BlindBrick

How many DZs have that specialty gear? It's not specialty gear. All it takes is a TSO B container and a large(ie what you'd expect to find in a student rig ) TSO D reserve. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

QuoteTheir concern as far as the harness/container is probably unfounded. I know this because I've talked with Bill Booth and Mirage a bit about it and I have a lot of experience with deploying at what people consider freefly speeds. It's convincing everyone else that I've had trouble with. I've really got hasseled about this to the point of temporary groundings and special jumpsuit requirements. I am hoping that if my old harness fails at the levels the theory says. It will finally be enough to silence those critics who didn't buy the theory. And maybe that can help some heavy jumper form having to jump through the hoops I've had to. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Well if there ever is, it's safe to assume that Rick(or whoever's flying) is probably having a bad day!

No need to go to the costly hassle of converting a tandem rig. There are mdoern student gear combiantions now that will legally, and safely, handle 300+ lbs students. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Once trash hits the dumpster it's public property. aA person could probably get a map of all the Wendy's in their area and rack up a bunch of cups with little effort. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

About a year ago we had a bit of a discussion in the forum about why I felt quick release hardware on legstraps was not safe for sport jumping. In that thread I mentioned the fact that a B12 was accidently released in FF at my DZ. That was a case where on a hybrid, the low guy took an inside grip on a legstrap. When he did, he accidently opened the other jumper's b12 and caused the strap to release when he floated on the formation. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Won't do a whole lot for me. This is more for other heavy jumpers who incorrectly have lighter jumpers telling them that they are pushing their gear to the failure point. Gear fear sucks, and needless gear fear sucks even more. I'm just trying to prevent that for some future heavy jumpers by obtaining data that even if it will not silence the critics will reaasure the heavier jumpers. -Blind -blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I am seriously thinking about getting a new harness for my Mirage this winter. There's nothing wrong with mine now, other than the fact that I bought a stock rig(which is what I could afford then as a college student) and would now like a fitted harness. As a big jumper I've gotten a lot of grief from my fellow jumpers who fear that I'm pushing the harness/container past its structural limits. I've pointed out to them that I've discussed this with both the Mirage guys and Bill Booth and that this is not a real issue, but they don't listen. I was thinking that when I have the harness changed, I could have samples from the old harness destruction tested. Won't do much for me, but if I had solid proof from a real life example to disseminate, it might make life easier for other heavy jumpers who might be getting grief. So I was wondeirng, how much does that type of testing run? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Three years ago i had a corneal graft in my left eye, followed by the right eye 9 months later. I was back jumping within a few months of each surgery. Didn't have any major problems flying the low performance F-1-11 mains. About a year aqgo I upgraded to a HP elliptical canopy and didn't have too much toruble. Seven months ago, my right cornea entered rejection. At the time, it wasn't majorly effecting my jumping. I've been on anti-rejection drugs since then and am progressing well. The problem is that in the last month I've noticed that my flare is a split second off. I'm pretyy anal about analyizing things and nothing has changed about my canopy or technique. Yet i'm consistently flaring late. I thought it might have soemthing to do with my rejection so I went back to the Ophtamologist. My vision is now actually better than pre-rejection levels and my depth perception is way above average. This is very confusing to me, because I'd think that if my vision was improving the tendancy would be to be flarign earlier rather than later sicne the sight picture I am used to would be occuring earlier. Is my thinking right, or is there something related to vision that I am overlooking? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Ah geez man, that PC's cursed. I used it this year and it snagged the cargo pocket on my pants resulting in me opening on my side. Of course if I hadn't thrown while unstable, it would have never had the chance to snag. Guess that's why there's propbably about a 110% that I will make it into the fuck up section of the video this year.

For the longest time, skyranch only had two ladys who jumped full time(one of which left to join the military). Then a couple years back we got a flood of the most heavenly young ladies entering the sport at our dropzone. The Arch Angels are really the orignal female jumper and three of the newer ladies. Since then though, the term has come to be used used to describe any of our regular female jumpers. Got to give our DZO props. Our website's a bit out of date, except for our "Top Ten" list which has grown in the past couple of years thanks to our influx of angels. check it out at www.skyranch.com -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Gwen C., one of SD:SkyRanch's very own "Arch Angels". -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

We got winded out Saturday and decided to play around with the camera after the sunset. I thought it went very well considering how hard it is for someone with ADHD to be perfectly still. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

That sucks... what exactly happened? Slammer opening and it surged forward hard? I'd like to see that video, it just doesn't seem possible... I really don't know what happened. One second I am reaching for my risers and the next I am seeing stars and then I think "Oh look, blood" when I see where my right hand got whipsawed against the risers. The video shows the canopy just kind of jerking aorund then it goes into a banking dive and suddenly goes into the loop then continues to jerk around for several more seconds before stablizing. The jerkiness really reminds me of looking at motion in fornt of a strobe light. If I had to hazard a guess, the jerikness might have been the result of one of the canopie's ribs failing at a crossport. No earhtly idea what caused the loop. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It's posisble to loop a canopy. The worst opening I ever had was caught on video and the loop my canopy went through during it is plain as day. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Fortunately, my Icarus dealer is my DZO. My wait is a concern to him, and I know he won't release the canopy to me until I'm at that wait. On a similar note, the two instructors I am learnig HP stuff under wouldn't allow me to jump it until they were sure Iw as ready. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm actually going for a 1.3-1.35 WL and barring bad luck, I will be at 300+ jumps by the time I take delivery. But if Icarus has a 500 jump minimum, that's going to throw a wrench in things. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

That canopy size is already based on the assumption that I will have lost some weight by the time I take delivery of the canopy (~start of next summer) I do accept that, that's why i am trying to minimize it. I'm not trying to match the performance of a smaller wing, i'm just trying to partially compensate for the longer lines and bigger wing. Is drag or canopy reliablity more important? To me drag is important, but I don't want to cut reliability to the point that actual material failure is an issue. From personal experience, the standard lineset has held up quite well to a very similar exit weight and an exit weight beyond that when I put nearly 20lbs of weights on for a jump. My deployment speeds have never been even remotely close to 160mph by the way...perhaps some RW coaching and a better jumpsuit is in order to slow down the freefall speed? If my fat butt can fall in the 110mph range when needed, then nearly anyone can. i can fall at 125 but that's with a big camera wing. I've had a few occasions where hard docks have popped one of the wings loose, and in those situations I speed up very quickly. I'd like a little extra insurance if I have to deploy at those speeds. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

A customer walks in and asks for a 209 sf XFire 2. Your mission, if you choose to accept it, is to compensate for the massive wing size by reducing drag in any practicle way. To further test your skill, the client adds to requirements. 1. After any mods, the canopy must be capable of handling deployment speeds in the 160 mph range, 2. If you go with a custom lineset, it has to be able to handle a jumper with a 290 lb exit weight. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

They will make canopies in a non-standard size if you ask, that's how I got my Safire II. AFAIK, unitl I asked, the biggest they'd ever made was a 239. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It's actually a pretty standard Penecostal/Holiness hairdo. Pretty standard issue down here in the center of the Bible Belt. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I graduated from Fort Lewis College in Durango last year. While there, I sang with the Native American Choir and was able to make some contacts. Even though I'm Cherokee instead of Dine, those contacts might be willing to listen based off the work I did with the choir. I'd be willing to pitch something to them if it was totally respectful of the tribe and its beliefs AND did something positve for the tribe. No promises, but I'd be willing to try. And who knows, maybe by the time something got worked out, I'd have enough BASE experience to go for my E.

I should be hitting 300 jumps around next April and am considering increasing winglaoding at that point to about 1.35. This is slightly less than the suggested minimum for the X-Fire 2, and I was wondering what kind of things I could expect if I loaded one at that level? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

How did the Safire compare to the Sabre in toggle pressure and turn rate? I've flown both Sabre 2's and Safire 2's at a 1.2 WL. and the comments above are spot on. In regards to your questions, the Sabre 2 had significantly lighter toggle and riser pressure and a fair bit longer recovery arc, but, IMO, a lesser turn rate. The Sabre 2 is also, IMO, a lot easier to spin up. My openings on my Safire 2 are ultra soft but the canopy wants to do a lazy spiral during the snivel. Not a major issue as harness shifting counters it, and it may very well be a result of the mods done to mine and not a feature common to stock Safire 2's. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Can't handle his coke? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."