MarkM

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Everything posted by MarkM

  1. MarkM
    It made the loop much harder(smaller) to grab and my hand tended to slide over the tab when I was feeling for the loop. Also when you do grab it you have to pull it down(against the velcro) and then out. You can't peel and pull. I say "partly" to blame, because it was my last jump of the day and I've been working myself tired getting ready for the Keys boogie. I just didn't have the strength to pull it down and out when I finally did get a partial grab onto it. I also could've sworn someone else reported a hard pull with the wing cables on a PHI recently, to the point where the person tore off the tab covering the handle. No offense taken and you're likely right. I balled up very quickly but was still spinning fairly wildly after a holding it a bit. My frame of mind was "well fuck this" and I went for chopping the wings. I wasn't in the mood to play anymore
  2. MarkM
    Stupid question, but do the other suits have the tab covering the wing cutaway handle velcro area like the PHI does? I never noticed anything like that before on the GTI I jumped last May and today on my PHI I got in an unrecoverable flatspin and couldn't cutaway partly because the the stupid things. Luckily I pack like shit, so when I dumped my opening was pretty normal for me But those tabs are going bye bye.
  3. MarkM
    First you have to determine when, and if, there's going to be an overpopulation problem. Unlike animals, humans produce resources, not just consume them. And if humans didn't produce more than they consumed we wouldn't have progressed past a hunting and gathering society. The lower class has to generate excess to feed the upper classes in an advanced society, Food is grown by humans, farm land is created by humans, metals recycled and pulled from the ground. Electricity generated(people build the plants). And while there are hard limits to some resources(only so much oil and metal in the ground), you can often find replacements(plastics and bio-fuel).
  4. MarkM
    Okay, this reply to the blog was hilarious
  5. MarkM
    ...or else he just happens to have a different body type, where the problem isn't as pronounced. I can completely crawl out of my Mirage with every strap tightened down rock solid, but not everyone can do that. It depends on your body type.
  6. MarkM
    Bill Booth, inventor of the 3-ring and owner of RWS thinks you should. It is well known that dirty cutaway cables contribute to hard cutaways and risers that have taken a 'set' are slower to release (think bag lock). When you're talking about risers taknig a 'set', do you mean user's should be flexing their 3 ring webbing?
  7. MarkM

    Ft. Lauderdale

    MarkM replied to davelepka's topic in The Bonfire

    I've lived in Fort Lauderdale for the last 5 years. Feel free to shoot me a PM with any questions you might have.
  8. MarkM
    All the USPA can do is suspend ratings, because there are no laws being broken. Any whuffo can go out and buy a couple rigs, rent a plane and teach a first jump course without having ever made a single jump himself if he wants to. There's nothing the USPA could do about it, because no one has to be a member of the USPA to skydive in the US. And the FAA doesn't rate skydivers, they rate the gear and the planes. And frankly a DZ not being a USPA member isn't a big deal at all for the dropzone either. Skydive America dropped their USPA membership over some issues and it didn't hurt their business any. So the USPA can hardly hang the spectre of losing USPA membership over a DZ's head. They can either work with the DZ as best as they can to try to improve things or totally shut them out with zero chance of the dropzone improving at all.
  9. MarkM
    Yeah you can stall your canopy. Do a hop and pop, grab a couple extra feet of brake line above both toggles and pull real hard. You can even make your canopy collapse back into itself. Do the above in a turn with just one toggle might be more, uh, interesting. Haven't tried that yet, think I'll pass on it too as I only have 1 hook knife on my rig and a manuever like that might require 2 or 3 of them
  10. MarkM
    Can we still bring our own booze? I promise I'll bring enough tequila for everyone. I never bring any of my stash to Sebastian, because I'm afraid I'll put Tiffany out of business. But I like watching skydivers all hopped up on quality tequila. It's my second hobby
  11. MarkM
    Just curious but, how long were you doing 90's before going to 180's? Do you think you would've had this problem if you were doing a 90 instead of a 180?
  12. MarkM
    They don't have radio com with the plane? They don't have ANY AAD on the student rigs??? What does this mean? They putting all the students out under 300's, or are they using 170's on first time jump students? What kind of deployment system are they using, exactly?? What are they doing to violate this? This one might piss off the FAA, actually.
  13. MarkM
    Can you do full altitude hop and pops at your dropzone? Getting out there and flying the crap out of your canopy while at a safe cutaway altitude is a great teacher. And being under canopy at 13k gives you lot's of breathing room to see what you can and can't do under your canopy.
  14. MarkM
    I think this depends a lot on the boogie. How many people are going to be in the sky under canopy at once? How big is the landing area? How are the outs? Other than that, I've always found that noobs are welcome at boogies. There's always someone to jump with. See if they'll have free camping, and if they do, do they have showers and so on. Otherwise you can share a hotel room with someone or some places can rent you a place to crash for pretty cheap. Oh and yeah, people DO just party all night, roll into their tents, crack it open at dawn, roll out and hit the planes
  15. MarkM
    Yeah, and she's a much better actress.
  16. MarkM
    If you want to spend a couple seconds uselessly pulling and stowing a handle that does nothing once your reserve is already out(if your RSL beat you), feel free too. But don't say because I don't do that that I'm not following my EPs. My EPs are to cutaway, get out my reserve, check canopy, spot, and fly to a safe LZ. Getting out my reserve always entails reaching for the handle, but I'm not gonna waste seconds pulling the thing if the reserve gets out before my fingers touch metal. I'll move on to the next chain of my EP.
  17. MarkM
    That's pretty much how I saw the ad. Another interpretation: 1> See an ad. 2> Incite the mob. 3> Grab the torches. 4> (best Monty Python voice) Burn the witch.
  18. MarkM
    I think that's the ZP material sticking together
  19. MarkM
    c. Say the beer's cost $1. First bet, Paul loses so he owes Bob $1 for beer. Paul goes double or nothing. If he loses, he'll owe $2 in beer. If he wins, he owes nothing. He won, so he owes nothing.
  20. MarkM
    http://www.buddi-buoy.co.za/ Used to be another wrist mount called a aquaboy or something, but it's no longer sold in the US. Probably safest to stick to the big old horse collars
  21. MarkM
    An instructor will be able to show you the proper technique. But at one point I started doing all my pattern turns as brake turns. I figured if I did them all the time, I'd automatically do it that way when I really needed to do it.
  22. MarkM
    I don't see where they're restricting it to one package. If anyone wants to work with the Neptune, I'd imagine you just need to talk to the right people. Personally if I was running Alti, my first instinct wouldn't be to open up an API to the type of person who's going to run to an internet forum and complain, rather than contact me and discuss the issue. As for paralog, I don't use it simply because the Neptune support isn't available under Linux. They offered to give me a free license if I wanted to try to get it to work under Linux, but I really didn't have the time to tinker with it. Even so, I thought that was a really fair offer from them. These companies are very reasonable to work with, you just have to be reasonable with them.
  23. MarkM
    You don't get dopamine playing golf. I'm sure the sport would still be popular, but there'd be different people in it. If you love to fly but don't want the risk, take up soaring in hang gliding. The trip to altitude costs 15-35, and lasts a whole lot longer. The gear is cheaper too.
  24. MarkM

    Phi

    MarkM replied to Basjkall's topic in Wing Suit Flying

    Well, I tested the PHI's durability over the weekend. I got dragged across the tarmac in it and it held up like a champ. I got road rash on my knee through the suit and all the suit got was a very small 1-2mm hole on the knee. The fabric is pretty tough and some stitching that got dragged across the asphalt also held up very well.
  25. MarkM
    One thing I would always worry about if people didn't wear their seat belts is cargo shift during an emergency. Pilot banks or climbs suddenly, people slide around, throws off the CG of the plane...