FrogNog

The night before my FJC, I went to sleep early to make sure I got some rest. I failed to get more than a crappy bit of rest in like 12 hours of trying, I was so nervous. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Wing loading - weight per canopy (wing) area - usually given as pounds per sq foot. Does that sound more familiar now? Or did you really get to almost 200 jumps without knowing about / understanding something about wingloading? 11.5 stone on a 140 sq ft canopy is a very easy wingloading to calculate.

I saw a picture (or a video) that was effectively a freefall marriage proposal. He appeared to have a soft, black foam board with handle holes in the ends and white lettering stuck on it to make the words. I'm thinking of doing this for a Christmas card but I don't know what foam board I would use. Does anyone know what these are? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

So, you jumped a main in a d-bag with a single line stow (which was also the locking stow)? Was that a honking long stow? Was the bight like 7 feet long? Did your canopy have very short lines? I'm just getting a weird visual of this pack job. I can see the advantages, though: * never have to replace more than one rubber band per pack job * once you get that locking stow in place not only will the canopy stay bagged, but you're done making line stows * up to an 87.5% reduction in baglock potential from overstrong rubber bands * similar reduction in baglock potential from lines wrapping a bight. I'll look at experimenting with this. And that idea I had about free-stowing my main in a bag held closed with a shrivel flap. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Nice.

That has been my skydiving way of handling any situation that has the potential to be really scary or really fun: Yeehaaaaw! I chopped yehaaed on jump 15. Always makes my throat sore for a day, tho. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

OK, I admit that this post is about what may seem like minutiae. And it is probably in the 80th percentile of stupidest gear posts. Let's move on. I've packed some rigs with thin lines (not sure what type, but they didn't look like dacron) and I have rubber band troubles: not all the bights, especially the ones below the cascades, will fill the rubber bands tightly. It seems that new large bands grip right but with just a jump or two they're stretched a bit and no longer grip. Below the cascades sometimes they don't grip when I double-wrap them. At the grommets (which is above the cascades) sometimes they don't grip on a single-wrap, and I have been told not to double-wrap grommet stows unless I want to practice my EPs for real. I've read that one can tighten rubber bands, and seen a link to a PDF on PD's website or something. I'm too lazy to go there with a PDF-viewy 'puter and I didn't find this info spilled into this forum already, so my big question is: How do you tighten a rubber band? I think I packed a slammer on a Cobalt because NONE of the stows was tight enough. I don't want to do that again. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

And while we're at it, How about some monofiliment for the line set I'm just curious as to how one would pack this transparent, plastic chute in a D bag? Ever see plastic stick together? Monofilament maybe. But please don't ask for monomolecular lines - they eat rubber bands like nothing else, a riser slap can take your head off, a canopy collision would be unbelievably icky... etc. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

On landing, I look all around from 75 feet down to the ground. I look straight down, forward at 45 degrees, left horizon, right horizon, left at 45 degrees, etc. to make sure I know where the ground is and I don't get fooled by a clump of grass or the texture directly in front of me looking different. But in terms of knowing where to flare, that comes from trying it again and changing something each time (baby steps are best) and knowing what you did and how well it worked. Actually, that applies to most of skydiving. :) My first half-dozen flare timings were dicey. I basically flared "on the second 'oh-shit!'". After a dozen jumps it seemed like I could tell how long in time I am from touchdown (by knowing where the ground is) and so I know when to flare based on that. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'm about to start doing post-graduation jumps like this with friends. An experienced jumper said in case we aren't on level, the higher of us should come down to the lower, instead of both of us trying to fix the difference at the same time, because of the possibility that we'd go up and down past each other. So, is this maybe what's happening with you? If the other jumpers are experienced enough, I would doubt it unless they were messing with you to test your ability to change your fall rate while handling the other stuff. I dunno for sure because I'm not there yet. But, as a skydiver, I know my core advice is "jump more and keep trying." -=-=-=-=- Pull.

It's a cord inside a suit between a loop worn on the hand and a point near the middle of the suit. (There is one of these cords for each arm.) When the jumper extends his arm, this cord will begin to go taught. The swoop cord runs through the armpit wing and controls how big the wing acts. The behavior of a swoop cord is most obvious to an observer when it's on a camera suit. If you watch video of people videoing other people while wearing camera suits, you can see sometimes they stick their arms out a bit and that slows them down right away. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Like USPA's Falcon and Double Falcon are (or were) a 4 point 4way or an 8 point 4 way. The Vulture is a 2 point 4way from 2 grand. And the Double Vulture is a 4 point 4way from 4 grand. (It may very depending on DZ) I have both....Several times over. May I assume the Vulture is not USPA-regulation? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Hear, hear! Glad you made it. Time to have fun. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

"Red Bull". Well, I think that's enough. But if they want to say it gives you wings, I think that will work for the kinky folk on a literalism level and the softer-hearted on an emotional level. "DeWalt" and various other tool manufacturers seem appropriate as well, again as name-onlys. "Black and Decker" was always a fav of mine when we considered this question on the gradeschool playground. "Ingersol-Rand" or some other more obscure ones for the initiated. But only obscure brands that make jackhammers or impact hammers. How about Marlboro? "Go to where the flavor is." Goodyear: "if it only saves you once a year, it's a Goodyear." Durn tootin'! Michelin slogan from 1898: "Michelin tires swallow up all obstacles." And not a sponsor, but just something that would be a cool brand name for condoms: "VENIMUS". -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'm not going to state my position on the president at current, but I do intend to vote John "Why Do You Hate America?" Ashcroft out of office. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

See This post (start reading at "which main should I buy?") and perhaps this post. My 44-jumps-ever opinion is that Stilletoes are high-performance canopies that are capable of whooping a skydiver's ass harder and more quickly than sabres and spectres. For more specifics you'll have to look at the posts or look at the manufacturers' advertised characteristics. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Beer doesn't "go bad", it "retires". Way to go, Beer! -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Would that be one of the "Before" pictures or one of the "After" pictures? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I don't mean to quote this as an authoritative source, but clearly someone else things so: "Another modification is the mounting of four-blade propellers. These propellers, designed in the USA and installed for the first time in France by Mike, bring an answer to the problem of noise pollution. They were tested during the RW worldcup in 1992 on one of Gap's Porters with a huge crowd invading the field. The change was obviously very positive even for the fiercest defenders of the alpine skies. Since then, other DZs have changed for four-blade propellers in order to reduce noise pollution. " (http://home.nordnet.fr/~paramag/archives/n142/article/article-us.html) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

In the time-honored custom of DZ readers, allow me: * How many jumps did he have? Time in sport? Did he typically belly-fly or freefly? How many jumps on this canopy? How many jumps with that big red suit? * What was his out-the-door weight? Any guess, if you don't know for sure? * What model and how much square footage was he jumping? * What was his wingloading (for those of us without calculators, despite having computers)? * Did he use a braked approach? Did he stall? Did he swoop? Was it a 90, 180, or a 270? * Did he have a pillow cutaway handle? * Did he disconnect his RSL? * Was he wearing gloves? (I bet he was.) etc. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Maybe it was just a wild rumor, but years ago I remember it being said that Snohomish was the busiest private (not municipal) airfield in the country. I don't doubt it. Infrequently I find us sitting on the taxiway for a few minutes and I only realize we were waiting in line when we get on the numbers and I look back at the taxiway and see six planes idling behind us. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Ah, give the guy a break, he went to public school. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Well, it would have to be a translucent canopy, because I don't think woven nylon will be optically clear anytime soon. :) I think it would look like a canopy that someone put in their mouth, sucked all the flavor out of, and spit back out. Sort of like the ice in a slushie after the tasty juice has been all hoovered out. It would look Unique, I suppose. But I prefer the white topskin/bottomskin with the bright-colored ribs idea. The one of those I saw looked sweet. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I have heard that Mr. Bills can load harnesses in ways that can cause them to fail, specifically "stacking" - rotating the MLW so one edge of it loads on opening shock more than the rest does, and it can tear. This effect is supposed to be caused by the extra body hanging onto the front of the harness-wearer and changing the hanging geometry. I'm not sure how hip rings change this. And I haven't seen any harnesses torn from Mr. Bills. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

That time of year I believe they will both still be on the "Fri, Sat, Sun" plan. Fri 12 to sunset, Sat / Sun 9 to sunset as Skydive Snohomish. The almanac quotes about 18:00 for sunset in March. Skydive Snohomish also frequently opens on days besides those if the weather looks good. I don't frequent Kapowsin much yet (although I was there all day listening to the rain and wind today) so I don't know about them, but I assume they operate similar to Skydive Snohomish except with turbines year-round. At that time of year you are almost guaranteed each day (in Snohomish; I assume Kapowsin similar) to be one of these three things: 1. Piss poor. Just forget it. We're talking the tail end of forty days and forty nights. 2. cloudy but warm. Low jumps likely. "Warm" means 40s or 50s (Fahrenheit) on the ground. 3. clear but cold. High jumps likely, but you better be dressed for it. "Cold" means 30s or 40s on the ground. These days will be beautiful, but you'll be locked in a battle between appreciating that beauty and being cold. (Alaskan and Canadian jumpers, nevermind me.) The area around the Snohomish dropzone is lovely - flat farmland (probably half underwater in March - it's at 0' MSL) with a snaking river, immediately met by sizeable hills covered with tall evergreens, and framed on the East by medium-size jagged mountains. If you don't have a "D" license you probably won't get to land at the airport, so you'll have to deal with being shuttled back. This slows down your day. I haven't seen Kapowsin from the air yet. It's on what appears to be a large plateau at something like 400'. As it is a private airpark it should see less airplane traffic than the modestly busy Snohomish airfield. No walk back to the DZ required. The entire area appears to be tall evergreens with cleared yards, fields, airstrip, 18 acre student landing area, etc.. Their twin otter is missing right now, rumored to be getting upgraded engines, and their Caravan is on the taxiway. Their remaining () 182 is hiding around there somewhere. Kapowsin is much closer to Crystal Mountain (on/near Mount Rainier's backside) ski area. Snohomish is 60 or more miles North, almost on US Hwy 2, which I believe heads East to Stevens Pass sky area. Hwy 90 heads East to Snoqualmie Pass ski area(s) and is roughly 1/3 of the way from Snohomish to Kapowsin. Personally, I say bring your rig and the phone numbers to both places. Check the area weather online frequently and when you see an opportunity, call both places and ask whatever deciding factors you have in mind. * Note that I am not a professional expert on either of these places, but I did my S/L progression at Snohomish and I've been on the ground twice at Kapowsin and looked around and at their maps. -=-=-=-=- Pull.