ernokaikkonen

If were talking about: shouldn't that be number of suits sold minus some(since some people have several suits. Bastards.)? Although I don't suppose many suits sit there gathering dust in someone's closet... I'm sure most of them are seeing good use. The number of Birdman suits sold would probably be a reasonably accurate estimate of the number of Birdpeople... Jari, is this a business secret or can you give us at least a ballpark figure on the number of suits sold?

So... going on on the subject. I'm going to get my first own wingsuit in the near future, after having bummed off 17 flights on other people's suits. All my flights have been on Classics/ClassicIIs, and I feel comfortable flying them. I'm not going to get a ClassicII, it's a choice between a Gti and a Skyflyer.(edited to add: now that I think about it, is the performance difference between the ClassicII and the Gti worth the extra 100USD?) The main question I have is: Just how twitchy is the Skyflyer on deployment? I recently downsized to a 135 Hurricane loaded at 1.35(from a square canopy loaded at 1.26). Am I just begging for some spinning linetwists if I choose the Skyflyer?

Some of the exhaustion might be mental. Spending a lot of time in a noisy environment like a plane or freefall can be very stressful even if you don't notice it. Someone mentioned in another thread that if he wears earplugs on the way to altitude he'd be much less tired at the end of the day, so I decided to try them out. On the previous weekend I had done 7 tandems on Saturday, and 8 on Sunday. After each day I was so tired I didn't want to do a fun jump at the end of the day. The next Saturday I did 10 tandems, wore earplugs on the way to altitude, and wasn't really feeling tired at all at the end of the day. It might be worth a shot. Besides, using earplugs will also protect your hearing....

Many people have that kind of problems when they start flying/skydiving. Many get used to it or learn to deal with it. Trying to block your ears is probably a bad idea. The earplugs I bought had a warning on them : "If used on aircraft, remove before descent". You'd just end up with a higher pressure on one side of your eardrum than the other. Not good. A noseclip will not help you. Your mouth is connected to your nose, remember? Best bet would be to consult a doctor who specializes in the area.

I've been using Opera 6.05 for as long as it's been out there. No problems. No real experience on Opera7.

>How's Australia! Cuddled with a Kangaroo yet? Ummm. I think I'll pass that one. >Chosen your favorite beer? (Just don't say VB or XXXX...) Carlton midstrength is quite good. As is Haägen Gold(a lighter beer but nice). >Missing Finland? Finland? I think I've heard of that.. It's somewhere in Russia, right? >Summers coming.. hope you're in good shape cos once those tourists >want attention... you're going to be busy! I certainly hope so. It's been quiet so far.

Left wrist most of the time. Chest-strap when doing serious 4-way.

>>What qualifications do you need? Master rigger? >> > >I believe so. I'm fairly certain that that is not the case. You don't need to have a rigger's qualification to be able to get certain stages of building a rig right. It's basically just assembly work I think. You don't need to understand how the completed product works and how the different parts interact. That said, I'm sure they have several riggers overseeing the work and doing quality control.

He has juicy stories alright. You may have to meet him in person before he shares them though.

The one reason I've heard(I think by Hooknswoop right here) for a "right-left" closing order is the possibility of a bridle snagging on the right flap if the rig is packed "left-right". See attachment. Some rigs have asymmetrical side flaps, so they might not close up neatly if they're not packed in the right order. Consult your manual.

I'm considering buying a Vector 3 for my next container(sometime in the distant future...). After reading through the owner's manual, I came up with a few questions: Vector3 and "lazy bags"? Is the V3 compatible with any stowless D-bags? Has it been tested with any? Any possible complications if I just decide to install one? Trulok toggles, why metal pin? What's the advantage of having a metal pin instead of a stiffened bit of the toggle material, like on many other rigs? Side flap closing order. The side flaps are closed right-left. I assume this is because of the chance that the bridle might snag under the right flap if they were closed left-right? 3-ring maintenance every three months? I know this varies with the amount of jumps that are being done on the system, and the conditions that the system is being jumped in. Many people recommend 3-ring maintenance every 30 days, do you think that would be overdoing it? PC folding method in a different thread

I've been taught that folding the bridle on top of the mesh will increase the wear on the mesh, as on every pc deployment the bridle will be pulled straight while in contact with the mesh. However, it seems that none of the major manufacturers worry about this much, as most of the manuals I've seen recommend a method in which the bridle is folded on top of the mesh. Attached is "my" method of folding the pc, as well as a couple pics from the Vector manual. The Brian Germaine method mentioned earlier in this thread also keeps the bridle away from the mesh. So, am I worrying about nothing, and the thing about the bridle wearing out the mesh is just another urban paralegend, or is there room for improvement in the manufacturers' manuals?

Isn't the "F111-type" fabric currently used 0-3cfm?

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=519142

I've had this on my mind for a long time, but haven't bothered to post it yet. At the moment, the subject of the notification email says "Dropzone.com Forums - Reply to your post". Once you see that you have, say, nine messages with that same subject, you have to open them all to see what thread the replies were in and who replied. How about changing the subject to for example : "Dropzone.com Forums - Reply to [insert your thread title here]". Or even "DZcom Forums - Reply to [thread] at [a forum]" That way it would be unnecessary to even open the notification messages, which can take a while with a slow modem connection.

What about wingsuits? You can get a glide ratio of, what, over 3:1? And having seen the video of Loic at Verbier... that's either not falling, or it's falling with a shitload of style. What's the correct definition of "flight" anyway?

Here's a thread about the Speed: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=240483

On Parachutes de France gear or some other manufacturer's?

Sorry, didn't quite understand that... Are you saying that the bridle would wear out faster? I've seen a few older Atoms with the retractable pin, but I don't recall seeing any excessive wear. The newer Atoms don't come with the rectractable pin anymore, so I guess there is a good reason for not having them. Personally I like the idea and have not seen any trouble with them.

I'm not really buying this one. I don't think that a main container could be closed (without tools) so tight that a properly constructed pc in good condition wouldn't open the container. What I'm saying that the size of the pc might not be the issue, but rather its condition or construction. Either way it obviously requires some attention.

>where is herc boogie? when? http://www.herculesboogie.com/02/eng/postboogie/index.htm

Here are pictures of the "Lazy Bag" in action. http://www.maisin.be/compal/LazybagEN.html

I've seen a couple of AN-28s, some of the tailgates were modified for skydiving, others were not. See attachment: The original bits of the plane are drawn in black. Those leave a nice "L"-shape that you can hit with various body parts. Now some of the planes were modified with a piece of plywood(drawn in red), that effectively smooths out the wall, so if you hit it on exit you'll just slide down. What was the one you jumped like?

None of those yet.

http://www.pia.com/piapubs/TS%20Documents/ts-108.pdf