JeffCa

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/world-war-ii-paratrooper-veteran-finally-takes-his-1st-jump-1.2653396

A World War II veteran finally completed a mission he has waited 70 years to complete.

Ralph Mayville, age 92, trained as a paratrooper in the Second World War, but the war ended before he had the chance to make his inaugural jump.

“He's never been, in his mind, entitled to wear the jump wings, either the American or Canadian ones. And now this fulfills his dream, that he can wear the wings as part of his uniform,” said family friend, Paul Chaytor.

Mayville, who's from Windsor, gathered up his courage to finally make his first jump at a skydiving school in Wainfleet, Ont., near Niagara Falls on Saturday.

The veteran and his instructor climbed to 14,000 feet in a plane and leapt out of the plane in a tandem jump.

“It was so beautiful,” said Mayville.

Generations of Mayville’s family joined him at the school to be there for his big moment.


Video:

http://www.cbc.ca/player/News/Canada/Toronto/ID/2459763138/

I've just been informed that this kind of thing is your specialty and that you were indeed making fun of me. Oh well, maybe somebody else didn't know.

Amazon

******
I would say the number of jumps in Antarctica would be somewhat low... with a statistically high injury and fatality rate.

You have to remember that the South Pole is at 9300 feet+ but what kind of density altitude would you have there at 40 below zero might make for smoking landings.. not to mention the all white stuff which makes it a bitch too.

The Antarctic continent is a lot bigger than most people realise, and certainly isn't defined only by the South Pole. Parts of it are even outside the Antarctic Circle. It can be very pleasant in summer, and there are plenty of ice-free areas at sea level to land, no reason why it couldn't be jumped.


Reallly???

I would never have guessed that

Are you making fun of me? On the off chance that you weren't, yes, really. When I wrote "pleasant", I meant, "above freezing", which is totally jumpable. But if Antarctica were a country, only Russia would be larger, and there are some nice ice-free beach areas along the peninsula that could be landed safely.

Amazon

I would say the number of jumps in Antarctica would be somewhat low... with a statistically high injury and fatality rate.

You have to remember that the South Pole is at 9300 feet+ but what kind of density altitude would you have there at 40 below zero might make for smoking landings.. not to mention the all white stuff which makes it a bitch too.

The Antarctic continent is a lot bigger than most people realise, and certainly isn't defined only by the South Pole. Parts of it are even outside the Antarctic Circle. It can be very pleasant in summer, and there are plenty of ice-free areas at sea level to land, no reason why it couldn't be jumped.

Chris, from one small-business owner to another (not a customer):

I checked your long explanation just now and did a search for the words, "sorry", "regret", "apologise/apologize", and did not find any of them. I only found an advertisement for your products and a sad story about yourself, without any regard for the experience of your customers. That's not good. Everybody who got hosed by this ordeal should have received their suits AND their money back. And you should stop trying to explain it away, STFU and build suits to satisfy your customers. This can probably be forgotten if you just concentrate on keeping your customers happy for the next few years. It's not reasonable to expect that anybody who is reading this thread, which is where your explanation is, would give you a chance any time in the near future, so you're wasting your time here.

likestojump

I stand by my comment on not wanting to board a plane 10 years out of annual. And to the OP - I suppose the concept of an annual or a 100hr inspection for planes is just as arbitrary as the 4 year check on the Cypres...

Newsflash..... AADs are not planes.

Do you have any evidence of the manufacturer of the Vigil erring in their policy of not requiring maintenance at pre-determined intervals, instead of just when the unit tells you that it needs maintenance? If yes, present it.

Edited to add some nerd-dom: Yes, the number 100 hours for inspection is arbitrary. Humans like the number 100, because it's a nice round figure. It's a nice round figure because we use a base-10 system of numbers. We use a base-10 system of numerals probably because we have 10 fingers. There is nothing magical about the number 100, or the definition of an hour which it is in front of. If planes started dropping out of the sky at exactly 101 hours, that might be a reason to choose 100. Did that happen? Are Vigils "dropping out of the sky"? Err..... wait a minute......

likestojump

You are spewing garbage.

Wow, thanks for the thoughtful response. So by extending your thinking, some company could come out with a new AAD that requires maintenance every 2 years, and then make fun of you for letting it go 4 years on yours. "Are you crazy? 4 years?! Mine gets checked every 2 years! I wouldn't want to go on a plane that hadn't had a check for nearly 4 years, would you?! 2 years is clearly better." Tell me, please, what is so special about 4 years? Why can it only be 4 years and not more? What's wrong with 8? Why shouldn't we support annual inspections? Are you suggesting that nothing can go wrong within only a year? This is completely arbitrary.

Thanks for clearing these things up. It's good to have company reps on here answering questions.

Skydivesg

*** Although I'm really getting mixed messages about what Vigil does and doesn't require these days.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mind explaining this a bit further?

For example, when I bought my Vigil, it was waterproof. Now it requires me to send it in for a check, but it's still waterproof..... Not that there's any chance I'll be landing in water.

AlanS

I've just got my A-license and after online research have concluded I want to get a Cookie G3 helmet. I've not had a chance to borrow anyone's from around my DZ, so here is my question.

Can I get this helmet just by ordering it online (chutingstar in this case) with the correct measurements, or should I really do some more research first.

If so, what type. How did other here approach getting their first helmet?

If it's possible, buy a helmet locally so you can try it on first. Cookie's sizing chart was really bad for me and many others here. I chose the G3 because it's the brand that my local dealer had, so I could try it on.

likestojump

It still baffles me why someone wants a precision life-saving device and is ok with never having it tested on regular basis.

Because it seems like a marketing and money-making tactic. Doesn't 4 years seem kinda arbitrary to you? I mean, why aren't you sending in your unit every year for testing? Are you crazy? A lot can go wrong in 4 years. It baffles me why you wouldn't want your precision life-saving device tested every year. I have my teeth cleaned and my reserve re-packed every 6 months, so why not test your AAD every 6 months? That would be a "regular basis" to me. 4 years is not a "regular basis". If it can last 4 years, why not 20 years? What's so special about 4 years that 20 years can't also do? Do you have knowledge of how many units are found to be out of spec during these inspections? Is it zero or close to zero? I dunno.

If I believed that this was truly necessary for these devices, I'd have a Cypres. I don't, so I have a Vigil. And we don't seem to be flooded with reports of malfunctioning Vigils that failed to fire. Although I'm really getting mixed messages about what Vigil does and doesn't require these days.

love2drop

I will do that. I am not concerned about being denied treatment, I am concerned about being denied coverage for a major medical event and then my family being wiped out by the medical bills. I would rather have the DZ drag my broken carcass off the property before calling 911. If I do get hurt and I can leave DZ without 911, you can bet skydiving will never cross my lips. Ill request the exclusions on the policy but dont know why my agent would give me bum info, it doesnt mean anything to him other than I may have to find a new agent.

Yeah, you'd better not commit insurance fraud after you publish online that you intend to do so. What could go wrong?

Here are the photos of ours.

FB1609

***there are 18 Dropzones within an hour and a half from Ramstein

wow, that seems a lot! you guys must have a lot of jumpers

When you're not Canadian, an hour and a half driving radius is often your entire country.

Kirkk0herra

Audible? As of audible altimeter? I think I'll do just fine with a traditional one.

You didn't complete your profile, so I don't know your experience or what kind of flying you do, but if you want to try freeflying, the USPA SIM says this:

Personal accessories for freeflying should include:
a. audible altimeter (two are recommended)

So by not caring about audible pockets in a helmet now, you could be making a bad decision for the future. Get a helmet with audible pockets now, so you keep your options open, without needing to modify your equipment later.

Nearly every experienced skydiver that I know uses an audible. I started using one about 30 jumps ago and they're fantastic, even for regular belly jumps. I just started freeflying, so I'm considering another one to put in my second audible pocket on my G3, as the SIM suggests.

We have a caravan mock-up. I'll get some photos for you next time I'm at the club, hopefully tomorrow.

hackish

***In the post I linked to above, the UPT guy was kinda mocking other companies about the reason they can make a rig so quickly must be that nobody wants one, and that if you want one from UPT, you have to wait longer because they're so good. That could be it, but it's also likely mis-management.

I don't think it's right to ASSume that their lineup is as a result of mis-management. I own a Vector and a Javelin and I'd have no issues buying a Wings. They're all quality rigs.

Some offer features that others do not. My own personal priorities bias me toward some of the items that UPT offers. R&D, experience, features, testing budget, even the quality of the manuals are all things that come with being the top level. Just because they're king of the hill doesn't mean it's without a reason.

-Michael

I didn't assume anything. I said it could just be because they're the best, but it also could LIKELY be mis-management. If you're the best, and you have tons of orders coming in, slowly falling further and further behind in wait times, then management should do something about that. They might be getting some orders with the mystique of a long wait, but they're also driving lots of others away, and I'd bet the latter is a bigger number than the former. The guy in the UPT post wrote 6 years ago that they were looking at expanding facilities to counter their 20-week wait time. I don't believe that it takes 6 years to open another location, bring on extra shifts, or take some other action to increase production capacity. My strong suspicion is that for whatever reason, they didn't want to (ie. afraid the rush or orders wouldn't be sustained)

If somebody knows the real story about how they got to a 32-week wait time over the course of what appears to be a decade, please enlighten us.

woppyvac

... bought a Shadow Racer...

That's what I did too.

bruxelka

What size of the container do you use for your Pilot 188 zpx? I hear that they pack about 15% smaller then standard zp canopies.

I don't know the size. I got a Shadow Racer 2K3 custom made. I told them the canopy size and they made the container for it, so I didn't have to select anything. It might say somewhere on the rig itself, but I don't have it with me at the moment.

I got dacron lines on mine, so that increase in line size over spectra cancels out some of the decrease in size of the canopy.

I had a plan and colour scheme for a Vector when I was getting my first gear, but I changed to a different container when I had a long think about the wait time. I do not buy that there is so much extra value in a Vector that we should wait up to 9 times longer to get one (wait time at that time was 9 months).

In the post I linked to above, the UPT guy was kinda mocking other companies about the reason they can make a rig so quickly must be that nobody wants one, and that if you want one from UPT, you have to wait longer because they're so good. That could be it, but it's also likely mis-management. They must have been slowly falling behind on their orders for a very long time (a decade or more?) to get to where they are now, and failed to do what was necessary to keep up. It is theoretically possible for the most popular rig in the world to have the shortest wait times, if they have the production capacity and they're properly managed.

Then again, here in Japan, people feel that if the line is longer, it must be a better product. People lined up for 3 hours to get a Krispy Kreme donut instead of a donut from a "regular" shop. The more the huge lines were on the news, the more people lined up. If skydivers are the same, then the enormous wait time could be a good marketing tactic.

Hollywood5581

If I was to buy a vector or javelin I was looking at about 1500.00 more in price not to mention going from a 5 to 6 week shipping date but to a 3 or 4 month wait for a new container.

Current wait time for a new Vector is 8 months, according to their website. Absolutely ridiculous. Check this post from 2008 from UPT staff about the (then current) wait time of 20 weeks and how he couldn't wait to get it back down to 8-12 weeks. 6 years later, and it's much worse.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3255381#3255381

I'm 155 pounds with 145 jumps, and I'm on my first canopy, a Pilot 188 ZPX. I love it, it opens softly and the colour-coded line connections are helpful for packing. But you're going to be screaming, swearing and crying the first 20 times you try to pack it. It's getting better for me lately, after about 40 jumps on it.

councilman24

Lower your expectations and get a good used rig without the cosmetic options and with most of the functional options. I don't believe any newbie should by new.

Besides the difficulty of packing a new ZP canopy, most of the arguments I've heard against newbies buying new are financial, and are based on the assumption that more expensive gear means fewer jumps. Not everybody is in the same situation financially, so if one can afford it and understands the depreciation issue, why not?

However, I did what you're suggesting and got a no-frills container, just new. The Shadow Racer and the Rigging Innovations Genera are entry-level options that are custom-fitted to the buyer's body and canopies, and are very affordable.

So when somebody posts, let's say, 31 threads about downloading movies within a couple of hours, what's the best way to get that taken care of as quickly as possible? Should we be PM'ing the mods to get their attention?

If the website is too slow, you could always entertain yourself with some free movies online. If only somebody would post and point us to where we could find some.