likestojump

ZPX is a type of material, not a canopy model. containers are sized to the main/reserve combo harnesses are sized to the person, majorly depending on the height. best knowledge comes from reading and talking to competent people WHO YOU KNOW (not random internet folks), not from posting.

Good question. Just like all your other ones. You will get as many opinions as there will be replies to this thread. containers have nothing to do with your weight. They have very little to do with your height either. Pretty much all the mainstream modern container are designed with freelying in mind.

he got some wrong advice on the internet forums, and ended up getting injured.

How do you actually out climb the terrain which is a slope and is steadily going down (like in 0:37)? you don't outclimb. you outGLIDE - in other words if you are coming in at angle X, you flatten out your glide and thus pass OVER the ledge. Aren't they flying beside the mountain, meaning if they think they're gonna get screwed soon, they just turn to the other side and fly away from the mountain? in a perfect world with perfect people - MAYBE. What about jumping from exit points that provide consistently positive terrain, and where you need to fly your WS well (enough) and far in order to open up and get to your landing area ? What do you think the speed in a WS is, that gives one enough time to realize that "they are gonna gew screwed soon" and make a corrective action ? check this out : http://broadbandsports.com/node/21927 think this is somewhere where you can afford to fly all balls with no safety margin ?

Everything has a value, regardless or condition and age. But due diligence is part of selling things. Please do yours by surfing the forums and the classifieds section and figuring out what the going rate for gear is. Of course you can be like many others and post your 1979 Wonderhog with a 5 cell swift reserve and a cruiselite in the Classifieds under the title "Great Beginner gear" and ask $1500 for it. And we will all have a laugh at it. your call..

Sangi, proximity flying is quite often done with a suit de-tuned - so if you find yourself a bit low, you have the ability to "pull up" and not impact. Flying at the edge of the performance envelope is suicidal in many of the proximity fylygin sites. so proximity flying is quite NOT the way to find the suits best performance. sorry dude, you loose. stop writing your nonsense..

Just this weekend I jumped the Optimum 126 4 times, and then Manta 288 twice. all were on target landings. it's done all the time. think of the tandem masters flying shit hot pocket rockets for personal rigs, and then big tandem truck canopies for "work"

people(s) this is an automated process with some conglomerate of assholes mass posting to any forums / sales venues they have in their web crawler. they send you a "check". they ask for a "refund". The very few unfortunate ones that send the "refund" are fucked. those usually originate in countries where law can be bought for the price of a Starbucks coffee, so it's safer and much easier to be smart about it. Trust me, those "people" could care less what you email them, it's all copy and paste with them. in other words save your strengths, you'll never catch them, the opportunity costs are just too high.

if someone weights 285lbs, any amount of proper skydiving gear will put them way past 300 lbs exit weight (jumper + gear)

your question is a bit unclear, very crude stats based on your numbers are one death in every 88000 jumps, which gives the probability of .0000114% on a single jump. Naturally, the chances of you being next to such jumper on a single jump are even smaller. Of course, going with the skydiving tradition, your real chances are 50%. You either will be next to such a person, or you won't.

wrong - between nearly identical canopies that would not impact "how floaty" they were. It would only impact the forward speed relative to the ground. the OP was obviously jumping completely different canopies, and as such they have different flight characteristics. They may also use different measuring methods which could make them more like 30sq ft apart :)

I agree with you Bill. All I was saying that older/more vintage does not automatically mean less safe.

Peace of mind from what? If it's not the safety of the older gear that you question then what is it? Fashion? Style? I feel like people are purposely trying to not see my point here and disagree with me. For me, myself, it doesn't have to be exactly 7 years it could be 10, but for me, I would rather buy the newer rig because chances are, its younger, had less owners, less jumps(usually), less pack jobs, newer material etc, and of course newer gear could have more jumps on it, but that is why I wouldn't blindly buy gear either, or buy gear that has no history, like a rough jump count, reserve uses and packs etc... I would rather not be the person to be jumping that 20 year old rig that is completely airworthy, and find out a part of the rig has just seen its last hard opening. This goes for canopies and containers. just my preference. I know people using old gear, and I could care less, it works for them, but for me, I just dont see the point in buying said gear when I could have newer, fresher gear instead. I am not putting anyone down for using old gear, like I said, to each his own, but for me, I wont buy it, theres no reason. I might hold on to a rig I bought for a while, but thats because I know how its been treated and how its been maintained, but I will never buy an old rig. I had my first cutaway yesterday, and am extremely glad I had a nice new reserve packed. Once again it gave me peace of mind to know that that reserve is at least maintained well, and is of the most modern design there is(In reserve technology). I cant imagine having to cutaway to a 20 year old reserve, I just dont see why, your reserve is your last hope, shouldn't you have the best? Anyways, Im done with explaining myself. If you still dont see what I am saying, then so be it. -Evo I don't mean this as a slam towards you, but the way I read your "reasons" : I have no idea about the gear, and as such I would rather err on the side of caution and personal safety and get new(er) gear just to be (what I consider) safe. that's completely reasonable coming from a 1 year 35 jump person (again, not a slam, just using facts presented). But when a person with 31 years and hundreds of jumps in the sport says the same thing, most of us wonder if that said person is a bit of a pussy (re: "squats to pee") or is simply resistant to knowing the gear that have been trusting their life to for that last 3 decades, or if they can in fact give some reasonable explanation.

but a SuperRaven probably would have been just fine. Even a 1986 one. Or a 1989 PD reserve... see, everything taken in context.

and when asked for pictures don't give the generic "it's packed right now, I will have to go to the dropzone next weekend and see if I can take pictures". And a week later send 320x200 cellphone quality pictures with the out of focus spot that looks like a rig, but with beautiful in-focus grass (the background).

Walmart or most auto supply stores. Your rigger likely has a small jar lying around as well. my suggestion is food grade silicone - easiest to find at a local scuba shop

bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, wrong. a DIFFERENT reserve, not necessarily a more modern one would have made a difference. a 1989 PDR would have not given the person the same landing problems as his 1992 MR may.

every one I ever bought came with a slider too.. well, as often as people may send me canopies with zip ties or just thread holding lines together, I am yet to have anyone send me a canopy without a slider. but good point. slider, though removable, is still part of the canopy.

How, exactly, would you propose to give the reserve risers to one person and the harness / container to another ? My reserve risers are made as part of the harness and can not be separated. Reserve comes with links/slinks only. Kevin K. I thought the smiley face afterward would make it apparent as a joke. I did get a reserve on severed risers once. fun fun.

Packing a PDR126 into an NJ is pretty damn tight. I would not even attempt a 143

main canopy comes with slink/links NOTHING ELSE dbag/ main risers and toggles, pc, reserve pc and freebag are PART OF THE CONTAINER. some buyers may wish to get their reserve risers with the reserve, and that's strictly up to you if you want to do it that way. :)

I fly a an Sfly because it makes my ass look smaller. What other reason can there be ?

just to question your choices a little. Strictly from financial standpoint. Math suggests that at 31 years in the sport you are on your 5th set of gear. Considering inflation, value of dollar. blah blah blah. 5 sets of gear at the very low price of $6000 per set is $30,000 USD. Let's discount that to your 5th set beign only half way through it's useful 7 year life and make your rig total $27,000 Using your listed 600 number of jumps that makes your gear depreciation $45 per jump. I doubt that there are too many people out there who can afford that. (don't forget that you also have he price of jump ticket and any other variable expenses). in case anybody cares the $1.00 from 1978 is worth $3.27 in 2008 - which suggests that I am using the value of brand new rig in 1978 of $1834 - can anyone let me know if that's reasonable ?

out of context Bill :) Here's what I mean : I am yet to see someone trying to sell their gear that is about 7 years old for the reasons that "it's too old". Obviously some gear gets retired, but I doubt that there's any large number of regular sport jumper gear that is retired at it's 7 year anniversary.

It's a Micro Raven 153. I have had one ride on it. Can you point me to where Precision limits the life on the MicroRaven canopies ? Also I am guessing you either have a 150 or a 135. Or you are a test jumper.