hookncrater

No, the US Parachute Association, does not recognize tunnel time as counting towards any requirement. Can you become a better skydiver by flying in the tunnel, yes, but only the freefall part. You can't practice: exits, spotting, canopy flight, gear/safety checks, break-off, tracking, altitude awareness, emergency procedures, etc, etc... all of which is part of becoming a skydiver. I know someone will bitch and say you can track in a tunnel, but forward motion is not a maximum performance track, the likes of which is mandatory after a group jump. My $0.02, take it or leave it ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Skyventure Houston? I thought that got squashed. Anyway, I record tunnel-time in my skydiving log book, just so I don't have to keep an additional log. Plus I don't fly in tunnels that often anyway. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

my sunglasses are photoshopped ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Quite simply, those people are sheep. I did my own homework when I was a student, bought a couple of books including Dan Poynter's and Brian Germain's, talked to many instructors, not just mine, and did tons of reading on *gasp* dz.com. Blindly listening to people at the local dz for gear recommendations is probably why you still see people trying to freefly in old Dolphins with ragged out F-111 canopies. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

What Bill said basically sums up my view. A quick perusal of the "options" page of any manufacturer's website will show what can/can't be put on a rig. Plus, just about every student rig I have seen had a std PC. A lot of things can cause a PC-in-tow, not just a collapsed PC. I keep waiting for the "what if the kill line breaks?" comments to pop up since some people seem to think that the PC collapses instantaneously if the kill-line goes. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

If you don't want to use one, don't. No one forces anyone to use a kill-line PC just like no one forces anyone to use mini-risers w/mini-rings. By the same token, I've seen people who jump lightly loaded canopies still collapse their slider and pull it behind their head. No real benefit there other than not having it flapping. Also, if I'm not mistaken, companies such as Mirage will substitute a standard non-collapseable PC free of charge when you place your order if you so desire. How many PC-in-tow mals really happen? If someone's attention to detail is lacking so much that it is dangerous for them to jump a kill-line PC because they can't remember to cock it when they are packing, they probably have other issues as well. Flame away if you like. My $0.02 ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

You'll have to bend the frames to make them fit the contour of your face. You can then use a good elastic type band to keep them tight to your face and secure to your head. I also wear a helmet that further helps keep them in place. I mostly wear mine for H&Ps and haven't had any trouble with wind blowing up them, even at terminal. YMMV. I use Gatorz Batrays. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

That's just silly. Imagine this, you deploy... have a mal you think is a lineover which starts to spin, gently or otherwise and build up speed. Instead of just chopping and getting a nice new canopy overhead you decide to go for your hook knife and try to cut the line you think is the right one, remember you are still spinning towards the ground, perhaps even picking up speed without realizing it. You cut the line... oops, that didn't fix it, apparently a cell blew out during deployment when the line tore its way acress the topskin, and now you are l o w having spent more time sorting lines than you realized in the confusion. All the ways to get out of trouble you learned "reaseaching" and "studying" start rolling through your mind like "canopy transfer", "am I exceeding 78mph", "was that my first alarm or second I heard", etc... too late... here comes the ground... but don't worry you'll have plenty of time to think about it while you are lying in the hospital. Unless you don't trust your rigger, why not just chop it, and be done with it. Hook knives are for reserves or other catastrophic occasions. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

My $0.02 is that being good at RW and belly flying is not as important as the skills you learn along the way. To me, some of the most important are, in no particular order: Proper break-off procedures Proper tracking skills Awareness of others in freefall around you Maintaining altitude awareness while doing several things at once (maintaining fall rate, docking, etc) edit: These skills are applicable regardless of the type of flying you are doing. Good luck with the freeflying, get coaching... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

I've tried the Havok, I liked it, but prefered the Factory Diver. I own a Mindwarp though and love it. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Seriously bro, you are way overanalyzing your jumps. I'm not an instructor, but you need to take some deep breaths and relax. Oh yeah, get video... it takes most of the guess-work out of the debrief. My $0.02 ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

hook it low, flare late... see sig... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

The second pic one should be called "a chick with huge knockers" Well, I'm not a hot chick either, but I was thinking about going... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

buy a Vigil... get a funny hat... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

At a canopy control seminar I went to held by Dusty and TJ, they said they were loading 2.4ish for speed IIRC. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

I lost my Protec in freefall... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Get a Diablo!!! ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

I've got it on now... interesting... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Without video it is pretty much impossible to know what caused your spin. Breathe, relax, and arch. I'm willing to bet that the problem will fix itself on your next jump. Good luck. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Well, I'm not an instructor but I have jumped canopies loaded 0.73 and here is my take on them: 1. More susceptible to a bad spot since they have less drive into the wind. 2. Very high toggle and riser pressure, i.e. I wouldn't want to do a x-country jump at that loading since your arms would probably be too tired to flare when you made it back. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

1 riser strike to the cheek :6:0 I just love spinning towards the earth parallel with my canopy in line-twists. weeeeee... ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

I have never done any illegal drugs of any kind. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Dude, 1.2 on a reserve is not like 1.2 on a zp main. Reserves are even less responsive than the average student canopy like a Navigator. Loading your first reserve like that is pretty common these days. My first reserve was loaded at just under 1.2 as well. Now if it was something like a PD106R at 1.2 it would be a bigger deal, but if it's a PD160R or thereabouts at 1.2 it is less of an issue in my mind. My $0.02 ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

Ramming Speed - I think it's a 4-way CReW rotation team somewhere I jumped at in the past. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!

There are 3 CO dropzones, 2 in Canon City and Mile Hi. Mile-Hi has Eloy's Otter for the weekends and flies the King Air during the week unless there isn't enough people/tandems in which case they will use their C206. The weekends are very busy with tons of students and tandems usually. If the Otter is flying it's not a big deal, but if only the KA is flying, expect to wait quite a while to get a call. There are occasionally LOs organizing belly fliers if that's your thing. Canon's 2 DZs have a couple of C206s and a King Air which may or may not be flying I haven't been there for a while. The Caravan is gone. It wasn't very busy when I was there, but hey, they are primarily Cessna DZs after all. At MileHi you get 12.5k AGL which is just under 18k MSL, I have never seen anyone use O2. I also jumped there coming from a relatively low MSL DZ at the time and never had a problem personally. ________________________________________________________________________________ when in doubt... hook it!