fraschc

Is there a good reason to expect he won't have stability problems? Did you see the video of him in freefall at normal altitudes? He was barely stable then! Brian

Damn. This one is hard to take. I'm so out of the skydiving scene anymore that even though I live in Colorado, I only heard about this from a an out of town friend and I was in disbelief there for a couple of days wondering how this could possibly be true. I first met Mariann at the Synchronicity tryouts in the fall of 2002 in Orlando. We were all out for Sushi one night after many hours in the wind tunnel when Mariann told me she was a swooper. I didn't know any women who swooped at the time and I told her right then that she was my new hero. I thought that was pretty amazing. Since neither of us made it on Synchronicity, I was looking for a team and heard that her team had 3 and needed a 4th so I begged her to let me be a part of it. On our second jump of our first training camp in Eloy, Mariann blew out her knee on landing. We managed to convince her to stand down for the rest of the day, you know maybe to ice her knee, give it a rest, but that certainly didn't last for the rest of the camp. So in typical Mariann form, she insisted that she could jump even though she couldn't walk. To accomplish this, Lou and Sean carried her to the plane and loaded her up. She hopped on one leg to sit down, hopped on one leg to get in the door, give the count and skydive her ass off. As everyone knows, she had that fighting spirit and a silly little knee injury wasn't going to keep her from jumping

Gordo speaks the truth....he's witnessed them all! My favorite is still the black eye, though. If your gonna get hit, might as well have evidence!

You scared the hell out of me, don't ever do that again! Derek You got it! I don't really fancy the direct knee-to-face contact so I'll be sure to protect myself better next time. thanks for the save! Court

It's a LOT quieter than Arizona, a pleasant temperature at all times, and a smidge smaller. Hey Drew.....a 'smidge' smaller? I think the approximate 27% (or so) less surface area qualifies as more than just a smidge smaller...especially if you are trying to do 4-way in there. There are lots of things we can't do because of the size, but i'll tell you what, it's much easier to get clocked in the head in the 12 footer! Ask Paul G. or Hooknswoop about that! hahaha I'll definitely agree that it's quieter and more comfy with the temps! In the end, I'm just happy we have one so close! Courtney

I flew in the tunnel yesterday. It looks to me like they are ready at least for a temporary certificate of occupancy. They did some things like temporarily completing their stair rails. That costs money, and isn't necessary for construction, only if they are going for a C of O. As for the parking lot and all the nearby construction: The tunnels parking lot is complete except for the final layer of asphalt. Again, enough to get a C of O. All the other construction you saw was neighboring property. Looks to me like they should be in business very soon. Anyone want to bet on Tuesday next week? Mary? My review of the tunnel, as a 4-way junkie: I only had 4 minutes of flight time, and that was just doing 2-ways, so some of my observations may not be completely substantiated by future experience. The airflow seems to be much smoother than the other tunnels, although there still appears to be the drop-out of airflow when someone is exiting. During 4-way, when someone is going to be near the door, this may still be a problem. It's less of a problem at Eloy, because there is more room (so you can be further from the door), and because there is a greater volume of air being moved overall, so the volume of air being pushed out the door is less on a percentage basis. Noise level, both inside and outside the air chamber, seems to be the least of any tunnel I have been in. It's much easier to converse in the antechamber. It was warm! 16 degrees outside, 70 degrees in the tunnel. I flew comfortably without gloves. It's going to be a great facility! Brian

Okay, but that means just waiting longer Besides, if you're really good you don't need the extra 2 inches (I've flown in the Eloy tunnel, and didn't really need that extra space) SVC will be nice and warm, no matter the weather outside, and no dust or rain to deal with

I've heard similar ideas passed around and the question then becomes....what is the cutoff or how is the cutoff average decided? If the cutoff average is known ahead of time, will there be teams out there willing to sacrifice their average so they can 'sandbag' their way to a gold medal? I wouldn't think so but I dunno. I still think it's a good idea that can probably be worked with somehow. Courtney

Amen brother!

You got it. Stay tuned

Well I a couple jumps this weekend and had my opening filmed and we timed it as per the guidelines written above and it was a quick 0.2 seconds. I think I now have the data to support my original hypothesis that my pilot chute is too big (sorry, I'm a scientist ) Thanks everyone! I'm going to buy a 24" pilot chute. Courtney Courtney

Thanks! I'll do that for sure. Yeah, the ONLY thing that is different is the pilot chute suggesting to me that it is indeed responsible for the problem. Courtney

I could not find this on Sunpath or PD web site. Where did you find it? Sparky I was just told by a PD dealer (not from PD themselves), who also happens to be a rigger, that I should have a 24-26 inch pilot chute for my 135. I guess I'll go ahead and have my 28 inch altered. Courtney

shut up

That makes sense. It was also quite hot yesterday making the density altitude even higher I would guess. I'll be in Eloy next week for a training camp so I'll see how it goes there (although it's getting quite hot there now too....making the density altitude there higher as well). If the snatch force is still higher than I would like, I guess I'll consider having the pilot chute sized smaller. Seems reasonable I suppose, huh?

Now that you mention the bridle, I did notice the bridle on my new pilot chute is longer than the old one suggesting the old one was a smaller pilot chute? How will an opening with an F111 pilot chute feel compared to a ZP of the same size (i.e. snatch force or anything else)? I was thinking that if I had my pilot chute sized smaller (by a rigger of course and if it was recommended), would the length of the bridle be a problem? Can the bridle be shortened accordingly? I just don't really know anything about this stuff. Also I should mention that I do most of my jumps in Eloy (elev. 1500 feet) but the recent jumps that I made with the new pilot chute were in Colorado (elev. 5500 feet). Will it feel different at a lower altitude (i.e snatch force higher or lower)? Courtney

I just got a new ZP pilot chute (28 inch) for my Sabre2 135 which is in a Javelin TNJ. My previous pilot chute was F111 (don't know the size). It feels as though canopy is just getting ripped out of the container with great speed and force. The openings are quite brisk, and am not sure I'll be able to tolerate those kinds of openings during a training weekend (12 jumps a day for 4 days). Is it possible that the pilot chute is too big? Would it help if the pilot chute were a 26 inch instead? I have a ZP pilot chute for my Sabre2 120 which is in a Wings container and the openings are great, however I don't know the size of that pilot chute. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks! Courtney

[reply Their only mistake I can see is telling you that the extra buck was your charity contribution. They should have called it a "necesary fee increase", and then given the funds to charity on their own. _Am BINGO! Courtney

Gordo, who is on AZ Directe? ETA: Scores are up now on the NSL site, meet story to come later. Actually, 8 AAA class teams is a good turnout for an SSL meet, especially one so early. Nice to see some of the CA teams out there, too. Hey Andi! It was a great first meet to kick off the season! Perfect weather and a lot of fun and as you can imagine, everything ran quite smoothly. As far as who is on AZ Directe, it's me Becky Brocato, Kirk Campbell, Gary Beyer and of course Gordo on video. We had one helluva good time for sure. What's your team situation this year? Courtney

Having a rating also costs an additional $20 every time you renew. That pisses me off. They force me to be their sales agent and then charge me for it. Sorry if this is a repeat somewhere in this thread but if you want to jump with non A-licensed skydivers and don't intend on getting a tandem or an AFF rating, the S&TA can write a waiver stating that you are qualified to 'coach' these people and then it is 'legal' to do so. The letter just needs to be renewed every year as I understand it. Courtney

Hey Melanie, I agree with Harry about the Airspeed arousal level thing. I have spent the last couple training seasons figuring out where I need to be and then figuring out how to get myself there. Trial and error, but I now have a 'program' for myself that I do on the ride to altitude during both training and competition that gets me to my optimal performance arousal level. That way I can better manage the emotional rollercoaster ride during a competition (either getting too amped from a good round or too bummed from a bad round). It helps me keep an even keel. But, like Harry said you have to determine where you need to be and then figure out how to get yourself there.