hackish

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content

    1,669

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by hackish

  1. hackish
    I assume the floats are completely symmetrical. Or is that incorrect? If so then why would the RH wing not stall at the same point and need this 18" stall bar? I'm no pilot but I am always curious about these things that fly (or don't). -Michael
  2. hackish
    Which car should you buy? Go test drive each. Which dropzone should you use? Go visit each and see which you prefer. -Michael
  3. hackish
    I got the altitrack. Very comfortable and easy to read, also has a nice digital feature so you can review everything from fall rate to deployment altitude. I ran it through almost 300 jumps and 2 years and it was still showing full batteries just before it was stolen. It's something you will use every jump so spend the money on a good one. -Michael
  4. hackish

    question

    hackish replied to bullin82's topic in Gear and Rigging

    I started out with Poynter I then Poynter II, read each cover to cover at least twice. While one might say a lot of the stuff covered in Poynter I is old and obsolete I found it very helpful because it gave a lot of insight into why things were done the way they are as well as knowing what has already been tried, what worked and what didn't. Couple that with an old crusty RE who taught our course - he was able to communicate many of the historical things to the class as a whole, things I had already learned the basics and history of in the Poynter manual. All the history and background really helped above the blank stares of my peers. It's no substitute for 20 years of experience but it will help. -Michael
  5. hackish
    When I looked at the attachment the first word out of my mouth was "holy snag hazard!". You might be able to creatively mitigate that risk by making the fin really floppy and shorten the tail slightly... -Michael
  6. hackish
    Just wondering where the residents of Paris France go to jump? Any recommendations? I will need to rent gear. -Michael
  7. hackish
    I'm packing a sunpath javelin j9. I though I remembered that there was a rig with a service bulletin that moved the AAD cutter from the bottom of the pack to the top. I thought it was the javelin but I scoured their website and couldn't find it. Does anyone know which rig I may be thinking of? -Michael
  8. hackish
    I never realized how easy it was to break into a civic - no slimjim required. I was puzzling over how they'd gotten in and such and a customer demonstrated it to me. In about 10 seconds it was inside my other honda. Now I just need to fight insurance to get another rig. -Michael
  9. hackish
    I got out at 160-180kts once and it was brisk. I think normal cruise speed on an airliner is somewhere around 600-800kts. That's a number of times faster - no way you could do that with your normal exit position. The only thing I can think of is to cannonball out and stay like that for 10-15 seconds. I hope the thieves who took my car & rig decide it would be cool to jump from a building and "parachute to the ground". I wonder what they'd think of as they're going in? -Michael
  10. hackish
    Since a reserve generally deploys in about 300 feet the observation that your reserve came out at 10' above the ground seems to be quite understandable. I don't quite understand why you're disappointed in a device that may have in fact activated the way it is published to work. I am interested to hear about the 96' difference in firing times. -Michael
  11. hackish
    When I get an AAD I get it to keep it. Short of the rig getting stolen the AAD is entirely portable. I think you will find the depreciation on a Vigil is the same or less than a cypres. -Michael
  12. hackish
    It was actually carefully worded to express exactly the meaning I wanted. Meeting the minimum jump requirements is only one of the criteria. From talking to enough tandem examiners I know they definitely don't give those ratings away. Pick a goal and work hard for it - that's my way. It's discouraging if you end up back at the starting line through no fault of your own. -Michael
  13. hackish
    Unfortunately the altitrack went missing with the car. I suppose anyone at my DZ would be more than happy to sign such an entry but fast forward another 1-2 years when I do 200 more jumps I might have some trouble convincing a tandem examiner that I have the proper number of prerequisite jumps. This is my main concern. -Michael
  14. hackish

    PD160R

    hackish posted a stolen item in Reserve Canopies

    Reserve has 2 patches on the top near the tail.
  15. hackish

    Vector 3

    hackish posted a stolen item in Containers

    Container was one of the few made with coloured piping on the back. Reserve handle was custom swaged and the handle itself was gold plated. PC was purple in colour and the risers were also modified by Pablo at UPT with some padded dive loops.
  16. hackish

    Altitrack

    hackish posted a stolen item in Altimeters

    Altitrack in ft. Had my name and email address scratched in the exterior as well as inside on the battery plate.
  17. hackish

    Vigil 2

    hackish posted a stolen item in Aads

  18. hackish
    Having had a day to reflect on things, even though the paper record was lost, my experience remains intact. It's just "stuff" and can be replaced - life goes on and I can still jump. The difficult point is that I was nearly 200 jumps away from being able to meet the minimum jump requirements for a tandem rating. If this means starting over and having to do 300 more jumps on top of the 200 remaining, I don't know if it's something I will continue to pursue. -Michael
  19. hackish
    This evening my car was stolen from SkyVenture Montreal. It had all my equipment in the back. That`s all stuff and hopefully I can get my house insurance to cover it. The real question now is that I had all my criteria for my B license completed. How do I prove that? How do I prove the 286 jumps I`ve accumulated so far? Not like you happen to keep a backup copy of your logbook anywhere... Hell I think my rigger seal might even have been there. I will know for sure when I can get back to Ottawa. I`ve been working very hard toward getting my B & C licenses so in a year or two I could do my tandem rating. What now? Do all those jumps just go in the garbage? -Michael
  20. hackish
    Would be nice to have a better description of the toggle input and suggestions on dealing with the canopy beginning to deform because of turbulence. In my experience the canopy bucks pretty fast and I can't picture what his suggestion is - if we're supposed to stab the brakes every time you feel a jolt or what. Brian, can you add anything to this? -Michael
  21. hackish
    I'm 180 without gear. If I recall correctly the fall rate on that jump was about 120-122. I've had a few comments that I should look for another suit. I wanted to learn camera and this suit was free but really I've got no idea. -Michael
  22. hackish
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5tOafoghsAc Nothing really remarkable in the video as the camera flyer was trying a new suit and just wanted to work on a fixed target. So I watched the video of myself to see what I could pick apart and work on. I think adjustments could be made smoother, but something doesn't seem quite right about my arm / shoulder placement. With the posture is it just the crap suit I've got or something wrong in the upper body? In the past I've had a lot of trouble driving forward to get into position. Whatever I'm doing now seems to be working. The day previous I spent an hour in the tunnel so I was a little sore on this jump. I'd appreciate any comments, suggestions or criticism. BTW lucky sucker hole. We happened to look down and there was the spot. It had clouded over on the ride up. -Michael
  23. hackish
    Given the chance for problems during deployment, maybe you could come up with a streamer that hooks to a D line and anchors to your slider. Attach it after deployment and since it's anchored by the slider it would not ride up the lines and could be detached should it cause a controlability problem.
  24. hackish
    The holes are about 3/32 in diameter. I hope it's not threaded. I spent about an hour trying to time this machine and I think I've given up. There is no possible way for the needle to pass near the bobbin housing. The needle either collides with part of the bobbin or the bottom of the feed dog. I've tried every orientation possible. My rigger B is really busy but I'll have to coax him over with some beer or something :) At worse I'll try to take some good photos - maybe the bobbin assembly is broken. -Michael
  25. hackish
    That presser foot is for doing upholstry. It does come with a variety of different feet. I just left it as-is but will definitely have to play with the assortment of parts. All great info. I spent my afternoon visiting a few sewing machine repair places. Nothing useful there except that I bought some oil and by accident it was exactly the stuff you suggested - white in colour and veggie based. The comments I got were mostly like "that thing has no use in a home and belongs in a t-shirt factory" or "sorry that's an industrial machine I don't even know where you'd take that". Apparently the local sewing repair folks aren't so friendly to an old clunker like this :) What impact does aligning the needle closer to the hook? Just for a more reliable pickup avoiding skipped stitches? Since I've been saying for so long "sure I'll make that when I get a machine" I guess I'm just going to have to get this beast running! -Michael