BlindBrick

Even with a two handed method it's possible to have an out of sequence opening. All it takes is a stress-induced brain fart for someone to first reach left instead of right. Lord knows I've seen it multiple times in fjc, and I've only been teaching a little over a year. Having said that, I do fer teach my students 2 handed, but with 9 chops under my belt, if someone tried to retrain me from the the single handed method, I'd politely tell them to stuff it. Trying to force experienced jumpers to convert sounds like a good way to kill more up-jumpers than you will ever save. For those who don't like the thought of losing sight of the ripcord. We teach our students to bring their left arm across their chest so that their elbow is resting on their D ring. Then, as they pull they slide their eyes from their left wrist to their left elbow so that they are watching the D ring. That way if it shifts, they have both tactile and visual confirmation of where their D ring is. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

A few years back, we had an older gentleman who was just a few pounds shy of our weight limit show up on hot summer day. He took the fjc and then proceed to badly break both of his legs very badly by not even attempting to flare on landing. He admitted in the ambulance that he was trying to join the CAW and wanted to do hsi landing just like they did. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I base jumped with one of those. The first opening was interesting, the second even more so since it was wet. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm around 365 exit wt. closer to 375 with my wing suit. As for those guys saying this guy would fall at around 150, you're not even in the ballpark. At 420 lbs and 6' feet, this guy should be real close to 200 mph in a relaxed arch. With my free fly suit, my terminal is around 150, with t-shirt and shorts it averages around 167, and my best sustained belly speed was 227, those numbers were gathered from when I was a lot closer to 330 exit weight on a 5'11 frame. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

A couple from my younger, and a fair bit dumber, days. 1. Right after becoming a freshly minted rigger, I started experimenting with different gear configs. Definitely not the smartest thing to do since I was so green (celebrated getting my ticket by making my 50th jump). The experimenting stopped after I took a Laser 9 (packed like a reserve since I learned to pack reserves first) to terminal with a smallish bikini slider meant for a Raven. Not sure which was freakier, watching my vision fade away down a gray tunnel on opening or coming to an unknown amount of time later under canopy. 2. Wanted to BASE jump but didn't have the scratch for a new setup and there wasn't anything used in my size. So I scrounged up a surplus MT-1, had a tail pocket sewn on, slapped a mesh slider and BASE-specific PC on it and shoehorned it in to a Mirage M-9. Got it wet on the first jump and the thing manged to pack up even bulkier for the second jump. The result was something that would have made a CReWdog's pack job look textbook. I remember the guy doing pin checks at the exit point. His mantra was "your pin's good, your container looks good, have fun." He looked at my stuff and went "Your pin's good, and your container's.... well, good luck." One of the hardest openings I've ever had, and that's saying something coming from a guy's who normal deployment speed is around 163. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Got to agree, my SM is incredibly responsive. For a scrawny guy it's the equivalent of flying a student main while for the likes of Scotty and me, it's closer to a cross-braced napkin that makes whatever Luigi's currently flying look like a circus tent. To quote one of my old instructors "Don't downsize, SuperSize!" So yes, you do want fries with that. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

One of our jumpers is a former A4/A6 jock. I'll grill him this weekend. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Brian Germane will be presenting his excellent course at Skydive Skyranch in Siloam Springs, AR on June 5 & 6. Slots are still available on both days. Contact DZO Wolf Grulkey at 1-888-456-JUMP or at www.skyranch.com "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The PLA has a pretty large fairly modern air force. it wouldn't be that big of a deal for them to seal the passes and suppress the arty in range of Seoul. Demonstrating that to NK, would probably be enough to keep the NK generals honest. What I'd really like to know is who fired the shot and why. I supect that this whole crisis is because some poorly-trained commander put his ship in a position where an over-eager, under educated rating had the opportunitty to accidentally push the button. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I guess I'm lucky. OK doesn't have a distinctive style, but we get that crossroads effect. Within an hour's drive I can get national award winning Memphis, Caroline, KC, TX and Bama style BBQ. Got to point out though that "Serious Texas BBQ" in Durango, CO has some of the best and most unique BBQ sauces in the country. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Something just came to me as I was reading through Chuck's list. I've got two non-ws water landings off the NRGB jumping a modified MT-1 canopy. The first jump was a textbook water landing with zero issues as the canopy continued past me, keeping everything clear of me. On the second jump, something was different and my canopy ended up landing on top of me. I was amazed by the amount of lines that managed to land on me and how they tried to tangle me as I was getting out from under the canopy. It occurs to me that if you face that situation in a ws, you want to be extra careful as you shuck out of the suit. There's many potential snag points with an unzipped suit, all with the potential of catching and ensnaring you as you move around while getting out of the suit. I think it's one of those situations where you're going to have to remind yourself to not panic and take an extra few seconds to do the job carefully, time/situation permitting. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I wouldn't recommend it if it has the mesh net liner like on my Super Mach. That stuff becomes fairly tacky when wet. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've experience with a canopy that filled with water. Once the cells filled with water, the current caught the bottom skin of the inflated canopy and started heading away with tremendous force. If i hadn't already been in the rescue boat with someone holding on to me, i would have been drug under. I really can't see much of a difference between the cell structure of a canopy or wingsuit with the possible exception of the airlocks may make the situation worse by making it harder to empty the ws's cells. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

And i know three average sized girls who did too. My personal experience also mirrors Twardos. If Twardo can remember meeting me at PIA 07 (Bill Von introduced us), he'll confirm that I am a very big guy. Like Twardo, I also have experience with bad landings. When I started jumping, I was overweight and seeing 20/120 in one eye and 20/80 in the other. Until I got corneal transplants about 120 jumps in, over 90% of my landings were actually semi-controlled crashes. Between being a big guy, jumping ragged out at student gear at 1:1 or greater, a thousand foot of elevation, hot summer days and an inability to time judge flare height, I absolutely pounded in. I never had anything worse than a plethora of vivid brusies. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I agree, but i would also point out that pound for pound, the heavier people tend to have superior muscle mass in the lower body because they have to ambulate all the extra weight around. I know 300 lbs girls who stould on the low end of the 5 foot range, and not one of them could run 100 feet if you offered them their heart's desire because they had zero cardio endurance. however, they still had massive rock solid calves that a body builder would have envied. As counter-inuitive it may seem, large people tend to have better lower body duranbility because they have strogner bones surrounded by a superior muscle mass. that's why Ii called bullshit to this myth that keeps getting perpetuated in this sport. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Quite frankly, this is bullshit. Bone density/strength scales pretty well with weight (within human range at least) unless there's another medical condition at play. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Remember that your occupation is skydiving instructor, the AFFI or TI are just areas of specialization. Like how a bush pilot and a 747 are both commerical-rated pilots. From that basis: Per the USPA, the Coach rating is the entry level skydiving instructional position. Given that, the TI/AFFI rating represents a level of training well above the established minimum to serve as a skydiving instructional professional. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Hmm, I always thought that my experience was fairly representative ie. learn to pack rounds because you had to pack both a round and a square to pass the practical. Didn't realize there were some riggers earning their tickets w/ zero round experience. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

So if you have a pre-1990 DOM SST and the matching manual, could you still count it as chest even though the newer models are back only? Taking that one step further. As a back-rated rigger, could you pack the SST 20 times and then apply for your chest rating since it coutns as both? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Where are you jumping now Steve? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Direct TV customer service sucks. i almost lost my house because when we went to cancel our service, they withdrew around a thousand from our bank account for "lost equipment" a day before the return boxes we were suppossed to mial them back in were delivered to us. it took over three months and the help of a news station to get our money back. Even then we were out almost an equal amount due to unexpected overdraft fees and the needd to get temp loans to cover it. Plus it hit a a few weeks before x-mas which sucks when you have smal children. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

You probably pissed her off BIG TIME Again, I am a girl. lol Nope did not piss him off.....he was just a bit crazy is all. Yeah, women will do that to you!

They can't, I ate them all. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Given the press's pathological obession with using puns as headlines, I'm suprised that one's not been used already. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

A question. If the court does indeed come out and say that the right is an individual right, then wouldn't laws against "assault weapons" be considered unconstitutional since it's reasonable that in order to serve in the 2nd amendment's militia, you'd need military-grade hardware. In the same vein, could the tax on destructive devices be stricken since its whole purpose is to impeed the flow of miltiary hardware to the citizenry via excessive expense? If you could get that through then it seems like it'd only be a realtively short step to force the miltary to not demil surplus weaponary sold to US citizens for personal use. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."