BlindBrick

I have seen people get seriously hurt doing this. And that was on an old ragged-out Pegasus(porosity so bad you could read a paper through it from several fet away.) with two blown endcells. If your 265 has an porosity left in it, you will be lucky if you are jsut critically injured. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Nope, just a fifty jump requirement. I jumped at the inagural Rantoul and they didn't care one bit that I'd never had a liscense. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

My old DZ has six Telesis student rigs that are DOM 88. They look like crap because they've been handled by students for years, but they are still very airworthy even thousands of jumps later. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Of my 130 jumps, 129 were made with an FXC. I just recently got my own rig, and would prefer a Cypres because it is a little more advanced and a lot more hassle free. However, I am short on money and in the process of locating an FXC to put in my rig. It's better than nothing and as long as you respect its operational limitations, pretty reliable. i know a lot of people grouss about them beign inaccurate, but we've installed them on mains and test jumped them before. Ivariably, they all fired within the 300 ft window they were supposed to. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I would have to heartily disagree. The PLF has been my greatest tool in skydiving. Until recently I had two bad corneas so my depth perception well and truly sucked. If you asked any of my jumping friends, they would say that many times I've avoided some truly nasty injuries by being able to plf well. In fact, my S&TA is a S/L instructor, and he has been known to bring FJC students to the field to watch me land since I demonstrate the PLF so well.

130 jumps and so far the only liscnese I've ever got was my riggign ticket. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I wave at 4.5 which would make the opening start happening right at 3.5 or so. I guess we are talking semantics here. I always counted snivel as the time from pc deployment to slider most of the way down. "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Yep. That's why I went with the Raven Max as it is suppossed to be incredibly over-engineered. I also found a Falcon 300 which should be ok for the non-emergency situations. -Blind . "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I'm a big guy that falls so fast that I can bellyfly with most freefliers at my dz. Because I fall faster, I used to beat myself to death on the openings. Overtime, I figured out how to get that nice long snivel though. Flying mostly de-arched, I drop just over a grand in five seconds, and that's just about how long it takes me waveoff and pull. So wave and pull at 4.5 and I am usually setting in the saddle with a fully opened canopy around 2.3. So at least for me, it is possible to get that kind of snivel. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I just had to go through the headache of getting different gear because my weight's gone up and I've moved to a higher altitude. The gear is avaiable, you just have to look around a bit. As long as you have gear that's TSO'd for your weight and has a RSL and AAD, you should be able to use that while on student status. And I would guess that the gear issue would be the only major concern for most dz's. good luck -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Thanks for the reply Bill. I've ordered a RavenMax which is Cat D and rated to 317 if I remember corretcly. I'm really excited about the Skyhook and checked with you guys, but was told that orders placed now wouldn't be filled until early next year, which would be a tad late for Collegiate Nationals. OTOH, if the student vectors are cat B I might be able to find one of them around. I figured student gear would probably be the only used gear I'd likely find that would hold a 288 zp or 320 F1-11 main and 288 reserve. -Blindbrick "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Definately. I packed on some pounds after an injury sidelined me for about 8 months. However, weight loss won't solve the problem immediately, which is what I need to happen as my team is waiting on me to begin training for Collegiate Nationals. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

are there any containers TSO'd for over 254 lbs? I just moved to CO and my dzo doesn't want me jumping because my weight exceeds the TSO. I've made arangements for a Raven Max but had totally forgot about contianers having a weight limit too. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

You could cost your pilot and rigger their liscenses by doing that. The reserve ripcord is considered part of the reserve and therefore must be of a make/model approved for that container. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

The idea of wing-loading restrictions is not to prevent you from hooking it in. They are merely intended to improve your odds of surviving such a mistake. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Back just after I got of student status, I made the mistake of jumping with an inner ear infection. I was just turning in on final and the windsock was in my peripheral vision. I had a moment of disorientation and thought the windsock had did a 180. I paniced and did a /hard/ turn to get into what I though was the wind. Luckily I was under a Manta so I didn't hook it in but I ended but going downwind with a lot of speed from the turn. Nasty, nasty landing. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

As soon as I find away to reduce the picture to the required size my avatar is going to be Launchpad McQuack. Like him, I'm a pretty good pilot until I come to that landing part. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

This is because your body has an instinctive countermeasure for such situations. In a nutshell, you end up making a lot of small head movements in a short time. Your mind then compares the view from the different positions to give a sense of depth. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I have been tryign to get a photo to use w/ my dropzone.com profile for a while now but I don't have a scanner or the like. Soembody told me I made the Martini Shots WFFC '02 DVD and I was wondering if I could possibly get that pic in a size that will work for my profile here. The shot is an exit form the chopper. The guy to my left is dressed all in black including a full face helmet. The guy to my right is wearing a pair of homemade zp pants that are green with pink and purple diamonds. I'm the guy in the center, wearing a protec and the ugly-as-hell Telesis. thanks, -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

Well, I was just off by a little. Leave it to us guys to over-estimate size Seriously though, 80 foot drouge and 5 stage deployment, wow. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

From what I hear, the escape pod they are bulding for the international space station has a ram-air canopy that is over 100,000 square foot. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

If you read the Cypres owner's manual. they flat out tell you that they sacrificed durability of the wiring to reduce weight and bulk. With everything being in one unit, the MPAAD very likely doesn't have the vulnerability to wiring damage that the Cypress does. I for one will welocme that. The wiring has always made me nervous when having to install or service a Cypres. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I know you said you have soft contacts but I am posting this for anyone that might read this and have hard contacts. Wear a good tight pair of googles and do not take them off until you are standing in a spot where it's easy to locate a lost lens. I used to very carefully take my goggles off over a white towl since that would show the blue tint of the lens well. Of course it took me losing two Rose K lenses at ~$340 a pop to learn this. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I did a transfer once when I realized I was in the very early stages of a two out situation. I didn't disconnect my rsl and it got hung up under the edge of the reserve ripcord cable housing, leaving me attached to my main. It was a very sick feeling knowing I had a reserve canopy moving to where the main was streaming above me. Luckily because the rsl was effectively suspending me from only one side, it cuased my body to shift and that let the rsl come free. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."

I've tried before and never got through. I even sent them an email and never heard a response back. I knew we had a couple of gear dealers hear so I was hoping maybe they communicated a little better with them. -Blind "If you end up in an alligator's jaws, naked, you probably did something to deserve it."