amy

If the jumper leaves the main with me, I do a full inspection and repack for $10. I started that policy mostly because I got tired of all of storing main canopies while I was working on jumpers' gear, and $10 seems to be just enough that only people who really want the inspection leave their mains with me now. If they want to learn how to inspect their own main, that's free. And I keep the cutaway handle regardless, so I can clean and inspect it. Amy

Betsy is it just me, or did you edit that so that it doesn't look like he has you on a leash anymore? Still a great photo. Amy

I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of closing loop maintenance in preventing this kind of thing. Of the last 5 reserves that I've repacked, 3 of them had horribly worn main closing loops. An open container in the plane will at best lead to your landing with the plane while your buddies jump. At worst, it could kill you and everyone in the aircraft. An open container on the step is even more dangerous (imagine what happens when your d-bag goes over the tail and your body goes under it). Main closing loops also need to be checked for appropriate length. If you can close your container with one hand tied behind your back, your closing loop is too long (I once had a rigger-friend who said that if his girlfriend could close his container, his loop needed shortening. That might be a little extreme, but he does have a point). If your bridle comes unstowed in freefall, the drag from the flapping bridle will pull a loose pin out, causing a horseshoe malfunction (I've seen it happen). If your back rubs against something as you're climbing out, a pin in a tight closing loop is less likely to come loose and cause a deployment on the step. Don't let your main closing loop go "one more jump." Premature deployments are dangerous! Amy

I think you meant "Micro Raven," Rob? Amy

There are at least a couple of manufacturers still making integrity risers for customers who request them. The biggest concern I've heard about integrity risers has been over the fact that, if the riser covers on the rig are closed or the 3-ring is still lying flat against the harness webbing, the rings on the riser may have a hard time releasing because they can't "flip" through (due to being held flat by the body of the riser). As far as I know, this has never led to complete failure to release, but certainly is something to consider if you have integrity risers. Especially since the mini riser breakage problem seems to have been solved. Amy

Deuce, a machine, and a helmet . . . oh, the possibilities! Damn. Just read that I have to be dressed for this. Okay, but that may limit the possibilities somewhat. Amy

Arrow Dynamics will custom-build liners at no additional cost. Try on the model you like, then be specific about where it's too big (ie, too loose from side-to-side vs too tall for your head), and they'll build what you need. I did this and have been happy with the result; Frank at Square One was very helpful with the order. I'm sure there are other manufacturers that would do the same, if you're looking at another helmet design. Amy

I'm thinking there may be a way to save HH money even if you're poor. Bets, is he paying for bandwidth, or storage? If he's paying for storage space, getting everyone to go through their old PMs and email, and deleting what we don't need, could save a lot of space. C'mon guys, how many of us have hundreds of old PMs that we'll never look at again? Maybe it's housecleaning time! Amy

Sorry Keith, I was going to bid on you (I know you're worth a _lot_ more than $100), but you're losing to the motorbike. $100 for a ride with Deuce! Amy (now someone bid on Keith, or I'm gonna feel really guilty) Edited to add. . . and he's HOT!

Am I to conclude from this that you have a motorcycle, Deuce? I would bid on the opportunity to ride behind you at the mem day boogie. . . Amy (thinking of the things I can start trading repacks for, now that I've got my ticket)

Thanks for the well-wishes, guys. Just found the thread today. (strange to know that you've been talking about me) And it's $50, Lisa. Let me know if you're serious so I can get my hands on an Infinity manual. Amy (Wondering why my ticket makes Bill less guilty for doing his own rigging)

So does genetics explain the extraordinary size of your (oops, sorry- public forum) And don't give me that "it was a fanny pack" line again. Amy

Saddam Hussein couldn't even win the Iran/Iraq war. Do you think he can sweep through the middle east the way Hitler did Europe? He had modern day weapons in 1989, at the end of the Iran/Iraq war, so it seems a little specious to argue that he's 100 times more powerful than Hitler when he couldn't win a border from Iran. Amy

In most states, a so-called living will is not legally binding. It can give your family and the medical staff some guidelines as to what you do and don't want, however. In the absence of a legal document naming a specific person or persons to become your representative in the event of your becoming incapacitated, most states look to your next of kin for legal consent for medical procedures (or consent to _not_ perform medical procedures, as the case may be). That means your spouse, parents, or adult children will be making your decisions. If you have an unmarried life partner and haven't made them your legal representative, they'll have no say in what happens to you if you're ever rendered unable to make your own decisions. It'll all be up to your "legal" family. I also find it interesting that even if you've filled out an organ donation card and signed it, in a lot of states your family can override that wish and refuse to have your organs donated. Your best way of ensuring that your wishes will be made known is to draw up documents naming someone you trust to be your representative, and then tell them what you want. Amy

I don't think that gloves protect you, Dave. As for taking it off, I think it beats the hell out of finding another finger to put it on, or losing the ring _and_ the finger all in one go. But that's just me.

Based on the number of patients I've seen who were wearing gloves, they don't do much to protect you. They will, however, make it less likely you'll lose the ring in the accident - it might still be the in your glove when you land. Of course you'll have to find another finger to wear it on. Most jewelry-quality chains will break if they get caught on something. You may lose the jewelry, but it's not all that likely to cause a malfunction or hurt you too much. As Val said, if you have a necklace made out of anything but gold or silver, make sure it'll break before you do. Better to lose the jewelry than get hurt by it. But be careful with anything that's thin enough to cut you, or will cause burns. There are stories of microline burns that cut through jumpsuits and flesh after relatively minor canopy collisions and wraps. It sucks when that happens on your leg, but it really sucks if that happens on your neck (I have no idea if a hemp or leather necklace could do that, but I'm not taking that chance). I'd rather leave the jewelry at home, or put it on at the end of the day. Amy

As an orthopedic surgery resident, one of the patients that I got to know best was a 50 year-old guy named Ron. I met him in the hand surgery clinic, and I got to know him so well because of his repeated surgical procedures and clinic visits for wrist arthritis after an industrial accident. Ron's injury wasn't what you'd expect from the term "industrial accident". He was a maintenance man in a business park, and almost ten years before I met him, he was standing on a 12-inch stepstool to change a fluorescent light bulb when he slipped. His wedding ring caught on the light fixture and pulled his finger off. When someone loses a finger in an accident with a ring, reattaching it isn't an option, because the nerves and blood vessels are damaged by the pull of the ring. If the finger's taken off at the first knuckle, you have to remove some of the bones that make up the palm of the hand, or leave them with an unnatural and not very functional grip (imagine trying to hold a handful of change with one finger completely missing). That messes up wrist mechanics, and can lead to degenerative disease in the wrist. Ron had chronic pain in his left wrist, and advanced arthritis before he was 50. I think of Ron every time I see skydivers wearing rings. If Ron's fall from a 12-inch stool took off his finger, there's no doubt that the same thing would happen if your ring got caught on the floater bar launching 8-way chunk. Or a 4-way, or even a solo. Worse is when I think about AFF jumpmasters, who have to hang on to their students' harnesses through deployment. A lot of people think that gloves will protect them, when in fact they'll just make the finger easier to find when you land. Although I've never taken care of any skydivers who lost fingers that way, I did know one who was missing his left ring finger from skydiving with a wedding ring. It does happen. I'll never tell anyone not to wear jewelry when they skydive, because I really believe that it's a choice people are free to make. Just realize the risk you're taking, and think about leaving that ring at home, or putting it on a chain around your neck. Amy

Not to start the old S/L vs AFF debate again, but in light of the fact that half of the skydiving fatalities are now under properly functioning canopies, I think you could make a strong argument that we're emphasizing freefall a little too much in AFF. Both methods have their strengths. No, I'm not suggesting that we go back to the old days. Amy

If you think you may have a ruptured ear drum, I would strongly recommend against this. Cooking oil isn't sterile, and could introduce some unfriendly bacteria to your middle ear if your eardrum is perforated. A

Thanks, V. Amy

>I would have to say there's definitely some misinformation there I'm sure you're right. Like I said, I don't have more than a couple of freefly jumps. But what Yim was asking was why the old guys at that DZ were saying those things. What they were saying was based on their own perceptions of freeflying, filtered through a decade of history that I don't think a lot of newer jumpers are aware of. I'm not saying they're right, just that their view of things might be a little different, and there's a reason for that. I think I do understand where those guys were coming from, and it seems to me that if we can talk about this stuff, we can avoid conversations like the one that Yim had. >I don't think loss of alti awareness can be attributed to one discipline or the other. I agree with you - loss of altitude awareness can't be attributed to any one discipline over the other. But I was under the impression that when you were head down, you _couldn't_ look at the ground for some reason, or that people were being trained not to look. Sounds like I was wrong. Amy

>well, this weekend i was at a dz out of town and >got involved in a conversation with two old time >bellyflyers who went on and on about how freeflying was >ruining the sport. [...] >this one guy in particular was extremely belligerent and >told me that i was "fu__ing stupid" doing >freeflying because i only have 250 jumps and that it was >completely unsafe [...] >now, if his beliefs are accurate, then does crew "ruin the >sport"? what about freestyle or skysurfing? why >does it matter to anyone whether i want to sit fly or belly >fly?[...] >but this whole sport is dangerous. someone please explain >the reasoning here, because i'm baffled. Yim, I think you have to understand the change that these guys have seen in the sport in the last 10 years. Some of it has happened because of freeflying, but a lot of it has happened for other reasons. CYPRES turned 10 years old last year, and the first ZP canopies were sold around the same time. Prior to CYPRES, an AAD was something that was recommended for students, but very few experienced jumpers used them. It seems like anyone who made more than a few jumps with an FXC (the most common AAD 10 years ago) had a story about the thing firing at 7 or 8 thousand feet, or worse, right after exit or at pull time. Not because they were pulling low, but because AAD technology wasn't well-enough developed. AADs at that time were something that had a very small chance of saving your life, but seemed to be much more likely to kill you with a misfire. Reliable audible altimeters are also a relatively recent development. Does anyone still use the old Dytter? The one with the gold dics that you turned to set it, and the little nubs that were supposed to represent 1,000 foot increments? That was state-of-the-art as recently as 5 years ago, and before that your only option was the Paralert (if you don't jump at a DZ with some of us old farts, you may not have even seen one of those. It was about the size of an alti-III and attached to the back of your helmet). The reason all of that history is important (or rather, why it's important to understand that all of this high-tech stuff is relatively new) is because there are a lot of skydivers (and most of us are belly-fliers) who learned to skydive when the only things we could rely on to maintain altitude awareness were our altimeters (which are subject to failure, although it happens rarely) and our eyes. And in the absence of a reliable AAD, losing altitude awareness more than likely meant death. A lot of other things have changed since then. More and more people get into the sport through tandem and AFF, and that's a completely different experience from a static line progression. Climbing out onto the step your first freefall in a static line course is a very lonely experience, and if you didn't believe you could pull for yourself you didn't do it. There are people who started out in the sport that way who feel like tandem and AFF students have a safety net that we didn't, that students these days figure if they don't pull then the jumpmaster will do it for them, and nothing bad can happen And it's probably true that there are people in the sport now who never would have made it through a static line progression, because they never would have been able to take that leap without the safety net. You can either say "Wow, how coool that we can reach more people with this awesome sport," or you can see that change and think that skydivers as a population are becoming less self-reliant and more dependent on technology. I'll never say that anyone's ruining the sport, but it does make me a little sad that there are a lot of us who never landed after their first freefall, having done it all alone. It's an amazing feeling. And then there's the issue of freeflying, of course. It's strange for those of us who "grew up in the old days" to hear that freefly coaches tell their students "never look at the ground," and that a lot of freeflyers only wear audible altimeters. No altimeter, and you're not supposed to look at the ground? What's your back-up system? Some people wear two audibles, but there also seem to be a lot of freeflyers whose only back-up is their CYPRES (I don't know what the norm is in freeflying, so please don't flame me for being misinformed. But realize that whether it's true or not, that's the perception of a lot of old-time belly flyers). If you come from a generation that valued self-reliance, and if you have an innate distrust of AADs, then relying on an audible and an AAD to save your life when you can't see the ground just seems. . . well. . . it's just unimaginable to a lot of us. Please don't think I'm saying that freeflying is wrong, or is ruining the sport, or anything else. Some of my best friends are freeflyers. It's just that there's an attitude among newer skydivers that a lot of us don't understand, and unfortunately freeflying seems to bear the brunt of that misunderstanding and "generation gap." I'm not saying you have to agree with those guys, but just realize where they are coming from. Amy

>Uhmm, since my husband might object, she won't be in bed with us. Snowbird! Didn't anyone tell you? No canopy is safe until you've had sex on it! Preferably in the pea pit, but anywhere will do in a pinch. This is a longstanding tradition where I'm from...show her some love (and do be careful she doesn't get sticky), and she'll treat you well for a long time. Amy

>One gets the impression that most of the guys who post on these threads have never even _seen_ them >before. I mean, they're just breasts . . . Well if that's all they are to you...

What is worse than innocent people dying IMO? [...] Living the rest of our lives fearful of when the next terrorist attack is going to kill me, my family, or my friends. -------------------------------------------------------------------- The problem is, in bombing Afghanistan, we are causing innocent people (many of whom live in small villages and have never heard of Osama bin Laden) to live under just the conditions you describe - living in fear of the next American bomb that may not hit its intended target, and may instead kill their children, family, or friends. We can argue about numbers all day, but I don't think anyone will deny that some of the bombs we dropped on Afghanistan killed civilians. You can also argue that those innocent lives were somehow necessary to accomplish our goal. However, if you're saying that you have greater right to live free from fear than a mother in a small village in Afghanistan does, that's a different argument. Amy