bclark

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Everything posted by bclark

  1. I give my tandem students an opportunity to pull the ripcord on every tandem. I explain to them that if they don't, I will, so it is OK. Even the students who say they don't want to pull usually do. We use Strong Dual Hawks, and have relocated the location of the passenger ripcord from the students harness to the top front of the instructors legpad (with Strong's approval of course.) We have also replaced the orange pvc handle with a ball. The idea is that it simulates the actual feel and location of a hand deploy p/c. We are training AFF students to hand deploy from their first AFF jump. Another nice feature is that it is much harder to snag the drogue release on an exit or have a student pull high with this configuration.
  2. When I see someone who I think has no business downsizing talking about it, I ask them this... Can you land the canopy you have now standing up, where you want to, in any wind conditions, every time? Can you land your parachute using a braked approach? Can you land your parachute straight in without hooking it? If not I think that you probably should consider spending some more time learning on your current parachute.
  3. 1350 in since 1996. 350 tandems 350 video 250 RW 200 Freefly and the rest "other".
  4. Wingnuts "Wanna buy a duck?" joke has been officially banned at our drop zone.
  5. Come on out to skydive Utah in Tooele. We are operating our Twin Bonanza most days of the week. On Saturdays we usually fly a couple of loads in our DC-3. Call before you drive 888 JUMP NOW.
  6. Skydiving rocks!!! Around here we refer to the alternate skydiving publication "Parachutist" as Para-tissue, as all it is good for these days is glossy paper ass wipe. If you want to read nothing but advertisements and public interes bull@!*% then paratissue is the mag for you. However for actual information and content, SKYDIVING is the shiznit.
  7. Hello everyone, I have been perusing DZ.com for months now, but have yet to post so...I am Brian from skydive Utah. I am a full time tandem pilot and videot at my home DZ and am having LOTS of fun. Blue skies, Fuck death.
  8. Congrats...Most skydivers I know say that they never want to get a tandem rating because: A: they don't want to get thrown up on... B: they don't want to take Cletus or Bubba skdiving... C: they are afraid of the gear, blah blah blah. I had a lot of apprehension about getting a tandem rating, but after approx 325 tandems, I LOVE THEM. I have as much faith in my tandem gear ( Strong ) as I have in my own gear. And I love taking people on their first jumps. HAVE FUN!!!
  9. I guess that I "pyscho pack" my stiletto 120. It is basically a straight pro pack with the exception that I turn the parachute around 180 degrees and very carefully throw it down. I then clean up the pack job, roll the nose and tail and turn it back over. I do not roll my parachute up like a sleeping bag, which is my understanding of the traditional "psycho pack". I cobra fold it as usual and bag it up. This is a very common pack job where I come from (UTAH, 5000' MSL). I know that the manufacturer recommends otherwise but I get very nice on heading, slow openings. I previously had a stiletto 135 that I pack ed the same way for 700 jumps.
  10. We recently lost a friend and scattered his ashes in freefall using a modified fanny pack. We cut off the webbing that would typically go around the waist and put two straps of elastic on each end so it could be worn around a forearm. We put a big peice of binding tape on the zipper so that it could be opened easily in freefall. It took a bit of shaking to turn him loose but worked very well.