beezyshaw

I always heard it referred to as the "Sport Parachute Activity", not "club". But hell, I'm just a civilian! I remember Susie Hanks ran the "activity" for a number of years.

In the 70's at our dropzone in Dalton, GA, we were probably the most "T Bow intensive" dz in the country. We ALL jumped the T Bow...me, George Galloway, Terry Curtis, Eddie Darr, lots of others; then when the RW version came out (lighter fabric and small pack volume), Tom Rambo and Bob Wilson joined the pack. The person I remember most jumping a Thunderbow was a guy in Fernandina Beach, FL who's name was Bill Smith, but everybody just called him T Bow Bill.

You're almost right, but not quite. Aerodyne is not using soar coat, which is from Performance Textiles in North Carolina. They are using zp fabric from Perseverence Mills in the UK. PD also uses some of this fabric as well as soar coat.

>So, take it to the rigger, he checks - lines don't appear out of trim (less than 2 inches uneven) & nothing else has changed. He pulls hard on the outter lines to stretch them back a bit, it makes them more even. I'd really like to see someone put a canopy with spectra lines back in trim by pulling on them! Really, I've been in canopy manufacturing for many years and that's just not going to happen. At 400 jumps, what is most out of trim are your lower control lines, as I've seen shrinkage of up to an inch per 100 jumps. Compare the length of them to PD's specs and you'll probably be surprised at how short they are. It would only cost a small fraction of a reline to install those two lines and it just might make a big difference in your openings.

Hey JP, that's a Vertigo Warlock with a Dagger canopy.

My partner at HiPeR, Pascal, made this wingsuit jump the other day in Switzerland. I thought I'd post this video of the jump... http://www.hiperusa.com/pascal_ws_base.mov

My partner at HiPeR, Pascal, made this jump a few days ago in Switzerland. It was a nice looking jump and so I thought I'd share this video... http://www.hiperusa.com/pascal_ws_base.mov

He was referring to the collapsable slider, not the pilot chute. I disagree that it is not efficient; the drawstring system on the Nitro always stays closed, unlike the type with the "barbs" that get can jump back inside the slider and allow the slider to re-inflate. And most people who demo or buy a Nitro (or Blade) really prefer our slider.

>I used to hope that people didn't get hurt when they downsized quickly. Now I hope they break their femurs... Bill is such a nice guy, I'm just sitting here laughing my ass off thinking about him seeing some young hot dog laying there in the landing area screaming in pain, and Bill saying, "I sure am glad that kid did that"!!

I have been skydiving for 33 years, and I think I know by now what is safe and what is not. I've been shooting hand-cam video (with a mount made by Rob and a Sony IP5) for a little over two years. THERE IS NO COMPROMISE IN SAFETY. PERIOD! You can "what if this happens" or "what if that happens" all you like, but it works great, is totally safe for me to do, doesn't interfere with the skydive WHATSOEVER, and the students absolutely love the results. And it is their 50 bucks, so say what you will about quality compared to conventional video, but I'm here to tell you they actually like it better. Why? Because the entire skydive is on video, so they are a star for 6 minutes instead of 1. We have several students come to make a second tandem solely for the purpose of getting the hand-cam video like their buddy did. When they get home and compare, they all like the hand-cam better because the whole canopy ride is captured. So enough of the speculation about safety; NOT AN ISSUE. And say what you will about video quality, the proof is in my hundreds of hand cam jumps that make the students very happy with the finished product.

It's a small tandem dz for tourists; just leave your rig at home and enjoy the keys for what they really have to offer.

Our website has the owner's manuals for our main canopies online, and good pro packing instructions can be found in the manual: http://www.hiperusa.com/NitroManual.pdf I also looked at Sid's instructions, and they are very good.

George Galloway and I were cadets together beginning in 7th grade at the Baylor School for Boys. That was 1962, I think. Neither of us made it all the way through; by around 10th grade, it was felt by the headmaster that public school might be the best route for us!!

FYI, Simon Mundell hasn't been with Icarus in several months. He's doing some sort of consulting job in NZ.

You probably agree with Bill because of your experience at flying close and docking under canopy as a CREWdog. So to you, from your perspective, snagging a freebag seems a no-brainer. But remember that most skydivers aren't proficient at CRW, so keeping their skills and experience in mind, I would have to agree that the smart move is to follow anyone's anything to the ground and not try to actually snag it mid-air. So if you want to catch a freebag, that's your call, but I'm not going to do it (not again, anyway).

When I operated the repair department at a canopy manufacturing plant for several years, I got canopies sent to me in some of the strangest configurations you can imagine. Once I even got a canopy in for a reline and the customer had cut every one of the line attachment loops off of the canopy! I guess he wanted to save the old lines for tent stakes or something and couldn't figure out any other way to get them off!! Here's another good one; I got a canopy back that a guy had actually taken bolt cutters and cut big spaces in the grommets of the toggles so that he could get the steering lilnes off the toggles!! Sometimes you just can't see the forest for the trees.

This thing about the cards is like an accident looking for a place to happen. I don't use cards for a very important reason. I want to look at each line group and check continuity before running the line group through the slider grommet and on to the riser. Using the cards, relying on someone else to put it on the card correctly, is crazy to me. I just put the control line on each respective rear connector link and put a rubber band around the bundle and daisy-chain the lines, so that a continuity check MUST be done at installation.

Vectran does elongate over the life of a lineset, typically about an inch. But it seems to do so fairly evenly, which keeps the overall trim at a very acceptable level. HMA, or Technora, that we use on our canopies seems to elongate just a little bit, much less than vectran does. Both of these fibers keep their trim very nicely compared to spectra.

A wuffo friend of mine sent this to me this morning. I've had some strange things happen doing tandems, but this too much... http://hiperusa.com/parachute_granny.wmv

I didn't know Kate Cooper was on death row! I Now I see why other people always answer the phone at Square 1.

I just wanted to report on my new CREEPS system that I started jumping last weekend. Man, that thing rocks! I had my rigger install the system with all the options, including the RAD unit and canopy recovery system. After reading the manual several times and rehearsing all the advanced procedures, I was ready to jump. And, as fate would have it, a malfunction! Lucky for me that my eyesight is 20/20, as the display is a little on the small size. But even so, as soon as I felt like something just wasn't right, it only took a few quick seconds to realize my display was advising me to cutaway. Three quick pushes of the MCRB button and I was in freefall once again. And it was such a relief when the RAB button worked as advertised! The only disappointment was the fact that my main landed right in the middle of the packing area so I didn't get a chance to even try the main canopy tracking system; to tell you the truth I was a little skeptical that it would actually work from 9 miles away. And I was really looking forward to using the CALM mode, as I have had problems with hooking a little late. Hopefully on my next jump I'll get to ride my main and I'll report on the accuracy of the swoop landing functions then (providing I flare soon enough). Kudos to the engineers and designers of the product. BTW, since my main riser 3-ring loops are now severed, my rigger advises that maybe it would be cheaper for me to buy some risers on the internet instead of rebuilding my old ones. Anyone got any good velcro-less risers for sale cheap?

I had my fingers crossed when I said that.

It's a 9 cell, not cross-braced, but a very fast swoop canopy with the largest size being 120. Here's a pic of me under a 108...

I'll be there representing HiPerUSA, and I'll have plenty of new NITRO and BLADE canopies to demo. Of course my visit will be strictly company business, NO PARTYING ALLOWED!

See Chris jump. See me jump. See us all jump the CARAVAN!! Y'all come on out and jump, too. Cause if y'all come jump the CARAVAN, we'll get to jump it all the time. I don't know if I'll know what to do to get my tandems out of that big ole door after doing so many out of the 182, but maybe I can get somebody to show me how so I won't be scared of that big hole in the side of the CARAVAN!!