bluewaterstream

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Everything posted by bluewaterstream

  1. Um, I feel that I am ready to downsize and have been told to do so by several instructors at my DZ - just not to a 210. Buying an oversized canopy is a problem that I can deal with. I'd rather be bored and safe, than to the teeth with fear and busted up.
  2. Yeah, I just really want to make sure not to fuck around with downsizing too quickly. The container is an M5 Mirage, so my understanding is that I eventually could drop the main down to a 170 if needed.
  3. I recently came across a pretty sweet deal on a Mirage G3 with a 210 for the main, which is exactly what I've been looking for. However, with only 13 jumps under my belt, all of which have been on a 290, I'm obviously not quite ready to downsize to a 210 yet. So, my first question is should I hold off on buying a rig with a 210 until I can actually handle a 210. I should have downsized about 3 jumps ago, but I'm always too impatient to wait for the 260. The rigs with 290's always seem to be available at my DZ. Anyway, I weigh about 180lb without gear and have stood up 10 out of 13 of my jumps and have consistently landed within 10-40 ft from the peas(actually hit the peas on my first jump, talk about beginners luck!). Additionally, several instructors at my DZ have suggested that I downsize. I would never want to rush downsizing, but I'm wondering approximately how long it will take to safely downsize to a 210 according some of you more experienced jumpers based on my canopy experience and performance? I don't want to miss out on a good opportunity, but I also don't want to buy a rig that I won't be able to jump safely anytime soon. Any advice would be appreciated. ~ John
  4. Just an FYI, Lori (skykittn) turned out to be a cool person to buy gear from. She actually works for a DZ, which made me feel a lot better. I sent my check to the DZ and received my jumpsuit a few weeks later. I would definitely buy from her again and just wanted to make sure that I shared my experience with all of you because she seems to sell a lot of gear on this site. ~ John
  5. No, of course I didn't come up with that. I first read about it here on dropzone.com and then asked a few people at my DZ what they thought about the 45 degree theory. A few were for it and a few were against it. Actually, one of the JM's at my DZ even recommended it.
  6. So, I've read all of the arguments and different theories on exit separation on this site posted by people that all have a lot more experience/jumps/knowledge than I do in this sport. I value all of your opinions and each one of them (even the opinions that I disagree with) helps me to develop a theory of my own that I feel comfortable and safe with. I'm new in this sport (12 jumps), however I sincerely feel that I am super safe and conservative when it comes to skydiving. I would like the opinions of those who have been dominating this particular thread (in particular; kallend, billvon, goose491, & winsor), I am curious to hear if those with different exit separation theories would both feel comfortable/safe exiting a plane with someone like myself. I only jump when winds are under 10 mph, and I use both the 45 degree theory and always count at least 5 seconds before exiting after a solo jumper. If a group jumps before me I'll wait anywhere from 6 - 8 seconds. If I make a 5 - 8 second count and the skydiver(s) that jumped before me are close to 45 degrees, well then I jump! This has never happened, but if I counted to 5, 6, 7, or 8 and the jumper(s) before me were still basically directly beneath me at zero to thirty degrees or so, I wouldn't jump and I'd continue counting until I felt it was cool to jump. Even if a bunch of yahoos behind me (that have no view of the spot) were screaming for me to jump, I ain't jumping until I say so. If someone is right underneath me I'm not jumping until at least 10 - 15 seconds. Also, I always track away perpendicular from the plane (flight path) and keep a close eye on everyone around me throughout most of the skydive. Just like while I'm on my motorcycle, I drive defensively while on the street and I fly defensively in the air. So, would ya'll feel safe having a cat like me jumping out after you? If not, tell me why so that I can consider re-evaluating my theory/interpretation on exit separation. ~ John
  7. I have contacted the seller and I'm waiting for a response. I didn't mean to do anyone wrong here, I just don't want to get shafted. I'd be willing to delete my last post if you guys think that was inappropriate. Let me know, no worries either way...
  8. Good idea Conway, here's all I have so far: Real name: Lorelei (Lori) Stone Dropzone.com name: skykittn
  9. I'm in the process of buying a piece of gear off someone from this site. However, they don't have any of their profile info filled out and they have never posted in the forums, so basically no one here would probably know who this person is. Should I be skeptical about sending this cat $100 or am I being paranoid? Have any of you been scammed by anyone here? Just curious...
  10. Oh crap, Canuck is right - I just called the DZ and they're not jumping today. I'm still going to drink the beers anyway, I'm starting a new skydiving ritual. If you've planned a jump and don't end up going for some uncontrollable factor - BEER...
  11. No doubt, I'm excited to jump today. We have a little snow on the ground out here and I'm thinking it will be a cool new experience to land on snow. I already have the cold BEERS waiting for me...
  12. It's about 20 degrees outside here in Colorado and I'm planning on getting a quick jump in after work. I was wondering if any of you have ever heard of gear freezing up and not working properly due to extremely cold weather. While in freefall, I'm sure that the wind chill will be far below 0. For example, I'm wondering about the cutaway, reserve, altimeter, AAD, etc. Probably not, but I figured I'd ask anyway. Also, I don't plan on wearing anything more than googles on my face, should I be concerned about getting frostbite? Today will be my first solo jump after graduating AFF a few weeks ago, wish me luck.
  13. Yeah, I've read those threads too. My question though, was would any of you ever land a main with a lineover, not how to clear a lineover. No worries, I just want to make sure this thread's original question stays on track...
  14. So, I've heard a few stories of people landing mains with a lineover mal. Would any of you ever really do this? Newbies like myself, please don't respond - I'd rather hear what some of the experienced jumpers with significant numbers have to say. If so, why? I would fear that the canopy could potentially collapse while coming in for a landing, not leaving enough time to get the reserve out if needed. If I was high enough with a lineover and had time to mess around with the canopy, I would first try and clear it and if that failed I would cut and pull silver. Is this how most of you would handle this situation?
  15. So, I had my first skydiving dream last night and it was a bit on the sketchy side. I recall reading a few posts in the past about some of you having both good and bad skydiving dreams. Anyway, here's what went down in mine. The dream took place at an unfamiliar DZ. I jumped at 12,500 and the dive itself was rather uneventful and actually seemed as if I pulled kinda high. Anyway, when I tossed the pilot chute it deployed the main but it was a serious mess. It appeared to be a nasty lineover with a few line twists and one released brake. The canopy looked like total crap so I immediately went to cut it away. I pulled the cutaway just about all way out but it got jammed up somehow and it wouldn't release me from the main. I remember checking my altitude at that point and I was at about 4 grand. I continued pulling on the cutaway handle but had no luck and was quickly running out of time. It seemed like the yellow cutaway cords were too long. I considered pulling out my knife and manually cutting it away but was unsure if I'd have enough time, so I wrapped the exposed yelllow cutaway lines around my hand and pulled as hard a I could and it cutaway successfully! I then pulled silver and was now under a reserve with about 5 line twists. Oh yeah, I remember being somewhat surprised that I had to pull silver considering that I had an RSL connected on the rig. So, I then kicked out of the line twists and was under a good reserve by about 1,500. I've never really been under a reserve yet, but the one in my dream looked like a cheap dirty old bedsheet and the toggles looked as if they where made out of an old t-shirt. Damn, I really hope my first reserve ride is nothing like this! I only have 9 jumps at this point and just recently graduated AFF. Is this about when most of you began having these sick dreams? I definitely plan on jumping this weekend just to get these negative dream vibes out of my head.
  16. Sound familiar? I'm sure you'll find the hacky no problem, just do a few PRCT's before pull time. You know the drill, if you can't find it after two attempts pull silver. It sounds to me like you're thinking too much, kinda like I was yesterday. You're going to do just fine!
  17. Yeah, I'm totally fine with everything again. Yesterday, I think I was just reliving the experience a bit and thinking about it way too much. No doubt, I'm ready to jump again...
  18. You know, now I can't seem to stop thinking about this minor malfunction and it's beginning to freak me out a little bit. The more I read, the more I realize how much more there is to learn. It kinda frightens me to think back at how little we are actually taught during our AFF Level 1 jump. I completely understand that it wouldn't be wise to overload a Level 1 student with too much info and that it's best just to have them understand enough so that they can have a safe jump and recover from a mal if necessary, but now that I'm at Level 6 I'm beginning to wonder about everything that I haven't already been taught in the previous AFF Levels (1 -5). Did any of you reach a point like this when you began learning and understanding a lot more about rig set-ups(RSL's, AAD's, etc.) and malfunctions and it reached a point where it actually scared you a bit? I want to know absolutely everything there is to know about skydiving ASAP so that I can be an incrediably safe skydiver, but I know that is going to take more training, jumps, and time. However, I'm finding that difficult to accept and perhaps that's what's freaking me out - not the line twists. Anyway, considering my level of training and experience, or lack of, I sincerely feel that I responded extremely well and efficiently to the line twists. My JM actually saw the whole thing too and said that my response was great. If I encountered that exact same situation, I would respond exactly the same way (but now I'll check my 3-ring too!). I found this picture (( http://www.dropzone.com/safety/emergencies/photos/142-a-l.jpg )) of a line twist and mine seemed to have just about the same amount of line twists but my canopy was catching a lot more air. Basically the stabilizers and end cells were folded over, so about 70 - 80% of the canopy was open. Therefore I was falling at a much slower speed than the poor person that was under the canopy from the picture in the link above. Anyway, writing is therapeutic and I just needed to share this odd phase of my skydiving career before I jump again this weekend. I'm still really excited for my Level 6 & 7 jumps and won't let this little hurdle get in the way!!! Thanks again for all of your advise... ((( On a side note: If you're about to jump Level 1 please don't let this posting deter you in any way. The training that you'll receive in AFF is incredible and if it wasn't, I would have never jumped in the first place and I certainly wouldn't have jumped 6 more times after that! )))
  19. That is great advice, thanks! I checked the cutaway handle but didn't think to check the 3-ring. I'll definitely remember to do that next time...
  20. Yeah, I pulled at about 5 grand and was under a good canopy by 4...
  21. I had an awesome day at the DZ yesterday, I did both my AFF Level 4 and 5 jumps. On Level 4, I was amazed how much easier it was to make 90 degree turns without the JM's holding onto you. What a blast! However, the highlight of the jump for me was that I had my first stand-up landing! What a great feeling! On Level 5, everything went really smooth. I made a few super-cool 360 degree turns in both directions and played around with forward motion a bit. At about 5 grand I tossed my pilot chute and felt the main open, but then realized that I was still falling kind of fast and that I was spinning. At the time I'm thinking, "Oh shit, my first malfunction." I immediately grabbed my cutaway handle and decided to lookup up at the canopy to see what the hell was wrong with my main before cutting it away. Line Twists - Sweet, I can fix that! I had about 5 or 6 line twists, so I let go of the cutaway handle and spread the risers apart with both hands and bicycle kicked out of them. Now, I finally understand why everyone says that line twists aren't that big of a big deal. I'm so glad that I finally had that experience. I guess I still must have had a slight spin going from the 360's when I deployed, I'll have to work on that. Anyway, I was so excited once a had a nice, square, landable canopy above me and to complete an awesome day of jumping I rode that canopy in for my second stand-up landing! What a great day!!!
  22. Yeah, it's Friday and about 1:00 here in Colorado so my brain is just about to shut down for the week. It's slowly switching over to weekend mode, good catch on that brain-fart typo Remster...
  23. Yup, that's the other point he made that I forgot to mention. Thanks Hooknswoop. If you were to release the brakes on the main it would slow the main down a bit, but the reserve canopy would continue flying at its original speed and could cause the reserve to spin back around the main and twist up the two canopies. Stupid malfunctions!!!
  24. I actually just had this conversation with one of my JM's a few weeks ago, and he advised that in the event of a two-out/side by side if it doesn't downplane and it appears to be flying stable to steer gently using the rear risers on the main and not to even think about releasing the toggles. The logic behind not releasing the toggles was that a steering line could possibly break upon releasing and end up further complicating the situation, for example the broken steering line could potentially wrap up and tangle a few other canopy lines and cause a hard turn and ultimately end up twisting up both canopies into one big mess - in which case would probably result in a bounce. Another possibility is that only one toggle may fully release properly and you could essentially end up with the same problem as described above - a hard turn that may end up twisting the canopies. I've heard a few other suggestions at my DZ but I happen to agree with this guys logic 100% and I'm quite certain that those toggles would stay put if I ever found myself encountered with a landable two-out/side by side.
  25. Yeah, I was kind of hungry and a little deprived of sleep. I'm a typical guy in the sense that I've got to full-on pass out or have a limb chopped off before I'll even consider going to the doctor. Actually, if it happens again maybe I'll get it checked out by an ear specialist. Strange how going to a doctor can be more frightening than jumping out of an airplane!