JP_1337

A number of instructors at my closest wind tunnel have switched over to TFX's and they love it. They haven't made any comments to me specific to head down flying, but they seemed happy with how quiet it is in general. Personally I use a G35 and it is excellent, but I changed from open-face so I don't have much to compare it to.

Got mine a few weeks ago, took it to the tunnel and gave it it's first flight. As mentioned above, it is a bit tighter than I expected. I had my head measured several times so I know I ordered correct off the chart, but would have ordered one size larger if I had known. Once I'm in the tunnel I don't even notice, it feels great. I think as the padding breaks in it will be better. This replaced my Fuel, I haven't owned a full face before so not a lot to compare to. It's light weight, great visibility. The visor is tight, a fair amount of force needed to pull it forward to open, and it makes an ear-ringing bang when it closes. Glad I wear ear plugs. All in all I'm really happy with it, and such a big improvement over the open face helmet in the tunnel! I ordered white with a purple top plate, and I have purple tunnel plates on backorder. Excuse the goofy look in the photo, I had just got home from work and saw the package waiting, was excited to try it on.

Wow mate, wall of text = hard to read. Just a tip, but spacing out your text with paragraphs etc make your posts easier to follow in future, which in turn makes it easier to communicate your points and emphasize what you need. ~Your Friendly Neighborhood Grammarman~ _____ SPLAT

Ordained on June 1st. If #113 is available, I'll take it. The Dude Abides. _____ SPLAT

+1 to a skydive specific model that can fit in a dytter mounting plate. I'd like to be able to use something like that, but I don't like the big bulky packs that typically get mounted to the helmet on most motorcycle communicators. As a student, I am having the most trouble with landing, and so would like to be able to have communication with an instructor (on the ground) to help guide me in while I sort out my flare timing issues and to help me with my pattern. Generally my pattern is good, but my flare is always marginally out. Can't seem to get the knack of it so I often slide in or PLF when I would like to be able to land on my feet. If you could make a device that doesn't have such a big box to stick to the helmet, I would be interested as it would help me with my learning now, but also be useful as I progress through the sport. _____ SPLAT

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but I think CAOS suits are made in packistan? _____ SPLAT

Have seen a few of his suits, they look good and seem to be good quality. Good price too. Don't know anything about the guy, but I like the suits so far _____ SPLAT

I currently jump a really old Skymaster 290. I have only learnt to flatpack so far, which isn't so bad considering the size of the canopy, but I find it quite hard being on the ground like that. I'm a bigger guy with a bad back and knees after being medically discharged from the army, so I find packing very difficult, and as such I am incredibly slow at it. When I pack, I have a towel with me at all times to keep the sweat away from the fabric, and I stand up frequently to ease some of the pressure from my back and legs. I just hate how long it takes me. It feels like jumping has been really good for my body, but packing is really bad haha. _____ SPLAT

I'm only a new jumper, but I don't quite agree with you on this point. Yes, I agree that something could be made to look much sleeker than the pictures in the link, however I think some bulge is both necessary and a good idea. Off the shelf cameras, such as gopros and other compact action cams are not yet small enough that they could be fitted into a helmet without either modifying the shell of the helmet or modifying your skull, and a special tiny camera specific to the helmet just wouldn't be a great idea. To make a small enough camera that matches the quality of action cams out on the market already would be prohibitively expensive unless you make in such extreme bulk as the likes of gopro or sony. I love the idea of the camera mount molded into the helmet shell, as it eliminates snag risks and could look real slick if done well. But I would prefer a bulge in the helmet to provide room for the cam rather than a dent in my head.... _____ SPLAT

A lot of great advice in here, thanks! _____ SPLAT

I hadn't even thought about the landing with different shoes, thanks for the tip. And I will definitely be getting help from the rigger at the DZ & having the gear/costume checked by the rigger and DZSO at the DZ. My DZ is big on safety. I would prefer if I could wear the top hat during free fall, because that would be awesome. But this is an option if that isn't possible. The brim of the top hat will definitely catch wind like a beast, which is why I thought if I stitch it to an old frap hat (easy enough to find for cheap) it will stay on better than it just having some elastic such as the mad hatter top hat in the video posted. Btw that vid was pretty cool. Much more frilly than I would go for, but great inspiration of what can be achieved. Contemplating holding a fake rose in my teeth or something silly just for laughs. A great goal to work towards, build my RW skills so I can have an awesome jump (I'm a bigger guy, going to have to work really hard during B-rels and practicing RW) _____ SPLAT

Couple things before I get into my question: - Yes, at 20 jumps I am not planning to do a costume jump any time soon. I am researching and planning for the future. - I have read through as many costume threads as I could find, and found some interesting info but what I am looking for is a bit more specific. So, many traditions dictate that a persons 100th jump should be nude. Can't say that I'm a big fan of baring my bits in freefall, let alone landing! I saw some jumpers do a 100th jump dressed as Power Rangers and I thought that was great, so I want to plan for something more 'me'. I would love to do a jump in full blacktie tuxedo with tophat! I think this would be fun, look great, and be a great way to celebrate a milestone I am so looking forward to reaching. (Worth the slab) The plan: - Top hat - Bow tie - White gloves - Tuxedo - Cummerbund - Shiny shoes The question: What do I need to do to make that 'jump safe'? I am thinking I will probably need to stitch the top hat to a frap hat to keep it on my head. The bow tie will have velcro on it, as I don't like things around my neck. The tails of the tux I might see about velcroing to the pants to stop them flapping up and adding a risk to grabbing the PC handle. My mother is a seamstress so the whole thing will be made from scratch out of appropriate materials so that I have freedom to move the way I need. What considerations do I need to be aware of? I.e. buttons vs velcro vs snaps etc. What specific risks do I need to be wary of when wearing such a costume for a jump? Basically I want this to be as close to a legit tux as possible, not a jumpsuit that looks like a tux. Any help would be really appreciated. I'm not in a hurry to get this done, I've got a lot of jumping to do and a lot of skills to work on. I just want to start planning now so that when I do it, I'm not compromising my safety for a good camera shot. Open to all suggestions. Cheers _____ SPLAT

If the cookie fuel was an option, I'd have voted for that. As a student myself, I like to feel the wind on my face, it helps me with my general awareness. I tried a full face, and I felt a bit closed off but that was just me. As my experience increases, and I start to do more than belly flying and backloops, I'll probably invest in a full face helmet but for now, I wanna feel the rush! _____ SPLAT

Practice on the ground, and get in the habit of yelling your count out loud. Don't be self-conscious about it, just shout those numbers as you practice your actions. This will put the habit in your head, so when you are about to exit the aircraft, do as you practiced and shout those numbers out. That also helps with alti awareness. When you look at your alti, shout the number. Remember, nobody hears you in freefall _____ SPLAT

Sorry to dig up such an old thread, have to mention it is entirely possible that this was a 'dummy' rig used for students to practice packing and not actually in use for jumping. Granted, that level of wear is crazy! No DZ in their right mind would let anyone jump that, and any jumper, packer, or rigger that packs it or gear checks it would immediately spot it. It's good for new jumpers to see the photo of that pin, a bit of a reminder that gear checks mean not only looking to see if the pin is routed correctly, but also in good condition. I hope I never see any component in that condition. _____ SPLAT

Well, didn't get as far through the course as I wanted, some insane winds and a bad landing had me grounded for a few days, but got through AFF stage 6 and a couple solo jumps! Will be back there in a couple weeks to get some more jumps done, hopefully get my A licence by Christmas!! Such a thrill! And a big shout-out to all the staff and jumpers at the Euroa DZ! Couldn't ask for a better group of people. Just an amazingly friendly club atmosphere, amazing instructors, I had an awesome time and can't wait to get back there! _____ SPLAT

It's distressing that I have to write this, but historical accuracy demands it. I have been skydiving for 35 years, and I am as big a fan of Bill Booth as anybody, and in no way do I mean to denigrate him or his contributions to our sport. But he did not invent the skyhook. He may have redesigned it for skydiving rigs, but the first MARD system was invented by Mark Hewitt, on a base rig called the Sorcerer, and Bill knows this. Credit is deserved where credit is due. The inventive idea in the Skyhook is not simply the idea of hooking the cutaway main to the reserve bridle. It is how to do this in such a way that the connection releases and gets out of the way when it is not needed, but stays connected when it is. A little history. If you will look at the beginning of our "Skyhook Promotional Video" (#2 on UPT's website) you will see video evidence that I started working on MARDs in the early 1980's. The reason the skyhook didn't come out until 2003 was that it took me all those years to work out all the problems that need to be solved before such a device would be safe enough for sport jumping. During the 80's and 90's I designed and jumped several primitive MARD's, but none of them worked well enough to satisfy me. The Sorcerer system came out during this time period, but required a hand deployed reserve pilot chute, had no automatic release system, and wouldn't work with spring loaded, ripcord activated reserve systems. As has been noted elsewhere on DZ.com, I included mention of the Sorcerer in my patent application. Some of my first devices involved pins and loops similar to the Sorcerer, but these systems weren't reliable during rapidly spinning malfunctions. You see, the MARD connection pulls on the reserve bridle near the midpoint, which means that it is pulling on both the bag and the pilot chute. If there is a lot of horizontal speed involved (spinning malfunction), then the pilot chute often generates enough force to prematurely release a simple pin/loop system, which will release as soon a the pilot chute loads at all. I needed to work out a system where it took a lot more force from the pilot chute to release the MARD connection in a partial malfunction than in a total malfunction. This is where the Skyhook lever/cam design came in. It is designed to require 5 times more force from the pilot chute than the weight of the packed freebag (25 - 60 lbs.) if you have a partial malfunction, yet release with a force of between 4 and 8 lbs. if you have a total malfunction. And it has to figure this out instantly, with no input from the jumper. The lever idea worked well, but there was one more serious problem to address. Simply - What happens if the RSL side riser releases BEFORE the non-RSL side riser. This is a bad situation even with a "normal" RSL, and has resulted in several deaths due to main/reserve entanglement. But with a MARD, the situation practically GUARANTEES a fatality. I was stumped, so I put the Skyhook on a back burner for nearly 10 years. Then one day I was discussing the problem with a young engineer I had hired straight from Georgia Tech. After thinking about it for a moment he said," Why don't you simply connect the RSL riser to the cutaway cable leading to the other riser? I was stunned. There was the answer I had been looking for dropped right in my lap. The young man's name was Kyle Collins, and that's how the Collins' Lanyard, a necessary component of ANY MARD system was born. We had a working model that day, and you will notice that it is his name, not mine, on the patent. So I put out the Skyhook immediately right. WRONG. I didn't want to put two new reserve related systems at once, so I fitted all of my existing and new tandem rigs with the Collins' Lanyard. I then waited the requisite 5 years to see if the Collins' Lanyard worked as expected. It did. Then, and only then, was I ready to release the Skyhook. The whole process took nearly 20 years from inspiration to implementation, but I think the result was worth it. Don't mean to dig up an old thread... I Just want to say that this was a really interesting read. I mean, I didn't understand all the terms in it (due to being an amateur with practically no experience) but found it quite interesting. Good work Bill for having the fortitude to persist with it for so long, sounds like a great outcome. _____ SPLAT

So, this is probably a bit silly, and it is probably nothing, but I gotta know. So, I'm getting ready to do my first jump course to get my A-license and I ordered a pair of goggles so I have my own for the course. When the package arrived, inside was a ribbon with the vendor's branding on it. I thought nothing of it at the time, but looking at it later, it has 'REMOVE BEFORE FLIGHT' in bold red all along it. Is this ribbon used for something specific? Or is it just a generic promotional ribbon that has no specifically intended purpose? _____ SPLAT