hanknotdan

And I thought I was taking a chance when I went from 170 to 135 because I only did 70 jumps on a 150 as a transition. And with only 900 jumps total. Hope you're tough and lucky. I must admit I do appreciate anyone who gets that much humor out of Billvon. OK you did ask for feedback without the bashing. Too late but here goes. This is probably a terrible idea. You are saying that you are comfortable landing in optimal conditions. You haven't even seen it on a no wind day. What will you do when the set pattern requires a 5mph downwind on an LV day? First, the change in size is crazy dramatic and probably beyond the realm of good sense. Jumping with 40% less fabric means that you have increased your wingloading by 60-70%. Either you were reasonably loaded before and now you are unreasonably loaded or you were seriously underloaded in which case you probably haven't learned good habits. Most of the canopy instructors I have talked to recommend that you not downsize and move to elliptical in a single step. If you are set on this course, try jumping a larger crossfire 2 for a while(many, many jumps) to get a feel for some of the distinctions in flight characteristics first. Something that might be a bit more forgiving of your mistakes while your are learning the parameters of the new canopy. Get qualified canopy coaching from someone who actually observes and evaluates you. Stating things about what kinds of turns you are doing and from heights is kind of pointless without someone watching you. I tend to do wider carving hooks instead of snap hooks that many people like. So my turns look very different from those of others on a similarly loaded stiletto. If you ask for advice from people who don't know anything about how you fly, you'll probably get what you pay for. Lastly, think through your choice assuming that nothing goes right in your first 10 jumps on the new canopy. Packing a new rig can take a few times to figure out. Your body position is less than perfect when you pull. The spot may be long. You may have inconsistent winds. Someone may cut you off. You are reducing your margin for error to virtually non-existent in a sport that does not forgive lightly. Making a bad shot selection in a basketball game means I don't make the shot. Making a bad selection in skydiving...

I don't expect anyone to go out and buy stuff for me to cook but I do tell them that I am a vegetarian. If they ask me to bring something of my own, I happily will and have. If they don't, and I show up and have nothing to eat, I find that to be rude. I informed them of my dietary restrictions. I also tell them that there will not be meat served when they come to my house. If they are a meatarian(I have never met someone who only eats meat but I am sure they exist) and they turn down the invitation, I would certainly understand. If they told me that they needed meat and I said ok and then didn't provide it, that would be rude on my part. The analogy I always like is my friend with a severe peanut allergy. It would be rude and potentially legally negligent to serve him something after he informed his host of the allergy. And anyone who expects him to cook with peanut oil as a host is asking too much. As far as it being "only fair"--seriously, you really consider the 2 cases to be comparable? Someone has made a deliberate choice not to kill things, and you think that they should be required to violate that to be a good host? I agree that you should be informed that the meal will be vegetarian but after that it's your choice. Just as you can choose not to cook vegetarian food so long as you tell your guests. But to equate the 2 cases is ridiculous. The reason we have a word for "fair" and a different word for "same" is because they don't mean the same thing.

1200+ and I am still waiting to be 'proficient' at holding a formation. But then I always a slow learner. Good luck to you, have fun and careful how you definie proficient

Hate responses like this. You don't know what this person's natural fall rate is like. You haven't watched her jump. Maybe she completely dearched and that's the problem. You cannot tell. I outgrew my weights because my arch improved over time so maybe I didn't need the weights. I just needed to learn to fly better. Telling someone on student status to put on weights may be a bit premature; she is still burning the muscle memory in for her arch. Lastly, telling a student to put on weights without also mentioning the dramatic effect this can have on canopy performance is perhaps a bit irresponsible. Guess that's why they have instructors.

Didn't vote since the choices were a bit slim and didn't really capture the issue.(Kind of like presidential elections although I vote in those as fuction of self-defense.) I do not believe that the seller has a responsibility to check the ability of a buyer. License sure, just as a gun dealer should check permits. But then it only takes an A to jump anything you want. That being said, I do in fact perform due diligence in reference to ability before selling something. That's simply because I never want to live with the fact that someone was injured/maimed/killed/etc. and I had indirectly profited from it. I sold a complete rig recently to a jumper my size but the canopy is too agressive for him. I have tracked down 2 canopies slightly larger and f-111 that will also fit in the container. I have also warned/threatened the jumper about jumping it yet. I could have refused to sell the rig entirely but it will be an appropriate canopy for him if he shelves it for 50-100 jumps(sabre 170 loaded at 1.1-1.2). In fact, several jumpers at the DZ said he'd be fine on it right away(bad call) His plan is to continue to rent for a little while and then use a larger canopy in the container and store the canopy so he can have it later. Even with this much caution involved I still had some reservations but again, I went the distance to help him get a canopy and he loves the container.(esp. the price) And while I said, that I don't feel that the seller should be responsible, I must admit that I would think less of someone who didn't act as if they were. I guess it's the difference between moral and legal or even ethical and legal. Legally they can sell whatever they want. Ethically I think they should at least see a license and they shouldn't knowingly sell a canopy to someone underqualified. Morally, (I believe) they should not only not sell when they know but also endeavor to find out. Lastly, before I ever sold a high performance canopy(what am I talking about? I only jump a stiletto 135) I'd ask: what are you jumping now and where do you start you're 270? I heard someone asking about a smaller canopy the other day and a swooper asked him similar questions and then asked him why he wanted to shift when there was so much more to learn on his own canopy. (Yes, I realize that someone could research and then lie about their answers to downsize but if they go that far you probably can't stop them anyway and you have certainly made a good faith effort to protect them. And my responsibility clearly ends before fraud investigator.) Doesn't that seem like a much better route to go anyway as jump numbers and canopy experience aren't always directly related?

Congrats. And while I applaud your decision, I do ask one question? Do you disclose this fact? I would have no problem making a tandem with an HIV student but I think that I have the right to know. I would have no problem in a grappling tournament with an HIV+ opponent but I'd like to know. I'd probably be fine boxing with an HIV+ opponent but I'd like to know and I definitely think bleeding should result in an automatic TKO in my favor. So my question again is do you disclose this fact to students?

"then the best approach is to NOT stow them - assuming you don't jump a camera. Most peopple don't stow their excess lines, and this usually is not a problem." So glad this isn't the thinking at my dz. Got my finger caught one time from a released line snapping around the end of my finger tip and an instant tension knot as the inflating canopy tried to pull the excess through my finger joint. Ouch and spinning mal. I'll never jump that guy's pack jobs again and won't jump a rig without some kind of stow. It's a fairly easy fix for a rigger to put an elastic stow on the back of the riser. One of the manufacturers is even showing a stow technique using a small rubber hand cut in half(don't recall which one right now though). If stowing is the right way to do it, then I don't think that not stowing is the right way to handle no manufacturer stows. Make the adjustments to the risers. Most riggers will do it cheaply. In fact, following that incident, I am giving some serious thought to going back to velcro. The old wear issue really only affects the lines below the cat's eye and that's an easy replacement if they do wear. (But if you stow them properly the wear issue is negated.) So my advice would be stow your own brakes and excess if you don't trust the packers. But I always check out packers and only use ones I trust anyway. I admire the cajones(not the judgement though) of guys who can hand their rig to just anyone but I am not one of those guys.

Elsinore all the way. Not that SD and Perris aren't great places but Elsinore is one of my favorite in the country and has fantastic people.

Can't speak for everyone at the DZ but I will say this: 1)Harness wasn't necessary? You had a premie while in freeflying which means you are exceeding the recommending opening speeds of canopies. That's snapped lines or torn cells waiting to happen. I for one am glad that you practiced your mals in the harness since your poor judgement nearly put you in the position of needing them after a hard opening shock. 2) Don't see the point about opening speeds? And you had a premie freeflying? And you thought it would be subterminal? Well? Was it? LOL 3) Everyone at our DZ who forgets his goggles does indeed get labelled a dumbass. And usually loudly and embarassingly so they will not forget again. Everybody does it and yes everyone gets some form of warning. Did Ostrich over react? Probably. His jump plans were shot because of his unwillingness to make a recurrency with a dumbass and his overall annoyance at you. Plus that's just his way. Just be thankful noone threatened to shoot you in the face ;-) 4) Spiralling a canopy when you can't make it back because you are being pushed back from a high deployment and you don't see "What good would spiraling have done?" Really? Spiralling canopies get to the ground faster, they therefore spend less time in the winds, they therefore get pushed back less. You seriously don't get this? It's adding up. You seem to need additional instruction on safe skydiving. If you have a problem with that and don't like our attitude and want to jump elsewhere, feel free. I for one won't mind one bit. As for attitude, Ostrich is an ass and most people know it. So am I sometimes. But Ostrich is safe so I will jump with him any day of the week. His attitude may be annoying, abrasive, obnoxious(stop me anytime Ostrich) but it's not dangerous. Yours is. Every DZ I know has plenty of dumbasses already, ours included. feel free not to increase the population. I don't mean to say don't jump here just do it a bit more smartly. Everyone makes dumb mistakes, some people learn from them and some people don't. Some people do something that could have seriously hurt them and get pissed off because they didn't get a ride. I got hurt on and off field landing a year ago from a truly bad spot. Yes, I gave the guy some jovial abuse. But 1) I got out of the plane and 2) I should have chosen my landing area better. Learned a little something from it. (Cause next time I might not be as lucky) Never once started a post about that bastard who... get the point? So far it doesn't sound like you learned a damn thing from what can only be described as a series of poor choices. That's the attitude that scares me, not whether someone's a prick or not. And if you do want to blast on general attitude, it wasn't Ostrich who came in here and posted,"Would this piss you off? A dumbass wouldn't follow instructions, had a dangerous skydive, landed off and generally affected the impression that whuffos and newbies have of our sport and DZ just because he wouldn't listen and then was annoyed with US?" No Ostrich didn't start a post that way. Who around here did start a moan and groan fest along those lines? Hmmm. Yup, that would piss me off.

As another member of the dz in question(who had a good laugh at your predicament as I watched you back up, (Still can't believe you never tried to spiral it at all) I feel the need to comment on some noticable issues. 1) It didn't take 45 min. That would have been 2 loads out of our otter before you got down and it wasn't. 2) Instructors were fed up with the attitude and refusal to take instruction as a student. I know you are licensed but there is a reason that recurrency jumps require instructors. Your premature was following repeated suggestions that you not freefly esp. not in that rig. If you chose not to listen so be it. 3) The spot was fine despite your claim that it was not so hot. Everyone else made it back on that load and noone complained at all. 4) And this is the big one, people did go looking for you. In fact, one of our tandem instructors was in his truck heading toward the treeline while your buddies were still sharing the laughs about you not spiralling at all. Noone was coerced. He just got in his truck and drove. When he saw you didn't make the trees he turned around and took another route hoping you would head for a road. You headed for the DZ which is cool but we can't get to you easily without trespassing and tearing up certain fields if you don't head for a road. Your buddies had a sense of humor, hell your date had a far better sense of humor about it and she missed her son's birthday dinner. Although I think your big plan of impressing her with a second date at the dropzone kind of blew up in your face. Oh wait a minute....... now I see why you're pissed.

I can just hear one that begins: "So I said, I am falling at a fixed speed, the math is easy!! What's the worst thing that can happen?" We use that phrase when joking with students to keep in mind what the worst thing that can happen in skydiving is. I think that jumping without an altimeter is an idiotic decision. I often don't use mine to guage altitude but it's always there. I have a pretty good idea how fast I am going in a car too but I still double check it from time to time. And I never deliberately remove my speedometer. Yes, altimeters can fail. I had one that read 20% off and I jumped with it and lived because I can tell by visual what the ground looks like. But I still got a new one. Just glad I never jumped in slightly obscured conditions, or in winter with no leaves on trees(it looks really different) or at night, or at a different dropzone. Your eyes can fail you too. Why remove one of your safety devices? As to students going without... can you say lawsuit? Regardless of whether or not an instructor thinks a static line or IAD requires it, I'll bet a decent lawyer could present it as negligence. And remember that many liability waivers are voided in the event of gross negligence. For that matter, I think they should be required for IAD and static line for one simple reason. Decision altitude. How long do you keep trying to kick out those line twists? or clear that line over? or... How many incident reports have we read where someone fought a malfunctioning canopy into the ground or cutaway too low to save themselves? Freefall timing and internal clocks are great but adrenaline can seriously change those numbers or make you forget them. Not to mention, I cannot tell exactly how much time I have under a mal. Could have plenty of time to work out the problem or I might have very little. I think going to a reserve without trying to fix a problem is a bad idea. I think trying to workout a problem beyond decision altitude is a bad idea. And it seems to me that an altimeter is the only way to reconcile those 2. Without naming names, I have seen tape of outstanding skydivers losing track of altitude and deploying well below any kind of sane altitude. Every skydiver who has seen these tapes sucks in breath when the jumper rolls over and sees the ground. His visual perception saved him but his failure to periodically check his altitude put him in the position where it had to; bad place to be. It can happen to anyone and it can kill anyone. And never forget that every jump is the real thing. Training in skydiving is not the same as training in other sports. I can spar with people and just work one technique over and over again and get slammed about and smacked in the head as I try to fix my guard, work on kimura locks, whatever but if I compete, I use anything and everything that I have as hard as I can without tiring and as fast as I can without screwing up techniques so badly they fail. Because I am facing someone trying to hurt me instead of a training partner. Well the ground is there and trying to hurt me every time I jump. Training and drills are part of skydiving but every jump can kill you even the training ones. "Hey, what's the worst that can happen?"

Seems pretty clear that the pledge is around to stay in its present form which is too bad. The pledge originally did not have the under God phrase and I believe it still served to remind us of our roots and encourage loyalty. The problem I have with the pledge and led statements is that I believe that I should have the parental right to determine what religious instruction my children receive. I'd prefer they not grow up with an inferiority complex because they are not Israelites or believing that homosexuals should burn in hell for engaging in a consensual act. Now in my case, the simple phrase under God doesn't conflict with that as I happen to believe that we are just that. But I am sure that some parents disagree with that and I certainly can't ask for the right to determine how I indoctrinate my children if I don't grant it to others. And while I see a problem with having teachers lead children in religious statements, I have never understood why people want it in schools. Kids can pray in schools(I know I did) and will still be able to. Kids can still show respect/deference to a god that they believe in. But should they be required to? Seems to me there's a benefit on one side, ie. I can determine what faith my children are raised in, and no downside to getting rid of it. I just don't get why you want that there.(By you, I mean the people who want religious instruction in public schools) Why do you want someone else determining that?

What control exists? The little box that says don't sell my information. It's on the application and it has been for some time. Read things before yopu sign them and include a check. In fact, I had to call and ask Paragear for a catalog because I am not on Paragear's mailing list anymore because I checked no on my application. I am still with the previous poster. Stop bitching. You make a point of your efficiency in solving the problem. Check the box and move on.

Anybody else bothered by the fact that someone who was in the Air Force for years knows so little about freefall and flight characteristics? Your tax dollars hard at work.

What? I was at Orange for most of this 3 day weekend and the whole DZ is pretty good about email communication so I am a little surprised to hear this. Who broke their femur at Orange?? Could you clear up the confusion? Orange regulars were hurt at X-Keys but I don't think there were any serious injuries at Orange this weekend. I could be mistaken so if you know something I don't please post it on the forum.