Malev

17 jumps in 2 months (first jump on 24th May 03). Would have been more, but the good old Scottish weather is a factor, particularly when still on student status.

Its the piece of cord you put through the closing loop to pull it up through the grommets and then insert the pin/ripcord/static line when closing the container. Often its a flat, fluorescent coloured piece of material with sponsors logos printed on it, although you can can other pull-up cords if required. It is a good idea to keep it attached to your trousers, because otherwise it will be thieved.

I was a bit skeptical of this before the programme was shown, but like yourself I found it was a lot better than I had anticipated. It was chilling watching some of the footage, but it was handled fairly senstively, and I hope some good will have come of it. From what they were indicating, it also had a better response than I thought it would have - hopefully that these new leads will prove positive!

Firstly congratulations on your first jump! I did my first few AFF jumps under similar cirumstances, out of a Cessna 185. Sensory overload is a pretty common thing, although I never totally blanked out myself, I do recall that my second jump was lots more fun simply because I remembered so much more of it! Don't worry too much about it, it sounds like you "woke up" fairly quickly and your JMs must think it was ok! Key tip - don't concentrate on trying to pull your arms back to arch. Although this is the way you practice when dirt-diving, it doesn't really work in the air. Instead, push your pelvis out and relax (yes, easier said than done!) and you will naturally form the correct position. It sounds common sense, but it took me a while to actually work this one out! When you first start, legs are a bit of a problem - there is apparently a muscle group in your legs which tells your brain where they are...which works perfectly well on the ground, but not in freefall. Therefore, you have absolutely no idea where your legs are. Practise arching as much as possible on the ground! Sit on your bed every night, and do a few archs - they key here is to build up "muscle memory". Above all, don't get too worried about the legs thing - its a pretty common problem, and you will find it all slots into place after a while!

Some more info at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/humber/3091597.stm Among other things, it looks like they will be showing the camera flyer's footage of the three-way.

Like most people here, skydiving was always something I had thought about trying sometime, but never got any further than that. What sparked me off was seeing a tandem on TV, and I thought "hey, I've always wanted to do that - why not go for it!", read around the net a lot and decided this was something I really wanted to get into as opposed to a one-off, and booked my AFF. I started in May, my AFF course is all but complete (a few consols, plus Hop 'n' Pop to go - bloody weather is the only thing in the way!), and I wonder how I lived without skydiving.

We have been having a serious, albeit opinionated, discussion here. However, not only is that totally irrelevant to the thread, but "towel head" is a racist slur. This kind of post is totally uncalled for.

No more than you are twisting it to your definition, like I said earlier on this could be debated all day long... Well, according to dictionary.com... These dictionary definitions are wondeful things! But we are talking about individuals here. I've met some French people who weren't very nice, I've met some Amercians who were absolute jerks. That doesn't mean all French or all Americans are jerks - and it is prejudice against the entire country to think so. The quote itself states that the translations are in "not so bad english". And, being able to speak French (studied it at University), I know that "sauvages" is a bit softer than the equivalent English - its much more tongue in cheek than the translation makes it appear. As I've said before though, this really is irrelevant. What is relevant is to make sure that people can come of this board, regardless of nationality, and not be offended because people are discriminating against them based on their nationality. The French are not all American-hating, cheese-eating "asses" any more than all Americans are dumb overweight hillbillies or that I am really tight and regularly put on a kilt and toss the caber. And if everyone could understand this and accept this, the world would be a much better place.

The French are foreigners, therefore by hating the French you are hating foreigners. It is totally non-specific to the number of countries those foreigners come from. If you really don't want to call it xenophobia, then don't - but it still doesn't change the underlying issues of hate, prejudice and discrimination. And until then, you will hate all French people simply because they are French? I'm sorry but that just blows my mind... This is a poorly translated bit of French, hardly something to base an opinion of an entire country on. And really, if the person writing that thought that non-French speakers were savages why on earth would they have gone to the courtesy of doing a translation at all? Remember, English isn't everyone's first language.

Shouldn't worry too much, I don't think theres many of them left after Klaus and his forklift now.

Ditto. Can we agree to disagree on this one and leave it at that.

The Oxford English Dictionary states Xenophobia as "A deep antipathy to foreigners"; we could spend all day debating whether this applies to foreigners of a single nation or many! The OED is the standard over here. But again, we gain nothing by this. I can tell you, however, that I know lots of nice French people. My mother is godmother to a French girl, and I've been to the country lots of times and met some great people. Yes, you get jerks (its the same everywhere!), but the vast majority of them are decent people.

I'm sorry, I've gone back and re-read the posts, and I am know quite sure you weren't misquoted at any time. Please do correct me though and show me specifically where and how you were misquoted, and crucially how these misquoted comments were no longer in context.

There are different definitions of Xenophobia, depending on where you look; and it can be used to describe the "dislike of representatives of a particular nation" (i.e. http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia). To be honest though, the exact definition is really neither here nor there; I don't see much of a difference between prejudice against one country or a hundred. At the end of the day, its still prejudice and thats just not a good thing!

http://home.astrakan.hig.se/sax/rokka/files/staplerfahrer_klaus.wmv Pure genius!

Yea, whether or not anyone consider it xenophobia isn't really what I personally care about. I just hope that the forums could be a better place, and that everyone can be happy here irrespective of where they live. I've seen hate of other people in real life, and I've lost a relative because of it. Seeing it, whether intentional or not, always hurts.

Well yes, but only as it was repeated from another Tlak Back thread! But at least we are in agreement on one thing - that there are xenophobic posts being made. Because the rest of the quote wasn't relevant to the point I was making, and anyone reading the thread could quite easily read your post as it was just above mine. Sorry, I really didn't think this was an issue.

*Sigh* I've been very careful not to be drawn into specifics. I really was hoping we could have a sensible discussion about this, find out the opinion of the board and make it a happier place for everyone. I really didn't want this to be dragged into a discussion onto France or not, since all this does is cloud the underlying issue of hate. I've seen those sentiments posted today in Talk Back.

I have to disagree with that - I have seen some fairly nasty stuff posted against one particular nation lately; this being what prompted me to start the thread at all. There is a big difference between a light-hearted poke at an individual and continually posting anti-a-certain-nation posts. Thats where I see the difference between taking the piss and xenophobia. Humour is good, hatred is not...

I'm really surprised, and I must admit somewhat shocked, at the amount of xenophobia in this forum. Not for the first time, I find I'm wondering whether I really want to look at the DZ.com forums! Without dragging this particular thread into individual specifics, I am interested to know whether other people share this viewpoint, and if they think it is acceptable for the forums? If similar posts were made discriminating against people of a certain race then these would be be deleted - should we be asking greenies to remove xenophobic threads? Do the moderators have any thoughts on the issue? Personally, I think DZ.com should be somewhere where every skydiver can come, regardless of nationality, and not be offended or discriminated against.

The risk of smuggling weapons within soft toys has been known about for a long time. When I was but a nipper, we had to put teddies through the x-ray machine when flying to Northern Ireland (I have relatives there). Its the first time I'm aware of anyone trying it though!

*** Just don't go quite far enough back to do a backloop, or quite far enough forward to do a frontloop and you will can steer back and forward. Its easier if you use the 2, 4, 6 and 8 keys (5 opens chute). Heh - I hadn't played long enough to notice that before! Just had a go now (although prolonged playing is not an option due to those annoying beeps).

I have that as well, I think the aim is to steer through the rings and then land on the "jump zone". Its a bit strange, as it has obviously been programmed by someone with a modicum of knoweldge about skydiving, but nonetheless is obviously not a skydiver. Oh, and you can't open your chute above 700feet.

8. Never kill flying things on a dropzone. Last person who did had a hard pull and reserve ride on the next jump...

Correct clicky: http://www.seattleskydivers.org/