pnuwin

Quote

***In Reply To
Australians get ripped off with outrageous gear prices and Karnage Krew provided much needed competition.

I'd rather pay outrageous prices and get something than pay for a cheap rig and get nothing.

Me too, but having competition at least keeps the other dealers in check. I know at least one other Australian dealer who copied Karnage Krew's gear bundles and lowered their prices in response to the competition.

Quote

Moral of the story...if someone was an asshole would you do business with them or let them get close enough to you to screw you? Of course not. What about a "nice" guy? That's how conmen work.

Please don't associate Gary with conmen. Karnage Krew supplied me with my first rig and all my gear several years back. I had no issues. Gary bent over backwards to help me get into the sport. To be completely honest, I don't think I would have done this many jumps and stayed in the sport if he didn't help me with gear and provided his demo rig and payment options.

It's very disappointing what is happening to Karnage Krew and all those affected. Australians get ripped off with outrageous gear prices and Karnage Krew provided much needed competition.

Like many other small businesses that run into trouble, owners sometimes fuck up. I've heard all the rumours about Gary and even if they're all true, it doesn't change the fact that Karnage Krew had some great ideas and helped many skydivers. I'm not defending any of Gary's actions here but I do think he started out with the right intentions.

Not everyone will solve their small business challenges. Sounds like Gary has fucked up big time and is paying the price. It's very sad that many creditors are also affected. Big financial institutions have failed in the past with significantly more money lost and people affected. Conmen let businesses fail but still receive million dollar bonuses and drive a Porche.

This won't be good news for those owed money and gear. I was at the dropzone today and the Karnage Krew gear shop was gutted. No stock, not even a pullup cord. It looked like a new business is setting up in its place. Not a gear shop though, just a coffee shop.

Very sad to see this go so bad for so many people. I really hope Gary comes good and finds a way to at least refund people.

Quote

here, analyst, riddle me this : If two identical reserves are deployed at the same time, will they both open at the same altitude and if so, will the opening feel identical if one had microlines and another had dacron ?

I know where you're going with this, and I know the answer you want. Yes, the dacron lines will make the reserve open softer in the same altitude because of the slight stretch.

But since we're in the over analyzing frame of mind right now, what if the slight stretch from the dacron changed the trim enough to have an affect on opening. The friction from the thicker lines will also slow the descent of the slider :)

No need to respond to this, I'm not that pedantic.

Quote

you are ignoring the fact that the TSO testing still has the same limits for time to open and distance traveled.

Making the opening smoother over more of the available time results in lower overall forces, not a longer time for opening.

No matter how you consider it, meeting the TSO specifications still called for an opening that took no more than a certain amount of time and no more than a certain number of feet.

Once those limits are met, wouldn't you prefer a canopy that did not brutalize your body to one that did?

So basically what most people are saying here is a TSOd reserve won't take more than 300ft or 3secs to open. An Optimum may be opening smoothly over that 300ft or 3secs to give a soft opening.

These arbitrary numbers required for TSO have been decided as satisfactory (safe) for reserves. Opening faster than this has no advantage. If anything, I'm assuming your faster opening reserve may sacrifice maximum weight and speed performance since the reserve has to disipate more energy in a short spike.

Quote

***In Reply To
Reserve opening speed is important because think about AAD fires at 750ft. You'll have a 10sec reserve ride assuming everything opens as planned. If there is a 0.5sec reserve pilot chute hesitation, then there is a 3sec reserve ride. Any thing else goes wrong and you're dead. Having a softer opening reserve is just depleting your margin of safety.

Maybe I'm over analyzing this but these are things I think about when I choose my gear.

It's like listening to Bill Booth's interview from this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQuJr5wuvSw (from 7:25)



Yes, thanks Mr Booth for that little piece of information.

Quote

The Optimum was build with a freeflyer in mind, who gets a premature reserve deployment at 200 mph

I believe any canopy opening at freefly speeds is going to be a dangerous event. Even a snivelly Spectre. The slightly slower opening of the Optimum is still going to be very fast compared to a main canopy. It will be brutal to your body and your canopy. Possibly lethal as seen in the past.

Reserve opening speed is important because think about AAD fires at 750ft. You'll have a 10sec reserve ride assuming everything opens as planned. If there is a 0.5sec reserve pilot chute hesitation, then there is a 3sec reserve ride. Any thing else goes wrong and you're dead. Having a softer opening reserve is just depleting your margin of safety.

Maybe I'm over analyzing this but these are things I think about when I choose my gear.

I've heard from several sources now (including PD) that the PD Optimum reserve opens softer and flares better than the PD Reserve.

When I hear that it opens softer I think it must have a slower opening. Is this really an advantage for a reserve? Wouldn't a reserve that opens quickly in as little altitude as possible without breaking you or the equipment be a better reserve?

I have a PD reserve at the moment and would consider going to an Optimum for my next set of gear. I realize the difference in opening altitudes would be small and nothing to worry about but why would you want a snivelly reserve if you have limited altitude after an emergency?

Quote

>Pilot or Safire?

Safire2. Pilots are best in the larger sizes, down to about a 140. Below that I'd go with a Safire2.

I'm a bit curious about this comment. What differences did you notice between the pilot and safire2 in the smaller sizes? Was this observation attributed to the size or the higher wingloading?

I see him all the time at his shop on the dropzone. The shop looks pretty flashy now so I think that's where his time is going.

I asked him about his facebook page and he said he gave up on it. Too many people were using it to tell him they had sent him an email. Apparently the double posting was getting a bit out of hand.

I also did a few jumps on Sunday and he was on most of my loads.

Quote

In Reply To
http://www.youtube.com/...pvfhH7zACjY&NR=1

A strange save, how did they do it?
(I hope he is ok)

They keep special parachute systems on-board just for that purpose. They connect it in some manner to the static line before releasing it. The system has a name, but I don't remember it.

So they hooked a parachute to the static line and disconnected the line from the plane. Am I the only one who thinks that's a risky way of solving the problem?

The static line isn't attached to anything solid on his rig. If he had unravelled the mess at 200ft, he would have fallen away from the static line and died. If conscious, you'd want to clip something to that static line while under canopy.

Why didn't they just drag him back into the plane?

Quote

The normal skydiver is using 500lb HMA, and I've seen Pilots with them. I can't understand why Pilots are fitted with HMA when HMA is more expensive and doesn't yield any increase in performance compared to Spectra.

Aerodyne have a 700lb HMA option on their Pilot at no extra cost. I was considering this for my next pilot but is it really a bad choice? I know the performance improvement from less drag will be minimal but it will stay in trim for the life of the lines. No spectra shrinkage which does significantly affect performance.

From my research, the only downside I've found is HMA is less abrasion resistant (especially at the soft link and brake lines). It is also less UV resistant compared to Spectra.

I'm thinking HMA at the 700lb thickness is still good for 500 jumps even with all its downsides. Still conservative. Is there something else I don't know about HMA?

Quote

One gear store in Australia said that he will sell at a $1 mark up for 6 months on all products to make sure I dont get a leg to stand on.

Hi Gary,

Predatory pricing is illegal in Australia! Refer to the ACCC link below.

http://www.accc.gov.au/content/index.phtml/itemId/816375

This other gear store could be up for some serious fines. Do you have written evidence of this comment?

Before I met you, I had no idea how much we were being ripped off in Australia. Good luck with your gear store.

My tandem master tried to kill me today, but he changed his mind at 5000ft.