matttrudeau

Hey skyslut. I'll be in Sebastian next week. Hopefully, we can do some jumps while I'm there. See ya soon! Matt

I'm not talking about taking risks jumping out of planes. I'm talking about landing, the most dangerous part of skydiving.

OK, if it can happen and the winds were gusting that day. Why Jump? Is is worth the risk?

We still don't have all the information but I still think gusts of 40 mph don't suddendly happen after you decide to jump in 20mph winds. That's a huge difference. I can't tell you how many times I've stayed on the ground and watch people land off field and break bones because they jumped in high winds. It's just bad for the sport to see the army getting pounded into the ground.

I just read the recent article about the Army Parachute Team from Fort Bragg who jumped into a recent Nascar race. I'm really dissappointed that they jumped knowing that the winds were very strong. Some jumpers landed hard, others landed way off the target, one hit a trailer in the infield. What is going on? These guys should be setting an example for other jumpers. I'm sure that made everyone in the stands want to take up skydiving now. Accidents like this are so simple to avoid.

Don't overlook the Javelin Odyssey. It's the most comfortable rig i've jumped. Haven't jumped a G4 yet though.

It depends on a number of things. If you friend is radical under canopy it could be a problem. If he's fairly conservative then it should be ok. Personally I would have downsized to a Sabre2 135.

A lot of people do concern themselves too much with currency. I recently made three jumps in florida after about a 10 week layoff. I was the only one in the plane checking my handles and reviewing emergency procedures. It is very easy to get complacent in this sport when you skydive every day. But when you take a longer layoff, you really start to think about safety on every skydive. I believe complacency is far more dangerous than non currency. If you haven't jumped in five years, well, that's another story.

I recently bought a Sabre2 150 with about 250 jumps on it. The openings are soft and consitent. The toggle pressure is soft and very responsive. If you want an easy ride you got it. If you want a fast and aggresive ride you got it. What an all-around canopy.

Has anyone had any trouble traveling on the airlines with your gear and hook knife? I'm just wondering how that's being handled. Thanks...

Does anyone know if there are any technical differences between the Javelin and the Javelin Odyssey? I know the Odyssey has a nice cut in back pad, but is there any significant difference?

Hi Skyslut, I talked to Chris about it and I couldn't believe it. Not only was he incredibly lucky, he should be on the phone with Mirage right away. I know that he flies underneath tandems and if his reserve fired it would be all over for everyone. Not only does this emphasize checking your reserve pin frequently, but also raises questions about flying underneath tandems.

The biggest pond swooping event to ever hit Skydive New England comes this weekend. Red Bull is sponsoring the event with tons of cash prizes. Whether you're a skydiver or not you should come out this weekend and watch some of the best canopy pilots around drag their toes through the water. The whole event is topped off with beach jump demonstrations on sunday.

The way the media portrays skydiving would be very important in a pond swooping event let along skydiving itself.

We're talking about swooping, a discipline of skydiving. Just because a pond swooping event was mainstreamed doesn't mean it's bad for skydiving. I know skydivers don't want regulations. We have regualtions in place and many of us don't follow them anyway. How many times have you got out over a cloud, even though the gps says you can get out? I think the exposure from the X-Games has done much more good things for sports that bad and for pond-swooping it would be the same.

I don't know about you, but I think pond swooping at the X-Games would be an awesome event. They pulled the plug on SkySurfing because it was difficult to get a lot of spectators to watch a giant screen and it wasn't exciting to watch. With pond-swooping it would draw huge crowds and they could be in front of all of the action. If anyone who reads this post has connections with people who organize the X-Games drop the word. Have them go to one pond swooping event and I guarantee that next year it would be in the X-Games. What does everyone else think?

That is 100% correct. You know about those new yellow cards right? Replacing a closing loop is a requirement for your A license.

The Hornet has been known to have harder openings. I know plenty of people that did everything to try and slow down the Hornet's opening but it didn't work. Other people have no problem with the canopy at all. :)

Most people will make this mistake right off student status. They get under a smaller canopy and they yank down on the toggle and it just spins right up. You need to feel out the canopy well before you just pull one of the toggles all the way down. Have fun!

I think a Dropzone.com Bumber sticker would be a good fund raiser. I would definitely buy one if the proceeds went to a good cause. What does everyone else think?

So I made my first AFF jump this weekend. Everything went great. Excellent exit, good awareness, and good practice ripcord pulls. But when I was about 100 feet off the ground approaching the landing area my canopy felt like it almost collapsed on one side for a moment. The wind that day was bisecting the runway so I was parallel to the runway and then turned left into the wind. People on the ground told me that I was too close to being over the runway and it caused thermals which made my canopy shake. Is this right? Also, I'm only 145 pounds and I was under a Navigator 240. Being so under loaded, would this cause the canopy to react to more turbulance? One more thing, could I approach the landing zone in half brakes to help with turbulance until I approach and go in at full speed until flair? Thanks for you help!

It's easier to learn with baggy on top and shorts on the bottom... But as soon as you get that down you should learn to sit in a FF suit, that's what their made for.

If you're coming to New England check out Skydive New England is Lebanon Maine. It's the best dropzone around and it's a great learning environment. They have wingsuit demos all summer long. Being in New England doesn't mean bad weather. Last summer the dropzone made about 19,000 skydives, which is good for only 6 months of jumping.

Chuck is right, he wants to make a point that you never know when your next mal is coming. Going 2,500 skydives without cutting away is fantastic. How can you not get complacent with that many skydives? You can't. Following the right emergency procedure greatly increases the likelihood that you'll survive.

I got my dropzone.com shirt in today. It looks great! I hope everyone looking at this buys one too to help promote the website and to fund breast cancer research.