azureriders

I have a spectre 230 that is way out of trim, a good bit more than what you described, and if anything it opens slower then it used to. I get a surging stall on about 1 in 5 openings but nothing ever hard, no matter who packs it. I have to constantly remind packers not to be trying to slow it down.

umm, excuse me, we actually say "thank you ma'am" for the blow job

They ask me: slot and pack, then they can deal with the editing staff for getting the work off my tape and/or card. I go for fun then they want the work: slot, then they can deal with the editing staff for getting the work off my tape and/or card. In either event, if they prefer that I do the editing, that starts at one addtional slot to use later, depending on what they want, and I will have the product the following week. I do not have editing equipment at the DZ.

That is exactly how I pack. Works great for me.

If uspa didn't exist, skydivers would form another national organization. The most insightful post in this thread. , yeah, really helps the intent of the OP Yeah, after posting I thought someone may take it that way. This thread has brought up some great conversation about what the USPA does and does not do. Maybe made some people realize what their membership has/has not done for them, so good job to the OP. However, for a straight forward point blank answer to the question as it was worded, Kallend was right on, IMO of course.

If uspa didn't exist, skydivers would form another national organization. The most insightful post in this thread.

You should always dress for success, but with that in mind dont think that jeans can never have a place in a good jump suit, they can. The suit in the enclosed pic is one that I made when I had about 50 jumps myself. After a couple mods and around 400 jumps later it is still flying strong. The top I made from scratch of a tanish grey denim, about the same weight as jeans, maybe a little heavier. The bottom I made from a pair of jeans and the arm grips from the legs of an older pair of jeans. I put quiet a bit of work into the jeans, with grips, knee pads, and velcro cuffs, but still less than making them from scratch. I currently have plans to make two more of these suits. One top made of a lighter fabric, but with more room, the other a camera top. One bottom with more of a bloused free fly style leg, and one with booties. I am sorry I dont have any usefull info about adding a pair of removable booties to jeans, but as cheap as jeans are, why not just put them on permenatly, and buy a spair pair. Keep in mind that denim is more pourous than polly cotton and falls very slow, but at your weight you should be able to take advantage of that, even if only for your 'slow' suit. Forgive the photoshop work on the pic, but being that you have your lady in mind, I thought it a fitting picture to include mine.

Thanks, that is what I needed to hear

Exactly, so I am still curious, if I shoot in SD with an HC5, how will the quality compare to a PC1000 or a HC96, or others. I am familiar with the PC1000, the only thing I really know about the HC96 is that is the newest thing on Sony's SD miniDV page. Thanks, your help is always greatly appreciated

My PC330 just went down and I am reduced to my back up, a PC9, so it is time to spend some money I guess. I shoot mostly tandems and we have a full time editing staff that is using an older linear system, none of this will probably change anytime soon so this is what I want to focus on. I am not looking to pinch pennys on this one, I just want what is going to give me the best picture quality for my situation. My thoughts, although I am open to others, are PC1000, HC96, HC5. Will the HC5 shoot much better video while shooting in SD than other SD cameras? I plan to upgrade to HD when the time is here, but it is not here for me yet. I am sure that by that time there will be something new out there, but if an HD camera will give me the best SD video for now, then I am all for it. I am side mounting at the time, but have plans to go top mount, if this is the time then so be it, if not, that is good too, I am really all about picture quality for now. Thanks in advance and sorry for another 'what camera' thread, but I wanted some input on my exact situation.

1. How many lbs/tons of rock to do I buy...(hmm...I've never bought rock myself...I don't really know how you order it...weight, truck load, ???) As stated in my previous post, you would need 8 trucks carrying 12 cu yds each. Of course this is based on the resources I have available to me. Most gravel in bulk is sold to the end user by the yard, or truck load, and you will need ~90 cu yds for this project. Most gravel in this bulk is sold to the end user by the yard, or truck load. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 2. Assuming we're going to pick it up ourselves, in a full-sized long bed pick up, how many truck loads? Or, is it more practical to have it delivered? You do not pick up gravel in a pick up, not for a job this size, it is no where close to practical, have it delivered. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> 3. How many skydivers, equipped with shovels, will it take to shovel out the truck (assuming we do it ourselves), calculating the amount of rock to shovel, and the average amount of work that one skydiver, working for free, is capable of doing If the gravel was dropped in piles, you would need a tractor, or a whole lot of elbow grease. However, you should be able to get the drivers to ‘tail gate’ their payload. By this I mean they would only crack open the tail gate and drive slowly back and forth where you want the gravel, spreading it as it falls slowly from the truck. Delivery drivers are a lot like skydivers here, a six pack each should do the trick. Once the gravel has been tail gated, you and couple friends should have no problem raking it out in an after noon or two. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> (erring on the smaller side is fine, to save $$ and it's really not for regulation competitions, just to try to get our jumpers to be able to hit a target)...I need to know the following If this is the case, why not go with a 10 meter diameter, which is the accuracy requirement for the pro rating. And I still say that 9” deep would be sufficient. A 10 meter diameter and 9 inches thick would take 23 cubic yards of gravel, or two trucks carrying 12 cubic yards each or about $1200 in my area. For 1.5 ft thick, double those numbers. One other point I would like to add. It has been said that digging a hole will cause twisted ankles when landing on the edge, I agree, but gravel has a tendency to run and spread on its own if it is not contained. If you do not want your gravel mixing with your grass, you are going to need a hole. Why not a hole with tapered edges? The attachment shows my suggestion. This pit I could dig, spread the dirt else where if you need it, and spread the rocks in it in a day. A Landscape contractor in your area should be willing to do the same for around $600. Then the rocks and the liner.

Ok, I have never built a Pea Pit before, but I am a residential contractor and work with foundations, fill dirt, fill sand, fill gravel all the time. 7 meters * 3.25 = 22.75 ft ^2 = 517.5625 sq ft * 3.1415 = 1626 sq ft = surface area, in square feet, of a 7 meter radius Pea Pit 1626 sq ft * 1.5 ft = 2439 cu ft / 27 = 90.3 cu yds = volume of said Pea Pit in, cubic yards, with depth of 1.5 ft. This does not include any imperfections in your digging, or how accurately the trucks are loaded. So, in my area and with resources available here, I would budget 8 - 12yd trucks of pea gravel, which I can get for $600 per truck for a pea gravel budget of $4800. Again, I have never built a Pea Pit, but I would argue that the gravel only need to be a couple inches deeper than the deepest divot ones knee would make on landing. I would think about 9" would be sufficient. If so, the numbers would drop to 45 cu yds, or 4 - 12yd trucks, and $2400 for pea gravel.

Sounds like you were stalling the canopy. The Fusion has a pretty smooth entry to stall characteristic for a 9 cell compared to many other canopies.

Most canopies are mushy in deep brakes. ... much better than the canopies that stall violently in deep brakes. Come to think of it, skydiving schools and accuracy competitors cheerfully pay top dollar for canopies that are mushy in deep brakes ... mind you accuracy competitors prefer wing loadings in the 0.7 pounds per square foot range. >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Fair enough. Maybe mushy was not the word I was looking for but I did not like the way the fusion flew in deep breaks. It would veer and hunt for a direction, one way then another, so you had to constantly correct it. Then when you wanted it to turn, it was not very responsive. Of course at the time I was flying a spectre, so maybe I was biased to good slow flight. However, I did wind up with a safire, instead of the fusion, and it also flys much better in breaks than the fusion did.

Only have a few demo jumps on a fusion 190ish at about 1.3 : 1. Slider was bit overly prone to sticking up, never had a problem pumping it down with breaks or rears though. Also found it to be mushy in deep breaks, really did not like that. Other than that it flew ok and landed fine.

The door was open, I fell out, after that, I couldn't think of any thing better to do.

Man, how many people have you known that are so well rounded, and yet so well liked in all facets of life. Dale was a skydiver; more specifically a free flyer, swooper, and base jumper; private pilot, electrician, home builder, mariner and fisherman, Christian and Teacher of gods word. WOW, that’s all I know to say. I will share a story I heard him tell, from his pilot days. He was flying into some busy airport, ran by military type, forgive me for knowing the air port or whether it was actually military. He was talking to the control tower and they rambled off some directions, Dale would mimic them as best he could in a very fast voice. Dale asked for a repeat and again he got a very fast paced garbled voice, again dale would mimic them. So Dale, in his best Mississippi red neck slow, I mean slow, voice, called back to them "I - am - from - miss - is - sip - pi - and - I -list - en - just - like - I – talk-k-k" The tower keyed up and dale said he could hear laughter in the back ground as the directions where repeated again, this time loud, clear, and slow. I have heard him tell this story at least a half dozen times and I laughed so hard it hurt each time. Dale, you will be missed; often, with longevity, and by many Again, my condolences to his family.

I always go over RSL routing with my coach students, as required for the A, but I agree, it is not often discussed enough. I also jump both my rigs with an installed but disconnected and stowed RSL. This serves two purposes, one, after I have shown them a gear check on thier rig, then they do a gear check on mine, and oh, did you catch that, and also, if a novice jumper is looking to buy gear and wants to demo mine, I hook it back up for him to jump.

As long as you made it back, i could deserve no more than one "bad"

>Sony VRD-MC3 nice, but looks as if it only burns DVD's, NOT CD's, that sucks for me

ok, Bigun says let it go and I am not arguing, so I will find something else to laugh at them about. From thier home page: 702-SKY-DIVE (759-3483) 800-U-SKYDIVE (875-9348) first number looks ok, but the second? 800-U-S K Y D I V E ----- 8 7 5 9 3 4 8 ? False advertisment will always be a part of any market where the customers know almost nothing about the product, dosn't make it right, but it is the facts.

>Your profile says 15 jumps and yours says 1 jump. who are you to be giving this guy advice, and in 11 years, boy thats current let me tell you. hahaha, looking forward to seeing you this weekend, and to answer you IM, yes we are going to be open Monday. Mods, sorry about the BS, but Brad has been deployed for the last few months and coming home this weekend, he needs someone to give him a hard time.

Ditto, I have been looking all day over the net, finding nothing that impresses me. In my case CF to CD would be fine, although DVD would be nice. So let us know.

Have you ever been to a party and some guy just seemed to be bouncing off the walls, giving everyone there the laugh of their life, just an all around life of the party? Then you look over to the guy next to and say "boy, looks like he has had a few to many" and the reply you get: "nope, not a one, come to think of it, I don’t even think he drinks" That guy, the life of the party who just seemed to be that way naturally, that was Dale, and he will be missed! Both at the party, and in the sky. Our condolences to his family.

If you knew you were going to die of old age, would you stop living?