crazydiver

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Everything posted by crazydiver

  1. I have no knowledge of this history you speak of Millstone. I do, however, want to participate should it happen! Ready for jumping season yet? Cheers, Travis
  2. Not quite, northern Colorado is still fairly white in terms of race. The DZ does not have a cessna DZ vibe though, but I'm not sure you'll find that vibe at the dropzones in Canyon City either. LOTS of jumping going on at Mile Hi though. If you're into Christians/conservatives/republicans, Colorado Springs would be a great place for you. If you're into anything else, Denver would probably be your best bet for living since it's pretty central. Cheers, Travis
  3. I just recently finished and defended my final paper for my master's program in Higher Education and Student Affairs. The paper focused on my experiences skydiving and utilized them to inform my work in Student Affairs. Anyway...a quote from my paper is... "As a testament to how skewed our perceptions of ourselves may be, I feel that I know now, after 4,000 skydives and finishing up my master’s degree, I know less than I thought I knew at 300 skydives and before graduate school. I have much more learning to do myself before I begin to think that I have it all figured out. Consequently, I shouldn’t go looking for a glass house just yet." I think, for me, it took a relinquishing of arrogance, an acceptance of weaknesses, and the importance of relationships to get me to jump 1000. But I could go on for hours about all the things I've taken away from skydiving. I can't imagine life any differently. What a great bunch of people! Thanks everyone! Cheers, Travis
  4. According to what IPC rule? I know at least two competitors at the last WPC in South-Africa who were swooping with their chest straps disconnected (while landing that is, not while exiting the plane). So...I'm not sure where I got that from. I think I may have been wrong. I know some mirage rigs are now equipped with a belly band for hte purpose of being able to disconnect one's chest strap, but still have something across the front. Cheers, Travis
  5. I got my certification about five years ago, but I'd say it paid for itself in a year or two. Cheers, Travis
  6. Highly unlikely man. I already cut the chest strap down to normal size... i dont deserve to have the longest one in the world. Also pulled out my old Mirage to accommodate my new canopy which will be in the 150 sq. foot range. It's done. I'm retired. Because you are required to have a chest strap connected in competition. Clearly "chest strap" is loosely defined. :) I think the chest strap rule is for media purposes. Same with requiring athletic shoes, helmets, etc. The public wants to see similar protection to sports with similar speeds (motocross, etc.). Cheers, Travis
  7. Simon...who is this getting married...sounds like a fun dress! Cheers, Travis
  8. I'm not sure where you'll be working and what type of dropzone, but I know for me, my riggers ticket is well paid for by now. I took a course with Simon in Vegas (I'm thinking this is who you speak of) and it was great experience. I know Simon quite well and he will prepare you for the basics, then the rest is up to you to learn in the field...but heed advice from those who have lots of experience. I can easily make as much in a day of rigging as I can doing tandems or video and that is with thorough inspections on each repack. I will say, sewing is where the money is. Repacks are nice for a little extra cash, but doing pay as well as repairs (generally). I love having my rigger's certification. Do it. So nice to be able to work on my own gear! Cheers, Travis
  9. Please do a search, this topic is all over the place on this forum. In short, HMA is much more resistant to going out of trim than Spectra and can come in much smaller line diameter to decrease parasitic drag from the lines. HMA will not last as many jumps however, and the user MUST be diligent about regularly replacing the lineset because wear is not as easy to spot on HMA. Cheers, Travis
  10. HUH ??? Not always the case, but many times when a canopy is more dependent on the slider to have a slow opening, the lower airspeed on a subterminal jump can increase the opening speeds. Not always, but for some canopies. Cheers, Travis
  11. Why would you get charged $5 if you could find the ripcord? Cheers, Travis
  12. Word. Miss ya brother. BSBD. Cheers, Travis
  13. Ever heard of a service bulletin or airworthiness directive? Half the point of those is to alert users and riggers of potential failures or weak pieces in the gear. The other half is to provide a solution to fix the problem if they provide that. Cheers, Travis
  14. Agreed, but I've never seen any warning from any manual or manufacturer cautioning of packing weight placement. Shouldn't have happened from both ends. Cheers, Travis
  15. At one dropzone I was at, we had eclipses, vectors, and sigmas as well as a couple strongs. On one of the eclipses, as folks know, the drogue release housing runs through the backpad at the main container. If packing weights are slung around into that main container and set down rough, it can crush the housing and preventing a cutaway since the drogue release will be stuck due to the crushed housing. Sure, one could probably still cutaway by pulling the cables out and leaving the handle in place, but that is a lot to worry about when cutting away. This actually happened and I watched someone stand on the rig and pull the cutaway with no success since the release housing was crushed that was coming from the cutaway handle. Cheers, Travis
  16. I think there is so much misinformation on this thread from nearly everyone that I don't even know how to respond to much of it. Cheers, Travis
  17. 2000+ tandems. Rated on Vector, Sigma, and Strong. Have also jumped Eclipses. Bar none...my system would be a Sigma with Sigma main (of any size) and Vector (PD) reserve. I hear folks complain about the extra toggle pressure of the Sigma canopies, but I will happily take the extra pressure for the way they land. I don't care about having a zippy canopy like a Hop or whatever. Sigmas are plenty zippy and it's a tandem for gosh sake. I've been dropped out on landing hardcore with Icaruses and Precision mains. The Sets aren't the greatest either. Cheers, Travis
  18. This could be argued to be a detriment for people on smaller canopies in distance events. Other events it would have little to no effect on such as speed, accuracy, and freestyle events. In the speed events, the smaller wings would actually have an advantage. In addition to JayMo's distance record, Nick Batsch also had an incredible swoop at sea level on a JVX 65 or 69 ish sized canopy. Jess Edgeington also kicks some ass on a 65 square footer. Cheers, Travis
  19. I was 17 and had been a packer at the dropzone for a while before that. I used packing and my part time job to pay for AFF and my first rig. Now I'm 23 and have all my ratings. The funny thing is that when I first started college, I had been jumping for a year, and my goal was to get my tandem rating by the time I graduated from college...I got my tandem rating during my second year in college :) It's been a great ride and I feel very fortunate to have been able to start so early as well as finish college through it all. Best advise I can give you is to maintain balance in your life. It would have been very challenging for me to begin jumping during college due to financial obligations, but if worst came to worst I would take out loans for school and use any money I made working to pay for skydiving. It's very doable and all about priorities. Cheers, Travis
  20. So I presume you'd like to be an FAA certified rigger. As far as I know, there is nothing in the FARs that state you must do your training in the US. In reality, the only thing the FAA has anything to do with is the testing and evaluating. So... you show up to an FAA certified Designated Parachute Rigger Examinor's (DPRE) place and do your oral and practical examinations, go to an FAA testing site and do the written test, and you're officially a rigger if/when you pass all three examinations. Part 65.115 does stipulate, however, that you must have been documented as being supervised by someone holding the type rating of hte rigs you packed before taking the tests (so that person supervising your pack jobs would technically have to have an FAA riggers certificate for the type of containers you're packing)...that's my interpretation of part 65.115 though. Cheers, Travis
  21. I believe that Jaymo "reset" his world record last year after the new weight restricions were in place. I don't know what his distance on that one was, but I'm guessing that Bruno's broke Jay's record from last year. Cheers, Travis
  22. I think this already exists...POPS Cheers, Travis
  23. I only have a handful of jumps on a neos 89, but I didn't have that issue. What type of nose treatment are you using? I did nothing to the nose. I found the the initial snatch force was higher than that of a modern PD canopy, and it stood me up quicker, but it still opened nice and soft. A second thing is...the removeable slider will probably not help the issue. What I've found with my velocity is that the removeable slider actually slows the opening and lets the slider hang up a bit more. Something that could be contributing is the fact that the Neos is a fast little canopy and is combined with (in my experience) a pretty steep glide. Therefore, the relative wind could be contributing to holding that slider up there. Go into real deep brakes and hold them for a bit and see if she won't come down. Cheers, Travis
  24. I'm not 100% sure, but I think the dacron line choice comes from Bill Booth and UPT not PD. Although PD manufactures the canopies (and wouldn't want to sell a product with components that cause issues for the user) I think that UPT has the ultimate decision as to the line choice on the canopy since it is a UPT product that is simply manufactured by PD. I remember Bill Booth saying some time ago that he never wants spectra or vectran on his tandems due to the opening force absorption of dacron. Cheers, Travis
  25. a;lskfjasl;kjf the Sigma tension knots... hate them...so common... We thought it was an altitude thing for us at Mile Hi being at around 5000 ft. msl field elevation. There has been a number that I have been unable to clear and have gotten violent, but the riser thing works. I've pulled on the rears then let them snap back to full flight and that has worked (sometimes). Love the Sigmas...favorite tandem canopy...hate the tension knots. I think the dacron lines could have something to do with it also since they tend to get "sticky" as they wear. Cheers, Travis