Deuce

Ummm... Viking?? I got another rumor too... I heard that Monkeys might fly out of Nathan's @ss in Eloy? Anybody else hear that? Wow! The monkeys that flew out of his *ss in Perris must have laid eggs, for new monkeys to be able to fly out AT THE END OF THIS MONTH!

Wow. Really? You Disney guys are just awesome!

Engage your rage. "Feelings" by the Offspring.

Yes. Emphatically. Sebazz is a total, court-certified expert on suckage.

I was thinking the very same thing. Wussies!

Darkwing, I do know what you mean, I guess I just don't have the right vocabulary to express it. Canopies go from "hella dangerous" to "real f*cking dangerous". Yeah, when I had a brake unstow on deployment I pulled some G's while I figured out why my inflated canopy was spinning, if that had been a highly loaded elliptical maybe I wouldn't have had that time, and maybe I would have had to chop. That makes the Spectre "safer" in that it gave me a little more time to assess. I think that in my little pebble of a brain I was thinking of Spectre's as safe compared to Velocities and Stilleto's. 300 plus nice comfortable landings lulled me into complacency about every landing being life threatening if you don't f*cking concentrate. Lots of people are smarter than me, but the funny thing is that most of the veteran jumpers have had a wake-up call like mine about landing. I was lucky to get away with no stitches and my head thoroughly removed from my *ss. The last thing I want is to sound like one of those recent weight loss successes who talks incessantly about how everyone should diet, or a recent AA grad who wants everybody to stop drinking. The cool thing about jumping out of airplanes is not getting killed by the planet. Every jump can kill you. (Yeah, I know "Duh!") I could have killed myself under anything out there on that particular day. Anyway. Spectre! "Less dangerous!"

I hope she uses it. I hope you get to leave the plane with her and the TM. I did an anniversary jump with my Mrs. where she got my first freefall kiss. Great time. My Mom would never, ever jump. I'm sure she'd ride a plane in with two engines on fire before she'd go. Fun time!

Well, that gives the same feeling as when somebody tells you you almost got hit by a car and didn't even know it. Concerned and relieved.

James Taylor, 1980, Greek Theater, UC Berkeley. Poor guy was kicking heroin, but what a crooner. Weird story. These three girls a year ahead of me in school bought me a ticket to see which one of them I'd take. I picked wrong. One of them's a dentist now. Think of all the garbage bags full of nitrous missed.... Great concert anyway

You could easily hook a Navigator 300 to your death if you tried. Absolutely. That's why I encourage people to reject the notion of any canopy as "safe". Almost all the canopies on the market now would have been "high-performance" canopies just a few years ago.

Just DO it! To have expressed the same thought, at the same moment as the rock-n-roll ballerina. I should sign off. That's as good as today is likely to get.

DO IT!

Oh, no. You will crap your pants when you see my camera suit. People see me and get this "Is he serious....?" kind of look. You and Lori look damn cool. With your ringsights down I do kinda hear you shouting in a Colonel Klink voice.."SCHULTZ, where is the OTTER?"

The Under Armour stuff is designed to fit skin-tight, so don't order sizes on the small side. I wear it every time I skydive. It really reduces the bruising from the harness pinching skin. When it's hot I wear a short sleeve heat gear shirt, and when it's cold I wear a long sleeve turf shirt under the cold gear mock t, and the cold gear leggings. I love this stuff, it keeps you really dry, and really warm. I also have the Hind Arctic Drylete, but the Under Armour stuff is better. The Under Armour stuff is really good if your jumpsuit is snug. They are supposed to be making it for women soon, so I bet you'd even see B-squared wearing it. It's like cold-weather spandex.

Not everyone can look really, really cool. Most people should not try. Coolness is the domain of the cool, and entry into that ethereal club is very restricted. Attached is a photo of two very cool looking people. Oooh. Camera helmets are so cool. http://www.perriscam.com/Images4/dsg44378.JPG

Yeah, Spectre. Very sporty when loaded up. I jump camera and I NEED those soft on-heading openings. I've got 320 or so jumps on Spectres and I've never been spanked or spun-up. Veteran jumpers get nauseous watching me pack, so it's real forgiving of that, too. Safe? Don't let anybody fool you. You can easily, very easily, hook it to death. My 150 is loaded nearly 1.5 out the door, and I love the way it flies. I think somewhere in the back of my mind I was thinking "It's a Spectre, what could happen" a couple weeks ago and I went from euphoria from flying that wonderful canopy to death-terror when I over-amped a landing and cratered. My experience with Triathalons has been uniformly bad, but that's anecdotal. Good luck!

Poor Lisa, that flu burned through my family in the last month too. One of my girls is just getting over it. My numbers?

I have the Hawkeye LT. I refit the padding to make it tighter on my head. It's a little heavier than the optic, and stiffer. The color is molded right in to the gelcoat, so scratches are easily fixed with clear acrylic nail polish. The painted optics look pretty bad when they get scratched. If I got one, I'd get the clear finish over carbon fiber. It's really all about how it fits you. It's freaky enough the first couple of times you wear a camera, you can limit that by being as comfortable with your helmet as possible.

Go Canon. I don't have one, I stayed brand-loyal to Nikon. The Rebel line is lighter (way freakin lighter) and takes the 2.5mm conceptus tongue switch jack without modification. With stills, it's all about the lens. Light SLR, good lens, good skydiving camera. You're probably gonna be shooting shutter priority at 1/500th with 200 ASA film, a camera that can do that for you, and has an integral flash, is all you need. The fancy program stuff probably won't be used for skydiving, so if it's a dedicated skydiving camera, save some money. JP

So shall we give her HipHop as a nickname?

The swing wing is to accommodate getting launched powerless from a Skyvan or something. On a powered version the swing wouldn't be necessary, I don't think. Wow. A composite version would weigh at least half as much, and even a Rotax 912 has about 80 horsepower. Twice the power and half the weight? Should be pretty neato when it's developed.

That thing gives me a tingly feeling like I'm climbing a rope. If it could work as an all-metal, I would definitely work as a composite. Nice little Rotax.......

Skydance does a protec-based camera helmet. This appears to be a thrifty solution. http://www.pia.com/skydance/system3.htm