ernokaikkonen

>Alright, lemme see if I understand this correctly:(...) >I disconnect the link, attach a 10 inch sling/dogbone to the >bridle attachment point with a larks head knot(...), then attach > the bridle to the other end of the (...) > Throw a slider bumper on there to keep everything neat (is this necessary?). Um. No. Step 1: You go to your local rigger and tell him/her what you want done. Step 2: Your rigger does it for you. There have been enough fatalities because of "Just a small modification" or "What could go wrong?" or "Trust me, I know what I'm doing." We have riggers for a reason... Erno

Oh. Weird. I found the site with a search engine, and went directly to http://www.chuteshop.co.uk/intro.htm Seems that they only bothered to remove the front-page... Erno

I don't wear sunglasses. It would be too much hassle since I have to wear prescription lenses anyway. Erno

>Q:What do you call an anorexic with a yeast infection? >A:A quarter pounder with cheese Q:What do you call an European anorexic with a yeast infection? A:A Royale with cheese Ha ha. Erno

>Can you purchase the whole rig with trim tabs, 2 in 1 assists, bells > and whistles, or is it all after-market shamanism? I looked on' > the PD site briefly and didn't see anything but(...) Risers are a part of the harness/container, not the canopy. As such, you should look at the harness-manufacturers websites. As I recall some manufacturer had an option of "CRW-risers" for their rig, but I couldn't find it right now. Your local rigger can quite easily modify a pair of risers for CRW. The modifications may include: larger toggles for control lines, dive blocks on the front risers, Nasser(sp?) -toggles for front-risers and 2in1-assists for the fronts. Erno

>I broke a finger a couple weeks ago on a hard opening. I must > have hit it on something on deployment. A friend of mine got a VX92 a couple of months back, and he had his index-finger chronically swollen for a few weeks. The reason? On every single opening, he grabbed the rear risers before the slider came down, and the slider grommet would hit his finger every time. Hard. I jumped the canopy a couple of times, and did manage to get a sore finger myself... Erno

Attached is a pic of my phone with it's 4-way graphic. Has anyone else made skydiving related graphics for their phones? Erno

To prevent a canopy from collapsing: -Don't jump in turbulent conditions. -Stay clear of things that cause turbulence: buildings, edges of woods, etc. ...and to lessen the damages caused by a collapse: -Don't jump high-performance canopies. Erno

>I always had pdf canopyes.bt 40 first,pro 140 and now a ninja 94. >any way , i believe in pdf canopies,then,you have a good toy. >try the ninja when you has enough jumps. You are aware that all Ninjas have been grounded, aren't you? Erno

>Am also looking for manuals on VORTEX - NEXT - TWIN reserve >anybody knows where to look for? Try the Chute Shop website @ http://www.chuteshop.co.uk/ Erno

I did spend less than 15 minutes on that, to do it right would require some serious reworking on the page layout.... And I think Sangiro has more important things to look after. Erno

>She also want BASE jumping to be banned in Norway, because >her brothers death "was barbaricly evil, on the boundary to mental > and physical terror". >She says that: "it is clear that he (her broter) was under the > impression that help would only be minutes away if an accident >accured". Un-freaking-believeable. Just leaves me plain speechless. Erno

>I don't agree with the suggestion of a certain number of jumps > as being a good guide to canopy skill. No, but limiting the wingloadings on certain jump-numbers might save lives. >I think the main problem is that there is no official or recognised > method of teaching advanced canopy skills (I mean swooping not CF). Proper training in swooping doesn't require insane wingloadings. All the things needed for swooping can be taught with lower wingloadings just as well(but more safely). What we need(IMO), is both. Limit the wingloading for a couple of hundred jumps, and give training while people are still jumping their less-loaded canopies. That way the lowtime jumpers might actually have some skill before moving to smaller canopies. >I had to do it myself but as in all things, structured education is > the key to making it safer. (...) >So I think a similar approach would significantly reduce the risks > of learning the skill of swooping. This is probably nothing more >than any decent informal swoop coach is doing anyway. "A controlled program of instruction" would of course be a good idea. And to keep the lowtimers alive until they have had a possibility to go through the course, wingload-limits would help. Erno

>Thanks..., howdya do it? RTFM Erno

>I'd like some tips on staying safe when working with low-timers. Feel confident. If you're not sure you can take anything the low-timer can throw at you, don't jump with him/her. Looks like you handled the jump with the big guy just fine; You managed to get out of the way of his swoop, and you managed to shake his grip off at break-off. With your relatively low jump-numbers I wouldn't take a third newbie into the equation. If you wan't to jump bigger formations with lowtimers, try to get experienced people on the jump. You don't want two 200lbs guys holding on to you at breakoff-altitude... In short: Keep the jumps small, be ready for anything, and have fun Erno

>My question is: >What does everyone do each weekend? >Do you stay on Saturday night and party at the DZ then drive > home and return next day? I live about 40km from my DZ. I try to get there sometime during friday(tends to be difficult since I don't have a car and the DZ is in the middle of nowhere). I spend the weekend and leave sunday night. I'm having trouble remembering what I did when I didn't spend all weekends at the DZ... Erno

>So when is a Whuffo no longer a Whuffo? When they don't have to ask "Whuffo you want jump out of a perfectly good airplane".

>>And you got this story where? >> >It's a joke, son, it's a joke. > That actually surprises me more than if it had been for real. I mean with the lawsuit described in the "Fat bastards sue!"- thread, and a lot of similar things recently. Who would have believed those to be true a few years back? Is USA becoming more and more ridiculous by the day or is it just my growing cynicism? Erno

>No rubberbands, the packer is just following the golden rule > of packing, "Lines to the inside, fabric to the outside." See attachments. To me it seems the packer is doing something in psycho1.jpg, and those look like rubber bands to me in psycho2.jpg. Erno

Something that would look like this? Before getting your hopes up, that was created by editing the code of a DZcom page. I added quite a few of css-classes, a whole new style-sheet, and a couple of new background pictures. It wouldn't be an impossible task though... I should go home. Looks like I've produced enough "perceived work" today...

Why don't you contact RWS and ask them?

> The scariest thought for me was getting a pilot chute in tow > on your reserve. What do you do then? That's pretty unlikely. It's easy to get a PC in tow with your main, but with your reserve the container has to be open before the PC even gets out! Not much of a possibility for it to tow with an open container... Unless the reserve packer forgot a packing pin inside. More likely(?) would be a reserve total malfunction. Nothing out after pulling the silver handle. The usual response on this seems to be "beating the hell out of the container with my elbows" or trying to reach the reserve container by hand and open it (And I think the latter could be practically impossible). One that actually can happen and does happen is a horseshoe. Getting the reserve bridle and/or PC entangled with your arm/leg/ring-sight. Easiest to achieve with an unstable body position while the reserve is deploying(and that's BTW the main argument against an RSL). What to do? Hopefully nothing; the reserve bridle is wider than that of the main, and is supposed to induce enough drag to pull the reserve out even if the PC is entangled somewhere. Erno

>What are they doing to the brake lines in those pictures? It >looks like something with rubberbands or something. Beats me. I know the brake-lines of the SET400(a tandem canopy) are partly stowed with rubberbands, I suppose that's to make the packjob neater or something. I have no idea why they'd do it with a VX though. Erno

> but I sort of assumed that Blue Water wouldn't have gone to >the trouble to market a two dollar product unless there was >chemical evidence to support it. Being the cynical bastard I am, I think it would be easiest to make sure some $1 pen doesn't damage the rope, and then market it as the $2 "non-rope-damaging marker"... >I've only ever used tape or their pen to mark my ropes, so I >don't have any firsthand knowledge. I know it's a tried method to mark climbing ropes with tape, but what if the glue on the tape has some damaging properties... Yeah, right, now I'm getting paranoid. I think I'll whip up a study. I'm thinking of taking a bit of ZP and a bit of 0-3cfm, make a lot of markings on them with different markers, and expose the fabrics to UV for a week or two. After that poke at the fabric and see if it rips... What do you think? Erno

>whats psycho pack? Basically a pro pack, but you don't do the s-folds, but instead roll the canopy to make it fit the bag. See this. Erno