Grumpy

Thanks for sharing that. I suspect your writing has touched a chord in a lot of people. Congratulations. I hope my love of the sky endures as yours has.

The material and cut of a suit determine the amount of drag it will produce and that will affect how fast you fall. Fast fallers use lots of drag to slow them down to a reasonable rate and visa versa. Choosing the incorrect suit means you will spend too much of your free-fall trying to correct fall-rate problems instead of having fun and learning to fly You really should ask some of the instructors you've jumped with what your fall rate is like before you order anything and then pass that info onto Kurupee.

Had a Skytronic Pro and it gave me some information but it became unreliable so I had to junk it and buy a ProDytter. I've since bought a ProTrack too. I love both of them and have never had a problem with either. I don't look at the information on the ProTrack much now that the novelty had worn off. I would recommend the new ProDytter. Any equipment that is so highly recommended by so many people has to be a better choice than a piece of equipment that gets consistently mixed or poor reviews.

They're very popular in Australia and considered to be one of the top two suits here. I don't jump one myself but the suits and the service are highly spoken of by anyone who does.

Went to a boogie with 11 Cessnas in Australia and it was a blast having everyone at the boogie being there for the same reason and with same purpose. Can only guess what the buzz is like at the 300 way. Tell Tim Weible that Dangerous Dave says 'Hi' if you see him Good luck, Be safe, Give us some good footage.

My Mum did a tandem two years ago (she's 60) and wanted to go straight back up again... She is delighted that she did it and she has shown the video to everyone who's set foot in our house since! She now had a much better understanding of what I do and why I love it so much. Here's a shot of the happy threesome (I jumped with her) Hope your Mum enjoys it as much.

How much do these wonderful things cost and are they on sale now? Dave

NZ Aerosports make them (as well as Crossfires, Extremes etc) Their website is http://www.nzaerosports.com/ You can find all their details there

Have you tried psyco packing it? Does it fly straight while the brakes are stowed?

Picton (as it's known) rocks. It's got turbines to 13.5k, $30 jump ticktes(if you buy in 10s), huge landing areas, a canteen, a bar, creeper pad, shaded packing area, free camping and showers and a great bunch of people. The only roblems are the bunkrooms (free) and toilets leave a bit to be desired and the turnaround can get a little slow in the afternoon depending on the number of tandems but it's usually not a problem to get 6 or 7 jumps in a day if you're there from first to last load. For jumpers in the Sydney area, no other DZ come close!

You already know about the Total Control site. The only other ones I know of are http://www.bloomoo.biz/elevation/gearbag/main.html and there's usually some stuff on the APF site too. I think the freefall factory is getting a site up but you'll have to search for that yourself. The notice board in you local DZ is always a good source of info with the advantage that you can ask instructors etc to help you try the gear on and see how it fits etc. Gear advertised locally usually has a known history too. Cheers

PDS, In my opinion you did exactly the right thing and I would have done the same myself. My personal 'hard deck' is 1000 ft above which I wouldn't hesitate to cut away. You should talk to instructors about this and decide on your own. Don't worry about wheather of not your spiraling under canopy damaged it because any canopy should be well up to whatever it's pilot can throw at it and if it's not, then either it needs some TLC from a rigger or possibly it's just come to the end of it's life. A packer is unlikely to have time to give a canopy a thorough inspection everytime they pack it so don't think this incident is a poor reflection on yours. Two really good reasons for chopping that canopy are 1) The canopy damage was extensive and the canopy wasn't flying properly. The chances are it would have collapsed on you when you flared for landing and I needn't tell you how much that would have hurt. 2) There's no guarantee that a canopy that's damaged but just about flyable at 1300ft won't rip apart some more when you're too low to cut away. You sound like you were very aware, calm and switched on - all great skydiver attributes. Well done dude. The only thing you omitted to tell us was if you bought beer for your first chop

Jason Cooke makes a carbon fibre box for the 101. Haven't seen one but his helmets are a work of art so it's safe to assume the boxes will be of the same high quality. He's in Australia (you'll love the exchange rate to Aussie dollars) E-mail him on [email protected] and I'm sure he'll be able to send you prices & pics.

Sorry if I've caused confusion. Both cameras have firewire ports for camera to camera transfer. The difference comes when you want to transfer footage to your computer for editing. Apparently (this is according to Sony blurb) the PC9 requires a video capture card so you can firewire to the computer. The PC101 allows you to transfer using a USB cable (therefore you don't need to buy the VCCard) (or you can firewire it if you already have the VCCard) I don't know what the transfer formats or levels of quality are like. Best ask Sony about that. Cheers. Grumpy

I understand the main differences between the two cameras from a skydivers perspective is in the improved battery life on the PC101 and you can stream video directly to your PC through a USB cable

Don't know about Ramblers but in Picton (1 hr from Sydney) the going rate is $6 (though one packer still charges $5) and jumps there are $30 if you buy 10 tickets in one hit (or $27 if you buy 100) (that's 4.5 pack jobs per jump !!) Jump ship is an Otter. Drop in if you're in the area !

I've never jumped with a chin cup. I do a lot of laughing and "yahoo"ing in freefall and I understand that the chincup would cause the helmet around a lot. If I was doing 'outside' camera work then I'd consider fitting a cup. With just a chin strap and a 0.42 lense I don't get much camera shake.

I tried out a walkie taklie a while back.It was a Radio Shack product and it had an ear piece but no mic. Instead, your voice which passes through your jaw-bone to your ear (hence, how you hear your voice sounds different to how everyone else hears it) was picked up by some dohicky in the ear-piece and transmitted. Sounds hokey but works well and should get around the problem of wind noise. Having said that I don't want anything to distract me from the beauty of the sky and the magic of freefall so I won't ever use one.

Tuck tabs are newer and better. I can't remember what the DOM on my first rig was. I guess it was earlier than '95. Sounds like the one you are looking at is the same generation as what I'm jumping at the moment (DOM '97) This version has better reserve protection, better riser covers (tuck tabs) and if it's got hip rings then the comfort is improved too. There are heaps of them being jumped at my DZ and I haven't heard of a single problem with them. Do check that the fit is good (have you had it suspended and sat in the harness? How does it feel? Make sure the yoke isn't so wide that it can slip off your shoulder) I've done 600+ jumps on mine. It still works great. It still looks great. I wouldn't have held onto it for this long if I wasn't completely happy with it. I've had some small (and mostly cheap) mods done to it over time to improve the security for freeflying but they aren't strictly necessary if you're staying on your belly. These are; a little bridle cover added bigger "beaver teeth" tuck tabs put on the main flap side tuck tabs on the reserve flap a low profile reserve handle fitted Leg straps changed to the Talon 2 design (improved comfort) Hope this helps

-You can stall most canopies simply by holding both toggles down fully for too long. Then it will collapse and fall out of the sky but it will re-inflate if you have enough altitude. Generally, it happens gradually (the canopy has to lose some forward speed first) -On any canopy, if you fly it as slow as possible without stalling it I suspect it will take very little bad air to collapse it. Some canopy whizz might correct me here if I'm wrong. -On some canopies (not necessarily HP, I've done this on a PD170 loaded under 1.0) simply burying one toggle as deep as you can will induce line twists. If you fly in deep brakes just above the stall speed and then release one toggle completely you should get yourself in a right twisted up mess altogether !! The more responsive the canopy and the heavier the pilot (and therefore, harder to get them turning to follow the canopy around) the easier this is to do. Don't try any of this unless you've very high up (and preferably close to your next re-pack!)

My first container was a Talon. If you intend to so any sit-fly you'll probably need a rigger to show you how to stop the velcro reserve flap being blown open (easy fix). Otherwise, it's a top rig. I've never heard of anyone having any problems with them. I put about 400 jumps on mine and loved it!

IF a chemical is incompatible with the cutaway cable, you don't need to marinate the cable in it to cause it to degrade. The residue that remains after you've wiped it off could be enough. (I've seen car battery cases split because solvent used to clean the machine that made the lifting straps them reacted with the they reacted with the cases) Keep in mind that if something does react with the yellow (or red) coating it may just soften it so it will look fine until it's under load and you're cutting away at which point it can potentially strip off the cable (Not Good) On a critical component like a cut away cables I'd never apply any chemicals unless the manufacturer has specifically said that it's ok. The only one I've heard of so far is Mirage recommending 3 in 1 oil. I e-mailed Rigging Innovations about this 6 months ago but never got a response. I'll try again and let you know if I hear anything back.

I'd suggest contacting the manufacturer first. Apparently, the solvent in some paints can degrade the plastic and reduce it's strength. In the good ol' days when they made plastic motorcycle helmets it was expressely forbidden to paint them (or even apply stickers to them) for this reason.

Here's another one. When a broken stow or band is reluctant to come off your d-bag the perfect tool to remove it should be... 1.Sharp enough to get into the knot. 2.Not so sharp that it could damage your d-bag. 3.Always close at hand when you need it. That perfect tool would be - your closing pin

Regarding line overs when psyco-packing, when you lay the canopy on the ground upside down (opposite to the pro pack) you can then open both sides and the nose is right there in front of you so you can check that there are no lines over it before you begin rolling it. There's no way to ensure that a line hasn't moved over the nose when you put a propack job on the ground. Regarding damage to the canopy, unless you have a bridle extension fitted you have to drag the attachment point of the canopy out of the center of the roll so you can place it near the bridle attachment point of the d-bag. If you don't do this everytime then as the d-bag is pulled from the canopy on opening you can burn the fabric. Having said that, I did 300 psyco-packs before I got my extension made ($5) and there was no damage to the fabric.