VectorBoy

Hey Lori what is that in jpg #76 variable frequency drives?

They can be very limiting if you want to advance. And its a shame when you have to lay off hardworking low seniorty guys and keep lazy high time slackers That know they are "fireproof". Unions bring their own problems to the table, and in sometimes cut their own throat. But in some cases a needed evil. Ask the Boeing engineers about their Union.

Not everyone, union or not, gets cost of living increases Ok then, when should expect the cost of things to drop accordingly? Like Gasoline? Don't get me wrong, many years ago I was a piece worker in electronics. It was the best. If want more or need more I did more, produced more. Then I went into IBEW, no widgets to quantify but a dangerous trade the union got those little costs of living increases. Worked nights and holidays ( low seniority= worked every christmas and newyears for years on end ) so what if someone is making 45 bucks an hour for 8 hours if they are not with their families for many years of their lives. The union got that for them. Ask a grocery worker about their busiest days ( they are all forced to work ) They are your holidays the ones where you are with your family or parting with their friends. Not appeasing last minute cranky drunk shoppers. Try it once. Now I do the same thing for a non union shop. Same trade same danger no union. Cost of living raises if you are lucky. Its brown nose and back stab to get ahead there are no widgets to count up at the end of the day. leadership is by peter principle. The MBAs that run this place are making billion dollar mistakes and it cuting into there bottom line and therefore my chance at a 3% but they've got this nack for making it sound like it our faults. These MBAs love to talk numbers, numbers, numbers. But they cannot make common smart business choices. Everything by the numbers got detroit and our auto industry in a shit whole in the 70s that we are just now starting to get out of. Your employees are a stake holder in your company also not just the share holder. I can see one of the Ralphs warehouses from where I live. Less than a mile away from me is the store ( theirs) where I shop, two miles away is a food for less ( a ralphs non-union bag it yourself and save kind of warehouse that I can go to, in a crappy area.) Guess which one I'm in the Jack Daniels club at? like it or not, like their business practices or not, Wal-Mart's model works. Quote Standby for uppity words comming from a skydiver: nasty place with zombies for emplyees its morphed into some monster that Sam wouldn't ( although the number crunchers do) approve of. Only go in extreme case IE:need 1 item and get out fast or emergency like tent flooding at rantoul, we were in and out in 15 minutes flat. Skydekker was covering. And that was one of the nicer walmarts I've been in. Midwest has some bargain convenience store pride that the socal lacks. Fortune #1. It says something that retail executives can't ignore from a numbers standpoint. *** You like nice Cars, like your car. What if the numbers proved best that the people that make and service your car should scrape the bottom of the gene pool for personel to see to your cars needs from the factory to the aftermarket? After all it doesn't take much to scan a bar scan on the side of a carton.

Wow JT that area is beautiful and isolated. It would be perfect to get rid of a body..... of someone that keeps abusing the duck joke.

In the current slow growth recovery, facing some deflationary factors, this union should be working to ensure the simple continuation of employment, let alone 3% raises Oh theres a model= I'm locked and loaded, cover me I'm going in.... to Walmart.

Fantastic! The Bytch should be a lot of help... she didn't stop ass sliding her landings until number 900 and something. I really think she is starting to get it. Ya fused disc my ass! Congrats Dagny! now give Lisa all of your money so she can lend you the shops birdman suit.

We can't do that at Perris unless we save some for Tim. He is the nice guy on the DZ that limits your long walk back on an off landing. If you land off the farthest he will have a truckload of other hard spot jumpers...... you know, somebody to shoot video for your 3 or more way. Normally we just buy him a beer after the sunset but you never know, he may like sumpt'n like that.

How about enjoy it. If you own this 230 soft openings will be a selling point.

If they are doing CReW bitchen custom lightnings in non competion sizes ( not loaded in the 1:3 ish range but loaded more like 1:1 or there abouts ). This info came from one of the frogs that was one of my instructors at a crew camp last year. If they are freefalling a formation lower I hope they are on spectres or tri s ( sorry I don't about this ) or something that opens softer than a lightning at terminal.

Wazdat?

Cat I have always thought of the cobalt as exactly as you describe it. A good way to enter elliptical flight. I also saw it holding its own in several swoop compitions along side X-fires, stillettos. This is scarce now since most competitors are on x-braced.

Is this Kim the new bird man employee? Please introduce yourself, you will be taking a lot of orders for new wingsuits.

What do you do about DZs that require an ADD before you are waivered to jump there?

I did not overlook it but its a fine line between being curious and insensitive. I am so very pleased you will provide this for us. Thanks Tom!

Quotenot trying to start anything but I've heard of other canopy manufacturer's besides ATAIR now doing this saying, "oh youre flying a (insert your canopy size here), you need to fly a (insert one size smaller here) to get a real feel for our canopy". Whether they say it "flies big", or it will "fly better at this WL" is a bit of a marketing scam, no? It seems like they want you to fly the smaller canopy so that when it comes time to dish out your money you'll think of their canopy as the "sportier" one. Quote Yes this happened to me personnaly with icarus at WFFC. I fly a cobalt 120 so I should demo an X-fire 105. The rep was insistant but I was insistant to try the same size then one smaller, maybe even one bigger. I was comparing as friends of mine who have also compared these two and love their X-fires and state that I should try it and see if I like it. Before I got my cobalt I had flown six different canopies in three different sizes. Demo Demo and Demo again.

Roq, please tel us about your Roq-mod. How is in design and performance? Is it just an H-mod that you came up with, or is it different?

Ok, a question for the rigger-types out there...I thought H-mods, as a side effect, slowed openings down? I'm no rigger but yes they are supposed to as well as brace or stiffen the nose openings. The traingle patches in the inlets decreases the opening size somewhat like the x-fires smaller inlets. Net result is stiffer leading edge, softer openings, bigger dives.

I wonder if this same canopy was the one that slammed Aggie Dave? It would be a shame to have a demo out there that isn't representing of production units. Rolling the nose isn't recomened on the cobalt BTW. Although that didn't cause your hard openings, it would just be more prone to off heading openings.

Quote The Crossfire 2 is a significant change, and IMO has reduces performance from the original Crossfire. reply] JP can you define how the performance has changed? I believe you have a valid opinion.

Good morning Roq actually you do agree with me! I asked jumpers that have about 1000 jumps on cobalts, about 5000 jumps total. Own 3 rigs at a busy DZ that film tandems with big video and still cameras and also own velocitys, spectres and sabres. They can fly anything and do when turning back to back loads. These guys are TMs, AFFis and some base on the side, some swoop every landing. Some take it easy. None of them are factory pilots! I have never spoken to a Attair factory pilot about whether or not I should buy a cobalt.

Roger Nelson/Skydive Chicago did not put Students on Stilettos, much less Stiletto 170's and smaller. I asked someone that works there and that is the answer I recieved. Only a select few of the very aware and fast-learning post-student-status jumpers jumped Stilettos. Derek Before everyone gets lathered up I would have to say that the way the SDC program works ( as it was described to me ) is its not just seven but more like 17-19 jumps. Its both canopy and body flight intensive with more skill requirements. Kind of like the "MORE TRAINING" that everyone is saying we should have throughout all USPA training facilities. The MORE canopy training that will help jumpers alive past 100 jumps. And get them ready for the gear they will be purchasing after completion of the coarse not gear that does not exist outside of standard AFF programs. And I met a person that claims to have jumped a stilletto in this program not post. Not everyone does but for whatever reason but they did. Its possible that the situation that required this person to jump the stilleto has been eliminated let say more sabre 2s in more size in better containers than a few years ago but I'm going to go with their word on this one Derek.

i don't believe AggieDave would make an uninformed statement. i know for a fact he's done his homework on this product. I don't blame Aggie Dave for his reponse or his observation AND if I would have had the experience that he had with attair and the cobalt I would have run the other way with my money. He has a very personal reason not to like the product and a very valid one. My complaint or rather my observation is that there is indeed a great many people that bash attair and its not always cobalt related sometimes they have never flown the canopy . They are only relaying second or third hand info most of the time. Before I bought the Cobalts I jumped six different canopys in three different sizes, although I was hooked on the first jump. And when I say ask a person who puts 1000 jumps a year on a piece of equiptment I never approached a factory pilot about it. Just a working person who makes a ton of jumps and has many canopys to choose from. I also asked the persons with ten times my experience, who were also at that time demo ing the cobalt, and picked their brains about what they thought. Trust me I did my homework too.

Why does it seem that predominately it is the folks that have jumped Cobalts posting about a negative experience (sometimes a VERY negative experience)?Quote Well dave I remember folks that were not happy with icarus and the 2 collapses that turned into a ton of people (then) unhappy about customer service, mods, replacement lines, demos.... etc. And the fear that theirs too will collapse on them. And how the X-fire 2 is a quick cover up to the problems with the 1, Remember? I run into a bunch of people that really love their x-fires 1 and 2. I don't hear too much complaining now. These folks do a lot of jumps a year. I know a bunch of people that don't like cobalts. They don't like Dans marketing, don't like waiting weeks for replacement lines, hated the demo packaging. Don't like the non standard PC recommendation. All of the hoopla about the two stage opening. Yada yada yada. One sweet individual ( who never flew one ) hated the fact that they are made in an eastern european country. This person has wingsuit that is made down the street from atair but.... in the same region of the world that is making all if not most of the high tech sailplane stuff, one country over from the guys that are welding up the fuel tanks for some of our rocket ships. What in the hell does this have to do with sewing up a damn parachute? And how can you have an opinion about something you haven't test flown? Funny thing is not one person I talked to thinks the cobalt totally sucks. Some don't care for the opening, some don't care for the flare. Most like or love the way it flys. Some people love everything about theirs. When you want to know about some gear ask the guys that are putting 1000 or more jumps a year on that little piece of equiptment.

Roger Nelson put AFF students on hornets, sabre 2 s and the occasional Stilleto depending on their weight and wing loading. And he got them from PD. And I think PD knew what he was going to do with them. There is no 230 to be downsizing from. Not 300# jumpers, 100# jumpers, 80, 50 or 20# jumpers just plain old 0- thru- 19 number jumpers. Stilletos and hornets are in the same class as an alpha or space or is it the viper ( the old one not the new german one). Maybe the cobalt, maybe dunknow its all a blurr. Roger Nelson: innovator, visionary or madman? Film @ 11.

very nice, sounds like you had a great flight! Don't worry about numbers right off the bat. Just relax and have fun, these will improove . It is amazing watching other jumpers just fall away isn't it?