jheadley

Right now I have a 150 main at 1.4 and a 176 reserve at 1.17. Ideally I think I'd like for my next rig a 135 main and a low bulk 160 reserve. With the largest of these being a 143 reserve, it seems though that PD is marketing this more towards the "cool small rig" people, though.

Very nice story, congratulations

1st solo is definitely a milestone, it'll probably be one of your most memorable jumps for a long time.

Global warming also makes the earth colder. It is also the cause of hurricanes, famine, disease, AIDS, crime, teen pregnancies and any other problem with the world, according to a former professor of mine.

Once again, last night I met with an old high school friend and those were the first two questions he asked me. Strange

I'm hesitant to answer your question since I'm not a rigger but since no one else is answering it, I'll give it a shot. Riggers please correct me if I'm wrong. The spring on the reserve pilot chute of a javelin is not very strong basically because it doesn't need to be. It's mostly a pop-top so it only needs to push through 2 small flaps. A non pop top container, like a vector or mirage would need a stronger spring because it has to push through more flaps.

I've got about 600 on mine and it still looks nearly new. The only real wear at all is a few strands of thread on the Odyssey logo came out, and the BOC pouch is a little loose. Also the elastic brake line keeper on my risers are starting to tear. Everything else is nearly perfect. Downsizing will be the reason I get a new one, but that won't be for a while.

This is a photo of duane weber from the Wikipedia article on D.B Cooper. The right picture is the FBI's drawing of D.B Cooper

I don't consider that poor customer service. I'm mostly accepting of suggestions but in the past I've had to refuse pack jobs because my customer wanted some overly complicated and unnecessary steps to be taken. They get someone else to do it, and I consider it a positive outcome for everyone involved.

Pack a parachute that mal'd. Sure. "Pack a mal" makes it sound like it was your fault though. And packers never admit fault. I know it's cliche but I do believe most mals are caused body position. Obviously things like misrouted bridles, step throughs, or an uncocked PC isn't, but line twists and tension knots definitely. I take packing very very seriously, and if someone I pack for tells me they it was a "bad" pack job, I consider that a personal insult, and I fire that customer. I also collect pictures of parachute deployments, and I'm amazed at the absolute tangled rat's nest of lines that can come out if one shoulder is dipped low. So I definitely think tension knots can be caused by body position also. Don't even try to tell me that I "packed" you line twists. That makes me the most mad. Attached is a picture of lines unstowing from a guy with his shoulders about 6 inches off to show what I'm talking about.

Skydiving will never get old if you apply yourself. The "OMG I just jumped out of a plane!!!111" excitement of it will wear off after 50 jumps or so... after that, you get more interested in actually improving your skill. You can always get better, so in theory at least, you should never get bored. If you ever do get bored with one discipline, there are plenty of others to do also. There are people who do get bored with the sport, but it's because all they were looking for is that rush. They typically quit after a few hundred jumps, and try to find some other XTREEEME sport to get their adrenaline going. Or they start BASE jumping and swooping.

I have saw a couple of those things open, yikes and no thank you. Yea while we're the subject, why exactly DO those PD tandem reserves open in a full stall? Seems like if you ever had an unconscious cypres fire then it'd land you pretty hard...

I'll be at CSS and found an old half shell pro-tec in my basement, I need to find some material for it. Any suggestions on where to get material or how to construct it?

Ha! We just noticed the same thing on the Strong Enterprises calendar last weekend.

When I double front dive my Sabre 2 150 on landing, I do get "bumpy" dives some times. Brake lines are plenty long and lineset is new. I think the lower angle of attack makes it more susceptible to turbulence that you wouldn't otherwise feel going straight in? Front riser turns are fine though.

The Goonies, Sandlot... (born '85) As for TV, I was fortunate to be a child during the Golden Age of Nickelodeon (late 80's-mid 90's). I grew up with such classics as Salute Your Shorts, Pete and Pete, Hey Dude, Clarissa, Are You Afraid of the Dark, Doug, Rugrats, Rocko's Modern Life, Legends of the Hidden Temple, ahh... the good old days. With YouTube I can relive them.

I don't really bring it up unless someone asks, but they always do. When they ask what I do for fun, or what I do on the weekends, what am I suppose to say? Skydiving is my only hobby. I didn't like the whuffo questions at first but now I actually consider them to be a good ice breaker between me and someone else since regular conversation is hard for me. I don't watch or play sports, or any TV really, I don't listen to music, don't go to bars or clubs, etc. so all that talk is out. So people already think I'm pretty strange, which I am I guess. I never bring it up though, I wait for them to. It's funny, the #1 whuffo question I get is "How high do you jump", and the #2 is "Do you ever jump with a snowboard?". I just got that one again today. That wouldn't be a question I'd think to ask.

I'm a pretty hardcore RW jumper but on my 500th jump a few weeks ago, I just did a solo and watched the sunset the whole way down. When you time it just right so you can wach the sun set completely in 60 seconds of freefall, that's one of the most amazing things I've ever seen.

I was only able to do 2 flat packs this weekend before I got sucked into packing tandems, but both were nice and soft, even the one I thought would be quick. One on heading, the other 90 off (not bad for a Sabre 2 though). Not statistically significant, but I'll try to do more later. I guess like anything, you just get used to it if you do it a lot. I think gravity just helps you out with quartering the slider in a pro pack, in a flat, I was constantly having to push the slider against the stops, it'd drift down, I'd s-fold it, push the grommets back up, bag it, the push the back up one more time before closing the bag... I know this never happens on my pro packs since I've dumped probably 200 of them to inspect them and they come out the exact same way I put them in. When pro-packing, I wrap the tail very tightly at the top, just above the slider grommets so there's no way it can go anywhere. I'll have to try the trick of lifting the rear risers to tuck the slider in deep. The hardest part I have trouble with is getting the slider in front of the nose quarter. I still don't even want to try flat packing a set-400 though, damn that'd suck.

I hear they taste pretty good, sort of like a mix between a spider monkey, and a gibbon.

"You're The Best", from the Karate Kid sountrack. "Dangerzone" from Top Gun. (Listen to it on the way to the dropzone). I like cheesy 80's movies.

Is that true?? I figure if you do a proper (stack) flat pack (A on B on C on D), the canopy is oriented to fly straight and on-heading? I could be wrong. That's why I had the . You're right, a proper flat pack has everything oriented the same way as a pro pack (the nose is a little off though). A lot of people think that a flat pack is put into the bag 90 degrees off, because that's how it starts out. Do a practice Flat pack, and then open it up. It'll look exactly like a pro pack, except for one interesting thing. On one side, the canopy material will be flaked to the outside, and on the other side, it's flaked to the inside. Because of this, and because the nose isn't going to be right in the center, I do think it may open off heading a little more, but NOT because of what's commonly thought that it's actually put in the bag 90 degrees off heading. I've only done a few flat packs so I'm just talking out my ass though. I actually practiced flat packing my main (sabre 2 150) last night, it is definitely hard to keep that slider evenly quartered and against the stops. I'm expecting it to pop me a little on opening tomorrow. I'll try doing some flat packs this weekend and compare the openings. One nice thing is you can really roll the nose tight, which might help make up for the slider. Riggerrob, I was looking at the dual hawk manual a few days ago and saw they actually roll pack the reserve? That's pretty weird. I don't really understand how roll packing even works. Hey, maybe that guy asking about how to speed up openings on his pilot should try flat packing?

A lot of TI's think that flat packing makes them open harder. I've only flat packed a few tandems but the TI said they opened fine. I think with the tail not being wrapped, it makes them open a little harder, especially on the EZs since they always open hard anyway. Keeping the slider quartered and against the stops is harder too. And as everyone knows, flat packing gives you a 90 degree off heading opening.

here is a great post by Bill Booth about how to tell if your pilot chute is in good shape and correctly made. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=132976;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; I believe the size of the pilot chute will affect snatch force, but will not change the length of the snivel.

Ahh, ok, thanks. So on inspection, if you found a serious problem on a part of the container that was not certified (like the loop on the riser hanging by a few threads), there's technically nothing you could do about it other than suggest to the owner to have it replaced? One rigger I saw with the above scenario actually just cut what was left of the loop, so the rig owner couldn't jump it at all until he got new risers. That raises some ethical questions though.