SkydiveMO

Archway has the other twin from the dynamic Antoon duo to help make you feel right at home.

As things stand it looks more equal than I would have predicted. I’ll be curious to see if it changes as more people add to the poll.

Of the people here on DZ.com that I know I’ve noticed an inverse relationship between the number of posts made to the number of skydives logged. I’ve often wondered if this was true of the larger DZ.com population.

Not that it matters to anyone other than a St. Louisan who just happens to skydive and wants to check the billboard out, but I got the intersection wrong. The ad is at Lindbergh and Manchester Road.

About a month ago an ad agency contacted Archway Skydiving looking to rent skydiving gear for an ad campaign they were putting together. It was a typical Midwest winter day, windy and cold, and we weren’t jumping so we put together some gear for them. The agency didn’t go into much detail as to what they were doing. We figured it was just a concept photo shoot and they would send the real work out to California where most skydiving ads are shot. Turns out it was for a billboard ad. We’re not sure if they’ve popped up anywhere else but I've attahed photos of one located at the intersection of Manchester and Laclede Station Road in St. Louis. Any one else seen this billboard out there anywhere?

Oh, well then please disregard the message I sent regarding the uploads. Oh wait, disregard this posting. Uh, and disregard the disregard... Best of luck with the fix. I'll try and sit on my hands in the mean time (Ewww warm)

He should just get a breeder to give him a male and a female. The way the suckers breed he'd have an uninterrupted power supply in no time.

Check out the attached photo and yes I do realize Cloudi works for PD. Oh, and I'm one of those weirdos who actually owns and likes his Vengeance. Edit to add: And I'm even more odd in wishing they would make a second in the series.

Psst! Isn't PD the largest sport parachute manufacture in the world? If it was really important to them you’d think they’d have perfected them by now. They’ve probably spent as much time perfecting entire new models of canopies as they have tweaking the 135 and 150. I’ve worked with parachute models in research so I know things don’t scale like everyone wishes they would but I really have to wonder how much effort is being put forth on this project. I'm sure when they get around to finishing things off they'll be amazing canopies. I fear the extra development it has taken to perfect the larger sizes will cause them to shy away from the larger sizes in future models. Kind of like there will probably be no second in the series of airlock canopies from PD since the first was such a headache.

Good ol' Merriam-Webster seems to think it's alright Pronunciation: 'shüt Function: noun Etymology: French, from Old French, from cheoir to fall, from Latin cadere -- more at CHANCE 1 a : FALL b : a quick descent (as in a river) : RAPID 2 : an inclined plane, sloping channel, or passage down or through which things may pass : SLIDE 3 : PARACHUTE

Yep! That is, if by the DZ you mean any old place to jump. I'll be down at Z-hills around that time.

I thought I’d do something a little different for my diamond wing and diamond freefall badge award presentation for the award section of Parachutist. Unfortunately USPA doesn’t have a sense of humor and will not accept doctored photos. Guess I’ll just share it with you all here instead.

I admit there are many alternative canopies available from other manufacturers and they are all great products. I have no specific loyalty to any one canopy manufacturer and simply wanted to give a Katana 135 a try after seeing what a great performance range a fellow jumper at my DZ gets from his Katana 107 wing loaded the same as I am on my Vengeance 135. As things stand when my Vengeance needs replacing I’ll probably go with a Samurai 136. PD advertised the 135 and 150 as if they were to be released with all the other sizes yet here we are a year and some months later without any indication if they are ever going to be released. My experience has been that PD’s customer service is the best in the industry, but as one of the few larger jumpers who has the proper experience level to handle the canopy at these sizes I’d like a straight answer as to whether the Katana 135/150 will ever reach production. If the canopies are still going to be produced then it would sure be nice to know what the hang up is all about.

I most whole heartedly agree with your viewpoint regarding experience and canopies however you must agree that fatties like myself who have the experience to handle the canopy are often left out when manufactures shy away from the larger sizes. Next thing you know I’m jumping something smaller than I should simply because it’s the largest they make. Kind of a double edged argument I believe. The only strike against me is that there are far fewer jumpers above 200 lbs then below it.

Anything out there in the rumor mill about the release of the Katana 135 and 150? Before I get the “ask the manufacturer” answer, I have done so on several occasions and was given the same “it’ll be ready when it’s ready” answer everyone else has gotten. I’ve jumped the 120 and am very impressed with the performance range but at my body weight would really like to see what a 135 or even 150 could do for me.

As Bev says the Polycotton suit is “for the mature skydiver with a lower center of gravity or the faster-falling skydiver” At 6’2” and hovering around 210lbs I fit into that fast-falling category. My first jump suit was cotton and in my opinion increased rather than decreased my fall rate. I wasted a good 50 skydives trying to stay up with everyone on RW dives. Luckily I ended up moving and started jumping at a DZ which had an old Bev Polycotton Suit on the rental rack. The DZO suggested I try jumping it to see if it wouldn’t solve some of my problems. Boy did it ever! Before I knew it I was hovering above formations thinking “#%$&! now how do I get down?” The polycotton suit gives me a huge range in fall rate and allows me to fall at a normal fall rate in a relaxed position rather than “hugging the beach ball”. I am still able to fall very fast by simple deflating the drag pockets around the arm pits and when needed I can really slow down by extending my arms and reinflating those same pockets or wings. Bev provides a nice clip system for the swoop cords so they are easily added or removed. If you are a fast faller this is the suit for you. I have now made over 1,000 jumps on my Bev suit in 10 years. I have also made many (oh so many) crash landings in my suit and have done everything I can to destroy it. Somehow it’s still managing to go strong. Last season I had the booties rebuilt and a cordura seat added which has been the only maintenance needed. I believe I’ve easily gotten my moneys worth and then some out of this suit. I’ve been so happy with my Bev suit I’m about to order a second even though I receive a staff discount for another vendors products.

I’m still playing around with mine trying to get it to open cleaner. The center cells really like to fold in when the canopy opens slowly. I have found I get better on heading openings when the canopy opens quickly. So don’t pull the slider out in front of the nose and don’t wrap the tail too tightly, other than that just keep everything symmetrical.

I absolutely love my custom two-piece Ouragan suit. I emailed a graphic of what I wanted and Nancy and Yugi made it reality. It’s my opinion that the quality of work on the Ouragan suits is unmatched by any other suit maker currently on the market. Unfortunately, quality and customization comes with a high price tag. That being said, the old adage certainly holds true that “you get what you pay for”. The quality of materials and seams will give my Ouragan suit a long skydiving lifespan. Nancy’s experience making suits for the abusive environment of the wind tunnel is very much evident in the construction of her skydiving suits. There was a long wait period before I received my suit however I understood this would be the case before ever placing my order. I was well rewarded for my patience as my suit arrived with a personal note from Nancy explaining a few of the special little extras she had thrown in. Several of the jumpers at our drop zone currently own personalized Ouragan suits and we are all very satisfied with the work and service we received. As for customer service, Yugi was always available to answer questions and update me on the status of my suit. If you haven’t seen an Ouragan suit yet keep your eye open for the tell tail hurricane logo and check one out. As the proud owner of one of Nancy’s suits I’m more than happy to show mine off when asked.

I was afraid there would be some conflicts with certain machines as QT7 is currently only available in preview form for Windows. Hopefully the full version is nearly completed.

All right, but you asked for it. Here's the link to the latest segment I did for our Midyear video. I fear on quick review I've not been effective in my attempts to control the urge to cross-fade everything though. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=2392

Thanks for the input, I've been trying to control my urge to over use the cross fade on my current stuff. It is hard mixing and matching how much or little to use fades. On a recent RW segment I threw in just about every fade effect I had just to see how people would react. Where I figured it would annoy the crap out of everyone I actually got a couple compliments for the effect On with the experimentation I guess. Oh, by the way I collect video from just about every videographer on the DZ. This really increases the amount of footage I have to work with and lets me be in the show too.

You've got to mix it up a bit, all the movies can't be pure adrenaline. A good "chill out" segment works great for breaking up the action. Below is a link to my last “chill out” segment, let me know what you think. I’ve tried to get some constructive criticism on the movies I’ve posted but get the usual… “It’s great” or “It sucks” without much more input. It’s always nice to hear why some one likes or dislikes your videos to help guide the next project. http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1807 (Zoter- Funny thing about the EP thing... I'm really a conservation biologist by training. Things being what they are in the US at the moment I was having difficulty finding work in Ecology. I started looking around and found that with my electronics training from the Army and my Biology degree I am uniquely qualified to stick electrodes into cells... WHO KNEW!)

All in all I'd say great job, you had a nice mix of transitions that compliment the video rather then detract. The music fits the mood and speed you set for the film. As for the lyrics being a match for skydiving that's debatable. I personally thought the song rocked but could see others finding it a poor match. By the way, what song did you use? I really enjoy movies like yours where there is a good mix of dives and not all freeflying, RW, etc. In the future you might try playing around with the compression settings and see if you can't bump up the video quality. The compression settings are always a pain in the ass I know. I tend to bump down the audio quality to try and squeeze out a little more space for video. Thanks for posting the video for everyone to see. I get a lot of good ideas watching what everyone has done.

I’ll second that! Our beer line is meant to keep jumpers from landing on or across the active taxiway. Gary is pouting because he came up short landing in the hotdog area in front of the hangar. Had he been a student or low experience jumper landing in this area we would have pulled him aside and explained the safety issues of the landing. Gary knew what he was doing and just came up short shooting accuracy… so we shout BEER! I look at it this way if you have no problem drinking the community beer then you should have no problem supplying it when you break the DZ rules. At our level there aren’t many rules left to break but the beer line remains, I still pay up. Heck I have a car load of beer I owe right now as I just made jump 2,000.

Zip ties - next best thing to Duct Tape and 550 cord