SkydiveMO

When you say "luck in a crash" do you mean. Damn, I almost killed myself! or Damn, I should have broke something that time and been carted away in disgrace!

Too true, I got smart and found a job during the week so I could afford being an instructor weekends. Now what I make as an instructor goes right back into gear and jumps. I just can't imagine making a living as a tandem instructor alone. I know it can be done and I wished I could have pulled it off. The year I worked as a full time instructor rocked, though the girlfriend of the time didn't see the fun in it. I don't know what her problem was, I had no problem with her paying for everything

Did the Strong Mighty Mack Master 520 tandem canopies have tension knots more often then other 9-cell F-111 tandem canopies? Just curious if all the extra lines on a large tandem canopy had any effect.

The Pilot is an excellent beginner to intermediate canopy at an easy to handle price. I found the Pilot to open smooth and on heading with little to no complaints about bad body position by the jumper. The canopy was responsive but not extreme, if I had to choose one word to describe this canopy it would be predictable. The canopy never did anything I didn’t tell it to do. Glide was great for the canopy and I had no problem making it back to the airport on a long spot. Flares were strong and riser pressure just right for a canopy in this performance range. The Pilot is not a high-performance canopy nor should it be, it is a well-balanced and stable platform. If you wish to progress into swooping the Pilot is an excellent beginners canopy. The front riser pressure is even and the canopy’s recovery arc ideal for beginners. The only complaints I have heard about the performance of this canopy come from people who misunderstand that the Pilot’s targeted beginner to intermediate performance range. I would have no problems suggesting this canopy to any new jumper or anyone looking for a good all around dependable parachute.

Wouldn't that be considered more of a "pond plow" then a "pond swoop"? Or is that just swoopin' Wisconsin style

That would make directing the heavers easier. “Whatever you do if you have to vomit LOOK AWAY from me”. Now as for the student facing the TM… yeah I don’t think I want to imagine that up-chuck scenario.

I see someone wants to be cool like me, all you need now are the shorts I guess if Anne's going to be using the computer you are really going to need those parental controls

Panther is included but you may want to check out http://www.apple.com/macosx/ I'm sure Tiger will be included after it is released. Whether that would make the price go up I don't know. I kind of doubt it though Apple is trying to appear more affordable to the average PC buyer. As for Final Cut Express, I use it all the time to create movies for the DZ. It is very easy to use and a very powerful program for the price. I know I've only used a fraction of its features so far. If you plan on doing a lot of viedeo editing you'll need an external hard drive. Between the movies and my music collection I chewed up an 80GB hard drive in no time. External drives are really cheap and work great for storing tones of footage. Here's a couple examples of what I've done with my PowerBook G4 and FinalCut Express http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1909 http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1807

The new 8x SuperDrive with multiformat capability is pretty sweet, the 2x SuperDrive on my PowerBook is a real slug. You might want to wait a couple more months till Mac OSX Tiger is released though. Panther came out right after I bought my Mac and I wished I had known it was about to be released so I could have held off my purchase.

I worked through several other canopies first... I'm crazy, not stupid My working canopy is a Vengeance 135, the Xaos is for swooping fun only. I could jump a Katana 120 but I figure at the higher wing loading might as well go with a crossbraced canopy

I hear you brother, I'd been waiting on the Katana 135 long enough that when I was finally ready to downsize I went to a crossbraced canopy and bought myself a Xaos. I still look forward to test jumping the 135 and 150 Katana if they are ever released but they're a day late and a dollar short with me.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=45 http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/safety/detail_page.cgi?ID=545 And this is just a couple links here at dropzone.com Look around there is a wealth of information on this topic already out there. Use this info to beter inform yourself then discuss your options with your instructors and riggers.

Congratulations on winning the rig... you know the rest of us are way jelous I mean come on free gear, that's way better then free beer!

So does anyone know which Premier Member won the complete system - container, main and reserve - from Aerodyne's line of products. The drawing was Dec. 15 right?

Man it's a small world! Just noticed who you are from your website. This is Papke from Skydive St. Louis, you know the guy who would have been the fastest AFF graduate if you hadn't come along and screwed things up. I don't remember but I may have even taught your first jump course. Glad to see you're still jumping your butt off and congratulations on the AFF rating. Next time I drop Rick Eddy a line I'll let him know what you're up to. Blue Skies

Douva, I totally have the solution to your helmet woes. With only minor modifications you can completely eliminate any chance of snags with your current set-up. Please see the attached photo. Blue Skies Oh by the way I will disavow any knowledge of this post if you should attempt the use of my set up

I have a question for the Xaos-27 pilots. What have you found to be your optimal wing loading for distance? I currently jump a Xaos-27 98 at a 2.4 wing loading and am getting amazing speed and distance. However, I wonder if I couldn’t greatly improve the distance with a larger wing and say a 2.2 or 2.0 wing loading. All you Velocity, FX, VX, Xaos-21, etc. jumpers please sit on your hands for this one. I have test jumped all the other canopies and the Xaos-27 has best matched my style of canopy flight.

How deep were you in your brakes? Full flight, 1/4 brake, 1/2 brake or more?

Talk about timing, I had the exact same difficulty with my Neptune this weekend. I came down from a jump where the Neptune had worked properly and wanted to check my logbook for the freefall time. It kept acting as if I was in an aircraft climbing and the logbook came up empty. I grabbed my old Digitude for the next jump and when I got back on the ground I checked my Neptune and everything was working fine again? I was going to replace the battery this week to see if that would fix the problem. I see from this thread that it will, which is very good to hear. I’m guessing that the battery life indicator is pretty much useless at this point and that I need to change batteries when the unit starts acting up from now on.

Work - Activity in which one exerts strength or faculties to do or perform something: a : sustained physical or mental effort to overcome obstacles and achieve an objective or result b : the labor, task, or duty that is one's accustomed means of livelihood c : a specific task, duty, function, or assignment often being a part or phase of some larger activity Or in skydiving terms… Work – The thing I suffer through all week so I can afford to skydive all weekend.

At work? Then which are you doing?

Jeez tell us how you really feel! Ah, the people who want to judge you the most are often the same ones who deny making their own mistakes. Screw’em! As for whether you should be grounded or not, I look at it this way… If you realize you had a close call and/or that you screwed up it is better to talk about how to avoid making the same mistake(s) twice and get back up in the air as soon as possible. If you haven’t got a clue what happened and/or you deny making any mistakes then being grounded is proper. Maybe with time and a whole lot of people pestering the jumper they might realize what just happened and how close they came to having a REALLY bad skydive.

I had a main pilot chute in tow on jump 31, pulled the reserve by 2,000ft but the reserve pilot chute entangled with the main pilot chute. Had to go into a head down dive to clear the mess and didn’t have the reserve open until around 500ft. After landing and a few of deep breaths I found the cypress had fired, as it should. It hadn’t cut the reserve loop since I had already pulled my reserve handle. Though I had already pulled the reserve, it was very reassuring to see my Cypress had worked properly.

Like Dave said... Have your proficiency card ready to go before you start the course. This will guide you on what should be studied.

The slide is an easy way to land when you have greatly reduced your vertical speed and are only left with horizontal speed, this would be a good swoop landing. The PLF is a safe way to land when you need to dissipate vertical energy from a landing and in most cases horizontal speed is irrelevant though it does make a good PLF easier. So on a down wind landing when should you PLF and when should you slide? Slide only when the vertical decent rate of your canopy makes it safe to do so. For instance, if you know you could run the landing out if you weren’t going so fast you may want to slide it in instead. Now on your approach if you realize regardless of the forward speed there is no way you could stand the landing then PLF. Having started jumping in the Army Airborne I don’t have any difficulty cranking out a dynamic PLF and letting everyone laugh as I kick up a little dirt. Bottom line I’ve walked away from every ugly landing I’ve made. On a good down winder I’ll slide it in but I am also conscious of my vertical speed and the surface I’m landing on, if it’s unsafe to slide I’ll switch to the safer PLF. Basically the slide is an experienced technique much like the swoop landing. To safely slide you need to be able to quickly recognize your canopies rate of descent. If you are just starting out in the sport or are having difficulty with your landings then please stick with a proper PLF.