ChrisG

In the late seventies, early eighties, we used to free pack all the time. No bag, no bands, no nothing, just cram it in! Me or anyone I knew ever had a problem with it. The main reason people stopped doing it was because of hard openings, but they were pussies anyway. :-) Chris

I have done a few long rappels, so I'll add my 2 cents. Firstly, it is not uncommon in the caving world to do a long rappel. Advanced cavers do 1000 ft. plus rappels all the time. There has been hundreds of cavers that rappeled the cave before the base people even discovered it, myself included. It is not safe nor is it recommended (on long rappels) to use the backups that have been described here. The main problem is heat. The rappel rack gets so hot from friction that it is dangerous to stop. The heat from the rack can and will melt the nylon rope at the place you stop. I have seen ropes where the sheath was almost totally cut by a hot rack. Burnt spots on a rope make it totally unusable. Using dual ropes, one for a backup, does not work on long rappels. They can get entangled, making it impossible to rappel the full drop. A person at the bottom to add weight to the rope , if someone loses control, is probably the best backup, however it puts them in harms way if they cannot stop the out of control rappeler. If you dont open your parachute on a jump you will die, if you lose control of your rack on a long rappel you die. Its as simple as that. Chris

I wish you were as compassionate about people dying and getting injured under perfectly good canopies. Theres more people dying doing that than there is deaths in airplane accidents. Do you think these accidents could cause some concern to the FAA? Deaths in airplane accidents is on the rise, well deaths by canopy collisions and hook turns is rising also. (probably more) The idea you have of using peer pressure to get DZ owners to maintain thier planes better and have more qualified pilots is laughable- most jumpers dont care. I say that because in my thirty years of jumping, I have seen only one person refuse to jump because of the airplane, and that was because one of the tires was half flat. (yes, I did go on that load). Charge more? Yea, right, thats gonna happen, because of competition, aren't they already charging as much as they can? If they talked and said- lets all raise our prices- wouldn't that would be price fixing which is illegal. Would you be saying the same thing if the only place you have to jump is hundreds of miles from the DZ that keeps its planes in better shape and has top notch pilots? I have read many of your posts,chris, and I feel you have many good opinions , but I believe you are barking up the wrong tree with this airplane thing. It WILL only do harm to the small DZ. Chris G

Chris, You think its bad now, you should see some of the planes I jumped from 20 years ago! In my opinion the maintainance and pilots have been steadily improving over the years. Can the figures you state all be contributed to only dumb pilots and shitty airplanes? How many of the accidents happened to experienced pilots flying highly maintained airplanes? None? Airplanes do not have to be maintained to the higest standards to be safe. Also, pilots do not need thousands of hours of flight time to be safe. It appears to me that your concern for the utmost ammount of safety and making the FAA more aware of the higher accident rates, will only cause more small DZ's to close down. The money is not there for the small DZ's to maintain thier planes to the higest standards, so does that mean they should close down? What other choice would they have? Chris Grenner D-7250

First you say that you did land your reserve under high winds, then you say you never jump in high winds. Whats with that? You have no problem with a highly loaded reserve and I respect that, but what about someone just buying their first rig, would you recommend that to them? Why do you have such a highly loaded reserve? You are WAY beyond what all the reserve mfgs. say is the maximum loading acceptable for proper performance. Was it to make your rig smaller, or is there some other reason that I dont understand? Chris

Tonto, Have any of your highly loaded reserve landings been in high winds, tight spot, tall trees directly upwind? If so, you truly are lucky. Maybe I shouldn't have said "stupid". More like-" Willing to take unnecessary risks so as to look cool with a tiny rig." Chris

I am troubled by a new injury category thats blossoming which is, 'Injured when landing a good reserve'. It seems to be happening more and more lately. The people its happening to are jumping highly loaded reserves. These injured jumpers invariably give multiple reasons for their mishaps besides the obvious- YOUR RESERVE IS TOO FUCKING SMALL IF YOU CANNOT LAND IT SAFELY UNDER ALL CONDITIONS. In their desire to 'look cool' with tiny rigs, some people seem to think that if they are jumping a highly loaded ellipitical, that its proper to have a reserve the same size or just slightly bigger. I would like others opinion on this question- What is the proper wing loading for your reserve? More questions- Say you are at 1500 ft with your reserve open, how much more time would you have to find a good out with a 1:1 compared to a 1.3:1? Which will fly the furthest, 1:1 or 1.3:1? Which would be better in high winds-1:1 or 1.3:1? Which would be better for a tight landing area- 1:1 or 1.3:1? My opinion is that its stupid to have a reserve loaded more than 1.1:1 Whats your Opinion? Chris

Yes, I'll bet you $500 you dont win. Chris

Hey Kelly, What a weak ass excuse!! Fuck that crap, come on down and jump with us. We'll lie for you, tell'em your sick. Chris

The lowest I ever pulled was around 800 ft. , for the second time!! Many years ago, me and a couple of buddies were hanging around drinking and doing drugs, and we decided to do a low pull contest just for grins. So we go up and do a 3 way no contact and wait. Finially one guy smiles and opens around 1400, I thought- what a pussy. the next guy opens, I thought I WON and pulled around 1200. The next thing I see is the first guy screaming by me and then he pops his reserve!! The fucker had cut away a good main! The next instant the other guy goes by, same thing. Not wanting my victory snatched away from me, yes I did the same thing. I was surprised at how close the ground was and immediately pulled my reserve, its sorta funny how time slows down when you are waiting for your reserve to open. It seemed like forever, but I was in the saddle around 700-800 ft. Amongst much laughter and hand slapping we decided it was a tie. Please DO NOT try this at home!! :-)

One thing for sure will happen, with a totally Republican government-- NO MORE RAISES for us hourly workers! IMHO- any one that punches a time clock and votes republican is a fool. Chris

I read in Skydiving magazine that one of the Golden Knights said that Jesus helped them win the nationals. My first question is- IS THAT FAIR????? I mean, come on, how could you lose if Jesus is helping you? I heard that Airspeed and Majic are looking into this, and are thinking of filing a protest!!! Anyway, my team sucked really bad this year, and I want to look into getting Jesus to help us. This may be a GK secret, but can anybody tell me how you go about getting Jesus' help? I dont pray, so thats out. Does it matter if your a beer guzzling, foul mouthed adulterer, that constantly goads women to show their tits? If so, I wont tell him that. Does it matter if sometimes you make fun of Jesus? Maybe he will forgive me for that, and realize I was just joking. Can he take a joke? Does it matter if your not really good at skydiving? Does anyone think I will be struck by lightning when I post this?

I think you should have said, Sad, but true

So, this instructor... who has lots of jumps... just decided to smack the ground chest-first because {___________________}. A) he was an ass B) he had nothing better to do C) no apparent reason D) he decided to see what it would be like to act like an irrational student E) he smoked a bowl F) his canopy was collapsed by space aliens I don't think this "accident" makes a case of "Unsolved Mysteries" that Robert Stack would want to host.

Sorry folks, but that so called toxology report is BOGUS. There is absolutely NO national standards established that can accurately determine when someone is impared by pot. They can only tell you have it in your system. To state someone smoked a couple hours ago, because of a test, is totally ridiculous and cannot be proven. We all know that pot can stay in your system for up to six weeks. A test the next day after a evening of smoking, can and does show higher levels of THC, but it is impossible to accurately say when someone last smoked. It is also impossible to tell if the THC found in someones system is the psycoactive compound, since many variations are not. In other words, he could have a large ammount of non- psycoactive THC and not be stoned at all. The statements made by the lab director are his opinion only, and he has no way of backing up his statements with facts. To say this jumper died as a result of pot in his system is ridiculous. For more info- go to www.NORML.org CG

Thats not a new plan. Freeflyers do that all the time

Wow!! Its been a long time since the "enterprise" dives. (thats when you build a round, two people hang vertical off two jumpers, then jumpers form lines off the hangy down guys) then everyone would do a stand up track facing to the center. That was cool! Thanks for the memory! And yes, the parties are much more lame than they were back "in the good old days"

I have to laugh about freeflying. I just saw a clip from Skydive Chicago of a 16 way freefly, with supposedly the best fliers around. I never saw so much kicking and waving in my life. Then it struck me, They look like they are treading water upside down! They said they got a 16 way, but half of them were not even touching anyone else! They are just swimming around! The RW people can take a lesson from this. Since you dont have to dock,we can exit with 20 people and as long as we are in the sky together, we can say we got a 20 way!!! Hell, a 50 way would be a piece of cake! I'm looking foward to doing some 100 ways during the Richmond Boogie! We'll have enough aircraft so we could easily do it, we dont even have to dock anywhere! Every one will be in!!! You fat people wont have to worry about going low, we'll still count you as being in, since after all, you were in the sky with us. Cool, huh? Also I saw a pix of an 18 way in Parachutist, and when I first saw it it looked like a nasty RW funnel. Then I realized it was a freefly world record. I showed it to my wife, she said- "are them guys tumbling? They aint even hooked up!" I had to explain to her that you dont have to hook up in freeflying, you only have to be close. Hey, why dont you guys get your shit together and at least hook up before you proclaim a record. Love ya, Chris

I meant because of content, not numbers. And Quade- Who the hell else would I be talking about? How is that statement so hard to figure out?

Hey, you guys here at rec.skydiving Lite. How about a politics forum? Maybe if there was a moderated forum that will not allow personal attacks, we could get a lot of response from BOD candidates, and they could have a shot at getting their message out. What ya think? Chris

Another vote from me.

I dont know about the whole day, but I'll definitely have a couple safety meetings in my van this weekend. ;-)

Hey Fallrate, I know what you mean. Considering the odds are around 8 males to 2 females on any DZ, you might have a better chance of gettin' some if your gay. I like that farting thing too. Hey, how about you and me??? Opps , just kidding. Honest.

I havent heard of that happening, but I guess it could. Maybe the wingsuit pilot that bounced, had that happen and while struggling to release it, went unstable and ended up tangled in his lines. Its possible, but no one knows. Hey Skymonkeyone, I think you said you had a delay- How long was it? Did you think the bag may stick? Or did it come out easily after a very short delay? Chris

I agree with skymonkeyone, in that if you've had a delay you should seriously consider cutting your rig, or getting a longer bridle or both. I personally haven't had a problem with my bag sticking, but I have had the bag hit my foot. After that happened, I started sitting up on deployment, and haven't had a problem since. It may partly be that I have a large rig and the bag is not real tight in there to begin with. The only downside , I think , to cutting your rig is that after a while, the bag may start peeking out the bottom a little or the corners may distort, especially if you have a very tight rig. I have seen that happening on a Wings with that modification. But ,like skymonkeyone says ,you may be better off doing that "just in case" because a stuck bag would REALLY suck. Chris Wingsuit nut