peek

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Everything posted by peek

  1. peek
    You are going to find this hard to believe, but I guess I was there! I think that was when John was at a powered parachute event at an airport 15 miles away, and when some people did a demo jump there, he realized a DZ was close, and visited there that evening and gave a impromptu seminar. Small world, huh? I don't remember him saying that, but hell, we talked for hours. I do know that John was concerned about all the crazyness he saw when people were demoing Stilettos at events, and crashing all around.
  2. peek
    Does anyone know if he stated this publicly? Both of these paragraphs are true, and good advice to the OP about safety concerns, but they kind of contradict each other. So we have to ask ourselves, which characteristics are better or "safer"? Neither or both?
  3. peek
    Chuck, I imagine you are old enough to know this already, but you might drum up a conversation or two with some of the kids about it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakersfield_sound I'm not a country music kind of person, but I find the history interesting, and why this happened in California of all places.
  4. peek
    I'll try to give you the short version using one other rig as an example. If anyone has details about some of the other rigs, please chime in. The Tandem Vector (UPT) uses another method to prevent slumping lines, which is, less force, due to the drogue being partially collapsed before it pulls the bag out.
  5. peek
    You mean they have removed one of the 2 flaps, thereby removing the added safety of securely stowed lines? Not a good idea! Ask Strong Enterprises.
  6. peek
    Dude, your getting too old for that kind of shit! I hope the hurting stops soon. And thanks for giving the skydiving community an initial description of what happened. I'm sure we are going to talk about it a lot in the future.
  7. peek
    Yeah, I just made that video to show people that if you can do that with a Stiletto, then they can surely place their canopy in an imminent stall (where it simply becomes mushy), without worrying.
  8. peek
    I don't do enough video editing to remember what I did the last project. I just added another one in NTSC resolution. Tell me what that looks like. And if the text is readable at that resolution. That's what I think too. What are we missing?
  9. peek
    OK, I finally edited some of the video I did to provide some instructional related videos. You can tell what they are from the file names. http://www.skydivestlouisarea.com/instruction/ There is a video of my radically stalling my Stiletto (which is supposed to be one of those scary canopies that won't recover from a stall.) Anyone who wants to use it in their canopy course may do so. Hopefully it will help you convince people that stalling a "regular" canopy is not so scary.
  10. peek
    Sandy, no, no, no, of course I don't think you are making it up! It is so incredibly hard for me to think that there are that many people that are afraid of their canopy. Who knows, they might be getting that from their FJC. Please ask some people when you get the chance. If there is that much wrong information being spread, we as a sport need to figure out where it is coming from. Does anyone reading this have any ideas where this is coming from? FJC? Instructors saying things in passing? Unknowledgeable other jumpers? Or is the word "stall" so pejorative that it invokes fear in any skydiver?
  11. peek
    Sorry, I was making an assumption. I'll make a couple more, 1. that you are talking about Kroops goggles and 2. that you wear them under your helmet. You put on your goggles, then your helmet, then you pull your goggles up to where the top edge catches on the "foot". They should stay there until you are ready to put them down on your face and exit. I also forgot to add that if the foot falls off too easily it can be screwed or glued on.
  12. peek
    You mean like Kroops gogles? You might not need to give up on the cheap goggles yet. Assuming you are wearing a helmet... Go to Walmart to the hardware department and buy some of those little sticky "feet", the things to stick on the bottom of your knickknacks to keep them from scratching the furniture. Put one of those on the front of your helmet, and the goggles can stay parked there until you are ready to exit. You can even have your goggles and helmet both on and ready to go from the time you leave the ground. And if you don't like the flimsy elastic on the goggles, stop by the fabric department and get some wider elastic. You don't really need the adjustment thingie, just sew it on so it is tight, and replace it 6 months later when it gets worn. WalMart solves all our problems, right?
  13. peek
    Something in-between. I start them out with a Delta position and tell them that they may need to leave a bit of arch into it to feel comfortable. Then I tell them all about the "serious" tracking position and tell them that on their solo jumps in the middle of their progression, that they will want to start practicing that, along with making sure they are tracking straight.
  14. peek
    How sure are you of this? Is anyone telling you this? And more importantly, where are they getting this from? I can sort of understand them not wanting to "do a stall" at altitude, but do they honestly think their canopy is going to suddenly dump them on their back at 5 feet with no warning?
  15. peek
    Nicely done! It may be the style or the effects, but I can only understand about half the lyrics, so you might make those available, since they are based on some things you have received from your fellow jumpers.
  16. peek
    I learned in the 80's and I was told by my main mentor. Maybe others were not so lucky. I don't remember performing any specific maneuvers, but I played around with rear risers enough to know I could flare a canopy with them if I had to. There is an item on the 2 page "A" License Proficiency Card too. So what can we conclude from what you are telling us? There are items on both cards, so students should be at the very least, steering with rear risers on at least one jump. Maybe not well, maybe not doing a rear riser stall, but doing something. So does this mean many instructors are telling their students not to bother trying, and signing their cards anyway?
  17. peek
    OK, I'll buy that idea. I though you were all talking about no elasticity.
  18. peek
    Sure, I know about that deal. My Wonderhog Sprint had that too.
  19. peek
    Rig manufacturers offer a Cordura BOC pouch? You mean a pouch that is not elastic? Why on earth would they do that? Some type of elasticity is needed for security.
  20. peek
    Time to remove the USPA Elections forum? Another thing that could be done is to create a "national skydiving organization" forum to discuss the politics and issues of all of the organizations, (since USPA ain't the only one in town you know.) Then it could be left up, and would of course be busy at election time (of any country.)
  21. peek
    Yes, but a person needs to examine graphs of the data to really know what is going on. Most of them just read off the "magic number" and think that is a good representation of their fall rate. Maybe, maybe not.
  22. peek
    Not only is there not an agreed on fall rate, but people don't even agree on how to measure it. Ask most people with a recording device and they can't even tell you what setting it is on. Here is some background from a scientific viewpoint: http://www.pcprg.com/baro.htm But it is not going to be anything like what you hear at the DZ.
  23. peek
    Sometimes that is just the only thing that works. There are certain (young male in particular) skydivers that are just very aggressive about their progression and overestimate their abilities. I agree, and that is how I try to do it. Bill von Novak put together a list of skills like that, you can search for it or maybe someone will point you do it.
  24. peek
    Thank you for the clarification. I didn't occur to me that a name was needed for that, but I guess when a person is filling out a canopy order form, it makes things more clear.
  25. peek
    Al, what is this "channel slider" that you speak of? Another name for some other type of slider? Something with a different design than the ones with names with which we are familiar? I have not heard that name used.