Dutchboy

You are correct, bannana cream pie is my favorite of the cream pie family. My favorite pie is pecan, but that would probably hurt quite a bit to get hit with that!

I just got a normal freefly suit for the same reason. I didn't want to learn bad habits and also have to buy another suit. We have loads of freefliers at my DZ (Skydive Atlanta, home of Atlanta Freeflight) and I was told to either: 1. Wear tight pants or shorts and a baggy sweatshirt 2. Get the freefly suit and tape the material down on your calfs while learning the sit I went with option 2, and it seems to have worked rather well for me.

I'm sure you'll get allot of different opinions on this question. I bought an 'affordable rig' from Roy at Rigs-n-things http://www.para-service.com, as did several others online here. I got a Dolphin, with a Hornet main, Tempo reserve, and CYPRES for about $3200 custom made in 4 weeks. 85 jumps later I'm still happy with this setup. Look at the reviews of the main to see others' opinions.

Cool. I've gotten that many people to try it, but never all at once. Congratulations! It's really cool when your friends decide to jump too. I have gotten 30% of my company to jump and a couple of the guys and I are starting a team.

OK cyberfriends. I plan on doing my 100th jump this Saturday afternoon at Skydive Atlanta. I'd be extremely happy if any of you would care to join me, especially the ones that normally jump at Thomaston or one of the other DZ's in the Atlanta area. Doug Glover from Nemesis is having a FREE 4-way skills camp that day, which is another great reason to come. Doug is not only an awesome skydiver, but a good teacher as well. Hope to see ya there. Drop me a line if you think you can make it. Phil The Dutchboy

I've been jumping this canopy since October. So, yes, the weather has changed since then. I don't think I've changed the way I pack or deploy.

Thanks for the info. I guess I've been having closed end cells a few times lately, and I was wondering if it had anything to do with me and how I might be packing or deploying. I've never had the end cells deflate after opening. I'm loading my canopy at about 1.24 lbs/sq ft. With the two end cells closed the loading is effectively 1.6 and the canopy will dive a bit instead of having the normally flat glide with brakes still stowed. I just give the rear risers a couple of yanks and everything is good. I'm curious if I'm doing something differently, because I never really saw this at all until recently.

IAF is what people do after they have completed a tandem progression. AFF is what people do who don't do the tandem progression. At least at my DZ there are 4 IAF levels (IAF5-IAF8) that follow four tandem levels (T1-T4). For the most part IAF5 is the same as AFF4, etc. They may mix some of the target learning objectives up at the later levels. I wouldn't worry too much about switching from one to the other. If you are doing ASP shouldn't be too different.

Did my first night jump last night. Also openned with both end cells closed. So I started thinking, what causes this anyway?

Hmmm, perhaps we should compare notes if we run into each other in a couple of weeks. After a few beers we should be able to figure out what we're doing differently.

If you're desperate I think Delta had a weekend sale to Atanta from Texas for about $128 leaving tomorrow and returning Monday. We're looking for temperatures near 90 and partly cloudy both days, with night jumps tomorrow night even.

Really? Hard opennings? I've got 80 jumps on mine and it consistently opens softly. The first opening was hard, but that was because my rigger packed it for a hop and pop, but I ended up doing a full terminal dump. Do you know what kind of pack job he is using? I used the recommended PRO pack. I don't even roll the nose, just tuck it in as PISA suggests AND make sure that the slider is quartered and sticking out the front. I've even dumped while still tracking and it wasn't too painful.

I have some friends that claim they analysed the video. They said if you look real close that some of the folks appeared to be wearing some sort of suit. A pair of shorts with a fake pecker attached. That's about the only way somebody could be smiling while going through such abuse.

Good job on the canopy work. Don't sweat repeating a level. One of my friends was awesome in the tunnel and we thought for sure he'd go straight through without a repeat. He did level 6 five times! Another guy was kinda awkward, and he went straight through. It is all learning. Just relax and enjoy.

You'll have a hard time with the 16k bit. Why? Because the FAA requires oxygen above 15k MSL. Hmmm... perhaps you should go to the Netherlands where everything is below sea level.

Dawn is Dawn Powell, she and Mike Powell are the DZO's of Skydive Atlanta. One of my friends did her 100th at another DZ which she really didn't want to do, but she had promised another friend she would jump with him on his birthday at his home DZ. Anyway, I would like to make the 100th jump at my home DZ. I think it's a bit rude to go somewhere else for that without a good reason.

I'll have to rethink skydiving there some day!

Don't know about Monroe, but we have plenty of CReW guys down in Thomaston. In fact, at least two members of the US 8-way CReW team (Mark & Chris) are from Thomaston and jump there all the time. It'd be cool to see them doing night CReW on Saturday. I've seen a couple of Otter loads of CReW only some days. Usually when there is a Casa boogie somewhere close (like Monroe) I'll see loads of CReW dogs coming out of the woods.

Carl makes a good point. People half my weight who can't be bothered to arch really piss me off. Before I got my new jumpsuit it took my slowest falling position just to stay up with them. Now things aren't so bad, but still this is supposed to be a group effort. I have friends my height and 40 lbs. heavier and I can keep up with them fine just by arching, and I'm not all that flexible.

Yeah, they only wear pink in Northern Californication.

BTW, you need a light visible for 3 miles to jump at night. If you don't already have something I'd recommend the Firefly Plus which is a strobe and flashlight in one. You can get them from actiongear.com for $24.95. Actiongear.com is on Cobb Parkway a little North of Barrett Parkway.

This is something I definitely want to try someday. At only 90 jumps I am a bit scared at the idea of an intentional canopy collision. It's a shame the CReW team got bribed into practicing somewhere else. Would have been cool see 14+ Otter loads a day during the week.

I'm hoping to get in more than one night jump at least one solo and one RW. I've never done CReW myself. Night would probably be a bad time to start!

I might be there. I should have broken 100 jumps by then. I know Dawn was real disappointed when one of my friends was elsewhere for her 100th jump. Have to see how it goes. I only have two months to finish my airplane if I want to fly to Quincy.

Nighttime CReW?