Jalien

I'd like the Hitchhiker's Guide cover text on the cutaway handle DON'T PANIC

Well, I was hoping that this wouldn't simply descend into arguments about the existence or otherwise of climate change, and its causes... but I think there are some useful points made. My conclusion is that no-one's really convinced me otherwise that I'm a hypocrite for being environmentally-minded and a skydiver. There's some justification in the "carbon budgeting" approach - i.e. reducing fuel use elsewhere, so you can keep skydiving. I think I'm going to have to minimise my skydiving in order to salve my conscience... just as soon as I get my C licence... and my wingsuit first flight... Oh dear, hypocrisy seems like my natural clothing

N/A

I don't really agree with this attitude, that "what I do doesn't matter because it's such a small part of the whole", but in any case, it led me to calculate roughly what impact skydiving has on one's carbon footprint. Taking a Cessna 208, it apparently burns ~60 gallons of fuel per hour; taking ~20 skydivers to altitude in ~20 minutes means that you are responsible for burning one gallon per jump. Googling suggests that this is equivalent to ~20 pounds of CO2. So in a modest year's jumping (100 jumps) you're increasing emissions by ~2000 lbs. To put this in perspective, this is about 5% of the average American's carbon footprint. I disagree that this is a very small contribution to total personal emissions.

Not sure if this should be here or in SC, so apologies if it's in the wrong place... When we jump out of a plane, we've burned a hell of a lot of fuel to get there, and released a lot of CO2 just for a few moments of fun. So for those that believe that climate change is occurring, and that we should be doing something about it, what is your justification for continuing in such an environmentally-unfriendly hobby? Personally, I do believe that we are changing the climate for the worse, and I have tried to cut down my carbon emissions to some extent. On the other hand, I really like skydiving, and so currently feel like quite a hypocrite. What are your thoughts? (Obviously if you don't believe in any negative consequences of burning hydrocarbons then the question is moot and you don't need to answer )

"Delphi method" - well I learned something from this thread, so thank you for that

What kind of research method is this? "Here's what everyone else said, do you want to let that influence your response?" Sounds badly designed at best

grab my right-hand main lift webbing with my left hand, then pull my main and try to grab the opposite MLW with my right hand...? might sitting up to deploy if possible help to channel the opening forces more into the leg straps, reducing the chance of falling forwards out of the harness?

The way that everyone on the jump knows and has practiced on the ground, so that they all know when to leave the plane?

What about cutting away once you had the 2 out? Or would the main have choked the reserve?

A quick bit of maths tells me that if you divide your WL in kg/sqm by 5, you'll get near enough your WL in lb/sqft (to within 3%)

"Thinking of moving to Dubai? Read this first" http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4480979;page=unread#unread

I've heard that people who get part-way through a foreign training system (including USPA) sometimes have to re-take some levels in order to comply with the UK system - so if you aren't sure that you'll have time to get your licence and a reasonable number of jumps in the US, you might consider saving your cash to start from scratch in the UK

Not really epic, but my first freefall (4s delay after static line progression) is one of the most memorable - I walked around with a huge grin on my face for the rest of the day! It felt incredible to be falling so smoothly through the air after all the static lines and dummy pulls

silent agreement here to be honest, the fact that everyone immediately compares anything to Jeb is more flattering than anything else... he probably enjoys the attention! Would you rather be the "bad boy of BASE" that some people love to hate, or be the other guy that gets compared to him?