fergs

Jason, I psycho pack my Spectre and have done since it was new. I always split the nose and roll 3 cells from the outside in - so it ends up with two rolls of the nose - one either side of the centre cell. Openings are always the same - reasonably swift, yet soft, always on heading. Before I changed to a Spectre, I always packed my Sabre exactly the same. Two other benefits of psycho packing are ease of getting it into the deployment bag - plus speed. Enjoy your psycho pack jobs!! Blue Skies, fergs

... the red line that was connected to one of the risers cascaded into two with a ring on the end of each at the canopy end. Through each ring went the reefing line, which when the canopy was open then continued through the grommits in the "protection fabric" that was mid canopy - both top and bottom surface. So after opening, hawling down on the red line pyhsically pulled the reefing line down towards you. As soon as you saw the plastic tube thingy pop through one of the bottom surface grommits, you could let go of the red line. The tube thingy would then lock under the bottom surface. These days, it equates to collapsing the slider. But not seating the plastic tube would result in a possibility of the pilot chute inflating and, whilst towing the reefing line, literally collapse. Not an ideal situation. With the Strat, you'd have to unlock the plastic tube and feed it back to above grommit in top surface during packing. Or else you wouldn't be able to pull the long reefing line taught after the canopy was flaked and dressed. I always found the reefing line openings softer that subsequent slider openings. I'd typically pull in a full track with the reefing line deployment retardation system - without ever experiencing a hard opening. The first few pack jobs were a challenge, though. The manual assumed you'd seen a square parachute up close before and/or had a square owner nearby to coach. I had neither - and so did many pack versions - all of which could have been interpreted as correct by the manual (which may as well have been printed in a foreign language to me) before each of the first 4 or 5 jumps, before setting down to a version that was easy and logical as well as somewhat agereed with the manual. So that was 1976 - and now 12 or 13 main canopies later, I still remember my first Strato Star with smiles. Blue Skies, fergs

I'm an old stratostar jumper - even had a cat named after this fantastic (in its' day) canopy!!! My first strat was in 1976 - bought when I was jumping in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It was the first stratostar in the country - in fact the two jumpers who's had paraplane clouds had recently left the country - so mine arrived to be the only square parachute in PNG at that time. I hadn't jumped a square before this, so had some difficulties with the packing instructions .... "go from high point to high point ..." Man, what the heck was a high point?!!! Anyhow, after some trial and tribulations, I finally had it packed and was confident that it may indeed work. This included installing the tiny little container that it came with onto my harness. It was the original long lined ring-and-rope version. Different from previous squares in that the reefing rope came from the pilot chute, through a grommeted panel in the center of the top and botom surface, then around the edge of the lower surface through numerous metal rings. it opened a treat - always soft and on heading - usually with closed end cells. Some months later I was on vacation at Antioch in California - jumping in high winds and a fair bit of turbulence - yeah, you guessed it, canopy callopsed and I broke a femur. That was when we learned about such a thing as a "gust induced stall". Back in Australia a few months later I had the ropes-and-rings replaced with a slider - and the rest is history. My next strat was one of the, at the time, turbo charged models - short lines and slider from factory. From then I had a couple strato clouds (and another cat named same), then onward to other canopies of the day. I really loverd my stratostar. It was the cutting edge of its' time - extremely high performance - light - low packing volume - and other jumpers would watch with amazement. Pics attached are couple of the original, after the slider was installed. Aaaggghhh for those old days ... Bluie Skies, fergs

What an incredibly funny translation. Does this help anyone understand this incident? North OK, I’ve carefully studied the (poor) initial translation. Here’s my take on what the writer was trying to convey: “In a Moscow incident, jumper Serjey had an malfunction on his main canopy. Fearing imminent death he initiated emergency procedures, resulting in two canopies out, configured as a bi-plane. Serjey later commented that two canopies out are DEFINATELY BETTER than none.”

No. This is a picture posted there. (Incident waiting to happen?) I am so sorry everybody got so upset. I apologize. Daniel, Certainly no apolpgy necessary - as I believe I've may have found the translated Incident Report. So your post probably DOES belong here - as does the alleged picture of your most humble apology stance (which in itself may require some further explanation from you). " Moscow Press Clipped Story News: Parachute using faller jumping Serjey of Moscow birth heritage makes wings out two for latest paraclub bad lukcy incident not dead resulting. Before last week in Sunday, Serjeu attempt normal for not professional fun loving parajump. After he say of incident that primary broken wing biggest time and his death an imminent incident before only couple few seconds more. Best to make second smaller wing before incident become major. Serjey lucky he live now to tell story that two wings better than no wings or else biggest life incident become dead. "

Every time I think about my jump-bill. But it's not scared - it's terrified coz I know my wife will find out yet again. Worst at boogies - intense fear after buying 50 to 60 jump-tickets sends me straight to nearest bar. Blue Skies, fergs

Brian, I'm a dealer for BirdMan in Australia and would be happy to help out getting a couple demo canopies through the complexities of our Customs people for you. I know the Lotus would be a real hit here in Oz - and I'll commit to take on any headaches caused by our Customs Dept brothers. Blue Skies, fergs

I had my first balloon wingsuit jump a few months back. Great fun, aren't they?!! Found it an easy exit to take along a 4' ladder to easily climb up and then enable me to stand on the basket-top. Made for an easy step off. Anyhow, will you express post me the beer or fed-ex it? Let me know which so I can give appropriate delivery details, hahahaha. Blue Skies, fergbird

Pavel, Nice to see you here - we lost contact after the last UAQ boogie we were both at - and I think you changed your email address. I've left the Middel East and am living back in Australia now.These days I pretty well skydive only wingsuit (with Spectre, hahaha). Come visit. My home is your home. PM me your new contact details. Blue Skies, fergs

That's Picton, south of Sydney. And SkyVans are a great platform to step off when in a wingsuit. I also jumped a skyvan over Jeddah in Saudi Arabia a couple years back. They were display jumps as a part of the annual Jeddah Festival. Apart from me as the token expat, all the jumpers were saudi - a great bunch of guys. The following year at the Jeddah Festival we used tail-gate Kawasaki choppers - also lots of fun. Blue Skies, fergs

Yeah, the thread is called Who has the Best Suit??? Its in this wingsuit forum a couple pages back. Lots of pics to see of peoples colours. Enjoy. fergbird

Is that Antioch? fergs

Eero and Vesa, Many thanks from Australia!!! I have really enjoyed yout video - it's fantastic. Come visit us down here. Today was 35C - definately warmer than you folks are this time of the year. I spent all of last week on a beach - it's tough here in Oz. Blue Skies, fergbird

G'day, Here's a few events coming up at UAQ: There will be a group of skydivers there from the 10th of Jan for approx. 10 days and then a 2 week record attempt and training camp will take place from the 19 to 28 of April. Their new KingAir should be ready for jumping any time now. Blue Skies, fergs

Not really - Dubai is pretty moderate - but just dress a little conservatively, you won't have a problem. Will you be jumping? fergs

Alan, Until recently UAQ had been my home DZ - well at least for the past 6 years or so - I was living in Saudi. They have a Grand Caravan and a new KingAir just arrived. The jumpers are an international band of folks who jump as much as they can. The last 3 or 4 years had me driving za totaal of 2200 kms for a weekend's jumping. PM me and I'll get you in to their email-dump communication list/. That way you'll get weekly jump news and make contacts before you get there. There's a 2 star hotel at the end of the runway, making UAQ an easy place to jump and stay at. If you fly in to Dubai, you just need to pick up a rental car at the airport and drive to the DZ - only 45 minutes. Anyhow, we'll sort out all via email after you PM me. Your email address is important so I can arrange to drop it into their lists. Blue Skies, fergs

....and j-bird. f

Mate, you're a legend already - hope you can make it to Picton on Sunday - perhaps the weather will be kinder this week. We'll get the flock flying. fergs

Once again, the Ozflock grows. Adam, aka DogDogHowl made his first flight today - and then jumped his new GTi hard all day. When I left Picton to drive back to Canberra late in the afternoon, he was still going. His very first exit was awesome - really nailed it straight off the SkyVan ramp. So DogDog goes has gone through a metamorphisis and will now and evermore be: BIRDDOG Well done BirdDog - a hearty welcome to the flock. fergbird

Dog dog, well thank you for the award. I'd like to thank so many people, supporters, family, etc that I will have to sit and write a winning speach. Naturally I will commend the runners up for their almost winning entries. So watch this space. Oh, what about a seperate category for late entries? Blue Skies and Long Wingsuit Flights, fergbird

Dave, For years I've used scuba gloves in winter - they have thin leather on the palms and made of neoprene. They are fantastic - warm and still have lots of feel. Before I started using scuba gloves I found best option was from a saddlery shop - you know, where horse people buy stuff. There I found a few good types of both kid leather as well as nylon with little bumps (good for gripping) on the palms. Life is Great. Blue Skies, fergs

Since I returned home to Oz earlier in the year – only 2 hours 20 minutes. But prior to that my closest DZ was just north of Dubai. I was living in Saudi. So it was 1100 kms (660 miles) each way – including a border-crossing-from-hell each direction. Weekends in that part of the world are Thursday and Friday. So a weekend at the DZ started with departing from work Wednesday evening – driving through the night – border with immigration both sides plus customs inspection taking anything from 30 minutes to 3 hours – arriving the hotel by the DZ in the early hours of Thursday - power sleep for how ever many hours until 0800 hrs - jump all Thursday – obligatory food and beer session Thursday night til late – up to jump all Friday – depart late afternoon Friday – drive back with same border-crossing-from-hell on the way. I always made it a point of there being two of us to share the driving. Nevertheless they were certainly weekends that carried a certain amount of exhaustion by the time be got back home in the early hours, ready to go to the office in a few short hours. Total distance 2,200 kms or 1,320 miles. Total driving time usually 16 or so. Total border crossing time wasted usually between one and 4 hours. So it goes without saying that we jumped as much as possible – but sometimes aircraft problems or local skydivers arriving late gave additional frustrations. So now that I’m home, life has become a breeze as far as DZ proximity. Blue Skies, fergs

Perhaps a packing paddle would be a good tool for this? Tom, Aha - I knew this forum would come up with an improvement or three!!!! A packing paddle would be ideal. Blue Skies, fergbird

I like it!! We'll have to defer the decision to Adam, the judge, though - and let's wait for Julio to comment. Imagine the three of us on a flock together? We'd definately show up on the radar screen!!!! Blue Skies, fergbird

hahahaha, you forget that traditionally only gold medal winner does winning speach. Or are you suggesting that bronze and silver madals also give a speach? Oh, OK, write the speach then... fergs