jdfreefly

I have no problem with this statement. On my last three mals, had I been flying a more conservative canopy, I most likelywouldn't have had a cutaway. But I think, since this is coming from a newbie, the answers of gear maintenance, body position and packing are more appropriate. Methane Freefly - got stink?

manta pd 210 saber 190 saber 170 spectre 170 safire 149 crossfire 139 Jedi 135ish Crossfire 119 Crossfire2 119 velocity 111(whoops....ouch!) Crossfire2 119 ;) Methane Freefly - got stink?

I completely 100% disagree. That is the stupidest idea ever. How can an educated person think that is even remotely this side of ludicrous? Methane Freefly - got stink?

Case in point, a friend I have known for most of my life, who does not skydive, sent me an email with a link to this article. Knowing how upset I have been by this accident, he sent it as an attempt to cheer me up, saying, "From today's inquirer...pretty good article about Crosskeys." Methane Freefly - got stink?

I certainly wouldn't have a problem with this. If my dz set up a swoop and a non swoop area, I would abide by those rules. But this would only solve part of the problem. In my opinion, there still needs to be a patern, and more restraint on the part of the people who are choosing to do high performance landings. This is my current personal research project. I saw the crosskeys incident, and the only guess I can offer is that it was just too quick. Both of them were under sub 100 sq foot canopies and the time to impact was very small. Methane Freefly - got stink?

And you can dismiss my arguments all you want. I am not attempting to justify someone doing a radical high speed landing in traffic, mainly because I think it is irresponsible. Believe it or not, I do value your opinion, and the opinion of others who have posted here, it's why I read this forum. The young jumpers are this sports lifeblood, but the older ones are its heart. All I am trying to say, is that there has to be a better solution then saying, "BAN IT!". If you think my argument has no merit, so be it. Methane Freefly - got stink?

The landing area closest to the packing area is ALWAYS the most contested piece of airspace at the DZ. Regardless of who is vieing for that airspace, if you don't have confidence in their ability to not take you out, you should land elsewhere. I am a swooper, and yesterday I landed on the other side of the runway because I did not like the looks of the traffic I saw developing. I had a longer walk then normal, but it was worth it. The parachute was intended to make jumping from a plane that was going to crash survivable. With your line of thinking, skydiving shouldn't be a sport either. If that was the majority opinion of people in this sport, the sport would have long ago been regulated out of existence. I care because I don't ever want to see a fellow skydiver hurt. Wether it is a close friend, or the guy who forced me to abort my swoop and fly a straight in aproach because he was sashaying in the area I was about to fly thorugh. It saddens me to hear another skydiver have such an apathetic attitude towards something so serious. I understand that you have 23 years in the sport, and have probably burried more friends than I have, but that doesn't excuse your jadedness. It has always been dangerous to to exist in the air and on the ground. If you think it isn't you're fooling yourself. Following that line of logic, we should ban camera jumps, four-way, more than one group out of the same airplane....infact, we should just have one skydiver per load doing a hop and pop. That would be the ultimate in safety without actually banning skydiving all together. I agree that things need to change. Believe me, I have been agonizing over this for the past week, but I think when you start banning anything in this sport, it is a mistake. I don't ever want to watch another friend die, but regulating the sport back to where it was 10 years ago won't stop that from happening. Methane Freefly - got stink?

He did throw down some sweet no tension docks. On our first jump together, that was the first thing I noticed. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I remember that Eric. Things like that have been popping into my head for the past two days. Anyway, I upload two more photos of Sara. I also made it so people can view them without signing in. Sara & Ron Methane Freefly - got stink?

Ron was up from Z-hills for the summer and had quickly become a welcome regular at x-keys. Of the 100 jumps I've done since coming back from my accident, I would guess that 20-40 of them were with Ron. He was easily one of the most positive and encouraging skydivers I have ever jumped with. I keep picturing myself going low, struggling to stay with a head down four way, trying to dock on Ron. He looked over at me smiling and laughing, and flashed me the "L" sign with his hand. Ron had also become a regular in our no-limit hold'em games at night and during the weather holds. In his last days, Ron was supremely happy with his life. He was thrilled to be training with Yonatan and Sara. He was thrilled to be with us on fun jumps at Crosskeys. He was already starting to attempt to convince any one who would listen, to come down to Z-hills for the winter. He was also begining to talk about finding a way to make Crosskeys his summer home. Sara is a person who will always be very dear to me. She was a shining light of virtue and morality in a world where many of us live a life of excess. She was so excited about getting her ratings, and felt a special responsibilty as our only female tandem instructor. Sara and Yonatan have been a part of each others lives for a long time and she gushed with pride whenever she talked of his accomplishments. My grief is so heavy right now, I am having a lot of trouble feeling anything or thinking clearly. I anxiously await the day that I can think of either of these wonderful people, and not have the smile that their memory brings be followed by the tears. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Some pictures of Ron and Sara. I have another one of Sara to upload later on when I get home tonight. http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=n7ipc8i.blivdo2q&x=1&y=-5241zj Methane Freefly - got stink?

I was listening to his show one day and he was making light of the fact that the French military was having to call for reinforcements at the Ivory coast( I think that was where it was ). He was really laughing it up. He thought it was great. I am certainly not a French sympathizer. But you don't make light of people dying. Those people, whose deaths he was so joyfuly celebrating, are someones parents, brothers, sisters and loved ones. I used to think I got pissed off when people celebrated the deaths of our soldiers. Now I realize, I get pissed when people celebrate death. In that moment, I saw what he is. I have better things to do with my time then to spend it listening to a man who spreads hate. Methane Freefly - got stink?

I don't much care for radical liberal hollywood types. However, Glenn Beck is an evil turd on the shoe of humanity. I am a conservative, at least I used to be, so I am supposed to be a fan of people like Glenn Beck right?.....WRONG!!!! If I weren't so damn appathetic, I would start a campaign to get him removed from the airways here in Philadelphia. If he gets Redford to move to Ireland, I hope Glenn Beck goes with him. The country would certainly not miss either of them. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Things to think about when stitching up your toggles 1. First and foremost, will you be able to get your hands out of your toggles if you have a canopy collision. Once you sew them, practice yanking your hands out of them up high. If you can't get them out with one quick movement, IMO they are too tight. 2. Do you sometimes jump with gloves? If you do, this may not be the solution for you. 3. Do you lend people your gear? If you do, make sure they are aware of your mods. This goes for any self devised mods you make on your rig. 4. I like to demo canopies. Often when I do, I am jumping a riser and toggle setup not my own. If you plan to be doing a lot of jumps on different kinds of gear, you may want to wait to do something like this. I'm not against the idea at all, and I am infact thinking of trying it out myself. But I like to play devil's advocate. Another thing to think about, where do you wear your alti? I recently had my rigger make me a wrist strap so the alti sits atop my wrist joint, rather than on the back of my hand, where it interferes with the play of the toggle. Methane Freefly - got stink?

The only way I am going to that concert is if the spot at crosskeys is way off. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Sell it to them, but send them a box of kleenex, or a used condom or something creative like that. Methane Freefly - got stink?

My toggle drop was on a Velocity 111, so perhaps our situations were more different then I gave them credit for. Sounds like yours was more of an "oops" where as mine was more of a, "holy shit, how the hell am I going to survive this? Our father who art....." Try what I(and Jerm) said about using only two or three fingers in the dive loops. If you don't like it, you can try some new ways to hold the toggles. Personally, I would rather change the way I grab the dive loops. PS - that bit about having a more defined transition period was given to me from a former world champion of swooping, where as the stuff about only grabbing the dive loop with 2 or three fingers was something I came up with on my own...just an fyi Methane Freefly - got stink?

I did the exact same thing a year before you, to the day...the coincidence would be cooler if my mistake had not cost me 6 months with no skydiving! And I still don't walk right... I don't know that changing the way you hold the toggles is the solution. I think you may want to re-evaluate how you pull on the front risers, and also, the way you use those fronts. As far as the way you use them: You need to have a transitional period, where you are on neither your fronts nor your rears or toggles. When you allow yourself to be in a situation where you have to immediately transition from fronts to rears or brakes, you are decreasing an already narrow margin for error. I think we are going to see an increase in this, as low turn awareness increases and coming out of turns too high becomes the new problem. On how you hold things: I used 4 fingers through the toggle (with the toggle across the palm of my hand) and the same four fingers through the dive loops. Now, I still use the 4 finger thorugh the toggle, but I only put two fingers through the dive loops. If you are going to change the way you hold something, change the thing that is less vital to a safe landing. More info - At the time of losing the toggle, how high was the riser pressure? Did you release the fronts, or did the pressure get so high that they were basically ripped from your hands? Methane Freefly - got stink?

I love our flag, and all it symbolizes. I cringe when I see people desecrate it the way they do. I am so opposed to this ammendment, that I would rather burn our flag myself, in protest, then see this ammendment passed. The flag is a symbol of freedom. So we are going to remove freedom from the people, to protect the symbol of freedom? Have we all lost our minds? Methane Freefly - got stink?

I seem to remember hearing a story about a guy who did that and used one of those temp pins riggers use when packing a reserve. He used to stick the pin through the main closing loop....can anyone see where this is going? Yup! One day, he got to the dz in just enough time to make a load, which he did, and then had a total on his main. My question is, why do you want to ride to the dz on your motorcycle with just your rig on your back? Methane Freefly - got stink?

You should cross-post this in the history section.... Some of the old fogies that don't read here, may have the inside scoop on who the first person was to purposely dive their ram air parachute at the ground for the purpose of building speed for landing. And you really should try native sunglasses too. Methane Freefly - got stink?

Try these: http://www.nativeyewear.com/lowryder.htm Spend an extra $20 on the strap, and you have a great set of skydive friendly sunglasses. They have a lifetime waranty and are current sponsors of some skydivers I know. I used my set on 300 tandems. I am built similar to you, and I constantly sweat like a whore in church. They sell them at square 3 at Skydive Crosskeys, not sure where else you can get them. Methane Freefly - got stink?

If your not tied to the area, find a new dz. You would do much better at a place with a full time turbine anyway. Personally, I think it's crap that they are selling a handcam as a video. What the fuck is that? Methane Freefly - got stink?

Hey, no fair! I only got 4 camera jumps! I am totally short stacked here. Can I stall till Monday? Methane Freefly - got stink?

I'll see your head down, and raise you one head down bigway Methane Freefly - got stink?