BlindBrick

Alska Sky Sports said they were shut down, I was wondering if this is permanent or if they just haven't started their seaosn yet? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Statistics are also where the whole "stork brings the baby" thing came from. I am fat, morbidly obese to be precise, and I am definately the exception rather than the rule. Most jumpers I know tend to be in the middle of HWP or smaller. If anything, I have a theory that that there's a sunconscious prejudice against overweight jumpers because in order to exit the plane, there's a small, unconscious part of many jumpers psyche that needs to feel like they are special in some way. I believe that very often that "specialness" gets built upon body image/athleticism and when you see a obviously fat person doing the same thing, it puts the assumption into question. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The good news is that at your weight, it is totally possible to get back into the air without violating a TSO limit, the bad news is that it's liable to be expensive as most of the gear is almost impossible to find used. What you need is to look into a Harness built under TSO 23B which has no max weight limit. You then need to look into an appropriately-wingloaded larger modern reserve such as a PD-R 281 (and only the 281), Angel Fire size 246 or larger or an R-Max 248 or larger. All those have a placarded weigh in excess of 280 lbs. I won't recommend a specific main as that's a question to discuss with the instructors helping you get recurrent. I will suggest that if you live in a hot & dry area like NV, rather than just going with the handful of very large mains out there on the market (which tend to either be student planforms or based on one), you might want to check with one of the canopy manufactuers that will upsize an existing canopy to a customer-specified size in order to get the better performance on landing. I know I was glad I had the extra flare power from my Safire II 269 when I started learning to fly it in the hot thin air in CO and NM. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

There's a dz in Cushing, OK too though the name escapes me. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

You know, I've been hearing the same complaints and dire predictions on here for ove a decade and the site hasn't imploded yet. Yes dz.com has issues, but they are far from terminal! -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Be aware that at many dropzones whether or not you will be allowed depend on what rig you have. The vast majority of skydiving containers and reserves out there are manufactuered under TSO 23C or under TSO 23D but with limits that mirror 23C. Under 23C, the allowed max exit weight is going to be 254. Realisitcaly, at your weight and canopy choices, you're exit weight will be in the 275-280 lb range (Frex my Mirage with an AAD, 269 main and 288 reserve comes in at 27 lbs). Your best best is finding a TSO 23B container like a Mirage or Vector and then a larger TSO-23D reserve like an R-Max (248 or bigger), Angel Fire (246 or larger) or PD-R 281. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

We just built a new machine: i7-3930K 32 gig DDR 2133 120 gig SSD for boot 150 gig Velociraptor for work disk 1.5 tb HDD for archive 560 Ti gpu H100 water cooler If I had an unlimited budget, I'd have went with an i7-3960x, 64 gigs of RAM, and a 570 or 580 GPU, but I am happy with what I have because past what I actually went with, price decouples from performance with you paying a huge premium for only incremental performance boosts. Probably for the best anyway as ambient temperature is a major issue during the busy season, and I'm not sure we could keep the boxes cool without ducting more of the ac directly to the comps and as it is, we have issues with the heat getting to the editors. One word of caution if you do decide to go with an i7-3930K. Make sure you are running the latest version of your mobo's bios. The 3930K was released in a limited edition with limited funcitonality because of a hardware issue related to server usage. The LGA 2011 mobos manufactuered before Feb 2012 use a bios that's configured for that chip. At the start of Feb, Intel released a new version of the 3930 that fixes the issue in the orignal, unfortunately it doesn't always mesh well with the older bios settings. -blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

If you go for the leg retraction, you need to make sure that both sides stop at the same point in the case of a jam. I'd hate to get fixated on jammed kit and not realize that the uneven weight distribution put me into an unnoticed spiral. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I think ultiamtely it is about personal asusmption of risk. As long as a person makes an informed decision to assuem that risk, in my opinion we shouldn't stand in their way unless it endangers another. Of coruse I am very biased. When I started jumping, I had a bilateral degenerative eye disease that meant that I couldn't see facial features beyond ~ a yard and could only read an anolog alti with a ~1500 ft margin of error. Now adays, I've got better eyes but got extremely heavy in the recovery phase post-transplants and as a result jump prototypical gear with flight speeds and deployment scenarios that the designers never dreamed of. So without a doubt my risk is elevated, but I feel that as a rigger and an instructor , I have an informed idea of what those risk are, and I choose to accept them. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

For real??? I'm not exactly pro-life but even I see the consent issue. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Lol, what happened to personal resposibility. The only thing you owe loved ones is an hoenst answer. "They, or someone else, screwed up and they paid the ultimate price. it sucks, but it happens." You then go an manifest for your next load because this is about the living, not the dead. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm running SR-1's without issue on a 1050 lb Vectran lineset on my main which regularly sees 155 mph+ deployments with no issues. I run Wrap-it's on my reserve because that's what it came with and they have served me just fine on multiple reserve rides. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

We're running an 17-3930K with an SSD for the boot, a Velociraptor for the working disk and then a regular 7200 rpm 1.5 tb disk for archiving. Using that in conjunction with Vegas Pro 11 and an NVIDIA 560 Ti card for some nice render times. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm looking fro a simple, non-pro video setup and was considering the Revolve with the contour-specific mount mated to a Roam. Anyone have experience with that setup? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I hate that this sport has such a short memory. There have already been multiple mid-airs between canopies and what are now called drones. Though back in the day we just called them RC planes w/ cameras. Close flyby's were actually shaping up as something of a novel sport until one collision with a tandem (IIRC) resulted in a seriously damaged canopy at v-low altitude. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Skyeyes and I are coming into Elsinore on Friday, Feb 3 for a week or so. Just heard that the Korean invasion arrives the same day and that the bunkhouse will likely fill up. I'm wondering if there are any chepa lodging alternatives in the area in case that happens? -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I don't disagree. but narrowing your search before you start having demos shipped in can save you hundreds of dollars. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Right now we don't have much dealer support on the dz (i'm trying to address that and get a gear store going), so they were wanting to hear some opinions before they started shelling out money for demos to be shipped in. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

90 degree front riser landings. Not wanting to go down the hardcore swooper path, They're wanting an all-purpose canopy that offers a little more excitement during canopy flight and a slightly more advanced landing. They've spent several hundred jumps on Sabre II's and are now on a Pilot at 1.5. I know that sounds a lot like a higher loading on a Stilletto, but Stillettos aren't well liked at our dz. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Had someone ask me about this, and I didn't know anyone on my dz that has experience with the Nitron so I thought I'd post the question up here. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

There's a rigger on my dz that's evidently making a killing selling gear that's past it's rated lifespan to jumpers in South America. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Sorry guess I should have been clearer. I'm working off the, perhaps cynical, assumption that all this would be done to a potential crop of clients in anticipation of a triggering event rather than after one. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I don't think it will stop it, I think it will just force litigators to game the system a little more. Most of the work arounds you described are only effective on the upper or middle class (and even then only for those who haven't taken proper precautions). Few if any of them will stick to those in poverty who would then become the people the litigators would chose to "champion." Your concpet is also hampered somewhat by the legal doctrine that allows you ot bring suit against someone where ever they do business. that would allow a litigation team to select "clients" from states with strong homestead laws. After that it's a relatively simple cases of transferring major assets out of the client's name and transitioning them from bank accounts to eba cards. As long as all this is done before the lawsuit is filed, there's not a lot that can be done about it. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Couple of thigns you're missing. 1st, many states won't allow a garnishment to exceed 25% of take-home pay per check. Second ,in many states, bankruptcy offers protection against judgements. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

It really doesn't feel clumsy at all. Using the old exit, I'd get into that spiraling turn and my Supermach and I would have to have this little conversation about who was flying who. Using the falling exit, I'm immediately in control to the point that I'm already executing a crisp, on-heading 90 as my wings open and I've lost way less altitude. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."