crazydiver

I'm not making fun of anything! Why does it sound pathetic? To me, you sound pretty ignorant and close minded to respond with such a childish reply. I thought I'd throw my 2 cents in there, but all I get is flamed from someone not even open to listening to peoples' ideas. Thanks for keeping this an intelligent and constructive debate/conversation Cheers, Travis

Hey...I don't wear pants. Thanks a lot! Cheers, Travis

I never said it was just racial minorities that reserve the right to use words for themselves. I absolutely agree with you that a poor white person has just as many rights in the same way a black person does or a gay man does for example. I believe that we are all priviledged or unpriviledged in the ways of: race, gender, sexual orientation, age, ability, income, and religion. Every one of us has priviledge to one degree or another. That is important for ALL of us to recognize. But ethnicity is the subject at hand. We are discussing the word nigga vs. nigger and what makes it ok to say these things or not ok to say these things. A person is entitled to thier own opinion on this issue, but in MY opinion, for a minority group to take back a word and use it as stregnth, is for that minority group ONLY to decide. Cheers, Travis

In all reality here, the real issue is did the teacher have credibility to say a thing like that. As it was said before, traditionally discriminatory words against a minority or protected group have many times been turned around and used as an empowering term...nigga, queer, I even have gay friends who have done the same with the word fag. A person in that gropu has credibility. That person has grown up with the difficulties of simply "being different from the straight, white, christian person." Think about Chris Rock or now days even more so, Dave Chapel, they have credibility. Carlos Mencias has credibility to poke fun at Latino/Latinas. Now many comedians such as these men expand their jokes to other races/minorities, but generally it is with credibility because they understand where those groups come from. Now lets take Larry the Cable Guy, this is a person who has grown up as a White Christian straight man. What a tough life. We all have priviledge in one way or another, but when we have an enourmous amount of priviledge, we don't have the credibility to create satire about a minority group with less priviledge than us. Larry the cable guy speaks about the Mexicans and their beans. He speaks about God needing to be with the Pygmies in Africa. He speaks about the "Gooks." He makes jokes about gays, lesbians, women, black folks, asians, and Mexicans. Where does he have any right to do this. The thing is, we probably have all listened to him do stand up, but he has no credibility for this. When do we hear him making fun of white folks? I'm not saying that I think these words should be turned around and used as an empowering word...thats for anyone who has experienced discrimination using that word to decide. But I am saying that the child has validity in being angry with and personally hurt by the teacher saying the word. Like I said, I have gay friends who call each other queer all the time. If the teacher was to say to a child "sit back down, queer," would we recieve this same controversy of whether it was ok? I think that would be an almost more serious offence, and GLBTQ folks are not even a protected group as far as the government is concerned. As white folks, we have no credibility to decide whether or not a minority can use a word that has traditionally been against them. I guess I would turn it around and show that the term "cracker" has been passed around on this thread alot. In the past, this term has been against the white people and now we use it within our group...coincidence? I think not. Same story, but we are hard at seeing thse things. Cheers, Travis

Ya buddy. Fort Collins Represent!!! Cheers, Travis

There is no reason to flame you. Its perfectly legal for anyone at ANY age to jump out of an airplane with an FAA approved dual parachute single harness system. Now...if you are at USPA dropzone, you must be 16 to jump and most places won't let you until you are 18 for insurance/liability purposes...you can't sign a legal document(waiver) until you are 18. I personally started at 16 and I was at a USPA dropzone. Its hard to find a USPA dropzone taht will let you though. You are unable to be taken on a tandem at your age reguardless of the dropzone and your only option is to go to a non-USPA dropzone who does static line, IAD, or AFF-like progressions. I have lots of friends who started under 18, in fact I know a few who started in their early teens, and one was like 11. Dont worry about flaming, you're totally legit in asking this question. Now, in all honesty, I feel as though 18 is a much safer age to start jumping. I started when I was 16 and I'm suprised i survived my teenage cockyness in the sport. Hell, i'm only 21 now and that is definetly an age where arrogance can reign. Anyway. Keep looking, the opportunity is out there...if not, then learn all you can, hang out at the dropzone, read these forums, and then when you turn 18 you will have a better stance for starting training. Find a dropzone that will let you learn to pack for them or freelance packing. Its great money, especially for high school, thats how I started skydiving was packing. Anyway. i'm blabbering. Peace, Cheers, Travis

I downsized to a 120 at just a few more jumps than you have now. It bit me...hard! I put about 100 safe jumps on it, but then I was too low...once...now I have permanently fractured vertibrae. I'm telling you man, wait a while. You'll be a much better canopy pilot in the end. Cheers, Travis

Didn't it recently change so that if a tandem instructor only does his training through a USPA instructor rating course, he is valid with the manufacturer as well? Cheers, Travis

I can't find it. Why don't you just copy and past the link to the actual page into this forum? Cheers, Travis

Two in 1300. I've had lots of "on my back and spinnings" but i've been able to save those, mostly in a reasonable amount of time. Cheers, Travis

Ya dude, if you're real worried, get half hour in the tunnel. If not possible, just do some coach jumps. This is the time to do those for you anyway. Cheers, Travis

This isn't the issue at hand. Thats been discussed before. He's trying to find where in the FARs it states the otter can be flown with one pilot. I'm assuming he's a DZO or something. To Jerry, I know it can be done. I've been to tons of otter DZs, including my own, that fly with one pilot on a regular basis. Cheers, Travis

I have a few hundred jumps on a samurai and a few hundred jumps on a crossfire 2 and I love both of them. The crossfire 2 is my personal reccommendation though, for its softer more on heading openings than the samurai and it also has a longer recovery arc and greater bottom end flare. I went crossbraced after flying my crossfire 2 for a while and it was the perfect transition canopy. Fly them both though. You'll love either one, but flying them is the only way to see what you like. Cheers, Travis

A question I have is have you ever thought of how long you have been skydiving and possibly plan to? I would bet that the majority of poeple who begin skydiving and buy a cypres brand new with their first rig, end up quitting the sport and selling their gear before the 12 years is up. 1000 bucks every 12 years isn't a horrible amount of money. Hell...its 120 bucks per year. ( I realize i'm not counting in four year costs) Anyway. Good choice on buying the Vigil...longer lifespan and can do more than the cypres 2. Plus the folks who make vigil aren't very sketchy about their misfires...cypres is! But either way, service life is still a relatively necesary thing. Do I think that Cypreses generally will last more than 12 years and function correctly...I do for the most part. But...there has to be some sort of cutoff simply for the fact that these overhauls and calibrations would equal the cost of a new AAD over time and it would be worth it to just get a fresh new product anyway. Cheers, Travis

The standard triathlon is still a great canopy to do basic crw with. Now, when you have hundreds or thousands of jumps and are doing high level competition, offset formations, and sid by side stuff, you're gonna want the hybrid or a lightning for their subtle differences that make a large difference in competitions. Specifically, retractable pilot chute and bridle, mesh slider (for quicker openings), and reinforcement on the leading edge. If you are wanting to do crw, buy this canopy at a steal! It'll suit you well. Cheers, Travis

Actually, I think at USPA dropzones a person must be a USPA tandem intstructor reguardless, but I believe a USPA rating is sufficient for the manufacturer now is that it is. Cheers, Travis

Both do. USPA and/or the manufacturer. Currently, you may do either and it will apply in the US. Cheers, Travis

I personally dont use the stall surge when landing tandems, however, I was thinking that there is no purpose to it...and heres why. I am interested in other physical properties of it that I am not thinking of. Here's my take... when we put a canopy to the point directly before the stall, and let back up on the controls, essentially, the only acceleration and speed increase is the increase going back to full flight...so why would/should it give more lift on landing? In my theory, there is no speed increase past full flight with a stall surge. With carving turns yes, with riser turns yes, but the stall surge essentially just slows the canopy and pilot(s) down and then accelerates them back to normal full flight descent and thrust. I'm interested in other takes on this and I would enjoy people correcting me, thats why I posted this...because I wonder if there is something i'm not seeing here. I thought of this while hearing someone talking about not being able to land their "small parachute without swooping." Which is ridiculous. Eventually, the canopy must slow down its forward speed to the speed at which it would be at during a normal straight in landing so saying that a person can't land their parachute without swooping well is just poor piloting. Edited for shitty spelling. Cheers, Travis

As you probably know, a pilot chute can still be cocked when the canopy is in the main deployment bag. What I'm guessing happened is that while the bag was in the container, it was too tight to allow the wind to cock the pilot chute, but when he manually extracted the pin, it allowed the kill line to cock itself with the wind resistance on the PC. My 2 cents. Cheers, Travis

I wonder, since the damage is on the top side of the grommets and there is most likely nothing on the bottom side of the slider that would damage it anyway, perhaps the slider stops have something to do with it. Perhaps the slider got slammed into the stops on opening a few times. Look for some damage to the covers over the slider stop washers on the canopy. Perhaps that has something to do with it. Cheers, Travis

Brian Germain will still service Jonathans and enjoys getting them back to see how they're holding up. Dont expect it to be quick service though. RMURRAY is correct. PD came out with the stiletto after the Jonathan was released. Cheers, Travis

The majority of my tandems have been at or above 4000 ft. msl. I've jumped EZs, SETs, Icaruses, and Sigmas. I definetly prefer the Sigmas out of all of those. Little higher toggle pressure, but the flare is great. I like the Icaruses as well, but seen quite a few times where there is little flare in odd conditions. Cheers, Travis

Yep. And I do. However...the more tandems you do, the less gear you need. I know some poeple who do tandems and don't even own their own gear anymore. Not much to write off after gear. Some people manage to squeeze mileage in there somehow. Cheers, Travis

At many of the busy DZs a person can make 40-50 jumps per week. I was at a mid sized DZ this summer and averaged between 30 and 40 jumps per week, of which 20-25 of them were on just each weekend alone. Tandems you can do more numbers and than AFF and tandem skydives involve a lot less work than AFF. With AFF and video, a person must jump and put wear and tear on their personal gear as well. All in all, as stated before, unless a person has a successful rigging business or DZ or what not, its not a very good paying job. At a busy DZ a person can expect to make between 400 and 1000 work jumps per year...which may sound like a lot, but after taxes..its not much. You do the math. Cheers, Travis

From the original post, we're assuming that the student is taking a short delay off the object. The student would therefore have to deploy the pilot chute by his/herself with very little altitude to work with. Cheers, Travis