GraficO

I hear Viso is shipping within 2 weeks... GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

In March 1991 I completely tore my ACL, miniscus and a couple other ligaments during a friday night beer brawl. I had surgery 3 days later for the repair by the doctor that specialized in sports injuries for all of the Fresno State football and basketball players.... in July of the same year I started skydiving. I wore my brace and was fairly gingering on landings... but I have not had a lick of problems since other than fatigue. It's been a long time and I have not had to wear a brace at all. If this is a complete joint replacement... that may be a different story all together. No matter how many times you land the same way, in the same place, under the same conditions... you still run the risk of a bad landing that could jeoparized that joint. It really comes down to how much risk you are willing to accept. GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Bill Kitchen.... Invented the Sky Coaster and the SkyVenture wind tunnels... new project... the Unicoaster. GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

contact Brian Germain if you really want to get ahold of Dave. He may still have some gear around. GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

send it back to L&B... they will take care of you. I haven't seen anything like this on my Altitrack and I've been jumping the same one for over a year now and have at least 200 jumps on it. That is not a misprint GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

the backlight is for the altimeter face. I don't beleive that there is a light for the LCD on the back. GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I found it... http://www.boneheadcomposites.com/zeus.htm GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Thanks Dom and all those who voted VSE! The VSE logo & the Inifinity logo are 2 of my favorite creations ;) GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

As some of my closer friends know... every year on October 25th I go out for a nice dinner and a good bottle of scotch and toast all of the people (good and bad) that have influenced my life in one way or another. Part of that list are the friends that are subject only to fond memories. Just my way of thanking the people who have done me right and those who have done me wrong. It doesn't matter whether did something terrible or not... I just thank those people for the lessons learned. My "list" grows and will continue to do so but I will keep jumping... it's not the loss of life it's the life lost in the process if you don't experience it and take hold. Time never stands still. After doing work for the Rob Harris Foundation and talking with Bea (his mom) on a fairly regular basis, I am repeatedly reminded through her tears even to this day that we get nowhere without taking risk and regardless of consequence there is always someone out there that loves us regardless of what we choose to do and so very deeply. I thank her and the rest of the Harris clan for teaching me that... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

yes... the first orders shipped Friday if I am not mistaken. here they come folks. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

on the other side where rigs go most of the time the pipes are wrapped with pipe insulation so it's not as serious of a bend for the riser covers. Soft, comfy pillows for rigs... lol... that's just sick. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

my old friend and skydiving mentor once said..."If you're hurt and you recover and think you're ready to jump again... wait one more week." GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

looks like a Factory Diver from Sky Systems to me http://www.skysystemsltd.com GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I have a metal I-Beam post in the middle of my garage... so I bolted pipes to the I-Beam to hold all of my rigs... See photo... cost me like $12 for all the materials at Home Depot GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

ouch sweetie!... Recover fast. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I tend to agree JP... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

according to ParaGear... $299.95 GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Dealer... no... Advertising... well maybe... but it's more of how I write I guess... it wasn't the intention. Passing of information only.... and as an active camera person. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

here's a "Spy-Photo" of VSE's new cut-in SELF-ADJUSTING lateral setup... this is the HOT TICKET for cut-ins folks... no matter what you're wearing for a jumpsuit (winter or summer) it hugs and wraps your torso perfectly. The D-ring on the lateral slides to give it of a custom glove fit. Once again VSE does it better... was very impressed with it the first time I saw it. way to go Kel! GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

packaging, manuals etc are done and will be delivered to the factory late this week... pre-orders to dealers will be filled first and will hit store shelves very soon after... in other words... the wait is almost over.... and well worth it. L&B has never publicly released a product that wasn't test jumped over and over again before its release. Clean comfortable setup in my opinion... people at the DZ here have been itchin to get their paws on it... nothing but excellent feedback from those who have played with it. I've been jumping one for about 7 months as a tester... this is THE hot ticket for those of you wanting an extremely accurate analog faced altimeter + A great combo with the Optima audible... or Solo... I prefer the Optima because it has swoop alarms. Very handy... and since I jump camera... the LED visual warning light is really cool GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

and the cover & DVD face ROCK! ehem.... Sorry couldn't resist.... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

yup... we've had a few... but one sticks out in my head. This young gentleman had natural talent, he picked things up quickly and every time someone mentioned that he was going too fast he would always speed up. Frustrated with being at a small DZ... he went West to a big DZ mecca... where he went even faster. While he was dropping canopy sizes like old underwear he forgot 2 major rules and one minor rule: 1- Complacency in any extreme sport WILL kill you. 2- Understanding what can happen doesn't replace the experience needed to deal with it. Minor- Just because your friends are doing it doesn't mean you have to as well. Right now... I don't have any idea exactly where he is right now. I just hope that the desire and the drive that put him in a wheelchair is enough to get him out of it again. I certainly don't wish him any ill will and if anything I hope he recovers to some point of normalcy... point is that I shouldn't (as well as other people) have only to say "I told you so." GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Truthfully.... in my experience, you can pack the same way every time and always keep your equipment in tip-top shape (stow bands, lines, PC, etc.) but every once in awhile you will get a smacker... not MIGHT... you will. Airflow changes, strange winds... who knows what... it just happens. While I do not have any knowledge of Spectre 190s having opeing problems (I previously had a 150 Spectre) you might want to have your rigger do an inspection on the lines and the canopy. Probably a good idea to inspect your harness and 3-rings. I'm glad that your injury wasn't too serious... but it's a risk that we all take by leaving the airplane and skydiving. Today was interesting for me in that what should have been a normal jump with a rig that was packed by a PST competitor/rigger opened with 3 line twists and I was lucky not to have had to cut away a "spin-O-letto"... nothing odd about body position, normal experienced pack job/packer... but I still got a surprise. Hang in there and repair yourself... it just happens to even the best of us every now and then. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

As some of the other people have said... sensory overload may dissipate in time for you. Learning to skydive is a very busy thing. noise, fear, attention to detail, performance anxiety and the list goes on and on. Sometime the best thing is to break up the skydive into parts and focus on the main things about those parts and separate them. - Exit The aircraft: What are the basic things that you need to pay attention to on the exit. (Climb out, count, body position) - Do the skydive: If you're doing AFF now focus on what needs to happen durning this part of the skydive (Performance goals/checklist, altitude awareness, correct pull-time proceedures) - Fly and Land your parachute: You've got a functional canopy (or not) not what must you pay attention to? Canopy checks, traffic, landing area, performance goals, flare at a proper altitude and gather your gear neatly. Sometime we get all screwed up becuse we try to do all the above at the same time which is impossible. Drill each part separately. When one is finished, go to the next step. Here is a link to a video of an AFF Level one dive recently. The student is clearly overloaded and the instructor has to pull for him. The student was stellar in ground school and is usually very good at task oriented activities... but the added fear factor, noise and whatever else contributed to him not passing this AFF L1. AAF 1 Overload It will come... just break up the jump into smaller parts to think about instead of all of it and what you're going to do at the end of the day all at once Grafico GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

dactl... Every year we put on an annual "Water Boogie".. so beach landings in the desert and water landings in the lake... intentional. This event is usually where all the "weird gear" come out to play. If you're interested in coming out it's the weekend after Labor Day every year at Elephant Butte lake in New Mexico. All sorts of rounds, MT1X (modifieds), and the dactl... lots of fun if you're up for a different experience visit http://www.skydivenm.net if you're interested GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."