jerry81

Maybe because he wrote it, not you....just a thought Actually, that picture (rescued&saved) looks more photoshopped to me...a lot more blurred areas and a lot more sharp edges around words and parts of that board. If the first photo is also doctored, someone did a much better job.

If that picture had indeed been photoshopped (as he claims), it should be pretty easy to prove it. I mean, he probably has the original somewhere, right?

I work part-time for the Slovenian publication of FHM magazine and the editor today asked me if I could get them a freefall photo of a skydiver for an article (didn't say what it's about), preferrably with the airplane still in the background. And that it would be best if they had it by yesterday. Problem is there's a serious lack of (good) freefall photographers around here and video grabs aren't good enough for a quarter-page picture. I've briefly considered just taking someone's photo of their webpage and ignoring the copyrights but I really don't want to resort to that, not because of possible legal problems (seriously, how many of you read FHM...in Slovenian?) but because it just seems bad form to me to rip off another skydiver like that, even if noone's off worse because of it. So if anyone's generous enough let us use a picture that they took (freeflying or freestyle would be best, not too many people with some camera geeking if possible) they'd have my undying gratitude, as well as a paid first round should we ever meet and (should you wish so) a copy of the magazine mailed to you at my expense. (Which is about as much as I can offer. I have no part in editorial decisions and knowing the people that take them, I'm afraid purchasing copyrights is out of the question.) Blue ones, Jerry

And by first impression I mean "what the two jumps I did with it today were like". I've actually had the demo for ten days, but since I was in Germany last weekend and the only dz within reasonable driving distance was cypres-mandatory, I had to wait until today to take it up. It's supposed to be a 120, but when compared to Atair's canopies, it's much closer to an Impulse 135 than a Cobalt 120. So my exact wingloading remains unknown, although I'd estimate it just a bit above 1.6. Openings; both from terminal, not excessivelly snivelly, but quite comfortable and on heading. It reputedly opens more or less the same every time, regardless of body position, but it's too early to tell if that's true. Flight; in brakes, the canopy seems to have a very shallow glide. I need to do some flat turns lower, but at a few hundred feet, it almost felt like I could turn the canopy 180° without losing any altitude at all. Regular toggle turns are a whole different story...the pressure is lighter than on the Impulse and it definitely dives harder. Coming out of the turn the Demon also didn't seem to oversteer as much. (intermezzo to remind you that these are just my first impressions) Front riser pressure was also a bit lighter, but built up very fast after the first 360°. Harness inputs need to be explored further. Landing; I was very wary of stalling it, since I've heard a few stories of the canopy folding up before the end of the landing, so I spent a lot of time doing practice flares at different speeds while looking up to see how it behaves. On the two flights I didn't manage to stall it like that and I had to pull the brakes as deep as possible to even start that pre-stall buckling. Winds were moderate, although they lessened by the second jump and considering my very high 60-something carve followed by double fronts, the landing was very satisfactory. In the following two weeks I plan to put about 30 more jumps on this canopy before I decide if I really like it or not and maybe take advantage of our local canopy designer and have Stane Krajnc jump it to see what he thinks. I'll post my opinions (for what they're worth) then, although I'll wait with writing a review until (if I decide to buy it) I've done at least a couple of hundred jumps on it. But so far, I like it.

By puff he probably means a pillow handle (pull-out style). As for hackey mals, two possibilities come to mind- oscillating hackey (in combination with a poorly maintained boc) causes a premature opening; or a careless packer (in combination with a hackey handle) somehow loops the bridle around it, making a mess out of it. As for my opinion on the 'puff'- I didn't really like it the couple of times I jumped with it. I felt it was a bit harder to get as firm a grip on it as on a hackey (or even a piece of tubing)

Sounds quite good. We use mostly sapphires for students and they can take a lot of abuse, plus the numbers are really big and easy to read.

Like I could stay away from a thread like this...

Definitely not as highly publicized as the Katana. It's a different kind of canopy after all, aimed at a smaller group of expert canopy pilots. (At least that's how Stane feels about it)

Hehe, I guess I'm the first to catch the reference.

Most amazing thing I saw under canopy were my own legs- dangling above 3000' of nothing, with my body just hanging up there in the sky. A few moments ago someone was telling me to get ready and go!, but from then to the realization that I am alive and flying a parachute, most recollection of that first jump is gone. Most beautiful- I'd say last week on a high hop&pop when, after doing a hard front riser 270, I carved across the surface of this huge fluffy cloud and at the end punched through it, going through the glory that was surrounding my shadow on the cloud.

I prefer to yodel as I start my final approach. I've discussed it with our head instructor and I think we'll start teaching it to students this season. It might take licensed jumpers a bit longer to learn it, but it beats buying whistles and modifying all canopies.

I put about 100 jumps on a 215 Falcon, a third of them with a camera. What worked for me was pushing each slider grommet up to the stops so tight that the slider got stuck momentarily on opening. So I was actually inducing a slider hangup on each opening, which, I suppose, is potentially dangerous, but I never experienced anything that some riser pumping wouldn't fix and it was a small price to pay for not having a sore neck and bruised thighs.

I hope to get a demo in a week or two and I intend to spend a lot of quality time playing with it from 4000m.

Absolutely dumbest thing I did was when I had about 50 jumps- in freefall, I noticed open canopies below and decided to track in their direction. Gives me chills just thinking about it now...

Wheeee.... Actually, I was among the 34% that voted against joining NATO in Slovenia. Not that I passionately agreed with the oponnents reasons, but the arguments pro- joining were even less convincing, and I found the servile attitude of our politicians towards certain western institutions and countries sickening.

No ratings here, but I work with students a lot and I doubt any instructor from my dz frequents these forums so; -first-timers are put on a direct bag sl deployment -after two or three stable exits the setup is changed so the static line just pulls the pin on a spring-loaded pc-equipped rig.

is that where they will be having that world competition this summer ?? The World Cup will be held in Rijeka, which is about 50 miles away, although I've heard it's possible that formation skydiving events will be held at Vrsar. As for jumping- last load went up on January 3rd. Due to problems with the airfield owner, poor organization and, lately, aircraft problems (the An-2 and one of the Lets in that picture are just falling apart on the grass, the second Let might be airworthy, but it's not for skydivers and the third, which is not in the picture, apparently doesn't fly anymore), boogies in Vrsar can be a hit or miss deal- I have both spent a day chilling by the sea when the pilots didn't show up and stared longingly at the clear skies above when there weren't enough people for the jumping to continue- it's a long drive for most of us, so many just decided not to chance it anymore. Too bad, in the right hands, the place could be the Empuria Brava of Eastern Europe.

Another question: guess how much jumping is going on there. (Hint- it's a very sad answer...)

If it would actually come to that, I have one word: DOOR!!!

Some good suggestions already here. Let's see... Anything by Bonuel (Especially L'Age d'oOr, Milky Way or Un Chien Andalou) Pasolini's Uccellacce i Uccellini- I though it was hillarious Music For Weddings And Funerals- very uplifting for a film that deals with loss of a loved one If you know Kusturica- try Underground or Black Cat, White Cat Hero- a recent Chinese movie with Jet Li, interesting story telling, the photography and choreography are a study in perfectionism Funny Games by Michael Haneke- is basically a movie about watching movies, with a potential to be grossly misunderstood because of its violence. Don't watch if you tend to empathize with the characters. La Ville est Tranquille- Robert Guediguian- a mixture of lives in Marseilles, present day. Quite enjoyable. Doberman- french action flick. A bit like Tarantino on crack. You probably won't be sorry if you catch anything by Wim Wenders. Or, for a fun time, try watching Wings Of Desire (Der Himmel Über Berlin) and comparing it to the remake, City Of Angels with Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan. (On second thought, don't. The latter is just not worth it) Andrei Tarkovsky also made great movies- Stalker is my absolute favorite, although others follow close behind. Just one more suggestion for the end: Songs From the Second Floor (Sånger Från Andra Våningen) by Roy Andersson. A dark satire based in some Scandinavian city, where, for some reason, society begins to crumble.

...but will probably still arrive there smiling, knowing he left behind a lot more than 72 seriously ticked-off followers who are now even more determined to carry out his plans.

Damn! In that case, I'll admit ignorance about intercultural differences and apologise for my advice.

Shit, it's 2.15 here and I'm just not sleepy at all... So here's me:

Hehe...make the best out of it- spread out your reserve, inspect it carefully and try to figure out how to properly attach the lines back to the links. Have your rigger inspect it- worst thing that can happen is he'll have to do it again, but you'll understand your gear a little better.

If you stretch this logic a bit, you could also say that the reasoning behind wearing an aad is specious- getting knocked out in freefall is a rare occurence and even losing altitude awareness is not something that happens on a daily basis- but I somehow doubt you'd question a person's choice if they did pass out, somehow survived (either by waking up in time or a friend pulling for them) and then decided they will never jump without an aad again. Sometimes one in 1000 is all the reason it takes or, if you consider a horseshoe on a sandal, even one might be too much.