jerry81

Yes. When you do the transfer, it is to a US- or European account of the DZO... Jump price is the same as if you brought Euros or $ with you.

+386 4 5126565 I haven't been home in almost a year, but I hope it still works. Probably best to try between 10.00 and 15.00, CET. Ask about the Radical.

Are you trying to contact the one in the States or the factory in Slovenia? Have you tried calling them?

A jumpsuit can make a difference. It won't make you fly much differently, but it can make learning and refining your flying easier- for instance, after 500 jumps on a baggier suit I know for sure that I want my next one to be tighter, with less flappage around the legs and arms. That said, you should remember three things: 1)Dress for success. 2)Quality of construction makes a difference after a few hundred jumps. 3)Make sure the suit matches the rest of your gear.

Not that I know of, I only came here about a year ago...maybe I should check if I have any long-lost relatives here in South America. One more thing regarding payments at Skydive Venezuela: if you're coming from Europe or the States, you can also make a wire transfer for the amount of jumps you plan to make if you're not comfortable with bringing so much cash with you. You can contact [email protected] for account details.

People can be that dumb. Unfortunately, sometimes you can't spot it and assume that they'll understand why they can't join you. I don't know which would piss me off worse- not noticing at all that someone decided to chase after you and having them tell you after the jump or spotting them on exit/in freefall and having to alert the rest of your group to the dumbass and aborting your plan for sake of safety...the latter happened to me once and I was pretty pissed, as you can imagine.

Something like this gives you every right to tear the guy a new one. However, people tend to get defensive and not listen as well when you approach them that way, so it's wise to try a nicer approach before you get to the ripping. If he doesn't seem to understand why chasing after a group unannounced is bad, I'd get someone in authority to explain it to him again. Make it friendly if you're really scared of him, but definitely say something.

I think the dz in San Juan still flies their cessna on weekends. I don't know anything about Margarita, although it would probably make a good base for a tandem operation.

This is pretty important information regarding exchange rates: Venezuela effectively works with two exchange rates for foreign currency- the fixed official rate used by banks and government agencies and the black market that changes day to day as is normal and is used by everyone else. When you use credit cards or cash machines, your account will be charged by the official rate, which is 20-30% lower than what you can get on the black market. If you're coming to Skydive Venezuela for the cheap jumps, you should bring cash with you (preferably US$, since the exchange rate is slightly better than the Euro) otherwise the 16$ tickets become 21$. You can pay your jumps in Dollars- you can't exchange money at the dz, but finding someone to do it for you is generally no problem.

Can you explain this 'art of flying in a burble zone' a little better? Maybe it's not quite as it sounds and not the same thing that PP is talking about, but basically, you can't really fly in a burble.

Agreed. There's something uniquely visceral about the sound of bones snapping. I think than might depend on the individual. I've been less than 10 feet away twice and I can't for the life of me remember much more than a thud when the person hit. But visually, it's burnt into my memory for good...

400 lbs? Guess based on the tensile strength of 3/4" nylon binding tape. Wanna get a pull-up cord and test it?

If you perform a normal head-up or head-down skydive, you should not exit on your belly because of the drift. If there is another freefly group that left before you, you could drift over them. If you perform a freefly skydive where orientations change throughout the dive and include both flat and vertical positions, it definitely makes sense to exit before groups doing just vertical...kinda like he said, no?

Probably because you have your dropzone in My places already and when you open the .kmz it loads the same placemarks in Temporary places as well...

Bill Booth said in the other thread that the new covers on Vectors tend to re-close themselves after opening- I wonder how likely they are to do that in freefall as well, in case they come open for some reason? I'm asking here cause the only time I've seen it happen on a Mirage was when it was yanked open during a freefly exit that went to hell right out the door and now I'm just curious if that might be another benefit of magnets or not.

The deployment is similar to the main with a few differences; -the pilot chute is spring loaded and held compressed by the closing pin. When you pull the reserve ripcord, the strong spring inside the pilot chute launches it off your back and deployment begins. In case of the RSL, the reserve pin is pulled out by the departing main canopy. -the deployment bag is not attached to the reserve and leaves after the canopy is out. If it's not retrieved, it will cost you about 250$ to replace, so the term 'freebag' is slightly misleading. -lastly, while the reserve is essentially propacked (lines in the middle, fabric outside), it is done with much more care than a main and some changes to ensure it deploys fast and clean. And that's a short simple description. Try and find a rigger who will let you watch him packing a reserve or two. If he doesn't mind answering questions about it so much better. And kudos for being curious about your gear.

On some canopies the 'lower steering line' you describe ends with the locking loop and another piece of line goes from there to the toggle. I don't know what their proper names are...I just wanted to add to the confusion.

How's the Merit fit? I just put a Katana 107 in my V2 and while the rig looks cleaner than it did with my 120, I had to shorten the closing loop to about 1/2" to make it tight enough (but just barely). If my reserve was any smaller it would probably be too loose for comfort. So, yeah, try it if you have a Safire 149 at hand, but in general, Voodoos don't allow for much downsizing...

Pull their reserve. Just tell them it's because BASE jumpers hate skydivers...

Just this weekend, one of our instructors was telling me what it was like working for a governement agency in Venezuela; attendance at Chavista political rallies is apparently mandatory, transport is provided and if you're not on the bus when your name is called... Still, Chavez has a good chance of remaining president even without stealing the elections, although the 10 million votes that he's basing his campaign on is probably an unattainable result. Basically, a lot of the voting population is poor and uneducated and very susceptible to populism, while the people who do have the economic power and oppose Chavez still do well enough that they wouldn't risk their wealth just to overthrow him...

And hope your double mal doesn't leave you with a trailing ball of shit interfering with your freefall accuracy... How about tackling this from the other side and inventing a full-body airbag, instead? I saw something similar in a movie with Dennis Rodman once (Double Team, I believe), so it must be possible...

...so much soul you can smell it!

cactus... The original question was "How far do you fall?", hence my suggestion. Just by the way- most of my deployments feel longer (timewise) than my video shows them to be. I don't like super-snivelly openings, but sometimes what feels totally normal looks closer to a spanker on video. Funny thing, temporal distortion...

How about checking the altimeter as you toss the pilotchute and as soon as you're fully open? Counting seconds is not a very precise way of measuring time even on solid ground without the rush of freefall thrown in.

I've never encountered that on a Vector 3 (and I've packed a lot of them). I think I've seen it on Atom Legends, though, but it wasn't an added modification. On a Micron, velcro would be redundant, IMO. Like I said, the freefly handle is tucked under the flap quite securely and even if it came out it wouldn't be much of an issue- it would function just like the simple pillow pc handle with no tabs that you can see on some rigs...