ClayFowler

Time to work on those ratings huh? A little AFF or Tandem cash would come in handy right now. I know how you feel. I may be on strike soon. Guess I'll have lot's of time to work on getting to my 100th!

What are you....Opening an antique computer store? I'll send ya a private message with my sister's e-mail. She is a professional computer geek and has some "SUPER GEEK" friends that may be able to help you out. Super Geek Powers activate!

Thanks for the advice on the brakes. I descibed the landing to the rigger and he thought I should SHORTEN the brakes. After several minutes of trying to explain the aerodynamic principle to him, with no result, I finally adjusted them myself. I added about 2 and a half inches and did a hop&pop test flight. I could actually pull the risers down now without using all the strength I have. They arent quite long enough to use the dive loops but work fine when I grab up around the attatchment points. When I came in to land it was a little disconcerting as the wind was blowing straight at the hangar so in my final riser turn to final ( Much faster than before) I was staring down at pavement. I chickened out at about 30 ft, let it plane off some and then rode the risers again. I flared about 2 ft off the ground just due to erring to the conservative side. The canopy actually planed out and I got about a ten ft level ride before stopping all the way and landing ever so softly. Now if I can just get used to the ground rush during the turns I'll be back doing nice long swoops. For anybody that thinks a PD 190 wont swoop at a 1.28 load....you just aint flyin it right!!!!!!!!

I would say that anywhere below 2,000 ft is getting in the unsafe category. The only reason this is safe is that you are both riding the forward throw of the aircraft and subterminal when you deploy. In military static line from 800 ft you cover about 256 ft (altitude loss with an exit speed of 130 knts indicated +/- 5)on average before your chute should be fully deployed. About 4 seconds. With a free fall rig you obviously eat up more altitude but I think you could easily be open by 1500. With a subterminal rate of fall I believe this leaves you a decent safety margin to deploy a reserve. I dont see doing a hop&pop below 3,000 unless there is some real "reason" for it. As far as emergencies, 500 ft or better and I'm riding the reserve. Of course, pick on open spot on the ground before you get out as you may not have much time to turn before your feet hit the ground. Remember....altitude is your friend!

Hmmm....whats next? The only Turbo chairlift in the state! 10 minutes to the top of the hill. I can see this new form of BASE taking off.

Well....I'm suckin here....0:2:3 I believe is the count. Unless sex with no one else in the room counts...LOL Lisa! You did jump with me a couple months ago. It was a 6 way or so with Doug. I had some jerky on my left arm trying to pull it out of the socket on the hill. Flung me out when we broke for the first point and I spent the rest of the dive trying to get back up to Doug's Light ass. That boy could use a couple cheese burgers. Thats when I decided to stop ruining everyones RW jumps until I get either a floppy RW suit or a drogue for my rig. It's either that or the Ethiopian diet to slow my ass down!

Good thing I'm getting paid $17.68 cents per hr for this....LOL Freestyle, VRW, Free Flying, RW, Speed, CRW Popular jump ships= Otter (22 jmprs), Pilatus Porter 15, Skyvan (25), CASA 212 (30), Caravan (16), C-182 (4), 210, 220, others????, King Air (12), Beech 18, Dornier 28(12), AN-2 Colt, MI-6, MI-8, MD-500 "Little Bird" (6), Bell-212, UH-60, UH-1, C-130, C-141, C-17, C-5, C-2 greyhound, and damn near anything else with wings!!!!!!!!

I recently looked at a study with animation and everything on this. The general theory being that a FF spends less time in a given altitude therefor is less affected by the winds at that alt. hence less lateral drift. Now this does not take into account the Jump run heading relative wind direction and any jumpers actions while in free fall. (Like the ability of a free flyer to attain much higher horizontal speeds) Geoff= sorry about you having to thread through but if someone comes through your canopy right after opening that will be the last thing on your mind....Know what I mean Vern?

as if the Japanese didnt think westerners were lazy enough........LMAO

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson..."MMMMMMMMMMMMM.....Beer....UUUUGGHHGHGHGBGLLLLLLL" "Beer is just like a woman....they smell good. They taste good AND PRETTY SOON YOU"LL STEP OVER YOUR OWN MOTHER TO GET ONE!!!!!" ( during his talk with Bart)

That brings up an interesting question. Does SSK or Airtek keep serial number records so that you can check the background of a particular unit before buying? There are some very unscrupulous people in the world and I wouldnt always be inclined to trust my life to a small piece of paper with scribbling on it. Not that I own a Cypress....yet....

The F-111 question. I asked this one a lot in my first 6 months of skydiving and never got a straight answer. Here's why, F-111 lasts a long time. It has a myriad of factors that contribute to it's deterioration. Every canopy spends a different amount of time exposed to sunlight, water, mold, and everything else that makes it rot. Until such time as it is so bad that it fails it will be considered "airworthy." Now, a canopy with 100 jumps and 6 months old has far less porosity than one that is 10 years old and has 5,000 jumps on it. The old one "leaks" far more air through the fabric and becomes less and less responsive as this happens. So, the real answer is this....depends on how well you take care of it. If you are in doubt have a rigger check it. If you feel like you are falling from the sky and the parachute is very slow to respond to your inputs you may want to retire it and move on to a new one.

Ummmm...packing chutes??? I like a girl that likes it that way...LMAO Sorry Udder....Seriously...if you want to learn to pack I'm sure there are plenty of skydivers at your local DZ that would be happy to teach you. On the AFF deal though....people have spent a great deal of their time and money getting that rating. It's not something you just sign up for and they rightly expect to paid for their skill. The only people I know that get discounts is the hotties that are dating someone. Just the facts Ma'am.

Thanks for all the input guys. Right now if I pulled them down to my chest it would stall the canopy in a pretty short time. In fact, I dont pull them much lower than that when I make hard toggle turns. Hopefully I'll get this sorted out and be making my mini swoops by Sunday!

I'm not crazy...and I was in the military long enough to have the papers to prove it!!!!!

Dont feel too bad dude. I dont have anything either....

It's always two chicks whispering in the corner...........

Yes and that makes us smart....doesnt it.......

I have to suggest Skykat.com. As a student and novice jumper last year I often would hang out in Skykat in Raeford, NC and talk with Tony about the gear I should be getting. I was pretty impressed when he sent me back outside to the packing area to talk to one of the guys at the 82nd club that he knew had a used main for sale. Thats a guy that takes care of his customer's best interest. Anytime I'm going to be buying new gear at retail prices Tony is the man. He will make you the absolute best deal he can and wont sell you something that you could get cheaper elsewhere or dont need.

It's a 9 cell F-111. Right now it has a pretty mean recovery arc out of a hard turn....riser or toggle. Reenforcing the idea of the brakes "dragging" Hey I doubt Skymonkeyone would have good landings on his handkerchief Icarus without some "induced" speed. It just seems like I am falling out of the sky instead of gliding in and God forbid I toggle turn too high on final and then dont get the risers before the pressure gets too high. Did that one last weekend and had to seriously run it out as well as deal with the Dropping out of the sky effect. I love the openings of the PD and it flys great...I just think I have to get this brake thing figured and I'll be swoopin again!

I have just begun free flying seriously in the past 20 jumps or so and I finally found out that wearing baggy pants and a long sleave shirt with floppy sleeves is the ticket. It gives you way more control in all positions and the breaking effect of the extra material can be very important when you break off to slow down. Especially if you have lost track of altitude and dont have the recommended 1000' for braking. Plan for the worst and hope for the best. Good advice....ALWAYS tuck your shirt in. If your rig is not particularly free fly friendly make sure you take the extra time to tuck in, VERY SECURLY, any bridle or riser material left exposed. I had a bit of a scare last weekend after a normal descent mostly standing because of industrial haze. I rolled over at 4500' to slow down and started into an, uninduced by me, right turn. As I compensated I noticed something flapping in the wind. Not a good feeling. I still am not sure but I think it was a riser that had come out a fair amount. Not much I could do about it and I was almost to 3000' by the time this all registered so I dumped and hoped for the best. It came out perfect as it always does but that was a near disaster. WORD! No reserve rides yet........KNOCK ON WOOD!

I think I have finally discovered why I cant land this particular PD 190 well. I have flown one other PD190. This was a former Golden Knight rig that had Lord knows how many jumps on it and it flew great. I could get a little glide on the landings when I made a hard trun and rode the front risers in. I just havent been able to do it on my new rig yet and it has less than 100 jumps on it. The last jump I did I noticed that the brakes...with no input by me ride right up at the rings and may even have some tension on them. This explains sloppy slow riser turns. I have 17 jumps on this canopy and I guess the 6 month break before I started jumping again made this diagnosis take a little longer. On to my question...How much should I move the brakes down on the first adjustment. I dont want to burn in on my first try at adjusting them nor do I want to spend another 17 jumps with the brakes too tight. It's loaded at about 1.28 if you need that info.

F. U! I'm at work and now people are staring at me because I am laughing histerically at the article! It is a good laugh though......

Before you go trying that wrap your arms through the MLW thing you might wanna read the posts on the infamous..MR. BILL DIVE....sounds like it didnt work out too good...LOL

OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH My two cents ...My two cents..... I trust my reserve...if I didnt I wouldnt be jumping. As long as you keep a watch on your altitude you did perfectly. The problem is under smaller canopies (which you will surely fly in your skydiving career) the situation changes drastically. Spins, descent rates, and 100 other factors are more radical..enough to render you unconcious or cause 3 ring binding that can make a cutaway harder if not impossible. I just think it's a bad habit to be in of riding malfunctions for any length of time. In student training I hung in the harness. The only malfunctions I was trained not to cut away from was a hung slider and pilot chute over the nose. I'm probably gonna stick with that but every situation is different. I saw someone who shall remain nameless try to land a pretty highly loaded 150 with several broken lines. He was a 500+ jumper and thought he had the situation under control. The canopy colapsed when he flaired and he has a nice amount of hardware in his wrist. Just food for thought and my two cents as guy with 66 free falls.....