julesUK

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Posts posted by julesUK

  2. There is a rig in the UK that made it to its third owner before being jumped. As the second owner tried (unsuccessfully) to sell it to a sort-of-interested party the following was overheard....

    "So why do you have four pilot chutes?"

    People this clueless should not be sold gear

    Jules

  5. Quote

    what the hell is a flying rabbit?



    the leader in a tracking dive or wingsuit flight is called the rabbit over this side of the pond - presumably as a legacy of hunting the little critters (and others) on horseback etc.....lets not start that debate

  6. Quote

    hoping that you can decrease the risk involved in your life when you huck yourself off a cliff is holding too much hope



    If I had legal insurance I would use it to pay the lawyers when I get busted - I wouldn't expect it to repel policemen when I waved it at them.

    I want travel insurance because I'm hoping that when I have an accident I won't have to spend the rest of my life paying the medical bills for being sewn back together. I will of course shove the policy document down my trousers as a bit of extra padding

    Jules

  7. contacted Annual Insurance and got

    "This is only for international sky diving and parachuting and not base jumping."

    my question had "intentional" rather than "international" - aren't spell checkers great!

    I used to have American Express travel insurance with their hazardous activites cover. This also mentioned 'parachuting' rather than skydiving but I didn't ask for clarification as I had yet to start BASE....might be worth checking them out again.

    Still no letter from AXA.....


    Jules

  9. Quote

    I'd recommend making a photocopy of the full booklet, then lending out the copy. Heck, I'd recommend scanning it and posting it (at least the relevant sections) here, or somewhere else on-line.



    for what its worth, I downloaded the relevant page of their website before they changed it - anyone want a copy?

    I am still waiting for the letter I was promised confirming my cover for the rest of this year......

    Jules

  10. I took their cover out in July. Having seen the top post I called them last week and was told that the website was wrong and they didn't cover BASE. I suggested that it was a bit late telling me now!!!

    One of their technical people called me today and said as its their mistake I am covered until the end of the policy's term - ie next July - but after that, look elsewhere.

    I pointed out that there might be a few of us who took out cover through the website without ever phoning - they are thinking of writing to all hazardous sports cover policy holders.

    Anyway, anyone else who has already taken their cover out and is now worrying, contact "'tasha" (I think - I'm crap at names) at their call centre and see if you can get the same deal.

    As this may be the last year any of us get cover I think we should aim to make the most of it!

    Jules

  11. Quote

    Now if you work out the acceleration of each of these and graph them on a Force vs Acceleration graph, if the line of best fit passes through the force axis first what does this prove?.....



    ...that zero acceleration requires an applied force - you are having to provide a force to overcome the frictional forces. The intercept should be the value of this frictional force.

    Jules

  12. Quote

    What s a bungee collapsible PC?




    The pilot chute is held in a collapsed state by a length of bungee cord. When you throw it out into a high-speed airflow it inflates, the bungee stretches and you have a working pilot chute. Once it's done its job it deflates again.

    A very bad idea for BASE (see fatality #51) or anywhere else where the airflow is less than terminal - ie wingsuits

    Jules

  17. risk is definitely part of the attraction and a very motivating and important part but still only a part.

    Looking around in freefall and falling through the environment rather than at it is also a major plus. Watching cliffs and antennas go past my feet has to be one of the highlights of my life so far

    Yes, I would carry on jumping

  19. Quote

    i am looking for suggestions of things to do in my upcoming 14 hr plane ride...



    sit by the door nervously clutching your rig, looking at your watch regularly. If the plane has a moving map display study it intently and make sure all the passengers around you hear you ask the flight attendant how the door opens.

    Or just get pissed and pass out.
    Jules

  20. things I did on my consols:

    - converted to throwaway on the 6th
    - started pulling at less than 5000'
    - did intentionally unstable exits - this was not a problem!;)
    - practiced for the Cat 8 qualifying dive (not all UK DZs do this)
    - just enjoyed falling without some instructor waving his arms at me

    Looking back I think they were valuable jumps. The problem with the BPA system is that once you come off Student status unless you can find a SkydiveU/ WARP/ RW instructor able to jump with you regularly you end up doing a lot of frustrating solos.

    The people who would do the RW coaching are often also the tandem instructors, the video fliers, the AFF instructors and these activities take commercial priority.

    Jules

  21. 1. get an audible and set it for 500 above breakoff while you're learning to sitfly until you can smoothly and safely transition from whatever body position you're in to a track. At some point you are going to be glad you had it (but don't forget point 5)

    2. check your altimeter about once every 10 seconds - if its wrist mounted and you can do it while keeping heading and fallrate unchanged you're doing well as a learner sit flier so its a good thing to practice a lot when learning.

    3. get pissed off with yourself whenever the audlible takes you by surprise - if it does then you're not doing 2 properly.

    4. be very careful to check your altitude when jumping with other low experience freefliers

    5. Never rely on either your audible or your visual altimeter

    A good way to avoid being complacent about altitude awareness is to vary the kinds of jumping you do - hop and pops, tracking dives, freefly groups, sitfly groups and FS all have different speeds (and different exit altitudes if you go to enough dropzones) so you don't know when to expect breakoff without looking.

  23. I started skysurfing last year. In the UK there are very few experienced surfers but I was lucky that the UK champion, Dave Sturgeon, jumps at my local dropzone and was willing to provide free ground training.

    It really is improtant that you get a lot of instruction from someone who is very experienced - not just someone who has done it a few times. Skysurfing is also something you need to spend some time trying to begin at - I would recommend spending a week or two at one of the professional surf schools. Keith Snyder at Eloy, AZ is excellent - very approachable and full of useful advice for beginners. http://www.surfflite.com/school.html

    You do need to be a proficient head-up flier plus some headdown experience is useful so that you can cope with what the world looks like when you are upside down hanging from the board.

    Here is a list from a long document that Tamara Koyn wrote of what you should be able to do before starting:

    I. Recommended Experience:

    --Hold stable stand-up from 9,500ft to 3,500ft with ease and have good control of stand-up freestyle. This may take up to 50 stand-up freestyle jumps.
    --Be able to start and stop 360 degree flat spins in the back to wind orientation.
    --Be able to perform the following sequences:
    1) 360 degree Pirouette to the right and one 360 degree Pirouette to the left while standing up
    2) Stand-up, Single Layout BL to the Stand-up;
    3) Stand-up, Single Layout FL to Stand-up
    --Be able to recover any instability into the standup position
    --Optional but recommended sequences for learning advanced sky surfing:
    1) Stand-up, Single Layout Cartwheel to Stand-up
    2) Stand-up, Single Layout Half Twist BL to Stand-up
    3) Stand-up, Single Layout Half Twist FL to Stand-up
    4) Stand-up, Single Layout Full Twist BL to Stand-up
    5) Stand-up, Single Layout Full Twist FL to Stand-up
    6) Stand-up, Single Layout Half Twist Cartwheel to Stand-up
    7) Stand-up, Single Layout Full Twist Cartwheel to Stand-up
    --Experience with freestyle movements with accelerating rotational effect: (With a sky board, one may experience unexpected rapidly accelerating rotational effects depending on how the board catches the windflow.)
    1) Front Reversal into Tucked Backloops
    2) Flip Throughs into Side Tucked Backloops
    3) Pinwheel into Side Double Stag Backloops
    4) Pinwheel into Top Spinner
    --FreeFlying is a good way to add entertainment, skill, and challenge to stand-up flying. Also, a skydiver who can mount the belly of another in free flying becomes familiar with the feeling associated with standing on a sky board.


    Some of the above is overkill but if none of it means anything to you then there's not a lot of point starting on the board - even if you get on top of it you won't know what else to do. Learning to do most of the above will provide you with plenty of fun.

    Just one final word - be prepared to get very frustrated (often) and very scared (sometimes). When it goes wrong it goes very wrong very fast. I am just coming to end of a long break from the board after scaring myself "£$%less last year when I tried to move from the baby board to the intermediate one.

    Have fun, Jules