krkeenan

Beware of Remko Bolt. He can become evil after a few beers. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Thank you for that thought. I think Taz packed far more into her short time here than many fit into a much longer lifetime. She was a wonderful girl and such a talented skydiver. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Yeah, my FJC used the "reserve with no pilotchute - throw it in the direction of the spin" method. Sure glad I never got to try out that one !! Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Yeah, I was trained at Doc Anagnostos' place in Dickinson in '71, a few years before the first Spaceland. Back in the days of the Bottrell Brothers and Dave Boatman. $40 first jump class - pretty good deal. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

I don't recall Ralph, but I knew Benton Brown, and everyone knew Bruce Deville. He was the honcho of all jump operations in that area the whole time I was there ('73-'77). I've heard some stories from a couple of years ago about him getting into some dispute with the authorities over student training irregularities - go figure. Does anyone in the Louisiana area have any stories about Dirty Bruce DeVille ?? Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

I've found that the best way to learn is to always jump with people who are better than you are. As long as you are honest with them when you tell them your experience level, then they know what to expect. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Bill Booth really did us all a big favor when he made it possible to not only cut away with one hand, but to leave nothing on the harness but a couple of smooth rings afterward. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Back in '75 or '76, I was in the Air Force, doing sport jumps with the Louisiana Tech club in Ruston LA. I had about 100-200 jumps and was jumping a PC with shot-and-a-half Capewells and a belly-mounted high tech Pop-Top reserve container with a 24 ft. round reserve. So, here I am making a routine death-defying skydive, deploy my PC at about 2500', and it opened into a line-over malfunction. Now, I had had a reserve ride before due to a total, but never had to cut one away. There were two important parts of the cutaway procedure with this equipment: 1) Stick your legs out in front of you, to aid in falling back-to-earth as you dropped away from the main, and 2) Put your left arm over your Capewalls as you pull your reserve, to keep the reserve away from the Capewell covers. These Capewell covers were the worst snag hazard imaginable. I think a handfull of fishing hooks didn't have as many places to snag onto as an open Capewell cover. But, I digress. When I looked up and saw that wad of crap above me, while streaking toward the ground, I freaked out with thoughts of nothing but saving myself. I fired off those Capewells in record time, and immediately dumped the reserve - no legs out, no arm across. I was dropping in a straight standing-up position. I watched the reserve pilot chute jump out in front of me and followed it as it went up - and stopped about 5ft. above my head. I looked at it for what seemed like a long time, trying to figure out why it wasn't going anywhere. I eventually became aware that the reserve bridle was across my face, and I looked down to see where the other end was. For any not familiar with the 24' reserve, it had a vent hole in the center about 12" in diameter. All of the suspension lines in the canopy come together at this apex and the pilot chute was attached to them. These lines amount to about a large handful of spaghetti. So, when I looked down at the bottom of the bridle, you can imagine how I felt when I saw this mass of lines hung up on my right Capewell cover. I had no idea of my altitude at this point, and this mess of lines looked like it would take at least a half hour to untangle sitting on the ground. This was about the worst thing I could imagine, and I could almost see my friends gathered around a closed casket. Luckily, all of this happened far quicker that it takes to tell. I reached for the lines, not really knowing exactly what I expected to do to untangle this mess and it instantly released. I think I was probably going pretty fast at this point and there was a lot of drag on the pilot chute. It took off like crazy and I watched the reserve canopy come streaming past my face. I couldn't take my eyes off that reserve, as it went from fabric to lines, going higher above me. I could see the bundle of lines snapping back and forth as each stow came out of the rubber bands in the container. Suddenly, the twitching from the stows stopped, and the round canopy popped open - I think my eyes were about the same size as that reserve - and it was over. I was hanging there quietly under this perfect reserve. I started laughing uncontrollably. I was at about 500', laughing hysterically. I popped the 4-line release on the reserve and looked down at the woods that I seemed to be over, aimed for a clearing, and did a stand-up landing, still laughing my ass off. They say that it's not all that heroic saving your life from some dumbass thing that you caused in the first place. But I sure felt like one lucky mofo that day. It's days like that one that have kept me coming back for more each weekend. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

I think a helmet would have prevented all of these painful ear injuries. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Seen this ?? http://www.break.com/index/slamball1.html Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Since the main selling point of the Vigil is that it doesn't need the periodic servicing, I'm not sure how that would work. The Vigil people would probably think you were nuts and it would probably end up costing you more than a Cypres. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

It seems to me that the only evaluation to be done is by studying the facts and figures. As far as "liking the performance" goes, what is there to compare ? You turn it on and you jump it. I guess if you forget to pull, and it fires your reserve, that's a plus,

Therein lies the problem with Vigil (in my opinion). Trusting the device to tell you when it is malfunctioning reminds me of the HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey. If the device malfunctions in a way that tells you it's OK, then you have a problem. Having a unit bench tested against known test equipment is the only trustworthy way to keep it certified to operating parameters. Buy Cypres. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

That is really the secret. Come in at full flight, and start your flare at about 10' altltude. As you flare, watch the ground about 10' ahead of you. When you see that your descent has stopped, i.e. the ground is not getting closer, then hold that point of toggle input. Try to time it so you'll be about 1' off the ground at that point - and hold it. (This may last 5 sec. or 1/2 sec. depending on variables.) Anyway, you fly the canopy at that altitude until it starts to drop again, then smoothly add toggle input to try to keep yourself in the air. This will give you the slowest touchdown speed and the best landing. I realize that this may be a bit much to think about as a low-time jumper, but just like freefall, as you get more experienced, you are able to perceive and accomplish more things. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Most towns have a gym or two where you can work on your physical strength. If you are not strong enough to flare the parachute you're jumping, I don't see how you can be considered safe to jump. Kevin K. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

If you pull one toggle all the way down and leave the other all the way up, the canopy will flip over and dive into the ground. At the same time, turn in the direction of the pulled-down toggle (ducking under the riser on that side) and face the canopy. Then, simply walk toward the canopy. it cannot inflate without tension on the lines. So, as soon as you step toward it, it will deflate. The wind speed governs how fast you need to do all of this. If it's really windy and you take time to think about it too long, you'll be on your ass. As you go toward the canopy, you have to move faster than the wind is blowing. If your pilot chute or bridle are on the ground in front of you as you move toward the canopy, step on it. This will also keep the parachute from inflating, as will stepping on the trailing edge. This will allow you to control it while you gather it up. Remember, the trick is to keep tension off the lines. Run toward and around the canopy, don't pull against the lines. Parachutes are like Pit Bulls, if you fight them they get more excited and kick your ass. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Really, the only cure is to jump more and get comfortable with leaving an airplane. The type of door is irrelevant. I know the economics of this may be a problem, but in AFF if you're doing only one jump per month, you may never get to the "comfort" level needed to actually learn much. Try to concentrate on the individual steps involved in exiting, such as, 1. Put this hand here. 2. Put this foot there. Etc. This will give you specific things to focus on rather than the fear you have of the door. Just my $.02 worth of amateur instructional psychology. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

You sick fucker. ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Learning is an active, not a passive thing. Seek out answers and ask questions. Try to find the people who know the most about what you're trying to learn. Believe it or not, many experienced jumpers do not care whether you learn things or not. It's up to you to make people teach you. And..Oh yeah, your survival depends on it. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

I'm not sure if that's the absolute dumbest thing I've ever heard of, but it certainly ranks way up on the list. But as far as using gear that's bounced ? A good washing will clean up just about anything. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

We just launched a satellite here at Cape Canaveral today on a very big Atlas V. Launch time was 4:27. Very close to 4:20 on 4/20. How cool. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

Some friends just returned from SF. It seems that everyone has a prescription.

The trick is...When you're packing, pretend it's for someone else. And when you're jumping, pretend someone packed it who knew what they were doing. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

What are you doing to celebrate ?? If you don't know what this means, please disregard. Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...

If you think some aspect of skydiving if not within your comfort zone, then don't go there. Why try to change someone else's mind about what they should do. This is a sport of individual choices. From an outside perspective all of skydiving is horribly hazardous, but how sick are you of hearing that from your mother-in-law ?? Kevin ====================== Seasons don't fear the Reaper, nor do the Wind, the Sun, or the Rain...