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    Skydiving and the Environment

    It is no secret that skydiving is bad for the environment, it doesn't take rocket science to figure out each load is using fossil fuel which is essentially damaging to the environment. Many companies, people and organizations around the world continue to try become more 'green' in an attempt to slow down emissions, an initiative which has been strongly inspired by the global warming buzz which has been increasingly present over the past decade or so.
    Skydiving has been put on the list of most environmentally damaging hobbies/sports activities a few times, this because of the fuel used in each load. Though it's certainly not that black and white, and one has to look at little bit deeper, down to that layer of thought called logic.
    To quote a member of the dropzone forums in an environmental thread.
    "While skydiving may consume more fuel per participant then, say, soccer. He (the writer of the article that the thread is discussing) ignores the fuel consumed by the millions of fans who drive to soccer stadiums around the world every week. Therefore, the impact of soccer as a whole, makes skydiving look like a drop in the bucket."
    Let's quickly look at some numbers and see just how 'bad' skydiving is in comparison to other sporting events.
    In soccer for example, the world’s largest spectator sport- stadiums can hold from 40 000 to in excess of 100 000 spectators, and often these stadiums are full. The FIFA World Cup this year is in South Africa, and the South African chief organizer of the World Cup is suggesting a possible 300 000 foreign visitors. Including flights to the country, local flights between games and transport that's a lot of fossil fuel! This is of course just one example of a sport where the transportation of the spectators seems to outweigh the emissions of skydiving.
    The fact that skydiving is an activity which is based around aeroplanes often tends to trigger people into thinking that conventional sports are a lot less damaging to the environment. But it is important to take into account the details and nature of each activity and not just look at which one appears at first glance to be damaging.
    Trying to become more environmentally aware does not mean that one must stop all activities that are harmful to the environment, because with that logic one would likely never leave their room. It's about trying to make a difference, looking for greener ways to continue what you're currently doing. There will be times when you will have to sacrifice comfort should you want to become more environmentally friendly, though this is a personal choice you should make on your own.
    With that said; There are dropzones who are getting into the green swing of things and attempting to cut their emissions the best they can, while at times positively enhancing the dropzone as well.
    Skydive Lake Wanaka is just one dropzone who has recently purchased a P-750 X-Stol jumpship. They stated in a press release they have upgraded their current Cresco to the Cresco P-750 in an attempt to cut down on the amount of loads done per day by increasing the size of their aircraft and doubling the amount of possible passengers per load. This is just one case where a small investment allows for progressive environmental support while at the same time increasing the quality of the dropzone. The P-750 is not only larger than the current Cresco, but it is more comfortable, has larger windows and a quieter engine.
    The current Cresco has an average fuel consumption of 180 litres/h while the P-750 X-Stol has an average fuel consumption of 192 litres/h, an increase of just 12 litres an hour while being able to hold twice the amount of passengers.

    By admin, in News,

    Skydiving and goose grinning

    So, Saturday was my day to celebrate 68 years on the planet by checking off a very much delayed personal experience on my list: a tandem free-fall skydive! It began with checking www.skydivenm.net to view a number of their tandem jump videos. They looked like what I expected so I picked up the phone and scheduled a date some three weeks in the future. This Saturday, "jump morning" began with a short drive from Albuquerque to Sky Dive New Mexico's hangar at Belen's Alexander Airport up on the East mesa. Shortly after I arrive, I am in a 45 minute, very professional and meticulous ground training by Tandem Master, Rich Greenwood. This is followed by a period of waiting until it is my turn to go up. I pass this time very pleasurably watching others go through their suit-up and check-out, their pre-jump practice, get into the plane, go up, float down, and then watching over their shoulder as they review the videos of their jumps and receive their "First Jump" certificates. All the while, there is a group of six to eight individuals in the hangar meticulously repacking parachutes for next jumps. I'm beginning to get that meticulous is a good thing in skydiving.
    Then…it's my turn!
    Kelly Wilson, my Tandem Master jump partner, hand picks a professional jumpsuit for me to put on. Kelly has been doing tandem jumps for a bunch of years and the folks he's taken up before me today have all been giggling and beaming afterward and saying it's totally awesome and that I'll do just fine and love it. Kelly meticulously straps me into my jump harness, which is like a full parachute harness except for two important features: four really heavy-duty clips on the back…and …no parachute. Kelly wears the parachute. And just before we exit the plane, he will attach me super snuggly to his front with those four clips and tighten everything with final web strap adjustments. Kelly puts me through three complete practice cycles of exit, free-fall, rip-cord pull, and landing firmly reinforcing Rich's earlier training. Then Kelly, Ron, Jason and I all head for the awaiting Cessna. Ron Weagly is our videographer (I want a DVD record to remind myself and prove to my kids and grandkids I really did jump out of a perfectly good airplane), and Jason Korrel is our commercially rated pilot. Kelly and I do an exaggerated John Wayne walk for Ron's video. John Wayne walk - remember I'm old enough to have seen the movies.
    We tuck ourselves into the cockpit and Don starts and revs the engine and we begin our rollout to the runway. After a somewhat noisy, twenty-minute, breathtakingly beautiful climb over the spectacular East mesa with the Rio Puerco River reflecting in the sunlight, we are 11,000 feet above the Belen Airport and the skydive landing zone. It's time for me to put on my goggles and jump headgear. Then in the not-any-too-big-for-four cockpit, I get on my knees facing forward so Kelly can hook me up and check everything out (meticulously). Next, Ron pops open the over-size right door letting a wave of really cool thin air to blast in. Ron steps out and hangs on to the wing strut with one hand and starts videoing Kelly and me as we begin "exiting the plane." I grasp a strap inside the open cabin door and slide my right foot from under my butt out into the wind and onto the large metal step. I follow that carefully with my left foot. A brief glance at the ground. A smile to the camera. Kelly reminds me to hook my thumbs under my harness shoulder straps and then says, "One. Two. ARCH!!!" and we "exit the plane" into a clear, cool, bright-blue New Mexico sky. I pull my head back and my feet up into as much arch as I can as Kelly deploys the drogue chute which will help stabilize and ever so slightly prolong our free-fall. Tap-tap on my shoulder and I unhook my thumbs and extend my arms and hands out in the free-fall "flying" position and check the altimeter strapped on my left wrist.
    Free falling from 11,000 feet down to 6,000 feet is totally unlike anything I have ever imagined or experienced! It is almost indescribable. Afterwards I will remember it as like flying without a plane, just body-wise, like in a really great flying dream. Kelly gently rotates our position to face into the sun. Ron floats down right in front of us and gives me a thumbs up which I return with a wave and as much of a smile as I can muster into 120 MPH free-fall wind in my face. Earlier, I've seen the other videos and I want to be sure to smile and wave into Ron's camera so the kids will think that Dad's cool. Heck … so Dad will think that Dad is cool!
    Too soon, it seems, the helmet beeper goes off in my right ear signaling we are falling through 6,000 feet. Kelly gives me a reminder tap on the shoulder and I reach down for the orange plastic ripcord handle on my right hip. Got it! Quick easy pull! Onethousandone, onethousandtwo, onethousandthree, and the canopy deploys with surprising gentleness --and everything goes mystically silent. I can stop looking into the camera and look around and see the entire Middle Rio Grand Valley and East mesa dangling beneath my feet. There just really aren't enough exclamation points to do this view and experience justice. The silence of hot air ballooning might come close, but we are 5,000 feet up, ever-so-gently falling, there is no burner noise, and we can steer! Ron, the videographer, has continued his free-fall so he can beat us down and set up to video our landing.
    Kelly asks how I'm doing. I say I'm doing great, but I don't tell him I'm darned near crying because of the sheer beauty, the silence, the majesty of it all. He pulls down on the left riser and we pirouette counterclockwise - then the right riser into a clockwise pirouette - pure magic and beauty. I see Ron's canopy way below us now, lining up his landing. The e. e. Cummings poetry quote, "The world is mud-luscious and puddle-wonderful," comes to mind. I look at my wrist altimeter and we are at 2,000 feet. At 1,500 feet Kelly says the folks on the ground in the landing zone can hear me if I holler loud - so I begin hollering and waving for the next couple of minutes just because it feels so good. Then we are at 800 feet and Kelly is heading us up into the wind, I pull my feet up for a butt-slide landing and the next thing I know -- I find myself comfortably seated on the ground in the landing zone -- Kelly has released the clips -- Ron is holding out his a hand to help me stand up, all the while videoing my very wide grin and asking me, "So, how was that for you?" It was great, stupendous, indescribable. Again, not enough exclamation points! He records some more banter and a high five exchange with Kelly, and we get into the Skydive New Mexico van for the 3-minute ride back to the hanger. Ron provides a quick preview of my video, and, hey! I look pretty good! (A little secret: smiling broadly, sticking your tongue out and waving at the camera in free fall looks way more cool than you can imagine.) Kelly and Rich and a couple of other skydivers congratulate me and then Kelly is handing me my very own personalized "Tandem First Jump Certificate."
    Then it seems like it's all over too soon. We walk back to our car for the short drive back to Albuquerque and dinner and home. A wonderful mirage-like memory and vision of what I've just experienced keeps playing over and over in my head: Ron pops the door open, I look down on the mesa and the Rio Grande Valley, Kelly leans me out into our free-fall, we stabilize, Ron floats in front of us with his camera, I pull the rip-cord, we float ever-so-serenely down to a gentle butt-plop landing and I feel myself grinning like a goose (geese do grin, don't they?). For days later I notice I can still easily replay these wonderful scenes in my mind and, I am still grinning like a goose.
    And that's how I did my first free-fall skydive. Life is good! Some day if you want to discover what your goose grin feels like, you can begin by going to www.skydivenm.net, checking out the neat tandem videos, and hooking up with Rich and Kelly at the Belen Airport … and you'll do just fine and love it!
    Post script: The mailman just delivered Ron Weagly's DVD of my jump and I slapped it into my PC for viewing as quickly as I could. All I can say is (1) he made me look sooooo very good, and (2) I'm thinking about going again.
    Copyright Tom Miles, 2007

    Albuquerque, NM

    By admin, in News,

    Skydiving after total shoulder replacement -You bet!

    Larry Hill DZO of Skydive Arizona and sponsor of Arizona Airspeed returned to the sky at the World Free Fall Convention 2004 in Rantoul Illinois. Remarkably this was just eighteen months after total shoulder replacement surgery.
    Larry spends a fair amount of his time while on the drop zone in the main hangar giving hands on advice to the maintenance staff or out on the grounds behind a tractor. It isn't easy turning wrenches when making repairs on heavy equipment, especially if one of the major tools is broken such as a shoulder that doesn't allow for movement.
    At the time of Larry's replacement he had lost full range of motion in his shoulder. This coupled with the pain associated with the malady, prevented him from skydiving. Not only as a skydiver and a pilot was Larry affected, but the overall quality of his daily life was diminished as well. It was then that Larry opted for the total shoulder replacement.
    Shoulder replacement surgery is an option for treatment of severe arthritis of the shoulder joint. Arthritis is a condition that affects the cartilage of the joints. As the cartilage lining wears away, the protective lining between the bones is lost--when this happens, painful bone rubbing against bone arthritis develops. Severe shoulder arthritis is quite painful, and can cause restriction of motion. While this may be tolerated with some medications and lifestyle adjustments, there may come a time when surgical treatment is necessary.
    What is a total shoulder replacement?
    Total shoulder replacement surgery alleviates pain by replacing the damaged bone and cartilage with a metal and plastic implant. The shoulder joint is a ball-and-socket joint, much like the hip joint. The ball is the top of the arm bone (the humerus), and the socket is within the shoulder blade (scapula). This joint allows people an enormous range of motion at the shoulder.
    When shoulder replacement surgery is performed, the ball is removed from the top of the humerus and replaced with a metal implant. This is shaped like a half-moon and attached to a stem inserted down the center of the arm bone. The socket portion of the joint is shaved to clean bone and replaced with a plastic socket that is cemented into the scapula.
    Larry offers that his shoulder is the best that it has been in years and he is virtually pain free. Larry says that he is in high hopes of skydiving more often in the future, but for now he has mounds of dirt to move as Skydive Arizona makes way for its newest addition, the SkyVenture Arizona Wind Tunnel.

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers win $600,000 for crash

    A SKYDIVING school has been ordered to pay two of its students more than $600,000 in damages after they collided during a jump. Sydney Skydivers Pty Ltd was found to have breached its duty of care and ordered to pay damages for injuries and loss of work suffered by the men.
    The NSW District Court heard that Christopher Charles Morton, 33, was making his first jump and Michael Richard Warren, 26, his third when the collision occurred on December 14, 1997.
    They had both attended a training day before they jumped out of the plane near Picton, south-west of Sydney.
    The instructors were the first to reach the target area, marked by a large cross.
    They were then to direct the movements of their students using large arrows and batons.
    When Mr Morton and Mr Warren were about 30 metres above the ground and had their parachutes open, they collided and fell to the ground "with considerable force", Acting Judge Clifford Boyd-Boland said today.
    He blamed the collision on one of the instructors, Helen Perry, saying her sense of direction was confused when she landed just 90 seconds before the students.
    She therefore pointed her student, Mr Morton, in the wrong direction, Justice Boyd-Boland said.
    "I find it was the conduct of Perry and the confusion she had, surrounding the direction she was giving, which led to the collision," he said.
    He rejected a suggestion that Mr Morton had failed to follow the direction indicated by Ms Perry's arrow.
    The collision could also have been avoided if the two students had more than a 20 second interval between them when they jumped out of the plane, Justice Boyd-Boland said.
    Despite the 20 second gap, both students were at the same height when the collision occurred.
    "It became an added risk in an already risky procedure and would be best avoided," Justice Boyd-Boland said.
    Mr Morton suffered a fractured pelvis and injuries to his right shoulder, spine, head and severe shock in the fall and was today awarded almost $277,000 in damages.
    Mr Warren received fractures to this right arm and injuries to his spine, head and severe shock, and was awarded about $328,000.
    ~ From AAP

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers sue over mid-air crash

    TWO student skydivers who plunged to the ground after a mid-air collision during a training jump are suing the company that was teaching them how to parachute. Christopher Charles Morton, 33, was in hospital for four days and off work for six weeks after the accident, which also involved Michael Richard Warren, 26, at Picton, south of Sydney, on December 14, 1997.
    Mr Morton and Mr Warren are suing Sydney Skydivers Pty Ltd in the NSW District Court, claiming the company was negligent by failing to ensure its employees were adequately trained and that it failed to exercise due and proper care for the safety of its students.
    Their barrister, Andrew Morrison, SC, told Acting Judge Clifford Boyd-Boland it would be their case that the system for novice skydivers put in place by the company was "thoroughly unsafe".
    Mr Morrison said the pair were "some significant distance above the ground" when they collided and fell.
    Mr Morton, a master of the Sydney Harbour tall ship Bounty, suffered a fractured pelvis and injuries to his right shoulder, spine, head and severe shock.
    Mr Warren, a former coalminer, received fractures to his right arm and injuries to his spine, head and severe shock.
    Mr Morton told the court a friend, his girlfriend and he had decided to buy each other skydives for Christmas presents that year.
    He said that after a day of training he went up in a plane to do his first jump with several instructors and fellow student Mr Warren, who was then doing his third jump.
    They were to aim for a cross marked on the ground and were directed by instructors moving large arrows and using batons to show them which way to turn.
    "I thought I was doing really well because I was coming up to the cross," Mr Morton said.
    But he said when he was about 30 metres from the ground and while watching his instructor, who was also on the ground, he and Mr Warren collided.
    He said his canopy collapsed and he hit the ground.
    The company is being sued under the Trade Practices Act, with Mr Morton and Mr Warren alleging the services supplied by the company were not supplied with due care and skill.
    The company's barrister, Greg Curtain, told Judge Boyd-Boland there would be evidence Mr Morton and Mr Warren failed to follow instructions to watch the "target assistant" on the ground and that Mr Morton went in the opposite direction to the way he was directed.
    Mr Curtain also said there would be evidence that there was nothing wrong with the way the company's operation was carried out.
    The hearing is continuing.

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers Realize Bobo's Big Dream

    ELLINGTON -- Marylou Laughlin wiped tears from her eyes as she walked off the field next to Ellington Airport, her parachute in tow. Moments earlier, she was one of 39 skydivers to form a flower-like formation thousands of feet above. The formation set a state skydiving record - all in the name of Robert "Bobo" Bonadies, an instructor who died in a parachuting accident May 6. Bonadies died helping a student pull her parachute rip cord; he never had time to pull his own, police and skydivers said.
    "This is the first time I cried since the fatality," said Laughlin, of Granby, who is the United States Parachutist Association regional director and a member of Connecticut Parachutists Inc.
    "It was like Bobo was really with us," she said.
    Wednesday was the first of a two-day skydiving event that Bonadies, president of the Connecticut group, helped plan. Bonadies, 47, of Vernon, wanted to get more than three dozen skydivers airborne to complete the formation.
    The club's goal was 56 skydivers, a far cry from the 28 who failed to properly complete a formation in an impromptu jump eight years ago.
    Rather than dampen their passion, Bonadies' death motivated the skydivers to carry on. Called "Bobo's Big Dream," the event continues today, as skydivers attempt to form multiple formations within jumps.
    More than 50 skydivers traveled from as far as Philadelphia for the first day of jumping. They ranged from 67-year-old Howard Burling of Bristol to Paula Philbrook of Pepperell, Mass., who brought her 4-year-old son and mother to watch.
    But success wasn't easy to achieve. Menacing rain clouds kept skydivers on the ground until the afternoon. Then, as the sun broke through the clouds, revealing blue patches, the skydivers got ready for the first jump.
    First, they practiced on the ground ("dirt diving"). Hunched over like dads playing monster, they extended their arms, moved toward each other to form loops and broke away. They rehearsed jumping out of the plane on wooden platforms.
    Then came the real thing.
    Thirty-nine parachutists, plus three with video cameras, piled into three planes. On the first jump, the formation was almost completed, save for a few jumpers who were unable to latch onto a loop. The second time, 40 jumpers were too far apart to create any kind of pattern, save the central ring.
    The third time was the charm. Thirty-nine skydivers fell into formation like clockwork, forming four rings outside a central ring. Three of the outer rings, or "rooms," had a jumper in the middle. The fourth room was empty, in a salute to Bonadies.
    By one count, the skydivers held on to each other for 11 seconds. That's out of a 50-second descent from 13,500 feet at about 120 mph.
    Their landings were staggered, punctuated by fluttering parachutes. Spectators cheered as skydivers whooshed across the grass below and hugged one another.
    "Hey, don't forget, guys, that wasn't 39, it was 40, and it was for Bobo," said Roger Ponce de Leon of Hamden, who helped plan the formations.
    ~ The Hartford Courant

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers Leap from Malaysian Tower

    Fifty-three skydivers have leapt off the world's fourth tallest communications building, the broadcasting tower in Malaysia's capital, Kuala Lumpur. Hundreds of people watched the jumps off the observation deck of the 421m tower to celebrate Kuala Lumpur's City Day.
    It is the second time in recent weeks Malaysia has allowed skydivers to parachute off buildings - a sport that has proved controversial in other countries.

    Base-jumping - or parachuting from buildings, bridges and cliffs - is considered more dangerous than conventional skydiving from planes and at least 39 people have died since 1980.
    It runs foul of trespassing laws in most countries, where governments and property owners fear lawsuits if there is an accident, and many jumps are now carried out in secret.
    However, Malaysia has welcomed the sport, which some say could be promoted as a tourist attraction. On New Year's Eve, 15 jumpers leapt off Kuala Lumpur's Petronas Twin Towers, the world's tallest buildings.
    Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad expressed delight at the feat which was watched by 100,000 people.
    The company which set up the event hopes to stage an extreme jumping world championship in Malaysia in August.
    Freefall
    Those taking part in the latest leap included skydivers from America, Australia, Malaysia, Sweden, Canada, Britain, Iceland, Norway, New Zealand and Switzerland.
    Each parachutist was expected to make 10 jumps from the 300m mark on the tower during the six-hour event. The skydivers freefell for about three seconds before opening their parachutes.
    "It's a treat to be here," said British jumper Nikolas Hartshorne. "Malaysia has done something that America won't do."
    "Getting a building elsewhere is very hard," added American Avery Badenhop. "But here, people seem to realise we should be free. It's our life, it's our fate."
    Malaysian officials say they recognise the perils of base jumping and all 53 parachutists signed insurance waivers.
    Rozitah Idris, marketing manager for the broadcasting tower, said he believed the sport would help draw tourists to Malaysia.

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers interested in renting at Garrett

    MCHENRY -- Tandem skydiving may come to the Garrett County Airport if the Pittsburgh Skydiving Center Inc. meets four requirements set by the Garrett County Commissioners on Tuesday.
    Saying an agreement should be no more restrictive nor more liberal than others operating out of the airport, the commissioners agreed with the recommendation of the Garrett County Airport Commission.
    Director of General Services Gary Mullich presented an official request from the Pittsburgh Skydiving Center in December for a formal lease agreement with the airport by Jan. 31.
    The commissioners approved the request but did not agree to a waiver of liability insurance. The county does not have any building space to lease to the center, and area for land lease would need to be added to the Airport Layout Plan and approved by the Federal Aviation Administration. Electricity and water are not provided to land lease tenants; they provide their own.
    "You would have to have a good reason to deny anyone the use of the airport," Mullich said, since it receives federal funds. The skydiving center would have to give the county a hold-harmless agreement and would have to have an agreement with the county if it uses the airport as a base of operation.
    Don Bick of the skydiving club, which operates out of Connellsville (Pa.) Airport, met with members of the advisory group in December. He would like a standard three- or five-year lease, beginning May 1, with an option to renew. The group is interested in leasing appropriate building space or installing a mobile office.
    The county requires $1 million general liability coverage. The skydiving group has $1 million in premise or "slip and fall" insurance, and $50,000 in third-party insurance for all licensed skydivers through the United States Parachute Association, but says it cannot get general liability coverage, Mullich said.
    Bob Railey, a local pilot, said the group seemed to have a pretty smooth operation at Connellsville. He said it might be possible for them to just use a trailer as an office on weekends. He felt it would be an attractive business for the county and could not see any airplane operations vs. skydiving issues that would hinder either activity.
    Ken Wishnick, president of the Garrett County Chamber of Commerce, said the skydiving club had joined the chamber and asked if any staff members wanted to jump. "A few are actually considering it," said Wishnick.
    "I would love to do this myself," said Deb Clatterbuck of the chamber. "You would be jumping with a jump master," she said, stressing safety must be first.
    The addition of the skydiving, Clatterbuck said, "would be an inclusion of another adventure sport and of course, the increased amusement tax received off that." Also the number of take-offs and landings at the airport would help make it eligible for an increased runway.
    "Dick assured us the jump would not interfere with any planes coming in, and would not take up much room at the airport," said Caroline Hill, co-manager of the Garrett County Airport. "He said they were quite busy up in Connellsville. They haven't had any problems, but there are a lot of questions to be answered.
    "Some local people have supported him and I think there is an interest," she said. She is worried some about parking problems because of the participants and curiosity-seekers the event would draw.

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers Closer to Free Flight on a Wing and a Flair

    MARINA, Calif. -- There he was, high above Monterey Bay, a yellow speck rocketing across the gauzy sky. Birdman was tracing a line due east, maybe 100 mph, following the braided shoals of the Salinas River. The ground was approaching at about 60 mph. Graceful from afar, close-up he looked like a flying squirrel in an Elvis get-up. Mark Lichtle had jumped out of a plane at 12,900 feet and was trying to soar two miles inland before deploying his parachute. For a minute and a half, the 42-year-old skydiver kept gravity at bay, moving forward much faster than he was descending toward that famous dark soil of Steinbeck country.

    Mark Lichtle: Featured Photographer


    Mark's Galleries
    Lichtle is one of a growing flock of jumpers who wear wing suits. Designed by BirdMan International, the suits keep humans aloft with nylon wings that extend from the wrists to the hips and inflate as air starts to rush into them. Another wing, like a bird's tail, connects to both legs.
    "It's like slow-motion skydiving," Lichtle said. "You can stay up longer and go farther. The wing suit has allowed us to feel as close to flight as possible."
    Since they became commercially available in 1999, BirdMan suits have given skydivers a new rush, and provided a new impetus to base jumping--hurling oneself off buildings, bridges and cliffs.
    Lichtle is a retired mortgage broker from San Jose who films other people enjoying such adventures, often while jumping himself. Recently he leaped off a tower in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and in Mexico he jumped 1,200 feet into a cave called the Basement of the Swallows, which itself could swallow the Empire State Building.
    Wing suits are for experts only. The company recommends that a skydiver perform at least 500 parachute jumps and then take special bird-flying instruction before putting on wings. Although there is an emergency mechanism to cut away the wings, the diver's arms are very restricted while flying. "It's like skydiving handcuffed, and your head is your first point of contact with anything else," Lichtle said.
    Vladi Pesa, a BirdMan dealer and wing suit instructor, said that once students learn to control the suit, it revolutionizes their diving. They can do loops and barrel rolls and carve across the sky as if it were water or snow. "It completely changes the flight path," Pesa said. "You can do formations, flying like a flock of birds. You can double your free-fall time."
    Skydivers have long experimented with artificial wings and were called birdmen. In the mid-20th century, the practice was akin to jumping from a plane in a cheap Batman costume. From 1930 to 1961, according to Birdman International, 72 of the 75 people known to have tried such stunts died.
    The problem was, and still is, that skydivers need to be stable when they deploy their chutes. If some homemade wing has you spinning like a fan out of control, you're history.
    In the 1990s, skydivers began experimenting again, this time with wings that had no hard parts and were easier to keep in control.
    A Frenchman named Patrick DeGayardon got it right--for a while. He performed successful wing jumps until 1998, when he tried to sew a little pillow beneath his parachute to get rid of a pocket of dead air behind his derriere. Unfortunately, he sewed the chute itself to the pillow and didn't try to deploy it until too late. He plunged from life to legend.
    About that time, a Finn named Jari Kuosma came up with the idea of a commercial wing suit. A Croatian friend designed it, and BirdMan International was born in 1999. It has sold about 1,000 suits, ranging from $600 to $1,000. Kuosma has been trying to tinker with designs to slow down the speed of descent even more, allowing birdmen to swoop up and for a moment, maybe, achieve zero vertical velocity.
    "We are getting very close to zero," he said. "I am going to land this thing without a chute one day."
    Hopefully, not like the 72 others.
    Kuosma said he slowed the downward speed to 10 mph on one flight, whereas a normal skydiver falls at about 120 mph before throwing the chute. Others say birdmen haven't gotten much slower than 40 to 60 mph.
    On a cool summer day, with a briny wind coming off the bay, Lichtle suited up at the Marina Airport, an aging corrugated affair with old barracks and ragged windsocks. He harnessed himself into the six zippers and shuffled like a penguin to the runway. He wore a helmet--aptly designed by the Bonehead company--shaped flat like Frankenstein's skull, on which he mounted his camera.
    "Birdman!" an onlooker shouted, as an instructor explained the wing suit concept to curious students.
    Soon after the plane lifted off, the other skydivers on board jumped out right over the airport. Lichtle told the pilot to drop him a couple miles away at the coast. He wanted to see if he could get back to the airport on his own wings.
    He has to get used to his new suit, which is for advanced divers and "a little twitchy." Still, because he is more streamlined through the air, the sensation is a lot smoother and more liberating than regular skydiving. "You don't have the hard wind on your body," he said.
    He leaped alone over the beach and, at first, fell like a rock. Then in several seconds, the air went through the vents of his wing, and floom, they inflated. He was aloft, aiming roughly for a rusted water tower at the airport.
    But up at 12,000 feet, a strong head wind was blowing off the land. Lichtle was going about 100 mph into the wind and hurtling down about 65 mph. He watched his altimeter and studied the oaks and artichokes below. Flatbed trucks tooled along the farm roads.
    He realized he was not going to reach his goal and threw his chute at about 3,500 feet, still a quarter mile west of the airport. He drifted east with the wind and spiraled down with the other divers, undaunted. An eagle he wasn't.
    Still, Lichtle was unruffled. "This is really the closest you can get to a bird."

    By admin, in News,

    Skydivers

    Yes, I know who you're talking about.
    It is these crazy guys, who jump out of perfectly good aircraft with the bunch of ropes and fabric in their backpack.
    The only reason why they are allowed to do this is the fact that the pilot wants to get rid of them. Badly.
    Having a cabin full of freaks which are laughing, kicking out the jokes only they can understand and giving each other high five from time to time... you know, I can understand the pilot.
    Some of these guys are so untolerable so the pilot makes them to get out in the middle of the way up (sometimes at 3,500 ft). The crazy bastards call this "hop and pop".
    Aha. Hop'n'pop. You know.
    Hop! And pilot turns the red lights. I believe this is because skydivers almost never listen to the pilot so he has to give them a visual cue. Most of them are still allowed to drive a car so the red light still rings the bell. Surprisingly, this bell tells them "the fun is about to begin"! Green light follows.
    Pop! The guy is popped from the plane. I suspect, sometimes, this happens not without a good kick to the ass from the humble bros and sisters. Why would they call it "pop" otherwise???
    Then, there is always somebody who is curious if the pushed out guy got his lesson - you can always see a few heads out of the plane looking at the guy tumbling in the air.
    No, they had not been such freaks from the very beginning.
    In the beginning the innocent guys and girls were lured into the small room full of weird stuff: worn out harness containers hanging on the ceiling looking like just taken from a dead body, creepy plane cabin imitation, tables on the wheels with soft tops looking very... very... suspicious.
    The whole place looks like a mideval torture chamber.
    Then, during several hours they are asked to do a lot of strange things: hang in the harness and partially disconnect it from the hanging ropes, falling down like been hanged, assume strange poses on the soft table, fall and roll on the floor while other yelling "PLF, PLF!!!", memorize a lot of motions which doesn't make much sense for any decent person who got used mostly to the movement of glass with beer to the mouths.
    I think, "PLF" must be an abbreviation for Practice Leaning to the Floor. But why jump from the small stair for that???
    All this is sometimes interrupted with the videos showing multiple ways how the parachute doesn't work. And such videos for some strange reason are supposed to be encouraging. No way!
    After a few hours, when the instructor ensured the guy is driven crazy enough already, they get with the student on the plane going up.
    While it is the beginning, no normal person is going to jump out of plane, but these bastards got a trick for it: one of them holds the poor guy on one side, another - on the other side and then they suggest "just to look at the prop". Yeah, they are trained well so it is easy to push the relaxed guy into the air.
    During the freefall their favorite joke is to tease the guy in the middle with quite inappropriate gestures.
    The most popular is the gesture which the Rome Ceasers showed "death to him" to the gladiators at the arena: big thumb down.
    Some other gesture is the way people in the Europe say "you're an ugly goat" - two fingers apart.
    When the student screams and kicks legs, they just tip the big thinger to the palm showing "shut up".
    And when they sick and tied of the guy, they point to him, which will mean "fuck off, pull now so we cannot see your ugly face any more around".
    Do you know why they give the guy the radio on the first jumps?
    They always say "it's a one way radio" but actually they enjoy listening to the screams of the student.
    It is obvious that after such a treatment the guy goes nuts completely and gets an inevitable desire to repeat.
    However, some of them reasonably try to get rid of instructors on the jump (who wants these freaks around, really???). The most popular ways are: don't give an exit count or exit in the middle of count, tumble like a bitch on the exit, hoping that the instructors will be lost, assuming the unusual positions in the freefall hoping the guys aside will not be able to hold on. Apparently, this almost never works – in the most successful cases the best achieved result could be the one instructor lost only.
    With the time, guy's craziness goes deeply and it is only one instructor needed to make him out of plane. To check that the process of madness goes well, instructor requires the guy to do weird things on the jump: put the head completely out of plane and look for aircrafts, roll and rotate while falling, try to hit the small piece of land while landing.
    The advancing on that way is almost completed when the guy decides to jump out of plane alone.
    However, after a few jumps alone almost all of them got a bit better and prefer to get out with a coach, trying to hang on him during the freefall. Obviously, it is safer to hang on something firm while in the air! They call it "docking".
    The progressing in that is recorded in the special (I believe, medical) sheet (white or yellow) and then submitted to the organization which tries to keep account of the sick bastards. The organization is named USPA which is apparently the abbreviation for US Psychiatric Advisory. In 25 jumps and when all the symptoms are listed, USPA classifies the guy and assign him a first "A" number in the sad history of sickness.
    The progressing classifications are:

    A - Almost Hopeless

    B - Better Be Avoided

    C - Completely Crazy

    D - Dreadfully Mad
    It took time for USPA to figure out exact symptoms of progressing from one category to another.
    However the common anomalies were noted and listed (like jumping into the water, jumping in the middle of the night etc.)
    It is noticed that many guys prefer to exit from aircraft not alone (some prefer to have as many jumpers as possible surrounding them). And this is a natural fear - and it is not a rare to see multiple jumpers hanging on each other in the sky. Sometimes, by chance, their formation looks even nice. However, within a minute they realize that hanging on the other guys don't help them from getting close to the earth and they break off and fly do the different directions, obviously scared. I personally saw 30 such guys at once, flying from each other as fast as they could.
    Some of them try to pretend nothing unusual happens and flying sitting - like they were at home on a sofa. Some prefer to have some roof over the head and flying head down.
    Anyway, all of them soon realize that something goes wrong. "Most probably", they think, "it is that heavy backpack drags me down to earth" and the obvious decision is to get rid of it. For some unknown reason all of them start with ripcord or BOC pilot chute...
    In a few seconds the parachute opens and now they have the desire not to get down to earth somehow satisfied. Poor bastards! They could have simply stayed in the plane instead!
    Any reasonable man can confirm that having as big umbrella as possible above you is safer under the open sky.Who know, what can fall from it on your head. Especially, when you are flying.
    So, obviously, the most experienced skydivers land with two parachutes over them.
    They call their parachute "canopy". "Canopy" must have came from Russian “konoplya” and in Russian it means "cannabis" - something that gets you high, which obviously is associated both with the parachute and the whole process itself. "Get high naturally!" - they say, - "Skydive!”
    Hmm... I think skydiving should be declared as a controlled substance too.
    Note, while under canopy these guys are very dangerous and do not hesitate to use their awful knives (designed in the best traditions of Jack the Ripper) if somebody else decided to join them. Even if another guy just wanted to chill out together!
    The separate branch of the symptoms is the animalizing. Some of these guys (and their number is progressing with the years) decide that they are not humans but the... birds. Yes, birds!!! I suspect birds flu has something to deal with it.
    They take on the bird-like costumes. Sure thing, somebody is making money on this heavy mania, selling the bird suites to them. Then they jump out of plane.
    Another proof of the animal-like anomaly is then they get and fly together. They call this "flocking" - what else needs to be said!
    Sure think, not all of them so unreasonable. There are some guys who recognize their “mental change” and do the best to make it safe. The best of them do not get on the plane to jump on awfully high altitude with heavy backpack stuffed with two parachutes.
    They know that it is safe to jump from low, unmoving object. They know that two canopies introduce exhaustingly big number of options: which to pull?
    So they jump from very reliable, unmoving, low bridges, buildings and cliffs. With one canopy only.
    These ones are obviously less crazy and the other skydivers call them BASE jumpers - they are nuts too, but only basically nuts.
    Yeah, and, of cause there are some guys who enjoys to see the normal people dropped from the plane. These are very smart and persuade the good citizens to do this, proving on the ground that there is nothing scary in that.
    "You even don't have to wear this heavy ugly backpack. I can do it for you. But put this harness on so my boss would not suspect anything."
    While in the plane, they sit behind the poor guy and, unexpectedly, grab his harness and tie up to his one.
    He get close... very close... to the guy or the girl.
    And I personally saw how they pushed the poor one to the aircraft exit in front of them, telling them: just cross your hands on your chest, there is nothing else you can do now... Yes, I was the one of the guys dropped out of plane that way.
    But this... hmm... close relationship doesn't last long - in 6-7 minutes they are on the ground, and giggling, seeing as normal people runs from them, screaming on their way.
    "They are excited!" they say. Yeah, right!
    If the guy doesn't run away - here we go, he is another candidate for AFF (see what I wrote about it before). Oh, yeah, AFF is obviously for Awfully Freaked Fella - the student.
    So, when you are going to marry a skydiver, don't even hope that he or she is going to be around you all the time. Sky and jumping will be the on the top of his/her list of priorities. And if you want to get to that list not far after sky, jumping, boogie, bonefire, beer, new container, try a wingsuit, new reserve, freeflying, freeflying jumpsuit, wind tunnel, night jump, audible alti, jump from balloon, big ways, CRW, hook turns, swooping, go to Florida to jump in winter, spend vacation on drop zone in New Zealand, high-altitude jumps, sleep sometimes, try weight, try that cool new canopy on boggie, jump from the cliff in grand canyon, dogs... then you have to become a skydiver too!
    Wanna have him or her around more often? It is simple. Do RW with them!
    Blue skies!

    By admin, in News,

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