faulknerwn

But of course it seems that their silence extends to reporting it to the NTSB/FAA because at least so far, no report of the crash is on the NTSB website.

They're not great by any means but they're not that bad. I've got 4-5 jumps on MR 120's - they flare fine as long as you come in with a bit of speed. The Dash-M 109 I jumped was far worse - it had no flare at all.. I'm about 155 out the door. All in all I prefer my Tempo's and my PD's. Don't own one but Smart's aren't bad either...

Is he talking about CRW or "stacking" canopies in the landing area so that everyone doesn't land at once? I.e. small ones spiral, big ones wait in brakes? W

And having had Jumpshack resize a couple of harnesses for me, its not hard as long as you're making them smaller :-) They did it within a week and for a very reasonable price. I am 5'1 and own Racers with harness sizes ranging from XS-1 to M-1 - all fit very comfortably and I feel very safe in the harness in all of them. The good part of Racers is that they fit small people really well and you can find great deals on them. The bad part is that you find great deals on them because they have poor resale value. So you can just do what I do and accumulate them :-)

See I have the opposite feeling. I've got 17 reserve rides (lots of CRW and tiny ellipticals) - I'm not afraid to use my reserve. But I'm not gonna do it unless I have to. I've landed some bizarre stuff resulting from CRW - doing a PLF on landing with no issues. I've landed broken lines on multiple occasions - I just don't wanna use my reserve unless I'm gonna be severely injured if I land my main. Using rear risers to land is something I would always do unless I was on a very tiny/radical canopy.. I did a demo with our student gear tonight (Solo 230). I'm by no means the strongest person out there - almost all guys would be stronger than me. I was using both front risers and rear risers without thinking twice on this large canopy (I weigh 135). I can see some small women having a problem perhaps flying on rears, but I have trouble figuring out why most people would - rear risers don't take much strength - not like fronts... I guess I'm not going to trade something I know for something I hope works unless what I have REALLY sucks... We have our students doing rear riser turns and flares on both levels 6 and 7 on student status. They practice flat turns on levels 4 and 5. Its required for the A license so no one should be not learning this anymore...

Exactly what others have said - stay conservative. Don't buy the hot-rod canopy, do wear an AAD. Don't jump in squirrely wind conditions. You can do a lot to make skydiving considerably safer.

Jist of it is - sudden bad weather and extreme turbulence. Canopies collapsing, only 1 noteworthy injury - broken femur. He's gonna be fine. I personally figure that he was just trying to get out of unpacking, because he and wife only moved to Texas last week :-)

Been doing those all afternoon..

I'm bored out of my skull here watching it rain every day. Any suggestions on entertainment? Latest pics: http://skydivetemple.com/www/albums/Floods/slides/102_0685.html

Pics I took this morning of the normally small Salado Creek. Note the car in one picture that got washed onto the concrete. They closed the access road of the highway... Another creek in town apparently overran the road and flooded some buildings. Our old dzo still lives in town and says they evacuated his neighborhood last night. Someone over there had a rain gauge in their backyard and got 9.5" !!!

So Jan - I understand that your personal view is against it, but if a lage majority of jumpers (as appear to be true by polls on here) want one - would you vote for it because that's what your constituents want? There are a lot of people out there who are tired of being scared of swoopers under canopy - someone else mentioned polling a 60-way group and it was unanimous. It seems clear that many/most dzs are not stepping up to the plate. I can easily avoid a novice s-turner or people doing deep brakes - but I can't avoid someone diving at me from above and behind. So my question is - what percentage of your constituents would have to be for this proposal for you to vote against your personal opinion and vote for what jumpers want? (And yes, I did vote for you :-) Wendy

We've been doing so much drinking in this rain that our tolerance has largely gotten too much to get that drunk! I did buy some seeds for crops that I'm gonna scatter today! Maybe trying to raise crops will bring a drought!

Call our weather guy and we'll send it! We're over double our yearly rainfall already. And it is raining again now and is never-ending! I figure if worse comes to worse, we'll at least qualify for an ag exemption for taxes!

I've googled for anti-rain dances without luck. But I think I finally came up with an idea that might finally make the non-stop rain leave Texas! Tomorrow we go out and buy seeds for any crops which require lots of rain. I figure that once we plant those everywhere, that'll surely bring on a drought!

Spain waives the rule for CRW jumpers I know..

I had to pack the majority of my student jumps (in '93). It was good for me.. I almost always pack for myself - when I don't - its normally when I've been letting a rookie packer practice on my rig (I jump 7-cell squares - even though its a Triathalon 99, line twists are still a non-event so I don't worry much). I've done a handful of tandems - my first wasn't till I had 20+ jumps, the rest have been scarier cuz they've all been with friends getting their ratings. It is a rush hanging out the door without a parachute - I about chicken out every time! I haven't gotten my rigger's ticket yet, but I do pack all my own reserves under supervision. That is relatively new for me though - I do have 17ish rides from other riggers :-) I do agree with the responsibility thing - especially for SL students but also for AFF - it is taking responsibility for your own life. I really emphasize that in the FJC - no one is responsible for saving your ass but you. My coolest jump ever - I was jumping gutter gear as a novelty jump - belly mount reserve and all - and the main ripcord was floating. I was planning to dump at 8k and I spent 3000 feet looking for the ripcord with no luck. As I stared at the belly mount reserve handle, all I remember thinking in freefall how I had no AAD, no RSL, no square canopies, and whether I lived or died at this point was completely up to me. I dumped the belly-mount reserve - to an insanely hard opening - and it was the coolest jump ever.

That was years ago. And if you just count miscellaneous we have dozens (Maggie, I-Chung). The cat is actually Dave's young cat that I adopted. She has the dogs very scared of her :-)

My dropzone started with just 1 dog and my 2 older (indoor) cats. Now we have 3 coon hounds, a small terrior, a very sweet senior-citizen doberman, and a third 5 lb cat who has all the dogs scared of her and now rules the dz.

I did a night dragplane once - that was very cool! Definitely don't take anything low!

Know we have 3 tandems today starting around 11, and sometime this afternoon an AFF 4 wants to come out ...

A couple weeks ago we had an airplane visiting from Skydive Spaceland. The pilot offered to do a flyaway load and 5 of our jumpers decided to go. Others of us looked at the storm coming in, knowing that the plane wasn't landing here no matter what, and didn't go. They got to 12k, someone opened the door, reached out, and showed a handful of hail to the others in the plane. People didn't look so good when they landed :-)

A month or so ago we had a group of 3 guys - all named Mohammed. Only one had video, so they asked if I could video all 3 exits. I climb out, video the first 2 exits, and then my guy comes to the door. As soon as he gets close, he plops down and starts tying his shoe! I about fell off the plane when he finished the first shoe and untied and retied the second shoe! I about died laughing. Needless to say our spot was a little long :-)

Playing Devil's Advocate here however - how many hypocrites are out there? Its been shown in multiple studies that talking on a cell phone while driving (even hands-free) is about as dangerous as driving at a level of .08? How many people think that everyone should be tossed in jail for talking on the cell phone while driving - even if they don't cause an accident?

I sent an FT50 back to the manufacturer last fall and received excellent service. The altimeter was returned to the US very quickly all fixed! W

That's not always so easy - I fly a traditional pattern with a 99 square foot canopy loaded at 1.6 - a fair number of swoopers have less wing-loading and/or are floatier than me. I do try and hold in brakes to get free airspace, but many swoopers try to do the same thing to get their own free airspace. I like separate landing areas..