HeatherB

A bunch of people have rigs identical to that. You could do a big-way. It was a hit. I have a Wings too. (of course!) I don't even get paid to say I love mine anymore....but I still do!

(This was meant towards marcandalysse, but as I was writing this, the post was deleted.) Troll or not (I don't think it is one), it still brings up a subject that ppl obviously have very different opinions about. I've heard many ppl beat themselves up for not using protection, either resulting in pregnancy or a disease, or even just *scaring* them into thinking they might be pregnant or have a disease, and I don't think it is unrealistic for a tandem instructor who has HIV to question continuing to do tandems. Should you give up all your hobbies? No. Should you try to live life to the fullest? YES. But you also have to consider the safety and concerns of the students. I would probably quit doing tandems if I were in your shoes, b/c I would be paranoid about the students' safety, even if the odds are so slim. I would continue to skydive as long as I felt healthy, but would let the DZ manager/owner and a few friends know I had HIV, in case I had an accident.

$4930 for an infinity, spectre and a reserve?? That doesn't add up right. Hope you got a Cypres and a jumpsuit or something too.

I like the loopholes! I'd just do lotsa tunnel time and maybe BASE jump! You people who are choosing skydiving are nuts.

That is wonderful! Very sweet of you. You will get used to it. Short, bouncy hair is nice and less of a hassle.

Buy a house. You'll never be bored again. (just refinanced today...I need a drink!) Okay, maybe you're a little young for buying a house. I was 23.

Yoga class (beer for first time doing Heidi's class) in the morning then hopefully jumping. Our weather forecast looks really crappy though. If it's crappy I plan on doing yardwork. Skydiver friends arriving from up north tomorrow afternoon too!

I feel like a whuffo, Oren. I've mised 2 weekends in a row. All you Z-hills people, come out on Friday if it's nice! I dunno what canopy I'll be jumping, but at this point, I don't care!

Once - when that jackass kid decided to fly his Cessna into the Bank of America building in downtown Tampa. (suicide) It was not long after 9/11. Maybe October or November.

I'm teachable, dammit! I'm getting there...

Guess I should have said "the three times I've chopped it" - the 4th time was Heidi, not me. (whoohoo, I have company!) 1st chop: paid pack job - I opened, looked up to find line twists from the risers all the way up - slider stuck at top, end cell closure, etc. I had pulled a little above 2.5 and it was looking really ugly, so I chopped it. I don't remember how much it was turning or spinning. Probable cause: Not sure, since I didn't pack it, but the bag must have been spinning off my back - either not enough unstowed lines , or maybe it was packed unevenly. 2nd chop: I packed it. (I was on one of several "I should pack for myself" kicks). Same kind of mal as the first, except this time the risers pinned my head to my chest, even more fun! Kicking wasn't working and I had pulled a 2.5 (maybe closer to 2 - I was stupid and I still am sometimes) and it sucks when you can't even look up at the darn thing and it's turning on ya, so I chopped. Probable Cause: Not leaving enough unstowed line, so the bag spun off my back. 3rd chop: I packed it. Line twists, right out of the bag again. This time, not as many, but there was a lot more end cell closure on one side than the other and it started into a nice turn that was picking up speed and I got kinda disoriented and so I chopped. (jokingly thought as I was reaching for the cutaway "I'm gonna get shit for this" but chopped anyhow of course). Probable Cause: Canopy packed unevenly into bag, so bag was uneven in tray...spinny spinny bag out of container = line twists. (I had actually asked someone "is this okay?" and he banged at it a bit to even it out, and we decided I'd be fine. Oops) Or, the other probable cause for all of this?? I like digging a new for a 540 as I deploy. (kidding!) Those packing errors would be a problem on most canopies. If you chop higher than 2.5 or 3, you might have enough time to get out of completely twisted lines, but you also don't want to find yourself kicking like mad at 500 feet, screaming "Just these last few!" Or worse. We decided Heidi's opening issue was mostly due to her rolling the nose. Don't roll the nose. (Brian Germain confirmed you shouldn't be rolling the nose on the Lotus. Since he designed the canopy, he probably knows what's best) Anyhow. I still love the canopy, never had complaints about the openings (I maybe had ONE line twisty opening besides those 3). Opens slow, flies nice. I have end cell closure to some degree, on every jump. (loading just barely over 1:1) Try the Sabre2 out just for the hell of it though. I was not super-impressed with the one I jumped, but you might like it. I found my old logbook - I have almost exactly 300 jumps on that canopy.

Okay, I'm bad with numbers. I think they said they were about a 1/2 mile past the lake...not sure how far the lake is from the DZ. Anyone?

I heard there were black widows crawling all over you and the tree too! You're brave!!

Heidi was jumping her container - no luck on the freebag/reserve PC yet. She tossed the reserve handle too. New parts are on their way, but I bet Robert finds the freebag and PC! The canopy was about a mile and a half from the DZ. Winds were high, but I don't know how high exactly. She had chopped at around 3 grand. The other 3 times I've chopped it, it didn't seem to go much further than a typically canopy would, but I was chopping lower than that and I don't remember any high winds on those days. Once Robert found out that it was an airlocked canopy that he was looking for, he definitely started looking further away for it though. Awaiting the tests...If all looks good, I'll jump it on Sat, but will pull higher than normal to see how it flies.

Robert, Heidi, Jerm and gang went out looking today and found my Lotus about 40 feet up in a tree, past the rock quarry and lake. They got it down, it is at the loft awaiting a pull test and line trim check. No holes or anything, a small snag on one line, some dampness, but that is all. It did pour last night, which apparently isn't good for the tape, but hopefully it fine! If I chop that puppy again though, it's gone. Still going to test jump other canopies this weekend, just for the heck of it and in case the canopy isn't quite right. Yeeeehaaa! Thank you canopy hunters!

You're a sweetheart.

I have (well, had, since it's lost right now) a Lotus 136 and a PD 126 reserve. People have asked me why I jump a smaller reserve than my main...but it's only 10 feet and hell, it still flies bigger than my main. I'm barely loading either, so it's not as if I'm coming in fast. I had a 143 until I had around 150 jumps.

I do have homeowner's insurance but like Oren said, it can cause more harm than good. They can raise your rates, deny you coverage when you go to renew, etc. Plus, I just switched to a new company yesterday, I'm thinking they'd get suspicious if I made a claim within the first week of my coverage, lol. It just seems like a bad idea.

I suppose I should have worded the "I don't have the money" part better... What I meant was, if I had *tons* of money I wouldn't even blink an eye, I'd just order a new one. That would save some heartache on both sides. Unfortunately, I don't have $1500 laying around for a new canopy. (wasn't planning for that in my budget) We'll figure it out. Nobody is placing blame or being rude. We're friends. I'll be back at the DZ in a little bit. Maybe we will find it today. (smidgen of hope, but fading fast) We figured out last night that 8 or 10 hours of sunlight is like putting 100 jumps on the canopy. (sun exposure time), but we were all pretty drunk, so that might be wrong!

Someone send happy canopy-finding vibes to Z-hills b/c my main is gone....they've been looking for it all day and no luck so far. Loaned it to a friend and she had to chop. She's fine, which is great, but the canopy is nowehere to be found. She chopped it on the sunset load yesterday. I'm freaking out. I do not have gobs of cash right now to go out and buy a new one.

Where did I say it is okay for manufacturers to not deliver on time? Or maybe you were replying to the thread in general and not to my post?

While I was at Sunrise (Aug '01-March '03) if rush orders were going to push back the delivery dates of other orders, they'd ask production workers to work late or come in on a Saturday to help meet the dates. They'd work OT if there were gobs of orders coming through too. As far as I know, Henri still does this. If you don't have ppl doing OT or anything, rush orders can definitely push back "regular orders" though, depending on the number of rushes. Rush orders in and of themselves are not a bad thing, the issue is how the manufacturer works them into the system. (in my opinion anyhow)

Yummy grapefruits growing across the street! And there's no way the little ol' lady that lives there could eat that many grapefruits, so I just help myself every once in a while.

Guess you don't do many jumps in the summers then? (in between the rain showers) To me it's only really bad July-Sep. Those are the months where you wear as little clothes as possible while jumping! (That should get some guys to move down...chicks packing while practically naked!) As far as FL goes, one of the reasons I am glad I moved back here after college is that I was able to buy a house at age 23 even though I didn't make a ton of money. (I'm 26 now) The large majority of my friends up north (PA, NY, NJ, etc) haven't even thought of buying houses yet, too damn expensive, unless you want to buy a complete fixer-upper.

2 jumps, 3 canopy rides, go figure. Oh well, my Cypres was due for its 4 year anyhow!