bibliwho

It's on Amazon Prime here in the US. Didn't see it on the UK site, unfortunately. Use a VPN & sign up for a trial?

One way to think about it is you have all of 2 minutes in the sport (i.e., freefall). Think about how many hours of practice other activities require to achieve basic proficiency, let alone excellence. Spending more time in the tunnel sounds like a good idea to me. As others have said, don't be too hard on yourself. It's easy to do because everything is so time-compressed & every jump feels precious. Enjoy the ride as much as you can & just keep jumping! It's hard not to get better as long as you keep at it & learn something from every jump.

So, I've been in the market for a similar sized rig as well & did some research. Here's what I came up with based on info from the manufacturers' websites (all about 170 to 210). Getting a rigger's professional opinion would be a great idea to confirm, however. Icon I5 Mirage (G4) M5 Vector V353 Infinity I-45, I-55, I-65, I-65 N, I 74-N (Pilots only apparently for the 170's -- not sure what's specifically different about that canopy's pack volume ...) Evo Large Happy hunting.

Any recommendations besides sweatshirts for jumping in the hotter months? Just imagining hanging around in the loading area & the ride up to altitude while wearing a sweatshirt under an already toasty RW suit. Good motivation to work on fall rate & range regardless!

Still amazed at the duration of the spin, whether intentional or not. My question is about exiting during a spin like that. The tandem & cameraman exited right away, as I would have done (ideally), but the two others apparently rode it down for quite a while. Would like to know whether the best course is to exit right away, or stay put until X' to determine whether the pilot can correct the spin, or some other option. Is there a risk of hitting the aircraft if it's in a spin? If so, how big a risk?

The vast majority of survivable skydiving accidents do not involve head trauma. Feet, ankles, wrists, shoulders, spines, butts -- this is where all the damage happens. I suspect this is one reason why there's not much available in the marketplace. I haven't seen any studies, but I believe the number of cases where greater head protection would have made a significant difference is vanishingly small. The other reason has already been mentioned. Greater protection generally correlates w/ greater weight. The effect of opening shock on the neck has been very well studied. Even a few extra ounces has a large effect & over the course of 100's or 1000's of jumps is far more likely to cause neck pain & other medical issues. I would not wear a helmet not specifically designed for skydivers.

A number of dropzones have off-seasons during which they're closed or have reduced hours. As someone whose home DZ shuts down for the winter, I'm willing to travel to keep jumping. So it would be very helpful if the basic information about each DZ included information about their off-season hours (w/ the caveat to contact directly to confirm). EG Open mid-April to end of October; Weekends only from October to March; etc. Cheers!

I also have a couple of fused levels w/ the hardware still in place. Not an expert researcher in medicine, but I do have a background in research so felt confident enough to see what I could find. There's a fair bit of research on parachute opening shock, but not much specifically tied to cervical injuries. I found just one article in the medical literature: http://ijomeh.eu/Skydiving-and-the-risk-of-cervical-disc-herniation,68219,0,2.html Standard opening forces appear to be in the range of 3-5 G's. My doc cleared me to play rugby, where forces range from 10-20 G's, w/ 40+ G impacts not uncommon. Based on this, I'm planning to continue. Still have very low jump numbers, however, so opening characteristics will be a big factor when it's time to buy my first gear. Will also be spending a lot of time picking the brains of packers for tips. You might also want to touch base w/ long-time camera guys like Norman Kent, who are used to jumping w/ some seriously large pieces of equipment attached to their helmets & who have even more motivation than regular jumpers to minimizing the stresses on their necks & spines. HTH.

Btw, if anyone has a subscription to Newspapers.com, their archives include what seems to be a longish article on the 100-way from the 8/14/86 issue of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

FAI official record history has the date as July 5, 1986: https://www.fai.org/record/team-1788 Not much additional information, unfortunately. Same date & a few additional details on the rec.skydiving forum: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/rec.skydiving/fJEyVleafug

Can you clarify what you mean by shitty risers, Deimian? This is the first time I've come across good vs. bad risers (as opposed to simply old or worn-out).

Website with no info for Skyhelmets: http://www.skyhelmets.de Facebook page w/ not much more: https://www.facebook.com/Skyhelmets-210211255784088/ Email: [email protected]

Since you haven't started yet, you don't really know yet how your nerves will be once you're getting geared up, boarding, climbing to altitude, at the door, etc. So, don't psych yourself out ahead of time. You may experience all, or even just some of these as a huge rush but not necessarily as a huge source of fear, anxiety, etc. Wait & see :-) And even if it is the latter, remember that the intensity of those feelings generally decreases as your jump numbers increase. There may even come a time when you miss that intensity. It's one of the main reasons a lot of us came to the sport in the first place! So, let the process unfold & don't over-think it. I'm a 50 jump wonder, so clearly, I know whereof I speak ;-)

And it's not as if Icarus has positive associations for anyone w/ half a brain. The name is pretty much synonymous w/ hubris and an untimely death. Lots of both in the skydiving world, but not exactly something to celebrate.

As a new jumper who'll be in the market soon for a main & reserve, all this is making me want to run far away from anything w/ the name Icarus. Probably not too smart given that I'm sure I'd be ruling out some great canopies. But seriously, what a cluster.

Norman Kent's Dangers of Being a Hero maybe? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sn2BCmnDUUM

Gotcha. This is a pretty cool map of all the multi-state line intersections: https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/lifestyle/trifinia/ Who knew there were 65 spots where at least 3 states meet? Map even tells you which ones are on private property, are harder to get to, are actually in a lake or river, etc.

How does that work? Landing at Four Corners, w/ one foot in Colorado, one in Arizona, etc?

Bollocks. From the USPA's 2016 fatality summary report: "In an average year, the failure to quickly and appropriately respond to a parachute malfunction contributes to about a quarter of skydiving fatalities. In 2016, a malfunction of the main parachute system began the chain of events that contributed to 38 percent (eight deaths) of the year’s fatalities." EP's may be simple, but that doesn't mean they're easy to perform in a high stress, literally life-or-death situation. Harness training is fine, but there's no way it's going to elevate someone's emotional & physical responses the way a high quality VR sim can. In fact, that's the entire point of VR -- for the individual to be unable to distinguish it from the real thing. My bet is that 10-15 years from now, once costs have come down, most AFF programs will include some form of VR training. This will help not only with EP's, but with landing pattern & flare training, both areas where students & new jumpers regularly struggle and which have historically led to the high injury rate among newbies relative to more experienced jumpers. We know the media only pays attention to skydiving when there's an incident. So I'm in favor of anything that can improve the sport's safety -- not necessarily as a requirement, but as just another helpful tool.

Agree that this is a terrible idea. Keep students on radio longer, give 'em even bigger/ more docile canopies, use a fancy VR simulator -- anything but water landings. FWIW, risk for AFF students is "only" 3x greater, not 6x. That figure applies to "conventionally" trained students, whatever that means.

New jumper as well, but here's my 2c, fwiw. First, I agree that you're being too slavish with your pattern points. With a shorter base leg, both your blue and green patterns (parallel to the runway) should fit comfortably in the designated landing area. Second, landing into the wind is nice, of course, but it's not one of the official USPA SIM landing priorities. (Note too that aircraft have just two options when it comes to landing direction, so they make successful crosswind landings all the time.) My DZ also has a long, narrow landing area w/ no-go areas all around. So, like aircraft we have just two options -- a north landing or a south landing -- and I haven't observed a single bad landing caused by crosswinds. This will vary with wind speed, but so far I've been fine either coming in with a slight crab or compensating with some light, asymmetric brake input. That said, if I'm ever faced with a 15 or 20 mph crosswind, I'll definitely be seeking guidance from more experienced jumpers. To summarize, shorten your base and get comfortable with crosswind landings :-) Ok, hope this helps.

Check out the North East Hot Air Balloon Jumpers Facebook group -- https://www.facebook.com/groups/1655503098020446/ I believe most of their jumps are in PA (near Philly?) Last jump was a couple weeks ago (helicopter, too).

If your left shoulder doesn't dislocate as easily, what about getting a rig w/ the BOC on the other side? (i.e., so you're pulling with your left arm) From my *extensive* experience (i.e., listening to Skydive Radio), I believe there are also alternative ways of setting up the deployment system to avoid the problems you're having (belly- or leg-mounted systems). Rig manufacturers or riggers should be able to provide more details. In the long run one of those solutions would probably be your best bet to minimize the wear & tear on an already compromised joint. Best of luck!

***One of my old jumpmasters used to have a saying: "Clouds don't have teeth". Yeah, but other planes are hard and have propellers :-)

Hmm ... All those tandems, presumably a bunch with video from the air, ground or both, popping through that cloud layer. Must have been pretty thin. Seems like a big roll of the dice that your jump won't come to the attention of your local FAA Cloud Czar. Think you made the right call as long as the regs are what they are. Then again, I'm a newb who gets most of his information from Skydive Radio and these forums ;-)