SkySlut

They are having a raffle to support Chris and Nancy in Deland. There will be a number of prizes (jumps, coaching, gear, etc.-they are still in the process of putting the prizes together). All proceeds will go to medical bills, etc. If you are interested in donating or entering the raffle please contact Sarah @ 386.740.9052 or Tsunami @ 219.808.6263 Blue Skies & speedy recovery Chris...

The PD & cypress analogy isnt legit. I buy canopies and cypres knowing full well that I am going to have some planned downtime. Having a reserve pin that is faulty is not planned downtime. If my cypres crapped out because of a known fault of the manufacturer, I would expect a new cypres at no charge. Look at L&B, phenominal customer service. PD will send you a demo canopy if you are planning to get yours relined...no downtime there. If you call Sunpath, they will send you a loaner while you are waiting for your rig. A buddy of mine got one sent out today from Sunpath for a couple of weeks while he is between rigs...at no cost, to boot. NOW THATS WHAT I CALL CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Its kinda a problem with mirage and kinda not. Its capewell's pins that are at fault, but mirage is selling them to the enduser. From what I have learned in Deland, there are 4,600 pins in a single batch. That is a lot of reserves that can potentially have bad pins. Mirage is not the only manufacturer that uses these pins. Other manufacturers make their own or have them tested on a 300 lb. pull test machine...which is not a cheap toy. Most manufacturers can not afford to own one so they send them out to get tested a RWS. Mirage, did not test their pins before putting them into production.

I actually do own a Mirage...its my secondary rig. It is a G3 and it doesnt have the problem pin. My primary rig is an odyssey. But regardless, many friends jump a mirage and it concerns me for them too. If Vector (which I do not own) had a similar problem, I would be pissed as well. Its all about safety for those of us around us. If someone jumps a rig that has a known problem by the manufacturer I am affected by it too...afterall, I very well may be on the plane while their reserve pin pops while they are in the door and that pin killed everyone else in the plane. Everyone is affected by this directly or indirectly.

I really didnt need that...

I dont know how fair it is of Mirage to have known about this problem and sat on that information for at least 9 months. That is some pretty scary stuff. I wonder how many jumps have been done on those affected rigs since the problem became known. I am also wondering how long it will take to get a new reserve ripcord or how long it will take to get inspected. If you are a avid jumper or work in the industry, its going to be a major pain in the ass. I think that they should be bending over backwards to make this situation better for those whose pins are affected after not addressing the issue promptly in the first place.

At least they cover the shipping...well, whoopdeefreakindoo!!!

And why did it take so long to report/recall this??? I witnessed one of these pins break back in August (almost 9 months ago). It was one of our fulltime camera guys. How many pins have been affected??? If that pin would have busted while he was on the camera step, I shudder to think what would have happened to a full otter load of jumpers.... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=205183#205183

Due to sizing "nomenctature" by PD. A 143 is a 150, a 126 is a 135, a 113 is a 120, etc.

that practice is extremely common and they usually weigh them down in an orderly fashion so they remember what riser goes where, but I am assuming that because it was the beginning of the season he had a buttload of repacks to do, so he got lazy or too busy to remember which one was which. Slacker.

Thats exactly what I was thinking...I did consider chopping it, but hey, I could fly it and flare it so...why not keep it...makes for a good story anyways. No harm, no foul.

Check this out... First load of the season up in New England, I had about 120 jumps and I was waiting for my new gear to arrive so I am jumping someone elses gear for the day. We get out and do a 2 way belly dive, all normal and all good, minus the spot. We are a bit long...usually not a problem. We break off and track and I dump. The canopy surges backwards. I am thinking that is odd, but hey its not my canopy and I never would have thought that the main would be hooked up backwards until I looked at it and I see the P/C in front of me. I ended up landing it off field, which in NE...they are very small fields with plenty of trees surrounding it. It was extremely weird to fly a canopy backwards dealing with winds etc. Getting yourself into the wind and doing penetration checks. I ended up using backrisers which were now front risers to slowly spiral down to a field. Toggle turns were just to radical to judge altitude loss and directional control. It was also interesting because everytime that I looked over my shoulder I was giving harness input causing more of a turn. Anyways, long story short. I landed into the wind in the middle of some field way far away from the DZ...almost stood it up, but flaring was tough to judge because the only thing that I could do was look straight down between my legs and not out to the horizon. I got mixed reviews on whether I should have kept it or not. I figured that it was a functioning canopy and I felt I could fly it and land it safely so "why not keep it". I also figured that I saved the persons gear because if I cut it away over that wooded area, chances are they would never find it again. Apparently the rigger that packed it was lazy. Instead of taking the main out and packing it when he did the reserve repack, he just unhooked the risers with the canopy in the bag...then forgot which risers were wich and hooked it up backwards. fucking muppet. It was only a 150...would I land one like that again, not on anything smaller...interesting experience overall...kinda fun, kinda scary...no harm...no foul & mark that one up as a learning experience.

The thing weighs about 800 pounds...Its solid wood and it has a metal base on it. Its been around for about 5 years and nobody has burned it yet. I dont think that people are motivated enough to bring it over to the bonfire and burn it. Although it has been quite cold up there in Maine.

I had similar problems when I first started jumping Velocities. There are some packing tips that have changed my openings dramatically. You also have to make sure that you are sitting still in the harness and being really carefull on your inputs on your risers while the canopy is opening. The input that you may have put in on your stiletto before is not what you want to be doing with a velocity. Those canopies are very twitchy and are more suceptible (sp?) to harness and riser input. Things that I make sure I do on every packjob: Slider placement is key, make sure that the grommets are placed all the way down on the suspension lines. I usually give them a firm press and make sure that you keep them there during the packjob. I believe that if one or two of those badboys slips in a packjob, you will get the canopy surging to one side over the other.IMHO. Have you every noticed that the slider may not come down evenly??? Sometimes, one side comes down faster than the other resulting in that surge to one side over the other. I also make sure the slider that is on the side of the nose is fully exposed and open. I dont do anything with the nose. I barely tuck it in so that it is out of the way. I roll the piss out of the tail, just because I like slower openings and I make sure that it is super tight around the lines so the slider isnt going anywhere. I also have short line stows (about an inch) while double stowing large rubber bands. I have found that the openings have been extremely onheading after doing this. I used to get linetwists quite often in the beginning, but once i shortened up the linestows...never a problem after that. Thats what I do...use it if you like.

Yep, that information would be great to have and it is unlikely that we would ever see that put together in a statistically significant way, but I would still like to see the incomplete ratio. I agree that it wouldnt be the most accurate assesment, but interesting none the less. That information should be easily available I would think. I am going to be in Deland this week working. If I bump into Don, I will have to ask him what his take is on all of this.

1 year anniversary of Andy Goldberg frapping in too...I hear that he is back jumping again, finally. I am so glad that he got rid of that g/f that wouldnt let him jump anymore...

I would be really interested in finding out the incomplete numbers as well. People ask me all the time the pass/fail rate. The only thing that I can tell them is what I had in my course. That would be really valuable information!!! Please let me know if you find anything out. Mark, do you think that Uncle Don has any ideas on what those numbers are???

What kind of helmet are you wearing??? Full face or open face??? I would think that an open face may give you some issues. You may want to try out a fullface and see what happens. Just a thought.

For anyone who missed this show. It will be playing again tonite on TNN from 8 to 9 pm EST. This show is a cross between watching the pond swooping nationals (thrills & spills), the Iron Chef (japanese translations) & South Park (lowbrow humor). Great stuff!!!

Oh yeah, Happy Easter too...

Is anyone watching this japenese game show that is on TNN???? Funniest f'n thing that is on TV, besides the Simpsons of course. Absolutely histerical...

Well, I had to go out and buy the disc today. I am pretty sure that the girl on the right is Trina, she performs on that song. That song kicks ass!!! Among other highlights on the disc: 5 New Zombie tunes, buck owens-Who is going to mow your grass?, Ramones-Now I wanna sniff some glue, Slim Whitman-I remember you, and a classic and my personal favorite by Helen Kane-I wanna be loved by you. There are quite a few excerpts from the movie itself that are on it. I cant wait to see it, sounds pretty tweaked. There arent too many theatres playing it unless I want to travel an hour and a half to see it. I am sure that the unedited version (NC-17) is much better anyways. I am going to have to get a copy of that version when it comes out on video/dvd...which I am sure wont take too long.

That guy does look familiar!!! It isnt the guy who whacked Nancy Kerrigan is it???

Dunno...I know that its not Lionel's wife because his exwife beat the crap out of him a few years back and he is married to some white chick now. Guessing from the Zombie-T that she is wearing and Zombie's arm around her...I would imagine that she is with Rob in some capacity. I have seen him in concert and she isnt one of the band, unless she was hired specifically for the remake of Brickhouse. She is wearing way too much clothing to be one of Rob's dancers unless they had to lower the rating to PG for Leno's show. Good question.

Good fun!!! Alligator See you later, Alligator. We won't be catching much of you around the singles swamp. You tend to lurk below the surface at some of the most happening and trendy scenes around town. Being the savvy prowler that you are, you give yourself adequate time to observe and calculate before you make your devastating moves. Once you've located your target, your slow, suave approach is enough to hypnotize just about anyone. Sure, you might look tough on the outside, but you know how to woo a potential mate with soft strokes and tender words. To you, romance is a subtle dance and you're willing to take your time with it. You ever so skillfully develop your next cunning move that's always so impossible to resist. You've got the ritual of romance down to a science, don't you?