VTmotoMike08

I completely understand that. I never used to tip pizza delivery guys more than 2 or 3$ but after I had that job for a few months, I now tip them at least $5 even if I am only getting one pizza. I have even tipped 50% before when it got here extremely fast. You never know when the guy/ girl serving you might be a skydiver who is saving for their next jump

I'm confused by that part. Did you pull the cutaway cable all the way? Ideally both sides would release at exactly the same instant (or non RSL side a milisecond sooner) but I could see how that might not happen if your cutaway cable were for some reason not the correct length. I have heard of some people who were shorter having to clear the cutaway cable with their opposite arm if their arms were not long enough to pull it all the way out, could that have been the case here? If one side took a whole 2 seconds longer to release, something is not right. Edit: Sounds like a tension knot malfunction, any thoughts?

Miller Lite- Breakfast of champions

I don't know anyone who goes there and I assume you have already seen this site: www.collegeskydiving.com But in case that is new to you, there are plenty of people on that site who can help you. There are also plenty of college skydivers at other nearby schools. Good luck getting your club started

Thanks, I have a ton of respect for your company for being so upfront. Good call on using a US rigger for alterations. I have always been able to find someone around the DZ who is handy with a sewing maching to do minor work on my suit anyway. Looks like I'll be going with the established guys for a comp suit, but I'll remember you guys if I ever get the urge to go do something silly like fly in a sit

I knew I should have gone to Mile Hi yesterday. Just curious, is it a 9 cell, 7 cell, or what?

N/A

So, I saw an add for a jumpsuit company on the sidebar of this site and checked it out. Its for deepseed, and they seemed to be a pretty cool company with lots of products and cool looking RW suits. www.deepseed.com The price is right and delivery time looks good (even in the summer) so I think I might order one to replace my current suit. I have never seen one around any of the DZs I've been to so I thought I would try to get some opinions here. I am specifically interested in feedback on their competition type RW suits. Also, did you have any issues dealing with a company in New Zealand? Note: I did a forum search and the most relevent post about this company was two years old so I thought there might be some more experiances with them by now. Edit: Sorry for posting in the wrong forum.

I just realized there is a register link on that site where they try to pair you with teamates so I feel kinda foolish for posting this

I hope this is in the right forum but here goes: I am new the the Colorado skydiving scene, having made only 1 visit to Mile Hi Skydiving Center. But I loved it and I know this is where I will spend the summer. I noticed that the Colorado Skydiving League is having their first meet this weekend so I wanted to see if I could find three other jumpers who want to form a team to compete in the A or AA class (depending on what experiance levels we round up). Ideally, this would be a team of members who could make it to all three meets. Meet dates and details are posted on http://www.coloradoskydivingleague.com. Winning isnt important to me, I just want to jump with a consistent group because I know that is the best way to build everyone's skill. Like the website says, skill level isnt that important but it is certainly appreciated if you can stay in proximity to your team members. So if you love FS as much as I do, be on my team this summer! Just PM me and we can work out the details. -Mike

I once disconnected my risers from the container to clean some mud off my leg straps. Apparently the risers got moved around somehow and a brakeline got routed around the left rear riser group. Wierd, I know, Im not quite sure how it got flipped thru. But its an old sabre with two brakelines on each side so that makes it a bit more complicated. Anyway, I opened up and the canopy looked fine. A control check revealed very heavy toggle pressure on that side. A closer visual check showed the right brake line trailing slightly behind the canopy as normal but the left brakeline was wraped once around the rear riser group. Several control checks later I determined that it would still flare but took a little extra strength to pull down the left side. If it had been wraped around more than once, it likely would have been unflarable and required a chop. What I learned: someone showed my how they rubber banded their risers together with right over left before they evey disconnected them. Also, quadruple line check your canopy before you pack it.

I met a non drinking jumper once who brought a case of gatorade to the DZ in place of beer. Trust me, on a hot summer weekend, no one will be complaining about a free refreshing drink in the middle of the day! Serves about the same purpose as beer as far as starting conversation too.

First, I want to say that I did not read this whole previous thread but thanks for all the support. But I know I speak for a lot of fellow VT students when I say that I am offended by the negative way that the media (especially CNN) has shown our police and our school president. Really, if you think about what has to be done to notify 26,000 students about shutting down a huge campus, I think their response time was a fast as could ever be expected. But if you listen to CNN, they make it sound like our cops sat on their asses and ate donuts for a couple hours first then sent an email. It not like they could have a cop with a laptop go to every reported crime scene and send out a warning, it has to be confirmed, go thru university relations and a host of other steps before it can be sent out to students and I am glad for that because I dont want to be warned with information that has yet to be fully confirmed. Thousands of students, including myself, were already on our way to campus when this started developing and short of word of mouth or cell phones, there would have been no way for us to know what was going on before we got there and saw the swarm of police cars. In any event, it would likely take more than those two hours to evacuate campus anyway and traffic would be chaotic and people would be walking which would not be a good idea with a gunman on the loose. A lock down also could not be implimented in a matter or mintes, these things take time to get the word out. It just angers me that some people really want to blame our campus officials when we know they were doing everything in their power to keep us safe. It is easy to say in retrospect, why didnt we do this or that but you have to consider all the steps that go into a situatuon like this and what it takes to impliment an evacuation or lockdown. Last night I was talking to my roomate, and we are considering sending a letter to the school president saying that we think he did a good job handling this. Im sure he would appreciate it after a day when everyone is saying he did a poor job with out knowing all the facts. Also, in response to: "I don't see why an educational facility should be expected to provide councilling. If people need help they should seek it themselves privately . Then the money could be better spent on educational needs." It would be nice if everyone was emotionally stable or could at least have someone else to go to besides a hired counselor but that is simply not the case. Not that everyone who goes to a counseling center is crazy but there is a lot of confused people out there with no where else to go and if a campus counseling center helps them to get their brain in gear and be a more productive citizen once they get out of school, then I think it is money well spent. I have never been to the Cook Counseling Center at VT but I am glad it is there to help those who may need it today or any other day. I am furthermore certain that it represents a neglidgably (sp?) small part of this school's massive budget. I would agree that the athletics dept is the place to look if you want to cut funds but do that and you also will get reduced alumni donations. But that is not the issue now. HOKIE PROUD -Mike

Thanks for all the advice guys, especially to the 2 SVCO employees that PMed me. I am really looking forward to my trip in a few weeks, see you all on the 20th!

Hey all, (Yes, this is my first ever post on these forumns, beer... i know) I just scheduled my first trip to the wind tunnel, going to the skyventure tunnel in Colorado in about 3 weeks. I just wanted to ask what you think about what I was told on the phone. I got 10 minutes, but might try to get more if I can round up the cash. I asked if there would be anyone in the tunnel with me and they said yes, my instructor would be in there with me. I asked if I should get a coach to do some better training and they said that I probably won't need it with a 10 minute session because I would probably spend most of it just getting used to the tunnel and how to fly in it. Yes, I told them that I am a skydiver when I called. So basically, is this what I can really expect? Will it really take me 10 minutes in the tunnel to fly stable and get to the point that a coach would be worth the $50? I have 87 jumps and about 65- 70 min of freefall. I dont know what to expect but I would think that I could learn to fly stable in there in less than 10 minutes. I suspect that I would be doing 5x 2 min rotations. I should also note that I am going to collegiate nationals and competing in 2- way RW a few days after the tunnel so I will be looking to improve those skills. So basically: how long until I can get used to the tunnel and make useful progress on improving my RW skills? And if there is going to be an instructor with me, can I just use him as a reference and take grips on him or is he just there to make sure I dont hurt myself? Thanks in advance guys. Edit: just read the Coach vs Instructor thread below this one, but I am still curious how long it will really take me to fly stable in the tunnel. Thanks.