dex

1) I generally don't have a hard time explaining to whuffos how cool skydiving is... once you mention that it feels like flying they agree that it would be neat if your not lieing to them..... most people seem to think it's not for them without trying... 2) I'm not sure that most skydiver/whuffo relationships don't work.... I think that's a rumor started by some skyguy trying to get some skygal to hookup with him instead of the ramdom whuffo with more cash because he doesn't jump ;) I'm not sure that even most skydivers really have to accept the fact that they might die in their sport in any other way that a driver of a car has to accept it.... Sure you have a higher risk that you are choosing to take and needs to be acknowledged but I'm not sure that accepting the risks makes you into a kind of person that can't relate to the rest of the world. Life is always fatal....

Can't prove a thing? or won't due to the fact that I am a nice guy...

If anyone buys one I volunteer to live in the thing to guard it....

You are the good one ey.... Time for you to introduce me to your sister.....

Mine's covering my eyes in shame so you guys can't see the fact that I made a trivia mistake on the guide...

beat me with a towell I'm such a dumbass.... dex jumps in the infinite insignifigant machine and gets put in his place..... 6*9=42! ack banish me now!

6*7

Just because someone else thought of mixing orange juice and vodka before I did does not mean that I did not invent it independently! When I walked up to the bar saw some orange juice and some vodka I had an alcohol induced epiphany. Of course I must admit I was quite bummed that night when the guy at the bar had a name for my new drink early in the morning....

Or explain it would be more like being sucked out then jumping and he would get to play too...

The trip was excellent! Got in about 25 jumps and a bit of tunnel time... (beer) Getting all preped for my next visit in March.... 2 weeks of florida jumpin yahoo! Bob and Jay's collison was nasty ripped up Bob's center cell and Jay got some nasty line burn... It looked low from where I was under canopy but it was hard to judge from above... they found their freebags and canopies and were jumping with rental gear the next day....

The apprehension that I caused was not intentional, the guy asked me what I did on my trip and I explained it to him. He seemed to have a parinoid streak and would of prolly been just as nervous if I was of arab descent returning from the holy land. He did have plenty of questions about skydiving in general and I made no attempt to pretend to open the door or harass him in any way. Even though that might have made for a more interesting story. Although I did imagine some funny scenarioes.

I just got back from a boogie in Lake Wales.... One of the funny moments was on the flight home I got to sit in the exit row (lots of legroom in that row horay!) and the guy traded his window seat for my center seat so he could sit next to his honey. Guy started small talk on the airplane asking what I was doing in Florida... I replied skydiving... he said about a hundred times... I would never jump from a plane... blah blah... then the flight attendant came up to us and asked if we would be willing to operate the door in the case of an emergency I replied yes of course ;) After the flight attendant left he looked at my gear bag and said "That's not a parachute in there is it" I just smiled at him. He then got all nervous that I was going to jump I could see in his eyes he was pondering calling the flight attendant on me. He then picked up a copy of the magazine that the airline provides and started looking up the restricted items I knew he was doing that because he whispered when he read.... knives guns co2 blah blah all the things that you're not allowed to carry on he was annoyed that parachutes were not on the list. Whenever I moved in my seat he sorta flinched a bit eyeing me.. I could see him fantasizing to himself about stopping the evil skydiver from opening the door and jumping out... I had a disposable cam in my bag when I reached for it he jumped so high, I thought he was gonna wrestle it from me... I was laughing my ass off on the inside the whole trip. He wanted to call the flight attendant on me soo bad he could taste it. it was hilarious. I didn't have any problems carrying on my rig on United back and forth between MHT and MCO, Although on the return flight I forgot to put my lead weight in my checked bag so I was stoped at the xray for inspection of the blind spot on the Xray. The guy did try and pick up my rig by the silver handle.... luckily I had my cheststrap routed through so it wouldn't deploy my reserve and ruin my day.

the cartridge she was talking about is a co2 based device, the cypres does not apply.

Most of the NE dz's have been doing winter jumps.. I did one at SDNE about a month ago and we were going to do another one last weekend but it was too windy.. A bunch of us are going down to Lake Wales Florida for the Great white north boogie... about 50 skydivers from the new england area.. it's going on from the 22nd to the 26st... I'll let you know when the next jump at SDNE is if you want... sure it's chilly but hey it's safer then jumping off your house.... plus for the next week ya don't really need to keep your house as warm...

check the security of the e-mail address you are using to register incase someone is grabbing forgot password mails from ya... good luck on getting your account under control

Making it through this course without burning in... priceless.

I'm heading down that way woohoo!

In the case of a drunk you're putting random strangers at risk for injury/death... I don't think it's reasonable for a person to be drunk and then to drive and kill someone... they should be held responsible I do think it's reasonable for a rigger not to be perfect. Looking back on the post forgetting a molar strap is prolly an excessive example.. it IS a big deal.. any rigging error is... and someone who packs a reserve with a molar on doesn't have any business being a rigger.[edit]err packs it with it on and leaves it on[/edit] We are on the same page so far..... I personally don't think the "murder" or manslaughter charges fit for a rigger who makes a mistake. Looks like we disagree on this one.

I'd say a molar strap being left on a bag is way more negligent then anything you can do with a cypres.. again I think if they make mistakes with cypes or other rigging problems their ticket should be on the line... not their personal lives. I'm a licensed skydiver I'm responsible for getting my main over my head... if I keep jumping for the rest of my life eventually I will most likely have to use my reserve... I hope it works. But I don't think it would be fair to punish the guy who installed the airbag if I did something really risky with my car and slammed myself into my steering wheel. A reserve parachute is an emergency device and isn't 100% reliable... Some of the failure points come from me.. some of them come from the rigger, some from the manufacturer. They aren't forcing me to jump, I'm not paying any of them enough money for the service they are providing me... (50-100$ is not enough to be responsible for someone's life) Every rigger should be willing to let a loved one jump a rig with reserve they pack. Every rigger should pack every rig with as much skill as they can and be sure that they are current etc etc... but I don't think any rigger should ever go to a jail for something that's at least partly.. prolly mostly my fault...

If the jumpers were concerned they could check their reserve before the next repack... other then that it's a trust thing if you didn't watch. I watched my rigger assemble and pack my reserve when I got my first rig... not to check up on him but simply because I wanted to know more. I had a whopping 50 jumps at the time but my rigger was happy to explain what he was doing... I assume most would be if when they had the time... The next time I need a repack and plan to watch it I'll look over my rig after I pop it....

No question there, I wouldn't jump a rig if I knew the hard links were not correctly installed.

It's important to remember that you leave the plane with 2 parachutes... it's YOUR responsibility to make sure the first one works. If the second one opens after you fucked yourself... bonus. yeah yeah not all main mals are the jumpers fault... in my opinion most are. As for holding the rigger responsible I think it should be limited to having his ticket on the line. I don't view leaving a molar strap as murder unless it was intentional.... Skydiving is an activity where something as simple as a badly seated grommet can kill you... noone but you can accept the risk that jumping out of planes brings except you.

and in all likelyhood the reserve would have worked... I'm not a rigger and I haven't ever jumped/tested loose links so I'm guessing.. but I would bet that the links would not break/release line groups under normal circumstances even if they were only finger tightened. "Quietly Yes" is a good answer.. although if it were my rig I'd like to know that the problem existed... I'm curious as to what others think on this type of question so I've started a new thread to ask a more general and less directed (at any one rigger) question. It's in the gear and rigging forum.

During a reserve repack: What would you do if you came across a reserve that might not have saved the users life? ("small" rigging error like a packed hard pull or bad closing loop routing) What about one that was a total mal waiting to happen (molar strap left on.....front and rear line groups connected backwards on one side...) Would you notify the Jumper/owner of gear? The rigger who packed it? What if it was you who packed it? Anyone else? What if it was rental/student gear? and as a jumper who didn't pack their own reserve what would you do if you were notified of a possible mal or a total mal on your reserve had it been used? Would you want to know? Would it keep you from jumping again?

Do you inform the person (owner) who gave you the rig to be packed?