ouroboros

get the Havok helmit. it fits over small to medium sized glasses. for glasses, if possible, ask to have the around the ear temples on your frame, so that they don't slide forward and off your face in a helmit. ouroboros

thanks for the luck! nothing wrong with the 190's i demoed. liked them. liked the cobalt 170 better. i also liked the SDC AFP course. we did safires at 210 and 190. i did two jumps on a 170 and didn't like it's landing performance. when i asked around, i was told about stilettos and cobalts, and looked into them. the demos clinched it- i found the cobalt 170 to be within my learning curve. as to the difference in what a 64 may know now vs what a 64 knew then, well... i can offer only that i probably went through a different course (AFP may not have been offered) in my learning how to be a skydiver. that, i believe, is a topic for a different thread. sincerely, ouroboros

a few good points. hard to see through all of the hate posts. let me attempt to clear a tunnel. no matter how you cut it, launching against a company / person is an attack. no one asked if it was rightious, correct, or warrented. does it belong in this forum? i would venture to say no. i came to this for 'gear and rigging' info. instead, i read through post after post of accusations. i would like to get back to a forum that expresses an interest in education within the skydiving community. imo, education that is free from the personal bias and attacks against a person or company. i am a graduate of the SDC AFP course and have been cleared to 190 class canopies. in selecting a main, i tried stilettos, safires and cobalts, and chose the cobalt based on its opening performance, size (170 vs the other 190's), and most importantly flair power on landing (i still land it like a safire sometimes; in deep toggles). enough said about the experience of a 64? i hope so. Dan, toss me that list of books. i have no fear of learning, and still respect your attempts to educate the masses. once i feel that i am sufficiently loaded with knowledge, lets go over the data and see what we can find out. if two engineers can't figure it out, then we're in trouble! thanks for your help. ouroboros

had a female friend following me out to Skydive Chicago. we were in traffic, all going around 50ish, on I-80 when the cars ahead of me started swerveing (sp?). when it got to be my turn, i see one of those huge orange cones in the middle of the lane. i whoop and grin and slide around it. i look in the rear view, and see dana (female friend) doing the donut spining out of control behind me. maybe she was afraid of huge orange cones. hard to say. i pulled over, and when she caught up, she was so full of addrenaline, it was weird. she made her first tandem that day. she said after being in an accident like that, jumping from a plane just made sense. ouroboros

i fly a cobalt 170, loaded at 1.3 and have had nice, neat openings. i have had two lousy openings due to messed up body position and getting the correct packing issues worked out (i asked around and found a packer who had some ideas on how to pack my rig). no line twists, no kicking out of anything, no hassles in the air. had an end cell closed once or twice- fixable with a practice landing deep flair. i like the canopy, it fits what i want (soft openings, high performance, more flair at the end of a landing) and it does what the Atair website and Dan P continue to explain: it works. i read every now and then on the boards here at DZ.com about cobalts not performing up to specs. i believe in the canopy that i fly, and trust it to do what it's supposed to do. when i deploy my cobalt 170, it does what it's supposed to do. to me, that's what the canopy is all about. i am still willing to learn, no matter what kind of canopy i fly, and that just might be the key here. i learned how to deploy and fly my 170. if my skills ever progress to the point where i decide i can handle the risks of a smaller main, i will 're'-learn that canopy too. cobalt, safire, stiletto, or what- still have to learn. else, imo, the attacks on Atair / Dan P are pretty obvious. we are lucky Dan has decided to answer anything in the format and context these forums provide to us, much less be baited. it takes guts to put yourself out there for people, and i just hope Atair continues to provide the community with information, no matter how it is taken. lastly, i also see the transparency of the stated legal implications of advice, also mentioned several times in this thread. if the goal was to show ignorance of the legal community, imo it has met with success. if attacks against Dan are going to take this new direction, please read up on (your) local slander litigation before continueing; it will make for a better post. As Dan said- i can provide you with a list of law books which will help. got my vector? ;) in sincerity, ouroboros

SDC (that is, Skydive Chicago) uses Sabre 2 mains for AFP students. imo, the course is designed to teach skills not available in the AFF course, or in any other student course. part of that is learning to pilot a Sabre 2. wing loadings are conservative 1:1 with canopy skills and landings reviewed for each of the 18 stages of the program. ouroboros

i fly the cobalt 170 (it's a non comp model, if you had to ask). in 30 jumps, i have had one lousy opening, due to pro packing inconsistancies. i had video of a typical cobalt opening (i am winged at 1.3) that shows just how light the opening is. it makes openings kinda fun, and because of that, i am more relaxed on the throw. tensing up has caused me more problems then i can count. i have done 10 jumps on a stilletto 190, and like the cobalt 170 better. was a hard choice, but i voted for the cobalt. a lighter opening means less stress on my body, so i'd demo the cobalt first and then the stilletto and compare. ouroboros

howdy skygirl. i jump a cobalt 170 in a mirage M4 sized rig. packs great, pleanty of room. mirage sized this for me. i also have a cobalt 105 in a mirage G3 MXS sized rig. the rig is sized for a 120 main- i know a 135 main will not fit in it. the cobalt 105 fits very nicely into the MXS. before anyone jumps on me for the horrific size difference of my mains, the second rig i am selling, as the person who was going to use it never jumped again. anyone interested in buying / trading for it? www.gladiusdei.org/rig [email protected] chicago, IL

remember that movie with bruce in it, 'hudson hawk', and the auction house robbing song- 'wish upon a star'? after all of the verses, the pig was the best choice. can anyone post the lyric verses to that one? just a thought. i got a hedgehog. he looks at me funny sometimes... ouroboros

that is a thought. have the skydiver / team bio info in the omniscore also list their dz.com usernames. tim and ted (one or both) are setting up shop at sdc this weekend- i'll ask if that is possible. palika

for those of you dz.com (er's) that are jumping into nationals this year, i'll be shooting video (ground and events) again for the SDC (skydive chicago) website. i can also firewire (DV ILink, IEEE 1394) video from your jumps for posting into the national's section of the site. until then, palika

wanna get on the skydive chicago website at summerfest? i'll be taking video and stills, posting them on the site daily. got some nifty video of your dive? i'll post that too. HECK ask around, i'll post anything. i got this great shot by the fox river of some naked elk hunting... love and bullets o

i agree with chris. go to skydive chicago. talk to the people who visit, live and jump there. get a feel for the place, walk in there sandles, sit by the pond. then, decide for yourself.

skypeg1 well, pull up a packing mat, and let me tell you the experiences i have had. when i was 100% human (no modifications) my RW belly flying was decent, my largest way was a 3 plus 2 lurkers, my freeflying sit was lousy, and my head down was never confirmed. some of the best jumps i have had are when i would get the pleasure of locking my legs and ankles around a favorite female companion, and rolling around in the sky attempting to learn fall rates, et.al. now that i am an amputee (like you, single below knee), my RW is the same, my sit is still lousy, and i love the sport even more. nothing changes, even when you are 'mostly human' with nifty shiny titanium parts. i have gotten great support from my home dz, skydive chicago, and from the freeflyers and bellyfliers i jump with there. again, nothing changes. if you are going to be around for SummerFest and / or Nationals, then i extend the invitation to jump with another amputee. we can post some great video of us trying to pull each other's foot off... until then, ouroboros

i'll be at summerfest shooting video and stills for the skydive chicago website. i'll post every day into the online galleries- if you have video / stills of your summerfest experiences you want everyone to see, come find me; i'm palika.