Vectracide

What's true in life, is true in skydiving.....you get what you pay for. The best way to determine the quality of a suit is to turn it inside out and look at the construction. Is it single stitched, or triple stitched using backing material? How are the graphics sewn on to the outside of it.....a straight, zig zag, or is the edge overlay completely covered with stitching? I wont talk smack about a company, but I can tell you that if you get a chance to look at the contruction of a Ouragon Suit....do it. As far as I have personally seen, they set the bar when it comes to as close to bulletproof as you can get. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Well, I'm not going to get into a big ass discussion about the definition of swooping....as it quite possibly is different for many people. The one thing that you have to remember is that we are pioneers of this sport and we will find what are limitations are thru experience and time. Embrace change as it will only make what we do that much more dynamic and progressive. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Hey Amy, Do you and the Arsenal plan on doing a big-way skills camp at all this next season? Unfortunately, I couldn't go to your this last camp, as the airline tix prices were insane, but what was the largest groups you guys put together? TTYL, Brad ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Yeah....silly Jay Moledski...what was he thinking. Such nonsense. No....its quite possibly balderdash even... ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

I believe the most important *note to self* here is, before participating in any non-typical type jump, that has a higher potential of injury if you land off, is that you must be proficient in EVERY aspect of flight, as it pertains to the canopy that you choose to fly for that jump. Learning to land on your rear risers, IMO, is one of the most important skills you can learn. There are several scenerios that if you just leave things as they are, or more serious, cut the steering lines, you can just land on your rears with a perfectly good, controllable canopy. I am NOT saying that what you did was wrong at all, in fact you chose to act in order to remedy a situation that you felt you could not land safely, and that is yours and only your decision when the time comes. Good job. I am sure that the next couple weekends at the DZ you will be practicing your rear risers. First start out high and see how much it takes to collapse your canopy. Do this many many times, and you will start to notice telltale signs of collapse. This will help you build the confidence you need to land your canopy with rears only, on the ground. When you decide it is time to give it a try for the first time, do it on a slight wind day for optimal results, and don't try to stand it up, just slide it in. Before you know it, you will find that it is actually fun to land on rears every once in a while just for shits and giggles...its a great survival tool that everyone should learn to do. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Dave, Just curious....how many gigs of video do you currently have anyways.....I'm sure it's more that one HD......gotta be...... ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

---jarrett--- Have you considered having slider stows sewn into your risers? All you do is collapse it and pull it down deep into the "v" of the risers and the sewn on triangle pops thru the grommets....and it stays there. Nothing attatched to your reserve flap.....no issues with packing....no malfuction worries. If you think that having a RDS is going to make you happier...your so wrong......they are a friggin pain in the ass. Pain to pack, pain to roll and stow, and never ending fear of dropping your $250 investment on EVERY jump (not including the d-bag and PC in most cases that have posted here.) Thats like taking your helmet off every jump for the fun of it.....and dangling it above the ground at 3k, knowing that if you drop it....you'll never find it. ----Spizzz--- Too bad his initials aren't DJ. A Carly Simon song comes to mind....... -----Canuck----- When you say new tools.........would the JVX be included in that list? ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Candace, I have owned both the Safire and the Crossfire. As far as opening characteristics, they are pretty much the same....but if that is if you have good body position. Safire is more forgiving than the Crossfire. Flight characteristics are in 2 different classes. One is what they call "semi-elliptical"(safire) and one is "fully-elliptical"(crossfire). For a jumper of your experience, I believe that you will get the most benefit with the Safire out of those 2. I have not jumped a Pilot, so I cannot comment on that. What I can tell you, is that the Safire opens very very nice, it has very good long spotability, a huge toggle range, and massive flare power. This is a very good canopy for those looking for that "between" canopy. One that is higher performing than a square, but much safer and managable, while still being exciting and educating all at the same time. It's a good bet. I must resonate the previous poster on the Crossfire not being the right canopy for you at your current place and time. As much as some people will say that it is fine for you right now, if you haven't owned either the Safire, or Pilot, or Sabre2, or any other semi-elliptical.....the Crossfire2 can get you in a heap of trouble in short order. Give one of the others a chance first....I'm sure you won't be disappointed. B. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Why don't you give Precision a call and see if they make em.... http://www.precision.aero/contact-us.htm B. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

A brand new canopy will pack larger than a jumped in canopy as well. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Having good fitness can only help you in swooping, but not a necessity. Where I see it having a measurable benefit is in upper body strength for risers, endurance for back to back H&P's for good training, and a faster recovery if you do perhaps get injured. Who knows.....with the same exact scenerio such as wingload and impact speed and force......would a very fit man come out with less injury than a out of shape fat guy? ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

RiggerRob is your guy. Rob is a long time rigger that has worked at container manufacturers and DZ's. He currently works at Pacific Skydivers in Pitt Meadows, BC. Look him up.....he'll talk yer ear off. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Heh....3 minutes too late........ ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Big Lebowski. And "f" you too..... ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Hey Gato. You are more than likely just noticing the alti loss, because you are closer to the ground. Up higher you don't have the depth perception that you do on your base and final. Aside from that, do you open beer bottles with your teeth too? ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Hey. I have a Mac, and I use a program called Handbrake. It is a very very simple program that allows you to make your DVD movie any size you want. I don't know if they make it for PC's though. It's an awesome program.......... ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

I'm assuming that you didn't want to post that to me, but to blink. Aside from that, its unfortunate how many of you are telling blink that hes getting what he deserved, and that you have to remorse for his situation....almost like he deserved this. Whatever happened to trying to help out a fellow skydiver with some kind of advice that he can actually use? Try a little less judgement, and a little more assistance if you have anything to offer. If blink was one of the regular "popular" DZ.Commers, a hench party would have already be formed and Jay Barksdale's DZ would have been hounded by phonecallers forcing Jay to come clean. I've see it happen before......but only for the "popular" ones. Shame. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

I rarely deal with money orders, but have you contacted the bank where it was issued and found out what if anything they can do to cancel the money order? ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

If I were you, I would do everything nicely to get your money back. You do not want to deal with a person that has this kind of attitude. For all you know, you will not be getting what you paid for on top of having to pay him another $35 bucks. I would suggest that you contact him using the phone and not email, as there is no emotional inflection felt in email, and things can come across the wrong way. Unless you deal with this very carefully, you might not receive a damn thing, and be out of $500 to top it off. He's got all the cards unfortunately, so kiss his ass until you have a rig or your money. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Yes, it is. I have to admit, due to the damage that you did, I was able to blame the unfortunate removal of the driver side mirror at 85MHP on you as well. Those cones don't move do they? ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Sherm, I see what you are referring to, and as per your definition, you are correct. This might be just semantics, but I look at all PC's that are fully extracted and not fouled by any body part or caught on the rig (such as a flap) as a PC in tow. I think that what you are saying is that a PC in tow is a fully extended PC that has full inflation with no pin extraction, and a PC in burble is one that has not been fully inflated with no extraction pressure on the pin. Per the 2007 SIM, a PC in tow is considered a total malfunction, and a PC that is a burble is considered a PC hesitation. To me....their both behind me and I'm the one draggin it along.......in tow till fixed otherwise. What I would like to point out is that fixing a PC in tow, or burble for your definition, tilting sideways can get you into a situation where upon deployment when the PC clears, you can induce uneven inflation, resulting in linetwists caused by one side of the canopy inflating before the other. Now this most likely will not occur when flying student, or large square canopies, but it most definitely will cause a unwanted deployment sequence with an elliptical canopy. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Travis, Welcome to your first hesitation, and not your last one if you stay in the sport. I remember my first long hesitation very clearly, and I reacted the same way you did. Several years and many jumps later, I kinda laugh at that event as you will sometime. Here is the most likely scenerio. A pilot chute in tow is caused by the PC not clearing your burble. By this, I mean that the PC was caught in the dead air space just behind and above your back. There is alot of turbulent air in that location, and a PC can get "caught" in that air and dance around for a while. This can be caused by a lazy toss of the PC, or just dumb luck. Preventing this issue can be helped by a deliberate toss of the PC at full arm extension and having an optimum box body position. Now what you might not realize is why the PC cleared when it did before you could cut away. When you looked down at your handles to locate them, you brought your head and hands down to your chest. This tilted your body in a more head down position, and allowed for more air to clear past your neck and back. This new air grabbed your PC and yanked out your pin before you could even pull on your handles didn't it? Same event for me at around 50 jumps or so. Lessoned learned? For me it was to tilt my body in a head up or head down position if this ever happened again. You don't want to get in the habit of tilting a shoulder to clear your burble, as this will in the future, get you in trouble with canopies that don't like uneven body postion upon opening. Give it a try if it happens again before you go for your cutaway handle and silver, but only try it once. Remember, at your level, you only want to attempt one fix, and if that doesn't work.....chop it and reserve time. Good Luck ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Hey, I'm with ya on the good deal part. I have been known to risk the same. But in this case $25 bucks doesn't seem worth it. I did buy the remanufactured Digi Rebel that was a dealer model when they first came out. I saved $200, and it came with a Mac warranty. Thank god it did, as I had to send it in twice. Once when my dipshit brother rolled my rental car at the first Moab Boogie, (dirt runway), and the other when it just decided to error out. I probably wont buy another reman device again....too risky. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

Hey, not to say that some peeps haven't had good experiences with them, but......its still a NY internet camera company. Besides B&H Photo, its buyer beware....and for a couple extra dollars...you get Costco's forever warranty.... Now if they only sold Sony Camcorders again.......and skydiving equipment..... ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....

If you can tell if you have TP dingleberries.......its too tight. ------------------------------ Controlled and Deliberate.....