callahan

I have a really bad feeling about this!

Hey jay! What's your main and how fast were you cruising.....best guess?

I doubt anyone would want to loose their main but .....it would really blow.. if there's a problem with the reserve and you could've had more time to deal with it.

I have! A few people didn't have the common sense or were too lazy to replace their closing loop when they should have. When they ask for a gear check and I see a loop that is super hairy....I tell them that it's time to replace that thing and I wonder if they even know how to.I showed one girl how easy it was to do when we got back on the ground.

Glad you're okay ! Weird stuff with the zipper blowing open . I'd get a ditter as soon as you can . They're not too replace being heads up but when your attention wanders ....they scream ! Wake up and pull !

My brother ordered a pair of pants from them about two months ago . The sizing was way , way off ! The quality of materials was really poor too ! They did credit his account and never charged him for the pants . The only thing is no one can fit into them .

I have a Z-1 that I've been using for a few years when it gets colder . I've never had it open up before but I have been warned from others about this happening .I sanded down the visor a little so the air flows over it better when I'm in a sit . I've never had it open up before . I just make sure that I feel it click before I head out the door . In the winter , I use some rainex defog on the inner lense . The stuff is great ! I use a bonehead in the summer . You can bake it to get a great fit on your head . I almost lost it on a jump .It fits so tight that I didn't know that I it wasn't buckled . It's very quiet in the air when you can get it to fit that well .

It was a toss up to put this in gear and rigging or safety and training . I was just wondering if people consider the color of your jumpsuit or clothes you wear for freefall . When we're on jumprun it's easy to spot a white plane that's going over some dark ground way down below . In the summer , I usually wear a white sweatshirt for sit jumps to make myself easier to see . In the winter it's a dark one if there's snow on the ground . I almost lost sight of a friend on a sitjump because they were all over the sky and the jumpsuit they were wearing was very difficult to see with the color of the ground . They got below me . If someone drifted into my airspace , it sure would be alot easier to see them come pull time if they were wearing something that was bright and easy to see . What do you think about the subject ?

You never know what you might see out there . Things could get messed up and you might have to keep tracking or dump right away if someone opens up below you . I'd rather not try this unless I do a higher hop n pop and no one else is out there .

I jump in jeans or bike shorts all the time . I always tuck my shirt into underwear and then wear a belt or have a cord on my shorts to keep things tight .It's scary how many times I've seen people not keep their shirts tucked in. I try to warn them about this but it's like talking to the wall . Be safe !

At our dropzone they wanted you to have at least 50 jumps until you got into it . I started learning how to sit around 70 jumps . I went out alone for about 40 jumps until I felt confident enough to do a two way and not take the other person out . I usually stay with two ways now just to be on the safe side . Things happen very fast up there .

I think you guys are right on with the other pass . I've had two close ones that the people didn't have a clue with what was going on . I think people should get out after the tandems and pull high until they can stay perpendicular to the line of flight .I'm alot more careful to quiz the guy before and after me to size up the situation . I realized that if I had done that before , a different result could've turned out from better planning .

I was wondering what people thought of the tracking pants ? Do you think you can fly farther using them compared to an rw suit with booties ? Or , do they help you fall slower but you don't get to fly as far ?

The reason you got dumped after you flaired is because you held the toggles down too long after you landed . I'll usually drop them just as my feet touch . I'll turn around and walk back towards the canopy to release the pressure off the lines . I'll keep walking and get downwind of the canopy as I gather up my lines . I was always taught that if you chop it , to hold onto one toggle so the canopy doesn't blow away .

There wouldn't be any freefall time but I know they've been d-bagging them from the underside of hot air balloons .

I used to have mine set at 5500 , 4000 and 2500 . I was noticing that sometimes I'd confuse my first two alarms with each other and that over time , I was in the saddle a liitle lower than I wanted to be . Recently , I switched to just having two alarms instead of three and I like it alot better . I've got the first one at 5500 and the flatline at 4000 . I usually dump at 3500 so that gives me a nice two seconds to look around and have a good wave off . At 5500 I give it a second or two to come out of my sit and go back to my belly . I haven't had a reserve pull but I wouldn't want a terminal one . The siren going off really gets your attention if the ground getting larger doesn't first .

I'd go with what you feel comfortable with . Don't forget that with the warmer temps coming up that you'll be coming in faster . The other question might be is how often do you plan on jumping per month . I don't get to jump as much as I'd like to and I'm 1 to 1 on a spectre 190 . I've got about 220 jumps on it . Being conservative can save your ankles and legs and downtime if you crash in . I stand up my landings but I need to improve on my flairs to get better at them . Make sure you don't rush through a size before you learn the most out of it like skybytch said . If you don't learn what you need on something that is more forgiving you might be too scared to try to it on something smaller . I had to put it down on a windy day with barbed wire fences around and things turned out fine . Be safe !

I went to the uspa site and they said that the new info on it would be in marchs parachutist . Did anyone out there attend the conference ?

What's going on phil ! I like having my hook knive in a sheath on my chest strap so it's right in front . I even put some white electrical tape on the sheath so its easy to spot and it doesn't blend in with my black chest strap . It's looking too cold this weekend for jumping . Cya at mile hi !

As everyone said , its easier to quit . I wouldn't drive a truck that was overloaded or had bad brakes . I've seen rims and tires come off of the rear axle on plowtrucks that were overloaded . I've got another friend that broke his back when the nitrogen tanker he was driving came off of the fifth wheel and ragdolled him over the steering wheel . Before this happened , he'd have the dot guys meet him somewhere and do a spot inspection but the company knew it costed less to pay the fines then to repair the fifth wheel correctly . He paid the price . He lives with alot of pain now and whatever the setllement was , it wasn't worth it .

If we didn't have so many people crashing themselves into pieces under canopy it would be easier to get health insurance . I have it now but I couldn't put down that I skydive . I wouldn't be covered for anything very serious if I can't walk into the emergency room . It might be nice to come up with something to help the people that have poor judgement on what canopy size they should be on instead of upsizing after their injury or worse .

Hook ! Have you ever tried to hold the the risers together on a side by side ? What I mean is the left canopies right front to the right canopies left front and the same situation for the rear . Is this possible to do ? Would it keep them from getting out of hand ? I'm kind of interested if that might work in a biplane as well playing with the risers to keep things from going crazy . or are the forces too hard to control ?

I got my Vector 3 about a month ago. The main reason for getting was for freeflying. I didn't trust my old one going too fast. I was looking into Wings and Mirage before I went with the Vector . The wings fit real nice but it didn't have secondary riser protection . The Mirage would've costed about the same as the Vector . I went from an eclipse and I wanted the (pilot chute)handle to be in the general area that it was in before .The other rigs were a little bit shorter in length for what I was used to.I only have two complaints . I wish it had a visible cypres window so I didn't have to lift the reserve flap to verify that its on during the day .I never found out about this before I ordered . The company might be able to put one in .The other thing is , I jump a 190 so the rig weighs about 22 lbs . The shoulder straps are sort of narrow for all of the weight . The cables are routed under instead of on top ( for the cutaway housing and the reserve ) so I can feel them around my shouder area . The rigger compared them to another guys vector and it was routed the same way . I'm going to look into getting some padding for them . Speaking of padding . The legstraps are very comfortable with the foam inside of them . The overall quality of the container is very high . I'd definitely buy another one .

I'm just wondering about some things . Do most people use a pullout system for speed diving ? If they do is there any guideline as far as what speed you'd what to stay away from a boc . Crazy questions, but it came to mind . Do you have marks e mail ?

I know what you mean with the ear problems . I don't have allergies but I had a bad ear infection years ago and that seems to make my ears sort of a problem that I deal with . I live in the mountains so when I'm driving down , the change in elevation ( 5000 feet ) I can gauge how my ears might be before I get to the dz . I usually take a few sudafeds before I jump . I also chew gum in the plane and on the way down( chomping away ) in freefall . Staying hydrated is important too . I've had times where I'll just do hop n pops because my ears were a little clogged up to go to full elevation . I've heard of people getting ruptured eardrums before when their ears won't equalize . I wouldn't jump if my ears were in pain . I've tried nose sprays before for jumping but the sudafed and the gum work great . See you up there !