copland007

Here's a short vid I put together from a ground perspective... http://vimeo.com/14387816 -matt

It was great being a fly on the wall for this event, they did some great flying! The video should be pretty cool :)

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3743684 there ya go :)

I love my Pilot 168zpx. It's got about 170 or so jumps on it, all in the northeast. I've got it in a Mirage G4 M3. Previously I flew a pilot 168zp and a pilot 188zp. I've put almost all these jumps on the 168zpx while wingsuiting if that changes the equation/views for anybody. My views... 1) packing: yes it is smaller, but not nearly as small as advertised. I would say it packs about 1/2 size smaller than the equivalent pilot 168zp. The M3 is suppose to be 'optimal' for a pilot 150zp, the pilot 168zpx is overstuffing my container. After a dozen or so pack jobs and a little stretching of the container it packs easy as butter now, but the first dozen or so pack jobs were an absolute pain in the rear end to close the container... getting it into the bag has always been smooth as butter, that alone is worth the $200. It is so easy to pack it isn't even funny. 1st attempt packing it after the 1st jump and I got it into the bag with no problems. 2) flight characteristics: I don't notice much different from the 168zp except an increase in flare power but that isn't because of zp vs zpx, it's comparing an older zp canopy that's got a few hundred more jumps vs a brand new zpx. 3) self-healing: got to see this in action, ubber-cool!! My canopy draped over a bunch of thorny things in high-ish winds and my eyeballs went wide open, AAHHH! Brought it into the hanger to inspect, had a couple of holes poked in it from those nasty thorns, wiggled the fabric a few times and boom all better, thank you zpx :D 4) durability: still slippery goodness, colors haven't faded at all. There was wear on my slider I had my rigger attend to. Where the end of the collapse strings are sewed down the thread started coming undone and the holes from the sewing machine looked like they started to grow. Other than that I haven't noticed any unusually wear anywhere on the canopy. Lines are starting to show some wear (no longer sparkling white hehe), lower brake lines just a tiny-tid-bit fuzzy. 5) openings: exactly the same as the pilot 168zp, i pack it the same, and close the container the same (grommet up for WS, and my mirage has all the birdman mods). great openings, and when I have linetwists its always flown straight and level. bottom line... still waiting to see how long of a life I get out of it, but I have a feeling my next canopy will be a pilot zpx as well, love my pilot :)

Cross Keys was hopping this weekend, I got 10 WS jumps in, great time! I'm sure you'll bang out those jumps at the boogie O ;)

cool pictures!

HER! HER! FUCK HER!! Congrats

couldn't have said it better myself, what a fun filled weekend!!

We've been having an absolute blast at Jumptown! Some of Skwrl's shots are up already... http://skwrl.smugmug.com/Skydiving/Its-Americas-Birthday-Bitch/12805179_5rVwz#923180434_vVC69

That would be awesome if you came spot, I haven't had the pleasure of flying with you yet :)

... word ... of course I'll be there! 1) Veno!

I'll be coming down

From my manual :) They also have it online here: http://www.l-and-b.dk/optima2.html

According to specs 10ft

I was standing in the security line and a few stewardesses ask to cut in front of me, of course I said no problem. I put my hard shell carry on case with my rig in it on the scanner, and as they asked to open up the case and swab it one of the stewardess's just about jumped turning around with huge eyes.... "you've got WHAT in there? I hope you're not planning on using it on this flight" she got a real kick out of me sitting in the emergency exit seat hehe :) hey i've got long legs and I'm too cheap to pay for first class :)

It was an honor to know Steve, he always had a smile on his face and such an upbeat soul... you will be missed by many my friend! I went through and found some pictures I had taken of Steve... http://www.flickr.com/photos/mveno/tags/steveh/ Blue Skies forever!

Another article... http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_S_webskydiver.2681a13.html

Not that we don't have enough pictures, but here's some pictures of 121pm @ pep... http://www.flickr.com/photos/mveno/tags/121pm/ -Matt

I recently bought the FreeZR Mk2, I've only got 3 jumps with it, but I love it! http://www.flickr.com/photos/mveno/sets/72157609011930848/ I am still very much new to skydiving (11 jumps to go for my A!), so take this info with a grain of salt :) Likes - I wear glasses and have zero problems with fitting them under the visor. I jumped in -17 degree cold ass new england weather and the glasses didn't fog up at all. I breathed like normal threw my nose in freefall and only had a small line of fog build up on the inside visor on the bottom (a few millimeters), no icing at all. It didn't feel like there was excessive air movement inside the helmet like I've heard people complain about. Peripheral vision is amazing, looking up you don't see any obstruction of sight either. No problems looking down at handles, but the chin strap&pad does hit chest when looking down. Both a good/bad is the design of the visor, it doesn't have any helmet material around it so it doesn't obstruct vision too much when you pop the visor open. But it doesn't open up completely out of sight like the Z1. Comes with a nice soft pouch and bag. Dislikes - A little hard to pop open for me on the right side, but this is partly because of the gloves I was wearing also. Once under canopy I can pop the left side no problem and with just one side open it provides enough air flow to prevent fogging. No adjustments. This was ok for me because it fit my head perfect, but I could see how this might be a problem for some. It either fits or it doesn't, the liner/pads are not swappable like the older FreeZR. Cost of visor replacement, ouch... nuf said about that, not looking forward to replacing it. I let my coach fly it a few times and he was utterly impressed, best described response from him was "I didn't notice anything, which is good". "If I was in the market for a new helmet I would get the FreeZR". He did note that the time he landed with the visor shut that his flaring was a tad late because he had some visual distortion. He said it wasn't that big of a problem, just something to be aware of. Another guy at the DZ has the Mamba and said he chose it over the FreeZR because the latch was easier for him to open. I hope at least some of this helped :) -Matt