Raistlin

When you are belly-flying in one, you are facing the relative wind, and so are, relatively to you, in a tunnel. As opposed to a tube when you observe from outisde. :)

You guys are totally spoiled jumping rounds when there are ram-airs! I did my first jump ever on a round because there was no other option available at the dz! and that was a year ago! :) congratulations galore though

Ohh, that's boiled buckwheat, the curse of my childhood

keyboard replacement coming up next?

Ah, a Decelerator ride was the first cutaway I witnessed with me own eyes... the guy/gal had a lineover and went into a spin, but the reserve deployed on heading. Sorry, this is about as much as I can add :)

Thanks everyone for the traditionally great answers!

N/A

Suppose there is weird turbulence coming at a weird angle, or a dirt devil, or anything else that can cause the canopy to collapse at critically low heights. Somebody I know experienced this and in order to prevent this from happening again switched to an airlocked canopy. This really seems something you have little control about and run a high injury risk. Will airlocks really help and keep the canopy inflated where an open-end canopy would collapse? I've heard varying opinions...

For a start, you need to know how to freefly pretty well...

I'll chip in a bit late, just to say that after the cypres fired, the reserves did not deploy and the springchutes remained loaded, says direct witness to the incident, my instructor. He adds that none of the riggers who packed the reserves are internationally certified, and that while they are blamed for this mal, he thinks it was the manufacturer's mishap... Seeing how the loop cut by cypres locked the flaps, would that flinger thing have helped in this situation?

Sorry for the kinda offtopic, but one of Cobalt's boasting points is that their ZP is superior in that their first demo canopy with 3k-some jumps still passes porosity tests. Does that mean Gelvenor fabric, besides being less slippery, is also better than any other ZP brand?

If you buy in bulk, it's $8 a jump to 13k on most Russian DZs. If you're coming over here, lemme know...can't pass that good an excuse for a beer or five :p Edit: Moscow that is

Congrats! How long did you take to heal? Was your first post-injury jump a recurrency one with an instructor? What was the canopy your one (and hopefully only) Bad Jump happened on, and the one you jumped this jump?

PM sent

I guess year 2000 makes it old, right? Anyway, our DZO was asked to do a stunt for some show. The stunt was to imitate a helicopter emergency exit, the door is stuck, and he kind of knocks the door out with his legs, slides out with it for a few seconds standing on it (like skysurf), then breaks off and deploys. The door is basically a 6x6 (maybe less) feet sheet of metal. Exit altitude was 7k. They modified it - gave it a 3-ring release so he could stand on it. The first take went uneventfully. They asked to do a second take. He kicked the door out, slided out with it, and could not release the door to get away from it (later found out his shin was somehow blocking the 3-ring - it doesn't take much pressure to hold it y'know) He decides to throw his main which was a Velocity 84 (ack). The air bubble above is pretty big so first two tries the pilot chute would just fall back onto the door. The third time he threw it out really far and it deployed his x-brace, but gave him an awful spinning momentum, so he is now spinning really fast, and the Velo opened with about 5 twists. By this time the centrifugal force gives him a hard time cutting away - which he does - and pulling the reserve - which he doesn't. He spun all the way to the ground on the door. The Cypres did not fire. It was March. There was some snow on the ground still. He lived. He had a blue face and blue limbs from all the spinning, and internal injuries and broken bones, but he lived (in the end he had more injuries from spinning than the impact). He still jumps, a living legend...

The last weekend my rigger/instructor brought two Vigils to install them in rigs. One of them would not switch on. He removed the battery pack for a while, then plugged it back in and it switched on, then off, and would not switch on again. The other one was fine. I put all of one jump on it before breaking my ankle :P I like many things about the Vigil. I like the free cutter replacement, 25 years of service, low maintenance cost, three modes, the silver case, and how it records your last 16 jumps, and shows you your last jump speed... now if only it was a little more reliable to boot. Also, did Deland go back to Vigils? They switched to Cypres2 after the misfires I think.

http://parashop.kiev.ua/img_site/harness/Rigs_element1.jpg http://www.dropzone.ru/images/paraavis/Spirit-Element.jpg

All the canopies you mention have been bested by more modern designs, Sabre2 and what-not. That was the essence of my question: I don't see a Diablo2 out there on the market...

Why do you stop manufacturing a canopy if it hasn't been replaced by a better design? I mean... a lot of people went to a lot of effort to create Diablo AND there hasn't been a better design developed (in the field of fast 7-cell ellipticals) - why not just continue sewing Diablos for those few who might want to buy it...

I've bought quite a few bits of gear from dz'commers and always paid by wire transfer. My bank required beneficiary's bank name, address, account #, beneficiary's name and address, and SWIFT code to do the transaction. How are you even supposed to have your bank transfer money to somebody if you do not have their bank name/account/etc?

Requirement for a 2-pin Cypres; Despite Vigil folks saying they will release a 2-pin Vigil sometime soon, their soon is not soon enough. That said, I am also buying a Racer :)

Other than the no-longer-manufactured Diablo, are there any 7-cell elliptical canopies on the market? Is there a replacement for Diablo same way Pilot now replaces Hornet?

I just checked with the dealer guy; he said that one buggy Cypres2 would not turn on for some reason, but after several tries finally would, and the other unit would just turn off at random.

Did the vigil execs somehow comment on the strange behavior? We had a couple of Cypres2 that would turn off randomly and had to be sent to the factory too...

Really, try psychopack. I took my rig home (long story, but basically my parents don't know I am jumping and my sister doesn't know I own a rig - but I am currently alone in the house, so it's safe) to practice my packing, at which I absolutely suck. Propack (this is what I was taught as a student and observe all day long): 2 hours, sloppy job; wouldn't want to jump it. Psychopack (this is what I was shown once): 20 minutes, everything neat; will jump it come weekend :) It's so much easier, I am really surprised people do not use it universally. I guess everyone is much more limber than me and can tame propack, but you and me got that psycho ;)