mdrejhon

This is easiest during bigway events (Perris P3 Big Way Camps), where you can often find someone to pair-up with a ride, or share a SuperShuttle.com ($100 plus about $8 per person, which makes it cheap if you have at least 4 people - $33 each). During non-events, it's definitely easieast to rent a car.

And the neater it is, the harder a Sabre opens. My Sabre seems to function best with a loose wrinkly flaking best -- not too overly neat. Some fast opening canopies seem to open better when not packed too neatly. Which is a shame, as I like to pack neat. No mals requiring cutaway yet. Hope I'm not jinxing myself. Knock on wood.

During bigway events, some of us are required to open at 2500'. Which means, some of us pull at 2500' and some have fully inflated canopies as low as 1500'. I try to pull just barely before 2500' so that I'm already in a deployment sequence at 2500', and have a fully inflated canopy between 2000-2500' with my reasonably-brisk-opening Sabre, though there were at least a few jumps where Altitrack tells me I'm fully inflated slightly below 2000' (and still higher than half of the canopies at that particular jump! And yes, they were all the outers that broke off at the same time as I did.) It is something that bigway events sometimes have to deal with, when you're an outer -- there's only so much airspace to cover even in a good track, after a 100way and bigger formation, especially if the bigway only has time to complete from only 14000 to 16000 feet. So 6-7Kfeet breakoffs with outers doing long-distance tracking towards 2500 feet pulls resulting in low deployments, very little time for EP -- at these pull altitudes there's no time to troubleshoot a high speed, so EP's are typically immediate.

Just back almost 30 bigway jumps in Spaceland, including some 30-ways and 60-ways! But don't think I'm in CSR -- I'm still a longshot after having only done my first 100-ways in September. Wish I could join that one! Maybe in 2010, or Men's World Record, as I plan to attend both May/Sept 2009 Perris 100-way camps... I'll be at the ZHills 40-way invitationals (Xmas boogie at Skydive City Dec 27-30) and 2 hours at a December tunnel camp at SVNH. (Perris Big Way Camp regulars will recognize me as the deaf Canadian.)

Ok, the debate is settled. The better half says inside-out, but this thread says outside-out Now we'll have to see if the 'jinx thing' is just plain old superstition.

I don't think this is necessary, but sometimes helpful for bigger canopies as after realising deep brakes the pressure within the canopy is less, thus lighter (initial) pressure on toggles[?] is needed. Not necessary but helpful. Also going on brakes (not deep) during approach give more flexibility (landing set up) - that what I would think of. You mean lighter (initial) pressure on the front risers? That's what I have been told, since my front riser pressure on my Sabre 170 is very intense. By going into brakes, releasing brakes (not too quick), and then grabbing the front risers while the canopy is diving. It's easier to pull down the front risers this way. (Double fronts here only -- no turns yet.)

Hello, For those going to halloween parties... Since jumpsuits often look unfamiliar to most whuffos, they often make really interesting costumes when done in variations. Skydiving jumpsuit go excellently with "spaceman" themes... These have been done already (by either myself or by others): - Wearing jumpsuit and wearing a lightsaber belt. - Wearing jumpsuit and wearing Martian antennas (once, even with green make-up) - Just Wearing jumpsuit - NAKED! No other clothes, no underwear. Drive the girls crazy when you tell them you can't touch the zipper. (or the boyz for that matter - whatever ballpark you are in -- you know) - Fishbowl helmet. - Jester cap (especially with freefly suits) Have you done or heard of any other variations of halloween costumes that involved a skydiving jumpsuit? Do tell!

Hello, Multiple free options available OPTION #1: Do text-to-speech through telephone relay services. I assume you're already familiar with making phone calls through IP-Relay? Have your friend go to www.ip-relay.com or www.relaycall.com and make a telephone call through the keyboard. This could even be done in person by having two telephones in the same room (even one cellphone and one mobile phone, or using a friend's cellphone). Although the telephones cost money, the relay service is free. Also, some of the relay services also works in PocketPC through AIM but your PocketPC would need an Internet connection. OPTION #2: Software for PocketPC. There are multiple options in a Google Search. One of the several is this one. Unfortunately, the model 3870 is probably too old to run any of the software. It's probably easier to get a $50 newer PocketPC off eBay (one that's a merely 4 year old machine instead of a 6 year old machine) just so you're able to run the software. I've seen very beautiful looking iPaq Model 2215's go for only $60 on eBay. (Despite its age, these units are still powerful enough to run Super Nintendo emulators -- I owned one of these several years ago) Make sure you get the correct model. For example, Pocket PC 2003 is capable of being upgraded to .NET 2.0 which is used by some applications. The money may potentially be paid by donated money or subsidy. Be very careful you don't end up buying a PocketPC that's too old to run the software. (there's PPC2000, PPC2003, PPC2003SE, Windows Mobile 5, Windows Mobile 6...etc ... Make sure you choose a brand of software that runs on PPC2003 for example, if you decide to get an old one (i.e. 1910, HX2100, 2215, 43XX etc). There are other devices that may do the job, like a Symbian based cellphone, etc, that might be cheaper to purchase. There are a surprising number of old gadgets that still can run lots of third party software...

Hey, that's pretty cool... I was just in Uruguay, and stopped at Punta del Este. (non-skydiving trip) I remember that beach, with the big hand sculpture poking out. Next time I go back, I better do it at the same time as the Punta del Este boogie.

Hello, It's time to wash one of my two jumpsuits... Washing the jumpsuit cold in cold water. The question is... is it going to jinx me? I hear this thing about it being a jinx, especially since I'm going to a bigway camp soon. And if I should proceed -- should it be washed outside-out or inside-out? (I think outside-out is better -- most of the dirt is outside, and I'd like to protect the stitchings on the inside of the jumpsuit). Making a $400 jumpsuit last as long as possible...

I'll second the Altitrack. It's a more expensive model, but it remembers what altitude you jumped at and how long your skydive was -- good stuff to enter into logbook. Very lightweight too (compared to an Altimaster Galaxy, my backup altimeter).

Seconded. I have winter jumped in Canada. Once I was freefalling in freezing temperatures from 7000 feet, and doing snow landings. Fun. I had four layers of clothing, all good, except for my hands keeping them warm which is always a challenge, since ski gloves don't have much traction on hackey's, and I tend to prefer the latex glove+RW glove combo. It's important to keep them warm on the flight up, so that there's a good store of bodyheat in the hands before exiting! I typically only do two skydives during these winter jump days. Sometimes it's just hop'n'pop. Watch the ground perception of snow, however -- and remember to know whether you're landing on hard snow versus soft snow.

Bump. Still looking! Otherwise, I'll have to rent a car all to myself at full cost Want even half of this money I would rather avoid spending?

This brings up a curiousity of mine: How is AFF modified to adapt for tunnel rats who may actually end up bellyflying better than their AFFI instructors? I imagine more focus will be made on safety and lifesaving aspects such as altitude awareness and practice pulls, since it'd probably be easy for the tunnelflyer to do everything else? I imagine release can be very early (such as during AFF2)

Oops -- you are right -- thanks for the correction. Yes, my friends, Liberal Conservative Party.

May I have the middle instead, please? (Eats an Oreo cookie.)

To the original poster... This brings up my negative experience with unexpected differences in brake slack... I got a Sabre 170, great landings at first. T hen when I got my Sabre 170 relined around jump #65 or 70 (or thereabout), I started having dodgy landings. It turned out that the factory recommended brake length had a fair bit of slack, I was starting my flare at the toggle stops, rather than at brake deflection. All canopies I jumped up to that point, had brake lines that were too short, which meant I learned nothing about tail deflection. Naively assumed that all flares always started at the toggle rings. As a result, I just began to flare useless brake line, so the net result was no flare followed by a sudden hard flare as I hit my 'flare band'. I still often stood up, but in dodgy ways, or I popped back upwards then down. I learned later, to start my pre-position my hands at tail deflection (the point where my brakes no longer has slack) when I'm landing for my flare. On a freshly brake-relined Sabre 170, this ended up being approximately 7 inches (the length between my thumb tip and pinky tip of my outstretched palm) of loose brake line. I landed just fine under a Sabre 230 in my progression off the Manta 288, it was equally as easy to land as Sabre 210, 190 and 170 and I could plane it out to a tip toe landing at jump 25 even though 230 puts it at a wingloading of approx 0.85 at the time. Even though its brakes were set slightly short (worn student canopy, probably shrunk lines). I really think that you should make sure you are able to land the bigger canopy, it's probably just a matter of brake settings. Remember to familiarize the flare band: The beginning of the flare band is not where the toggle stops are -- it is where the brakes start to deflect the tail (rear of the parachute). I made that student mistake of assuming the start of the flare always begin only at the toggle stops. Now I pre-position my hands where the brake lines becomes taut, even if it's 7 inches lower down below the toggle stops. Perfect landings, no matter what size of Sabre I land. I regularly fly my 170, I've landed all standard Sabre sizes between 150 and 230, they all land the same, just with slightly different flare bands and different speeds (smaller Sabre's being faster obviously). That said, I would agree I'd probably have felt the way you did: I felt safer under the non-relined Sabre 170 than after the lines of my Sabre 170 got replaced with new lines, because I wasn't familiar with the concept of a different start of the flare range. Now it's no problem. Talk to your instructor about "dynamic flares" and "flare bands". - Test flaring the canopy at high altitude. - Pull the brakes down until no longer feel slack. That's the begin of the flare band. (If there's no slack, your brakes are too short) - Pull the brakes down until the canopy stalls. That's the end of the flare band. (Sometimes it's beyond full arm extension, especially on big canopies. But that's OK, just use full arm extension as the end of your flare band) (Warning: Stalling can be dangerous: Make sure your instructor has briefed you in safe stall recovery) - Now practice your flares by flaring from start of the band to the end of the band -- the flare band is NOT necessarily from toggle stops to full arm extension; different canopies (even of the same size and model) may have their flare band in surprising start and stop positions. - This is on top of the dynamic flares that modern canopies require (also called 'multistage' or 'two-stage' flares by some people), the act of adjusting the flare so that you fly at zero vertical velocity just above the ground, to a pillowsoft landing. All of course, practiced well above 2000ft. Dynamic (multistage) flare is something to become very familiar with, along with the ability to adapt to a specific canopy's flare band. So you can adapt to any rental canopy you may need to rent while your gear is in for maintenance. (To OP) DONT DO THIS without instructor help though -- one can get hurt by not listening to instructor. You may wish to ask simple questions: "What is a flare band?" "On canopies with loose brake lines, where do I begin my flare?" Or even a more elaborate question "How do I adapt my flaring to different canopies that have less or more loose brake lines? Especially if I have to rent various different student canopies that might have differences in brake lines?" That might yield some pretty helpful answers -- so that you can land any reasonable-sized rental canopy safely, especially if waiting for your reserve repack, or cypres maintenance, or gear repair...

The center is shifting all the time, it's a balance between the left and the right. I think the voting process of a democracy is kind of what defines the center. If the people of a country, on average, wants to move further right, more people vote for what they think is the right-wing party. Or left-wing if wanting to move left. The losing party (more or less) gradually shifts slightly, to re-balance the center and try to regain a few lost votes on the next time around. It's a survival mechanism of any long-running political party, especially very obvious in any long running 2-party systems. Otherwise, the party eventually goes extinct or replaced by a different party that better pivots around the center. (Imagine the hypothetical scenario what would have happened if one of the U.S. parties stayed the same as 150 years ago. One party would have likely gone extinct eventually, since it would be no longer adapting to the evolving demands of the electorate) The pressures to win the vote, forces both parties to shift over time. In a two party system, one appears typically slightly to the left of center and one is slightly to the right of center. As it is being observed, even McCain is more left of Bush (even though it's debatable by how much). And Schwartzenegger, arguably more 'left' than an average Republician, successfully won California some years ago after the Gray Davis years. (Actually, I was working in Silicon Valley just shortly before it happened). Even though the U.S. presidency moved right (Clinton being replaced by Bush in 2000). So the center shifts around, and the center is different is in different parts of even the same country... Utah's definition of center would be very different from California's, even. The center fluctuates all the time - as the electorate changes, voting patterns, how the parties shifts and all. Tug of war. So there's no such thing as an 'absolute' center -- it'd be like saying the Sun is the absolute center of the Universe... All we know it's somewhere between left and right. Somewhat simplistic, I know. More good chat here too: One country's "right" is another country's "left"...

To put more knots in a tongue twister... In our country Canada, we had "Liberals" versus "Progressive Conservatives" for over a hundred years (Until 2003). In the U.S. at least in some contexts "progressive" is the same thing as "liberal" it would seem -- the word "progressive" is used in some contexts because "liberal" is sometimes derogatory in the U.S. Now after the Progressive Conservatives merged with the right-wing party Canadian Alliance, it's renamed to just plain simple 'ol Conservative Party.

Although I don't subscribe to that stereotype, more fuel for the fire: Some parts of Canada is more conservative in many aspects than some parts of U.S. -- compare say Alberta (Canada) to Massaschussetts (US) as one example (on average, anyway) Alberta is Canada's oil country. Texas North, in a manner of speaking.

I think you have that backwards. I may have a flawed understanding of U.S. history, but I think both of the answers are correct depending on interpretation of 'when' in history, and what aspect of liberal. Fiscally? Rights? Etc. History Interpretation: Wasn't the Democrats more conservative in certain ways than the Republicians in some eras in U.S. history? If IIRC, making slavery illegal was something the Republicians (Lincoln) did, and the Democrats opposed. Relative interpretation: Both parties are more liberal than they used to be, if we're comparing to 100 years ago.

I think it's complicated by whether not "linetwists" means "unlandable" Under a Velocity, if it's spinning, they definitely are. Spinning at 80mph vertical fallrate in uncontrollable linetwists -- that's going to be fatal if you try to land that. Under a low-aspect-ratio square canopy loaded at, say, 0.8 through 1.0, flying straight ahead, linetwists are landable with PLF with no injury. They are often easy to kick out in less than 100 to 200 feet altitude. BASE jumpers (while I am not one, I do know a few), often 0.7WL, have to be prepared to land in linetwists, if necessary. This option is certainly safer than a low cutaway. Just another monkey wrench to throw in this already controversial decision.

My first topicstarter in this corner, mind you -- U.S. versus Canadian politics. What I find interesting is that it is all relative: Our Conservative party is in, many ways, more 'liberal'/'socialist' than the U.S. Democrats (aka Barack Obama). Yet we don't view them or call them liberals or socialists. I asked a fellow Canadian working with a political party in Canada, and asked them if they viewed Obama as a socialist. They quickly said no, and some find it curious that many Americans view Obama as a socialist... One country's "right" is another country's "left"... Opinions? Go ahead and throw dynamite to this discussion -- but take it easy. Please.

This happened to my Altitrack. After the jump, I just modified the jump number in the Altitrack right after the hop-n-pop. Now my Altitrack has correct jump numbers for every skydive, the hop+pop just manifests itself as a missing entry in the Altitrack, when I scroll through its electronic log. I don't use Jumptrack (at this time), I use paper logbooks so I need to make sure the jump numbers correspond. The Altitrack manual tells you how to change your jump number, so you can resume jump numbers where it left off (such as when you borrow other altimeters instead of the Altitrack for a time, or when it doesn't log the jump).

Skydive Buranby is in Canada, 45 minutes from Niagara Falls. On a clear day, you can see the Falls, too. You have an excellent view of Lake Erie, and you could easily aim for the beach if you wanted to land 'out'. Among Canadian dropzones, I think it's a close running with BC dropzones (where you can see ocean, rockies, and Vancouver), as one of the most beautiful. I'll have to see for myself. After a bigway I did there, I just happened to tracked directly towards the lake, as a very long track. It was a long spot, and the beach was definitely within the range as the beach was almost directly below me. Ultimately, I just decided to follow a few jumpers down to a farm field, for easier pickup, though. Skydive Burnaby is the site of the last Canada's Record event. That said, I think the ocean dropzones probably takes the cake visually for me. Florida Keys, Hawaii, Belize, etc.. I'd love to jump one of those sometime.