TheCaptain

Blind date kind of thing in the early 90's, female friend wanted to set me up with one of her friends so we all met at a club. All this woman could talk about was being a groupie for the band Great White. Kirk He's dead Jim

The first photo is my entry into Phoenix-fly's photo compition. Kirk He's dead Jim

I had around 450 jumps when I did my first wingsuit jump in a GTI. As others keep stating I think 200 jumps should be the absolute minimum, personally I think the higher jump # the better. Oh yeah, do remember 200 jump minimum with instruction from a wingsuit instructor. It is not about can you skydive a wingsuit when things go right it is also about keeping your head with they do not, and that only really comes from time and experience. Kirk He's dead Jim

I was going to add something about that but did not. Both types I jumped were a single toggle configuration but I am not sure which type. Kirk He's dead Jim

There is just a little difference in them, I believe the main difference is in line trim. If I remember correctly I think the PT has a little higher toggle pressure then the Icarus. Kirk He's dead Jim

In full flight with a wingsuit your canopy is leaving the container at approx. 45° to your body. Containers have been designed around the idea that the canopy will be leaving the container perpendicular to your body. IMHO to a large degree this does not matter as most containers are made well enough to work well at the 45°. I personally have only come across one rig that I did not feel was adiquiet for wing suit skydiving and that is the Eclipse container. The Eclipse container is sewn up about 1" up the top side of the bottom of the container so before the D-bag leaves the container it pivots to the correct 90° possition first. I have done wingsuit skydives with an Eclipse container, I just personally made sure I was falling down verse horizontally before deploying. Oh yes, as others have stated the dynamic corner mode allows the bottom of the container to fully open up so the D-bag can leave at what ever angle it needs to without any interferance from the container Kirk He's dead Jim

I know a master rigger who pretty much swears by the pyscho pack for most every canopy including his two Velocities. I also have read that PD does not agree with "Pyscho bagging" as they call it their canopies. I guess at the end of the day it is up to you to figure out the best way to bag your canopy, either the PRO pack as suggested by the manufacturer or try the Pyscho pack developed by George Galloway. Kirk He's dead Jim

I'M am getting very tired of the DZO's being made out as the bad guys. Most DZO's are doing everything possible to make skydiving as cheap as possible for everyone. DZO's are not the bad guys they are only trying to survive and maybe make a few dollars. Personally I will always skydive regardless of the cost as I personally love skydiving and I know the DZO is trying as much as possible to make it affordable to me Kirk He's dead Jim

This picture is pretty poor quality of my house and and far as I can tell it was taken in August of 2005 as I was adding a deck then. Kirk He's dead Jim

For my son( 13 also) he is all about Rock Band, Rock band 2 (not out yet for the Wii) or the Guitar Hero World tour. Kirk He's dead Jim

I agree that they would need oxygen and more than likely did not go to 18000 AGL but for me personally, I adjust my altimeter at 7000 AGL to to read 13000 AGL for my final alti shot. If I were to go to 18000 AGL it would read 12000 AGL as it rolls around again if the altimeter reads up to 12000 AGL Also if the videographer is using two altimeters who is to say the one used for the video shot actually works at all (could be a broken on that they just dial to the needed alti shot) Kirk He's dead Jim

I do no know if this applies but I know a few videographers that use an analog altimeter for shots in the plane which will never be set to the correct altitude(they manually change the altimeter for the shot they want) and then another they use for the jump. This way they can get all of the ride to altitude shots and have extra time on the top end to get ready for the jump. Personally when I do handycam almost all of my altitmeter shots are faked(manually adjusted, I do adjust the altimeter back to read correctly prior to the jump) so I have enough time to get the camcorder in the glove and prepared for the jump. Kirk He's dead Jim

Best answer, wait until you get through training. All these answers will be best coming from the instructors that work with you. Best suit will depend on your fall rate, best canopy will depend on your weight and how well you fly the student canopy... etc Oh, yeah, welcome to the addiction Kirk He's dead Jim

This is the dimesions of my flat top pro but it is an older version so I am not sure if they have changed it. Kirk He's dead Jim

I have a Suunto Vector and always zero it for the LZ. I also check it before each jump during the day and rezero it as needed. It is my understanding that these watches read only the barimetic pressure(just like any skydiving altimeter) and have to be adjusted to a specified altitude to read true altitude Kirk He's dead Jim

Here is the review of them in the gear section Kurupee I would suggest either buying something made in the USA or liquidsky. I have personally had great luck with firefly but they have a really long wait time. Kirk He's dead Jim

It seems as though the Safire 1's had some quality issues too. Some Safire's open great & have a ton of flair while others openned shitty and did not have a ton of flair. If you do a search on the Safire 1's in these forums you will find info on that. Personally I had a Safire 1 made in Spain that flew great. Kirk He's dead Jim

When the Safire 2 came out one of the improvments Icarus referenced was a shorter recovery arch. Something to keep in mind when looking at the Safire 1 is the canopy is approx. 8% smaller than the stated size compared to a PD product or the Safire 2. I am attaching a letter I received from Icarus years ago about this. I e-mailed Icarus and explained that this had been talked about here and if they could give me a reply that I could post so here is Icarus's reply The Safire-1 and the Omega are measured differently to PD canopies. As a rough guide a Safire-1 or Omega is about the same size as the next size down - eg A Safire 149 is about a 135. A Safire 119 is about a 109. Use an equation of 8%. The Safire-2 and Omni (Omni supercedes Omega) are measured the same as PD. All other Icarus Canopies are measured the same as PD. The reason for the difference is due to Precision measuring their canopies differently. Icarus have always measured the same as PD however when we originally commenced in the USA, Precision were building parachutes for us under license and were doing it using their size equations and not Icarus/PD's. We have therefore had to wait to supercede these models to change the size equation. Only the Safire and Omega were affected. Blue skies Simon Icarus Canopies USA: 1S671 Bender Lane, West Chicago, IL 60185, USA Ph. (630) 562-2735, Fax (630) 231-4430 Europe: P.I. El Ramassar, c/ Vallés, s/n O8520, Les Franqueses, Barcelona, SPAIN. Ph. (34) 938 496 432, Fax (34) 938 497 971 www.icaruscanopies.com Kirk He's dead Jim

I use to take my son out to the DZ on occassion. In the last couple of years I have stopped and I also have increased the amount of time I am at the DZ. IMHO now, a DZ is not a place for children. This is a place for adults to let go have fun and whether you like it or not the content of conversation will not be child friendly most of the time. Kirk He's dead Jim

Crossbraced canopies are usually 120SQ feet or smaller. I have heard of a few 125's but that is about it. I will use the car analogy for buying your first equipment. If you knew in two years from now you would be buying a different car buying new car does not make much sense as it will deprecate too much in those first couple of years (to recover it from resale or driving it out of the car). The same thing is generally true about skydiving equipment. Generally a given container is good for up to 3 canopy sizes/not including pack volume differences of crossbraced canopies (the one it was made for, one size up which will be very difficult to pack into the smaller container, and one size smaller). Most skydivers down size a few sizes in the first few years of skydiving that is why most skydiver suggest buying used. That way when you are closer to the end size you will be flying for a long time then most skydivers buy new. Kirk He's dead Jim

At the level your at your best option is to talk to and listen to your instructors. Please do not go looking for advise here as you can see from the few responses you got that some offer ill/wrong advice. Kirk He's dead Jim

Man I'm glad my dropzone isn't like that If you are a TI and that's how you look at tandems...please re-evaluate why you are doing what you are doing. You can not change your customer’s perspective of what a tandem skydive it to them. It seems (IMHO) the vast majority of people do look at this as a carnival ride(something to be done, marked of their check list and on to the next). While you can teach the ones that want to learn most just want to be taken for the ride. Kirk He's dead Jim

I would have to disagree with you. The better response for the smaller canopies means an instructor has the abillity to fix issues if they are heads up, such as a low surge. I agree that modern tandems are more about the carnival ride but giving an instructor the maximum amount of tools to work with helps them at those critical times. At least that is my experience and opinion Kirk He's dead Jim

IMHO, I would suggest if you can renting the phantom for another 20 or so jumps and then purchase the Ghost. Phantom is a great suit but the ghost has more range. Kirk He's dead Jim

I really do not see these smaller tandem mains being dangerous. We put students on large docile canopies so that their toggle inputs (which will be wrong on occassion, such as reaching for the ground instead of flying the canopy) are also docile as to not get them hurt. As tandem instructors we are (or atleast should be) able to control our inputs to the canopy so we fly the canopy to the ground. A slightly higher wingloaded canopy has better pressurization and quicker response to input, these are both desirable traits (in my humble opinion) as long as the instructor is capable of controling it. Kirk He's dead Jim