BlindBrick

Summer of '02, I got taken off my job for failing eyesight but still recieved disability pay. I basically spent the summerreadign rigging, packing and jumping. I was constantly broke, but the truth was that was oen of the happiest periods in my life. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

They must have change policies. My Safire manual recommends a collapsible with no mention of exceptions granted for wingloadings. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Actually, a study done inidicates that the Tennesse adrawl is best because it is easily understood and soothing to most people. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Exactly, this combined with a large 23D reserve is why I can legally jump. As for durability, my Mirage has handled repeated openings well in excess of 150 just fine. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

If it's any consolation the Inidan call center craze is collapsing. Too much customer fustration combined with the fact that India's telephony infrastructure could not handle the additional burden. Australia is the hot new location for call centers right now. Oklahoma is also becoming a major contender. Seems that a poor state with a low cost of living aqnd a large uneducated workforce makes the state cost competitive with offshore outsorcing of call centers. -Jackmc "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

#63. For about the enxt eighty jumps I was batting around 7% on stand ups. I've got ~15 jumps on my Safire 2 and am batting about 50/50. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I didn't see anything in the Wings manual. Yeah, I saw a Wings at the dz last weekend and there was no provisions for storing the excess. As someone who has had the misfortune of getting their finger trapped by excess brake line, I knew it was a bad deal. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It also has Menat to Live which is really good. Overall, Dare and Meant stand out. The rest of the CD is not by any means bad, but then again it is not by any means outstanding either. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've been on my job 11 weeks. When I came in, i was the lowest paid property manager in the company. I inheirted the worst complex in the portfolio. Losing money, in major need of refurb and about 40% empty. Two days ago, I got my occupancy uup to 90%. Today my district manager came in, handed me a bonus check and told me that beginning next week I would be the highest paid property manager in the company. He also told me that the owners now know me by name and hinted that bigger and better things might be in my future. I am stoked! Even more so becase I have to start repaying student loans next month, and the raise will make that painless. Plus the bonus is enough for a new jumpsuit, new pc, and a weekend getawayp to a turbine DZ! -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'd hate to be the poor SOB that landed on. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

6 ft even -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Firmware will not be field servicable by most riggers because of cost issues. Last October I was doing a series of test jumps for a college class and inquired about the gear. The price Kim at VIGIL US gave me was $700+ ($720, IIRC) for the proprietary data transciever and software. -Blind. "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

No suit right now. Usually I jump baggy jeans and a T. If I cup right to the edge of instability I can get down to 150 or so, but at that point I feel too unstable to throw out. What I've been doing the last few jumps is cupping to that point, then arching a little to wave off and deploy. According to Neptunes, that is giving me a deployment speed of around 160-165. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

317 exit weight, Wingloading my custom Safire II at 1.2, my R-max reserve at 1.1. Container is a Mirage RTS(ie modded G3). -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I like bellyflying with the freeflyers. Hybrids are so much easier when you do not have to deal with a big speed difference -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Yesterday, my dz placed me on restriction. Concerned about my deployment speed, they limited me to 7 second hop and pops until i can get a suit that slows my terminal down to 120. My typical bellyfly speed is 165 though my range is ~155-175. While I agree that both my body and gear is taking a beating opening at these speeds, I do not want to give up the ability to fly at those speeds. Given that, is there any suit building techniques that would allow me my normal fall rate but then be able to slow down for deployment? If so, does any jumpsuit company do these type suits particuarly well? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I am sorry that your firned's passing has affected you so deeply, left you with so much anger. Having said that, to say that suicidal people are not deservig of sympathy is to say that you do not truely undestand. Suicide is a lot like skydiving. You can have somebdoy close to you do it and think you know why, but until you make a serious go at it, you'll never truely understand. And while i wish you healing and peace of mind, it is my sincerest hope that you never truely come to understand what it means to be that depressed. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

There's a guy near Mancos, CO that pumps the flue gas from a wood buring stove to a honda engine. The engine burns the flue gas and spins a generator. Since the stove heats the boiler, which also heats the house, he uses very little electricity and ends up selling it back to the lcoal power company. "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Is that the one with the mornful piano? If so, Yeah, I had a friend who lost the battle with suicide. He was really into that song. My pics, Blue Rodeo w/ Sarah MacLaughlin: What is this love? Allison Krauss: it doesn't matter. _jackmc "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Um dude, do you realize that some of here have to belly fly with the headsdowners if we want to turn points? My belly fly speed is 165 mph and I have broken 200 mph on my belly. I know I'm not the only one to have done that. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Well unless I am totally misremembering my poultry biology form high school(I used to judge in FAA), they'd first have to genetically engineer a penis onto a chicken. Birds like reptiles and amphibians have cloacas instead of a penis or vagina. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Non-collapisble PC looks to be 35-36 inches. Pinching is a possibility, but I am leanig towards not. This is a large canopy and the damage is well away from the center cell If you want to call the end cell #9, and then go sequentially, the damage is right on the seam between cells 7&8. Plus when this canopy is pro packed, it is large enough that only the center cell skin is exposed when it is bagged. I do not think acid or is a likely cause unless the off chance that there was some layign unnocticed on the packign area carpet. I'm positive that the AAD battery is not leaking because I had the unit out the day previously, showing it to another rigger who'd never seen a Vigil. Other things. Size of damage mentioned is roughly 1.75 inches. Threre are two more damaged areas that are roughly in line the this area. one is a standard L -shaped tear that's a little smaller than a quarter. Just above that is a slit that's ~ 1 inch long. Canopy is a largish ZP, semi-elliptical. Kevin, this may be friction damge but it isn't the resutl of color swap as the only colors on the canopy are blue, red and black. I appreciate all the comments. I've never seen this before, and before I sent it out the door, I want to make sure that it was something besides fabric degradation from deployment speeds that are consistently 30+ mph over the canopy's placarded max. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I am seperated from my Poynter's at the moment, and am looking for info on damage to canopies from opening. Going from memory, I seem to remeber a mention that damage is almost always seen on the bottom skin. Is that right? Also, would the damage be a standard L-shaped tear or would the damage pattern look different? I ask because I have a canopy here that I know has consistently been opened at high speeds and the damage is to the topskin and outboard, well away from the center cell. It's also a weird damage pattern. I'd almost call it circular except that the rip-stop effect has kicked in around the edges. The damage is also weird in that rather than a clean tear, it's almost as if the fabric is worn through. The fabric is frayed(but the canopy is fairly new) for lack of a better term and in some places it looks like the individual filaments of the fabric have actually been elongated. I've also noticed some white specks of stuff on some of the filaments. It almost looks like melted plastic except that it's white, where I'd expect it to be black. As I typed this, I just started thinking. Could this have been the result of a line over that cleared itself before the jumper noticed it? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I belly fly really fast and have docked with people flying heads down. This summer I am supposed to get together with several freeflyers and spend a whole weekend doing nothing but hybrids. I've got this idea for a three way mindmeld where I am flying the third slot on my belly. Anybody have any ideas on the best way to accomplish this? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Sorry it took so long for me to get these up here, but my comp's vid capture was kapoot until tonight. Last Saturday(4/9), I went up to Quantum Leap at Sullivan, MO. Met a TON of great people there who went out of their way to make me feel welcome. This is the second jump I did. Nick and I just went out casual, no grips. i've done hybrids before, but this was the first one where I was ale to dock without having to exit with grips. I really wish we had had outside video as the visuals were just awesome from my POV and the outside view would have been incredible. Anyway, here's the pics of the dock. For all the experienced jumpers thinging "big deal", let this newbie bask in his accomplishment. It's not often I find someone I can match fall rates with. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."