Airviking

+1 My 210 Spectre spends a good 800ft not opening. That's just wasted to to me. My old Pegasus would start opening as soon as it was out of the bag, and still super soft. Oh, and yeah, the Spectre opens soft, except when it doesn't. I believe you have my stapler.

90's?! Try late 70's! Huge rainbow-colored jumpsuits and canopies. Then it switched to "bounce-and-blend" schemes. I dig the colors! They make you happy!

My $.02: Don't even consider any plane with mental spar wing assemblies. I believe you have my stapler.

It sucks, and makes it makes me sad to think that something like that can happen in my home country. I guess another one of my bubbles just got burst. I believe you have my stapler.

SUCKED!!!! I liked China's summer, and Norway's winter. This was just a mishmosh of forgettable British history and culture. At one point, I thought they were gonna spray coal dust on the spectators for effect. I believe you have my stapler.

OMG, my side hurts! I believe you have my stapler.

People who do in traffic, what they wouldn't dream of doing in a supermarket checkout line. I'm talking "Do whatever it takes to get in front of the person in front of them." As if we all don't want to get where we are going. It burns me up like nothing else. I believe you have my stapler.

Yep. I believe you have my stapler.

Zackly!!! It's the journey, not the destination. I never did AFF, but my student days did leave me with fond memories. (I wish I could go back.) Be here now. I believe you have my stapler.

My wife just bought me a Seiko classic chronograph. Very nice looking, but stupidest design I've ever seen! About the only thing I would ever use the stopwatch function for, is to time my grilling. But all the stopwatch data is on two small dials that occasionally get covered over by the hour hand and minute hand. I can basically forget about grilling burgers between 5 o'clock and 7 o'clock and any 25 to 30 minutes past any hour. I believe you have my stapler.

Thanks Dave, Actually, I'm more like 6'2", 200lbs, but my metal picture is a little old, so it still has me at 180-185. Yeah, I remember checking into Flight Suit, just to see if they are still around, and it looks like a pretty good thing for me. I should try my old Flight Suit just for sh*ts and giggles. I can still fit into it, and these guys wouldn't mind an experiment. I'm betting our "team performance" would improve! I believe you have my stapler.

These were simple 2-way & 3-way dives, free-fly exit. One guy in floater position, me (and jumper 3) following out the door. The thing is that almost immediately, I had a lot of horizontal separation to the floater, but not much vertical, again indicating an issue with mismatched drag. The rest of the dive became a challenge. I didn't exactly do a dead spider, but the FS did suffer as the result of fallrate mismatch. Although I do appreciate the suggestion, to me launching pieces eliminates a couple of the awesome aspects of fun-jumping, i.e. exit and initial formation. I'm already understanding from you fine folks that a slightly larger suit is in my future. I believe you have my stapler.

Hey Wendy, SLOW-FALLING DZ!!! OMG, give me strength! That means that a nomad like me might have to commit to a "home" DZ, because recreational jumpers can't agree on a standard fall-rate?! Side-note: I don't understand why casual jumpers abandoned their big suits with swoop cords back in the '80s. (Actually I do: it's because all the RW teams went to tight, fast-falling suits, and everyone copies the skygods, even though they are doing a totally different type of skydive.) Big suits are so much fun to fly and the fallrate control is huge. I believe you have my stapler.

I'm wondering if there is a quick approach to the fallrate question. Currently, I may be falling too fast, or the few folks who have had the misfortune of jumping with me may be falling too slow. I want to know that I am falling at a current "standard" belly-flying fall rate, and I don't want to blow a lot of season to get there, jumping with different folks who's fallrates are also unknown. I have a Zute Suit which I bought used, and it's almost all spandex. But I don't want to start changing things until I know what's going on. Back in my glory days, I'd give Flight Suit my measurements and desired fallrate (100mph! ), and they'd make me a suit that was dead-nuts. Case closed! I guess I could do the same today, but like I said, I'd like to quantify the situation before I throw money at it. I believe you have my stapler.

Fair enough. I believe you have my stapler.

Is there helmet cam footage? I really need first-person perspective, so I won't need to do this myself. I believe you have my stapler.

From what I have read, the worst possible thing to do is get between the mother and a cub. e.g. walking down a trail when mother is on one side and a cub is on the other. One morning, I stepped out the front door to get in my car that was parked in the driveway, and my across-the street neighbor gave me a heads-up that a mother and two cubs were in my next-door neighbor's yard. So, I pulled my camera out of my bag and snapped happily away. Meanwhile, mommy bear told the kids to scoot up a tree. So, I'm snapping away at the cute little cubs, hanging onto the tree trunk and looking down, me not realizing that the cubs going up a tree is a sign that the mother feels that they are being threatened. Also, once the cubs are in a tree, the mother has no choice but to deal with the threat. So, I'm snapping away at the cubs. Meanwhile, Mommy's coming toward me, but taking the long way around, and taking her time. I didn't notice her until she walked out from behind one of the cars and was 20ft away from me. I made a B-line for my front door, screaming like a girl all the way. (My next-door neighbor, who was watching it all happen through his window, still teases me about it.) I believe you have my stapler.

The seller replied that it does require a serious pull on the kill lines, but he never had a problem. So, maybe I'm just being a wuss. (Actually, being a mechanical engineer, I look at what the kill lines are actually doing, and how much pull should be required to do the job. If the actual required pull force is significantly higher than that, I think that something isn't right.) Yeah this "rigger" is every bit a "dealer" which I feel is cause for conflict just about any time I show him something. He's also a gear nut, and salivates over the stuff that I just consider "bling". He's an OK guy, but I think he's struggling with his dealer-rigger business as his single source of income. And maybe a lack of time to boot. I think I'll just try it again, and if it's a struggle, f**k it. I'm not a swooper so the collapsable slider is just bling to me. The slider has seen better days, so perhaps sinking $50 (2 jump ) into altering it, versus $110 for a new one might not make too much sense. I can keep my eye out on the classifieds. I believe you have my stapler.

These guys hung out in my back yard for a good hour this morning. So cool... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ztKCKJUxWFk I believe you have my stapler.

Spoken like a rigger who has his customer's best interests in mind. My rigger wants to sell me a new slider. I'll see what the seller has to say. Maybe he'll do something for me. I believe you have my stapler.

Took a look at the slider Sunday, and I found the little tabs on the lines to be so far forward, that the only way I could collapse it (while on the ground) was to manually bunch up the channels lttle by little, working from the front to the back while pulling on the lines. It looks like the slider has had some work done to it, which may be the cause of the problem. I contacted the seller, who's a rigger and a good guy, to ask him if he had issues with it. I believe you have my stapler.

I hear ya...Dropzone.com was notified about "Dive213" a month ago. I also notified the FBI just now, by way of their website. And so did my friend who received the bad check. Even more fun than stringing this this A-hole along, would be to catch him. I believe you have my stapler.

Yeah, I was stringing along one of the African bastards a few years ago. It was a lot of fun. I was going to see if I could get any money out of him, deposit on a hotel room etc, but things got busy for me, and I ran out of time to play. I believe you have my stapler.

Amazing, the lengths NASA went to to perpetuate a hoax. I believe you have my stapler.

No, I'm not really being played. I just posted here for opinions about what the scam really is. But as I am writing this, I got a call from my friend who says that he indeed received a check for $1,800 (to cover $390 of goods and shipping) so it's obvious what the scam is. But I'm thinking of stringing the guy along by telling him that the check has been cashed, and ask him what I should do with all the extra funds. I'm thinking at the very least, I can waste some of his time, running to the Western Union office a few times. Any risk? I believe you have my stapler.