stratostar

You got to do what you feel is best for you, it's not my ass under your canopy dealing with what ever. I gave my answers based on what I was trained to do many years ago and what I train for a two handle system, for me the EP plan is not broken, so I'm not going to try to fix what I see is not broken. I teach this method for a number of reason, some I have already posted. I also teach students to "strip" and toss the handles, because there is no reason to have something in your hand that could wrap around a RPC or bridle in an unstable deployment, a fifty dollar handle is not worth your life and can be replaced. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

*** So on cutaway #5, I tried it. Brand new rig. Stiff velcro. Caught me by surprize. My hand slipped. I almost hucked my reserve. It was really hard to convince my body to stop what was set in motion and go back to the cutaway again. In a high stress situation, there is little thinking and more acting. *** Ya know, I have said as I posted above, just this type of thing can happen, and some people will always come back with what are the odds of that happening, and here we have a poster with real life EXP. backing up just what I said can happen. Bonnie, what do you think may have been the out come had you not stopped and did fire the reserve on #5 ? My guess is it may have not been good, then again it is still 50-50 as to the outcome. So you young jumpers do what you want, but you had better think some of this stuff through a little more, there is a reason you see post from oldtimers, like the Prof's post above, I bet he uses two hands now after learning first hand how shit don't always work as we think it will, I follow the the boy scout motto, "be prepared", expect the worst and hope for the best. I was trained on old school gear and looking at what you were doing was a big part of EP's pulling stuff out of order can and has killed! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Nope, it worked just fine for me when I needed it, stable R deployment. To the OP yes that is what I'm saying. and both of you need to read my edited post above. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

50 -50, you never know and when the shit hits the fan and you need to act, is no time to be fucking around! Also ladies for most part don't have as much upper body strength, so I train it that way for everyone for those reasons. Edited to add, And I see the Prof, has real life exp. Let's say you do the one hand on each handle, and you have a high pull force on your cutaway and lose your grip, now you have a floating handle and are burning up time, now you have take your eyes off the reserve handle to find the cutaway again, the more shit like this that may happen the more chance panic will set in and you will waste more time or do something stupid, there have been people bounce who spent the last 30 seconds of their life pulling on a leg strap or chest strap. What if you have a hard pull on the cutaway and get surprised by it and dump your reserve before you intended to, don't think it can happen? You better think again, stress can make level headed people do weird shit you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

That's how I crossed over from shot &1/2's to 3-rings, it's also how I train it to be done. Less wasted time, getting your other hand in play if do have a hard pull force on a cutaway and need to use both hands. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Well I like the fact I got one of the first few made and it's the most comfortable rig I've ever owned, very felxible,I have no problem with pin protection and the bridle is so far in the corner only a 1/2 an inch or less is exposed and has never been an issiue, and it only cost me 650.00 new, on top of that Mike has the best customer service you'll find anywhere in the industry. I have sent mine back to the factory to have to original riser snaps changed to velcro, Mike offered to change it to tuck tabs for free, but i passed and kept the velcro and mike did the closing loop SB and reinforced the main flap at no extra charge without me asking for the work to be done and also did two custom mud flaps at no extra charge when I bought a colored RPC top and when I sent it back a few years later to have the harness let out some he did it at no charge and covered the shipping back to me, it is a very rigger friendly rig as well, I like the fact I can close the reserve like a javelin, (FYI mike used to make the jav) I also like the how well built it is, mine is a 96 model and still looks brand new, then again I take care of my rigs and do my own rigging. So over all it is a great rig at a low cost price and Mike is great to deal with anytime you made need service. edited to add, Most people you hear talking smack don't like them because they are a no frills rig, and that is the point of why Mike started to make them, no frills=low cost to new jumpers getting into the sport, those that rag on them want all the fancy crap today, stainless steel, hip / chest rings and all that other crap you see these days, so if your looking to be a hip in fashion skydiver of today, you better sell it and get you one of the high priced fancy rigs. But who really cares how pretty you look in matching gear wizzing thru 1500 ft with nothing out, the ground don't that's for sure. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Posting to all would be and wannabe players. Well you will run into that at times, but if your any good at what you do you will have a reputation and be asked to the fun loads or 4-way, and those who ask for you, will understand the fees. If your just doing it for slots and packs you have no room to bitch about the other guy under cutting you, your already under cutting yourself for the work. Dose this guy get in the rotation for tandems and AFF videos? Do you get in the rotation? I bet he or you don't for free, none of the other staff who are working would put up with it and no DZO is going to put up with one person running off his video staff who provide a service to the customers. (unless he can find enough fools to do the work for free and at their expense) Hey if your not into doing working jumps on the rotation, it's all good, but if you think your going to show to the dz with 5 tandems and do all 5 for free, you better bet the full timers are going to get bent at you. This is one of the problems in the sport today, every new 100-200 jump hot shit wonder can run out spend a bunch of money and slap some cams to their new helmet and then think their freefall photographer cuz they can take a bizillion digital images on a jump and toss out the shitty ones, and yes they get lucky and get some good shots, hell if you take enough your bound to get some good ones. But that don't make you a talented freefall photographer who knows what the hell your doing, it just makes you lucky. Let's see how good you are with 35mm instead of digital on full auto. And then there are the ones who have money to burn, run out and buy the stuff and could care less about getting paid and will try to swoop the guys who do it for a living in order to prove they are good at it or just to be a jump slut and will give their photos and videos away, and yea people will take them. (paying back those who helped you once, I do it too, nothing wrong with that) Funny thing about people who bitch about those of us who make money doing video/stills, you will never hear them say a word if it's Norm or Mike, or Laz, or Tony or any other high profile camera flyer, no they will fork out the amount asked and then brag to their buddys, joe cool big name took my photo. There is one guy who make the rounds and is a doctor, make's good money too and could afford to give his work away, yet I have never seen him not charge for his work, and no one bitches about him being well off and trying to make money for the work he dose. If you can get someone to do it for free more power to ya, have at it, sometimes you get what you pay for. As for guys who only want to do 4 way and will cover their cost to do it or work for slots, pack jobs and beer, go for it, I personally hate it and find it boring for one thing and it don't pay enough to hang out with a bunch of up tight anal pricks and put up with their shit, if I wanted to deal with that I would go back to the corp. world, it is far more fun to provide a service to the tandems and AFF students and fun jumpers and it pay's a lot better. I jump to have fun in the first place and getting paid to have fun is the greatest job in the world and that is why most of us do it and have spent thousands of dollars to buy the tools to do the job and spent many hours in the air to get good at it. Pay up or shut up, NOTHING in life is for free! And if you don't like it, go get you own shit and do it yourself, your way, and before you ask here what kind of shit to buy of how to do this, that or how many jumps you need, try doing a search first! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

It would be a lot better if there was a santa standing there with a big ass buck knife gut'n him. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

***Besides in the digital world how hard is it to connect one cable at the end of the day (when you would be doing the same anyway for yourself)?*** I tell you what homes, you go ahead and do your hobbie thing, and once you rack up the kind of bucks that most of us have in all our shit on the head and maybe lost a cam or two and all the rigs and all the editing shit and all the extra shit we have to do the job, then you come back here and talk some more of your bullshit! Till then, stay on the porch if you can't run with the big dogs! In other words, you need to get a clue! you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Sorry you guys I said "molar folds" but should have said "S" folds in the mouth of the bag, sorry it was late nite when I posted and too late to edit it now. The loop was factory issiue and seemed normal. Hope that clears up what I was trying to say. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Wouldn't want to steal your thunder. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I don't why? I guess you've never tried one, this one is set for free fall and only has three deployments ever on it, it's not a worn out ex millitary rag and will set you down quite soft, I've stood it up. You should try it, you might like it. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Terry, That was just a guess, with the thinking ,so much there maybe they need to use a pull up cord to close it??? I have no idea, really. I have never seen a locking stows hold lines like that, the more tension applied, the line bites wouldn't budge. The pack job it's self "looked normal". All the other riggers at first thought I was just messing with them and not pulling very hard, till they took a turn at it. I have posted before about this Jr. rigger doing work without supervision, and doing shit like taking a rigging kit and seal press to a pond swoop meet without the knowlage of the kit owner and doing repacks for those who took a dip. Couldn't agree more. More people need to pick their rigger as if their life depended on it, duh, it dose. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I have a few PC's with POD's that have no #8 in them and slide up and cover a fair amount of a spring loaded pilot chute, but a POD is much bigger then a D-bag, I also have a hand deploy PC and the POD slides to a stop to kill the non kill line pilot chute, not that it matters much on a PC and it keeps the POD from becoming a "freebag". All very "modern" old school set up's and works well, but I can't see any reason to use this today with gear on the market these days. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yes, but that is not what is being discussed. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

FCI knock off. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Yea some people are real camera sluts and will do anything to get their 15 minutes.... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

1. My T-10 OD green factory colors of course.35ft 2. My PC MK-1 24ft red with black,yellow,black stripes, never seen another one like it or any oldtimers who could name it, custom? Traded a 10 speed bike for it in 83. 3. Just a cool shot of someone else,I took. 4. Same as 3 enjoy you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I opened up a "modern" (break of day) rig last year and the locking stow wouldn't release as it should, I looked it over and over again, didn't see anything wrong as to why it wouldn't perform as it should, went and got two master riggers to look it over, without telling them why I wanted them to look it over, they found nothing wrong as well by looking it over, but everyone about shit their shorts when I grabbed the freebag and pulled like a mofo on it, it remained a bag lock and took two of us pulling and two people to hold the HC to get it to unlock after dragging two grown adults around the loft riding the HC. All of our best guess, is to much canopy in the molar folds. I also know the rig had been packed by a non rated rigging prospect. IMHO had this been deployed the jumper would have bounced. Also found (on same type HC) two wadded piles of bridle (3ft a side maybe more) stuffed on the top of the "ears" under the side flaps, I guess it would have worked fine, but sure looked like shit and was not per the manual, the aad was also repacked without a 4 yr or new batt. I was very surprised to see what loft it had been pack in last, seeing how it is down the street from the factory and has a well known rigger running the loft. For the record though this well known riggers seal and name was not on the card, must have been one of the flunkies. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

No you load all the attachments the same, in one post, if you can upload one, you can upload all in the same post. You also have 100kb to work with for size. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Sorry to hear of your loss, chuck. skydivermom, glad your pup is doing better.

Ok Mary..... you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

I have a film going back about 15 yr. so it no problem. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo

Surely you didn't think I was being serious. you can't pay for kids schoolin' with love of skydiving! ~ Airtwardo