Dutchboy

I have a Z1 and wear it year round. It is especially nice in the winter. I like it for the protection it gives me, not just the warmth. I normally only wear it to altitude if I'm close to the engines in the otter or when it is cooold outside. Keeping cool while skydiving is normally not a problem. I did take it off one day when I was walking 2.5 miles back to the DZ from a really bad spot on a 75F day.

I would highly recommend the CYPRES. The others are mechanical (except the Astra) and are certainly better than nothing, but seem to be prone to misfire. I think there have been two deaths recently with FXC 12000's that did not operate. The accuracy of the openning altitude with the CYPRES is better so you are less likely to end up with two canopies out unless you are pulling below 1200 ft.

This is excellent, Greg. Only error I see is that nobody emmigrates to England. Why would anyone want to move to a tiny little island?

Yes, I know it was made by PISA. I was trying to make a funny reference to the scene from Wayne's World which you seem to have missed. I love my Hornet. Yes it is a 190. I don't think it is so bad to slightly overload a canopy, but if you do you can radically change the flight characteristics. My exit weight is probably about 235 lbs giving me a loading of 1.24. I find it to be fun, but still forgiving at this loading.

Yep, that is round trip. I had posted Delta's weekly sales in another thread titled "Cheap airfare for dropzone.com boogie this weekend". You have to fly out on Saturday and fly back Monday. You also need a Delta skymiles # which you can get instantly on their website anyway. No need to buy me jumps. In fact, if you tell me when you're getting in I'll do what I can to get you a lift to the DZ, unless you would rather rent a car.

Well Skydive Atlanta has some practically new rental gear. They have new Quasers with CYPRES and two handle system. Depending on your size, etc. you might be able demo my Hornet (it's French, pronounced horn-ae). Hmm..., were you the one that put on a little over the winter, might not work out. My MSW for this canopy is 228 lbs.

Now, now Mike, the new Dolphins are plenty freefly friendly. I know several people who freefly with Dolphins, including me. There is no exposed bridle on the new Dolphins. There is also velcro keeping everything stationary under the covers. The older Dolphins don't have this, however.

I like all of them, except the spectrum. FFF has a good point about making it visible should you every cut it away. I also like symetry and a nice bright center cell for easy packing. Packing my Hornet with color coded lines and a neon yellow center cell is way too easy.

Sounds like you need DSL, or you need to get your ISP to buy my company's cable modem product.

Current forecast for Friday through Sunday says 74, 70, and 64F for highs. Partly cloudy or mostly sunny depending on whose forecast you believe. I have secured us a team room for use as boogie headquarters if we want it. I want to do some dz.com jumps RW, freefly, and maybe CReW if we have enough CReW dogs. There will be a signup at manifest where you can tell us what you want to participate in. See y'all there! p.s. The DZ is flying the otter on Fridays as well for anyone who wants to get a head start on the weekend. The weather from Friday looks the best as well.

The world will never know, but you can probably guess by looking at profiles of people who aren't newbies.

When I was looking for gear the JM's and riggers at my DZ nearly universally recommended the Spectre for a canopy and a Dolphin for a container. The reasoning is that the Spectre handles well and is forgiving. The Dolphin is cheap, durable, and safe. You will land on your back as a novice and be glad you have a durable (and cheap) container when that happens. The worst container you could get would be a bright white Mirage.

I have a friend that took over 20 jumps to get off student status. As long as you are determined to do it they will let you try to complete it.

Here is the cheapo fares from Delta for this weekend. You need to have a skymiles # and have to fly on Saturday and Monday. These are round trip fares to/from Atlanta. ATLANTA (ATL) to: -- Baton Rouge, LA (BTR) - $108 -- Charleston, WV (CRW) - $98 -- Chattanooga, TN (CHA) - $68 -- Dallas-Love Field, TX (DAL) - $128 -- Fayetteville, NC (FAY) - $88 -- Greenville/Spartanburg, SC (GSP) - $78 -- Houston-Intercontinental, TX (IAH) - $118 -- Memphis, TN (MEM) - $88 -- New York-La Guardia, NY (LGA) - $128 -- Roanoke, VA (ROA) - $98 -- White Plains, NY (HPN) - $128

I'm stuck traveling to San Diego on business next week and I was hoping to get in a few jumps while I'm on the other coast. Any recommendations on a DZ that is close to San Diego AND is open during the week?

Definitely need to use letter size paper not A4. That stuff's hard to come by in this country. Otherwise your ideas seems sound.

You might want to look at the Bev suit. I just bought one. It was almost $100 less than the comparable Tony suit with the options I got. It was well under $300 total including shipping, rush charge, credit card surcharges, etc. I'm not quite as big (6'3" 205 lbs.), but I got the fat grips and cordura booties and of course polycotton material. Had some awesome jumps now that I don't just rocket through the rest of the formation anymore. For a freefly suit I got the Freedom Means Choice suit for $190. The quality seems good, and it looks good as well. You can have a look at it when you come down this weekend for the dropzone.com boogie.

Sis, If you do manage to fly to GA for the boogie this weekend let me know when your flight arrives and I'll do my best to give you a lift down to the DZ.

I don't know, the Dutch are too thrifty, and the Germans too crazy. If you combined them you'd end up with somebody who was crazy thrifty or something. I can't really say for sure. My genes might be from Holland (came over about 100 years ago), but I was born in the USA.

If you can get some time in the wind tunnel it will really help. Otherwise practice on the ground and do the toe taps to check your position.

Yeah, they normally have the Golden Knights there. Funny thing is I always found this stuff boring. I haven't seen any of these demos since I got off of whuffo status. BTW, I have flown in a B-17 which was way cool. I got to be on a ferry flight from my EAA chapter to the next one a couple hours away (by car).

Yep, I haven't been to Oshkosh since I started building this thing in October '96. It will be cool to fly my plane there.

I'm hoping to finish my plane and fly it up to a convention in Wisconson the week before and then fly down to Quincy. If the plane is done I'm definitely there.

Hmmm... depending on when it is I might have to go visit the motherland again. Haven't been there in something like 12 years. BTW, it doesn't have to be close to Amsterdam. The whole country is less than 1.5 hours away from there.

He was on his way back from St. Patrick's Day in Savannah.