peckerhead

>In the old days he'd have been grounded. No offense but your profile says you have been jumping 10 years, What "old days' are you refering to? The 90's? I once landed a strato star that was not exactly square, it had a bit of a "bow tie" but I could not figure out why? After doing a canopy control check I decided to land it. The landing was a bit rough but that was not unusual for a strato star. (It was sure better than I would of got on the 22 ft. sac I had as a reserve) I didn't get chewed out or grounded, but some were disappointed I wasn't going to be buying beer. (I also cut away the same canopy 3 times) Back then some depolyment bags had a huge grommet where the bridle passes through the bag and I had a big wad of material stuffed into the hole causing the bowtie. From the ground it looked ugly. I admit I would probably not attempt to land a line over on the gear I jump now even if if I could get it to fly straight. But, this guy looks like he is jumping a large, docile, student-type canopy. As someone mentioned he walked away from it so he did the right thing. If he got chewed out or grounded for it maybe next time he has an end-cell closed he chops that.

That is what I was trying to say but, You said it much better.

Nice job! You should never cut-away if you don't need to. Remember, the reserve is ALSO a parachute and it could ALSO malfunction. A toggle problem on your main that is identifyable is usually not that big of a deal. If you can control it, you can land it. It's a fine line... You don't ever want to use your reserve if you don't need to. But, you don't want to be afraid to use it if you HAVE to. When in doubt whip it out!

Hey! If you want to take chances with a small electronic device that might kill you go right ahead. It's your life. I prefer to play it safe.

We took a TV out of a 182 back in the early '80s on super bowl sunday. The idea was we were going to "watch it" in freefall and get pictures. It didn't work out so good... The two guys holding on to the "pop-up" handle on the top funneled the exit and the TV did not cooperate very well. It was a stupid thing to do from the very beginning but, at least we were jumping in a remote area over range land. We looked for it for several weeks but never found it. Several years later someone found the remains, there wasn't much left from what I hear.

The continued regular occurance of good skydivers going in with absolutely nothing out scares me far more. _Am One could argue they ain't that good then....... Excellent point! The Cypress comes in 3 models; Tandem, Student, and EXPERT. If your Cypres fires because you can't maintain altitude awareness are you really an expert?

Hartwoods a ghost town, I don't think you will find anyone there these days.

I am surprised no one mentioned the obvious..... Because the first one scared the shit out of them!

If you want to get out of the rain Central Oregon Sky Sports is on the east side of the Cascades in Madras. About an hour and a half from Portland. They often have clear skies when it's raining on the west side DZs. The Dz is about 2500 feet above sea level on the high Oregon desert and the veiws are spectacular. Central Oregon is a recreation paradise with just about every thing: Skiing, climbing, golf, brew pubs, rafting, sailing, spelunking, fishing, hiking, camping, hot springs, indian casinos, etc.

I jumped in Australia without a cypress last April, is this a new requirement?

I have a better idea... Get rid of the damn thing and activate your equipment manually. The new aad-dependent generation scares me.

A tandem is just a safer Mr. Bill.

I was going to mention Taupo... I was down there last April and made a jump at one of the 3 dz's. I could not believe the numbers they were doing. They were turning full Pac-750 loads of tandems every 15-20 minutes all day long. I have never seen so many tandem rigs in one place, hell you could probably make a good living just packing. I had my video gear with me and I filmed a solo jump I made. Just the ride up, scenery around the lake, a tandem pair exiting, and my jump. When I landed one of the vidiots asked me if I was looking for work. He said you could do quite well just filming and even better if you had a tandem rating. Unfortunately I don't think the wife and kids would go for me moving to New Zealand to be a professional skydiver. But, if I was a younger single guy I would do it in a heartbeat.

I actually watched the whole speech. He made one ironic statement about OBL. He said that Bin Laden was a coward because he sends young men off to their deaths but will not go along for the ride. Hmmm? Who does that remind you of?

I spent ten days in NZ about 4 months ago. I started in Auckland and rented a car. That will really blow your mind if you have never driven on the left. My first stop was Mercer and I made two jumps there.They have a porter and nice scenery. It looks like the Shire in the Lord of the Rings which was filmed nearby. Then I drove down the hotsprings country (can't remember names too well) and stopped at lake Taupo for the night. There are 3 Tandem factories at Taupo but the scenery is worth doing a solo. They have Pac 750's and the staff was real nice. The lake is about the size of lake tahoe. Be advised that some DZ's require AAD's for all. We ended up in Wellington on the 3rd day and took the ferry to the south island. There is a great DZ in Motueka near Nelson called Abel Tasman. They have incredible scenery. Our trip ended in Christchurch then we went on to Australia, so much to see so little time. If I had more time I would have liked to have gone North from Auckland up to the beaches on the northern tip. You can actually see alot in 10 days if you aren't working too much. Send me a PM if you like and I can give you details of what I saw while I was there

The last 50? I don't even remember what I did on the last 10....

I came all the way to Sydney to jump it ..... Too bad it was in the shop for the annual, (or what ever you call it) No worries, I had to settle for the skyvan and otter instead. A single Otter with the turbine conversion would have to be the best jump plane ever!

Beaver! Big door, long strut, nice step, really loud! 8 jumpers to 10 grand in almost an hour!

I agree with Sparky for the most part. If you are not going to have a rigger remove it at least have one SHOW you how to do it your self. That would be better than having it described to you on the internet. It really is quite simple.

Smokejumpers still use rounds and yes the are new. The FS-14 is the latest model replacing the FS-12. Bill Gargano at Quantum parachutes makes them on a government contract. I think the new ones even use Z-P fabric.

A television. We did really dumb shit in the 80's It was found several years later. Well, what was left of it.

Damn, I thought this was about ACTUAL pissing contests. You know, with human urine and targets!

Great question! I have thrown two since I moved to the east coast and both times the DZ crowd acted like I was either a retard or from outer space. Both times we had to (at my insistence) go find them because no one had thrown one in years. Yep, they were still there , in the old cabinet with the kicker plates and blast handles.... They were tattered and old looking and the pilot seemed annoyed to have to open the door on the way up. Spotting seems to be a lost art. With square reserves we can make it back but what about our freebag, pilot chute, and main? We stare at the wind meters and turn students away but nobody has the nuts to toss a WDI? Sad!

Nothing. I never got an "A" license. Or a "B" either. Waste of money.