theplummeter

I woke up one morning tied to a bed and almost unable to breathe due to overwhelming fumes. I was soaked, as was the bed in gasoline and at the end of the bed was my ex girlfriend, holding a freshly lit match with an angry look on her face. "I just had a dream that you cheated on me!", she said...

Only a few airports (at least in the US) have noise restrictions. While the 727 is quite loud FedEx operated a great many of them until a few years ago when they started phasing them out for 757 airframes. Most aircraft that have noise restrictions take off at lower than full power settings and climb as steeply as possible until certain altitudes. The airports that are concerned with noise (Santa Ana, CA is a prime example) either have curfews, use the runways deemed to have the lowest noise impact when weather permits, or both. If an aircraft violates a decibel level off the end of the runway it is recorded and the operator fined. I think the 727 died out due to a combination of lack of efficiency and extensive maintenance costs associated with older aircraft, which is fine since they land like shit anyway.

Up to the AAD fires it looked like a pretty sweet FS jump It's a good video to show to students, I had my right arm searching for a pilot chute watching the ground rush. Glad they're ok, and hopefully have learned a powerful lesson in altitude awareness. I know if it had been me I wouldn't be able to forget it.

I just did some flying with Reese a little over a week ago. Everyone there was great to deal with and it's the cheapest tunnel I've ever found.

I had Liquid Players until recently, including the goggle gasket insert they sell. It didn't work for me with contacts (possibly due to my weird head shape) and I ended up going to a full face after losing a contact twice in freefall. When I bought new glasses I bought Gatorz as they fit into the helmet better, but the Liquids were nice.

Spaceland is awesome. Quick loads, lots of friendly folks to jump with and high altitude on most loads. Is Longmont any faster now that they stole Arizona's Otter? I was there a couple weekends ago but they were only running the purple Otter and King Air.

After speaking with both SanDisk and GoPro there appears to be an issue with certain cards (particularly the Ultra series) and the Hero3 at capacities over 32gb, due to filing problems with exFAT. SanDisk replaced my card (their warranty period and service is excellent) with a Pixtor model which they said would be less likely to encounter the problem. They also advised me to use 32gb or less cards for GoPro applications and to put the card in the camera before any computer.

I just had to return a Sandisk Ultra Class 10 64gb Micro SD card for warranty replacement after a similar issue. It wouldn't read in any computer for longer than a few seconds, but I'm not sure if it was the camera or the card. Have you updated the firmware on the camera?

Earlier this year I was flying air ambulance in New Mexico and west Texas and ended up flying into Hobbs, NM which had a tower and a skydiving operation. It seemed like a headache for both ATC and the drop zone as they got held while I landed (IFR flight plan) even though I volunteered to take a different runway and had them in sight.

Isn't this an exhibit from the Creation Museum?

Which canopy did you get? I jumped with an Israeli gentleman in Eloy who had one of their suits. It was really impressive, especially the price!

I just got a Curv and ordered the standard (not bright neon) orange on the logos for this exact reason.

I fluctuate in my weight and fall very fast, so when I ordered a freely suit the manufacturer (Vertical) made it Taslan with an extra ripstop layer. It slows me down quite a bit.

Are you talking about the MicroRavens (109-150) and the regular/Super RAVENS (181/218/249/282) ??? I highly disagree with you if you think that the SuperRaven series is crap, and would love to hear your opinion as to why. Also you do know that the PD reserve, which most consider the gold standard, was developed in the late 80's and hasn't really changed since, right ? They must have fixed something around 2000-2001. I have ridden not one but two separate Micro Raven 150 canopies, both manufactured in late 2001. Loaded at 1.4:1 both of them opened on heading and flew fine resulting in stand up landings, the second time I had one was at 5000 feet in 90+ degree weather with calm winds.

I fly jumpers roughly 3 times a month and have never used flaps on jump run in a 182. I use them with left rudder to shut the door after everyone exits. I have never jumped out of a King Air without flaps to the approach setting, last week I jumped out of a PAC several times and they lowered flaps for each jump run, and I have seen Twin Otters use either a little flaps or none.

I'm waiting on an AAD for a VC3 and Nano 160. RI built the rig for a Fusion 150 and advised me to get the VC3. When you scale down the cubic inches for ZPX fabric, bear in mind that while the material may take up 17% less space the reinforcing tapes and lines do not scale down.

Just my $.02, but that toggle issue you had looked more than a little bit scary. You might want to talk to your rigger/packer about that. For my part, if I saw my toggle out of its keeper and ready to tie itself up, I might stop fucking with trying to pull my slider down and first make sure I had good steering line control, especially in the high desert in the summer. Glad it worked out for you.

I've heard nothing but wonderful things about Mesquite. I called them before I headed to Nevada and asked about making some jumps, but they said the best they could do was maybe a Cessna load if some students show up. If you have the time for a day trip I would definitely give them a call and see what's going on. I was in Las Vegas for a friends wedding so I had a bunch of stuff to do every day starting late morning to early afternoon. I would wake up at 7, drive 15 minutes to Vegas Extreme, jump on the first load, pack, sometimes get on load 2, and be back in Las Vegas at the hotel early. The latest I made it back to Las Vegas packed after two loads was 10:15am. They run a very efficient operation. If you can make a day trip out of it Mesquite would probably be ideal, but if you're looking to get some quick jumps in and go on about your business Vegas Extreme is great. I jumped in shorts every day, but noticed that the tandem instructors all wear motocross pants and they had spare legstraps for the tandem rigs so sliding seems to be the norm. I also think Sin City is back up and running, someone was putting tandems out of a Cessna while I was there.

No problem, one other thing I forgot is that the landing area is roughly 200 feet lower than the airport.

Here's a video of a sloppy solo jump from last week. Nothing too cool, but it shows the landing area and the PAC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6EYbZ_4SfY

I just got back from Las Vegas two days ago. I did a jump or two every day at Vegas Extreme. They are a tandem factory but got me on the first load every day and couldn't have been nicer. I wouldn't count on more than one load a day as they quick turn very early in the morning and are frequently done before 11am. I met three other fun jumpers there, one guy has two wingsuit rigs and does back to backs as frequently as he can, the last day I was there two other folks were fun jumping and we tried to get a freefly jump together. You can't land at the airport so they have you land in a gravel/sand cul-de-sac looking thing south of the airport next to I-15. It's a wide open area with tons of outs but if you go there make sure you have it spotted before exit. My only gripe was $40 lift tickets, but with limited time they were great about getting me in and out quickly. Everyone there was wonderful and helpful, the plane was nice, and I'm sure if I had more time or if I had brought my wing suit I could have gotten some fun jumps in with that. I don't think Sin City or Boulder City take fun jumpers, so the locals all seem to go to Vegas Extreme on weekdays and travel to Mesquite for fun jumps on weekends. Hope it helps and blue skies!

Taslan is a type of Nylon commonly used on jumpsuits. It is the base material for Vertical, Liquid Sky and quite a few others. It is a lower denier nylon weave that is softer than say Cordura.

I also have a Vertical suit, and opted for the extra ZP layer as I tend to be anvil-ish for my height and weight. Along with the Cordura it helps to slow me down, but on hot days it really seals in the flavor so I end up washing it more than other suits.

I think he was sitting right where Hope sat for her inspirational video.

I haven't looked at a ton of risers, but have noticed that both Strong and Rigging Innovations risers toggle tuck tabs stow upward and downward requiring both an up and down motion to unstow them from the riser. I'm sure other manufacturers do that but those are the two I have personally viewed. I would think that would help to prevent a brake fire in the scenario described in the original post.