bwilling

Hey hook, how tight do you think they need to be? I conducted some experimentation with a fish scale, and found that with some line configurations, the only way I could get the pull force the manufacturer recommended was to use large bands and double wrap. I understand the whole 'in theory' you could free stow all the line except for the locking stows, and in fact jumped during a time when we did exactly that! But I'm guessing there's a reason the manufacturer recommends 8-12 pounds of force on the stows. And even small bands on a microlined 7 cell canopy won't produce that kind of pull force... "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

And if all else fails, list your item for sale fifty gazillion times! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Fake "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Yeah, some of what we perceive has to do with how the canopy is set up. When I first got my Silhouette the brakes were set so tight that any movement of a toggle initiated a turn. Unfortunately it was so tight that the canopy wasn't ever flying full speed so I had my rigger loosen it up. Maybe too much. Then I had a couple of inches of slack to pull out before anything would happen. It was a different feel for sure. I agree that the Silhouette is snappier turning than the Spectre, which makes sense since it's got more shaping on the trailing edge then the Spectre. It's all relative though, when I think sluggish, I think back to my old PD260 9 cell... now that thing was sluggish! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

There's a reason the manufacturers make both 7 cell and 9 cell canopies... different strokes for different folks. For the brief period of this weekend, I owned and jumped both a Silhouette 230, and a Spectre 230. They're very different canopies, but I didn't think the Spectre was 'sluggish' compared to the Silhouette, and I'm curious as to why you felt this was the case. I actually like both of those canopies very much, and would be very happy jumping either of them. Certainly the opening are different, the Spectre snivels forever compared to the Silhouette, but the Silhouette still manages to open orderly and softly. I thought turn rates were pretty comparable, with an edge to the Silhouette. Front riser pressure was definitely lighter on the Specter, but both have a short recovery arc and not much over steer. And I can land either canopy, just fine! Jeez, just pick one, how could you go wrong? "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

dude, you so don't look 50! Enjoy it, you've earned it! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Can't help you directly, but I will tell you that I had a D4, which Altico says is sized for a 200sf reserve. I originally had a PD193R in that rig, and it was an easy, fairly soft fit. Emailed Mike Furry first, then stuffed a Smart 220 reserve in there... my rigger wasn't cussing me for it either, he said it fit OK. Email Mike ([email protected]) for his opinion, he's a hell of a nice guy, and has always seemed more than willing help out in support of his products! Edited to add, yes I had an AAD in there too! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

:13:lots Finally another 00 jump for 800th... 1st time knee flying on the 800th, where I showed sky15 how it's done! Lots of fun stuff in between, but we capped the weekend off with a very nice 2 point 21 way skydive! owe beer for lots of stuff... I should bring some next weekend! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Maybe Bill's got it figured out... "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

You might want to rethink your reserve choice, you're over TSO limits on that canopy! You'd have to go all the way up to the PD281R (TSO'd to 300lbs) to be legal on a PD reserve. The Smart 220 is TSO'd to 264lbs, and would get you close, or the Smart 250 would be better, since it's TSO'd to 300lbs. There are probably others (Precision RMax, Icarus, etc) that I'm not as familiar with that have higher limits also... I can relate, I constantly struggle to keep my weight at a level that keeps me 'legal'! That's also a pretty unforgiving wingloading on the main, but that's a whole 'nuther discussion! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

That's only true if you're out the door at that weight. If your naked weight is 230, you'll be pushing the the 254 lbs TSO max of most rigs, or God forbid, even be over it! My rig with the big canopies I jump weighs over 25 pounds, so when my body weight is at 230, I'm slightly over TSO limits with full gear! I need to stay under 225 naked weight to be within specs, and even then I'm right at the limits! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Blanket statements like this bother me. There's absolutely nothing wrong with an older model PD 9 cell canopy if you can find one in good condition, and you load it appropriately. I couldn't find what I was looking for when I got current a couple of years ago, but I found a great deal on a PD-260, which I bought. I got current on that canopy, put 30-40 jumps on it, then sold it for what I had in it. I jumped it for free! It opened fine, and every landing was an easy stand up, courtesy of the fact that I was smart enough to jump the canopy within the manufacturers guidelines, which for F-111 canopies is a lower wing loading than more modern ZP canopies. There are better canopies on the market than the older PD nine cells, but you'll never convince me that given the right set of circumstances, that they're not still a viable choice for someone on a tight budget. I could have spent lots more money renting gear than I spent on that canopy that I jumped for free! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Any idea how many jumps that riser had on it when it failed? I've had one of those openings... they're not that fun! Mine didn't break a riser, but it broke 10 of 18 lines, and it hurt! I'm glad you're ok! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

While that's the 'proper' way to remove software, very few if any programs adequately remove their registry entry's properly when they uninstall. There's always lots of chaff left over... That said, that does seem like a large number of 'errors', but you've really got to have a lot of faith in registry tools anyway, since they can render you box inoperable after running. Really, what could go wrong? I've always thought the registry was an abomination, and wish we'd just go back to .ini files! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

You might try downloading Acronis latest Disk Director Suite, and see if perhaps they've added support for your raid controller. You can create a bootable CD from the trial (that won't actually commit the changes!) and use that to see if the drives are detected when you boot from it. If they are, buy a copy and you should be able to use it to resize the drives. I'd make sure I had restorable backups before hitting the commit changes button. BTW, I hope that's not a real critical server, and that you have good backups, because nobody in their right mind runs raid 0 (stripe set with no parity) in a production environment. Just in case you're not aware, if either drive dies, it'll take the whole array with it! Not exactly redundant! The good news is, if the controller is decent, you should be able to add 2 more drives, and rebuild it into a 0 + 1, and have a fall back mirror of the stripe set you have now. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

I had a ride on a Safety Star back in the early eighties... at probably about 240 out the door. It wasn't that bad. I trained on round canopies though, and we all knew how to do PLF's back then... I dusted myself off, and walked away from it unhurt. Uh.. NO, I wouldn't want to jump one again. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

If it came packaged like the new Triathlon I had, he won't. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

I've had a hard opening, so hard that it broke 10 of 18 lines! I packed it, and in a sick kind of way, I was glad that I did! You'd have never convinced me if someone else had packed it, that it was packed the same as the previous 50+ were that all opened great. I'll swear to you that I did nothing different on that pack job than I did on any of the previous ones, and I'm pretty meticulous! In fact, that was a brand new canopy when I first got it, and I had jumped WAY uglier pack jobs on that canopy as I tried to figure out how to get that slippery ass bitch in the bag. And they all opened fine... I did review ALL my packing procedures and techniques after that opening though, and I'm more careful than ever to make sure I control the slider and keep my stows tight. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Struggle, Struggle, Thud. Edited to add that my bonus day story is in the link to the other thread... I'm definitely on bonus days. Twice if you want to consider the heart attack that didn't kill me last summer. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

That's just flat cool, but I'm curious as to why they used ZP on the hand itself, and on the bottom skin cells that the hand is sewn into. Do you know? "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Sure. I called it an out of sequence deployment, because it wasn't just a hard or unusually fast opening, the kind that happens 'normally', but a little too fast for comfort. I think the bag got stripped prematurely, because before I got to full line stretch, I'm pretty sure I already had an inflating canopy. To say there was no 'snivel phase' would be a gross understatement! Unfortunately there's no video, but it felt like running into a brick wall. I've never experienced anything remotely like that, despite jumping back when our all F-111 canopies were designed to open 'fast'. I'm actually glad it broke 10 of 18 lines, because all that energy was going somewhere (most likely my body!) before it was released. I never saw any of the inflation of course, I pitched, yelled, looked up, saw stars, trailing lines, and a canopy that looked like a cigar, and chopped. I was lucky to survive with little more than a sore neck for a few days... but I can fully understand the potential for it to be much worse now. "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

While I agree that could be the most appropriate step, and certainly the most preferable one as opposed to double stowing, I'm convinced it's not viable in some cases... I've had an out of sequence deployment. It wasn't a 'hard' opening, it was a 'violent' opening, and it broke 10 of 18 lines on the canopy. I packed it, just as I had the previous 50+ times that all opened fine. I'd never been happy with tightness of my stows, despite using small bands. It was micro lined 7 cell canopy, and even with the small bands, the stows weren't anywhere near tight. I don't really blame the canopy in question, people have had hard openings on a wide variety of canopies. But I suspected bag strip, so when I replaced it, I decided to see for myself what kind of pull force was really involved on the canopy I currently owned. PD publishes specs for stow retention force, it's 8-12 pounds. It's also pretty easy to measure within reason, I just bought a fish scale, and set up some pull tests. I was surprised by the results. The canopy I currently jump is a 9 cell, with dacron lines, so lots of bulk... I still don't get quite 8 pounds of pull force with the small bands on anything but the locking stows, above the cascades. It takes large bands, double stowed, to get 12 pounds, even with my bulky lines. So that's my current setup, small bands on the 4 locking stows, large bands doubled up on the remaining stows. I've experimented, and I won't argue that the small bands release more smoothly, and are logically at least, less likely to be whipping the deployment bag into a frenzy and inducing line twists. In real life, I've got more jumps double stowing now than I had not (50 plus each way), and single stows still lead 1-0 in the line twist dept. If you double stow, I'd highly suggest using a standard mil-spec band, because they break. And in my not so scientific test, occasionally the double stows 'hang up', and only release because they break the band, at roughly 20 pounds in my tests. If the band doesn't break... it's gonna be ugly! I have a humongous pilot chute on my rig, so I'm less concerned about whether it has the pull force to break the band if need be, than I am about having another one of those openings. Disclaimer - I'm not a rigger, or even a really smart guy. I'm just a guy that got whacked, and bought a fish scale. YMMV "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

Excellent suggestion here! This is the path of least resistance for both the seller and buyer. A drop zone staff rigger will be easily verified by the seller (remember, he needs someone he can trust too!), and it will make it easy for both your rigger and YOU to inspect the gear prior to sending money. I've bought and sold gear numerous times now on dz.com, and brokering the deal through a trusted third party is the safest and most fair option for both the buyer and seller. Good luck! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

:15:1 Just for us Boogie this weekend at Skydive Dallas... winded out Thursday, so we started drinking early! Cleared up Friday though, and we got good weather the rest of the weekend except for a brief period Saturday afternoon while a nasty T-storm rolled through. The $15 dollar jump special on Saturday got extended to Sunday (woo-hoo!), so I jumped my ass off! RW loads for me, from 3 way to a 30 way formation load! I owe beer for the 30 way, it's the largest formation I've ever been in... "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."

:14:1 Yeah Troy, we owe beer for our first bigway camp! Enjoyed jumping with you guys! Many thanks to Rob Laidlaw for a great weekend of jumping! "If all you ever do is all you ever did, then all you'll ever get is all you ever got."