BrettTaylor

I much prefer something along the lines of this... (BTW attached picture is NSFW)

No, but recently (last century or so) you Brits have been getting entangled in alliances with them. I think it was much easier when you were sworn enemies. . . Trust me the vast majority of us Brits are still sworn enemies or our garlic eating neighbours!

They are the same number of syllables... However (and I'm pained to say this) you Americans say aluminium as it was originally intended, the British added the extra i so that it conformed with the -ium ending of metallic elements.

Be nice, or the next World War we won't come and bail you out . . . again. If I were you, I wouldn't be so eager to start a chess game with a quarter of the pieces that your opponent has. Errr I think you should get your facts straight.... You would outnumber us more than 10 to 1! With much more (in a lot of cases worse but still more) equipment and more resources to throw at any war.... Still if we did go to war we wouldn't have to worry about "friendly fire" any more it'd just be fire!

Well I wouldn't be too hasty there Mr Vance.... I can't actually recall a war that the USA has won of it's own volition, so even with the raping of Her Majesties Armed Forces currently be carried out by Cameron and his cronies I'd still fancy our chances!

To be honest if you're looking for a solid gear bag the bag mentioned by the OP is not for you. The sides are soft and really wouldn't offer much protection from crushing with 50 Ton of other peoples luggage sat on top of it in the aeroplane, it is far to big to be used as a carry on also. As has been mentioned by other posters if you want to put your rig, helmet, e.c.t. in the hold I'd suggest a Peli-case or a Gorilla Box http://beaumont-tx.americanlisted.com/sport/gorilla-boxes-on-wheels-25-vidor-texas_18624739.html. The Gorilla Box is not as sturdy as the Peli-Case but is cheaper and lighter yet more than good enough to protect all your Skydiving kit IMHO.

Hi mate, Yep I've got the black version of this bag purchased from the PX in Camp Bastion, Afghanistan about 12 months ago. I've dragged it all around Iraq and Afghanistan, dragging it all over the place and not particularly taking any care where I go. It's been on upwards of 100 flights both commercial and cargo (cargo being the worst with the bag just being forced wherever it'll fit). I now work in Africa and the bag is still with me and with a bit of a clean would still look like new! I don't think I paid $100 for mine (pretty sure it was around $60) but I'd still say it's well worth the money. Oh and as for size you could easily fit 4 student rigs in it and still have a little room to spare!

Well I got my FS1 on 26 jumps so above average I'd say.... However looking back at some of my videos from jumps 1-25 there may be some room for improvement!

If you really don't mind roughing it! http://www.volkner-mobil.com/Reisemo/Bus/PictBus/Pictbus.html A snip at $1,200,000 - $2,000,000.

I call BS!!! The chin strap on a soldiers helmet (in fact probably every helmet) is part if the entire protection system and is used to keep the helmet in place. Using your incorrect example of soldier during WW2... The threats faced by soldiers in a combat environment consist of 2 main kinetic forces. Small arms fire (a round hitting the helmet either directly or by ricochet) and blast (this can either be direct explosive energy or detritus moved by the initial explosion). In both these cases you want your helmet to stay firmly on your head! I can quote examples of how chin straps have saved lives in combat but you bore me.... Unless you have been in contact with the enemy and have first hand experience of that rather arse puckering situation I suggest you keep your analogies to something you know more about, My Little Pony for example. Well...the chinstraps were buckled behind the M1 helmets of WWll because there actually was fear of a close explosion pushing the helmet up with considerable force & velocity. ...it was also a consideration that during hand to hand combat the enemy could grab the visor from behind and force the wearers head back causing a loss of balance and exposing the throat to a blade cut, for this reason the US Army developed a new chinstrap release, T1, that would allow the chinstrap to unhook under a pressure superior to 15 pounds. This development came in late WWII, too late to help the GIs then, but it was standardised ever since and on all M1 helmets refurbished and produced after. Point 1 - The chinstraps were buckled behind the M1 helmets of WWll because there actually was fear of a close explosion pushing the helmet up with considerable force & velocity. If a soldier was close enough to an explosion for the force of said explosion to force the helmet back with enough force to break the human neck then the force of said explosion would kill not by breaking the neck but by the massive internal injuries sustained by the sudden acceleration and deceleration of the torso. This is proved almost on a weekly basis these days with soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan having legs and arms blown off in huge explosions, several of (if not all) of these soldiers wore Helmets with chin straps that did not come off or fail and did not break their necks. Point 2 - It was also a consideration that during hand to hand combat the enemy could grab the visor from behind and force the wearers head back causing a loss of balance and exposing the throat to a blade cut. Bollocks!!! This is also easily achievable by placing the palm of the hand under the chin of the victim and lifting. Have you ever fixed bayonets for real? Because i have and let me tell you I would much rather my chin strap fastened and my helmet fitted securely to my head whilst I was running around the shit hole I was in, rather than falling off and offering zero protection at all. The benefits of a chin strap (even with the old tin lid that was only designed to protect against shrapnel injuries) by far out way the benefits of not fastening the chin strap. Any other anecdotal evidence you may have to the contrary is misleading. Yes in the news reel footage of US GI's during WW2 you will mostly see them with chin straps undone but that is because 99.9% of this footage is filmed outside of a combat situation. I tell you what you go into a real contact with the enemy wearing any helmet you wish with the chin strap undone and within the first 20 seconds you'll be picking that hemet up off the floor. Chin straps undone whilst in a fire fight, diving for cover, up again and sprinting forward, diving back for cover... Think about it!

Just to confuse things even more.... http://www.basik.fr/en/seven-xml-351_356-819.html I have jumped one, once, as you'll see by my jump number I don't have a huge frame of reference but it was uber comfortable and in red and grey I thought pretty good looking!

I call BS!!! The chin strap on a soldiers helmet (in fact probably every helmet) is part if the entire protection system and is used to keep the helmet in place. Using your incorrect example of soldier during WW2... The threats faced by soldiers in a combat environment consist of 2 main kinetic forces. Small arms fire (a round hitting the helmet either directly or by ricochet) and blast (this can either be direct explosive energy or detritus moved by the initial explosion). In both these cases you want your helmet to stay firmly on your head! I can quote examples of how chin straps have saved lives in combat but you bore me.... Unless you have been in contact with the enemy and have first hand experience of that rather arse puckering situation I suggest you keep your analogies to something you know more about, My Little Pony for example.

The original Enterprise! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Enterprise_(1705)

Hi All, Thanks for the advice so far it really has given me some food for thought! This is all rather confusing and I don't think I will be able to make an informed decision until I have jumped some canopies that are around 230-210 and see how they feel. So this leaves me having to wait until I finish work in February and I am back in the UK (as if I'll be able to get any jumps in in Feb in the UK)... I may very well end up popping over to Perris (where I did my A Licence) and getting some jumps in there, I'm pretty sure they have rental rigs around the 210-230 mark I can have a go on and I can bend my instructors ear and see what they think! Anyway thanks again for the advice it is all taken on board! Cheers, Brett.

I have recently finished my A Licence and I am looking to buy my first rig. I started my search looking for a good used rig, 230 main & reserve, rectangular or semi-eliptical, reasonably in date AAD, container that wasn't bright pink... The usual! After the best part of a month scouring the classifieds I found only 1 rig (230 Sabre 2, Javelin container, perfect) that would fit my criteria but just my luck I missed out on it. So with nothing else jumping out of the classifieds at me and being a little flush with cash at the minute I am seriously toying with the idea of just buying a complete new rig. This has it's pros and cons as I am sure you all appreciate but thinking more about it the pros are starting to out weigh the cons. So here is my question.... No longer being restricted to whatever canopy/container type I can find that will fit me in the classifieds, what canopy/container would you recommend? To help in your sage advice giving here are a few details about me... I'm 5'11", 185-190lbs (depending on how many burgers I've had that week!), 32 year old guy with 27 jumps. Thanks in advance be assured all advice however random is greatly appreciated! Brett.