identify which lines go together, its easy. Dave

A guy I work with is a former army pilot (as is everyone else i work with). He's got two emergency jumps (both in the 70s). One was from a beaver and the other was a bird dog. I think both were due to engine fires. He was the crew chief on both, the pilot stayed on board to land. He said he got yelled at after jumping from the beaver because when he released the door it landed on a car. I think he said he jumped from 1500 that time. He forgot to tighten his leg straps before jumping. Said he didnt even feel it when he hit the ground cause he was in so much pain from the opening. He later became a helicopter pilot. This guy has destroyed more aircraft than i can imagine. He's got a great story about taking down high voltage power lines with a huey, nearly cutting him in half. Dave

I'd definitely do it for $100 mil. I'd do it for $10 mil. I'd think about it for $1 mil but probably would say no. It's all about how much you value life. There are plenty of people in the world that wouldnt jump out of a plane under any circumstances for $100 million. We understand the risk involved and choose to take it. And we do it over and over and over. Would I do 100 jumps in a row with only the cypres to save me for $100,000,000? Probably not. But one? Sure. It's a gamble, but the chances are definitely on my side. If I lose, I lose everything. But that's no different from every other time I jump out of a plane expecting a lot of things to go right. I'd bet a lot of the people saying they wouldn't jump have families of their own. One guy I work with says he'd love to try skydiving, but just wouldn't risk it because he has kids. I'm not suicidal or anything, but I have nobody else relying on me to be alive and well, so I'm willing to take calculated risks. Dave

I don't believe a parachute meets the definition of an aircraft. Therefore if you turn it on after leaving the aircraft, you should be legal. Smart? Probably not. But not in violation of the FCC regulation... I dont think. Dave

Jump at night. People often have better accuracy on night jumps when only the target is lit up. Dave

http://groups.google.com/groups?group=rec.skydiving Dave

Eh, unless he let the RSL fire his reserve, is cutting away on the ground that big a deal? Stupid, yeah, but stupid enough to quit the sport? Dave

Took this on Saturday. All I heard him say about it was the openings weren't great. Dave

Yep, and I also said the flight restrictions around DC after 9/11 would go away in a few months. I am wrong a lot. But I'm still not gonna worry about this.

Those sites are great but they don't point out farmer mcnasty's fields.

About 2 weeks ago I decided I wanted to try a Spectre 135. So I went to PD's website and filled out the demo request form. I expected to hear back about a demo in a month. To my surprise, no more than 5 minutes later, I got an email from Kolla saying the demo was ready to ship. The price was $30, and I could keep the canopy for two weekends. A few days later, on Thursday, arrived. The canopy comes on risers with the brakes already stowed neatly. It comes with an instruction manual and even a bag of rubber bands. You need your own container, dbag, and pilot chute. I first laid the canopy out next to my own, put the bridle attachment points side by side, and transferred the bridle over. Since I had never done this before I wanted them side by side so I'd be sure to do it right. Then I disconnected my RSL and pulled my cutaway handle. I had never hooked up a canopy before, so I did everything slowly and carefully, making sure to hook the canopy up the right way with no twists in the lines. It took me a little while to get everything straightened out, but then it was easy. Assembled the 3 rings, and packed it up. The canopy was great, of course. Jumped it as many times as I could in two weekends. Last saturday night I did a night jump with it. I considered hooking up my PD150 for the night jump, but figured I was a lot more current on the spectre and it was more forgiving on landing anyway, though a lot faster. Well, yesterday I had to pack it back up and fedex it back to PD. Shipping cost about $21 or so. Kolla was able to answer all my questions, and the whole experience really couldnt have been easier. Now I'm on the waiting list for a Sabre2 135 for a comparison, which should be ready in a couple weeks. Dunno how other manufacturers compare, but PD does an awesome job! Dave

I'd see a doctor if I were you. A pressure helmet or anything like that is not feasable. Find out why you have the problem, not how to fix it. Dave

This is why I'm just not so nervous about losing the insurance. It can't happen because USPA cant exist without it, just like you said. Losing the demo insurance sucks, but it just doesn't directly affect the majority of USPA members. But the insurance for the rest of us can't just be dropped. It sure sounds like it's going to change, but I don't think the USPA is ready to drop it completely and therefore disband. I sure hope the next Parachutist has some answers to all of this. Dave

My old phone number was the same as a number for the NTSB (with a different area code). I just hoped it wasn't a sign. Dave

Tell em you can seed the clouds from the inside! Dave

I did my second night jump saturday night. My first was a two way last January. So this time I planned to do a solo (backwards, I know). There were 9 of us jumping, with most people wanting to do 2 jumps. Instead of just firing up the twin otter and making a few passes, they decided to take us up 3 at a time, plus a loadmaster to spot, in the 182, making one pass per person. A LOT of overkill to keep traffic down if you ask me. But anyway, I was supposed to be last out. As we circled back toward the DZ, the pilot asked the spotter if he wanted to jump or ride the plane down. They were discussing how long it was taking and weren't too thrilled by a 4th pass. So I suggested he go first, open at 3000, and I'd give him some room and open at 4. With his tiny canopy, a conflict would be almost impossible. So we discussed the details of that as the jumprun started. Finally we just decided to do a 2-way. "Dirt" dived it just before opening the door. It went great. We went out docked, got stable, let go, I did a 360, redocked, he did a 360, redocked, and broke off at 4. I pulled at 3.5, he pulled at 3. Didn't see him again until I was on the ground. Night jumps are awesome. I think I'll probably do them every chance I get. Dave

Look into powered paragliding too. No need for a ridge. Dave

Yep, I havent seen a popup at home in a long time. At work I can't install anything so I get them here. I didn't even realize the guestbook on my own site generates a ton of them. Sorry!

I had a similar problem getting some videos onto my computer. The tape would play fine on one VCR, but that one had no outputs (TV/VCR combo) so I used another VCR to hook up to my computer. Any slightly fuzzy part of the tape would give a blue screen. It didn't always happen at the same part of the tape though. Drove me nuts till it either worked long enough to get the footage I wanted or I gave up. Can't remember. Dave

this might help: http://www.relativeworkshop.com/sales/saldoc_sizing.html Dave

Wingloading isn't everything when it comes to opening time. My PD150 opens a hell of a lot faster than the Spectre135 I'm demoing. In fact, the longer snivel and higher descent rate is putting me right smack dab in the middle of all the canopy traffic...something I don't deal with often under my PD150 since I'm usually so far above most of the other traffic in the pattern. Dave

The USPA is smart enough to realize the group members program is all about the insurance. Most DZs require us to be USPA members because they provide insurance. This isn't news. The USPA better be smart enough to continue the insurance coverage one way or another if they want to stay in bidness. I agree with what some others have said... if money's a problem, stop printing Parachutist. I'm sure they could save tons of money by putting it online. It's a whole lot less convenient that way, but if they can use the saved money to insure us, then who cares? I'm not a USPA member for the magazine. I'm a member for the insurance. Dave

skydivingmovies.com usedta have the entire collection from headdown. then they yelled at me. Didn't threaten to sue like someone else though. Dave

word can save files as plain text. It'll lose all formatting. They must be entering everything into a database or something. Dave

pretty cool except that there's nothing on worth watching in the entire world! Dave