voilsb

Flying out of Phoenix, I had the TSA guy inform me that it's nation-wide TSA policy that a supervisor clears *every* parachute, and recommended I tell the scanner in advance that it's a parachute so they could call the supervisor over sooner. Gave me an anecdote about some guy who got through without being screened by a supervisor, supervisor sees the rig on the screen, asks "did that get cleared?" told "no" then shuts down the airport to locate and swab the rig. But other than having my rig swabbed, never any other issues. I travel with it in its own roller-bag. Brian

Brian

I'll be there, probably Thursday night through Sunday night. Brian

Yeah, I've seen some video of dogs being jumped in WW2. I've seen some Vietnam-era photos of dogs rigged up like a rucksack would be, ruck on the jumpers back, and belly-wart reserve the only parachute there. Brian

Here are some currency / time-in-sport requirements that don't seem to restrictive to me: "3 years as a current USPA member" - ie, if you let your membership lapse, that time doesn't count. So if you made a jump, then took 10 years off, chances are you didn't keep up your membership. Only the first of those 10 years is likely to count. "6 hours of freefall with 200 jumps in the last 18 months" - similar to the wingsuit currency requirement. Not too hard to do if you're motivated. Not too expensive if you can afford to take an instructor course. "500 jumps in the last 4 years" - yeah, technically you could get around this by making 30 jumps the first year, 10 the second, 10 the third, and 450 the fourth year, but then you'd still be somewhat current. Just some food for thought. Brian

How many of them failed, because they lacked the experience to safely take students? Brian

I've read on here about jumpers (with thousands of jumps) who took over 50 jumps to get their A license. Brian

Well, he's invoked the Prime Directive. There can be no going back now after the mention of Coolness vs. Goofiness. Christ, If students only knew that they could fly and learn just as well in a pair of Sears coveralls, the Jumpsuit Industry would collapse. But it really helps the riggers' business when they rip the knees out of those expensive jumpsuits 4 or 5 times in their first 100 jumps. Kevin K. Funny you mention that. My first jumpsuit was a set of coveralls I sewed grippers and booties onto. Brian

There's a couple of you who report 3-500 ft openings on a spectre. How do you pack it to open that quick? I've *tried* to get my canopies (Sabre2 and Triathlon) to open that quickly, and haven't been able to. I can sometimes get my tri to open in 600 feet, but usually it's around 800 ft. My sabre2 used to take about 1000ft to open, when i was trying to get it to open quickly. Also, since the spectre is known for slow, snively openings, and both my canopies are known for speedier ones, I'd love to learn your tricks to speed it up. I'm tired of spending (nearly) a thousand feet of a skydive lost in between freefall and canopy flight Brian

I've done some searching, and can't find any information about this. For the record, I'm not looking to do any modifications, I'm merely curious about the engineering and design of the parachutes. Does anyone know how much the weight of a slider affects the opening characteristics? For example, the difference between a flat, non-collapsible ZP slider with brass grommets, and the same sized slider that's collapsible (two strings, like PD) and has stainless steel grommets? The sliders have the same dimensions, but the steel weighs more than the brass, and the extra material (the two lines, reinforcement, and ZP channel for them) also ads weight. On an otherwise identical setup, how might the openings be different between those two conditions? Brian

I didn't know this. I recently bought a VISO 2, but never read the manual I'll have to now, to check out this new features. Brian

This thread makes me wonder ... Define "chemistry" how it means to you. Because I'm willing to bet the guy would say "yeah, we had great chemistry." But as was posted earlier, you did go into the date with the presupposition that he wasn't right for you, whether you intended to or not. And as was also posted earlier, love grows. Sometimes it grows out of a crush, or instant-chemistry, or omg-he's-so-hot, but sometimes it doesn't. And relying on that feeling can be bad, because you can easily end up with someone who's completely not right for you, but with whom you have "chemistry." I've been in both situations: involved with someone with chemistry, but not compatible, and involved with someone with no chemistry, but with whom i fell in love after a while of dating. So ... what exactly is "chemistry" to you, and why is it so important to find so early in the dating process? Brian

Hopefully it'll be a 4-day next year. I couldn't justify the trip for a 2-day this year. Brian

I'm from Oregon, but I don't live there anymore. Brian

Pics or it didn't happen. Brian

I'm actually confused at the utility of this method. Won't the length of the base leg always be the distance between your "B" point and your "A" point? And your "A" point should always be directly downwind of your target. You can simply fly from your "B" point, and either shorten or lengthen your base leg to land on the target, instead of long or short, exactly how you described using your "D" point method. Plus, I don't understand how you pick your "D" spot. Now instead of being confused as to where you initiate your pattern on the downwind run, you're confused as to where you initiate your pattern on the pre-base leg. It's in line with the target, upwind an unknown distance. You then crab off the wind line an arbitrary distance, run downwind past your target, crab toward the wind line the same arbitrary distance you crabbed early, then hold into the wind along the windline. How is this more accurate than setting up and running and arbitrary distance off the windline, crabbing toward the windline, then holding into the wind in line with your target? You still never determined how far downwind to run or how far upwind to start, in order to actually land on the target. And the base leg was still an arbitrary distance off the windline, decided before you ever ran downwind. Also, you reference altitudes like 1200, 900, 600, and 300 feet. The SIM references 1000, 600, and 300 feet. Many instructors reference 1000, 500, and 300 or 250 feet. How do you adjust your "D" point method for these different altitude differences? You mentioned this scenario, but didn't bother to address it for some reason. Or do you suggest that we should stop using these other pattern altitudes, and keep them all at equal (300') intervals? I apologize if I sound too critical, and it's probably my lack of experience that caused this situation, but I read the article and genuinely thought "How does this help me? I don't know anybody who flies equidistant patterns like that, and everybody knows your base leg is the distance between your downwind and final legs." Edited to add: I haven't tried this method yet, but I plan to next time I get in the air, which hopefully will be Sunday. Brian

It's on the line trim chart: http://performancedesigns.com/docs/linetrims/VE_075-120LT.pdf Brian

Wait ... there's seriously a team called the Pogues? Brian

I see the same thing with FireFox 3.5.2 on both Linux and Windows. Blocking ads with the NoScript addon makes it work properly. If I start allowing scripts one at a time, the problem happens when I allow eyereturn.com, which is an ad hosting service. It does appear to be the Kokanee ads, as far as I can tell (it's crappy beer anyway!). I was about to post about an ad causing issues. I run adblock, but I choose to allow dz.com ads because I visit the site often enough. I'll try blocking that one ad, and see if my experience works. Brian

My brother's into amateur photography, and his birthday's coming up. He's got an Olympus E-Volt E500, and I'd like to get him a quality, compatible flash for his birthday. What kind of flash should I get him, that he can grow into but won't break my bank account? Any good sources for these types of things? I've tried to do some searches, but I'm not having any luck, really. I'm more finding stuff about flash settings, than units. This won't be used for skydiving. PS: I'm browsing B&H to get some ideas, but I'm not terribly knowledgeable in this field, so much of it may as well be in Sanskrit. Brian

I had the opportunity to jump my Raven II G a couple weeks ago. It's a 218, so it's slightly smaller than yours. I was surprised at how much glide it had (0-3mph surface wind). Real soft landing. I didn't try to stand it up, but I easily could have. Mine was loaded at somewhere between 0.98 and 1.03. No stall issues or anything. Barely lost any altitude at all in turns. Brian

I work for the same division-level command, but a different brigade and below command. And they require brigade-level approval to try out. Either way, it's too late for this year. Brian

And my local command won't let me even apply for the tryouts Maybe next year Brian

I'm back, and I appreciate the majority of the comments. My decision altitude was 1,500 feet. When I reached that, I stopped trying to fix things and chopped. I honestly don't know how much time and altitude went by between making the decision and breaking free from the risers, but I'd guess (SWAG) a second and maybe 100 feet. After reading Reginald's post, I re-read chapter 5 of the SIM, and realized I had forgotten that they recommend 1,800 feet. Now, my decision alt is 1,800 feet. I also very much enjoy the canopy ride. I normally pull between 3,500 and 3,000 feet. I'm comfortable pulling at 2,500, but I prefer to pull higher. On this jump, the other jumpers wanted to pull at 2,500. Since I was asking to jump with them, and I'm not uncomfortable pulling there, I pulled at their altitude. About the only time I pull at 2,500 is when the rules, organizer, or rest of the group wants to pull there. For instance, I'm doing some 4-way comp this weekend, and track-off is mandated at 4,000 ft. I'll probably "cheat" anyways and pull around 2,800 or 2,700 feet. Also, I'm not sure if it was meant for me or not ... but I pulled silver *then* arched. In other news, my rigger called me and asked if I noticed a built-in turn on the reserve ... because the left steering line was five inches shorter than the right one. I didn't notice it, but that might have been the adrenaline/etc mucking with my perception. Brian

Load 1 Sunday morning at Skydive Houston. First jump in a week. Javelin J4 container, Sabre2 190 (1.15:1), Super Raven 218 (1:1). RSL. Last repack was in March. Did an uneventful 3-way fun jump. Broke at 4 grand, pilot chute left my hand about 2550. Got half a line twist during the snivel, but it cleared before opening. Opened up flat, no problems. Reached up to collapse my slider, and it started spinning to the right. My first thought, was that it was a closed end cell, so I started pumping my rears to inflate it, while checking and noticing that all the cells looked inflated, and all the lines looked good (from what I can remember). By this time, I was passing 1,500 feet, so I decided I wasn't going to play with it anymore. Just like I've always practiced, look down, grab red, grab silver, pull red, pull silver. I noticed that it didn't really take much force at all to pull those handles. I'd done it before, on my rig and on others, but that was all while standing in a rigging loft. I *knew* it doesn't take much force, but it was altogether different to *experience* it. After what felt like 5 seconds or so, relieved that I got disconnected and wasn't spinning anymore, I thought to myself "hmm, I should probably arch just in case" and went into a good, deep arch. A couple seconds later, I thought "I wonder when this thing is gonna open?" while looking at the silver handle in my hand. I'm thinking I should check on it, when I feel myself get pulled upright again, and I looked up to see a beautiful blue canopy with big red toggles. I found myself thinking "I thought my reserve was white? Oh, no, that was the freebag, not the canopy." About this time I go to stash my handles, and think "Oh crud, I dropped my cutaway handle. Oh well, I still have my reserve handle. Oh neat, the RSL beat me to the pull, but not by much." The kink was about 1 cm from the closing pin. So I stash my handle, unstow my breaks, and orient myself. "Nope, I can't make it back to the airport. Let's see where I can land. Hmm, nice field, but those power lines look awfully iffy. Hey, that's a big field! Nope, that looks like tall crops or something. Well, I guess I'll land with those cows down there." When un-stowing my brakes, I noticed they're harder to un-stow than my main's. Probably the velcro, but I didn't think of that at the time. Just noticed that it was a little harder. I also looked at my altimeter when I was grabbing my toggles, and it said 870. So from decision at 1,500 feet, to cutaway, reserve deployment, stash handles, and determining I had to land out, took about 600 feet. Did a controllability check, and flew a pattern into the cow pasture. The whole time, I was thinking about all the things I've read about Ravens stalling during the landing flare if loaded more than 1:1. Mine was right at 1:1, maybe 1.01:1 at the most, so I was a little nervous, and decided up high I wasn't even going to try to stand it up. I've demoed an Optimum 193, but this Raven 218 seemed to glide faster across the ground. Maybe it was the canopy, maybe it was the (lack of) wind. There was *maybe* a 3mph surface wind on this jump. So I did a couple of slow turns to bleed off some altitude, so I could still make the field, and not hit trees or power lines. Once I settled into final, it looked like I was going to land on some cows, who were running away from me, but not making any distance. This was pretty humorous, but not very useful. So I turned about 45 degrees to the right, and gee whiz, there's a cow standing still right where I'm going to land. So I kick my feet and yell "hey cow, run away, move, move!" and he gets spooked, and runs away. I very softly slide a PLF, and thankfully didn't get any cow poo on my jumpsuit. I could have easily stood that up, but I wasn't taking any chances. At this point, my adrenaline was pumping quite well, and I was trying to dig out my cell phone to let manifest know where I landed and that I was safe and uninjured, but about the time I got it out, someone was already pulling up along side the field to pick me up. He said he watched the cutaway, but lost track of the main behind some trees. Said from break away to fully inflated reserve took less than 3 seconds. To me, it felt more like 10-15. We drove back to the DZ, I dropped the gear in the loft, and we went and recovered my main. I made 3 more jumps on the main today, and it behaved well on all 3 jumps. All the lines seemed good, the slider was all the way down, and there wasn't a brake fire. I had thought I pumped my brakes, but they were still stowed when the canopy was recovered. Un-stowing them may have prevented the cutaway, but I was at my decision altitude so I was done trying to fix it. I never did find my reserve PC/bridal and freebag. Anyone know where I can get one delivered here by Wednesday or Thursday? I'd like my rig repacked before Tuesday the 28th, because I'm flying to Ireland for the boogie and don't really want to rent gear. First cut-away, first off-field landing. Beer (plus repack, pilot chute, freebag, liquor, and cutaway handle) is a cheap price to pay for not dying. It was also interesting to notice the time perception and the trivial things that went through my mind, like questioning the color of the canopy. Looking back, it was actually kind of fun, too. I'll definitely do intentional cutaways in the future when I have the opportunity to jump a tertiary rig. Brian