faulknerwn

I have never heard a molar strap called a death strap before, but I also haven't seen one used in years. And I find Racers the easiest reserve to pack and I have never used one of those straps. I know CRW dogs have been referring to their downplane straps as death straps since the early-to-mid 90's at least.

Really? Holy cow! I have been jumping for 30 years and have never heard of that happening. Definitely on opening or a worn line braking occasionally later but never a canopy ripping in half not during opening shock..

I am an AFF instructor and most of my student jumps I have my VOG now. I LOVE the Vog. Before I always had traditional audibles which beeped at altitudes which was fine. But I can tell you when you have a student flip upside down ar 5k and things start hitting the fan - traditional audibles just sound like continual screeching in your ear. The way more expensive VOG -instead of just screaming in your ear tells you an altitude. And having chased down students - I love my VOG and it is worth every penny I paid for it,

I had a local artist in my town paint this one of mine last year.

I think you are talking about Chris Bickerdike. There is a thread about him in the old school skydiving, but many of the pictures are no longer there. https://www.dropzone.com/forums/topic/55548-chris-bickerdike's-skydiving-artwork/

He still lives somewhere in the Austin area. He occasionally brings parachutes up to my dropzone for repacks. I don't have any contact info however.

I was a horrible freefall student but kept at it and have over 12000 jumps now. I am an AFF instructor who just a couple weeks ago had a student go fetal for the first couple thousand feet but recovered. She now has passed all of the AFF levels and is moving on. Do not let one jump stop you. My student Logbook

I have packed reserves that were completely fine - I inspected it with no problems - but that had no prior pack card. It was brought to me because another dropzone in the area refused to pack it without its prior history being spelled out on the pack and data card. A lot of times I have had people bring me used reserves with some weird shit. One time I had one reserve come with toggles still attached (!!!!) but it actually worked out because that person had bought a used container from someone completely different who didn't send it with toggles (both standard velcro toggles). But holy heck - anyone sending a canopy at least send it with connector links (metal or slinks) attached to a card, I have had ones shipped with lines and no links and in a giant mess. Ugh...

Does the fact that I followed you in on that load qualify as stupid ? :-)

My plan whenever we were using straps was (besides not taking it so low you get &#*@*ed) was if we could not release the straps for whatever reason we go back into a side by side and either cut the straps with a hook knife if we could not release them or land the side by side. But I would never go so low with straps where I had no options.

I will say it is a rare Javelin where I launch the reserve and it does not go to full bridal extension. Racers always do too. The Javelin PC is wimpy compared to a Mirage but it doesnt have to push a crazy amount of flaps out of the way. In my rigging career, Racers and Javelins (and old Reflexes) consistantly have the best launches.

It seems even a large amount of the 'normal' fatalities tend to be older people. This year alone was an older jumper doing a low cutaway in Florida. An older jumper getting caught by a dust devil in Eloy. Most of the stupid deliberate low turns are still young males, but it does seem that sometimes there are older people reacting poorly or slowly to emergencies.

I have a handful of jumps on them many years ago. Not a bad canopy. A slightly less aggressive canopy than a Stiletto.

My dz has both a bunch of KISS and a bunch of Cookies to try on - from what I have seen it is very much head shape - Cookies fit me better because the Kisses were way too tight on the face. Other people the Kisses fit way better than the Cookies..

One thing to do as well - there have been times when I over-used an arm and my right elbow was killing me - Once you open the parachute - do the vast majority of movements/turns with your good arm - in my case I did practically all left turns while my right elbow healed. That way you will save the strength in your bad arm until you need it for flare..