moonglo

Oooooh, $15 jumps are tempting.

So far in 2006 I've made 3 non-wingsuit jumps, but they were all for good causes. The first was a happy new year free load on a short call and my suit wasn't hooked up, the second was a friend's first tandem so I jumped with him, the third was a coach jump with a student where I hit 12 Hours of freefall at 620-ish jumps.

What Markus said. (Hi Airwolf!) The goggles I was wearing when I lost one were Sorz. For freeflying I now wear Mini Flex-Z, so far so good. No problems since using an Oxygn full face, even when I've lost my visor!!

I used to freefly in my old Vector 2, but I was sure to keep the velcro and boc maintained and had the main flap modified so the tucked under flap part was longer and less likely to come out. Never had a problem with that setup for the 300 or so jumps I had it except for a floating reserve handle a few times (once when I needed it) due to stupid me not replacing that velcro when I had the rest done. That said, I do feel its safer in my Vector 3

I have flown demos of both, though I should mention that the Birdman demo was a bit long and the Phoenix-Fly demos were a bit short for me, and I didn't put a lot of jumps on either suit. Since I was flocking I didn't get much of a chance to really fly the suits to their full potential, except for short bursts at breakoff. (My new V-1 fits very nice, but I've only gotten 7 jumps on it) The Vampire seems to be easier to fly and quicker to inflate, but they're both nice suits. The big selling points for the V-1 for me was how much I hated the velcroless wing cutaways on the Birdman suit and the high quality of the PF suits. I had no problems lacing up the wings, but it came out of its keeper on the ground while dirt diving, in the plane, and was beating me in the leg partway through the jump but never came out enough to cause a problem. Disclosure: I am a PFI, but I will buy whatever suit I like better and have owned BM and PF suits. My PFI patch is sewn on to my GTi. If I had the $$ to do it over I would get a V-2 (yes, I've seen the prototypes, and no, I didn't get to fly it )

I've been lucky with stitches - had very few for all the crazy injuries I've had ... -1 stitch in my right eyebrow from a flying clarinet case in 7th? grade That's a much less interesting story than it sounds. -7 or so external and some inside my left palm from the head of a finishing nail sticking out of a piece of scenery I was helping carry at work the week after graduating AFF (at least I got worker's comp on that one, and the weather was bad for a few weeks so I couldn't have jumped anyways) -Looks to be 4 dissolving in my mouth right now from having my wisdom teeth out last week. That tooth had to be shattered to be removed and ended up as a dry socket.

I'm still recovering from having mine out last week. You'll feel better by the 4th day if you don't get a dry socket or a bad reaction to the meds like I did! I got 1 dry socket in the one lower hole that needed to have the tooth shattered to remove it and the only one that got stitches. Too much trauma caused not enough bleeding to heal properly, OUCH! But of course they can also be caused by alcohol, bubbly drinks, smoking, sucking, or bad luck..... time for a Vicoden ES refill!!! Also wish I'd thought of sleeping sitting up longer (I did the first day) that morning head rush sucks!

A V-1 is a first generation Vampire high performance wingsuit made by Phoenix-Fly. I had it out at SDH Sunday morning when we were dropping off/picking up gear from Coker. It has much bigger wings than my purple and silver suit you're used to seeing. I'm not jumping currently as I'm still grounded while I recover from some minor complications with my wisdom teeth removal surgery. Larry and I have been to Spaceland, Z-hills, and San Marcos since you last jumped with us, and we plan to continue our nomadic ways. He'll be doing another "Bigways or Smaller" soon, expect an e-mail.

Thanks, that looks like fun and I haven't jumped at Salado yet

I've never been able to successfully stick it back on, but when you get your next new pair run a thin bead of super glue around the inside and outside edge of the skinny tubing stuff and make sure it's completely dry before trying them on. It will hold it on much longer.

Anything happening Memorial Day weekend in or near Texas? Any boogies or visiting aircraft anywhere? I'd really like to take my new V-1 out of a tailgate

Billy- I'm so sorry for your loss. Poor kitty I don't know what else you can do if animal control is letting uncontrolled dogs kill your pets on your property, but I know if it were my cat that was attacked like that I would probably get myself in legal trouble taking care of those dogs (edit: and their owners) myself.

A bunch of us Houstonians will be flocking at SanMarcos this weekend.

Y'all must have some bad germs in FL, I'm still getting over being sick after Flock-n-Dock 2, and I haven't gotten to fly my new Vampire since then Hope you're feeling better Medusa! Stay home, don't spread the bird flu -Jenn

First cutaway was jump #221 due to packing too quickly and the line over clearing the wrong side, leaving me with a spinner with some right side A lines wrapped around all the other lines. I cutaway before I'd consciously thought to start my ep's by looking for my handles. This might actually fall under you definition of lowtimer complacency as my cypres was not turned on that day (I forgot?) and my reserve handle had fallen out of the needing-to-be-maintained velcro for at least the second time and was out of reach between my rig and my back- I pulled the cable where it leaves the housing at around 800'. I've had 3 reserve rides in 640-ish jumps; the other 2 were much less intense than being back in freefall without an AAD/RSL/reserve handle and my reserve was open by 1800' or so.

1-voodew 2-professor 3-flyin' Bob 4-mudbug 5 moonglo

So would that be more of a birdie migration? Its always time for another happy hour!

I must have missed this part, who was yelling? I was speaking with jumpers and an S&TA while you were up flying the load. Then I let people know I would be jumping at Spaceland that afternoon and left, since there was no point in me hanging around for tandems on every load.

Wheeeeee!

Yep, and I stand on the "I don't want to be anywhere near them without a dive plan" side. I don't think it's cool to swoop anyone who does not want to be swooped, licensed or no, and have done my best to instill that attitude into my students. Would you then punish the whole discipline, or tell the offender (and let the load organizer know) he can't wingsuit there? See above in my response to sdh- we tried to make things better for the other jumpers whether we thought we erred or not. I don't care who you are or how many jumps you have, if you think there's a safety problem let's talk about it and find a safe solution.

Wow, I didn't realize I made that many wingsuit student/coaching jumps! That's Great!

Actually, with those wingsuit pilots and wingsuit groupies I talked to today its at least 7 less!

I'm going to Flock-n-Dock this weekend at Z-hills. I'm not sure where we'll be after that, but I'd like to visit all the local DZs I haven't been to in the last 6 months or more. I get my wisdom teeth yanked out April 28 and will be grounded for at least 2 weeks after that. Anyone who would like to meet me at a certain Houston area DZ on a certain weekend can contact me here or e-mail me at JennRalston [AT] Juno [DOT] com and I'll try to work out a schedule, at least til I figure out where my new home will be.

Yep, just looked at the SDH staff website and saw he was gone, as were Larry and I and a few others. I don't think he ever had a problem with wingsuits when I've jumped on loads with him. It'll be good to see him and all the ex-SDH folk again.

The "bad apples" were the ones who pushed the limits at least a year before I started wingsuiting, those guys haven't been seen at this DZ in quite a while. They were known for such things pulling at 800' and using intoxicating substances during jump times. At SDH there are 3 S&TAs; the best safety enforcer is an AFF Instructor and has been an S&TA for years but is not there much due to work, the second one is an AFF/TM and hasn't been around much lately since a disagreement with the manager about his paycheck, and the third and newest one is an AFF/TM and is the one who is always there and was doing the majority of the complaining and suggesting bad exit orders and swooping across the pattern on most loads.... I've always been very clear with wingsuit students and those who visit that this is a very conservative dz and they don't want to see us in "their air", and from what I've seen we have always given them way more than enough room. Unfortunately, until they are willing to listen to my concerns or talk to me about the situations as they occur, there's not much I can do but leave and encourage others to do the same.