riggermick

Shit, why let FACTS get in the way of a perfectly good STORY? Mick.

I, (and others) rest my case your honor. "And so it goes". Look dude (not so much directed at you, brabzzz), we (old timers) are here not to bust your balls because we think we are superior, we're not. We are HERE because WE have somehow miraciuosly escaeped death or life crippling injury over a period of years of doing stupid shit. This collective history just about ENCOMPASSES YOUR ENTIRE LIFE SO FAR on planet Earth and we (old timers) are trying to tell you To LISTEN TO HISTORY. Unfortunatly it does have a tendency to repeat itself. Either take it to heart or ignore it, it's your call Mate. I'm offically done with this thread as I feel I can be of no further service. Mick.

Crazy L, how's it going? long time no hear. Hope all is well with you. These guys need to grow a thicker skin, too much pampering I guess. Curse that goldarned internet!! Dagnabit1 Mick.

Hahahahahahah that's funny! If you think this is rough (it's not) go over to rec.skydiving and be prepared to be gutted. Long before you started jumping and long before this forum was established there was only rec.skydiving,an unmoderated forum where anyone could say anything and personal attacks were the norm. It didn't start out that way and once was a good place to go for a common interest, however as more people came online with no moderation it became a shit slinging site. Now, no one visits it much anymore but, we have this site and while it may not be perfect at least it's civil. Mick.

Classic cracked LCD. The glass tubes that the liquid crystals reside in (just under the VERY flimsy plastic sheet (for all portable LCD's not just this product)) are very succeptable to breaking. Lost a couple of cell phones to the same thing. That's the nature of the beast. Thicker outer plastic wouldn't hurt, but it opens up a whole new can of worms with regard to cost, production, de-design, etc, blah blah blah. Mick.

On that note, Sandy refused to share his syllabus with me. He doesn't like you anymore either huh? Welcome to the club. Mick.

In a nut shell........Yes. Thank you and safe learning. Have fun. Like the grumpy old man Sparkey, I too have had to pick up my fair share of broken bodies and corpses from "too much too soon" young jumpers, and I can tell you it ain't no fun!. As for scarcasim, well let me think.....Hmmmm. Nope. Can't say I've ever been to a DZ anywhere in the world where it doesn't run rampent, for that matter I've met very few skydivers over the years that weren't sarcastic!! Ain't that a bitch? Pilots and rock climbers are the same way, just comes with the terrertory I guess. Truth be known it's how we handle the (sometimes) horrible outcomes of many of the endevours that we do. I'm guessing that you have never had many close friends die before their time, us "old timers" have. Aircraft crashes that take out ten to twenty freinds and colleuges at a time, former students who make a fatal mistake, experienced skydivers who drill themselves in to the ground and friends that die from just plain bad luck. Through all of the ranting and scarcasim the message is the same: Take it slowly, you have the whole rest of your life to die. I sincerely hope you take a little wisdom away from this little soap box lecture, It may save your life one day!!! Mick.

Yeah. Is it hard to accept that today's skydivers does not want to start thier jumping career under WL 1.0, isn't it? Not hard to accept at all, it's just plain stupid. If they want to become canopy marters maybe we should let them. Mick.

What's the worst that could happen.

I am not trying to be a shit towards a company whose products I highly respect. Looking in from the outside you are not comming off that way at all. Perhaps if you had rephrased the original post so it was more of a question rather than sounding like an attack you wouldn't have met with so much hostility. That's just how it looks to most people who know nothing about the company, you or the situation. Mick. By the way I'm not afraid to let those who read my postings know who I am.

The way Mirage and just about every other rig is constructed makes it impossible to just replace the back pad/ yoke without replacing both main and reserve containers along with it. Which is essentually a new rig. It all has to do with the width of the reserve container which in turn affects the width of the main container which in turn affects the width of the back pad (of which the yoke is part of). It's all intergraed and designed to function as a single unit with many overlapping parts. Your choice of canopies as well as your size have a very large bearing on how the rig is built. That being said Mirage should have eaten the rig and built a new narrower one, I had to do that several times. It's a pain but it is the right thing to do. Mick.

canopy that's sooo blown up its not even going to be repaired, I'll have to do a necropsy and see. Wouldn't that be a canopsy? Mick.

That was very observant of you, from my somewhat fuzzy photo. Yes, the grommet in the photo is aligned 180-degrees off from what it should be. That's what I do John, that's what I do. (appologies to Fire fly/ Serenity fans). Mick.

HaHa....... Sucks to grow old doesn't it? Shit, I do the same thing with the technical papers I authored when I built rigs for a living, come to think of it what the hell am I laughing at anyway?

HaHa....... Sucks to grow old doesn't it? Shit, I do the same thing with the technical papers I authored when I built rigs for a living, come to think of it what the hell am I laughing at anyway?

Momentary riser hang up? It would cause a preload on the line group. Also what are the two red horizontal marks on the far right line? Anything to do with it? Food for thought anyway. Mick. Also the grommet appears to be 180 deg out from it's original position judging by the matching rectangular hole and piece left on the side of the grommet. A possible clue perhaps? It does show the grommet gave way from the slider material from the inside edge rather than the outer one next to the binding tape.

If I buggered it up with some cut and paste job, I apologize. I'll accept that. Mick.

I remember the Arava @ Otay in the early 80's (1984 or so) jumped it a few times. What ever happend to it?(coulda been a contenda). Mick.

OK, checked it. Thanks, I've looked through this and although I have yet to talk to Karel Goorts sbout it, it seems kind of iffy to me on first look. Firstly, they are using a strange swoop test with no tension on the loops to evaluate the AADs, and then declare that the Argus misfired during it. The Argus has a defined swoop mode, and the test was run in the standard mode. Also, they say that it's no excuse that the loops were not under tension. This is not correct, as that is the way the system is designed to work. It's not a real test if you place the units outside their design parameters and then fail them in tests that they were never designed to pass in the first place. Secondly, I've inspected my units, and they don't display the cutter design that the preproduction units do. They seem no different in construction from the the Cypres and Vigil cutters. Thirdly, the Argus was never tested in the Basik container in any way as far as I can see. You'd think they would actually have tested them in that container system. Lastly, they bag on the Argus, but allow the Vigil and FXC access, two systems that have a history of documented misfires at present. I'm sure that those companies are working their issues at present, but it does seem unusual that they don't seem affected in this banning. It all smells a bit fishy to me, but I'll talk to Karel and get his take on it. I have no idea why new products get so much resistance in the market place. Cypres got it when they first arrived, especially with some containers. FXC got it, and Vigil are getting it now. It seems like it's the Argus turn in the barrel now for some reason. I'm sure it will all shake out soon enough. If it doesn't, I'll be the first to take them out, but so far, I've been impressed with them. Like Sparkey said CHECK YOUR FACT'S. You've already atribuited one miss-quote to me (which really pisses me off!!). Good reporting is all about getting the facts straight the first time. In the advent of a vaccuum of fact don't draw conjecture about the subject at hand. Bad JuJu Mick. Carry on.

I believe that was Terry Dean that died with Dave. I am talking about Terry "Twitch" Ward.

Whilst I agree that it sucks to be sued, the above is nothing but conjecture, and ill advised conjecture at that. All the Argus units that I have seen have been manufactured to a standard as good or better than any other unit available. Also, being closely involved with the manufacture of the Wings container, we were very impressed by the efforts that Argus went to to ensure that their unit was compatible with our containers. I have no issues with either selling or using the Argus AAD therefore. The quote you used was not from me, it was from Jerome Bunker. My response to his post was strictly about being sued. I have never seen an Argus and therefore can offer no opinion on them. The way you cut the post in response to me makes it sound like I made that statement, when in reality I did not. Mick.

It was Spike Yarder, October 1982. Obviously it was a different Terry ward than the one that died along with Dave Wildes during a tandem bounce at Perris in the mid eighties? Both were members of the old "Coors Team" (formerly: Perris Valley Visions). Sad day that one. Mick.

I think Jerome is saying it SUCKS to be sued, especially if it's not your fault. Either way it sucks to be sued, trust me on this one. Mick.

Gotta love the Kiwi's!! Hell I should know I'm one of them!!! Been living in the US for 23 years now and I'm only 21!! Mick.

Looking at what's there, I would guess Bob W is a non commisioned officer (Sgt perhaps) possibly at the Airforce acadamy. Just a guess though. Mick.