Mr.Burns

I have jumped a stiletto 190 for years, and i flown each of the others as well. I can say the stiletto doesnt open particularly well, got slammed a few times. The stiletto recovers from a dive amazingly fast, which means swoops with it are initiated much much lower than other canopies. I worked my way up to 450° swoops over the years, i would have went v-lo but something terrible happened. (I got old). Its quick, its fun, it has great glide, but to be honest, i would recommend a safire. Its the most controllable with risers when the riser pressure builds. The stiletto is terrible, no matter how strong you are, you are forced to resort to harness turns (or just give up and hit the brakes).

What size are the apex vents on typical round parachutes? If anyone knows any specifications for a t10 or a PC or anything at all, for any size parachutes, please respond. Thx.

Was dispatching two students from a cessna 206 back in the days of IADS. The rest of us were climbing to altitude. The Pilot was an idiot. The sort of idiot that doesnt even notice when a dog nearly runs into the prop, the sort of idiot that runs out of fuel and crashes in a field. I dispatch 1 student then hop to the back of the plane to get the next student ready while the pilot does the go around. I have the students pilot chute in my hand when I feel someone pushing on my rig. I turn to my right to see whats up, not noticing my right hand at the top (hinge side) of the door from turning at the same time as the idiot pilot slams the door crushing my hand. The said idiot then slams the door repeatedly on my hand while he climbs for 3,000' (from 3,500' to 6,500'), as I try to knock the door open with my shoulder (both hands are now trapped, one by a pilot chute I dont dare drop, one by the door). Silliest injury ever! (There was a lot of blood, took 2 months to heal).

Most experienced jumpers prefer square main and square reserve, and I've also noticed that the more experience a jumper has, the more they tend to downsize, and the more they tend to prefer faster and less reliable designs ie fully elliptical; it would seem to me that a skydiver is willing to trade reliability for comfort in direct proportion to their assesment of thier own ability. Perhaps this topic is an assesment of the ability of the student/instructor team under current conditions at whatever dropzone is in question.

My personal philosophy is coach jumps should be slot plus 0$. If you don't want to jump with me then don't, I won't do any coach jumps that require more than my slot plus their slot, and if someone charges me more than the slot (which is all I offer, and I'm up front about it) after the jump is done then I will never jump with them again until they buy me a jump. But thats just me. I also would never charge more than my slot and if I was looking for a two way anyways, which is most of the time, I would pay my own slot. Like anything though, there are no rules and there are exceptions.

Opened from terminal (couldn't find hackey) and my opening was as soft as my main (PD210) but without the snivel :) Flare was really nice, couldn't ask for more. (Wing load 1.5 lbs/sq ft)

I thread my chest strap with my goggles between the silver and the elastic, then tighten the legstraps, then board the plane. While climbing I'll be holding my helmet, so in an emergency I could always jump as I am and just hold the helmet in freefall. I have seen people go so far as to be packing their pilot chute after boarding the plane, have to say I wish they'd take our lives more seriously though.

Sure, the repack cycle is 180 days here, so 120 would be fine.

Try visualize what you are going to do repeatedly on the ride up in the plane. It keeps your brain occupied, and if you are lucky it will lock on to the sequence of events you are visualizing, like a mantra, and you can completely avoid sensory overload. Just finished my 3s and it worked for me.