venturead

Thanks for the link which addresses the regulation part of the question. Still, is there research or testing on materials or components out there to support a manufacturers service life claim? "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

Many riggers have an opinion about service life for containers, harnesses and canopies. Can anyone direct me to research or a position paper put out by USPA, PIA or FAI that directly addresses length of service for those components or the materials from which they are constructed? "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

Has anyone heard a date for the Cheese Boogie this year? I am eagerly awaiting, since last years event was cut short for me. "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

After reading the articles on the PIA website it seems reasonable to me that the cylindrical design of the cutter may be the cause of the incomplete cuts in Texas and Portugal. Can anyone tell me, has Aviacom changed the cutter design starting Sept 2007 to a chisel/anvil to make that a superior cutter or are they simply hoping a new batch of the same design with tighter tolerances will be the magic bullet? "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

Thanks Chuck, that makes sense. "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

Greetings experienced dawgs I have about 20 CRW dives and have flown 2 different Lightnings, both 160s loaded the same. Canopy #1 DOM 98 with 90 jumps on it. Flew very nice with good responsiveness and light front riser pressure. Canopy #2 DOM 07 with 2 jumps on it. Very floaty with heavy front riser pressure. The difference in floatiness (or efficiency) I can explain by the difference in number of jumps. But why was the front riser pressure so different? Did PD change line set trims between the two DOM? If no one has a good explanation should I e-mail PD and ask Rusty? "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

IMO you must have an open receptacle in order to acquire a valuable product. I sought out, rearranged my schedule and attended Scott Miller's basic and advanced canopy control courses. Excellent teacher and important product. The key is, I wanted the information, practice and coaching. My concerns about mandating training are: "student" motivation for training and degradation of the product. If we mandate training DZs will respond in variable fashion. A few DZs with great resources will offer courses camparable to the excellent courses currently on the market. (A minority of the jumpers even at those DZs will attend a full day course). Some DZs will have a 1-2 hour lecture at Safety Day and perhaps one in Jul/Aug and those who can't make it will still be flying, just not advancing. Some DZs will talk with their jumpers 20 minutes before the next load and call it "training". Neither of the last 2 options are comparable to the courses on the market for theory of flight and observed practice. Most DZs don't have the time and resources to devote to a full day to a theory, practice, debriefing course therefore will opt for one of the last 2 options. It will be a rubber stamp "mandated training", just degraded canopy control instruction. I admit upfront that even a closed receptacle, immersed, will retain some product. But in order to effect change, canopy pilots must acknowledge the risk and be willing to do something to mitigate that risk for themselves, their friends and our community. You can't mandate that. "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

I lost a Friend today A personality everyone knew A swooper, a teacher, a team member, a dawg A benevolent Skygod I lost a Friend today The sky seems a little less blue We will remember you Todd "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

A special Thanks to Jim Rasmusen, April and Hairy Bob for coming up to Skydive Wissota and welping 5 new pups and one long timer this past windy weekend. Excellent teaching and great times! Looking forward to East Troy in mid August. Tom "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

I remember reading about a introductory CRW weekend in Wisconsin last Apirl or May but can't find the reference anymore. There were 4 CRW students at the weekend. It wasn't Wissota, Baldwin or Superior. Can anyone help me with a contact, DZ location or whether it is scheduled again this year? Thanks "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

Quote(I gotta think that embolic events e.g. TIA or true Stroke a.k.a. cerebral vascular accidents or CVA's would be relatively common on rapid ascent to altitude in an unpressurized environment (skydiving plane) and/or descent--freefall.) There is no evidance that emboli evenits are more common with changes in pressure. (change in pressure CAUSES emboli. Hence "The Bends." The bends is a recognized physiologic syndrome as a result of rapid pressure change on a person. Skydiving at altitude has the same effect in "reverse.")_ Simply not true. The only significance "the bends" has to skydiving is if you go to altitude within 24 hours of having breathed air at an atmospheric pressure higher than one atmosphere. The reason people get the bends is that the nitrogen in air breathed under pressure gets dissolved in the tissues and needs to get released from the tissues over time. Hence dive tables. If you haven't been breathing air at higher than normal atmospheric pressure, you won't have nitrogen bubbles in your blood at the altitudes recreational skydivers play. (It is also probably not well studied in the skydiving environment. Informed speculation would assume 1. Embolic events are more frequent with rapid altitude change than at stable atmospheric pressure.) When you assume, you make an "ass" of "u" and "me" and would be wrong in this case. No evidence to support a higher rate of embolic strokes in rapid altitude change. You can make a reasonable argument that there may be more hypertensive strokes (elevation of blood pressure) or hemorrhagic strokes from the elevation of blood pressure associated with the adrenaline release from skydiving. "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

My experience at Skydive Zion was awesome. In 4 half days I went from my first tandem through AFF level VII and on the 5th day was jumping solo. Easy to schedule instruction by e-mail or telephone and they were very accomodating of my schedule. When I wasn't jumping, I was hiking the canyons in and around Zion NP. Equipment, from plane to rigs to video instruction and taping, was clean, safe and in good repair. Staff was friendly and scenery around Hurricane, beautiful from 11,000 ft. Although I was overwhelmed by the rush sitting in the open door on my first tandem, I felt safe because of the preceding instruction and the reassuring nature of my instructor, Rick. My only regret is I wish there was an established, experienced jumper program. This is really a fun place to jump. Final analysis, this is a great place to make a single tandem jump on vacation or get your initial instruction.

Sounds great! I will talk with my compadres. Reading on DZ tab for SD sounds like there has been some frequent management changes and that things were running well with "Andy". Is the situation stable now and running well? By description, sounds like a beautiful place. Thanks "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

I am eagerly anticipating my first skydive trip from Minnesota to southern California Feb 8-11. I anticipate both Elsinore and Perris will have things going Saturday and Sunday to get jumps in, but what about the Thursday and Friday? Would one be better then the other as far as getting jumps in? I will have 1 to 4 others along with me. Please advise. "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy

I like that Idea Zule! "You can't skydive if you are sitting on the couch at home." Richard "the C" Eddy