BlindBrick

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

[reply got a pretty good idea, watching a Smart-sponsored crash test with a Mercedes E-Class: The big sedan crumpled, and the Fortwo ricocheted. That's generally considered a very bad thing The crumpling the E series experienced absorbs energy that woudl otherwise be transmitted ot the occupants. IF the ForTow bounced, that means most of the impact energy was transferred to the occupants. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Well the "Blind" comes from the fact that I was going blind when I took up skydiving. "Brick" comes from two different sources depending on who you ask. 1. It refers to my tendancy to fall helladamnfast even when dearched. 2. It's a reference to an explanation gave by a jumper to a bunch of whuffos who watched one of my more typical landings "well, Jack's motto is "If you can't be good, be tough!" -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Got my Safire 2 269 in the other day and hooked it up. I noticed that it didn't come with an owners manual so I figured I'd just download one from the Icarus site. I did that today and while reading through, I saw the part where it basically said don't jump with a non-collapsible PC. Now that presents a problem for me. I was wondering if that's just a blanket statement they put in all their manuals? My Safire's a 269 wingloaded to just 1.18 and I don't have any desire to due HP landings, so is that a critical item for me? I mean I want to get a collapsible, but that's likely to be until several months in the future. OTOH, I do have a brand new PC, sewign machine, and plenty of materials. How hard would it be to convert a PC to collapsible. I figure you need the fabricate a new bridle with kill line, what else? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

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

Rigs and Thing shas the best pric eon a Vigil that I've seen. Service was great and I got mine in a very short time. http://marketplace.amazia.com/para-service/prodinfo.asp?cn=266030&affid=&sku=AD1022&page=30&pagenumber=&inverrmsg= I went with the Vigil because it's tremendously more user freindly, records jump inof like a Pro-Track, and seems a lot more durable than a regular Cypres (which plainly states in its manual, sacrifices durability for compactness). True there's been some problems wiht the Vigil, but those seem to have been solved as its been months since a complaint and we are now beginning to get reports back of Vigil saves. That was good enough for me, but YMMV. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've heard mentioned on here that there's instructions floating around for making your own soft links. Does anyone know where I can find those? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Positive, Gear was a Mirage that was less than a year old , IIRC. The gear is well maintained and when not in use, the gear is stored in a hard case. The very experienced jumper was also very gear conscious and would snap her B12's a time or two before every jump to verify that they were closed. B12 came undone durig a hybrid jump with two sit flyers and a hanger. Hanger reaches up and grabs all the way through the leg strap and B12, opening it up. There is then a change in relative altitude between the sitfflyer and hanger which causes the now open B12 to come away from the V-ring. The sitflyer immediately broke and unsuccessfully tried to grab the open leg strap. She ran out of altitude and finally pulled. She opened into an immediate spin because of the uneven weight distribution. By pulling on the opposite risers she was able to lessen the spin to the point that the was able to survive the impact. That was defiantely scary, and I consider a similar scenario on quick ejectors a bit easier since all it take is your grip slipping on the outside on the mechanism to eject the V-Ring. The fundamental concept of both types of connectoprs are ok, they just need some type of locking mechanism. And yes, I know that there's thousands of military jumps on MT gear and many, many studnets jumps. But I am not looking at this from either angle, I am looking at this as a rig purchased by someone just off student status(or getting ready to be). These people will likely want to put their rig through its paces and if they need an MT will likely get invited to do a lot of hybrids. This is taking the rig into flight regimins it was never designed for. Under these conditions, I feel that the hardware is a distinct liability. That's why in my orignal post I said the rig was not safe for our purposes (meaning freefly/hybrids). -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Between Chuck, Lou and myself, we probably have more jumps on MT-1XX/MC-4 systems then he has jumps. Your rig is safe and always has been. \ I have B-12 on both my rigs and have jumped them for 28 years. No problems. Sparky I think I am beginning to get an idea of how certain people at NASA must have felt before losing the Challenger and the Columbia. Some relatively new guys witness near misses and try to tell their bosses that there's a problem. The older establishment is like" We've never had any problems and we have more years experience than you." Next thing you know, two orbiters and crews are gone. I don't want to pick a fight with anyone, but I have witnessed this! Yeah the odds might be relatively low, but a lot of us wear AAD's to guard against relatively unlikely situations, and the FAA has a lot of mandates to cover against things that have a really low probability of occurring. With the ever-increasing popularity of freeflying and hybrids, the odds just keep getting higher. Sadly, I fear that with the community's current mentality that it is inevitable that someone is going to die because their stuff got undone in freefall. You can call me a wet behind the ears Chicken Little if you want, but at least when I read that incident report, I'll know that I at least tried to let people know. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

If you could find more jumpers, you might get recognition as a intermural sport. At my school if you get three or more people involved, you can apply for intermural status and get funding under that program. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've hauled a doctor out to a jumper who had a very bad landing after her almost new, well maintained, fully functional B-12 was undone during a hybrid. I've also seen jumpers grab for anything when an RW jump began to funnel. I jump hybrids and RW, so I atuomatically assume there are going to be hands all over my rig. If an undamaged B-12 can be undone in FF, then the quick ejector with that unsecured external lever can come undone just as easily(if not more so). To me, it's just too big of a risk, but YMMV. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Thanks, I found your article in Skydiving really helpful. I got the thing into the bag, and it does fit though it's definitley full(so thick that my T bodkin is just barely long enough). Unfortunately, between getting a molar strap on and wrestling it into the bag, I've got a lot of uneven lines behind the slider which makes me think that the packjob in now uneven. Of well, I'll try again tomorrow morning. If nothing else, it's gives me practice with using a molar strap. I normally don't use one, but a friend suggested that once I got used to them that they'd make packing the big canopies a lot easier in this dry Colorado air. Plus it will give me something to do while I wait to see if DHL can actually get stuff unsnarled enough to deliver my main tomorrow. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

DHL shipment #1 (My Rig): DHL website say that it will be delviered into two days so I schedule time for assemble and reserve pack. Shipment is accidnetly misrouted on the first day of tranist. DHL website does not list the error or even the delay. I finally get the info from a customer service rep after the package is overdue. I frantically try to rejuggle my schedule and was finally able to make things work by going to the depot and pickign up the package myself this morning. DHL shipment #2 (My main): First day DHL driver simply forgets to pick up the package. No problem, I've got a day's padding in my schedule. Next day, the DHL driver comes by during the middile of my dealer's posted lunch hour. Leaves a note says he will return later , ok. FOUR fucking minutes later the guy returns and leaves a note that he will come tomorrow. Now I am sweating but my dealer calls and raises hell with DHL and the promise the driver will be by today and the package will be upgraded to next day so I can get it by tomorrow by 10 am. That will make me a couple of hours late for the boogie, but I can live with it. I just got on to the DHL website. Sure neough, the package was picked up today as promised, but entered into the system as 2nd business day! Scheduled delivery time is next MONDAY!!!!! Considering that I'm an anvil and I sold my old main to afford the new one, my boogie experience is effectively screwed. Way to go DHL -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Just got my Mirage in this morning and was looking at the freebag. Even though I was assured the rig would handle an R-Max 288, that bad looks absolutely tiny. I checked, and the bag is clearly marked as being the proper size for the rig. Does anyone have any suggestions or tips for it? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I guess we will just have to agree to disagree. The way the quick release adapter doesn't just open, but also ejects the v-ring scared me, especially since on my MT-1 harness the release lever is on the outside of the fitting and there wasn't any provision for pinning the adapter closed. That was the main reason that I gave up on trying to get my MT-1 in the air. -Blind. "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Notice I said somewhat dangerous for our uses. The rig works find for what it was designed for, but it wasn't designed to be used for sport jumping. It's not free fly friendly, which is relavent in this case as students/low timejumpers tend to put rigs into positions not even free flyers think of, and I've seen the results of a b-12 coming undone during a sports jump, and the quick release hardware is much easier to undo. Not a good thing when other people may have their hands on your rig during a jump. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

My exit weight is ~320 so I know what a hassle it is. I've talked to several different companies on the phone and basically anyone who has a TSO-B or D will make you a rig to order(even if it's not listed in their size charts). Canopy-wise, there are several very good canopies that come in large sizes. These are student mains, but at your level of experience, that's what you want. Once you get some jumps under your belt, there's several companies that will scale up a higher performance canopy to suit your needs. Some have suggested MT-1XX's. Personally I'd avoid that route for two reasons. 1. Paraflite now refuses to do business with civilians, so parts for the gear are becomning harder to find and will eventually dry up. 2. The MT-1 harness isn't designed for sport parachute jumping. It's large, bulky, and for our uses, somewhat dangerous. The rig is not free fly friendly, and that quick-release leg strap hardware is just scary. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I just talked wiht Kim from Vigil yesterday. Vigil wharehouses their stuff at Parastock whihc is located in the RWS building. Kim said that Jeanne fried the RWS computer network and they are still trying to get it back up. So, I'd expect some delays. RWS has top notch customer service so given that the delay comes from their end, I'd expect them to honor the coupon even after the end of the month. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Are you sure he said HIV and not AIDS? AIDS in skydiving stands for Aviation/Altitude(your choice) Induced Divorce Syndrome. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

No he didn't, Lucas has always said that he was never satisfied with the movies because the technology wasn't capable of conveying his vision and the studio wouldn't let him tell the story they way he wanted to. I really don't get the whining. We may like the orignal version of Star Wars but it was never ours, it was always his to do with as he pleased. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The Otter is coming last I heard -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The only legal requirement that the FAA mandates for AAD's is that they be maintained in accordance with their manufactuer's directives. The only time there would be a compatibality legal issue would be if a rigger installed an AAD on a rig that the AAD's manufactuer had said it was not compatiable with, and in that case the fault would lie on the rigger. That's the US angle, YMMV if the rigger's liscense is from another country. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Can you say "We figured we'd make x% more profit if we watered it down by 3%." adjusting to the demands of the consumer my ass. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Not bashing you, but trying to provide another side to the story. Because two donors were willing to donate thier corneas, I can now see again. Though I will never know who they were, I will forever be grateful to them for their generosity. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I don't recall ep names but this past season on Enterprise involved saving the Earth from destruction by an alien WMD. During the quest to find and shut down the WMD, the E's Capt. tortured a pirate for info and later attacked and stole components from a neutral exploration vessel in order to complete his mission. I liked that because it was nice to see a ST captain that had a bite as well as a bark. Plus there was some nice resonance with that Nietzsche quote about staring into the abyss. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."