ChuckMartin

Members
  • Content

    161
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by ChuckMartin

  1. I saw it happen to a entire load a few months ago. A group of military guys jumping at our DZ had to ride down and every cypress fired. The ADD's they were using are close to what a student one fires at. Not a lot of happy people at the airport that day.
  2. Maybe he meant the SoloShot. http://shop.soloshot.com/collections/all They came to our DZ to do some testing. Worked pretty well.
  3. http://www.square1.com/manufacturers/square1/p522.asp#GoProMounts Saying both the Kiss and this mount is made by the same company they might work together. It was made for their open face helmet so i'm not 100%. I know it fits on the Phantom well.
  4. They were all on AFF jumps. Two at Perris and one at San Marcos, could have been 4 but the AFFI pulled and had a two out instead of a save. One at Perris was a student that dislocated his shoulder at pull time and the AFFI chased him, same story on the 2nd one but instead of a shoulder problem the student was just dumb. Do you think people would still buy airbags if they added 50% to the price of the car? They would if they wanted to drive. Let me ask you this - who is safer - a 5000 jump skydiver with no AAD who does small-ways under a 1-1 loaded Pilot, or a 5000 jump skydiver with an AAD who does big-ways and jumps a Velocity 90? As a skydiver who's been around a while, I can tell you - the second one is orders of magnitude more likely to die or get injured. Rookies seem to always think its the first one. Their concept of what kills in this sport is really skewed. It's not a question of who is safer it's a question of who is as safe as they can be. Lets add another person. Somebody that jumps a even less loaded canopy same 5000 jumps as the other two but jumps without a reserve. I just don't think you can look at somebody else and say i'm safer then that person and be okay. It should be more of "I'm being as safe as I can be doing what I have decided to do" The safest skydiver is the one that never skydives. If you never jump out of a plane you won't die skydiving. The only reason this is even an issue is because it is relativity new. If we didn't have a requirement of having reserves that's what we would be talking about right now. If tomorrow the FAA made ADD's a requirement people would buy one, move one, and in 25 years nobody would be talking about them like this. But for now they are not so make your own decision.
  5. In the last two years I have seen 3 people saved by an AAD and one person die for not having one with my own eyes not to mention the people that have been saved and have died that I just know bout. We are all grown ups here and people can make their own decisions but in my opinion it's dumb to jump without one (for most people). Most the people in the last few years that have died from not having an AAD in their rigs were highly experienced so having a lot of jumps or a ton of time in the sport is no reason not to have one and if you say they cost to much then maybe skydiving is not the sport for you. To risk your life for what comes out to be a few dollars a month investment is just crazy to me. I bet if you could go back in time and talk to everybody that has died in a case were an AAD could have saved them and told them on their next jump they were going to go in from being knocked out or a no pull or whatever. Then gave them a chance to put an AAD in their rigs they would. Truth is we don't know who it's going to happen to or when so why not be better safe then sorry? Cars would be cheaper without airbags, seat belts, crash tests, roll cages, ect... should cars be built without all that stuff and have it as an option to add on? I kind of believe most of the ideas of not requiring an AAD comes from older jumpers that are set in their ways. It's a how it has been, how it should be fallacy. Just like anything else that comes along that adds money or time to an event. Like when states started making people have car insurance. There were plenty of people who said "I've never needed it before why should I be forced to have it now" or that it should be there choice. If reserves where not a thing all this time then people started talking about making them mandatory there would be the same outcry. Again we are all adults and can make our own choices. You not having an ADD, or for that matter a reserve or a helmet, doesn't effect me at all so do what you want. But if somebody dies from a jump where an AAD could have saved them i'm going to look at their death just like if they make the decision to drink and drive and they wound up killing themselves. It was their own choice and i'm not going to feel as bad.
  6. I would say it's a little smaller. At the 150 size you might not see much of a difference between the two.
  7. If you don't think you're ready for a jump then you're not. Remember it's your money and your jump so make sure you're confident on the ground before you go up. There may be times when you feel you are being rushed, make your instructors slow down. They are being paid to provide a service. Make sure you get your monies worth.
  8. It's the vector logo thing. 8-9 week build time is a lot better then 40+.Haha. They make a BASE rig also. Picked up the dealership for that and it just came with everything.
  9. They are not TSO'ed. I am a dealer for them. It's confusing because they talk about FAA TSO a few times on their website like..."We chose the American testing program TSO-С23d, which is one of the strictest programs for flight trials." But they mean they just tested it like it was but they never actually got it TSO'ed.
  10. I can't think of any that live in down there. I'll ask around.
  11. It's worth what somebody is willing to pay for it. Look on here and search the FB pages to see what stuff like it is going for. The lightning comes in a few configurations so find out what you have. Also DOM's and photos help a lot. Is the PDr 143 a 1990 with a ton of pack jobs and never deployed or a 2013 and never deployed, makes a difference.
  12. Supplex is just the trade name for taslan or generic "taslanated" nylon. "Better" would depend on a lot of things at far as "more resistant" some companies use cordura 180, 500, and 1000 in parts it not most of their suits which is stronger but has some drawbacks.
  13. The toggle fire things seems to be a problem for a few people over the last year or so. I have a friend for also has a Next gen and same thing was happening to him. Every other jump or so he was having one. Talk to Aerodyne about it, they might help you out.
  14. Some kind of interesting "trick shots" but for the most mart I believe there are better cameras out there.
  15. Might have came out a little better if he was not on his back I had close to the same thing happen to me on my Wings rig. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtp8AX-zPFQ This was my first save and also my first reserve ride. So much beer.. Flipped over to my belly and it came out. Like people have said just don't over stuff it. All I fly is Wings now. I really like how they look, for the money they are a great value, and a lot about them makes a lot of sense to me ie. the cutter for the AAD is under the reserve, the RSL ring placement, the reserve pilot chute, no velcro on the reserve free bag, cordura BOC (the packers hated it for a few weeks before it got broken in). I have owned 5 of them now and it's the first thing I usually recommend to people when then ask.
  16. Hello I am working with a wingsuit company about starting a rental/demo program and looking for information on sizing. They know what size they sell the most but as of now they mostly sell in Europe and I want to see if that transfer over to the US. Every time I leave the country I fell like I went to the land of munchkins. These are the stock sizes they have to offer now. It would be a lot of help to me if you could take this poll even more so if you wingsuit or plan on doing so. Thank you.
  17. People are not asking for it but it is a problem to riggers. You are putting there name on something they didn't do when you pencil whip it and taking money out of their pockets. Happened around here lately where somebody was trying to pencil pack their own reserve. A lot of them now get stamps made and let it be known that unless their seal number is stamped on the repack card it not good but not every DZ in the country would know this.
  18. Hmmm I want to find fault with this but cant. Sounds like a good idea. Might be something a individual company could do but would be harder to put on some rigs and still have it look good.
  19. +1 to suits. Most the time I use a booty RW suit but also hold onto a old floppy tony hybrid FF suit. Its all poly and really slows me down. I even put it on a student the other day to help him out with his fall rate.
  20. Have them on my rig and just ordered another one with them. I like them and think they are worth the 3 or so jump tickets.
  21. I really like the new helmet and think it has some great things going for it but that price is going to kill it unless it really is amazing and people that do get it talk it up a lot.
  22. This is a little misleading. They are both rated the same but PD puts that weight as their maximum with a sliding scale. Look at the PD Op 113 they put the max rating at a 2.25 wing loading. Icarus rates there reserves at no more then a 1.4 WL. I own two Nanos and have landed both the Op and Nano they both fly and flare well. The Nano does have a higher denier fabric that they claim is less prone to line burns and tears. Also I feel like they open a little faster and that might be a reason why i'm not to sure.
  23. I really like Pilots. I started on one and did about 300 jumps on a Pilot 188 also did about 50 on a Sabre2 190 then went down to Sabre2 170's. Put about 450 on those. I still have one but just went back and got two Pilot 140's. The pilot opens a lot better and on heading and I feel like they fly and flare a lot nicer also.
  24. Had this happen to one the our students right after they got their "A" on jump number 26. Jumping new gear and doing a horny gorilla :/ Her reserve handle got twisted and pressed against her body. When she deployed her main their was enough tension to open her reserve and it came out with line twists. She cut away and landed safely. This seems like one of those situations when every choice sucks.