klafollette

Now if the guy wasn't completely terrified, he might have picked up on a clue. If this was such an emergency while under canopy, why the hell is my Instructor still filming with his hand-cam??? Have to admit, I found it funny because these guys are publicly trying to out-prank each other, ala MTVs Jackass, and even get sponsorship money for the pranks. In that context, this was a masterpiece. It wouldn't be funny at all if done to an unsuspecting victim. If a TI pulled that on just anyone, they should have their license pulled, and then be taken out back and beaten with a stick.

Prank to convince student he's going to die during a tandem jump. Video link below. http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1923808

If you're going into the Bios (F2) Setup, and it won't identify the power supply there, then it has nothing to do with Vista, or device settings in the OS. In the Bios Power section, it should say something like "65w" or "85w" when you plug in the pwer supply. There's smarts in there so the computer can identify the size of the pwer supply. If it can't identify the PS, then it may only allow it to power the laptop but not charge the battery. If your laptop is under warranty, then Dell will send you a replacement power supply.

My V350, and the Wonderhog's got some stylin' shades. Holding a Samurai 170 and PD 176R

Something else to note that Brian explains in his guide, wing loading alone doesn't explain it all. It depends on size and type of canopy. A 120 and 210 loaded at 1.2 will handle completely different. That's why he gives a particular size not wing-loading for a given # of jumps and weight. Your profile doesn't show, but also depends on where you jump. A canopy will handle differently at sea level than Denver at 5K ASL. By Brian's guide, you should be jumping a 230, not a 170. I had a 230 for first 100 jumps, then a 210 (loaded 1.15) until I had 500 jumps, then downsized to a 190 for 100 jumps, then got a 170. Sure, you might be fine on that 170 99% of the time, when there are no surprises. When you can stand up your landings 100% is not a good gauge of when to downsize. When the shit hits the fan; someone cuts you off on final, heading towards an unexpected obstacle, need to turn low, have a bad spot landing out, landing cross/downwind, you want to be 100% confident you can handle that canopy in every situation.

You may want to read Brian Germain's dissertation on canopy downsizing. It will give you lots to think about when deciding on the appropriate size for your skill level. http://bigairsportz.com/pdf/bas-sizingchart.pdf

Okay, guess I was being a bit judgemental. Just sounded like a typical BS "I'm a skydiver" story. I just can't see an instructor letting a first jump AFF student run down the aisle and superman it out the door. That's what she makes it sound like.

Anyone know if Hillary Swank is a skydiver, or a 1 tandem jump wonder? On Jay Leno show tonight, Hillary Swank was on (Disclaimer: TV was just on, background noise, I don't purposely watch Leno). I had to rewind the TiVo a couple times to believe I actually heard her say this. Jay's asking about her being a "Daredevil". She said she skydived and bungee jumped. Jay then follows up to ask if it was just like a one time thing to see if she could do it and then move on, or does she do it cause it's fun? Then Hillary says this: "No I love it, do it for fun. The first time I jumped out of plane, I started at the cockpit and I ran and jumped out of the plane" as she makes a "Shhweeew" sound and sticks out her arms like doing a boxman. Everybody oohs and ahhhs like she's amazing!!! What?? Is she trying to pull the "I'm a Skydiver" bullshit story on national television?? Usually when I hear something like that out of someone's mouth, I ask where they jump and I hear "Oh, I have a buddy with an airplane and chutes, a few of us get together and he takes us up. We land in my back yard".

Did my AFP at SDC some 11 years ago. Great place to go, and I did by myself, didn't know anyone else there. Getting there from O'hare without a car would be a challenge. Could take blue-line CTA train to Clinton station, then it's a couple blocks to Greyhound station. Not sure if Greyhound goes to Ottawa or not from there. Metra trains only run out to Joliet I think, and I don't believe Amtrak stops in Ottawa, though there was talk of that in years past. Other than renting a car, you could still take Blue-Line downtown Chicago, then "borrow" a boat, take Chicago River to Illinois river, to downtown Ottawa, then hang a right at the Fox river, go upstream to the dam and you're there. Walk up the hill 1/4 mile, and you're at SDC.

I have a V3 350, with a PD 176R and Samurai 170. The Samurai 170 packs a little bigger than a standard 9 cell due to airlocks, so think it could easily go down a size.

Other than talking to local people, suggest you do a lot of reading. Pick a topic and do some searches here on dz.com. There's lots of good info, but you have to sort through the cranks and radicals and take the info in aggregate to form your own opinion. Brian Germain has a bunch of good stuff at http://bigairsportz.com/article.php plus his books are great, recommend Parachute and it's pilot. Dan Pointer's "the Skydiver's handbook" is a great reference. There some good articles on PD's website http://performancedesigns.com/support.asp?filter=sport. Ask somebody at your DZ if you can borrow back-issues of Parachutist and Skydiving Magazine. Lots of good instructional articles there.

Right now, you're probably more concerned with how to fall stable and land standing up, but as you progress, here are some things you could be asking. In general, there's emergency procedures, knowing your rig and canopy, packing, general etiquette, airplane operations, jump run, exits, formations, what to do when things don't go right, landing patterns, just to name a few things. How do group separations work? Why do belly flyers go before freeflyers? How do I know how many seconds to give the group ahead of me? How do I give someone a pin check? Some rigs are so different. How do I get back from a long spot being downwind? Do I do anything different depending on the headwind? What do I do if I'm on final and overshooting? What are some of the basic RW formation names? What's a donut, pod, cat, wedge, diamond, stairstep, bipole look like? If I get low on the formation, how do I get back up? If I'm really low and can't get up to the formation, what should I do? What do I do differently depending on where I am on the exit; what's the difference between rear-float, front float, rear diver, front diver, or in 4-way (point, tail, inside/outside center) ? What do I do if I'm first out the door? How do I check line continuity, how can I tell if my canopy is hooked up right? What are the critical things in parachute packing? How do I get this f'ing thing in the damn bag???? How do I tell if my collapsable pilot chute kill line is too short? How do I take my risers off, to flex the 3 rings, and put back on? What's the difference between a throwout and a pullout pilot chute?

When I took it, we all got copies of his book "Transcending Fear", which is also a good read for not only Skydiving, but life in general.

I took Brian's course a couple years ago. Even though it was "General Canopy" course, there were people from 50-1500 jumps in it. Even people who proclaimed to be "swoopers" learned a lot. It was mostly classroom presentation/discussion rather than dedicated flying type of course. You do have some jumps and filmed landings, but even though we were rained out for 1 day, I don't feel like I missed out on its value. He goes into a lot of detail on how parachutes work, what makes them fly (and fall out of the sky), and how to apply that to better piloting. Definitely worth it, and would recommend getting his book, 'Canopy and its Pilot' and reading it first. It will help reinforce a lot of the topics.

Ditto to much of what Inspired said. You can't go wrong with either one. Equally safe, with modern airplanes and equipment. I jump at Chicagoland Skydiving Center (CSC) regularly, but also go to Skydive Chicago (SDC) once and a while. CSC is smaller, more intimate, and I've found more friendly to new jumpers. You'll have a better chance to mingle and talk with experienced jumpers, instructors and staff at CSC. Your experience will depend greatly on what you want to get out of it, and how you approach it, either as an "amusement ride" to do once and go home. Or, stick around, talk to people, learn about the sport and go on to earn your license.

My guess is it's mandatory due to additional liability with tandems and risk of going low with students. I had the kit installed on my vector at last repack. figured the risk is low, but might as well eliminate as much as possible. At Para-concepts/skydive chicago, they charge $40 to install it. Make sure you have a Master Rigger do it, as it requires a modification to the rig.

I'll atest to the skyhook benefits from real-life experience. Had a spinner with severe line-twists. horizontal to the ground, spinning around, getting dizzy. pulled cutaway, and before I got the reserve handle pulled, already had a reserve over my head, nice and straight. It works. Plus, the freebag stayed attached to the main, eliminating a day hunting in the cornfield.

Yep, a 1" elastic band sewn across the instep, mid-foot, does the trick. Haven't lost a booty since.

I took a L1456 type (a similar one from a camping store). Took it apart. The strobe head itself is very small. Soldered some wires to the strobe head, replaced the big D cell with a AA battery, got a AA battery holder and pushbutton switch from Radio Shack. Soldered it up and taped it to my helmet with gaffers tape. The AA is plenty of power for a couple night jumps. Makes it nice and compact, flush to the helmet. Lights up the canopy real well.

Phew, SSK shipped mine yesterday. Looks like I avoided the world tour trip to Germany. Took 15 days to service.

Oh great, my Cypres-2 is in for it's 4 year right now too. Hope mine didn't catch your disease.

Our current home was a bit of a "fixer-upper". It had smokers and cats. ServiceMaster tried cleaning, but still stunk bad. So we ripped out all of the carpet, I rented a pro 5-gallon bucket sprayer from Sherwin Williams and sprayed Kilz sealer through the whole house. 2 coats on ceiling walls and sub-floors. I went through 35 gallons of it. Then since I had the sprayer, it made painting the ceilings a snap. You can spray the ceilings and overlap onto the upper wall, if you're repainting all the walls. Sprayed all the ceilings flat ultra white, then did rollers on the walls for color. I would only spray indoors if you were doing the whole room and it was completely emptied. It will get everywhere. Anything you don't want painted you have to do an extra tight job masking. The tiniest pinhole and the paint will get in there. One word of caution, get yourself a bunny-suit, and a canister respirator. And when you're done you'll look like this...

I had UPT build me a V3 for my Samurai 170 and PD 176R, and it gave my rigger fits, and didn't fit me. Was hard as a rock, yoke was stiff, and had horrible harness geometry. After conferring with UPT, they admitted that they sized it wrong. They made it a V348 but should have made me V350. They made me a new V350 and everything fit great. So I would think a 188 reserve would be problematic in a V348 unless thats one of those new reduced pack volume reserve fabrics. Don't know the Rmax. But don't take my word for it, call UPT and tell them what reserve AND what main you intend to put in it, and they should be able to tell you if it will work or not.

Need to get a sick relative from Phoenix to Chicago. Is bed-ridden, can't walk, heavy-weight, on full-time oxygen. Not critical, but would need nursing care during trip. Considered a ground-coach medical transport, but don't think they could deal with the 20+ hour drive. Anybody know of a reputable air-ambulance company/service? Any other ideas other than a $20K trip in a Lear? And no wise-ass "lease the Frankenotter" or "just roll her into a Casa" comments.

Wow, that was smokin. In my best geeky teenage days, I could do abt 35 words per minute in Morse code. Had my Bencher iambic paddle keyer tuned like a fine racing machine. But that was 25 years ago, now I could barely make out a letter here and there of what he was keying. 73's KD9DB