heavydude

There are currently some old Mantas on Classifieds, I believe 288s for about $275 ? Another canopy that works for me exact same height/weight as you is a PD300. I was using Triathlon 260 but it was kind of fast for me, but I have lots less jumps @30 only. PD is F111 but had low number of jumps that I bought. Good thing is that big used canopies seem to be cheaper !

COOL Site, also had some swell glider coverage and other stuff. Thanks for the link!

Thanks for putting this on the site! I wish I had watched this before my packing class. However it was very useful as it pointed out lots of items I didnt realize about main packing.

Plenty warm here at Perris lately.....

I went back to the shop and scoped our chambers; seals on real cheapo chambers were 1/4 silicone sheet rubber, probably bought from McMaster Carr. Improved models had large O-rings or silicone poured into machined grooves. I dont have my chart but pressure is about 14.7 psi at 10K feet from memory ? I will try and post some pics next week of these units. Hyperbaric chambers allot more hazardous to make, 14.7 per 33 FSW. We have one that goes to 300 FSW, has 2.0 thick S.S. walls (wasnt homemade !)

Just did this myself a few months back; did a nice stable exit in my favorite floating position, good arch, did a practise touch( I do em every jump, makes me feel better) deployed w/ wave off at 5500. Did two more jumps same day repeating the same but w/ turns and tracking thrown in, repeating AFF type skills. Several weeks later I took the packing class also, this at first is harder than jumping, but am comfortable with it now at 20+ jumps.

By the way on pumps you can try modifying a 12 V or 120 VAC type pump by connecting it as a vac. instead of compressor. (some compressors have 1/8 NPT, 1/4 NPT inlet ports, sometimes plumbed w/ mufflers) Pumps used for small air compressors may work this way fairly well, a check valve in-line will also help seal the vac. A bleed port is essential of course but this can be just a needle valve plumbed into the chamber. When running a electric compressor as vac. you have to be careful not to stall the compressor by trying to start it under load. (pressure/vac.) Some units will pump sufficently from an unloaded condition but not at all w/ any load. Luckily most compressors are thermally protected so they work again once cooled down. Hand pumps are really only practical for small rigid lab bell-type jars. By the way if you use a bell jar, Dow Corning Silicone 111 is usually used to make glass jar seal to base plate. Yes ive done all kinds of weird shit working in an engineering lab for 20+ years...

We have built a number of these at work; primarily for degassing polyurethanes when casting prototype parts. Some ideas: We made one w/ large cast AL pot, sealed top w/ Oring and 1 inch plexiglass top. Used this as temp until we did following. Made another w/ 1 gallon paint pot, Harbor Frieght is cheapest. Made another w/ 5 gallon paint -pot, these are expensive. All were powered w/ standard lab type vac. pump.

Howdy, I posted also on some other questions you had. At 240ish I was about at the limit at my home drop zone.(used to lift lots of weights, not particularly useful in skydiving) As in my previous post on stability I just wrapped up AFF in Dec and am doing solo jumps. I bought an off the shelf cheapo free-fly suit to do solos and it is working out OK. However in my research it looks like Bodysport Cratersuit will be my next purchase, looks to be running about $260 w/ booties, std grips. I am however intending on spending some time in wind tunnel flying it before its jumped. Bodysport adjusts suit cut to tailor to your FF speed. (I wish I knew my current speed, dont have a Dytter) Really when you look at cost of this sport for jumps, gear, etc. it makes sense to me to get a good suit. I intend to get a stylin all-black color to make me look cool. Reviews of suit are on this site.

Howdy, I just completed my AFF a month or so back and I am doing solos. Heres my uncoordinated student opinion, as others say of course your instructor knows best; First few jumps I felt fine when flat, first 1-2 seconds always didnt feel right. Tunnel training really made me feel comfortable in Free Fall. Somewhere about AFF 5-6 I did 20 minutes in tunnel w/ AFF instructor and it made huge difference, in 20 minutes in wind tunnel you can learn basically all techniques needed for AFF w/ exception of flips/rolls etc. (big confidence boost) However as others have said w/ repeated jumps it becomes second nature, you know how to fly your body after a while. The basics of a good arch really work and during the AFF series I would really concentrate on that. You really cant go wrong w/ good instructors, by the time you do unstable exit (another confidence boost) you are basically capable of becoming stable w/ worst exit. The biggest lesson I have learned is dont pysch yourself out. I was real concerned going into doing the barrell roll manuver and then when I did it ; it was extremely easy.

Its the fuel, I own an el cheapo C150 and really notice AV Fuel increases on 100LL. Naturally the turbines use Jet Fuel but I am sure the increases have been similar. Depending on which APT you get fuel its about $1-2 over auto gas price. Local paper here in San Diego had an article tracking increases in fuel and how it relates to increases in just about everything......

I have been using contacts inside std googles as previously mentioned. I would think however landing would really suck if my contacts dried out and fell out. Since I jump mainly in Socal/desert areas. Got me thinking, do people ever carry a spare set of glasses jumping ? I have lost contacts bicycling and surfing before but thats not a big deal. (w/ disposables)

Thanks for all the replys ! I downloaded from the site that Matt recommended and it worked fine.

Anybody out there that can send me owners manual for my Eclipse container in pdf etc ? Thanks, ED

I bought a used Consew from my work before I got into Skydiving, used it to sew webbing, covers and misc. It is missing the model # but its a zig-zag. Used consews seem to last forever as parts are readily availible. I am not sure how popular these are in Parachute repair though ?

You might want to check out MH Oxygen systems, they make systems for hang gliders and GA pilots, the EDS system is compact reliable and can interface to a variety of bottles, Glider pilots use these allot.

I dont know if anyone posted it but I watch the AFF series videos on skydive Perris site. Its under the school logon. Worked good for me, Im doin 7&8 this weekend.