danvan

Don't stress - I flew it last night for the f*rst time, and even after 5 minutes and with 180 jumps I was still banging into the walls That aside I really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to the tunnel camps next month. I took two non-skydivers along and they had a great time too. Cheers Daniel

Hi guys, I'm coming over to Maryland (Gaithersburg) for work in a couple of weeks. It's not too far from Washington DC. Just wondering if anyone can tell me if there are any wind tunnels near-by? I will have a car, or am willing to fly if it's not too far and doesn't cost too much. Cheers Daniel

Hi guys, Long time lurker, just moved to London from Sydney. I'm looking to get my rig insured as my Australian insurance has lapsed. This is the closest post I could find for UK insurance, but as it's several years old I'm sure there's more up-to-date info available. Any ideas? Cheers Daniel Edit to add: I do not have home contents insurance and don't have enough stuff here to justify it

Hi everyone, My girlfriend and I are taking the plunge (no, not THAT plunge) and leaving our comfortable life in sunny Sydney, Australia, destined for the lovely Vancouver, Canada. Well, I hear it's lovely anyway :) I have a one year working visa that I must enter on by April next year, but plan to move in this coming October - just in time for the ski season! YAY! Anyway, I have some questions and figure you guys could answer them (to save me having to do the hard work of researching it all ;-) ). Firstly, jumping in Vancouver: What's it cost? Is it seasonal? How far out of the city are the DZs? Do I need any specific equipment? e.g. RSL, Cypress, etc - I have these BTW. Do I need to get affiliated with the USPA or CSPA or otherwise? Second, I am thinking of buying a car for the time I'm there - nothing flash, so long as it gets me up to the ski fields every weekend. I really want to drive up from LA (via Las Vegas) so what do you suggest I do? Buy a car in the USA and drive it up to Canada, or buy a car in Canada? Are there any whacky laws I should be aware of that makes it hard for a car owned in one state/country/provence to be "permanently" in BC? Would I have to transfer the plates over? Would I have to take the car back to wherever I bought it from to sell it again? That'll do for now. I'm sure I'll have more questions as the time gets closer. Cheers Daniel p.s. If you know of any companies who might be looking for network admins (IP or VoIP) in October-ish, let me know. :) http://www.danvan.com

You were WAY too quick off the mark if you caught that post without the clicky link, as I updated it as soon as I saved the original post ;-) I mis-read your post, so I'll take the bonehead title for this one :) On a slightly off topic note, has anyone got anything to say about the Bonehead Bonds - good, bad or otherwise?

http://www.boneheadcomposites.com/2002/standard.htm#mindwarp (edit to make it clicky :) )

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I will settle with insurance and putting a hospital wrist band around the leg strap as a means of identification to someone who might find it. With the log book, I might photocopy it every couple of weeks and file the copies just in case.

Hi all, What do you people do to secure your rigs at home to protect it from or deter burglers? I am very worried about leaving my rig at home without some kind of security. I am thinking of getting a chain and locking it down to my metal bed frame with a padlock (I have a Talon2 with stainless steel rings at the hip), but I would prefer something a little more flexible on where I can leave the rig. Is there a product designed for this purpose? Just wondering what other people do. Are there any other tips to deter burglers? e.g. leaving a note telling the would be thief how hard it would be to sell a stolen rig due to the size of the skydiving community, etc? I have heard of someone getting their rig returned after it was found dumped at a tip, because the person who found it had the brains to look into the pocket and find a packing card - problem is even I didn't know rigs had little pockets until a week after I bought my rig. ;-) Are there any other tips on how to make it obvious who owns the rig to a non-jumper who may find the rig? On a related note, could anyone in Australia give me info on insuring rigs? Any info on who to talk to, how much it would cost, experiences dealing with the companies, etc. would be appreciated. Thanks Daniel

I think this is the one they're talking about (from Sydney Skydivers in AU), and my favourite - the prop hitting a person from the hangar at a DZ in Queenstown, NZ (sorry about size, couldn't be stuffed rescanning)

Get used to saying that. It took over 30 visits to my DZ before I finished my 11 AFF jumps. High winds were the main reason, but not enough instructors and too many tandems were amoungst the other common ones.

haha! nice one but I think you need a lesson on Aussies... http://www.geocities.com/topaussieguide/Page1.htm

A New Zealander, a sheep and a dog were survivors of a terrible shipwreck. They found themselves stranded on a desert island and after being there for a while they got into the habit of going to the beach every evening to watch the sun go down. One particular evening, the sky was red with beautiful cirrus clouds, the breeze was warm and gentle; a perfect night for romance. As they sat there, the sheep started looking better and better to the Kiwi. Soon, he leaned over to the sheep and put his arm around it. But the dog got jealous, growling fiercely until the Kiwi took his arm from around the sheep. After that, the three of them continued to enjoy the sunsets together, but there was no more cuddling. A few weeks passed by and lo, and behold, there was another shipwreck. The only survivor was a beautiful young woman, the most beautiful woman the Kiwi had ever seen. She was in a pretty bad way when they rescued her, and they slowly nursed her back to health. When the young maiden was well enough, they introduced her to their evening beach ritual. It was another beautiful evening: red cirrus clouds, a warm and gentle breeze; perfect for a night of romance. Pretty soon the New Zealander started to get 'those feelings' again. He fought them as long as he could, but he finally gave in and leaned over to the young woman, cautiously, and whispered in her ear... 'Would you mind taking the dog for a walk?'

Congrats Amy! Now you'll just have to get back over to warm, sunny(*) Australia for a few jumps in real jump weather! :) Blue skies. - Daniel (*) weather conditions subject to change without notice.

Are there any issues with the change in pressure on the climb, or for that matter the freefall? I can imagine if they are a tight fit and the air pocket reduces or increases too quickly you could do a lot more damage? I am not sure how much the air pressure changes between ground and jump height, but aren't you not supposed to jump if you have a cold for this very reason?

I don't know where you could grab a copy, but my favourite by far is a lesser known base/freeflying one called Standard Issue. It is by far the most professionally presented and brilliantly soundtracked video I have seen (mind you, I've only seen about 5 other vid's :) ). Try http://www.basejump.org/discus/messages/1/43.html?1038932244 "Fist Full of F1-11" has some crazy base stuff, but is pretty sloppy in the editing department. If you're only looking for the footage, this is an awesome vid. I especially like the skydive onto then BASE jump off Centrepoint Tower (Sydney, Australia) and some painful looking building strikes. "For a few more jumps" is "fist Full"'s sequal and is pretty much the same, except shorter and less older footage. They're both collections of Austalian BASE jump footage from around the world. There's a fantastic (non-jumping related) scene where a yank bets an Aussie that his 12 guage shot gun can't pierce skin from 100m away - I was laughing so hard with the outcome! (http://www.totalcontrol.com.au/videos.htm) There's another video I own called BASEclimb (http://www.baseclimb.com), which is a good documentary about a pair of Aussies basejumping Trango Towers in Pakistan. Definately worth a watch. There's also a sequal to the documentary, BASEclimb 2, which you usually get on the same video/DVD. Finally, if you've got a fast Internet connection, check out ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com. My favourite is ftp://ftp.skydivingmovies.com/public/base/basecollision_DivX.avi