Malev

Not for tandems - Australia is 12 months for Certificate Class B holders and above only. Students, Novices (Certificate Class A), Tandems and pilot rigs are 6 month repack cycles.

Presenting on exit isn't really about "clean air". You have to remember that as you are leaving from a moving plane, the relative wind on exit is at a 45 degree angle and not perpendicular to the ground. The clean air (or rather "you were stealing my air") is mostly an excuse people use when they funneled an exit but want to blame someone else for their mistake! Going on body lengths isn't the right way to think about exits. The aim is to present the whole formation onto the relative wind, so that you have everyone presented on that 45 degree angle. You want your tail (rear float) to be lower than the rest of the formation, and your point (front float) to be higher than the rest of the formation. The reason your centre float (normally Outside Centre) needs to be a body length out is to make space for the inside person (normally Inside Centre) to get out. You don't really want your point to be pushing out a lot - but you do want them to be making an effort to be high!

http://www.teamfastrax.org/pdf/randoms.pdf Although M should be "Star".

I don't think Darren is talking about this main; I know the canopy and its owner and it is being sold due to downsizing and not (to the best of my knowledge) due to hard openings. I'm certainly not aware of it ever having had an opening problem.

To me, it would make more sense to ask "Would you skydive if AADs were not available?". I wouldn't jump without an AAD at present, as I believe these minimise my risk (and risk management plays a large factor in the sport). Thats my personal choice. Would I jump without an AAD if tomorrow they were deemed un-airworthy? Definetly. But thats a different question altogether.

No, DZs are open all year round! It can get a bit nippy in winter, but we dress for it. In fact, crisp clear winter days can be some of the best to skydive on! Good advice from Billy there! I've also sent you a PM with a few details on your options as well.

Well, in the UK you can't sign away your right to sue (IIRC), so we just don't bother with the waiver as such. What we do get people to do though is to sign a Declaration of Fitness (which says that they are fit parachute, if necessary a doctor can countersign this) and, post-training, a Confirmation of Risk (which basically confirms that they understand it is a risky sport, and that they agree they have been trained on exits, mals etc). We are still much less litigious over here that the US, although it is getting worse, but we don't tend to see the "sue the DZ, instructor, gear manufacturer" type of lawsuit. What we are having a problem with at the moment is skydiver's suing each other for the third-party insurance. This is having the effect of putting up our insurance premiums hugely, included in the membership. So, whereas the USPA costs domestic member's $49 anually, BPA membership costs $197.

I use a Pro-track, which records my freefall time for me. Before I got that, I would just put down the estimated time from doing the maths, but didn't round it.

It was there last week...

I did 1.5 hours on the first day a tunnel camp last month. Split between two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon. No issues, but like everything you do start to become a bit less productive towards the end. I had done about 3 hours tunnel time before this.

There are no jump number/freefall requirements required in order to become a WARP coach - all you need is CCI approval. However, you would be expected to be proficient at FS and have good teaching skills. There is also the BPA FS Coach qualification, which requires a minimum of 300 jumps, 3 hours freefall time and 2 years in the sport. You must also have attended some sort of instruction course/lecture, and undergo an evaluation. It is a good idea to get this qualification, as it demonstrates to the student that you have fulfilled some basic requirements with regards ability. There is no fixed training/cost to becoming a coach (other than the £10 you need to send away with the FS Coach application).

It does involve a lot of scrabbling up embankments. Do you get many venemous snakes in Florida?

You are either looking for the Continental Plaza Hotel, which is just by the tunnel, or Motel 6, which round the corner on American Way. I've heard the Conintental Plaza is not the best; when I was there earlier this month we stayed in the Motel 6, which was clean and perfectly fine. Theres also a discount if you get a letter from Skyventure.

Well, I don't know about the food - unless lentils really are your thing. But the jumping is great, and the vibe is great. Unfortunately, it conflicts with the British Nationals though this year.

Hmm - how does that affect all the tunnel camps Airspeed were running from March 31st?

I just tried a test print of these, using Powerpoint 2002, and had no problems. Not sure why this wouldn't be working for you. Thanks for sending these along, btw!

> C130... Or the AN-72.

Bastard.

I believe the company that manufactured the MPAAD was based in the Czech Republic, which may go some way to explaing why rigs there would be equipped with them.

Definetly go for the rig - it will save you money, and you'll be able to travel to other dropzones without worrying about gear hire. Keep at it, and you'll sort the problems out. At 40 jumps, I was backsliding all over the place too, and having all sorts of problems flying with other people! Save up the $25/jump you aren't paying on rig hire too - after 11 jumps you'll have $275, thats enough for a 15min coached session in the tunnel.

Download the following files into an empty directory: http://ftp.freshrpms.net/pub/freshrpms/redhat/8.0/libdvdcss/libdvdcss-1.2.8-1.fr.i386.rpm http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/rh71/libdvdread-0.9.4-ogle1.i386.rpm http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/rh71/ogle-0.9.2-ogle1.i586.rpm http://www.dtek.chalmers.se/groups/dvd/rh71/ogle_gui-0.9.2-ogle1.i386.rpm Open a terminal window, and go to that directory ("cd /path/to/directory"). Type "su ", replacing "" as appropriate. Type "rpm -ivh *.rpm" Type "exit". The packages should now be installed (unless you have seen any error messages). To run, type "ogle_gui" in the terminal window. Note - I haven't installed this, but above should work, unless you are missing other packages.

Try this Edit: Link was fixed anyway!

The only thing thats certain, is that if you're not at the DZ, you won't jump... The BPA rules are that AADs are mandatory for all parachutists below B license. The requirements for B are IC1 + 50 jumps. As you have the jump numbers, I would suggest that the best thing to do would be get your IC1. You will need briefs on a number of issues (gear checks, jumpmastering, spotting etc) and will need to do 5 pre-declared consecutive landings within a 10m radius - but could rent club kit to do this. Once you have your B, this becomes a non-issue - and you can jump your own kit again.

In that case, I would definetly recommend you go straight to AFF. Save the money you would have spent on the second tandem - trust me, if you really want to get into the sport you'll be spending it later on. While another tandem may help you to "adjust" to freefall before going out and doing it yourself, it won't help you progress. The fact that you jumped, and have also been in the tunnel, means that you already have some idea of what to expect anyway, so the benefits would be minimal. As a side note, there is no requirement to do x number of tandems before AFF - in fact many people (myself included) did AFF Level 1 as their first jump. If anything, having been in the tunnel, you are already better placed for going on to AFF than most people!

First of all - chill. The chances of having a malfunction on a tandem jump you do are slim - and in the extremely rare event that it does happen, the instructor is highly experienced and trained to handle the situation. To maximise safety, simply do what your instructor tells you in the pre-tandem brief. And then, relax - and have fun! Its what it is all about! Why not consider doing an AFF course and learning to skydive yourself? Not only will you learn much more about the sport, the gear and how to handle yourself under various situations - you'll also get to jump without being strapped to someone, and start to progress in the sport.