betzilla

yes, "reline" is the right term. Plan to spend above $200 on it. Our loft charges $248 for a seven-cell, and $268 for a nine-cell, but I know you can have it done for less $$ other places. And if for some crazy reason you're talking about a round, your guess is as good as mine...

Scott Miller is coming to Skydive Chicago to do canopy control seminars over the Halloween weekend. He'll be doing his "essential skills" camps, geared toward people who want to improve landings and accuracy, or learn more about basic canopy flight. There are four slots available: three on Friday, 10/31 and one on Saturday, 11/02. The cost is $85 plus 5 jumps. If you're interested in attending, you can PM me for more info.

Scott Miller is coming to Skydive Chicago to do canopy control seminars over the Halloween weekend. He'll be doing his "essential skills" camps, geared toward people who want to improve landings and accuracy, or learn more about basic canopy flight. There are four slots available: three on Friday, 10/31 and one on Saturday, 11/02. The cost is $85 plus 5 jumps. If you're interested in attending, you can PM me for more info.

There were a couple riggers around my first DZ who wouldn't pack them, but I get the odea now that it's because they're difficult to pack if you don't do them often, not because they're pop-tops.

Here's what worked for me: I decided what I was looking for in a man : well respected, financially stable, intelligent and curious, motivated. I thought I would find that in the business world, or in a doctor or lawyer. How surprised was I when i found all of that in a skydiver?! So I say, look for what you want, but be open to finding it in unexpected people.

Cry me a river...

I have just read the letter in Parachutist regarding blacklisting. As a dealer, my knee-jerk reaction is to hate that idea. But I do agree that someone needs to guide lesser-experienced jumpers into responsible canopy choices. Clearly, relying on a third-party stranger (gear salesperson) to do so will not always work. I would argue that more responsibility should lie with those on the DZ who KNOW that a jumper is jumping a canopy outside their envelope of skills, and is likely to cause injury. If we are to self-police (and we repeatedly ask for that right), then let's DO it! On several occasions this year at my DZ, jumpers have been grounded from jumping a particular canopy size until they have shown they have the skills to pull it off. We'd rather piss a couple jumpers off than bite our nails waiting for another ambulance to pull up. And they do get angry -- one actually left our DZ to jump elsewhere, and has not returned. Earlier in this thread, my DZ was referred to as "progressive," in that advanced canopy skills are taugh as a part of the student progression. Maybe we are, and maybe it's time for other DZs to catch up, instead of asking complete strangers in other states to act as their S&TA's. My point is this -- if there is someone on the short road to injury (or worse), do you want to cry about how someone sold them an innappropriate canopy, or do you want to stop them from jumping it? If you're a fun jumper, point it out to the DZO, the instructors, the S&TA, the manifestors. Refuse to jump with that person unless they jump something reasonable. Take action. If you're a DZO, don't sell that person a jump ticket or let them on the plane in that rig. Can you really accuse a gear-seller of not doing enough to prevent injury if you sell a jump ticket to a person who is a known hazard? The responsibility lies with all of us, to keep each other safe.

1. Goggles 2. Altimeter 3. Rig 4. Helmet 5. RW suit 6. Freefly suit 7. Cool rig

my BF had a Factury diver that was an XL.5 with a custom XXL chin part (He has a huge head, obviously). With that in mind, I'd recommend you get in touch with Sky Systems.

Skyworks has not moved to Chicago. The Chicago service center for Icarus Canopies is located at Skydive Chicago, and called Para Concepts. Mark from Skyworks has a "real job" that sometimes pulls him away from his loft. It is a REALLY good idea to call ahead before you ship your canopy to him for work, and make sure he'll be there to receive it. When he is gone, we (Para Concepts) are the primary service center. Normally we turn around a canopy for a reline/repair within three days, but we can't help you if yours is at Skyworks.

I'm a terrible lander -- I was the joke of my DZ for a good 400 jumps, and that only stopped because I moved away . It really pissed me off when people would say, "any landing you walk away from is a good landing." But I will tell you honestly, since that one landing I was carried away from, I understand what my friends were trying to tell me. Broken bones change your perspective... I hope you work your landing issues out (and I think you will. I mean, you only have 2 solo jumps -- cut yourself a little slack). But if you don't, enjoy your jumps anyway. Some people will never look cool in the landing area (me, for instance), but they can still have a hell of a lot of fun.

Tru Lok toggle and anti-twist risers are standard on Vector III's now. Bonus!

I agree, but I'd add 5 or 6 more "reallys." If it really has only 40 jumps on it, that would be a hot deal. There's not much that would be diofferent about that rig than a brand new one you could order right now (except that the Cypres is Cypres 1, instead of a Cypres 2). And if you ordered that stuff brand new, you could plan to spend well over 5 grand. I'd say $3500 is a fair price. Maybe more.

PD's are really the only reserves we sell here. Not that we wouldn't sell other makes, but most of our customers don't have a strong opinion on which reserve they want. So we recommend the ones we'd want in our rigs. By the way, the customers that DO have strong opinions on reserves, want PD reserves. Often they have arrived at this opinion after jumping with a different make of reserve in their previous rig. side note: On my one reserve ride, my PD 160 landed better than my Sabre 170 (clearly, it opened better too ).

I'd agree with that but say, get a used reserve too. they're out there if you look hard enough... Check the classifieds here. There is one in particular that stick in my mind... By buying a new contianer, you'll get a harness that fits you like a glove, is colors that don't make you want to barf (it's okay to admit you want your colors -- we jump partly because it makes us feel cool and it's hard to feel cool in ugly gear), and all the bells and whistles that you want. Buy the rest used -- you'll probably never see the reserve anyway and you might be discarding mains like candy wrappers throughout your first 500 jumps, so save yourself some money!

We carry both the ProTrack and the Neptune in my store. The Neptune was a little slow to take off, but now is picking up momentum. Customer service is equally awesome with each company, so that's not been a deciding factor. I do think the price difference will continue to make the Neptune more attractive than the ProTrack. Not to mention that it's easier to navigate the set-up...

Rescued cats are the best -- they know where they would be without you, and are very loyal. I have three of them: "X-Ray," "Amelia (the siamese kitten from last year's nationals at SDC)" and "Tiny." Glad you have a new baby, and she's lucky to have you!

Sick and wrong, but still funny as hell... http://www.joecartoon.com/pages/joefish/

thanks for that -- I really needed a good laugh today.

you left out the following choice in your poll: not scared of it, not interested in it. For me, jumping is much more fun with other people involved.

Is that a de Havilland Buffalo? If I'm not mistaken, Roger looked into buying one for SDC a couple years ago.

What you said -- same here. i normally have a guy who works on Sunday mornings so i can play, but he had some surgery over the week, and wasn't able to work today. And I'm jonesing! But you can't win 'em all....

That's f&%^d up.

IS that third one a turbine Beaver? Sweet. Me, I want small and fast. I don't want to take the whole family along -- just me and my sweetie. I'll stick with the Derringer. Of course the brown stripes in the photo I posted HAVE to go .

The Wing Derringer is pretty hot -- there's just something about a two-seater twin that makes me purr. I'll need to do more than just my piddly three hours in a C-152 before I can even think about having one in my future though... (edited to add clicky)