dthames

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Everything posted by dthames

  1. I had to work pretty hard to be in normal control. If it is not "easy" and you want to learn, I suggest you make WS 90% of your jumps until you are a lot better. It is hard to learn just doing one or two, every once in a while. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  2. No option for 200? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  3. 54 years old Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  4. I salute you. If you plan to continue and just need someone to talk to or to bounce ideas off of, let me know. In my own experience, I have observed that I often learn to do things (wingsuiting) more than one way. For example, moving over to the right, I can do with an input to the right arm or a totally different input on the left arm. With that in mind, you might be able to do things that some people think you can't. You look better than I did on my first flight :) Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  5. I had issues de-arching in AFF. Mostly I was old, stiff, and had to work really hard to arch much at all. The work was something I could not maintain throughout the dive. How you feel mentally about the process is very important. For me, I had to "own" the process and really take control of what I was doing before I started progressing. Hoping things would get better was not enough. I spent a lot of time trying to understand what I was missing and how to implement what I was being taught. Skydiving has a learning curve (for me) that I did not in any way understand at first. One specific thing, is that the air is what you are working with, or against. Imagine the person that can't swim, but thrashes about in deep water, compared to the person that calmly treads the same water. Freefall is similar in that the air is a tool that you must learn to use. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  6. Here is something you can think about. No matter what type of skydiving that you do, it is good to know, which direction the plane was flying when you left it and which direction you are facing at any given moment during the jump. You can work on that understanding/skill very early in your skydive progression and it is a valuable skill anytime you jump from a plane. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  7. I was thinking this as well....practice landing on your feet, somehow. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  8. I started skydiving in order to fly wingsuits. 201 was my first WS jump and I would do that again. I am curious as well. If you don't want to WS, why ask the question? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  9. Even if you are capable and even if you don't consider the bigger suit a safety risk, you will do yourself a disservice (my opinion) if you don't learn to totally milk every drop from a smaller suit. This has been stated many times by many highly experienced birds, but it is often ignored. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  10. Can you put your finger on what you are afraid of? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  11. Even when you do mostly what you are told (for me) there was some learning before I could feel the air and use it to keep me stable. The first few are often a but clumsy. One thing that worked to help me was when I was given the "go" to just hand there for about 3 seconds and remind myself that I was going to release and watch the plane (really watch it) as I fell away. Watching the plane will make you arch. Looking anywhere else will tend to make you de-arch and be less stable. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  12. Do you know how long they can sustain that 260kw output? Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  13. The 36 KWH battery could deliver (in theory) 150 HP for about 19-1/2 minutes. That is not accounting for the heat (I^R) loses in the battery. Double the battery size and you can double the HP to 300 HP. Now you are carrying/lifting 200 kg more, the weight of 2 jumpers. Jump planes do a lot more "work" (physics term) than a plane that climbs and flies at a cruise attitude. Most 150 HP jump planes are pretty slow to climb. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  14. I agree 100%. "Big" might not be cool, but walking (not limping) off the field with a smile is. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  15. dthames

    Wingsuit Progression

    I was one of the noobs that started so I could fly a WS. As a student, I saw a WS size race between three guys and none of them did well. I knew I wanted no part of that. Soon after I started WSing, I moved to a medium suit in order to get in the flock at the DZ, and never thought that was a mistake. But it was a long time before I moved to something larger and even then it was often a solo jump once in a while. Even today, my medium suit is my favorite suit to fly with others. Today, I see many getting too big too soon. You are right, most won't listen. Thanks for the article. I don't think this issue can be reviewed often enough, as so many just want to go big and wonder why they are not doing all that well.
  16. I started at age 54. Get limber so it is not hard to arch. That was my biggest problem. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  17. When I am planning to fly my WS below 3K before I pitch, I like to know how many open canopies might be on my level or above me. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  18. "that I wont be around to see them grow up." We are not promised tomorrow. Skydiving is a bit selfish. Everyone has to decide for themselves if the reward is worth the risk. My kids were grown when I started, so I never had to face that same question. My wife did tell me if I get killed she will be super mad at me. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  19. 1. Make sure you have 2 or more files in the folder named "config". 2. Each of the files needs to have a different initialization file called out. 3. Make sure the named files are in audio folder. I am not sure about naming rules but stick to simple names, 8 characters long to be safe. It should then work. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  20. Learn PLF very well. Don't land on your butt....which you might do if you flare late and don't plan ahead.....Don't land on your butt....PLF Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  21. Call from ground says winds are at XX MPH, who still wants to jump? There are always a few that will jump. Sometimes I jump anyway, but most often, I will ride down if the tandems don't jump. But always consider compounding factors. If you see several things not ideal, none might tip the balance, but together they might suggest "bad idea". Learn to do that math. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  22. I am guessing a bit at what your question is asking. On the bicycle, you are the power source. You take some of that power away to run the light. Suppose you put an electric motor and a battery on your bicycle. You are peddling along at 10 MPH on flat ground. You flip a switch so that your generator (that did run your light) is now charging your battery. Pretend it is big enough to do that. Charging the battery takes power and because of that, now you are slowed to 7 MPH and doing the same work. Part of your work to make the bicycle go, and part to charge the battery. You keep this up for an hour or so and have some energy stored in the battery. You are tired, need to rest, but don't want to stop. So you stop peddling and flip on the motor. Now the motor is running off of the battery and you are moving at 5 MPH, just using a little power from the motor. You are running your battery down, using up the power you "banked" there. Then you see a hill that you must go up. You know this hill. It is all you can do to manage to peddle up it. But what if you peddle and leave the motor running? Hey, that helped but now your battery is run down to 10%. On a bright note, the back side of that hill is downhill for a very long way. You turn the motor off and start peddling. 15 MPH with very little effort. Flip on the generator and with the same effort you are still going 12 MPH (downhill) and charging your battery at the same time. Finally you stop at the DZ, do some jumps, and make the same trip back home. Thinking about your trip, this is what you observed. 1. The motor, generator, and battery added weight to your bicycle, which you must work to move over the ground and up the hills. 2. All of the power came from your legs. 3. Power stored in the battery helped at times, but it had a cost. Charging the battery always slowed you down, made your work harder, or both. 4. When it comes to moving something, there is no free lunch. The exciting battery news that we hear now and then is largely related to what is called "power density". For a given size and weight (battery) if I can pack enough power in it to climb 5 hills instead of 3 hills or to go 200 miles instead of 150 miles, then that is good news. But if I have to make a battery heavier or bigger to do more work, then that is not great news. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  23. Flying a WS is work. If I were challenged to do a long flight, I would be looking for a way to build in some inflation cells that were sealed and could be held at a fairly high pressure with a CO2 or O2 bottle. With enough pressure, the suit would be largely rigid, and some of the work could be removed from the system. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  24. As a student and A licensed jumper I would take an old tee shirt out into the field, far away from where most people landed and that was my landing target. I always turned with slow flat turns, which allowed me to work my pattern down a little lower (as time went on). On my base leg I would watch the target and keep asking myself, "where would I land if I turned toward the target NOW?" That turning point might be before I got to the ideal, 90 degrees from Final, or it might be a bit later than the perfect 90 degrees. Of course once I turned, a lot depended on the wind that day. As I learned to read the windsock better, I would make my base leg closer or further from my target, based on experience. I would not allow myself to be sucked into the goal of adjusting my flight on final to make the target because I often there were still others to consider that were in the pattern. Also, it is a bad habit to get into. For me it has always been very much, "Seat of the pants" type work. Just look where you want to land, fly there and land. Without very constant wind conditions, it is really hard to have a proven technical method that works. I gradually improved. If you record your miss distance each time, you should see a gradual improvement. But some days are just better than other days. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”
  25. Air conditioned packing space at both Spacelands in Texas is great! The entire office, training, and packing areas in Spaceland Dallas have AC. It really spoils everyone. Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”