chj

Hi everyone, I'm a med student from Miami with about 800 jumps. I'm doing a presentation in a few weeks about medical repercussions from skydiving: what type of injuries are associated with it, what should doctors look our for, and the long term health consequences (hearing loss, back pain, etc.) Do any of you out there know of any medical statistics or research on health and skydiving? Any help would be great! Thanks, -Chris Jacobus, D-23706

I just put the inaugural jump on my Vladiball yesterday. I packed it full to the brim of #9 steel shot and trimmed the tail down to a few inches and it was slow--about the right speed for sitflying, but definitely too slow for head down. We also experienced the flimsiness issue. On the ride up, before the pin engaged, we were losing some shot along the main split (although not enough to account for how slow it was). On the bright side, the pin mechanism worked perfectly and it fell pretty true, not much wobbling, with the shortened tail. Has anyone else had weight issues with the steel shot? -chj