GraficO

put another 50 jumps on the Safire... really put it through the ringer as far as flat turns, front and rear riser manipulations... flare techniques... Give it a workout... do some heavy toggle turns waaay up high and see the reactions you get. See what happens when you put different amounts of front riser and rear riser input... feel the canopy do what it does... Be generous with the landings though... no reason to hook in and bust yerself. Learn how much altitude you lose with different amounts of toggle and riser input... shift your weight in your harness to see how that affects your flight pattern... again up high and keep in mind that there are probably going to be other jumpers in the air with you. Main concept here is to understand the animal that be... really push the learning curve with landing discretion to understand exactly how your canopy flies... do this BEFORE you get the Jedei... because when you get the new one... you start over on learning the Jedei's nature. GraficO PS... thanx for the kudos Andi... as always GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Wellll... first off 300 jumps is not a magic number that makes you qualified for a high-perfermance canopy like the Jedei. It's not the years it's the mileage... in other words canopy flight is not just numbers it's experience under a canopy in a wide range of circumstances and combinations of circustances... not just no-wind, sunny days. I find it funny that people believe in magic numbers whether it be canopies, wingsuits or sportbikes... experience and compentency aligned with being current and being knowledgeable with a strong helping of vigilance is what makes situations better for higher wingloadings on high-performace canopies. Note that I said "better"... things can happen... things that people are not necessarily prepared for or for that matter concerned about. I have always said that complacency will kill you and the very moment that you forget that... it'll bite you. Having said that... from the canopies that you have jumped so far I would say that you are definately a candidate for the Jedei. I personally jump a Samurai and am an avid air-locker... and encourage anyone who has any interest in an airlocked canopy to get one... as they won't go back to a non-airlocker The question you have to ask yourself is whether or not the Jedei is going to do what you want it to do. Obviously it will fly differently than your Safire and most certainly different than the sabre. You are droipping in size and increasing wingloading... will that change based on your skills and vigilance and knowledge affect your piloting in a positive or a negative way? Your best bet would be to have a conversation with Brian Germain (inventor of Jedei and Samurai) and discuss openly and honestly about your desires to fly the Jedei and also discuss your canopy skills. That conversation would not be the time to hold anything back like "I have problems making it back to the landing area sometimes" for instance. Not say that you have those problems... but honesty with Brian goes a long way and you are always the benefactor. I hope I helped you in some way. By no means am I the most experienced person on the planet when it comes to canopies but I have a desire to strive for knowledge and experience and still keep within my own limitations. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

OK...I'll bite. Here are my helmets... I still have the Oxy... but have since traded up for a Guner The OXY A3 is a 3 tone custom with offset white swooshes, pinstriped with black and a black chin. The blue on both helmets is candy blue with "SaranWrap" silver mottling effects. I have since sold the Nvertigo... but the combo was quite a pair. These were custom designed by myself and painted by Mike who used to work in the Sky Systems shop. Original layout of how the swooshes go on the OXY can be seen on the Elsinore Storm helmets that I designed and had Rodman paint a few years ago... the photos are on his site (painted before assembly) FWIW... Rodman is awesome with the ol' airbrush... great custom work there. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

well...lessee... normal landing... first step down... shattered my right heel back in February 2003. Developed a staph infection in the bone in March... did oral antibiotics until May... had to have all the metal they put in taken out and the bone scraped off in June... was put on daily IV antibiotics until 2 days before I left for freefall convention... Made 3 jumps at the convention... from August to November I made 15 jumps... So to answer your question... I made the initial injury on February 16th, 2003... and I wanted to be in the air again the very next weekend. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

looks similar to master Kelly's new rig... Pic posted... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

dry clean it man GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

one of the neatest color schemes I've seen is COB-LEM-LEM-COB-COB-COB-LEM-LEM-COB with all LEM ribs... it glows in the sunlight GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

ditto on the Guner GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

The fit is closer to a new Guner... very comfortable, plenty of room for an audible... VERY quiet when you have it on. The shape is very clean and the "wedge" style audible molding seems to give plenty of room for whichever style audible you have. Defiantely an improvement over the "Flat-Eared" one last year and the "bubble bug" one the year before that... as the shell characteristics have changed over the years. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

like I said MOST humans react faster and easier to color over letters/numbers... If you can see a digital readout better... all the better for you. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

just couldn't resist... Temptation to poke ya a little was just too overwhelming... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

http://www.robharris.org/eternalflame.htm GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Figured you might like that one Kel! Snake it and I'll thump ya! I would have figured you'd like Skymonkeyone's... much more prominent flames... Go steal his... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

got jumper-cables Andi? Sorry couldn't resist... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Camera Helmet= Flat-Top Pro - Why? stable, comfortable, reliable... and it's got a kick-ass paintjob. RW= Oxygn A3 - I prefer the way the lens closes and the peripheral vision. I didn't like the button on the Z1... or neck gasket for that matter... Freefly= Guner - Probably the most comforatble and quiet open faced helmets I have ever had.... and it also has a cool paint job. Enjoy... MAYBE... you've seen these somewhere before... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

It's not in regards to it's functionality as an alti (nor has that been an issue for some time). Logbook functionality was added at a later stage and potential buyers were made aware that it was not included at that time. The changes, at this stage, are logbook related. changes to the logbook functions still in repair or not... regardless of who was told that the logbook stuff wasn't going to be immediately available... in my opinion... I would have expected Alti2 to come up with something that wasn't so riddled with bugs and fixes. What firmware update are they up to now since release? 20? Microsoft Windows doesn't have that many fixes and patches... and they're notorious for patches... In my opinion, as a unit... the Neptune is from the get-go "underdeveloped". Craftsmanship/materials are weak, battery consumption is going to be a permanent problem regardless of software fixes due to hardware and design issues, technology limitations and again... I would have expected better out of Alti2... I think they rushed it to market before they should have. It has potential... as is sits right now... again FWIW... "opinions are like assholes... everyones got one and they all stink" GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I would agree with this statement... try it before you buy it. See which one fits you best... GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

I figured you like that one Amazon GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Galaxy would be a better selection in my opinion... even the slightest dyslexia could prove a bad move reading numbers. Most humans are visually triggered easier by colors (the red and yellow areas on an altimeter) and don't react as fast to a number or text (is it 3.5 or 35 or...???... hey what's that BANG sound coming from my container...ooops) Although the Digitude (essentially the predecessor of the Neptune in regards to digital face) has been around for years... ya have to ask yourelf why it doesn't sell as well as an analog faced altimeter like the Galaxy? In my opinion because it's confusing... True, "digital" is far more accurate than "analog"... but what is your reaction time worth? What did you start relying on when you started jumping? I won't even get into the fact that the Neptune is "still under development" and requires constant updates for various problems that should have been solved before releasing it to the public.... but that's another thread... FWIW GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Not to fuel the Mac VS PC thing... bu the Powerbook G4 we used to edit with for the first 2 days of the Freefall convetnion was a complete dog. We were networked to 3 large high end photo printers, had an internet connection but as far as Photoshop and video editing... it was completely slow. As far as I know it was choc-full of RAM and disk... so the question lies.... why was it a slug?! Maybe someone better familiar with Macs could enlighten me why this could be We replaced the G4 with 1 Dell notebook (Cajones') and the Dell ran 2X as fast... so we added an additional one (lew's) as a second editing station and the two were like greased lightning. We were able to produce 4X as much as using the single G4... Aside from that, I am a PC user, and I have to say I am extremely impressed with the G5 desktop as far as construction, speed and tech advances... but that G4 laptop was worthless. (Sorry Lonnie) GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Actually they're silver (reserve flaps)... my JPG got a little blasted. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Here is Maser Kelly's new rig GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

Some certificates really are a good deal for both the manufacturer and the consumer. If a manufacturer can get their promotion out of their certificates and someone can benefit from getting XXXX gear... I'm all for it. There are good deals for both parties out there. One of the things that got me thinking of this was receiving an inheritance from my grandfather's passing. It was not mine in the first place... I never expected anything. So my choice is to donate a significant chunk of it to charity before I do anything for me... again it wasn't mine in the first place. So taking this thought pattern and translating it to skydiving gear and certificates, my thought was... the certificate isn't really the consumers in the first place... why try to make substantial money off of it retail price or otherwise? If you can sell it for enough for a couple jump tickets... GREAT! Everyone benefits. I guess I'm just trying to get my arms around a system that is beneficial for all parties. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

OK folks... I recently had the discussion with a few different gear manufacturers about Gift Certificates, Discount coupons and event sponsorship with gear and services. One of the main headaches that I repeatedly heard was "why on Earth do people sell a gift certificate for a free XXXXXX for the exact amount of the XXXXXX when they can just buy it from a dealer for the same price?" I thought about it for awhile and thought I'd poke around the classifieds for people selling gear certificates... and I was actually surprised to find a few.... and some were selling the certificates for the retail price of the item. What drives people to do this? From a marketing standpoint and such does it help or hinder the marketing process? Is it greed? I've heard about someone getting a free XXXXX and attempting selling it to a buddy because they already had a new XXXXX and didn't need 2 of them. Frequently, accessory manufacturers and primary item manufacturers give out 50% OFF, FREE or discount percentage coupons on their products to sponsor events, boogies, competitions, etc... This brings up a lot of questions: - How many of them are actually turned in? - How many are turned in by the original person who received the coupon in the first place? - How many were just trashed or forgotten? - What costs are incurred by the manufacturers if any? - Is there a marketing advantage to giving a certificate as opposed to an actual product? - Is it better for the company or does the consumer or recipient of the certificate have the aadvantage? - What would happen if manufacturers put the words "non-transferrable" on the coupon making it worthless to anyone except the person whose name is on the paper? With all due respect to gear manufacturers and consumers alike, in my own opinion, why in the hell would I want to screw my skydiving buddy for $XXXX for something that I didn't have in the first place? Or am I just ranting? It must be my inner-scientist.... the puzzles of marketing/human nature fascinate me GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."

ER... what you said... ERP?!? Looks like a Snag-Monster to me... and an expensive one. GraficO GraficO "A Mind is a terrible thing to taste."