sniper1rfa

I have no where near full motion in my shoulder, but the position needed for stable belly flying is not a problem for me. FWIW, I don't think you'll have any problems.

You might be out of luck. Don't jump again until you have it checked out. Dislocating a shoulder almost guarantees you will do it again, probably sooner rather than later. He had arthroscopic surgery to correct a bankart lesion; thread here: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3996382 Depends on the damage done. I had a bankart lesion which was corrected arthroscopically and was back in business in fairly short order. I've also had open surgery to fix a shattered socket which left me useless for months.

Wow guys, sorry. I almost didn't post, since I am obviously not very experienced. I ended up posting because it's not such a ridiculous statement as it's been made out to be here. One DZ I've jumped at has a student rig with a 200 main and a student cypres 2. Also, we were very well briefed on the dangers of setting off your cypres while under canopy. Furthermore, is it really that outrageous to read the manual for your equipment and then work with those limitations? No different than any other gear choice. Obviously the better choice would be to have it converted, but it wouldn't be crazy to jump it for a weekend and then send it in when you've got the time. @peek: I did read the manual, which is why I know that 1000 ft. is the threshold for possible activation. Especially if you're already under canopy as your descent rate would be below that of freefall as explicitly stated in the manual. EDIT: and please don't compare me with petejones. I've read his posts - I like to think I, at the very least, use a little more logic and a little more punctuation than he does.

To be fair though, as long as you work within the limitations of the AAD it won't be a problem. Activation altitude is only 250ft higher, and just don't pull any hard turns near or below activation altitude. Then again, mode changes are free.

You're welcome. :) . I think plastics are fascinating. The phrase "plastics make it possible" is not as sarcastic as people think. :P Sadly, their usefulness is often misplaced. I hate seeing plastic wasted for no reason. The cutting board example above, for example, drives me nuts. Wood is better in just about every way. Save plastic (and most other petroleum products) for when there aren't other options.

Just got corrected on this one - i didn't realize that cordura is a brand name, not a branded material (like lexan/polycarb or delrin/acetal). I guess the modern cordura fabrics are mostly polyester or nylon. Reading more, cordura's original product was as I described above, but they've since changed it. No wonder I was confused. Reading along thinking "cellulose acetate? really?". That would be like saying "we make our products out of bakelite for durability!"

oh yeah, nylon (polyamide) is definitely plastic. The problem is actually the term "plastic", which pretty much means "can be molded". Typically it refers to organic polymers, though "plasticity" is a material property that can be applied across all materials. In fact, most of the materials used in parachutes are common plastics. Nylon (polyamide) is obvious. Used for just about everything - the one that springs to mind that people have used are those white plastic screws. http://image.made-in-china.com/2f0j00uBvEGegqYibl/Plastic-Nylon-Screw.jpg Dacron is PET (polyethylene terephthalate). Common use? Soda bottles. Common name? polyester. http://www.kjcf.net/images/index/products/petBottleZ.jpg Spectra is UHMW polyethylene. Common use? plastic cutting boards. Its little sisters PE and HDPE are those whitish-clear tupperware containers. http://www.hospitalitywholesale.com.au/products/haccp-gastronorm-polyethylene-20mm-cutting-board1.jpg and http://feeds2.yourstorewizards.com/3363/images/250x1000/wi-pesc-4.jpg Vectran is a type of polyester (not PET, but the group of plastics). I think it's related to kevlar, but i'm not certain on that. EDIT: cordura appears to be a version of rayon, which from my reading seems to be more like some of the old-school plastics like cellulose acetate, which is what the famous old movie film is made from - the ones that are heinously flammable. :)

Indeed. Just figured I would throw it out there. Lots of plastic bashing going on, which is pretty amusing considering a skydiving rig is made almost entirely of plastic.

No idea. Probably not enough to bother with, especially considering plastic buckles for safety-critical applications would be a specialty item, rather than buying bulk webbing hardware. I don't think plastics would have any real advantage. The hardware used in skydiving is already produced on a massive scale for any one of a million rigging applications, so it's not like we're hard up for quality hardware. Plastic hardware would be re-inventing the wheel. ;) EDIT: I'm reminded of a client I worked with once that wanted us to design a 3/4" drive ratchet extension for a tool kit he was producing; he was convinced he would be able to produce his own for cheaper than he would be able to buy them from an some well-established manufacturer. Boy was that a good one.

Just speaking from an engineering standpoint, there is no real reason why you couldn't make plastic hardware that would hold up. Probably would end up with UHMW HDPE or one of the more high performance plastic (amarids and so on), would be my guess. Nobody would trust it, of course, as you can see in this thread. ;) Plus, if you already have a supply of metal hardware (so no tooling or engineering costs) it would be a little pointless. There just isn't much reason to migrate to plastic, especially given the stigma it has.

This. Very, very, this. PT is boring as hell, annoying, and super crucial.

You wuss.

My first jump at a nearby DZ this summer was on a 230 navigator, IIRC. I weigh ~190 out the door. The student canopies (about 15 of them) were 200-260. There may have been a 280 for the fat guys. :) The other DZ's I've jumped at now had similar selections. Rental gear has typically been 150-200. Also, we were warned as students very thoroughly about the dangers of low turns, both due to altitude loss and possible AAD activation. Just throwing that out there.

That was what my first surgery was for. Will you be having open or arthroscopic surgery? A bankart lesion can be done either way. If arthroscopic, I wouldn't bother with the nerve block. It will be somewhat pointless. The pain for that particular procedure is nothing special - at least it wasn't in my case. The surgery worked really well right up until I asploded my shoulder completely. Now I'm waiting for the arthritis to develop and the fake shoulder technology to mature more.

Like the others said, your recovery will be long either way. Regarding pain control - it really depends on your pain threshold. I've had two shoulder surgeries, one arthroscopic under general and the other open with a nerve block and general. The pain from the first surgery wasn't bad, and I didn't use any of the pain killers prescribed for post-op pain. The pain from the second surgery was, IIRC, quite a lot worse, and i recall using pain killers for three or four days after the nerve block wore off. I didn't, however, like the nerve block in lieu of the pain killers. You have no control and no sensation after a nerve block, and IMO your risk of bashing it into something and doing further damage is too high. Of course, i don't know what the pain would have been like without the block - probably pretty bad. My open surgery was about as extensive as it gets without simply replacing the shoulder entirely (this option was discussed and dismissed due to my age). It was amusing when the block wore of on my motor control nerves before it did on the sensation nerves. It's like being able to control somebody else's arm using the Force. What will they be doing during the surgery?