JohnMitchell

When you land a modern square parachute, you need to pull down on both steering toggles to flare the parachute for a soft landing. Although not too difficult, I've seen people (almost always women) who seemed to lack the upper body strength to do it quickly and efficiently. A bit of weight training helps dramatically. My wife and I have also observed, over the years, that most men seem to brush off hard landings as "that didn't really hurt", whereas many women we've known have quit the sport, not because of a hard landing or two, but because of the fear of having a hard landing someday.. Sorry if this all sounds sexist. It's what I've seen.

I don't have any empirical data, but my money is on the flatter of the two. The human body as an airfoil works at a high angle of attack. More sophisticated flying machines have Vy, Vx, and other speeds. Ours is too "blunt" of an instrument. Talking to some very sharp wingsuit designers, I've heard that max distance is usually at the flattest, slowest speeds, within reason. A tracking body is probably a similar situation. But I'd love to get "instrumented up" and experiment with it. Maybe this summer.

You're talking about "angle of attack" vs. "angle of glide". I usually think of glide angle when I hear "flat tracking."

Everything you said in your whole post is spot on, IMHO. I tell people my break off signal is the bottoms of my feet tracking away from them as fast and flat as I can. And people, quit this "break off, track, then stop and stare at my altimeter until pull altitude." Like he said above, track until you're clear, then wave and pull. I always say you can look at your alti after opening and see if you're about where you thought you'd be. But I see too much wasted time of alti gazing.

I think most people aren't making fashion statements. They just prefer not to have the wind in their face. (Something that I don't understand myself) When I'm doing tandems my Cookie G-3 makes an excellent sneeze guard.

"I'm going to belt you on the mouth and mouth you on the belt." Now THAT'S a helluva line too.

Clicky Thanks for those. I've seen worse. You looked like you were having a good time.

I took a girl to see that movie for a first date. Married and been divorced from her since then. So, mixed feelings about it! Well, I say anytime you can see a young Susan Sarandon in her underwear, that's a nice thing.

I agree with all your points above. We all know, though, that one system on the market has a dual RSL system that will choke the reserve if you cut away in a 2-out situation. I'm not a big fan of that setup.

I'm guessing you may be using muscles that don't get used much, and in new ways. Also, it takes some work to fly on those cushions of air. It's not a passive experience. Is the tunnel harder than skydiving. Well, like someone else said, you have to learn to hover in one spot right away, while in the sky you can drift around a bit and not even notice. I love it when my AFF students have tunnel time. I think it's a huge advantage, like learning to ride a bicycle before you hop on a motorcycle.

You mean "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" is actually a BAD movie?

I've always admired our military friends that seem to have a good handle on not having too many frivolous possessions. I'd love to get my lifestyle that lean. 4 years ago Vskydiver and I moved from a 3300 sq. ft. home with 4 kids to a 2000 sq. ft. home with an empty nest. We got rid of maybe half our stuff, but still have too much. From her sewing shop to my many hobbies, man, we have a lot of STUFF. Sports equipment, artwork, and photo albums are all worthwhile items, but if I had to live it all over again, I'd have us avoid ALL collectables. Other than that, I think we have it pared down to useful stuff, for the most part. I know someday it will be the 1 or 2 bedroom condo, and maybe just one car. At that point, no more garden tools or lawnmower, table saw and pipe clamps. I just don't know if I'm ready to live without a drill press and all my other tools.

Good advice on an often overlooked subject.

I heard someone mention "exit sports" the other day, as in what do you want to do when jumping gets too hard on the body. She and her husband were moving into scuba diving. It got me considering the same thing. After 43 wonderful years of jumping out of planes, my knees are not what they used to be. I hope to have many more years of jumping, even if I get a few "replacement parts". But few of us dictate our future as much as we think.

Beautiful. So sorry about the loss of your son. I can barely imagine the heartbreak you feel.

Let's see, I opened maybe 200 yds short of a Huey Helo on a dusk jump. I have video of freefalling in front of a C-172.

Vskydiver makes some one piece shoulder-to-head baklava kind of things. Holds the hair in place and good for the cold. She once made a winter jumpsuit lined with fleece, top to bottom. She jumped it one winter's day, in the snow, wearing just underwear underneath. Said it kept her toasty warm.

Make sure it's a recirc!

I love a good compression long sleeve shirt and thermals. I also have a polar fleece vest with a high knit turtleneck. That and a layer or two more usually suffice. Think wool, windproof, and turtle necks. Gloves are important. From light baseball gloves to full on downhill ski gloves, I've jumped the whole range. Some of the best winter gloves I've found have been cross country ski gloves, insulated but thinner than regular ski gloves. Full face helmets are great for blocking the cold wind. Fogging can sometimes be a problem though. The helmets with flip up visors are easier to deal with in that regard.

Actually we were in Boston last week for 3 days, on the way back from Ireland. Sunshine, blue skies, temps in the very high 60s. Beautiful. Came home to WA to see the leaves had changed color here, more so than MA.

Thanks for the first hand report. I've seen a few too many lazy controllers over the years. A privatized worker may have NO incentive to stick his neck out for jump operations. That situation SUCKS. Once in the U.S., in Class B airspace, we got crap service. After landing, I called the facility and lodged a complaint. Next load up, new voice, great service. As a govt. agency, they are mandated to serve ALL of the public. As a private corporation, I shudder to think.

Here in Seattle we have the warm rain season and the cold rain season.

Sign up, it's free. Then you can waste time like the rest of us. . .

We miss him all the time too. Too many memories of times with him, not just at the DZ, but all over. . . It's funny how some people thought of him as over the top, but I always felt that he just wanted to check right away to see if others had a sense of humor. I felt he didn't want to waste too much time on people who didn't like to laugh.