BlindBrick

Never got hurt by my rig, but I did manage to cut myself with a hook knife once. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

These people don't get out much, do they? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I figured that I'd treat myself to some turbine jumps this wekeend for my birthday. None of my dz-mates were feeling adventerous, so this will be a solo trip. I was wondering if anybody here would be out tomorrow? I plan to arrive around 10:30. I'm hard to miss as I'm 6'0 and 283 Native American with an RTS and a a massive Red/Blue Safire II with black trim. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I don't understand this. You say big people have weak legs then link leg strength to muscle. If you look at heavy people, we have some of the most muscular legs around. We have to to be able move our weight around. It's not os much a question of weak bones but simple physics. More mass equals more stress on the bones in a rough landing. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The newest gear has a higher weight rating so check for a dropzone with brand new student gear. I think Elsinore might have some, but am not positive. Off the top of my head I know that you can take a Vector or Mirage(or any other Cat B rig) and use a Eagle, R-max, PDR or Anglefire reserve to get a legal exit weight of 300 or above. My R-max gives me 317 and I think the upper end of the Eagle and Angelfire lines will give you slightly more. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm a really big guy. Consequently, I have a really high fall rate. The result of this is that my speed at opening time is 150+(That's with a very serious attempt to slow down). Needless to say, I am consistently getting the crap knocked out of me. Obviously, I need to slow down, and am working on getting a super baggy suit and losing weight. Until that time though, I need to do something to take as much of the bite out of these hard openings as I can. Any suggestions. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The problem here is that I can't do riser turns. If I grab my dive loop with one hand and that wrist with the other and pull down as hard as I can, I can move the riser less than an inch. And that little bit gives a very negligible turn rate. I don't think I could hold it long enough to do a full 360. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've got a problem. I have a massive Safire II(loaded at 1.2), which has a correspondingly massive front riser pressure. I've tried going from hard brakes to front risers and it is a minimal improvement. While I don't intend to do any high performance landings for several hundred jumps, I'd like to be able to start practicing them up high, and that's awful hard when my only viable control inputs are toggles, rear risers, and a minimal bit of weight shift ability. Now I realize that a big chunk of the riser pressure comes form the fact that the canopy is large, but I've also heard that the line trim on a Safire 2 makes it have heavier than normal front riser pressure. Is it possible to have the trim adjusted to lessen this? And oif so, what are the effects ont he canopy's openings? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Dropzone.com... That's twelve characters, now where am I going to find six women... Oh yes, I do so like the "must be holding" requirement! -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

After a totally weathered weekend, we were fortunate enough to have one of our dz pilots offer to fly loads today. So, I took an early lunch and hopped on a load. Jump was fun and all four of us opened without any trouble. As I am turning on to final, one of the other jumpers catches my attention. When I had turned on to my base leg she was well above me and apperantly in the pattern. I look now and she's low, flying crosswind and possibly on a collision course, coming at me from the left. This definitely gets my attention as I am too low for a 180 away from her and anything less will turn me into a hangar. Luckily, it becomes obvious that she will touch down a little ways to my left. I turn my eyes back forward and miss her landing. A couple of seconds later, I am again scanning my airspace when I notice her laying on the ground not moving. She's got 60 some jumps and at this point I am thinking she must have hooked it at the last second trying to get back into the wind. I begin hollering at her to give me a thumbs up. I holler it repeatedly but get no answer. I finally look back ahead in time to realize that I am very deep into my final. Fortunately, I was able to dig out into a stand up landing and have nothing worse than grass stains where my knees hit first. Even before my canopy has finished flying I am literally tearing at my cheststrap. I finally have to take a breath and tell myself to calm down or I can't help her. That does the job and I am able to get the chest strap, and then my rig off. As I run to her, I am feeling this total sense of helplessness as I realize I have no med training and that the best I can do is immobilize her and maybe apply direct pressure if need be. I am oh so relieved when I get to her, because she is awake and telling me that it's just her bum knee that gave out on landing. For some reason this is still bothering me. I find that odd becuase I watched a friend hook it in before and it was bad enough that was sure I was running towards a corpse. So, I've seen worse. I thought maybe it was because I found myself in a possible collision with few options, but I was ready to flare hard and try to ride out the turbulence of her going in front of/under me. So, I did have a plan even if it wasn't great. Then again it could be that I let myself get fixated on her when I should have been focused soley on my safe landing. Honestly, if it wasn't for the awesome flare power of my canopy, I likely would have ended up injured worse than her. Or maybe it was the fact that she was the lowest time jumper, and I was the most experienced(I know that's not saying much w/ my numbers). But then again, we dirt dived the jump(which was within our ability range) and everyone had a good break off and track at the proper altitude. Or maybe it's the fact that once I was running to her, I realized I couldn't do much for her. I am oh so very glad that the injury was nothing more than a knee that will just need a few days to recuperate. I just wished I could figure out why this is bugging me so much. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I used the link on the USPA website and chose AIG(IIRC). The quote I got was less than $60 a month for 500K. I just took the phsyical today, so I'll have to get back to you on what the final price is. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Not necessarily ture. I believe that it's also a function of shape and wingloading. A couple of weeks ago, I twisted up a 269sf elliptical canopy loaded at 1.2 and it was a big deal vs a similarly sized non-elliptical I used to twist up as a student. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I really got in trouble one time in a situation like that. After I had my first corneal transplant, my doc told me no sex for six weeks. Four weeks later I decided to comprimise and rationalized if the girl was on top then it might be ok. So, we are going at it, and in the back of my mind I am wondering about the safety issues. It reminded me about the old joke with the punch line "Can I just do it until I need glasses?" IK\ just burst out laughing hysterically. The girl thought it was because of her, and that was the last time we got together. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

5'11 and have a 317 exit weight. Last jump I did, I tried to go as slow as possible and got it down to 161 mph. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Obviously you've never heard the phrase "You've got a pretty mouth" -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

What are you whining about now? Yep that must be a Marine. Dumb enough to chew through a wall when two steps to the side would have taken him around it. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Wow, that loks like all three are worth mounting! -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It's not zp, but PA's R-Max 288 is rated at 317 lbs and has been tested well beyond that. The amount of structural reenforcement on it is insane, and my personal expereince is that it flies much better than the older Ravens. I'm 315 out the door and if I try really hard, I can slow down to about 155 mph in a belly to earth freefall. So in other words, I am demanding rock solid performance out of my gear. My R-Max has never given me reason to have second thoughts. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Even a great rig can hard to pack in certain conditions. I love my Mirage, but when you take it and use a canopy size rated as very tihgt, a canopy that is actually bulkier than normal for that size due to structural reenforement and pack it in desert conditions, you end up with a very difficult pack job. As a general rule, any simple task can be made hard if you throw enough adverse factors at it. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It was OK if you understand it for what is was supposed to be, the first act of a trilogy. -Blind comic book Are you saying that they took the other two scripts and made them into a comic book or are you saying that the setting is a comic book. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It was OK if you understand it for what is was supposed to be, the first act of a trilogy. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

You might hae to call around and ask. Theoretically, with a TSO B/D container and a TSO D reserve, you could do SL/AFF weighing near 300 lbs. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I don't think US law would ever apply manslaughter charges to someone for an indirect act like that. The person would have died for misflying a canopy - the seller merely provided the instrument. In general, you can't be prosecuted in either criminal or civil courts for selling a working product due to the misuse by the owner. A wrongfull death suit (civil) is possible, but even then likely to not result in damages when the victim had history of mispresenting his experience. That's a pretty accurate interpretation. Here, the concept of gross negligence doesn't apply to sales except in a few very specific circumstances. The closest you could come to that over here is if the seller intentionally misrepresented the product. For example, say a salesman tells you you're getting a new Cypres when you are actually getting one of the trainwreck ones that Airtech declared unairworthy. Even here there's a test. If the salesman's claim is so outrageous as to clearly defy believability, it's not misrepresentation. This is the exception that a lot of the herbal diet products you see on US TV are protected by. In this case the claim that the average person willl lose 50+ pounds without an excercise routine and a diet modification is clearly beyond the bounds of believability. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

As much as I think there's an ethical burden to be selective in who you sell to, in the US there's no real legal burden. Here the law works under the assumption that the buyer shoulders the obligation for knowing if the purchased item is appropriate or in good condition. This is mirrored in the criminal code where the asusmption is that if you were dumb enough to buy it, you get to deal with the consequences. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Same here on both, like the rig, and I'm not AFF. But I thought they were RTS. You're correct. I jump an RTS and really like it. The RTS is also nice because it's certifed Category B and therefore doesn't have a weight limit and comes in a size big enough to hold a 23D 288 sf reserve. That will let you an exit weight of at least 317 pounds (might be more, but the R-Max 288 is the only big 23D reserve that I know the max weight on) without having to resort to modded tandem gear. That might seem trivial, but given the expanding waist line of America, it will eventually become an issue. As a packer and rigger, I already see it occasionally. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."