maestro

I had a tooth out on a thursday then jumped on the Friday. It blew up and made a 'dry socket'. It hurt like hell and I had to have further surgery on it. Don't do it Kay x ps The reason why I jumped in the first place? I thought I was infallable and it's only air, right? Ah, no. The healing tooth socket had a teeny air bubble trapped in it from the extraction which expanded during the jump and then popped. Not nice!

I used a Protec for around 40 jumps off student status but I only heard my audible on maybe a third of those jumps I even taped up the ear vents and the holes in the top cos my hair would come through then matt up on the outside of the helmet aaargh!! My old protec saved me from a fair few scrapes from bad landings and riser slaps, it does give the best bumper protection, but as soon as I got my B License (50 jumps plus IC1) I ditched my faithful protec and got a factory diver full face. Best decision I've made yet; I can concentrate so much more, hear my audible and not have to worry from my nose freezing over from the cold British skies! I'd definately recommend a protec for at least your first 50 jumps, until you've stopped falling over and have more of an awareness of who's around you, both in freefall and under canopy. Don't worry about not having the latest ultra-cool shiny black ice-cream tub on your head just to keep up with the cool and trendies, it doesn't look good covered in scratches and nobody worth their salt will say anything. My friend has over 200 jumps and still wears her trusty blue protec, even though she has the money to get a new one!

RAPS stands for Ram Air Progression System and refers to the ram air canopies students will use, as opposed to the older round ones. As the vast majority of FJC's have used ram-airs for many years now, I'm not too sure why the name has stuck but I guess it's just tradition. Am I right in thinking that originally, students did their first static line jumps on rounds before switching to ram airs when they got onto freefall? What is the point of that? Surely the student has got enough to be thinking about when they progress without worrying about a completely different parachute and the different malfunctions along with that??

ok ok before anyone shoots my head off I just read Mr Meacock's post on the link above (It wasn't there when I initially started my rant so it looks like the BPA have had something to do with it. However, I'm still very sceptical. My point about how you can compare across vastly different DZ's still stands, and also, someone once told me that 99% of all statistics are false Seriously though, it would only take one major incident at Sibson for all that to go out the window and they want to be careful as as soon as a newbie or tandem family witness something, they could well cross reference to that statement and start pointing fingers. I know that's awful to speculate and probably I will get angry cries from saying that but unfortunately, that's litigation for you and being blase about it is asking for trouble. Any thoughts would be appreciated Kay x

What a load of bull!!! That could be meant as a number of things - 1. "SAFE" as in less deaths/serious accidents in a set period of time from a set number of jumps, as compared to a similar DZ (in terms of numbers of students/experienced/coaches/freeflyers/bellyflyers etc etc etc)? 2. "SAFE" as in the club kit, including tandem kit, being better maintained or packed? 3. "SAFE" as in the injury rate? 4. "SAFE" because the people who jump there are 'safer' than anyone who jumps anywhere else? 5. "SAFE" because maybe the CCI is particularly strict about how the DZ is run - close supervision of newly qualified jumpers and not freeflying any old bit of kit maybe?? 6. "SAFE" as in the geographical layout, maybe less obstacles, bigger landing area, separate student/experienced landing areas etc ? 7. "SAFE" as in secure - therefore playing on the fears of all British (and worldwide) skydivers since Mr Hilder's death last summer? Grrrrr. This sort of stuff really annoys me. There is absolutely no way that statement can be substantiated and, to my knowledge, the BPA have never released any sort of statement declaring which DZ's are safer than others, or any statistics even remotely indicating that. If you take into account that DZ's in the UK range from a sleepy farm operating just at weekends for students and tandems from 9K with a C206, through to the big ones, which have turbines planes, operate 7 days a week, have hundreds of jumps every day, with every discipline being coached for, and not forgetting the military DZ's, how the sod can one sort be compared to another?! Personally, every place I've ever jumped at in the UK (unfortunately not Sibson), has meticulous safety standards, so much more than in the US or mainland Eurpope for example. The BPA highly regulates everywhere where active jumping takes place and every incident is thoroughly dissected at the STC meetings, with recommendations for change if needed. Blatantly, Sibson is trying to capitalise on fears of newbies and is trying to create an unhealthy rivalry between other DZ's in the country. What a load of tosh. Sorry if this post goes on a bit, maybe I should go and rant in speaker's corner or something but that's just how I see that 'advert' Kay x

Yeah her deployment position was excellent, it was on film as her AFF JM filmed it. Unfortunately, he tracked away as soon as she pulled and the bag lifted and didn't look back so he didn't catch the actual mal. He just said it looked like "a very positive opening" Now personally. I've tested those Mantas myself when I was a student, I back-looped through the risers on a static line , dumped in all sorts of wierd position, on my side; in a spin and in a track to name a few , then deployed on my back on 1 5s delay and had the pilot chute between my legs . Therefore, they are VERY forgiving. The worst I've had from them is a hard opening (common) with twists, but hardly suprising!!! That's what's making me feel so bad but hey! I guess it had to happen one day! Kay x

that makes sense... my boyf's the rigger/ advanced packer so you can be pretty sure I pack 'the right way' but still, I guess that little orange warning on every canopy holds true: 'Even if parachute equiptment is properly stored, packed and operated it may still fail to open, causing death or serious injury'

I'm trying to recall how long I leave my final line stow... I reckon there's about one and a half feet of lines slack from the last bungee to the risers, I always thought that if you had the slack too short that in itself could cause twists What about the excess lines when you do each bungee? I leave about 2 inches pulled through (double stowed), is that right? Sorry if the terminology isn't too clear

I've been packing student kit (Manta 288's) for over a year now for my local DZ, both static line and ripcord/throwaway, never had a problem. The kit is fairly old (Zerox container), the canopy in question had around 800 jumps on it. I packed two student AFF throwaway kits one after the other for two students doing their AFF consols. The first kit opened fine, but Whoa! The second kit spanked open (the filming JM kindly told me it was a 'very positive deployment ) which then resulted in twists from the back of her neck all the way to the canopy, her chest strap was right underneath her chin so this prevented her from checking her canopy properly. She stated that the canopy 'didn't feel right' and the slider was up, so she cut away. In my opinion that was the right thing to do as she couldn't see if there was anything wrong with the canopy. She had an uneventful reserve ride and great stand-up landing

This little aerodrome near the tiny town of Alvor on the Portuguese Algarve becomes home every Christmas and Easter to (mainly) British and German jumpers. The Boogie is well organised, flights to Faro are cheap and accomodation (at the Quinta Nova Sun Appartments) is clean and welcoming. 2 Dornier G92's take you up to 15,000 and the views over the Algarve are amazing. Students (AFF, RAPS and Tandems) are very well looked after and BPA instructors are out there for the duration of the boogie. The locals are incredibly friendly and don't seem to mind us swamping the bars and restaurants twice a year in this otherwise quiet town. Beach jumps and big-ways are frequent, and WARP/ Freefly/ Birdman coaching is available. The atmosphere is always great and the warm blue skies mean you won't want to leave. The only problem is, that this is an active aerodrome and air traffic gets too busy in peak seasons, hence only having 2 boogies a year. Shame, as this would be a firm favourite otherwise.

Quote: "The next thing I know, I'm holding on to a steering toggle that isn't attached to anything. I'm simply holding a nice, new, bright yellow, steering toggle that is on strike or something. There's no steering line to be found." oh jesus I know it's not funny but that is so funny!! I can just picture your face - nice new yellow defunct toggle - hahahaha That reminds me of a kid at a teeny DZ in the UK, who absolutely trashed the brand-spanking new Student Javelin Odessey (sp??) on it's first jump out of the factory by spudding in on a 10-sec delay or something. Forget grass stains, I mean shreds. The CCI's face was a picture The kid was fine, came back all smiles after a great freefall but the rig - over £3,500 worth (about $6000???) was ruined. Reserve pack job got shredded too Aaargh I must be due a mal about now, hopefully just a nice gentle broken steering line, not the horrendous things described here!!! Kay x

As a RAPS student in the UK I was pretty unstable - falling in every axis other than belly to earth - for most of my early freefalls which I absolutely hated for obvious safety reasons... but when I finally did my unstable exit jump I loved it!! Even now after 100 jumps, that first 'proper' unstable exit stays in my top 5 jumps of all time... along with a hybrid for my 100th and a spinny 1st attempt at a sit!! You will LOVE it and it feels sooo good, I just remember going so fast and then flaring out and feeling myself slow down... more 'hearing' myself slow if that makes any sense Ah those were the days... kay x

Well the BCPA Freshers' Meet at Langar was a fantastic weekend, Langar is a gorgeous place with a wicked atmosphere, proper training rooms and cosy cafe/bar/slobbing area. Shame about the bunkhouse though! Tip: take a tent!