fallfast69

The key word about canopy choice is "forgiving". There are mistakes that can be made under ANY canopy that have fatal or serious results. But what may have been a not so serious or serious result, would most likely be a fatal result under a higher wingloading. That's why you need to stay under a suitable canopy until you can handle ALL situations that arise so WHEN, NOT IF you make a mistake , you get to walk, limp or be airlifted away insteaded of being loaded into the coroners car. What is so damn hard to understand about this. A forgiving canopy CAN save your life, a highly loaded canopy trys to kill you until you have the skill to tame it. If you think you can poke that sleeping tiger until you have the skill to tame it, you're naive and it's going to MERCILESSLY EAT YOUR ASS ALIVE...it will happen so fast you won't know what hit you. Jon edit for spelling, etc

Good to hear it Spence...for a while I thought we lost one of our most honest and "tell it like it is" people on here. Jon

Not replying to anyone in particular...but much love to you Wendy This all happened a long time ago: When I was cleared to "jumpmaster myself" (after about 15 jumps), I didn't really care where I jumped, who I jumped with (if anyone at all), or what I was "supposed to do". I packed my rig, manifested, and got ready to enjoy the sky! If there was someone that wanted to do RW on the load, we would do RW! If I ended up going solo, I'd work on something I knew I needed to work on, left-turn, right-turn, back-loop, repeat until track time, then track, wave-off, look, and pull at the desired altitude. Simply enjoying the sky! Some skydivers, new and experianced, seem to need a "goal" or "reason" to jusitfy spending 20 bucks for a skydive, but that shouldn't be the drive! The goal and reason to jump should be simply that...to jump and enjoy the sky. For a few seconds, it's MY sky to do with what I please...so new guys, go forth and do what YOU please. Challenge, yourself only, and fuck everyone else. You are a skydiver, right? Your here because you love the sky, right? Well you sure as hell shouldn't need someone holding your hand and telling what you need to work on, you already know your weaknesses, don't you? You don't need a sky full of people to tell you that...go to work on, your turns, your front-loops and back-loops, tracking, looking and wave-off, and packing, basic skydiving stuff - everything else will fall into place, including your licenses, as it should. Don't get yourself stuck into a rut of "what do I do now" - go fucking jump and work on the basic skills you already know you need. If you jump solo enough, someone will see your working on your skills, and you'll be jumping with someone else before you know it! Make it your skydivings lifes mission to "learn something on every jump" but don't depend on anyone else to achive that mission. Now, new jumpers, go forth, multiply, and jump for the fun of it! My new sig line is gonna be: Stop spoon-feeding the students, they'll get used to it and start thinking that's how skydiving is supposed to be Jon

Forget the rest of the skydive...roll over onto your back. Still hurts but NOT NEAR as much

[reply So don't be a Stupid Fucker and piss him off then. Naw, I'm just pokin' fun...there are more than enough stupid fuckers on here that truly piss him off

Think of a number between 5000 and a million - yep that's the number - it just depends on the day. ...with all those loose screws, bustin his knuckles and bangin his head on shit, he's got to be one angy sum bitch right about now

Thank you, I did not know that

Grey or Gray...that is the question, perhaps we can take a few moments out of our gray/grey day to finally figure this one out

I wonder if they smoke marajuana there. ...not if they know what's good for them

Don't ask for serial numbers...that might tip him off. Tell him it's prolly worth $1000.00 or so, but you need some pics to be certain, then circulate the pics around to see if anyone is missing the gear. Jon

Damn, thats alota

2nd smartest thing to come out of your mouth, of course the smartest thing to come out of your mouth would be the penis of that very intelligent man you are rumored to be dating. I know that was disrespectful Bill, but it was fucking hilairous...I can't help it...can we please, please, please keep him around to play with, just for a little while? .

No, green means go. It does not mean anything else. Period. Perhaps being the braniac that you are you should recommend a red light, yellow light, green light system. That way at least you pussies who dont go on green can have your moment of pause when the yellow light is on. Red means dont go. Green means go. It really isnt that hard to understand now is it? But, but, but, Funks, I'm color-blind...if people didn't yell at me to "get out" I'd never know when to jump

Funny, funny, funny...it would be nice if you could stick around for a while instead of a post every month or two.

I try to check in here a few times a day, but I seem to miss alot of posts that result in a ban or get recycled before I've had a chance to look at them. Has he morphed into JoeQ? Just wondering what I may have missed.

Yep - LisaH See how easy that was Lisa...now you try it LisaH

ohhhh noooo...sorry Lisa the correct answer was FallFast69 Turtle .

Ya know VB, that kinda sums it up. Jon .

Yep lots of fish stories

Agreed Not so much different than today. Look at the two out downplane incident as an example. There isn't a "right person" per se, but there is "wrong person"..if you see what I mean. That's the cultral difference we're speaking of...I think is inexcusable Yes, but when people have paid their dues for decades and see how the sport has progressed, it is a little disappointing to see jumpers that can't even pack. That's culture shock. Agreed, that's not the fault of the jumper, that's another training issue altogether and, fact is, there may never be a need for some jumpers to spot, but knowing how makes them a better well-rounded skydiver. Knowing that you landed where you wanted to land is on target. Keeping yourself from running into someone else and visa versa is on target. Landing out when you feel that's the safest thing to do is on target. That's all we have right now. If your jumping with someone with a D instead of an A you should expect them be a very competent skydiver...i said "should" Daniel, I've read enough of your posts to know I'd jump with you any day... edit to add...if I can ever get my ass out to the DZ and get current

Yes he does and I'll not speak for him but I'll provide an example of why he's frustrated with the skydivers being produced today. There is a recent thread where the poster found himself with a horseshoe malfunction. He said it was caused by a packer that had been known to lengthen the closing loop in order to make closing easier. Having someone pack your parachute 20 or 25 years ago wasn't unheard of, but it wasn't the norm - except maybe at very large dropzones. Now-a-days, there are people with a hundred jumps that cannot pack their own parachute. They know little to nothing about their own gear and depend on others because of it. Tandem and AFF were developed to help people learn how to become better skydivers faster and safer. Well, faster has certainly happened, but I'm not convenced the safer part has...people that know next to nothing about gear, canopy flight, almost as many people dieing inder perfectly good parachutes as under malfunctions, etc. We need to make sure students are more well-rounded in their training by not forgetting what it took to be a skydiver two decades ago. With that said, I'm not knocking how anyone was trained or whether you use packers or not - it's none of my business. I'll only ask you to try to understand where he's coming from based on something he's been doing and surviving for many decades - since before many of you were even born. Jon

Me too...Strong Eagle container (with frap wrap release) little man Piglet (21 foot, I believe) and a 26 foot conical I've still got that rig, I should dig it out of the closet and jump it!!! Edit to add, I didn't get to jump it until I completed all of my freefall jumps because it had been converted to a throw-out...and throw-outs were way too dangerous for students[/:P]

Because the reserve is still inside the bag, inside the container. The jumper can sit with his back to the wall so it doesn't fall out, and he can hold the pilot chute in his hand, sit on top of it, stuff it inside his jumpsuit, or whatever, to contain it so that it doesn't escape. Minimal danger here. I'm not what you would call a safety nazi by any stretch, but to open the door in this situation seems like a horrible idea and isn't "minimal" danger. We're not talking about an Otter, we're talking about a tightly packed and windy 206. But, on the other hand it does mean you have to land with the airplane and THAT's some dangerous shit right there! Jon

Thanks! And ... oooh ... that one incorporates chemical agents too. (Altho' someone needs to correct that Wiki entry -- VX and sulfur mustard are not gasses at any ambient temp/pressure. ) /Marg This isn't a thread we need to send to that new website, is it Jon