sagan

There's also a bunkhouse aside from the ihop. Haven't stayed there yet though. Why not just keep your valuables i.e. rig, wallet, etc, in your car and then stay at ihop? True someone could break into the car but that's probably less likely to attract opportunist theft. For the record I've stayed at ihop for a total of about 20 days now (not consecutive) and have never had problems. If you don't mind a 30 minute drive there's more options in Corona. -Patrick

Just saw this out on the news sites. Nothing no one didn't know already from this post but... http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/worldnews.html?in_article_id=474879&in_page_id=1811 -Patrick

Maybe I'm not reading that pic right but it looks like 160mph at 3000 feet... Isn't that a problem? I for one know I probably wouldn't wanna deploy at that speed. (assuming you'll be pitching out any second there -- after all your at 3000 feet) Just a random thought -- but hell what do i know? Someone wanna comment that knows about that stuff? -Patrick

Locks the slider. It's a piece of fabric sewed on your riser near the rings. After collapsing the slider and pulling it over the toggles you pull it past this fabric and it then acts like a tab not letting the slider slide back up. Since the slider than is only attached to the risers, it won't cause a hangup if you had to cut away. re-read that just now -- take out the "i'm telling you" voice from there. I have a hard time following diagrams too. stupid internet typing can't pick out my voice inflection. -Patrick

http://www.bigairsportz.com/article.php#slider From Brian's site... Had a rigger do that to mine and it works well. -Patrick

Had the same problem when I got my new container... I think I wore it for a week straight around the house. I think the problem is that when your new like me you know your dealing with a new shiny thing, but you don't know what you can do with it at home so instead you just wear it around cause that's the only thing you know how to do with it. Some suggestions come to mind (more important for newbies like me!) 1) put the rig on the ground and walk through the deployment sequence. pull the pc out and pull out the dbag and walk it up in front of the container. *Doing this I noticed I inadvertently had a tendency to twist my dbag (and I was wondering why I always had 1 line twist!) 2) Undo and redo the 3 ring hookups and RSL. *Previous to doing this myself unassisted a few times, I was sure I'd twist my riser or do something else stupid like accidentally deploy the reserve. 3) hang up your canopy and walk through each of the cells. Also do a full continuity check on the lines. Count the lines! Look how they attach, cascade, etc, etc. *When I came back from landing with a step through the other weekend after picking up the canopy I knew exactly what was going on where (or at least I knew enough to ask and get more help!) 4) Learn how to put your container on right. I had problems sitting to low in harness initially and general comfort. What I was told was: put on rig (don't tighten anything!) Tighten chest strap while postioning the right high on your shoulders (comfortably). Now while hunched over tighten leg straps. *Made a world of difference for me! 5) Pack pack pack!!! I'm totally lucky that in my temporary location right now I get to jump with some kickass people -- the thing is they'll be packed up before I even get from the landing area. Speeding up my packing (without compromising safety) is making it so I'm less of a chore for the entire group (which can range from anywhere from 4 to 16 on any given jump -- did I mention I love my adopted DZ? :) ) Again as I said before, I'm a newbie too so I hope others with more experience weigh in with the merits of my "ideas". *Oh yea since I know someone will say it -- after you fiddle with your gear -- since you don't really know what your doing yet, get it checked out before you jump it and find yourself flying backwards -- I'm sure the vets can tell some stories about this* -Patrick

To take a scuba adage to the question: "1 is none and 2 is one" I use that adage for digitals. The mechanical one + my eyes = 2 so that's 1 too. The final equation: 2 (digi + digi) + 2 (mechanical + eyes) = 1 :) i never said I was good at math < edit > The final equation: 2 (digi + digi) + 2 (mechanical + eyes) = 2 :) -Patrick

And if it's not underneath you may want to turn audibles off (pain with my skytronic gfx as batts need to come out). I don't think unknowing passengers would enjoy warning sirens going off as you cruise back down through your hard deck as the aircraft is landing.

That sounds like great fun! Let's see: The packers would hate me as I'd do it for free. The jumpers would hate me due to the awful openings. I'd hate it because it's packing. I think that's 3 strikes against me doing that, but thanks for the suggestion. -Patrick

Thanks guys! That made feel better just reading that this morning.

Who gets a cold in the middle of July?!? This is ridiculous. -Patrick

Jump tickets for points? That's an awesome idea.. I'm calling the thankyounetwork (citi) right now (they allow write in requests like this). -Patrick

A good way imo that i was shown to ensure this never happens and is also the "correct" way to put on a rig at least according to my dealer and sun path rep that was at the dz is to: 1) Get rig on with leg straps. 2) Lean forward and tighten the chest strap slightly more than you would jump with. 3) while bent over with tightened chest strap, do up the leg straps. If you didn't route the chest strap correctly it'll be pretty obvious. The reason I was told to do this is to position the rig correctly on the back. When you do legs up first you pull the rig down to your butt instead of up on your shoulders where it ought to be. Not sure how "official" this technique is around the sport but it seems to work really well for me. :) -Patrick

Qualification Disclaimer - I don't know what I'm talking about i'm just throwing out ideas and personal experiences, go seek out an AFFI or see if one responds here. There's a ton of exp people here so I'm sure you'll get a better qualified answer... but since you asked: Some things to consider (off the top of my head) How big is the other DZ? Are there more instructors, rigs, etc, etc? Is it cheaper for students? Which DZ do you like the people better at? Which DZ will you most likely be jumping at after you get a license? i.e. if the small dz is a tandem factory only and the other has 10-15 fun jumpers on every load, you'll probably wanna jump at the larger one. An hour is not unreasonable, I can think of a whole lot of people that drive 3-5 hours (each way). My current ride door to door is about 1.5 hours each way and that's the closest I had ever been to a DZ. To give you anoter point of reference (which sounds like what your looking for), I've jumped at 6 DZ's, 3 medium sized ones, 1 small one, and 2 MAJOR ones (all except for small one were in the US). I've never seen someone pack whilst smoking. Pack then smoke, or smoke, then pack definitely but never together, and never "near" each other. If I saw that I'd probably ask a jumper I trusted (aff-i) about it. -Patrick

Not sure if this applies, but I also definitely felt a bit wobbly on my tandems before I started AFF, so count me in as another skydiver that didn't feel well under a tandem canopy. I was later told by an AFFI that not only are you in a lower "comfort" position when you get unhooked under canopy but you are also forward of where you would normally be if you were in your own harness. This forwardness effects what you feel or so I was told -- sounded good to me at the time. On a side note I'd bet everyone has some strange fear, anxiety, etc, etc when they first start. Mine was I was scared to look up in freefall (down was fine, up was scary -- go figure) -- trust me the AFFI's were less than happy about that on exits. -Patrick

I bet this puppy will hold it's value just as well as the original pro-dyter. The only thing I wish it did was simply log the jumps on it, just a jump number, none of the fancy stats would be good enough for me. Either way the canopy alerts, multiple banks, and custom height settings are worth every penny that makes up the price difference between it and the solo. Once you figure out how to use the menus it's very easy to use. Like the skytronic gfx this device does not need to be turned off, but it's also nice that you can turn it off (the gfx you gotta take the bats out).

Really? to me the flair on the safire never ended, it was almost annoying it flaired so well. -Patrick

I wish i had a snappy reply but i don't.. no wait yes I do.. I got a new canopy & a chick in a studio -Patrick

Yeah! Sabre2 190 that I'll be on for quite a while. Demo jumped one for 2 days. Others I evaluated: original sabre, spectre, safire2, zpo, silhouette -- never did find a pilot to jump, oh well. Anyway what's this thing about sleeping naked in your new canopy the first night that everyone was talking about? Is that required? I have company coming tonight that will be staying a week and that might turn her off since we have to share a studio. Thoughts?

That was my first thought too that they looked like the dragon. The people jumping here basically say that if your doing back to back cats i.e. 2 or more in a row, the entire formation will probably wobble pretty good. I agree it looks like a pretty "simple" formation. I was laughing at the dragon until I got on a jump where we did one and the entire formation was waving up and down violently to the point that your grips get thrown off. Another fun example of "something that seems easy" is the phalanx exit. Line up 4 floaters on the outside, they all have high grips (one each) and exit. 9 out of 10 of these will funnel by folding on itself. I had the chance to see a set of 4 try this and the jump #'s were: 5000+,2000+, 1500+, 1500+. It basically folded in on itself (but they pulled it out eventually). I like the look of the fish though! :) *edit* which btw the fish looks hella hard. Someone correct me but it's almost like it's 2 half donuts with cats! The poor guy in between the cats and the 2 half donuts better be a guerrilla. -Patrick

Just a thought (and again this is ironic as I'm a very low jump # jumper) but most of the advice in this thread has been of similar jumpers to myself (50-150 jumps). While I don't want to discredit anyone and I think the opinion is valuable (just like I'd say my own opinion which I'll give is "valuable" to some extent because we are all "in the same boat" experience wise), it's probably best to go talk to your instructors (which has been mentioned a few times). One thing I was taught in AFF was: listen to everyone, but anyone under

Of interest may be that Perris now has a new "policy" that once you land you must clear the landing area immediately before stowing brakes and such. (This is for the grass landing area apparently) The idea is, land on grass, grab your stuff, step to the side of the grass -- deal with stuff there. This is apparently pretty new and I don't think has been officially announced on the PA, writing, etc and instead is just word of mouth among regulars and the LO's. For that reason please don't flame the post as that's what I've been told the policy is, if something is not accurate please correct. The idea makes sense if you ask me... As for the 100 ways dirt diving those are pretty obvious from up high. What's less obvious are things like simultaneous parallel jump runs when the people in the front of the plane "forget" to relay that bit of info to the people in back -- sorry off topic -Patrick

Studying abroad in college -- a group was going to do tandems and needed one more to get a group discount -- i happened to be the sucker they found and cornered. I jumped again the next day and said "gee I wonder if I could actually do this like as a hobby or sport or something?" My wallet has been scared ever since. -Patrick

Yes that's the way this particular manufacturer sets it up. I've gotten plenty of double takes when people see it. -Patrick

Manual good, other jumpers as reference for rigging, not bad but... I'd go with my rigger. The reason I say that is because not all RSL rings are toward the inside. The container I jump for instance is designed with the RSL ring on the outside right. I guess the message of the post is don't make assumptions even when you research it recognize that something important may still be missing from the big picture. **edit** --- I just re-read my post. It seems to come across a bit crass or "i know better than you", that's not the intention of it, just dialog *** -Patrick