chrismgtis

If anyone smoked while packing my rig they wouldn't ever pack my rig again. Never. Smoking or not. I would report them to the DZO and DZM both. I smoke myself and I've smoked in the hangar a few times, but several feet from the door on the concrete off the packing mat away from canopies while sitting in a chair near the side door. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Yea, really. I remember one jump I made when I picked up a student rig that had not been jumped that weekend and that itself made me nervous, since the rig had been sitting on the rack all week with no attention. I've packed my own rig plenty of times now and the one time I thought to myself that I probably shouldn't jump a specific pack job I made, I had a small malfunction. Don't jump if it doesn't feel right. If you get the slightest nervous feeling about the rig you're about to jump, pick one up that you feel better about or get a repack/inspection. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I don't care what anyone tells you. Whether they have 50 or 10,000 jumps. It's better to do a tandem first. There is so much sensory overload on the first several jumps you make. Not to mention you could panic if you have never experienced a sky dive. It is best to have some idea of what you are about to experience. You could be the biggest baddest toughest strongest person on this Earth or the weakest nerdiest pansy and when it comes down to making the jump and landing safely, the tough guy is no more likely to even get out of the airplane than the pansy. You just have no idea of how one person will react to the situation and a little panic could kill you. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Really? I'm headed up there sometime soon. I'll have to have a talk with those guys. Just kidding. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

And heres me thinking when i started jumping i'd avoid the straight laced PC world Do you have the sim under your pillow? Well, would you rather take the chance of the sport suffering because a few under 18s wanted to jump out of an airplane? We have plenty of time left in our lives to enjoy the sport from the age of 18 and on. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Probably the easiest way to think about it is filling up a balloon with air, then let loose of the end just a tiny bit to release some air. That's basically what the Eustachian tubes are doing. You could release your grip on the balloon as much as you want, but your Eustachian tubes will only open slightly. If you have a hole in the balloon it could release the air very easily. So yea definitely, a hole in your ear pretty much eliminates the need to equalize air pressure. You just don't want to go scuba diving with a hole in your ear. I wouldn't exactly suggest skydiving with one unless it's a condition you have had a long time that you know is not going to heal. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Yea, age doesn't determine maturity. Definitely not. The legal age for alcohol consumption is 21 in the United States, but the fact is in my view, that plenty of 16 year olds can drink more responsibly than a lot of middle aged drinkers I've seen. As you said, the age limit needs to be 18 for legal reasons. I'm highly against under 18 jumping because of this. Not to say that I like to see anyone get hurt, but if a 16 year old could jump, get killed and not effect the sport, then that is his or her prerogative. Unfortunately, it could. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Ditto.

That isn't even the point. What makes you think you are mature enough at 16 or 17? You have to set the limit somewhere and 18 is the best place to start. Otherwise it's like saying the speed limit should be 65 instead of 60. If it's 60, 99% of people are going to do 65 anyway and push the limit by 5 miles and plenty will push it to 10-15 higher than the posted limit. If we change it to 65, they will still do the exact same. So whats the point of adding 5mph? The limit has to be somewhere. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I just thought I would say Hell Yea, because this tunnel is being built 3 hours away. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I've got a 175 Triathlon. When I got it, it had about 50 jumps on it. It's just as slippery now with about another 25 or so jumps on it. It's definitely a pain. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

The age should stay 18. What makes you think you are mature enough at 17? Besides, it offers protection to drop zones. The legal age for many things by law is 18, so due to that alone it should be 18. That said, it's not that much longer. A year goes by pretty fast. Do yourself a favor and don't rush life. Sooner or later you will wish you took it slow. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

You can read it on the Pop Sci. website too. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Weird. I checked for a post on this earlier and it didn't show in general so I submitted one. Now it's gone. Alrighty then. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Haha, that's funny. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Exactly. I know. 9/10 of what everyone is saying I realized after landing the reserve and thinking about what had happened. It probably could have been avoided, but at the same time, I'm glad it happened. I learned a lot from that experience. I'm not one of those people that make a mistake and don't learn from it. I'm one of those skydivers that makes everything a learning experience and gets more serious due to what I experience. Like someone said I didn't think to look at the brakes, because again I was so occupied with trying to figure out what was going on with the canopy itself instead of below that. Or, I may have looked and don't remember that. I don't care about losing a handle. I was more worried about where my canopy was after I landed, but not when I cut away. That's the last thing I cared about at the time. I just new I had spent too much time under a canopy that wasn't working correctly and went for the reserve. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

As far as I know I did pull the cutaway handle all the way. It's possible that I didn't. Even more possibly so since the handle was still there when I got on the ground. Another lesson learned there. A few people mentioned the tension knot malfunction possibility. I haven't had a chance to look at the rig thoroughly myself and will have it inspected when I get my new AAD installed (mine expires next month). Now that you say that I'm 99% sure that is what happened. To be honest I never did. I was too preoccupied with straightening the canopy out with the rear risers and looking up at the canopy to figure out what was going on. Again, a lesson learned. I should have done that just to see if it fixed the mal.

This weekend on jump 60 I had a small low speed spinning malfunction. Initially, one or two cells weren't inflated entirely which I saw as soon as I looked up. I pulled on the left riser to get the canopy straight and try to inflate the cells. That worked. I let go of the left riser and was back in a spin. At the same time the slider didn't come all the way down. It stopped a foot or two from where it should have been and came all the way down a few seconds later. At this point it's been maybe 4 seconds from opening. I did one more quick check on my canopy while pulling the left riser again to get the canopy straight while I'm trying to determine what is going on. I look up and think I see what may be a line over (I thought I could see a line through the fabric of the canopy), but afterwards I realized that couldn't have been the case cause the canopy was perfectly square. After straightening the canopy about 3 times and not knowing what was causing the malfunction I stopped and thought to myself "Ok, if I try to land this with one brake down and the other up, when I flare I might slam myself into the ground.... no thanks..... oh well it was going to happen sooner or later.....damnit.." and pulled the cutaway handle. Now, here is where I made a mistake. I pulled the cutaway handle and not the reserve handle. As soon as I pulled the cutaway handle I felt myself drop what felt like a few feet, looked up and saw the left riser hanging there. I knew the RSL was attached and something in my mind wanted to see it disconnect. About 2 seconds later it did and the reserve was out so fast I don't even remember dropping again. 1. Do not trash pack and jump your canopy unless you want a reserve ride. 2. Pull your reserve handle. The RSL might not work. 3. If you have a spinning malfunction, look at the brakes and see if they are stowed and release them both. I was preoccupied with straightening out the spin and forgot to unstow the brakes. Hell, we all know better. I have always known better, but I still did it. I'm glad it happened though. I learned a lot from that incident. It went from "damnit" to "oh that was fun", so I'm comfortable with cutaways now and I know plenty of what to do and what not to do when you have a malfunction. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

Congrats. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I know. Nevermind. Most people of course not, but tandem photographers or anyone that does free fall videography for example wouldn't insert a new tape every time they go up. What I was asking is actually very technical and I guess I'm asking the wrong people I just wanted an opinion from people who used MiniDV often out of curiosity. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

That isn't what I meant though. You can take an MP3, AVI, MOV or other digital audio or video file, transfer it as many times as you want across mediums such as hard drives, CD, networks, etc and the quality will remain the same. The minute you transfer it to something like a MiniDV (or definitely a standard audio or VHS cassette tape) it can lose massive amounts of quality. Whether or not this happens noticeably on a MiniDV is what I'm wondering. It would obviously occur if the MiniDV was used for a long period of time, sure...the tape itself would degrade (from being used so often), but the question is would this happen if you transferred a HD quality file over to a brand new MiniDV (quality loss you can notice with the naked eye - not because the type of compression or other changes, but due to the type of physical medium used)? I would guess not really, but I'm curious. I guess if you did notice any difference it would mainly be on some of the better televisions that you would see the difference. Hopefully what I'm asking makes sense That sucks. Good to know though. Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan

I know, was just looking for a few examples of what most people use.

I fly canopy more than freefall because I pull high so often. I'm as comfortable under canopy as I am walking back to the hangar.

Um. "Ouch, that hurt. When is the next load going up?" Realistically... 1. Ouch. 2. Can I make another jump today? I've never gotten hurt that bad, but if I did it would probably continue with these thoughts: 3. Damnit, how soon can I jump again doctor? 3 months? Ah. 2 months, gotcha. 4. How many jumps is this going to cost me? Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan