airtwardo

Curious as to why you're rehabbing one of those? I had a bunch of the bigger ones, still have one with 5 jumps total on it...and you prefer to have it in a bag or to have someone jump it ? Perfer to have it in the bag.... It was a special made experimental canopy that is coated with an aluminum like substance...it was 'supposed' to reflect the night pyro in a dramatic fashion...what it DOES ~ ~ ~ ~ is get that silver shit all over everything. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

They weren't porous when new, but they sure do degrade faster than any other F1-11 canopy I've ever had. Like I said I have several, one has about 300 jumps on it and yaHOOO does THAT bitch take a week to open! I talked with somebody a few years back about possibly making one out of Zpo, said it would be a problem - how many did I want. For demo jumping...IMO the 260 Excalibur is the BEST canopy ever for that. It has good speed but can sink stable if needed...and for spinning smoke on a candycane they're perfect. don't lose a lotta altitude too fast when you bury a toggle & hold it for 4000 feet! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Wanna bet?! MINE'S a 260! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Curious as to why you're rehabbing one of those? I had a bunch of the bigger ones, still have one with 5 jumps total on it... ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Yes, that area now has a nice spectator fence and an easily visible line of deadened grass about 20 feet further into the landing area as the beer line. That beer line extends the entire length of the fence and around the corners of the hangar, and extends vertically to a height equal to the roof of the hangar (25 feet or so) creating a no-fly zone. This keeps jumpers from passing over the spectator area at a low altitude and landing "barely legal" and keeps jumpers from cutting across the corners as well. It's enforced too. Skydive Spaceland is super busy these days with 2 turbines running most weekends, so we have a DZ Safety Officer monitoring operations. 'Cept nobody told ME about the dead grass thing until....nevermind! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

x2 X3 if I wasn't married. Just because the Class of '86 rocks. Since I feel like being a dick. I was 1 year old when you graduated. About the same time my reserve was packed! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

He was Indeed. I was out 90 miles east of San Diego in Borrego Springs one Saturday watching Tony Gwynn give a talk to the local little leaguers...it was simply amazing how he related to both baseball and his fans. It was once revealed back in the day... Tony would leave two paid tickets at 'will call' under the name Ferris Buller & they were sometimes picked up and used. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

http://youtu.be/6k9KV1cJChg?t=40s ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Ya think? The obvious missing option was "Strangle kittens". I think I'll start a poll asking if it's better to beat your wife with a hammer...or a monkey wrench? ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Interesting FIRST post on the website there Scott... Since as you pointed out, the discussion has been pretty hashed out in another thread - - - any particular reason YOU want to start another thread about this? Also kinda curious as to your background & experience in the sport? The 'options' on your poll pretty much color the thoughts you have on the matter- -why not just add your opinion in that other discussion? 'Cause the poll makes about as much sense as my asking you if you still spank your monkey on public busses....or have you moved on back to waxing the cane in public restrooms? ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Gladly VERY Nice!! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

DAMN! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Photos! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

What happened? ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Good Point Wendy - I'm glad you clarified that! I actually did put the RSL's back on my rigs a while back to have there in place when not jumping demos...I figured I would just unhook it while performing. Unfortunately that became a hassle as on my stuff the lanyard to the shackle is fairly long and there's no practical way to stow it out of the way when not in use for a dozen jumps or so in a row. I also alter my EP's a bit when it's in place, and it was simpler just not to use it...I do finally have an AAD BTW... So yes to be clear...I have NOTHING against an RSL or a MARD, they are back up devices that statistically show to be much more helpful than harmful in average scenarios. But that said ~ it concerns me a bit when people suggest as in some comments above, that the sport would be significantly safer if everyone had the BACKUPS in place. Yes - they may add a level...but I firmly believe that properly designed equipment and thoroughly trained operators of it - would offer a level of safety 10 times that any backup could. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

That's kinda what my wife said - they probably have little to talk about so they built up this 'made for TV' scenario in their heads which snowballed into Charlie Manson hiding in the weeds dressed in Camo waiting to pounce on their cellulite covered brewery horse size asses. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

And that your Honor, is where the trouble began... We live in a forested area of a medium sized bedroom community near Houston. The whole town has 'Greenbelt Trails' that are concrete walking paths through the woods. Usually quiet there are relatively few people that use them, kids on bikes do more often as it can be a shortcut away from busy streets with traffic. I use to take the one behind our place every morning to go a few blocks and hit the local Starbucks for a bit of morning fuel. Often I'd pass or be passed by early morning joggers or small groups of women walking together getting their exercise. Nearly every day I would pass a small group of mid-30's soccer moms walking together...4 or 5 women walking together. I'd usually acknowledge them with a nod or a 'good morning' as we passed on the trail going opposite directions. One monday morning I was a bit hobbled with a sore knee because of some stupid weekend hobby that occasionally gets me banged up a little... So there I am sitting on one of the benches along the trail enjoying my cup of brew when the aforementioned ladies walk past. I smiled and said hello...all of them looked at me in horror, like I'd dropped a deuce in the Christmas punch bowl! 5 short minutes later I'm surrounded by 6 cops! Granted - I know time has not been kind to me & I do look a bit like a pissed off serial killer...but come on, I've seen LOTS of people scarier than me - greeting at Wal Mart! Your basic Felony Stop ensued with me on my knees hands on my head...answering accusations of 'stalking' innocent women on the Greenbelt!? I asked to have the person(s) making the complaint to return and explain exactly what it was I did to incur this wrath. Two of the cops were being extremely condescending & rather rough with me both physically & verbally. . . one stated there was video 'evidence' of my 'laying in wait'. I'd had enough, I got up off my knees and said in that case either arrest me or get out of my way because I'm going home to shower up and then head to the district headquarters and file a complaint. They all just stood there silent as I walked away... Two hours later I was in the local cop-shop speaking with an investigator who had called in the two asshat Dirty Harrys so we could all discuss the mornings events. On the investigators laptop was the 'video evidence' which was cell phone footage of me sitting on a bench drinking coffee, smoking a cigarette, rubbing my sore knee... and then committing the heinous act of smiling at the walkers and saying hello! I accepted the investigators apology for the over reaction on the departments part, and he assured me some retraining was in order. The two 'cops' just stared at me when I offered a compromise...they could roll up their uniform pants and go out on the concrete to kneel down with their hand on their heads for 15 minutes as I had done...and the whole thing would be dropped, barring that - an official complaint would be filed with Internal Affairs. I filed the complaint later that afternoon...and have NEVER gone on a Greenbelt trail since. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

They're not real common in a lot of older communities...they put a few in up at Oshkosh a few years back. I guess the idea was to help the massive flow of traffic that suddenly appears there one week a year. Amazing to watch people that probably have never seen one try to navigate through it. I rode my Harley up to the show last year, after nearly being killed 1/2 dozen times at the roundabouts I elected to avoid them altogether and took the residential side streets instead. Conversely, there's a really big one in Paris that can have 100+ cars in it at any given time...it's nothing to whip right through there when the drivers know what they're doing. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

I had 14 cutaways on everything from a Papillon with Capewells to a cross braced experimental loaded 2.45 ...some were streamers, some were spinners, some were blown up canopies, a broken riser, a line over, caught one on fire once. Some of the reserves had line twists & some didn't...once I chopped a streaming Excalibur - got stable and dumped a G200 that opened with a line over. My point remains the same, some people feel more comfortable stabling out face to earth prior to going silver. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

That's what I like to do, use a large WDI paper T that serves as the target and the wind direction indicator...if it's not down - no go at that time. - - also I make sure the ground crew has a smoke to pull & a bucket to dump it in if it's called off altogether. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Gotta hand hand it to the TI ~ tough gig taking an senior VIP in both years & status...into an area like that. I wonder who it was...I did a demo last year with the GK-TI that took him on his 85th BD jump. Nice kid, not just a talented jumper - but an educated, well spoken, extremely diplomatic representative of the Army's Golden Knights. It was kinda obvious why HE was the chosen TI, he told me about being invited to the Bush home on many occasions & having played golf often with Jr. & Sr... Nice work if ya can get it! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

Well..that and the almost downwind approach! ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~

The line twist concern isn't blamed on the RSL in and of itself...It stems from the possibility of cutting away while on your back during an extremely violent spin. If you're spinning fast parallel to the horizon and your body position is twisted from say maybe fighting a high G pull on the release handle - or your legs & arms are nothing near symmetrical because you're busy or graying out or whatever... ...it's quite possible to be rolling on your lengthwise axis as your get spit out & away horizontally from the malfunctioning main. There is a valid argument in those situations there is line twist being induced because to the instability factor during pilot chute launch and bag extraction. Keep in mind that as I pointed out in an earlier post - some of the rigs being jumped today have an inherent design flaw that causes a delay extracting the bag from the pack tray...who knows what all is going on back there with the pilot chute & bridle maybe spinning like crazy as the D bag works it's way out... There are Skyhook videos on the web showing an intentional cutaway during just such a malfunction & the reserve opening clean without and twists...however, I've also witnessed a similar actual skyhook chop & deployment that did have considerable line twist. - Problem is it's impossible to discount packing techniques that may have also attributed to line twists on opening. I'm not a so called 'anti-RSL' person, although I do not use one while performing demos...I have several reasons why, but the foremost is wanting to be stable face to earth prior to using my last bullet. A few years back while performing at an outdoor concert I broke a riser during main deployment on a not so lightly loaded canopy. I chopped it by the 2nd rotation but was certainly haulin' the mail both vertically and spinning horizontally - the release spit me out ass over orangutan & with all the brackets & cameras bolted to me I'm glad I had a chance to stable out before pulling silver. I fully understand the advantages, disadvantages & limitations of the RSL & MARD - my reasoning is sound and my choice is logical 'for me'...my decision not to use an RSL absolutely demands a high level of situational awareness and strict adherence to hard decks. I won't ever be so deep in the basement that an RSL will be the only difference / possible chance, between survival & reaching room temperature. I have nothing against RSL's or MARD's - but when discussing gear preference, one size definitely doesn't fit all. ~ If you choke a Smurf, what color does it turn? ~