collinb

Members
  • Content

    73
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by collinb

  1. ....another tip is during training specifically it can really help the team a lot for you to get a heading, once you have settled from the exit, and hold it. The team can then tell if the formations are rotating and who is moving where a lot easier. If you are spinning around above them you may see all the grips but they can't tell if a portion of the formation moved or someone just flew away or if it was you turning and they were nice and still.
  2. Not quite the same surgery but I had a quad-by-pass in March/April 2009, I can't remember the exact dates, and was jumping again in July 2009, again not sure exactly when in July! My primary cardiologist said stick to tidily-winks but checked with 3-4 skydivers I know who are doctors and they all said "I" was OK and probably stronger in that area than before my surgery. But that was ME and the risks I was prepared to take and the operation/situation is different to yours so, as you have been recommended in other posts, find doctors who understand your specific situation. here's the video of my return to the sky :-) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Xu3_e12sVg take care, it is possible to get back but "do it right" as an old friend of mine used to say "Blues Skies and Soft Landings" Collin p.s. PM me if you want to talk about what I went through and did to return p.p.s. I'm flying base on the jumps :-)
  3. One cranky SOB but you had to love him, BSBD my friend
  4. ...or just order a set from Square 1, that's where I got mine from when I was in Perris at a bigway camp.
  5. There is no comparison in jumps vs tunnel but there is in free-fall time vs tunnel, as stated several times. There is a great advantage in tunnel from that perspective though in terms of who fast you can learn. Take a 15 minute session of coached tunnel you a) get 2 skydives worth of time for each 2 minute rotation then b) you get immediate feed back from your coach and often 2-4 minutes later you are back in the tunnel doing the exercise again and c) 1 hour of tunnel in a day is often equivalent to 6 months or a year of jumping for a lot of people!putting all that learning into 1 hour with everything fresh in terms of muscle memory and timing has to have an advantage. Now that doesn't mean a minute of tunnel is equal to a jump as there are so many other components to a good AND safe skydive. The tunnel is a tool that used properly can definitely give more bang for the buck in ONE area of the skydive. As stated in this thread, they both are needed and have differnet value dependent on how they are used. my 2 cents.
  6. The PAC750 will hold 15 and once you get used to the door, remember to use the lower step, launch anything up to an 8way chunk. You can pretty much launch any 4way piece, some a little different to the Otter but great team training plane! remember to hang close to the plane if you are outside and lean out only at the count and tell your pilot if you have lots of meat outside, we regularly put 6 outside, and make sure pilot keeps a little extra speed up or the nose down as it can she be a bitch if he gets behind the curve! have fun
  7. hi Cary, interested in seeing if you made it back to jumping? I had 3 heart attacks and a quad-bypass and started again after 4-5 months and still jumping 15months on. I KNOW it's not the same but interested in your progress. blue skies and soft landings Collin
  8. collinb

    Gas

    I just got my new Gas and love it, had great customer service during ordering, delivery and after sales service, top-notch! My helmet fits perfect, everything works/functions as advertized. easy to put on and take off. Quiet and light. Quality construction, I hope never to need it or use it in anger but feel it does offers great protection. It isn't a motor bike style helmet but looks and feels better than other helmets I looked at. I maybe would like a more rounded shape like my old Z1 but the shape is nice and distinctive! only potential negative is I really wish it had a flip visor then it would be perfect, it's 95% right now.
  9. trying to remember but when they first came to the UK one of my team mates had filed it off but then had a premature cutaway one time. We think it was because the capewell slide sideways and with the wrap a loose it came out. proper closing of the velcor wrap would have prevented this but we couldn't decide if the wrap got "knocked" on exit or if it was left loose as everyone was still playing with them to see what they worked and looking for problems. sorry I can't remember all the details but we think this may not have happened if the tail was there.
  10. it also helps the canopy fall straight. the "holes" help with inflation as stated but there are also slits between the bottom skin and the stabilizers. With no vents or slit between bottom skin of the canopy and the stabilizers then you have, in effect, an upside down bowl, and when pressure builds up underneath it as you drop down rather than forward, you rock uncontrollably and do not have a predictable flight. back in the late 70's early 80's it was not unusually to do RW, then CReW and shot accuracy! (many competitions combined 4way RW added to team accuracy to get the winner) When canopies started to have joined stabilizers and bottom skins we used to cut slots into them to allow air to spill out equally on both sides and therefore be stable rather than rock from side to side. The I did this to my strato star, then my Unit for sure in the early 80's and I think to my Pegasus (can't remember on this one). I attached a picture of 2way CReW to show the design of the StratoStar with the vents underneath the canopy and an alternate design of stabilizers on a para foil. The second picture is a cloud/cloud lite in deep brakes. It shows the vents in the bottom skin and the gap between the bottom skin and the stabilizers. You will notice that the stabilizers are tucked/blown inwards under the canopy as air is pushed out the sides keeping the canopy from rocking and therefore giving it a predictable flight. not sure if this is actually how it all worked from an aeronautical perspective but it was I thought/felt like happened when I was flying the canopies and the reactions to the design or changes I made to my canopies to be able to shoot accuracy consistently in competition.
  11. ...that's just my way, doesn't mean it's the only way or right....I am sure other people have other methods that work for them also.
  12. I jump (fun, team and video) and organize, a lot, at SkyDance and usually organize and run the Bigways but this year wasn't there for the jumps as I was at my son's wedding. We have used the PAC week in week out for 8way and bigger, I have 1500+ jumps in the PAC organizing and team jumps. People at the outside rear need to get low NOT out and video get high NOT out to see. Everyone but the person with the count hug the plane or get low and there is plenty of room for an 8way launch (with video) and line up the rest inside and back moving on the count. Using the inside bar also helps, I noticed on the video people using the outside bars and make sure you are using the lower step. Additionally, in my opinion taking out the right hand seat (facing forward) also helps a lot for the people on the inside but it is a pain in the ass taking it in and out so we leave it in usually. Yes an Otter is better but the PAC is a great plane for its size/cost/etc. My 2 cents.
  13. Jason, Ryan and Amy are confirmed as organizing FF. see you all soon
  14. ...we've also added a helicopterto the fleet, details to follow see you soon
  15. not sure about the ballons, I'll check and let you know.... we still have a few slots open for the bigway on Thursday, send me or joe Kaufman an email to let us know you are interested! see you soon blue skies soft landings Collin
  16. hi, well the American Boogie is only a few short months away and as the rain here in NorCal was bumming me out I thought I'd get myself going by starting to plan this years Thursday Big-Way.....Casa and 2 PACs so we're planning a 60 way! JFTC people get priority this year to support our local JFTC candidates and team members so if you know people involved with JFTC and they are not on my personal NorCal email list and maybe interested please let them know about the event. We will use the P3 rules and current big-way skydive design, a 20 odd way base with helix anchors on the whackers, I'll have design done over the next few days and send that out. cost for the big-way will be 5 tickets plus $20 to cover extra altitude, the video slots and video production. regular Boogie fees will be required for the Boogie as a whole, one day boogie fee is available. minimum requirement is having jumped at a SkyDance formation load weekend or recommendation from someone I know, successfully attended a P3 big-way camp or a P3 100way event. I'm starting to build the list so send me an e-mail, [email protected], if you are interested, first come get slots. Vegas Joe has already reserved 5-6 slots for him and his friends that are coming to play again so let me know quickly if you are interested. Please let your friends and colleagues that are qualified know about the event. and just incase you don't know - JUNE 25-28th is the American Boogie and the 25th is Big-Way Day. Roger Ponce, Vegas Joe and Karl Secks are plane captains and helping with the organizing! See you at the Boogie or any of our SkyDance events prior to then.....formation loads the March 28th is our first home qualifying event, come play with us Blue Skies Collin
  17. SkyDance in Davis, just west of Sac, is open all week except for Mondays! nice turbine PAC 750 and lots of fun jumpers always around.
  18. it is possible that at your stage of progression, 102 jumps, that you will actually travel further in a delta than a max track, arms in close to your sides. In my early days when I turned to track I was so aggressive that I went down, a more vertical movement than horizontal movement. It takes time to master going to a max track immediately. with a 100 odd jumps you may actually do better in the delta. talk to your local instructor or coach and see what they recommend to do and progress from delta to track to max track. happy new year everyone, be safe Blue Skies Soft Landings Collin
  19. did anyone ever claim to know where Vic is? He's an old team mate of mine from UK, we meet up in PErris in early 80's then I lost track of him also. I'd love to find him.
  20. lets think about this.....3 days in a row at the Z-hills 1980 Turkey meet the first load the DC3, I think it was either Mr. Douglas or Southern Comfort, blew a jug on takeoff and we cruised up to 2 grand and all exited calmly, especially day 3....not again was the cry! late 70's an engine blew on a 182 at 10 grand during 4way at nationals, pilot turns to say hold on he'll get us closer as I'm following out my team mates, 4 miles plus from DZ! wasted a practice jump! taxing along a field airstrip we used and some talking to the pilot and he looks down long enough to go slightly off track and the wing hits a tree spinning us into a ditch, can't remember when or where, I think Duck End Farm in UK back in late 70's not an emergency for us but we had a tire blow during takeoff and caused plane to slide to one side but pilot got her airborne. He landed it on a local airstrip with a concert runway rather than our grass strip and serviced with minor damage. Pilatus Porter on takeoff the pilot realized he hadn't reset the trim and stalls out after just getting over the trees at the end of the runway and drops, well that's what it felt like, it onto a ploughed field just the other side of a road. We had to push it back through a gate down a road to the airport for the check up before it could fly again. I think that's it.....not bad for 36 years of jumping and some of the older planes we used to use.
  21. Sibson - the Peterborough Parachute Center, now called Airkix's I believe, October 1972!
  22. not trying to teach you to suck eggs....a brit phrase. I keep having that problem and found this trick recently. make a copy of the photo as the file gets altered the right click and in the menu go to open with, then open with MS Office picture manager and in that widow/image of the picture selct compression and pick the size you want. Usually document or web gets it below most application requirements for small files. different versions of windows displays things slightly different but the MS office picture manager is the right route. don't forget to copy picture as it does change the file and hence quality of the picture
  23. HW, I have the tools to improve these but right now I'm going through 3 boxes of photos and, mainly, slides just finding what I have. Once I have them sorted out I'll start "re-claiming" the better ones. Glad you enjoyed them Collin p.s. none from the US pre-these at Pope as I was living in UK back then. I have a bunch from the 80/81 period at Archway Parachuting when I was living in St. Louis. Then it goes quiet until I started jumping again about 5 years ago at SkyDance.
  24. ...an Epson Perfection V700 PHOTO is the model. fun toy!
  25. I got a cool new town for christmas....it came early. A nice scanner that can scan 35mm slides. I've started scanning all my old 35mm slides and came across these of Pope Valley from March 79, these are raw scans as I haven't cleaned up the slides yet or scanned in high resolution. it was a fun trip for a newbie brit jumper!