mcordell

well.....I guess I like it since it's almost identical to my rig.... [inline img_0229(1).jpg] www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

As has been mentioned, the cost of an aad is $6 a month. That's a lie. The cost of the credit card payment if you put an AAD on one might be $6/mo, but that's not the same thing. When people want to brag about how much their house is they give the total, "I live in a $250,000 house", rather than the actual cost which is their monthly payment. When people want to reduce the cost of an AAD to make their argument they reduce it down to a monthly payment even though they aren't paid for that way. If you want to do math that way then a PDR is only about $5 per month if it's not recertified after 20 years of packing. They are even less if you get permission to keep packing it! I should have 10 of them! Also every rig you ever buy should have every additional feature offered when you buy it. I mean when you break down the cost per year of each of those features for the lifetime of the container it's practically free. You must be stupid if you don't have spacer foam padding, full articulation, stainless steel deluxe, a MARD, and everything else. They are practically giving it to you. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

The volt flight characteristics are actually modeled more closely after the sabre 2. Both are slightly tapered airfoils and the shape is extremely similar between the two wings. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Why exactly is the cost argument bullshit? Do you feel like everyone has $1200 sitting in their account but just doesn't want to spend it? www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Or find a cheap pair of motorcycle goggles with the foam insert. You can find them in clear and they are adjustable and cheap. Those will work fine for you to start with. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

I still have it. Here's a pic. Original 2 stow diaper www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Ok I must be misremembering. I know my sac had a two stow diaper so I must have been thinking of that. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

***INSTALLATION OF LAMINATED KEVLAR BANDS ON PHANTOM ROUND RESERVES: All Phantom Round Reserves manufactured after January 1, 1988 have a unique laminated kevlar construction. The crown support band, which is interwoven with the radial seam tapes, has 2 layers of Kevlar and the upper lateral band (apex) has 3 layers of Kevlar. Phantom reserves have used 3 single layer Kevlar bands (skirt, crown and apex) for several years and TSO certification was accomplished in this configuration. The use of multi-layer, laminated Kevlar in the 2 upper bands provides a significant increase in lateral strength and reduces the possibility of structural damage in the event of an out-of sequence or irregular deployment. All Phantom Round Reserves (22, 24, 26 and 28) manufactured before January 1, 1988 should have Laminated Kevlar bands installed in conjunction with the next scheduled repack. Installation is required prior to August l 1988. Laminated Kevlar bands may be installed by any Master Parachute Rigger or Certificated Loft who has the required personnel, machinery, materials and instructions. I was pretty sure it changed in 85 but didn't have the time to look it up right then. Thanks for posting that. Mine has the improved diaper and has had the Kevlar band added. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Oh jesus...it's a phantom. I work midnights and slept about two hours. ugh...I need to go back to bed. I have a national phantom 24. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Yea I did. I responded quickly to the question and answered what type of diaper it had based on the stows and answered it incorrectly. His question was also edited after I answered so I didn't answer it fully (because most of it wasn't there when I did). It's a 1986 model with a full stow diaper and it is a narrow diaper. It couldn't really get any tighter around the canopy than it is. Being an 86 model the diaper isn't an issue because the diaper changed prior to its manufacture (I believe). I seem to recall the pioneer originally came with a two stow diaper and when the diaper changed they went to a full stow diaper. I could be mistaken but I believe that's right. Either way I do know my gear. not all younger riggers are inexperienced or lacking the knowledge to maintain older gear. There's at least one very experienced rigger in this thread that thinks pioneers were all grounded. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

it is a tighter diaper. If your statement was that I make your case in some way then please tell me how. I'm not uneducated on the gear I own. If that not what you mean then I guess I misunderstood. I know my gear and I'm one of the few "younger riggers" that actually does understand the older gear and is willing to pack it. A lot of riggers my age won't pack anything over 20. Without turning this into another 20 year thread, how do I make your point? www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

I always find the cost per month argument interesting. People argue the AAD is only $6 a month and so everyone can afford them but nobody takes a $6 a month payment. How many of you would own a house if your realtor told you the house was only $1000 a month but when it came down to it they required $150,000 all at once? The cost per month doesn't matter unless you can pay it per month. It is a legitimate concern that people can't afford them. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

I have one. It's expired and somewhere in my rigging tool bag. I am up to 5 rigs now. I can't afford to put an AAD in all of my rigs. I jump all the time without one. two of my rigs don't even have RSLs (oh the humanity). I'll eventually get around to installing the RSL but I'm not shelling out 6k on AADs. I don't have a problem with AADs. I used to have one in my rig. If someone gave me 5 free AADs or sold them to me for a stupid low price I'd love to have them as a "just in case" but I don't see them as required equipment. I certainly don't think they should be mandated. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

it's a full stow diaper. Not a two stow death diaper www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

I have phantom 24 packed and ready in one of my rigs. I don't hesitate to jump with it (as long as the winds are low). That being said, I now have 5 personal rigs and that is the last rig I would plan on jumping because I have gear that is so much nicer. They aren't grounded. Mine has been acid tested and cleared. The Kevlar band has been sewn on, everything is current and good on that canopy. I don't want to use it but I would rather do so than impact the ground at terminal. To the OP: FYI, there is no raven I 170. Raven I canopies are 181 square feet. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Well a knife is a cutting instrument. The silent k is a remnant of old english in which the letter was not silent and depending on context was pronounced in different ways. "nife" is the theoretical chemical composition of the earth's core which is thought to be primarily composed of Nickel (Ni) and Iron (Fe) www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Well "goggles" is a noun describing a type of eyewear. "goggle" is a verb describing an action. You don't wear a goggle. You wear goggles. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Yea I think it's "where are" www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

It doesn't seem unclear at all to me. When originally manufactured they estimated the battery life to be around 4 years or 700 jumps but stated the battery needed to be replaced when the message displayed on the screen. That is when it has to be replaced. Everything else was an estimated life. The update says they were wrong in their estimate and it should last as long as 10 years but still must be replaced if the message displays on the screen. Then they further clarified that if the battery should last a full 10 years, riggers must replace the battery at 10 years. Seems to me they are saying the battery must be replaced at 10 years or when the message displays on the screen, whichever is sooner. I guess I don't see the confusion. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

I don't mind the questions as long as they are willing to listen to the answer. Not too long ago there were a bunch of family members standing out shielding their eyes and looking up for their loved one on a tandem. The load was a tandem and two fun jumpers. I could hear them talking back and forth about which one was their loved one. One of them asked me which one it was so I pointed to the canopy and said it's the blue one right there. The other two are solo jumpers. Then they proceeded to debate back and forth with me about which one was the tandem. I repeatedly (and politely) told them it was the blue one but they insisted they only saw one set of legs. I finally gave up and as I was walking back into the hangar one of them said "oh I see! It's the blue one!" I guess it's not so much a whuffo question as they were being askholes by asking me a question and then completely ignoring my answer. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

My response had nothing to do with the suitability of anyone to jump any equipment. I was responding to the statement that it takes 2 years at 1 jump a weekend to get 200 jumps. The math was flawed. I was also explaining why 200 jumps is not an easy benchmark for some people. This sport has a habit of ostracizing people who don't devote all weekend every weekend to the DZ. I wanted to point out that some jumpers have lives outside skydiving and it's not a small accomplishment to get that number of jumps. Based on your enthusiastic use of the exclamation mark in your response it seems you got quite worked up. It's ok. Take a breath and re-read my post. I never said any of that justified using a camera early. In fact I agree there should be a benchmark of experience that is required to jump a camera. I'm fine with the C license requirement. You'll also notice I have a C license. I do jump a camera (sometimes). I meet the requirements and am quite current. The camera is really a great tool for debriefing a student. I don't see much use in debriefing myself with it but being able to show someone exactly what they were doing on a jump so you can critique them and help them improve is invaluable. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

2 * 50 = 100. Off by 2. The point I made still stands, be it 1 jump per week or 2 jumps per week, either is an extremely low goal even for a cessna DZ. And more importantly, it's still irrelevant to the greater conversation. The number of loads your DZ turns does not affect the skill required to fly a camera. You are right, the number of loads a DZ flies has nothing to do with the skill required to jump a camera. That being said, since you made the point about jump numbers and acquiring them at small dzs, I disagree. Jumping an AVERAGE of 2 jumps per week at a small cessna dz is not an extremely low goal. Let's take the standard (non-metric ) 52 week year. Based on weather in the midwest, a jump season may be March through December if you are being liberal. That eliminates at a minimum 2 months from the equation. For simplicity sake, lets call that 8 weeks. Now you are left with 44 weeks. Taking into account both weekend days (since most small cessna DZs are Sat/Sun operations) that is 88 days. If you remove 15% of those days for bad weather (just a random percentage...it'd probably be higher) you are left with 75 days out of the year to jump. You would have to average 1.3 jumps per day on every jumpable day. Every...single...jumpable day. That doesn't seem like much until you take into account having a life outside skydiving. For those of us that have a family or, god forbid, children that we want to actually spend time with on the weekend, or marriages we enjoy and don't want to flush away because we spend all our time and money at the DZ, we may be lucky to get 1 of those 2 weekend days to jump. Now we have to average 2.6 jumps per day if we are going one day every single weekend. At a small single cessna DZ that prioritizes tandems, since they pay the bills, you may have to wait hours between loads depending on the number of up-jumpers. 2.6 jumps per trip to the DZ starts to look like 6-8 hours at the DZ. Then you factor in the fact you may have a family vacation, emergency, event, etc. You start excluding a weekend here or there for other activities and soon you have to make 4 jumps every time you go to the DZ to make your 100 per year. For some that's just not possible. In my case, with my custody schedule, I can only go to the DZ every other weekend. Since my wife isn't a jumper, I can't spend all day both days at the DZ and still spend time with my wife. It may be easy for some but for others who have lives outside skydiving it's not that simple. I'm lucky to get 50 jumps in a season let alone 100. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

Only off by 2. Are there still only 52 weeks in a year or did that change? By my math, 1 jump a week for 2 years would be 104 jumps. By your math it would take 3 years and 10 months to get 200 jumps and that's assuming there's no bad weather. That is unless we have changed to a 100 week year. Maybe you were using metric weeks? www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

and because spring loaded PCs are known for immediately clearing the burble and deploying into clean air. This is especially true with AFF jumps with two instructors. There has never once been a spring loaded PC that bounced around and posed an entanglement hazard..... [/sarcasm] www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging

repeatedly jerk it through the air at about 120 mph with sharp jolts of a heavy load. It's also beneficial to suspend the heavy load beneath the inflated canopy for a little while afterward. Repeat that about 50 times and you will find the canopy less slippery. www.facebook.com/FlintHillsRigging