Megatron

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Posts posted by Megatron

  1. First hop & pop I made from 3500' for my A, I was freaked out by how low it seemed.. pulled nearly right off the step, far below terminal, opening felt more spongy than a bubble bath at a nursing home.. ended up with line twist which I kicked out of.
    Lesson: Give it a good 4-count & pull like any other jump. You'll have ample altitude for a smooth opening and emergency proc's if need be.
    Now the time it was overcast & we jumped all day from 2400ft.. those you might wanna back extra careful for.

  2. I have a 5-level spinal fusion.. L1-L5 due to a hard landing after a botched swoop.. crushed L3 & L4 and lucky to be walking. Im in great physical shape, have very high core strength, and manage to get along pretty well in life and mostly without pain from my injuries.
    I miss the fuck out of skydiving and think about going back up every day (despite making about 20 jumps post-injury).
    The bottom line is that this is an unpredictable sport and you can go a long way to mitigate your risk but you can never rule out the occasional hard-opening/bad landing/major incident. The fact is that a spinal fusion turns incidents that you would other wise walk away from or not even think twice about into ones that have you limping around in pain for weeks or fuck you up permanently. I remember several landings on windy days that did not go very well.. everyone had a good laugh, hopefully someone got it on video and that was that. If I were to make such a landing now, it would put me out of commission for some time.
    As mentioned, mitigating the risks by not jumping in marginal winds etc makes skydiving more feasible for people in our situation but the room for error becomes significantly reduced with each fused vertebrae.
    Personally, I know that if a jump leaves me in chronic pain or even noticeably disabled for the rest of my life, I will regret the shit out of my decision to jump, and the keeps me grounded.. literally. :-/

  5. Quote

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    I believe the correct aphorism is "God helps those who help themselves."





    Yea, well I still wanna know WWJD.



    Jesus would probably do nothing just for the killer ground rush, while, in the process, saving humanity from damnation & resurrecting just to do it again! Beat that Chuck Norris!!

  6. Ive been riding long before I did my AFF course & back in the day riding was what skydiving is to me today. I had alot of fun on that bike! More recently I traded my cruiser for an R1 & now as a skydiver I can say that riding at 150mph is almost as exhillerating & fullfilling as some of the jumps I've made. The two are quite alike to be honest, although I can imagine riding at that speed being much more risky. I say plan to do both but get the bike first!

  7. Live water training should be required for the A-License. Enough skydivers, some of them students, have drowned that this should be considered an essential survival skill. Moreover, it will give DZO's more inscentive to host water training more often. I've met all the B-license criteria so far and still no B-license, guess why.

  13. Quote

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    True in theory, but needless to say thats not always the case in practice.



    How do you know this?



    For one Ive seen it happen. Guy on wingsuit gets out before tandem, flies out then back, pulls at 3000 while the tandem pulled at 6k. Both canopies end up sharing airspace.

  15. As I understand it, closed end cells, slider up the lines, & slightly off heading openings are normal for the sabre2 esspecially at lower wing loadings. Almost everyone at my dz jumps these things and the openings are all about the same; equally benign & easy to deal with (pumping RR's corrects everything).
    With a wingsuit however they are not as benign. Consider this scenario: After a normal wingsuit flight you delpoy your sabre2..it opens off-heading, with end cells collapsed unevenly & the slider hesitating up the lines. Now you are under a canopy that isn't fully inflated, and in a gradual bank to the left from a direction you did not intend to face when you pulled. All of a sudden you see another canopy coming from your right and your paths are about to cross. On a normal jump you would go for your rear risers but you've barely had time to release you wings. You manage to quickly release one fast enough to grab a rear riser and avoid a collision.

  17. What are you guys jumping with your wingsuit? What do you feel is the best canopy to be jumping with a wingsuit? Personally, and Im sure everyone would agree, Id like something thats relatively docile, forgiving to bad body position, & something that generally opens on heading most of the time.
    Im currently jumping a sabre2-170 at a 1.4wl. Its a fun canopy to fly and a no brainer to land but the openings are off heading at least 60% of the time, I have end-cell closure on almost every jump, & the slider hesitates about 1/4 of the way up the lines every so often. Ive tried different packing techniques as well as having it packed by better packers than myself and the results are basically the same.
    Im thinking if I were to jump my sabre2 with a wingsuit, it would make things that much more difficult & unpredictable. Im looking to perhaps switch canopies before I get too much into wingsuiting. Hoping you could give some suggestions. Thanks!

  18. I think I might have to go with an intermediate suit even as a beginner. My fall rate is about 130 in a relaxed arch & a baggy suit. I think if I go too small it wont be much over a glorified track. I'll certainly start on something small until I get sharpen my skills..just thinkin down the line here.

  19. Its seems these two are about equally matched as far as the type of suit that they are. Can anyone speak of their performance attributes? A friend of mine jumps the S.Mach 1 & speaks very highly of it. Apparently, its very easy to put compared to the Stealth.
    I dont have any WS jumps yet and will start on a smaller suit but its never too early to start doing some research.

  20. Im a bit confused on what the safely limits are on wind gusts, and wind speed in general. Clearly, 5 gusting to 10 is not a big deal but some jumpers Ive met have grounded themselves when it was 13 gusting to 18..perhaps rightfully so. But when you think about it the difference in wind speed is still the same (5 knots) so why not jump 13 to 18..I personally would. Now what about a 7 knot difference or a 10 knot? Or calm gusting to 10 vs. 20 gusting to 30. Same difference but obviously not the same conditions in this case! Can someone lay out some general guidelines to follow. I remember on student status 14mph was the cut-off but as a licensed skydiving there is not such stipulation and Im not a big fan of playing this kinda thing by ear.
    What is the maximum wind gust that you find acceptable and would arguably jump in?

  23. I think if humans were immortal in the sense that we did not die of aging & disease, all skydivers would eventually be killed skydiving. Some of the lucky ones might make it way past 100,000 jumps or 100's of years in the sport but eventually, the risk would catch up to absolutely everyone. Given that we are not immortal, I thinks its a pretty safe bet to say that the risk will not catch up to us within our skydiving careers. If you are careful & meticulous, and do not fall prey to ego & complacency, it is far better to live with the small risk of dying young than with the certainty of never really living at all.

  24. I put 3 jumps on my Racer this past weekend. Im still here & in one piece so I can't complain. I like how small the rig is without feeling overstuffed. Its fairly comfortable despite the fit being about as small it can be for a guy my size. One complaint that I do have is the hardware for the chest strap & leg straps..no matter how I tighten them & make sure they're secure the leg straps always loosen after opening and the chest strap does somewhat as well. The fact that the rig is a bit small is actually a good thing since even when the straps are not tightened at all, its still a fairly good fit for me otherwise I would be worried. The velcro is a pain in the ass too. Its an ok rig..esspecially for the price buy I don't know how anyone would be all gung ho about these things. I'm definitely switching to my voodoo when it comes in.

  25. Thanks for you replies! Just to clarify, I didn't buy a new racer just to pack it. I bought it used ('05) and got a pretty good deal to where just having it for packing was worth the price.
    Im gonna jump it though, just gotta have my cypress cutter swapped out for a 2 pin & the reserve packed. So far the only argument Ive heard against it were hard pulls which Im hoping I can avoid through careful packing & gear maintenance.

    Got another question though: It seems while my main fits pretty well inside the d-bag (which came with the rig) the top corners of it can be seem peeking out between the top closing flap and the side flaps. Is this normal? Should the d-bag be covered completely? Keep in mind that I dont have a reserve in it right now so maybe that warps the container but it doesnt seem like the addition of a reserve would remedy the situation. For the record, the rest of the d-bag is held is fully encased and its just the very top corners that peek out.