MagicGuy

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Everything posted by MagicGuy

  1. Skydive Danielson is such a great place. The staff and fun jumpers really make you feel at home. The owners, Rob and Laura, are great people and they are both skydivers. They operate their DZ like skydivers would... I’ve even shown up late in the day when people were basically done skydiving and they went up a load so I could make a jump. You don’t get this kind of service everywhere. Highly recommended for anyone in the area or driving through. These guys will not disappoint.
  2. Jumptown will be holding our 8th Annual "Q" Boogie in honor of Paul "Q" Quandt on July 3rd-6th. Paul "Q" Quandt was a friend of Jumptown's and a superb CReW Dawg who represented the US in numerous National and World Chamionships, earning an impressive number of gold medals. He enjoyed introducing newbies to CReW, many of them in turn becoming CReW instructors. He enjoyed drinking tequila so bring a toast for around the memorial bench at the DZ on Saturday evening. Mike Lewis and Jim Rasmussen will be our CReW organizers. We are expecting a large amount of CReW Dawgs out here so if CReW is your thing, you should make it a priority to come out and make some jumps with these guys! The theme will be 16 way sequential but we may be able to do bigger formations. Also, smaller loads will be organized for those that need warming up before moving on to the bigger dives. One-on-One coaching will be available, but during the boogie the student pays for TWO slots. CReW isn't the only discipline that will be happening this weekend. Brian "Lurch" Caldwell will be running a Wingsuit Distance Competition. The last time Lurch ran one of these it was a huge success so we are looking forward to an even bigger turnout this year! If you don't know who Lurch is than, well, you will after this weekend! Speaking of wingsuits, there will also be an Invitational Masschusetts State Record Wingsuit attempt this weekend as well. And last but not least, Jumptown's own Cameron King and Austin Jameson of CK Skydiving will be load organizing the entire weekend. The "Q" Boogie has always proven to be a great time and a boogie not to miss. Do your best to make it out to Orange, MA to make this year better than ever! There will literally be something for everyone! Registration for the Boogie will be $30 to help cover video and L/O slots. Jump tickets will be $26 for Jumptown Club Members and $27 for non-Club members. For more information or questions, contact Jumptown Manifest at 800-890-5867 or email [email protected]
  3. Hey guys, Just wanted to throw it out there to everyone that the weekend of June 20-22 we will be having a lot of awesome stuff going on at Jumptown in Orange, MA. The June SIS Event will be going on this weekend. Maxine Tate will be teaching a Flight-1 Canopy Course on Saturday and load organizing on Sunday. Tricia Small will be organizing RW jumps and Cara King will be organizing Freefly jumps. Jumptown's Peter Kramer will be organizing big-ways on Saturday the 21st and Austin Jameson will be hosting a beginner/intermediate/advanced Freefly Camp that will include angle jumps, hybrids, BFRs etc on both the 21st and 22nd. Also on the 21st, Eli Godwin and Shireen Khavari will be organizing CReW jumps. More details regarding this will soon follow. We also have a large group of vendors that will be coming out and setting up their booths on the 20th-22 (three days). Nick Grillet from Cookie Composites, Art Sherry from the Skydive Store, Matt from Performance Designs, Greg Rau from UPT Vector and Chris Talbert from Sunpath. These guys will all have demo equipment available to rent so if you're looking for a one stop shop to try out some new gear, this would be a good weekend for you to come check out Jumptown. For any questions regarding this event, please contact Jumptown Manifest at 800-890-5867 or email [email protected] Looking forward to what should be an epic weekend at Jumptown!
  4. Hey guys, I'm flying a velocity 79 from 1999, the first year that the velocity came out. Over the past year of flying it, I've been getting really fast, hard openings a lot of the time. What I'm wondering is, has PD made any drastic changes to the slider size or line trim since the release of the Velocity? The canopy only has about 450 jumps on it at this point but had the line replaced at 200 jumps by the previous owner. Any info would be appreciated.
  5. I've flown most of the non-crossbraced elliptical canopies that you mentioned and I ended up on a Katana 107. My previous canopy was a Sabre2 120. The transition from the Sabre2 to the Katana was very smooth for me. That being said, the Katana is a very high performance canopy that will literally take every second of your time and awareness, from opening to landing, in order to not hurt yourself. The openings can be a little bit sketchy in the snivel, but overall very good and VERY soft. But watch out for linetwists - they get fast and divey real quick. Front riser pressure is super soft and I felt that the response on rears was very good. This isn't the best canopy to get you back from a long spot, though. I had more off landings with my Katana than any other canopy up to this point. Best advice - try them all before deciding on one. To each his own. I enjoyed my Katana and learned a whole lot about high performance canopy flight in general, nevermind just the landings. But that was me and my progression.. and what suited me best. Good luck man. Stay safe out there.
  6. I'm not picky, man. Hell I'll join you for a drink before we hit the road. Will let you know - mucho appreciated man.
  7. I'll be there, too. Arriving on the 27th at like 10:45PM in PHX. Anyone arriving at a similar time that would be willing to share a cab? Or anyone out there to give a guy a ride? I'll gladly split gas and buy beer of choice.
  8. Sorry if this is in the wrong spot. I am looking for a ride to Eloy from Phoenix Airport on 12/27. I will be arriving kind of late, 10:45PM. I'm more than happy to help out with gas/beer. Any help is greatly appreciated!! Thanks guys.
  9. Looking to get rid of the Tempo 120 I currently have in my Wings W4. A potential replacement is a PD106R. I emailed Wings and they said that they have not put a 106 into a W4. Just looking to see if anyone has and how it worked out. Thanks!
  10. Honestly, there isn't really an answer to your question. Everyone starts their turn at a different height, even on the same canopies with same wingloadings. It's all a matter of trial and error, though, as far as trying to figure out where to start. I'll let someone who is better at explaining really get into it, if you really want to know. A good friend of mine uses this phrase, "It's not where you start your turn, but where you come out of it". Very true...
  11. His weight is listed in another thread that he started, basically asking about Sabre2 150s. He weighs 195 lbs. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3727947;page=unread#unread Dude, whoever gave you the OK to buy a 150 anything should have their licenses revoked. You have 90 jumps over the course of 2 years and you have a WL of 1.5 - that has bad news written all over it
  12. Great video, great music! Very cool, Brian. And yes, the slider looks bad ass.
  13. Jumptown - the house that Gary built. I will never forget the good times we shared, especially the look he gave me right before I exited 03 Bravo onto the beach in Maine. He let me use his rig because the only other rig we had was way too big for me. Thanks for that, Gary, and sorry that we broke your engine mount during that jump. I still owe you ten grand Eternal Blue Skies. We will miss you greatly.
  14. I found that to be an odd statement, as well.
  15. A Pilot 150 at a 1:1 WL is what I learned how to swoop on. Like others said - it's not ideal, but you can do it. The recovery arc is super short and you have to do maneuvers pretty close to the ground, but it's also good in a way because of how fast the canopy recovers. I transitioned after the Pilot to a couple of Sabre2s, then to a couple of Katanas stopping (for now) on a Katana 107. I also took about 5 different canopy courses in between all of those downsizes and have gotten the advice of local swoopers. Try to get someone at your DZ to do some coaching for you. That's the best way. Good luck!
  16. There are a lot of other lightweight jumpers out there, so your situation really isn't that unique. Smaller canopies react differently, regardless of weight. That is why an instructor would be more likely to recommend a wingloading slightly higher than 1:1 on a larger (190+) canopy than they would be to recommend a 1:1 WL on a 150 or smaller. What I say is, if you have to ask the permission of other people to do something, you probably aren't ready for it. Jump numbers don't mean the world, but they absolutely play a factor.
  17. The only problem is that any canopy, regardless of wingloading, 150 and below is technically considered to be high performance. A light WL on a 135 is going to act and be a lot different than the same wingloading on, say, a 210. I know where you're coming from - I'm only about 155-160 out the door and also dealt with canopy performance in my first couple hundred jumps. But I will say that I was very happy with 150 sized canopies up until fairly recently. I did about 350 jumps on a Pilot 150 that I loved. It opened great, flew nice and you can swoop them, regardless of what anyone tells you. I learned tons by flying it for as long as I did, and those essential skills I learned on a 'bigger' canopy have made transitioning into the smaller stuff a lot easier. My advice, and take it for what it's worth, would be to stick with the 150. There's really no need for you to go any smaller than that for at least 100 or so jumps. The particular model will be up to you - try them ALL! Only you will know which one is right for you. Have fun man and stay safe.
  18. I haven't posted anything in a while, but after having my screen covered in shit for the 12th time, I decided it was time to let my feelings be known. These ads are fucking terrible!
  19. Lots of good vibes to our bro, Jarrett. We're all pulling for ya big time, buddy.
  20. I have what appears to be a small, round soda stain on my container. It's dark like soda.. we had a boogie a couple weeks ago and I think someone may have spilled it on my rig. My question is, what is a good way to get this stain out without damaging my container? The thing is like new which is why the stain is annoying me. It's on a royal blue portion of the container. Looking for both a soap AND a cleaning tool that isn't going to harm the rig. Thanks for any suggestions.
  21. Who said I was sour? If I wanted to jump a Katana 97 I would... I choose not to at this time.
  22. I'll throw some thoughts in ONLY because I, like Chris, am a small guy and have similar obsticles to overcome. I am a little bigger than Chris - my exit weight is 152. I'm about 125, 130 without gear. Since around jump 100 I have put a lot of focus on canopy flight and swooping, and have taken 3 canopy courses and gotten lots of one on one coaching from respected guys at my DZ. I just recently downsized to a Sabre2 120 after putting a majority of my skydives on a Pilot 150. A lot of those jumps were made with 10 pounds of lead and I was doing slow 90 degree front riser approaches and getting pretty decent swoops.. especially considering my weight and the canopy (very quick recovery arc). I jumped Sabre2 135s in between here and there, putting probably 50 total on them before deciding to go buy a 120 instead of the 135. My decision was made based on my (fairly small) experience on 135s but also on the observations made by my canopy 'coaches'. My WL on my 120 is 1.27. Being a small guy, it's a little different because 1.3 to me is being on a 120, while a bigger guy might be on a 190 at the same WL. We all know that that 1.3 doesn't translate, and a 190 is a lot safer at 1.3 than a 120 is. But it just makes our canopy progression a little different, and for me, slightly slower depending on how you look at it. Like anything in this sport, I am a believer in taking things on a case by case basis. People dedicate time to different aspects in this sport, and therefore should be taken into consideration for being allowed a slightly different rate of progression. BUT.. That being said, regulations still have to come into play, and there comes a point where regardless of size, WL etc.. there needs to be a line drawn. I believe the current canopy that Chris is jumping is a Katana 97? Correct me if I'm wrong. That's quite an aggressive canopy, even at that WL. Speed isn't the only factor, either. Malfunctions like line twists turn into a big deal, and at our experience levels, is that something that we can recognize and deal with fast enough? I am only touching on a few issues, mainly because I'm tired and have to get up to skydive tomorrow. Bottom line is.. I'm all for canopy progression to be taken on a case to case basis, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't be drawing the line at a certain level here. That's my measely two cents. Take it for what it's worth..
  23. This is probably a dumb question that in all honesty, I could most likely find the answer to if I searched around for it - but hey, I'm feeling lazy. Is there anything that USPA can do to help this situation? And if so, have they stepped in at all? Just curious.. best of luck to Sky's the Limit!