betzilla

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Everything posted by betzilla

  1. Show it to your rigger. Sometimes even if the velcro is in good shape, the bottom edge will pop out. We have two master riggers here who've fixed the problem several times this year (not just on Mirages). Your rigger should be able to come up with a fix. Good luck!
  2. I chose black6, but I woudn't kick ya just because you were wearing blue2 . Go with your gut. It's your rig, not ours.
  3. unit. Hey man, where's the unit? Pass me that unit, please. Nice unit. You can use it for anything (get your unit out of the gutter, you sickos ).
  4. It's there, but it's matched to the color of the container fabric -- or that's how it is on mine. But I have a split color rig. Why don't you call a sales rep at RWS and find out for sure. FWIW: that first photo is of a rig I have in our store. I'm pretty sure there is royal blue trim tape there, but it doesn't show well in the photo (I'm off today, or I'd check for sure).
  5. I have been told by several riggers that the adhesives in tape cause a bad reaction with nylon -- basically eating through it. By the way, your risers are made of nylon. You're right, it's your business what you do with your rig. Maybe you just need better information, in order to make a better decision. If not, I'd be happy to sell you new risers when you need them.
  6. I'm a dealer, and i'm having no better luck with Firefly. I know she's moved recently, and the last time I spoke with her, she said she was the only one sewing suits right now. I have tons of patience (as do my customers, obviously), but it's starting to wear a little thin.
  7. I am the test center supervisor at a Lasergrade Test Center -- one of the places where you can take your written. NO ONE may take the written test for FAA senior rigger without presenting a signed FAA form 8610-2. There are no exceptions that I know of, and if I let someone take their written without proper authorization, our test center loses its certification. As a rigging student, I have learned that you cannot get form 8610-2 signed without having completed 20 reserve pack jobs under the supervision of an appropriately rated rigger. The moral of my story? You need your 20 pack jobs to take the written test.
  8. 2 s/l, 3 PRCP's then a 5 sec. delay. I was a pretty good student, but it was all downhill from there...
  9. I'm a just a rigging student, so take what I say with a grain of salt. BUT, doesn't it come down to, which skin do you want to organize first, top or bottom? If you hang it over your shoulder, the bottom skin will be very well organized, but you have to redress the top skin. The reverse is true for the flat pro (PRO-stack)pack. Either way, I've come out with decent pack jobs (probably just luck this early in the game ), by checking and double checking line position, and making sure the nose is open. I prefer the flat-pro right now, but could see changing to over-the-shoulder at some point. Ultimately, I could give two shits HOW the rigger gets it that way, as long as the canopy is facing front in the bag, and it's a clean, well organized pack job. With no tools in it... .
  10. 10-20 minutes. I'm slow but I'm good... no, actually I'm slow and sloppy. life's not always fair.
  11. betzilla

    I'b thick.

    I'b thick too. I've been nursing a case of bronchitis for like 3 weeks. It's slowing my progress in the rigging course, that's for sure. Coughing makes me tired. waaaaaaah
  12. Good advice. And you may not even need the whole AFF program. My BF had all kind of trouble with his first freefall (a hop-n-pop) as a static-line student. His instructors finally said, "there's one more thing we can try, and if it doesn't work, you're done jumping." They took him on a high freefall jump. That gave him enough time to relax into the proper body position, and solved his problem. He then went back and finished the SL progression. Now he has 8000 jumps.
  13. I always wear my helmet on take off. I haven't landed with the plane since my last load of static line students, more than two years ago. I used to skip the helmet altogether on those loads (unless I was jumping), because it was such a hassle to manage my helmet while trying to manage those squirmy students . If I found myself landing with the plane, yes, i would put my helmet back on. It's the whole "dangerous projectile" thing. I wouldn't want someone to get hurt by my flying helmet in the case of a crash.
  14. we use sharpies all the time for that. Never heard of a problem -- just make sure you mark the right place on the kill line.
  15. i'm working. I can almost get away with PWing on DZ.com, since I try to call it field research .
  16. THat's why I make a point to do very obvious handle checks on the plane -- new junmpers won't feel stupid diong it if experienced jumpers are doing it too. And although I don't love the idea of someone opening my flaps, I will ask for a main pin check on the plane, and offer pin checks to those around me. I feel it's part of my responsibility as an experienced jumper, to set a safe example.
  17. Hey, I know my gear really well too, and yeah, I know how things are routed. I knew it on the jump where my friend noticed my chest strap misrouted right before exit too. Don't be so cocky -- I'm with you on the keep your mitts off my reserve flap thing, but everybody screws up once in a while. An extra pair of eyes can only help.
  18. Call Paige at Sunrise. She'll be straight with you on the actual delivery time. On a side note, we had a custom Mirage delivered to our store in 10 days this season. I could not believe it. The poor customer had to wait two months for his custom main, knowing that his container was already here...
  19. There's a DZ near there (Frontier Skydivers). They probably have one, and if they don't, they'll surely know one.
  20. Prelude: My first year at Richmond, my friends and i were obsessed with Hoop jumps. And one guy (we'll call him "Fred" ), was so obsessed with the hoop that he would fly through it, turn around then fly through it the other way, hosing the rest of us. On his fourth pass through the hoop, he misjudged it, and demolished the hoop completely -- broke it in half, there was sand flying everywhere. Obviously the jump was over, and more than half of us had not even gotten through the hoop. We wanted revenge Which brings me to my #1 skydive. We extensively dirt dived a 10 way, where the plan was to build a round, turn it into a 10 way cat, then track and dive it. "Fred " was going to exit first, backing out of the CASA, and the rest of us would follow. Fred was deeply concerned about the exit, and made us dirt dive it over and over again. Little did he know we had other plans. At exit time, Fred gave a count and backed out of the CASA, only to see the rest of our group give him the finger as he fell off into the blue. After a good 8 seconds, we exited and had a great clusterfuck jump, flying all over, geeking the camera and each other, and building a small formation in the midst of 4000 feet of "haze" . Fred later said that was coolest jump he'd ever had. He couldn't believe we all stood there on the tailgate and gave him the finger as he fell away -- he got big to try to float up to us when we exited . We still talk about that jump when we get together... Geez now I feel old!
  21. As a student, the more that was expected of me on each jump, the more nervous I would get. But it also made me more excited. At 50 jumps, I think it was 30 jumps where I realized I actually WAS self-sufficient, as opposed to just being unsupervised.
  22. When I was a student, my DZ had time-outs in the student helmets, set to beep at an altitude BELOW where the student was to pull. So if the student heard the audible and hadn't pulled yet, it was a "failed jump." The sucky part was that the instructors had to rely in some cases on the student's sense of honesty, to know whether they'd pulled at the correct altitude (on short delays, where the JM watches from the plane, for instance). Since then, that DZ has switched to Pro-Tracks in the student helmets, with the same warning altitude. But now the instructors can definitively bust students on pulling low. It's definitely very important that students (and experienced jumpers) rely on visual cues, rather than audibles, but when they can be used as a secondary aid, rather than a cue, I think it's a good idea to use them.
  23. I learned though a SL program, and I loved it. Although I didn't have a huge bag of freefall tricks at the end, my canopy accuracy was awesome, and I was (still am) a very safe canopy pilot. If I had to do it again, I would still learn through SL. But I'd make a point to try to learn more about freefall afterwards, through coached jumps. note: I got lucky, and learned at a top-notch DZ with very well-maintained student gear. I'm not sure if that is the norm for SL...