darkwing

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Everything posted by darkwing

  1. that's only a decent deal if it includes a good main. At least for where I jump. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  2. Get some fabric, get some DEET, put them together. Make sure to expose to the sun a bit for some samples. Photochemistry needs a chance to happen if it will.... Let us know the results. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  3. Not the one you ask about, but I designed and built a canopy that ended up being called the stealth. First test jump on the day that Mt. St. Helens blew up. Easy to remember that day. This huge, black, lightning-filled cloud from hell was coming toward us and the FAA called the pilot and said we should get down. We did. Good canopy too, in spite of some very experimental features. I sold it to a guy who put lots of jumps on it. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  4. Does anyone else see the irony in a Priest telling some kids that their beliefs are really fantasy? -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  5. Maybe it is time to start collecting fabric and line samples and soaking them for a while in various interesting things. Beer has already thoroughly evaluated. As stated above, it is extremly unlikely that you will find the comprehensive database that you'd like. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  6. Nice, but is there a difference between the four of them? I like the layout. For several years I just used small sized bound notebooks (not spiral bound, but little journal-type things. I would have preferred something with a layout though. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  7. a ripcord is OK, but not a cutaway handle. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  8. This is not necessarily a comment specifically at the winglets you mention, but in general it is important to remember that just because something is sold, doesn't mean it actually works. Just because someone claims it works, doesn't mean it does. Just because they have data doesn't mean they interpreted it correctly. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  9. I remember reading a research report some s\psychologists wrote about skydivers many years ago, and I expect the findings now would be the same. Anxiety levels vary dramatically, as to when they occur (gearing up, ride to altitude, door open, exit... and they peak at different times during a jumpers progression, depending on many variables. They also reoccur with wide variety. Pretty much everything said above is consistent with that. Don't worry about it... -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  10. I only meant the Spectre was safe in comparison to what a lot of my pals jump. I had a tension knot once and had to land at full brakes. No problem. Most of my pals would have had to cut away their zoomier canopies. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  11. my home DZ loves Christmas gift certificate tandems for two reasons. 1) they get jumpers out. 2) Lots of them never get redeemed, so it is good for the profit margin. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  12. The Spectre. I have 400 jumps on my Spectre 190. It is a great all around canopy. Safe, reliable, comfortable, capable of being fun. It is a generation ahead of the Triathlon in design and performance. Resale better too. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  13. My heart is with the DC-3, but my head is with the Super Otter. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  14. that is a great article, but I don't think it makes a compelling case for cathedral being a design necessity. Certainly there have been ram air canopies that were essentially flat. If the cathedral were desirable or necessary, then wouldn't it be a mistake to go out of your way to minimize it by using wider sliders, bringing the slider down to neck level, using split sliders, etc? I'll go for an argument that says anhedral is a performance advantage, but not one that says it is to contribute any useful spreading force. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  15. The bottom line is check with the manufacturer. I have a close friend who jumps a lot and is very close to your weight. His main in a cobalt 150. I think his rig is a mirage, but that doesn't mean it is certified for his weight necessarily. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  16. How many inches of toggle does it take to correct it? Most manufacturers allow some tolerance here, so even if it is a new canopy they may not consider it "broken". Also, are you sitting even in the harness? -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  17. I was at a World Cup meet in South Africa in 1976 and there was a French 4-way team of all women. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  18. Even if you found a statistic that quoted, for example, "1 out of every 113 active skydivers will break a leg within 5 years" it wouldn't do you much good. Such statistics ignore the individual details. If you jump conservative gear, fly it conservatively, and get good at flying it YOUR chances will be far, far better than someone on the other edge of the risk curve. It still won't be a zero chance of breaking it though. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  19. Inside the skydiving community I would have to go with Jerry Bird, with BJ Worth a close second. For the general public I might go with Jonny Carson, although George Bush is a close second. My perspective is from 30 years in the sport. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  20. A few years ago, I think in 1997, at the River Fest boogie in Boise, we put out a test drop dummy with a seat pack that had been packed and sealed for 50 YEARS. It was a silk canopy. It opened just fine. Caveat--not a high speed deployment and not a heavy dummy. Still, it was impressive. I notice the nervousness of many jumpers if their main has been packed for a couple of weeks. It baffles me. I can't get them to explain why they don't get nervous about their reserve, but do get nervous about their main. The 120-day rule (law) is fine for me. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  21. yes. Such decision making is often a consequence of beer. The beer is related to both the urine and the decision on how to get rid of it. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  22. Assume the density of sand is roughly 1/8 the density of lead, then to have the same mass, the ball would have to have 8 times the volume, but then its diameter would have to be twice what it is now, which makes it have more drag, so it would actually have to be more than twice the diameter of a lead filled one (argument is for spheres, not cylinders or torpedos....) -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  23. I remember a similar event, except instead of ashes it was urine. I was in the right seat. Fortunately, the pilot and I could open the windows and stick our heads out. Everyone in the back just had to breathe the yellow mist. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  24. yeah, my teammates used to do crew with a paradactyl and a square. I'm virtually certain they also did crew with a 'dactyl and a piglet.... Even sane crew scares me. That really scared me. -- Jeff My Skydiving History
  25. One of my teammates in 1976 had a para-plane. We stripped off all the old reefing system, took off a bunch of the reinforcing tapes, re-lined it, and put a slider on it. We also messed with the trim, which I did after chatting with Elek Puskas of ParaFlite. We called it the "scara-plane" but it was jumpable for RW, although still kind of big, even by the standards of the day (e.g., a Strato-star) -- Jeff My Skydiving History