mdrejhon

I use a gearbag backpack. Basically a duffel bag with backpack straps. That way I can get away with a second personal item 'carryon' (laptop backpack as laptop carrying case, but also carrying other goodies -- I carry it by its top handle, since I am already wearing a backpack). Less clumsy than juggling a rolling carryon and a laptop bag at the same time in my opinion, and easier to fit in overhead bins than a rolling carryon.

How recently? Did she know that she was in a relationship. I had wondered about that -- was there a point of commitment reached? For some people, it's morally OK to be non-exclusive until the point of commitment. Especially in certain contexts. For example, if you date someone on a matchmaker site's "sex section", it can be generally considered non exclusive... (It's possible that's where the pictures of the naked ass came from) It depends on what personal standards you have, obviously, and theirs as well. Often those don't last (more casual sex or friends with benefits), although I know of happy couples (10+ years) who met on online sites during the dotcom era of the 90's... Plenty of articles on the Net relating to this topic matter (from both the left and right) that adds more debate to this matter...

The jetpack flight over the gorge has succeeded. Another story with photograph And yes, already on.... YOUTUBE: Jetpack Flight over gorge

There's occasionally times I'm tracking in a tight wave with a few people and I'm flying in the middle between two neighbours that's fanning out, I do see one of them waveoff 100-200 feet to the left or right of me (and often slightly below), I might track a second or two longer to more clear airspace so that I am more likely to open at a different altitude and/or more horizontal distance between us -- just in case we both an off-heading opening and we fly directly to each other. I've done an extended track once as a result of seeing a waveoff. (True, deployments can vary, even from jump to jump -- but more horizontal separation is always helpful, especially if I've still got altitude to track that little extra distance) Alternatively, I might change my heading slightly away from them (airspace permitting, and no other neighbours in the way) right before I begin my opening sequence, depending on whether I've got time before my designated deployment altitude.

Hey, I'd certainly be interested in participating in this other event, if I find 3 other buddies to perform with.

I understand what you're saying -- I spend only half a second waving off when I'm already low... But I think occasionally it comes handy to see others waveoff. Sometimes when I see a neighbour is doing that while I'm looking around while tracking, that's a signal for me to wave off right away and pull right away if my airspace is now already clear. No need to track unnecessarily as the last guy tracking...

Excellent. About time -- this benefits me as I'm a Canadian who travels to the U.S. frequently. My reserve packjob expires early Feb, so I'll wait until after then (probably not skydiving at all in Feb anyway) to make sure I'm 6 month legal in both countries.

Hey, On my first jumps and if I haven't jumped in a while, my ears hurts especially it comes after landing when the andrenaline subsides. But after a few jumps, it's a non-issue. You do get used to it, assuming it's just a simple matter of not being used to it (rather than being some serious underlying issue, or damage, etc). Just keep jumping. Don't get dependant on medicine, unless necessary -- it took me only a few skydives at the beginning. (Or a couple of jumps after a long layover).

As an up-and-coming bigway jumper now regularly doing 30-ways and bigger... I just waveoff once, because I'm often at the end of a track to a 2500 foot pull. I look around while I am tracking, below, above, and to sides. Once clear, sometimes I pull in a track, essentially doing a real quick and broad waveoff while beginning to bend my legs into the flare position, pull the hackey, then immediately aggressively flare my track after I've pulled -- takes one second for me to be stood up by the opening sequence. (The opening isn't bad when done well -- my boxman flare is sufficient to slow me down in a hurry, turning some forward motion into lift for slower fallrate). Of course, I do this while continuing to look around, as I was during my track. On some jumps when I've tracked a bit longer to gain a bit more airspace, and I know I'm clear, I'm now at an altitude where there really ISN'T time for me to waveoff twice, sometimes. (And I'm not even the lowest guy in the formation on 98% of the jumps, and yes, someone else has a cypres fire occasionally occurs at the bigway events I go to. Twice this year so far.) Bigway outers can sometimes go pretty low, especially during training camps where some people are still learning the ropes of bigways. So the tracking sequence needs to be streamlined. Build your awareness during the track, learn to look around without sacrificing your track, so you've spent tons of time looking around before you've pulled. In bigways, follow your tracking leader for a short while and fan out. (Or what the organizer mandates.)

Hey Chris, It's too bad that you were all inconvenienced by this, but glad that it wasn't anything worse: I hear the horror story of a rig being opened in an attempted inspection by baggage handlers, and the rig was all a dirty mess on the floor by the time it reached its destination... I'd rather go through what you experienced than to possibly lose my rig to possible damage. I may be taking an extra risk with bringing the weight belt too in my carry on, since that's a 2nd suspicious item... (Although I do space out the inspections as much as possible by putting the rig on conveyer first, everything else such as laptop/wallet/etc in between, then the bag with the weightbelt last) I'll have to make some really tough decisions on how to proceed with this, once I make my first overseas skydiving trip in a year or two...

Chris -- wow, that's a very intersting situation. Thanks for taking the time to write about your situation and writing about what happened. Sorry I did not get to see you in Texas as planned, but we will meet at some skydiving event at some point in the not-too-distant-future! :-)

You sure? I always encounter mandatory jetway "surrender your large carryon bags or else" thing, on all the sub-100-seat regional jets that only have 3 seats abreast. Basically, they go under for this flight, then you get your carryon back when you disembark.

Funny -- I flew United and they never gave me a problem. But then again, I wear a gearbag backpack... Though I also carry a second backpack (laptop backpack) by its top carrying handle, and with the weightbelt I often carryon at the bottom of that second backpack (to keep my checked bag at 50lbs or less), I seem to be hitting 40-50 lbs of carryon total sometimes and avoiding extra fees. Shhhh! One carryon, one personal item -- as long as I'm not clumsy looking, they don't bat an eye... Biggest problem is when I try to board tiny regional jets that require jetway checkin of one of the bags, for that I surrender the bag with the rig, knowing I'll pick it up immediately when I disembark. Yes, that means I often haul 100lbs at the curb, for total carryon and checked. Yes, I get more interesting looks by the x-ray people for the weight belt. I just explain there's a weightlifting belt in there. I put my less unusual item (the parachute) on the conveyer belt, then try to space out it long enough that I can explain it's a parachute, before I finally put in the backpack with the weight belt. That way I'm not left explaining two unusual items at the same time. Basically: I sequence putting items on conveyer belt this way for fastest and easiest explanation: After the parachute, I put other stuff like shoes, wallet, laptop, blackberry, in conveyer belt trays, then finally the backpack with the weight belt, letting them know there's a weightlifting belt in that one. Fun stuff, with me travelling more often for bigway camps and invitationals lately.

Hello, As a new poster, I noticed you tried to add a poll to this posting. You probably misunderstood how it works: You don't need to enable the poll checkbox if you're just asking questions (essentially polling) inside your message -- it's only used when you want to create a separate "poll chart" (outside your message), like you see in this thread, for people to click on. Just a helpful tip. :-)

So to confirm, that's $35 per 10 minutes tunnel if a round is 1 minute each. (close to the $200/hour total quote I have been hearing) So it's you who's corresponding with Chris. Has Chris updated you that I would like 2 hours of 4-way if there's enough slots available? (I did 1.5 hours in one day, spread throughout the whole day, so I can handle it.) I don't want to step in any communications you already have with Chris...

I've automatically picked up my fallrate along with the rest of the base, in smallish ways (4-ways, 6-ways) where everyone else who wasn't docked yet was low, and the whole base decided to fall as fast as possible to catch up with them. Usually during mixed advanced/intermediate/novice loads. Mostly it was a matter of all of us automatically levelling with the leader who goaded the rest of the base to fall faster.

I think I'm 95% belly. I'm an up-and-coming bigway jumper now...

Hey, I continue to be impressed at your persistence in keeping up. You may be more stubborn than I am. For me, in trying to get better at bigways. Essentially trying to make it to 500-Way World Record on a limited budget by going to as many bigway camps and invitationals as I can afford! I'm now in 100-way camp league / 50-way invitational league -- still working my way up the ladder. My next event is the 40-way invitational Dec 27-30 at Z-Hills. The World Record typically requires jumpers be over 1000 jumps and I'll try to reach that by the time that event happens, but I figure if I jump bigways as my primary discipline...

Hello, As Skyventure Montreal is probably not going to be complete before March 2009, we still need our tunnel fix

One word: COOL!

Your assumption is correct. Though I'm surprised that a PD143R packs slightly larger than a Raven Micro 150. However, it does pack flatter (i.e. my rig seems ever slightly thinner at the top). It may also be how my primary jumps have changed recently too: Most of my openings are right at the end of a track away from a bigway (All my recent jumps were 6-ways through 102-ways), some with 2500 foot pulls. I do flare aggressively at the end of a track while waving right before the pull, and continue my flare boxman position after I pull. It seems to make me open softer, since the body flare right after a high speed track gives me a slight fallrate reduction. But these are precisely the times I don't want offheading openings! Fortunately, I get good distance and airspace after the vast majority of my tracks. (To OP, apologies for a minor thread hijack)

Funny you say this -- When I first got this Sabre, it was hard to figure out how to make it open, and I was messier in other aspects than I am now. Nontheless, this topic is about flaking portion of the packjob.

While a good option for domestic flights, that is often expensive for a flight from the UK. Even from Canada, flying to ONT often costs $300 more. To the point it's cheaper to pay for two $100 rides for the extra distance LAX is. For international arrivals, there's considerable savings going to LAX.

Firstly, three important things, that suggests a misinterpretation of my post: (1) Where did I use the word "sloppy"? (2) Someone else told me I pack too slow and carefully.

Clicky http://www.jagworksdesign.com/html/Para%20Manul%20opening%20page.htm