hjumper33

Stick with well known brands like Suunto. I love mine, and wear it every single day in addition to skydiving and base jumps and have found it very accurate. I think I paid about $160 for mine, and its way more accurate for canopy flight than an analog alti.

Anyone know something to search for to find a relatively cheap top mount aka flat lock style 2 piece? I know I have seen many generic style mounts that are much cheaper than a cookie or goldmemeber.

I had a photoprinter until I realized that it was waaaaay cheaper to just send in the digital photos to walmart or walgreens. Youll have them back in an hour, usually less, and the quality is perfect.

If you are thinking another spectre, it might be a little loose. I had a katana 120 packed in my J-1 which is basically the next size up, ie rated for a 150 max. It was a little loose and didnt look the best, but I would definately say it was "safe" to jump IMO.

any recommended player besides quicktime. Ive tried to watch this on a mac and a pc and both times it starts stuttering after a couple of minutes and then freezes

Ill prance around in fluroscent pink if someone will just tell me where I can get a bonehead mindwarp topper!

Well its obviously asthetic too, and the choices are flat black or stainless, so if a random flashlight is swinging around, one is way more likely to reflect back than the other. When you are climbing around in shadows, black is pretty nice, once i jump im not too concerned. That gunshot crack and gigantic canopy above my head will give me away before the hardware and topper do.

I have a weird thing about shiny metal on my base jumps, especially that large of a chunk, and the topper just seems more smoothly integrated, and asthetically pleasing. I even have blacked out hardware on my rig.

Unfortunately I dont have the money for that kind of setup, and just want to modify my current sidemount windward for some base video action. Theres got to be an ex jumper out there somewhere with an old topmount.

I should be able to make it out on Sat, and im trying to convince my buddy Jay and his new S3 to join the flock as well. Dinner however looks to be too rich for my blood, in already about 80K in the hole, and cant afford to develop a taste for the finer things in life.

I talked to bonehead, and unfortunately they dont make them anymore, or know anyone who still has them in stock. Does anyone have one laying around theyd be willing to sell, or know a shop with on still sitting in the diplay case?

Ive heard of a couple people having wing blowouts on prodigys, whether this is misrigging or just bad luck I dont know, but I think if it was my first WS jump, that would panic me at least a little. I think the classic and gti are great for FJCs (not having flown a PF product besides a V2)

From reputation I know you as an incredibly skilled wingsuit pilot, coach, and in general skydiver. I wasnt questioning your course, I just wondered if it was common place for an instructor to do a non wingsuit jump with their student first, or this was something people did kind of as they though was neccesary, as you alluded to.

Does anyone know where I can find a carbon fiber bonehead topper? I dont see them on their website, are they out of production?

Out of curiosity, do you jump with your students before you put them into the wingsuit for the first time?

I really like the idea of competence over experience. Like the tunnel instructor who was not allowed to freefly at a dz because he had less than 100 jumps, but something like 200+ hours of tunnel time. Just as less than 100 jumps does not make you a retard, 500 jumps does not make you a god. You want to do something, prove to the man in charge that you can do it. When you demo a smaller canopy, PD calls your S&TA, they dont say, oh you have 500 jumps, you must be bad ass, do whatever you want. There are exceptions to all rules, but have an independent reliable source evaluate if you are ready to bend some of the minimums. I did my wingsuiting a bit early, but had the best and most thorough training available. Never say, this doesnt apply to me because im..... Look at your own skills, make a decision, then have someone way better look at your skills, and have them help you come to a fully informed and competent decision. Minimums can help you understand that an activity is dangerous, but meeting them wont always keep you from dying.

How many instructors out there jump with their students before the FWSC to see how they fly? My instructor, whom the vast majority of you know as an incredibly skilled instructor and WS pilot, does a tracking jump with the student as a part of the course, practicing all parts of the flight from exit to practice pulls and deployment sequence. I think this is an awesome idea, because it is certainly true that for every sub 200 jump guy who is built to fly a wingsuit, there are a couple of 500+ jumpers who are technically allowed to just try one out on their own, and could really hurt themselves or someone else. If you teach a FJC, its probably a good idea to do a few non wingsuit jumps with that person first, reguardless of experience.

Skyknights is in East Troy WI. Very nice DZ, PAC is only there during the summer to my knowledge.

Skydive Tahoe opened up not too long ago, im sure you can find a rigger up there.

Hahahaha nice response ed. I absolutely love the little kid talking in that video. Yah, ive gotten more tame in my old age, and the katana does have hard housings. Ill probably jump it with the wingsuit at the Byron boogie. Nick jumps with a velo 96 loaded at like 2.3, but I dont think hes done more than a handful of wingsuit jumps since hes started jumping it.

Yup, the katana has a much longer recovery arc than the crossfire, which put me into a bit of a corner last weekend. Little bit of a skinned knee from an unintentional superman, but otherwise, very luckily, walked away unscathed.

What part of california?

Im flying a XF2 129 and a Katana 120 at the moment, and I must say that I prefer the XF for everyday use. If you are looking to swoop, the katana is definately built for that purpose, and as I learned this weekend, itll eat your ass quick if you dont fly it with some additional respect. For your purpose, id go with the XF, especially for the camera fliers sake on openings. Ive slam packed my XF many times and always had just beautiful openings, while the katana seems, if not more pack sensitive, very much more body position sensitive. If you all like to swoop, katana is probably better. Then again, I have 10x more jumps on the XF2 than the KA, and the KA spun the hell out of me on one jump, so I could be biased.

Me and a friend took him out for an awesome last set of jumps in norcal sunday night, and it sounded like skybytch was helping plan a fun route to the east coast. Whatever he winds up doing, im sure he'll do awesome.

Depends where you are ground launching and what your goals are. Sabres are good canopies to launch as long as its in decent shape. At that wingloading, you might get dragged around in high winds and it will float around a bit, but I know several people that launch early sabres and like them just fine.