apoil

since we are posting pictures of our green omega's, here's mine

The BOC is about the only thing I liked on my reflex. Everything else was a nightmare of quality control and poor engineering. First off, unless you have full time access to a rigger who is real experienced at packing them your pop top will loosen up every could of jumps and will just be waiting to snag a line, or the door or something. You can cinch it down again but it will increase your reserve pull force and it will still loosen up again. My first problem was a Dbag that fell apart after about 75 jumps. It was replaced under recall, but it was a poor batch of material. I also had ordered the rig sized for a Sabre190 but the fit was incredibly tight. Not that I knew it, I just couldn't pack at the time. This caused the sharks fin closing tab on the pin cover to become bent and the flap would always come open during head-up freeflying.

> You CAN filter out users? How?? He meant with a killfile he COULD. In concept I CAN because I use the Proxomitron which filters all web pages before I see them. If I really wanted to, I could sit down and write some filters for it that would behave as a kill file. As it stands I use it to strip away annoying signatures.

"under construction" icons are probably on the top ten lists of awful webdesign. Put anything there but that. All you do is advertise that you don't have your shit together. and of course number one on the list is popups, which makes most people want to strangle you. GET RID OF THEM. There's nothing on that web page that requires fancy javascript, other than an overzealous page designer. And if the info can't be browsed (as in prior years) without java/javascript then you are excluding people.

The problem with '99 was that the Jet was advertised, and tickets were sold. If it was only "close" why was the announcement that it wouldn't be there made at sunset the night before? The answer to that is simple, because management (Don) firmly believed the deal would be closed - but also because letting people know that there was any doubt might mean some folks wouldn't show or would leave early. Some folks come from all over the world specifically to jump the jet. They got hosed. Never mind the Jet. Sometimes bad luck happens. I had a hard-on to jump the Super Connie. In '98 it was advertised. Come wednesday (the scheduled day) I asked manifest when it would be there - "oh they couldn't make it... something about insurance" ok bummer. In '99 it was advertised. Hey great, I'll get to jump it this year, last year must have been a weird fluke. No show. No announcement. In '00 it was still advertised. Now I'm thinking they are just too lazy to accurately update their website. But then solicitations went out over rec. asking who is interested in jumping the connie so they can schedule the appropriate number of days. I'm thinking yes, this is the year I can finally do it, so I sent my email to theconnie@freefall.com explaining how badly I want to jump this historic aircraft and how I'd gladly make several jumps from it. Come the convention, guess what? No connie, and not even a courtesy email to the people who expressed interest saying "sorry it couldn't make it this year" And from what I hear, the Save A Connie foundation never had any intention of providing this aircraft to the convention in any of those years. Now the convention has been moved to a new location and there's barely enough time to get the facilities together. Is there any commitment in this new location to have the cops lay off? Will it be a fun and free environment? I don't know, and I'm not going to go there to find out.

"Ninjas?!? I HATE ninjas!" - The Tick

The Evo2000 was a piece of crap. I owned one because the pro-track hadn't come out yet. Fact is, it was rushed to market to beat the pro-track and it showed. As far as customer service, they were more concerned with telling me why it was so great rather than listening to what I didn't like about it. The software, which was the only way to view the stored data was also rushed to market and would crash around every two or three mouse clicks. As soon as the pro-track came out I bought one, dumped my evo2000 on some unsuspecting fellow who was still high on George's Kool-Aid. I sold it cheap to ease my own conscience.

It's hardly a secret, Brian's been test jumping the prototype for weeks now at zhills and has purportedly passed it on to his beta tester. I don't think it's strictly cross braced due to the way the ribs are loaded and the way the airlocks work. Still it was screamingly fast. As to it being the best of both worlds that's debatable as most things are.

You just contradicted yourself. First you said the chincup has a lot to do with keeping the camera but then you say that the chinstrap does just as much. Well of course, no one is going to wear a helmet without some kind of fastener. If the chin cup is just for impact protection, then it's not about keeping the camera.

oh yeah... that woud explain why I've had to replace the camera so many times... not. what does a chin cup have to do with keeping the camera? It has nire to do with keepting the helmet secure so you get a more steady shot and less potential problems on opening. The PC9 being pretty lightweight, it's probably not 100% necessary. As I said, I've had no problems.

Florida Blue Skies? Have you checked the weather lately? We haven't sent a load up at zhills since THURSDAY. It's supposedly going to clear sometime on monday but the forecast is still for high winds throughout the week.

um, that would be: pull down both front risers on final approach. was this a trick question?

I've been jumping a PC9 side mounted on a bonehead with no chincup, no problem. Depends on what you are doing and how professional you need it to be.

I liked the definition of the "gold wings" something like: The award given for the completion of 1000 skydives. This tiny brass pin costs approximately $35,000.

following the general rule of big to small. After the last freefly group exits, it will be the largest RW group in the door. If they are a 4way or more, they'll generally take plenty of time getting setup. Other practices for added safety: freefliers tracking perpendicular to the line of flight, and flying their canopies in that direction until the next group opens.

depends on the uppers generally. If they are light then the difference doesn't matter as much. But seriously, when have you seen an RW group take LESS than 15 seconds to do their full climbout and exit count?

I never did and I never suggested it. Why is it that they don't? This is how we move faster and slower, by presenting more or less surface area to the wind. It's the very reason why freeflyers go faster? "always spinning and changing their presentation?" Have you EVER been on a freefly dive? I'm willing to accept that this is a specious proposition, but if you are going to dismiss it you'll have to do better than saying in essence "no it doesn't, or if it does it's negligible" Let's see some of your physics. the differential of 5-15 seconds of drift in most upper winds isn't enough to necessarily change the exit order. The true safety margin is longer time between groups and not struggling to get a full twin otter out in one pass.

final deal??? "we are trying to wrap up the contract" Sounds a lot like "we are trying to get the 727 this year"

a lot of people seem to have accepted the doctrine that RW fliers will drift more. The main reason being that they are in the wind longer. From my experience it's about 10 maybe 15 seconds longer. Vertical fliers however are presenting a significantly greater surface area to horizontal winds a loft and may actually drift further or just as much. Let the controversy rage on. At my DZ we've been putting freefliers out first with generally good results. Anything can work with proper thought and proper communication. Crosswind jump runs are an option as well

*** I've gotta say that people acting like idiots on the road really get under my skin i.e speeding up to pass you only to slow back down or going the speed limit in the fast lane then when you ride their bumper they dont understand that means MOVE!!!! *** That's funny - I get pretty tweaked when I am maintainint a safe following distance behind the car in front of me at well over the speed limit and some asshole tailgates me, expecting me to move so he can tailgate the guy in front of me. Too bad, sometimes there are other cars on the road and we can't go as fast as we'd like. Riding bumpers is just dangerous.

that would be me. Omega 160 for sale, no reasonable offer refused.

2-3 miles to town from a dz isn't so bad. It's a small town, but they've got a wal mart, two or three supermarkets and the full compliment of fast fooderies. And yes, a few motels as well if you want to spend the money and stay at them. No Mardi Gras boogie though. The big event coming up is the Easter Boogie and that is not to be missed.

Nice of you to offer that opinion. I'm guessing it's based on your study of the facts at hand, which include many experienced jumpers going in each year from cutting away too low and hardly any going in as a result of their RSL functioning improperly? I Didn't think so.

Yes, all this is true, however this response more than anything else is the language of someone who is going to end up dead or in the hospital.. It's just a matter of time. Talk to the guys who win the swoop competitions. The multiple thousand jump gods who can swoop circles around you. They may agree that you are ready for a canopy at that size and wing loading. I'm not even going to dispute that point. But their attitude is always that they can still learn, and still benefit from the experience of others. When you blow people off as you have just done, you are a making yourself into a statistic waiting to happen.

*** I disconnect on big ways (not saying an eight way is a really big way) because I am usually jumping with newbies and I have seen entanglements. If I cut and have to pull out the knife and chop I want to allow ample time to get everything away before I pull the reserve. *** Entanglements are avoided by learning to track, and teaching others to track. Also by flying your canopy heads up and teaching others to do the same. Big way RW is not an occasion where it is recommended to disconnect the RSL, especially at your experience level. Put it this way - if you are anticipating a canopy collision or wrap and you aren't doing CRW, then something is very very wrong.