dragon2

Had that happen to me a couple times. Fixed it temporarily with an elastic band diagonally over each legstrap buckle. But I had my rigger double the legstrap webbing to fix it for good. A better solution would probably be to replace both buckles but for the $$$ (well €€€ in my case). ciel bleu, Saskia

Also, you may not be allowed to jump a fullface helmet yet, or an audible. Same goes for colored goggles. Depends on the DZ/instructor. Ask! ciel bleu, Saskia

Don't know about shops in Belgium, but in Holland you can for instance go to The Parachute Case (Teuge, Apeldoorn) or Caroline Suits (Rotterdam). For international shopping, look around on the internet! There's a whole bunch (Square1, Paragear, ....) but keep in mind the added costs (credit card charges, shipping, taxes and duties). In Holland add 24% to the total billing amount (including shipping). Don't know for Belgium. ciel bleu, Saskia

Quade, When I'm (finally) allowed to go camera jumping, I'll be jumping a Lightning 126, and either a Spectre 135 or a Safire 135. Would the Spectre be much better? I'm looking to sell on of my mains so I can pay for the Lightning, and I've got an offer from somebody who wants to do BM with the Spectre. OTO my Safire has been BM'ed too and the guy loved it (jumps a Stiletto 107 normally). I'm still doubting which one to sell; the Safire is fun to fly, it's a bit smaller too, but I simply love 7 cells... And following CReW isn't much fun (or rather, too much!) with a 9-cell... But I like the WL on the Safire just a tad better. Would a Spectre at 1.14 or the Safire at 1.22 make a really big difference..? ciel bleu, Saskia

No way.... But for some reason I don't esp. mind landing Lightnings, although I always seem to have 10 cm of air left after my flare, so after lots of jumps in a row I might feel my ankles a little bit, but definitely no biggie. I've only flown a Lightning 143 (ZP), WL 1,1 and the 126 WL 1,25 (without weights, 1,3 with weights). I wouldn't mind a bigger Lightning, or even a 113 (no way am I allowed THAT tho). Don't know why people have difficulty landing them?? If I can do it, well, how hard can it be Only trouble I have is when I'm jumping my Safire after a couple of Lightning jumps: shutdown flare instead of a bit of a surf.... Too bad I probably should start using my fronts tho, but I've never done that before. I could use a bit of extra speed. I also usually fly a very very conservative student pattern. Although last weekend I got ' forced' into a landing pattern that was low, for my taste (the guy on the top of our 2-stack didn't let go, turned us around a couple of times real hard, then let go of me at < 1000 ft); ended up in the middle of the team, I either had to follow their pattern or fly straight and land downwind on the grass. Flew their pattern, but in brakes. Let the canopy fly for like 2 secs, flared, then landed in the peas. Stood it up, too, somewhat my surprise But was glad it was the peas... ciel bleu, Saskia

Also great this weekend: our Midsummers Night Party!!! For pics, see http://www.proton.org/~dragon2/chutes23/index.html ciel bleu, Saskia

Did both those things! Actually, the weight I think helped me land better (gives me a bit more speed = better flare. I land straight in with no front riser input - yet). The links didn't make much difference in landing (only have 3 jumps with those on so far, all in high winds). ciel bleu, Saskia

Ahh Are they just really big or are they jumpin real small canopies. (i didnt think a CReW canopy came much smaller than 150?) Adi Edit - ive just looked on the PD site + they make a 126. There are also Lightnings 113. Although these guys are jumping Comp Tri's 120 and 99, and some of them wear lead. I'm jumping a 126 right now, with a bit of lead if needed, but if I wanted a WL of 1.9 I'd have to jump a 99 and wear 13 kg of lead.... Yeah, right.... Alternative: eat a lot of burgers?????!!!! Heh heh ciel bleu, Saskia

Yep did that too. I used the entire space allowed. Get´s a bit confusing I think... ciel bleu, Saskia

Yesterday the forums didn´t work, I got the following error (which changed to another message later but I didn´t save that one): A fatal error has occurred: Failed to execute query: 'SELECT * FROM forum_User ORDER BY user_registered DESC LIMIT 5' Reason: Can't open file: 'forum_User.MYI'. (errno: 145) at GForum::Stats::new_users line 123, line 27. Please enable debugging in setup for more details. OK The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request. Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@dropzone.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error. More information about this error may be available in the server error log. I tried to send a mail to the email address mentioned, but it bounced: I'm afraid I wasn't able to deliver your message to 'dropzone.com-webmaster@dropzone.com'. Reason: Could not find a user to deliver the message to. ciel bleu, Saskia

On the home page, if I want to see the results of the 'Would you support a BSR regulating wing load based on license numbers?' poll, it gives me the results of the 'Have you ever made a jump with no altimeter or audible?' poll instead. ciel bleu, Saskia

The best I've heard. Words to live by on any jump! So true. I´ve just recently started using weights (4 kg). I´m ok with that on a lightning 126 (it´s for WL purposes, obviously). If I want to jump with weights in freefall tho, I´d be ok with my spectre 135 or safire 135, but with my 128 sqft reserve... dunno. I´m already loading it at ~1.2..... The reserve in the CreW rig BTW is 175 sqft. ciel bleu, Saskia

I learned that doing 5 CReW jumps from 12k in one day is pretty tiring, especially if you don´t fly right (had to keep up with a team who´s WL is ~1.9), and that it pays off to open up *somebody elses* bag of tricks instead of trying to hang in your frontrisers for 9k. Oh yeah and I learned that I actually might be able to learn to fly HD.... Way cool! ciel bleu, Saskia

We only go to 12k, which means everybody starts putting on gloves etc at about 9 or 10k. Moving and checking handles is usually a bit higher. ciel bleu, Saskia

For some reason their website is now www.matterclothing.com ciel bleu, Saskia

Or somewhat-forward-but-mostly-headdown movement . I've only got 2 pantz jumps so far: The first one was a low hop. Did a hanging-from-strut exit then went into a track agressively and almost went headdown as a result. Didn't have much time to experiment further that jump. I rather felt like the one time I put those inflatible swimming wing thingies for kids on my ankels instead of my arms..... blub Next jump was from 12k, exited delta, slowly went into a track, meep meep......!! Wow.....! But you have to compensate with your upper body a lot. Did a sit for the last bit of the jump, since the legs inflate they create a lot of drag, more then my FF pants so I probably didn't go very fast, but it was definitely doable. ciel bleu, Saskia

Not turns on all axes, ie flips and cartwheels? That's what's in the freefly instructional video of Babylon, as required moves before progressing. ciel bleu, Saskia

Nah don't mean it CAUSES a downplane. Only I happened to have a downplane, so I had to cut away. The RSL is a potential snag point/hangup point for the main to stay stuck on, which you don't want. Anyway I didn't disconnect it, and the main flew away just fine. ciel bleu, Saskia

If you have time, unhook it if you have 2 out and you need to cutaway (because of a downplane). Side note, I didn't, cutaway went just fine anyway, but I didn't know to unhook my RSL back then. Before you jump, disconnect it if you're going to jump a camera (still not really sure about that one myself but seems the consensus), if you're going to do (intentional ) CReW, or if you'll be jumping a board. Or if you're going to jump a HP napkin . ciel bleu, Saskia

Ditto. Even tho it may be hard for the people closely involved, I still don't think a forced waiting period is a good thing. Discussing/reading discussion about an accident makes me feel somebody is doing something to prevent a like accident in the future (does that make sense?). Although too wild speculation isn't really helpful, in my opinion. ciel bleu, Saskia

I have an Atom 00, AFAIK it has held a (brand new) Spectre 150, a sabre 135, a merit 170 (the merit is half F111 half zepo, it's successor the Electra is too so packs smaller), a Spectre 135, a Safire2 145 and now it hold a Safire 135. The Spectre 150 was okay, except I personally wasn't really okay packing a new zepo canopy at 75 jumps. But the packers said it wasn't a problem. The Safire2 145 demo was also newish and a bit of a problem for me, but the packers got that done as well. I suppose thet since the silhouette is also half F111 a 150 would fit as well. Another 7 cell (synergy, omni, omega, triathlon) would also probably work fine. ciel bleu, Saskia

For me the preferred type of toggles and risers depend on what I'm doing: for CReW I like dive blocks (easy to grab quickly, no potential hangup problem) & velcro toggles (so I can stick m back if I need my hands free for a while), for anything else (ie my own canopy) I like velcroless toggles (less wear on steering lines) and diving loops (easy to hold for a while). I probably wouldn't mind riser blocks on my own main tho, but the risers might be harder to re-sell cause everybody here has loops. And since blocks're thicker I suppose my riser covers close more neatly with loops. ciel bleu, Saskia

[replyI once watched half a dozen people turn very low and land in the opposite direction, into other jumpers that were landing, because the tetrahedron at Quincy swung 180 in light winds. Quote I liked what I saw at Empuria: the tetrahedron (is that the metal turning T thing?) was chained down in light winds, in an appropriate direction (the landing field there is a large grass strip right next to the runway, so there's 2 prefered landing directions; along the long sides). ciel bleu, Saskia

You sure the limit could be that high? Over here (Holland) you pay tax if the tax amount is over €10 (or something simirlarly low). Ie not really a limit. I was stuck paying 19% over both my canopy and shipping and handling costs and then 4% over that. Costs me a bundle but still about €200 cheaper then buying the canopy over here.... I didn't have anybody ready to sneak the canopy in, that time. Will definitely arrange something, next time...... ciel bleu, Saskia

I've jumped out of: Cessna 182/206/208 Caravan/208 Grand Caravan, Pilatus Porter, Twin Otter, Fokker 60, Antonov and a Let. No tailgate or balloon or chopper yet, all on my wishlist! I think every plane has its advantages/disadvantages: I sit really cramped in the porter but it's quick and the door's big, the twin otters are definitely great, but there's a lot of canopies in the air at the same time, I like hanging from the strut of a 182 but it takes it sweet time, the biplane (antonov) was cool but it was also really really slow, the fokker is definitely way way cool(fast!!!). But our own plane is the best of course: cessna grand caravan. ciel bleu, Saskia