SkymonkeyONE

Why don't we just save our money and come down the NEXT weekend, like we have already planned? Choice A: Halloween and no out -of-towners Choice B: Bytch Boogie with all the dropzone.com people Katie and I choose choice B. Chuck

You know how many Crossfire 2's I have seen (outside of Rantoul)? One. Steve-O was jumping one at ASC last winter. There are just not a lot of them around here. On the other hand, there are still quite a few Cobalt derivatives. What I see mostly, though, are PD Stilettos. It is till, by far, the most popular nine-cell performance canopy, at least at every dropzone I have ever visited. Chuck

Shimell gave some good advice. The bottom line here is there is absolutely no reason to race to smaller canopies with higher wingloads if you can't already FULLY exploit the canopy you currently have. Vanity kills....pure and simple in the realm of HP canopy flight. Jens, if you don't want to buy a crossbraced canopy, then why all the questions? If you are truly wanting to know what the difference in feel is, then see if you can get a demo in the same wingloading you are currently jumping. It's my guess that you won't like what you feel, but I might be completely wrong; everyone is different. I do know several people who jump the largest size performance mains, both "standard" and crossbraced, and neither of those guys dog their parachutes either, but "just had to have" them. Hey, whatever. Personally, I think if you are not going to put the canopy to the test, then you would be better off with a completely different tool for the job. A perfect example are my two canopies. I jump a Velocity 79 as my swoop main, but jump a Sabre2 97 as my wingsuit/ general purpose main. What the hell do I need to jump my Velo in a wingsuit for? I still swoop the piss out of that Sabre2, but it doesn't require ALL of my attention like my Velo does. Not sure if that makes any sense to you, but I think my point is that when I jump my Velocity, I am "turned on" completely and do everything in my power to wring every little sniblit of performance out of it; that's what it's designed for. Peace, Chuckie

That is a great question.

That is a good looking little mow wow.

Yo, Post Whore, give it a break.

OK, judging by your new numbers I am seeing that you have 300 jumps under an elliptical main. It looks like you have not really given yourself the opportunity to fully exploit any of the last three mains which you have owned. While I am not really too concerned about a 1.8 wingload, it is about two points above what most dropzones consider their maximum for your experience. Chuck

yes

Profile says just a bit more than 300. That said, I don't think the original poster has any business jumping a crossbraced canopy. For that matter, I don't think he has any business jumping any canopy at the wingload he states he is currently jumping. Call me a prude, but I still live by the adage that you ought to read the damn placard. You know, the one that says "don't jump this crossbraced canopy until you have 1000 jumps on an elliptical main." Chuck

Cheryl Whitford: still a ripcord Mike "Michigan" Sandberg: still a ripcord

I could not get it to play. Fortunately, I have already seen it.

Possibly because most guys don't know what that is. LOL, and you do?

26 percent.

he must be gone...I have not ridden in an Otter or Caravan that smelled of intense body odor in some time.

The way we here track distance travelled is to exit at a predetermined distance from the center of the dropzone; this measured by the GPS in the Otter. Once we open, we look straight down and note our position over the terrain below us. We then go over to our overhead picture and figure out how short or long we were in comparison to the middle of the dropzone. It helps that most guys here are military and we have a shitload of military MGRS maps to make absolute calculations if we so desire. Chuck

That's Scott last weekend. I believe it was the jump that LeRoy broke his tib-fib on. Am I right, LeRoy? Chuckie

There will be a lot of us there this Christmas. The Insane BirdMan Posse will rule that DZ; make no mistake. Chuck

Proving ground for what? How to run wingsuit classes? While there are a few people on that dropzone that fly wingsuits, none have a BM-I rating yet. Also, I am not sure that either of the two people there who jump wingsuits as something more than just a novelty, Ash and Gray, are going to be involved in that project. What's the ground truth? Chuck

Almost exactly one year ago a crowd of us met up in Cedartown, GA for the inaugural fall swoop meet. Every single one of us in the pro category got soaked in the 40 degree water at least once. It was the most miserable time I have ever had in my skydiving life, but the memories and stories about that meet will live on in infamy. Chuck

a 120 is a very large crossbraced canopy. If you are saying that you are contemplating trading a 120 standard canopy for a 120 crossbrace, then I hope your container has a LOT of free space in it. Crossbraced canopies pack substantially larger and at the same wingload will probably not show you any tangible performance gains. This, in my opinion, is a perfect example of buying a crossbraced canopy for all the wrong reasons. Still, it's your money, brother. As you are not downsizing at all, I can't give you any strong safety arguments that would get me to talk you out of it on that basis. Chuck

The original ParaPerformance Games had an aweful lot of "conventional" canopies in it. There are more than a few people that were and still are going over 270 under nine-cells. Eric Butts still absolutely blisters it under a CC. Ramon Rionda does well in competition under his as well. Chuck

I actually saw a link to one of those about two months ago. It was hidden in either the Maxim or FHM website.

Not true at all, Erk. 18-23 is what they take generally. I can't remember the last time I saw anyone over 23, but there have been quite a few cast members who are under 21, even on the series where they are in the USA. There are many instances where underage drinking is shown. It's pretty pathetic to admit, but I have seen almost every single episode of every season; not that I intentionally look for it. Chuck

Legalize and tax. Pay the consequences if you are caught driving impaired or being otherwise disorderly in public. Chuck

Odd, we didn't have problems like that back when I was in school. If you acted up you were going to get your ass worn out with the paddle.....period. Likewise, if you showed your ass at home, your parents wore your butt out with a switch. Fuck that "kindler and gentle" shit. Chuck