dterrick

I'd say Javelin from a recent experience My Racer is old and a bit cranky (lots of velcro, all new) to pack on each jump, nevermind the rigger. New styles are not so bad, I'm told. However I borrowed a Javelin J3 and it fit soooo nicely that I think that FIT is much more important than rigger friendliness. If you want to do freefly or canopy relative work and are buying anything but the most modern of Racers, there are better alternatives available too. One thing about the Javelin though is that there are bazillions of them out there and you're likely to find a good used one that fits well. Blue Skies -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

I had a similar reaction and lost the edge needed to race sports cars after a fellow racer, not known for his prowess, caused an incident that destroyed my 1969 Triumph GT6 that had taken me 2 years, $10k and about 900 hours to restore. I was 'encouraged' to return to the next vintage race by the loan of a Lotus Cortina MKII (SCCA national champion car) but as much fun as it was to drive, I just didn't 'feel' like driving it 11/10ths when that was required. I still instruct - I didn't lose my skills - but at some point the race chase seemed senseless. On a recent trip to California I realized how much I liked DRIVING a challenging road, rather than racing someoneand it made me feel much better about my decision to hang up my helmet. Sounds like you have a similar situation but unlike auto racing there's not much you can do with parachute gear that doesn't involve jumping from a plane. Thought about pilot training? Soaring? Um, sports car racing (people die less frequently but it's a 2-D sport) -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

JOB??????? I meant no disrespect, I was just turning moderator-green with envy... yes, I know of his early days in Motorsport ... back when racing was a sport of "Gentlemen" and nobility, not just for a select few with talent AND corporate sponsorship... rrrgh. Were I born thirty years earlier I'd likely be racing cars and not skydiving. Of course, I quit racing cars at the club level to skydive. Then again, our club built the airport circuit in 1972-73 ... so maybe I'd have been tempted to try one of those "new steerable rounds" . Hey, the Cessna would have been new...ish -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Gus beat me to the link, but I was part of the discussion with Billvon. In summary, if you have enough 'skill' to maintain your driver's license I doubt you'll have any serious trouble skydiving. Between adaptation and the fact that we continually land in the same area I'm sure you;ll be just fine. Do you wear glasses otherwisae? I do, and losing ONE contact lens caused me grief when I tried to use both eyes. Closing the offending 'bad' eye solved 90 percent of my issues - I actually got the cookie on that landing, despite the crash (it was sunset, hiyt n chug load, had a violent opening that wrecked the slider and a riser) -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Was it a Fokker or a Spitfire? Dude is Alan deCadanet, well known among gearheads for doing "Legends of Motorsport" series on Speedvision. "Hi, I'm Alan deCadanet and I'm very rich... on today's episode, I'll be flogging other people's million dollar Ferrarii for your viewing pleasure " Nice work if you can get it - never seen him and planes before, and never EVER seen him swear... of course if I was just about vegamatic'd... hehe -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Winnipeg is a fairly small city (+/-700,000) with a centrally located airport.... I live in a 'good' central neighborhood but one that puts me almost directly under the final aproach of most of the big planes. Esarlier this spring, a C-5 came in on final, scratching the 600 foot (weather network reported) cieling ... "same shit"??? I see C-130's all day long and the odd 747 but YIKES I want those things to be friendly when I see them up close like that ... ...and then there's the days when the visiting US Military don't really heed the 'shhhhh' rule and wind their F-16's and F-18's up and it feels a bit like an airshow - except that they climb so fast that they're 'all noise and no show' I always ask.... 'could I jump that' when I hear the sound all around... -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

...before or after the talk show I have so successfully avoided thusfar? -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

...Hey it worked for Ronald R. not just in California but the whole damn country. Jessie 'the Body' didn't do so bad in Minnesota, did he? Clint in Carmel? Perhaps it's not such a bad idea to have politicians who know nothing about politics

What you saw was the Antonov AN-124. Thre is only ONE AN-225 and it spent most of its life post-USSR breakup in mothballs and being canabalized for parts. I saw the special the Wings Channel did on Antonov planes. http://www.airliners.net/info/stats.main?id=40 The AN-124 'appears' to be a carbon copy - it's just a larger scale version of the plane. I too saw a 124 at an airshow here in the early 90's. Makes a C-5 or a C-17 look small. Strangely, I also had a dream it arrived at our DZ looking for loadfill

I'm a Lumberjack! -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Fear not, you did the right thing! You made it down from what sounds like a very bad canopy. This is the most important thing. Trained in Canada, we use the 'one hand on each' technique. HOWEVER, if you search the forums for 'spinning mal' or 'hard housings' you will find that many people have experienced a hard cutaway like you describe because the risers are too twisted and the cutaway handle may be impossible to pull with the normal amount of force. You recognized this fact and went to a 2 handed pull...well done!! Your instructors will offer you the best advice - especially those who may have seen the spinning Sabre - but any time you are spiraling AND in line twists you are decending too fast and out of control and this is EXACTLY one reason to use your reserve!! Now get back airborne knowing you know what to do in an emergency and have proven it to yourself and others... -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

BWAHAHAHAHA ROTFLMAO !! Where, oh WHERE did you come by this page??? -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

On a windy day, we make cler and pulls from 9k over the smokestack of the Segrams distilery. Rye, aka 'Canadian' whiskey ... the main plant... thirty two warehouses the size of WW2 hangars, and "six that are BIG" The air stinks of mash when the winds are from the East but WOW the smokestack is a great WDI -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Not sure but I'll echo those who say 'whatever it is, the canopy is Grrreat!' ! the nose openings are MUCH smaller than most 9 cells I've seen and I suspect this plays a roll in the snivelly openings AND the strong bottom end flare they have .... - their brake setting is 'very slow' or so it seems because when you pop the brakes the wind noise amplifies exponentially...not something I witnessed on larger SAbre 1's. Toggle turns seems faster than rear risers, bottom end flare is amazing .... given the nose looks 'different' perhaps it's not so much the stiffener its self but the design that is possible because of the stiffeners... this one is a great question for the serious 'propellerheads' who understand the physics but I for one just like what I find at pull time

***HEY We resemble that remark..." 1956 C-182A is home to me. I bet our straight tail is the oldest Cessna jumpship on dropzone.com -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Welcome!! I'm in Manitoba and I understand your jump scenario at 9 PM - GRREAT time to jump, just at the 'technical end' of the day. I've done a dozen or more of those 'late sunset' loads but never a true Night jump. Ironic, but I just returned from DZ and am in ther process of organizing a true night jump in 2 weeks - very much looking forward to it too. In what other sport can you change the entire feeling of it just by what time of day it is??? Just wait till you get to winter jumps

...aah, but THIS affords him the opportunity to get something, um, apropriate for the job... I'd dare say that if anyone comes back on his property they will be armed and unfriendly towad him... sadly I fear in the end 'they' will win the war, if not the battles. And this way, the police can claim to have 'removed a potential threat' - if he buys more guns and ammo it's not THEIR fault is it? -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

...speaking of jokes... most anything by AQUA . -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

...I wonder if they'd consider flying jumpers? Sure sounds like a fleet of jumpships to me... Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

Eerily close to my latest weird one Lynn: [background, I've had a pc in tow and a 'mild' horseshoe. I jump a Raven 2 as a main but really 'belong' under a 170 Sabre 2 or similar] Much like that scene in Dropzone, I get one busted/cut riser, chop, and get a stuck slider on my reserve giving me a snivel till flare time. I riser flare a killer swoop downwinder that ends in a tandem-master butt slide trenching into the peas. I'm feeling like I've just seriously cheated Death and freaked about it, my jumpsuit hanging off me in shreads like I've dumped a sportbike at speed or something.. DZO and I go into the packing room and pound a shot o Tequila (it's a morning jump). As we pound the second shot, there's the sound of a Very Large plane at our apron ... it's the Russian Military in an Antonov AN-124 looking for loadfill. DZO tells me to 'get back up and use his rig (Samurai 120) - after my reserve ride swoop I'm qualified' . I clear and pull from HIGH altitude,the canopy feels slow.... swoop the cookie -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

1:5:0 1 Great weekend back at home. Even though California was tre cool, missing almost an entire month of jumping at home was harsh. A 50th birthday, an engagement party for 2 jumpers , and 3 pie-ings... Fantastic no-wind, hot weather and Islendingadagurinn - the kick ass Icelandic festival weekend. 5 Jumps and about 20 pack jobs. That's a busy weekend for me this year. Demoing a Sabre2 170 ... weeeee, must buy one!! It's a long weekend in Canada but I was still pakcing up 'at beerlight' Sunday when the DZO said 'first 4 with rigs on get the last load!" and I made it on with the DZO, a visiting CReW jumper originally trained in the Russian military and a buddy with a fresh A CoP. The DZO took a full count from 3k on his Samurai 120 and chopped a spinning mal!! Took us till Noon today to find his PC and freebag. What a way to end the weekend, eh? -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

I flew Northwest from Winnipeg to Mineapolis on a DC-9 as well - I couldn't believe how many they had at that terminal... the fleet is like 70 or something...it's actually their most popular plane. Funny, when leaving San Francisco the ticket dude hassled me abouyt "DB Cooper and Northwest yada yada" and I zinged ghim back with 'ya but that was a 727 and I didn't think there were even any DC9's around anymore either!" He shut up real quick

you like THAT? In certain "less-than gentlemanly" circles in the Canadian prairie I've heard the activity of having beerz at the nudie bar as "pitch' and Bitch" (titties and titties and beer? Oh my!!). But now I'm off to DZ for the first time in a month and all I wanna think about is '3 ways and 4 ways and head-down' -Dave PS: It's "Heritage Day" weekend here - an excuse for a 3 day'er in the middle of the summer. Gimli, our DZ hometown is the largest Islandic settlement outside of Iceland its self. the festival's name? ... Islendigadagurinn (pronounced... ice-lan-dig-a-dag-urrr-inn) 20,000 points for scrabble fams Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

You just described my feelings after I let go of the wing strut on my first jump!! I know it's not 'the same' but it sure felt like 'nothing' and 'silent' after the din and wind on the wing Guess I'm just gonna have to seek out a baloonist -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)

...how bout a "Lion cut" ??? http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=380571;search_string=Lion%20cut;#380571 Great Pix!! -Dave Life is very short and there's no time for fussing and fighting my friend (Lennon/McCartney)