MrBrant

a c172 - 3 jumpers, middle of summer - would it even make it to 8k in under 2 hours

I think this has been suggested before. The biggest concern seems to be the whole "Blind leading the blind" thing. You don't want to be taking advice that could one day save/cost you your life from some guy like me, or other newer jumpers. Most questions are probably best answered by a coach or instructor at your DZ anyway (You'll read that ALOT here - and that's because it's true ) That being said, you should feel free to post any general questions in the gear/training/general sections. There is indeed a weath of knoweledge on this site, but just make sure to have your BS meter set on 'high' and verify everything with a coach/instructor at your DZ) If you're worried about asking overlapping questions that get asked over and over (i.e. "which gear should I buy", etc) do a forum search at the top of the page - you'd be suprised what you can find. Welcome to the sport, and to the forums BTW

How would you be able to see an alti on your leg while doing 4-way? (I'm assuming you mean belly 4-way, not a 4-way sit or something)

nice comp man 1 question though, why would you bother RAID 0'ing your 2 drives. How many files are you going to use that are larger than 250 GB?

.

I've never seen anything remotely approaching "hundreds of feet". Throughout a day, even with changing weather conditions I've not seen more than 60 feet on a day where it was jumpable all day. If it's changing much more than 60 feet, it wasn't jumpable before the change, or won't be jumpable after. Zeroing throughout the day is a "nice to have", not a "must have". _Am I have seen close to 500 feet differance one day. We were jumping in the morning, a thunderstorm blew through, we were grounded for about 4 hours, then it was jumpable again. I do agree, it is unlikely that you will normally see this change, but it is possible. For this reason, I always check my altimeter as part as my gear check, and at my DZ, it is a part of a pre-boarding pin check given by another jumper.

also something to keep in mind: ALWAYS zero it before EVERY jump. Barometric pressure can change greatly even though-tout the day, so, if you set it correctly in the morning, later in the afternoon, it can be hundreds of feet "out".

I like this one better: http://www.shovelzone.com/wormgame/ More fast paced

Isn't jumprun usually upwind of the dropzone, so therefore by heading back to it, would you not be flying AWAY from the next group, and from a potential collision? Or, do larger DZ's with bigger planes start their jumprun Before (downwind) of the DZ? (heading upwind) (The only big plane i've jumped from would be a King Air at a MN dropzone, but the winds were high enough that day that even the first group exited about a mile upwind of the LZ.) or am i missing something else?

admit it, it was fun too

to quote one of my favourite shirts (i need to find out where to buy one) "I spent most of my life savings on Skydiving and Beer. The rest I just wasted somewhere"

We have one EZ on the dz (not sure of the size). I always flat pack it. (as does everybody else, as per the DZO's request). I just do a normal flat-pack, keeping everthing neat, nose straight. The only thing different I do from the sudent-rig flat packs, is that I make sure the slider is nice and open and 'cupped' once I bring it up, so it grabs as much air as soon as possible. But, other than that, just a normal flat pack. the TM's tell me the openings are usually good, and soft. Perhaps it's just your particular one that's opening heavy, or ours that opens slow....

zero:ziltch:nadda What a shitty weekend

And here I thought you were a Javelin dealer

Although mostly reliable, I will never trust a mechanical (or electronic) device to save me. After jumping with my altimeter for a good 10-15 jumps (starting at jump 20ish) I did a 2-way coached dive. and with another person in the air, I realized that my alti was reading almost 1000 feet high! at terminal, near pull time. Damn, was that a SCARY realization. I was glad I had been pulling at about 3500 on most of my solo dives. I've since sent the alti back to the manufacturer for recalibration, and it seems to work pretty good now. But, since then I made it a priority to get a VERY good feel for what the ground looks like at different altitudes now. I'll never trust a device like that again. I even pulled early on a "sunset" jump once because i thought i was fucking low, but it tuns out that ground-rush is just more pronounced when the light-level goes down . But, i didn't mind (I was last from the plane anyway). Better to pull early, and risk an out landing than...............

Point the fireworks the other way next time

~2300 on an RW dive 25-3000 on a solo

hehe, when I saw this thread, I was thinking of the fire farts

thanks for the info everyone

Hi, Somebody at my DZ just bought a VX-99. He was saying that it seem to have extremely high front riser pressure. (for comparison, he had been jumping a SAM 120) That made me wonder, is the high front riser pressure characteristic of cross-braces canopies, or is it the VX, or perhaps just this particular VX. The canopy has a JVX lineset. If it's not simply characteristic of these canopies, perhaps that could be it.... He was saying, his best theory was that the canopy was designed so that most of the pilot's weight was suspended by the front risers, until (during the flare) the weight is shifted to more of the rear risers (due to pilot's position beneath the canopy) to create more of a 'flare' with the entire tail of the canopy for a high lift (think flaps on an aircraft). [That's what I can remember from the conversation anyway, I could have remembered wrong, or misinterpreted what he was trying to say, but i think that's the gist of it]. Does this make any sense to any of you guys at all? Anyway, anybody have some insight for me to gnaw on? Thanks!

This elevator only goes to the basement........

hehe, 10000 ft, I'm jealous. I've only every jumped out of a 182, and a 172. Hope to get my jump out of a turbine this comming weekend hehe, next time, try jumping out of a 172 with a regular flight door still on... . That's interesting (and a little hard on the ankles too

Uncle's Komic Korner http://www.dementedpanda.com/ukk

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/dropzone/finder.cgi

How does the pilot perform at heavier loadings (1.4 ish) compared to the sabre2?