CrazyL

I always thought it was...... ya, homie up there at the top of this thread ought to read and heed bro!

For really quick turn around date your riggers wife Ooooo there's a song about that! It's in the Cock Chorus song book.

I gotta say, Sonic's rental gear is some of the cleanest, most up to date,great selection, well maintained rental gear that i've seen at any dz. If you read in my post something about a desert area. The Ranch is nothing like a desert now is it.Sonic's gear does'nt land in a desert. The Ranch is like a frikken ranch, a one of a kind kinda place. Sonic was trained before i got there. Did you really think I was talking about training Sonic.You gotta be kidding me. And for you last question, another dz.

Can this post be a cardinal rule? I'm with you 110%.

say it is'nt so! put a 170 in the same container that fits his 220 and it'll be loose, could be dangerously loose.

So in other words, you have discretion on what happens to your gear. Am I right?

On some rigs and how the rig is used the loop should be replaced more often than 120 days, like on some demo gear jumped in the desert dirt. I have had a pro shop that I used to service their gear trained to advise me of any sort of issues they see on gear, used to be like that. I dunno how they do the biz now as I have moved on. about the loop: in other words the jumper could still be the one in discretion of when to change the loop. As long as we don't do away with gear checks prior to jumping then loop wear can be caught prior to jumping. Unless of coarse there is a frayed loop inside the container you can't see with a simple gear check due to an aad cutter. AAD cutters cutting loops prematurely really is no big deal , right? lets go to a 2 year pack cycle, please!

thanks, your right about keeping track of jumps on gear. lots of dz's have computer generated manifest these days, could the computer manifest act as a Hobbs meter of sort?

However, I'm thinking of looking at a Gath next as I believe they actually offer some impact protection as they have foam in them as opposed to cloth maybe the new gath's have better protection, I had a friend by the name of Adria who was wearing one when she incidentally hooked it in with the old style gath, The head injury resulted in death. sorry buddy.

2 more 4 way team slots available, will also be there for 8,10, and 16 way. Reserve a packer ahead of time and save your team some time.

why replace the loop? and when?

Let me know what you think of this idea: When it comes to the FAA and the inspections on aircraft they do such things as a 100 hr inspection. Could it be possible to have a 100 jump inspection? Like every 100 jumps and/or each year? As in other posts jumpers do things to gear that would warrant a inspection and packing of their rig much sooner than even 120 days. And about repairs: some riggers can do and some should'nt and don't. How many times can the velcro that needs replaced keep going on without being replaced? stiffeners? boc? etc...

Time could easily be 1 day to 2 months depending on the circumstances. The longest time I had on a rig was 2months. If everything goes smoothly the whole interaction between client/gear could easily be less than 2 hours of time for doing the very basic inspection and packing of the reserve. Add on assembly, washing rig, reline, repair, aad issues, etc. will take longer time obviously.

120 days?, 180 days?, 2 yrs?, 5 yrs? The same reasons and/or lack of reasoning to have a 120 day pack cycle could easily be applied to any # of days/ years for a pack cycle. Why even have a pack cycle? Why not leave the inspection and packing up to the jumpers discretion?

The 180 day pack cycle is just as useless as the 120 day pack cycle. Why would a jumper 'need' to get their rig inspected at 180 days? Is that when they get scared? What reasons are there to even have a pack cycle? Without a pack cycle a jumper would be at their own discretion as to when to get their rig repaired and/or inspected and packed.

There are plenty of trade offs when choosing a helmet.For aerodynamics like while freeflying I choose a helmet with less drag (small shell with a little bit of padding) the trade off is less shock absorbtion if you crash, but the helmet will still work well just not as good as a protec for crashing with. Pro tec helmets work and are typically the 'best for crashing with. The drawback for freeflying a protec is the amount of drag they have considering how aerodynamic they are while sitflying. Full face helmets: some have a velcro closure thingy that gets worn out over time and is a pain to replace and at higher speeds or you forget to latch the thing it can fly off more easily,same goes for the visor. Some full face helmets have overcome this problem like the bonehead full face. If you wear glasses or contacts like me I choose to wear goggles that don't allow wind into them in freefall and choose an open face helmet. I do like a chin cup of sorts. The padding: Some helmet makers have glued in padding which for the most part are non adjustable some are comfy. Some helmet makers have removable padding which you can add padding to (shims) till the helmet fits pretty snug on your noggin then you heat the pads in the oven, put the pads in your helmet and put the helmet on and the pads mold to your head very well. I choose Bonehead helmets. I like how the helmets feel and secure to my head. They are tough enough and I like the dytter(audible) to be inside the shell of the helmet rather than the outside. You can buy a new one or used one. If you buy a used one you can replace the padding without alot of hassle. New is best. So for your first helmet i'd suggest one that all you have to do is put the thing on and latch the chin strap or chin cup and your ready to go. If when you land your parachute and you face plant often, i'd choose a full face.

No doubt the repack cycle could be moved to 180 days. Why be wussies here, push it to 2 years, why not? from what i've read in all posts on this thread one could use the same arguments to push the pack cycle way longer than 180 days. A manufacturer may recommend 360 days if there were'nt any other rules, what happens in 360 days? My guess is the same thing that happens in 120 days or 2 years or 20 years, the parachute is still a parachute, the risk of it working properly or improperly are the same. I had the honor of deploying a vector 2 that had been packed over 13 years, it would've worked without fail, pilotchute launched about 10ft, the rest of the system deployed uneventful. The only reason that I could not complete the repack right 'o way is that the reserve pilotchute had to be updated to a new design, why? The manufacturer says so, how come they chose to change pilotchutes? The old one worked just fine. On another note, cutters & loops: with the newer devices being installed into rigs the past few years or shall I say the past 40 years, who's catching the issues with these damn things anyway and how often are they being caught. I went through the arduous task of becoming comfy with installing a newly designed aad into a strangers rig. It never happened. The thing jacked up before I could install it. Cutter issues were found as well. As the fella that certifies rigs as airworthy for friends and sometimes strangers should I install new device into homies rig because ' countries that have installed such devices have seen no significant issues'. Sorry I chose an alternative. Sorry i'm doing wierd math here:Since the other countries have installed such device then their pack cycle is 180 days, i'll wait to get data for atleast 180 days, add in 1 pencil pack, that makes it atleast a year before any symptoms of such device may appear if any are reported. Maybe the device will cause no 'stir' in the community within and shortly after their 1st year on the market, did'nt happen, damn devices. Things have been found by riggers in the field that have as another poster said that has caused recalls and service bulletins, i'm one of those riggers. Some rigs should be on a lesser pack cycle than 120 days. The longer the pack cycle the more jumps and trunks gear is involved in. Repairs are imminent. We could leave it up to the individual jumper 100% of the time to get repairs done and repacks when their scared enough. Go big or go home, stretch the repack cycle to 2 years, i don't have a problem with that, hell, i'm well practiced enough, having less rigging work means less practice, those who already suck at rigging will be even more scary to get rigging done by. It won't matter if I charge $5 or $500 for an I&R, hahaha. I still have yet to place a skull and crossbones in my riggers log and don't intend too. Bill Von I have much respect for you and enjoy your view, fire away.

now that is good! you so funny!!! 2 things fall from the sky : birdshit and skydivers, you're both, you so lucky.

such as obstacle turbulence on windy days? For some reason/s i've survived many wicked circumstances in skydiving. Something about 'keeping your head on a swivel', 'spacial awareness' , 'obstacle turbulence awareness' , understanding how to 'fit in' with canopy traffic, understanding the wing and how it performs prior to performing tricks upon landing. My strategy seems to work well. There are a few key observations I have every load. How many jumpers, size of dives, canopies, pull height, line of flight, and more. As I am constantly collecting this 'survival data' on the load, in freefall at breakoff especially, under canopy. The closer I become to the ground the more critical it is for me to be prepared. How can I share good strategy with others? I expect jumpers to pull lower than they say prior to the jump, I expect big canopies to spiral down into the faster canopy traffic, I expect traffic to be congested at times and for me to occasionally be in the middle of the traffic.There is a pluthera of scenarios to reduce my chances of having the airspace to do my hookturn fun landing approach. I'm scared, I look around and take inventory of traffic and airspace, i'm checking wind indicators understanding where burbles from obstacles will be and also avoid taking out others at all cost. I have outs. My prior planning for airspace reduces others risk , so that I can increase my own risk for my own pleasure as I dive my canopy at the earth at high rates of speed. Many more parts go into the equation for my hookturn landing than just a simple degree of turn. Many skydivers observe from the ground, when someone does something hazardous someone will usually attempt to educate the hazardous jumper. Some get pissed, some let ego stand in the way, some appreciate the education. Occasionally on the airplane a newbie solo will be going out after me, i'm scared, so I attempt to share info with them so that they don't kill me or them due to lack of separation. I expect people to be idiots out there, maybe that's part of why i've survived so far.

This course sounds like a good one! Your bringing together some well qualified riggers thats for sure!

Safety note on having to fly near tandems.While at a busy dz in NY last summer a crossbraced canopy flew through the burble of a tandem below 2000ft. Crossbraced canopy did a wicked wierd collapsing flinging the jumper thing. Jumper cutaway and pulled reserve and walked away. Not only do not get into a dogfight with a tandem but the tandem burble as well. Had this highly experienced jumper had the same issue lower, which is'nt that hard to do, he'd have less time to survive the altercation with the tandem burble. Giv'em space and time!

Sounds like it! I aborted my hookturn fun 2 sundays ago due to going out last on wingsuit dive after tandems resulting in flying amongst tandems on the way back to the lz. As a tandem turned onto final into the 'shared' swoop/tandem landing area below me as I was setting up. It was easy for me to turn 90 (staying higher than tandem)onto final rather than 270 (which would put us all in danger) then flying a higher path and landing far out in front and to the side of the tandem. Everyone was happy to see such a move. No ego needed to still have fun aborting a landing for the tandem. I made time to find a suitable out.

will your teams use packers as well? Would your teams like to reserve slots with 2 great packers prior to arriving at nationals?

Thanks! I know how many RW fellas and some of the ladies like to have/watch a hot lady pack their rig, so i've teamed up with one to pack with for your pleasure. C'ya there!

will be there for the whole RW event, 4way through 16 way ,your on for the 7th 8th 9th, have fun. Will take good care of you and your spectre. For the camera people i'll pack without the blindfold!