Adriandavies

Chatteris has got one but I don't think its ever moved since they installed it.

But if you take a common sense approach to this I don't think anyone apart from a lawyer would say that either Airtec or SSK had done anything to contribute to the fatality. The AAD worked as designed i.e. it fired at the correct altitude its just that it had nothing to cut as the reserve loop wasn't in the correct place. As has been said before on DZ.com this is a case of lawyers chasing compensation no matter who was directly involved.

You might well be right as civilian skydiving in Iran is few and far between. In 2005 I spent quite a while trying to make contact with any Iranian skydiver and eventually got to meet their FAI rep at his office in the Azadi stadium complex. To cut a long story short it seems that pretty much the only jumps they do are the odd demo and the occasional jump from a helicopter. General aviation in Iran is very restricted so there are very few aircraft to jump from. I was therefore surprised to see Dean at PA Aviation starting a DZ albeit one aimed at tandems and I really wished him well with his venture but nothing about the operation seems genuine or what it seems. The website doesn't feature any pictures taken in Iran and 'their' on the site clearly wasn't shot in the country. If a commercial business can't get of the ground then fun jumping isn't going to follow and your jump at Esfahan is likely to remain the largest formation for a while longer.

Grass strip by the side of a road or footpath.

Take whatever they say about their skydiving operations with a very large pinch of salt.

No alti apart from a mark 1 eyeball?

Too be honest I'm British and I don't understand sentences like this either. Whilst I'm no fan of death sentences I think that in a case like this a full life sentence would be far more appropriate. 8 years is much too short.

So what the author is saying is that when considering any sport which people like to watch live you need to take into account the fact that fans have to drive to a venue in order to watch a game. If that's the case then about the only environmentally friendly sports left will be watching paint dry and stamp collecting. Jeeze did he even ever stop to think about the millions on amps used by poor suckers like us clicking on his article, amps that could have been saved just by him keeping his big mouth shut?

It wasn't filmed in Iran. When they first opened they claimed to be using a BN Islander but the plane in the video is an Otter, and although they could have changed aircraft I doubt somehow that they could fly an Otter there. Secondly the airport and DZ they fly from is in an arid, semi desert area but the ground seen from the video is pretty green. Like I said in an earlier post if they are in business now isn't it about time that they used a video filmed at their DZ?

Apologies if this has been mentioned already. I read today http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7873890.stm that this lady is single and that she had the IVF treatment using donated semen and that she wanted another child as she was brought up an only child and was therefore lonely when growing up. Having heard all this and given the fact that she already had 6 children I cannot believe that she was deemed suitable for IVF, let alone that 8 eggs would have been implanted. I can only assume that she comes from a rich family and can afford to bring up her new family without resorting to state aid.

I agree with many of the things you say except the place isn't very friendly to outsiders to begin with. Iranians are amongst the friendliest and most welcoming people in the world. If you go there you will get a great welcome. When Skydive Iran first started up Dean made loads of posts on the UKSkydiver website but just as you found, his answers to posts didn't add up.

...How could you tell over the noise of the engines

There was a lot of BS coming from Skydive Iran when they first launched over a year ago so hopefully they are more business like this time around. They claimed to have western instructors including female TI's but these claims were apparently false. Given that they're apparently been in business over a year isn't it about time they used pictures and a video on their website which was filmed in Iran rather than in America? I wish them luck and would love to jump with them but when my wife spoke to them in August they were quoting solo jump ticket prices of $80.

The guys youtube profile shows he's from Great Britain. Go figure. Maybe that's the guy they call "spotted dick". No helmets though so definitely not filmed in the UK.

OK I'll just create a little scenario for you to think about. Your camera comes loose on deployment following a riser slap, you then have a malfunction and cut away, but wait whats this....your risers get tangled up with your camera and you can't get rid of your main, you get your reserve out but it gets tangled up with your main...need I go on! This might sound a little dramatic but eventually something like this will happen to someone (ever heard the adage that is something can go wrong eventually it will go wrong) but hopefully not to you. The guys with the big cameras have a lot more experience than you and have specialised equipment such as camera helmets with cutaways, they also have practiced emergency procedures to deal with various scenarios which is clearly something you haven't done or even thought about.

You should not need a video to be aware of exit separation! If you are that unaware of something as fundamental as this when you are in the plane then what else are you missing? You've only just finished learning the very basics of skydiving so you should be refining what you learnt during your course rather than screaming around the sky and putting yourself and other people in a potentially hazardous position. If you are free flying you could back slide into another group because you are not aware of your forward or backward movement. You could cork and pop up and find yourself too close to someone else. As for the camera the silhouette at the end of your video seems to show your small bullet cam sticking out prominently from your helmet which can create a snag hazard. Have you thought what would happen if your lines snagged it on deployment? Also how much time and thought do you put into thinking about the camera when gearing up or on jump run? Is it on, is it pointing in the right direction, is the battery OK, are the wires secure? How much is this distracting you from the task in hand i.e. making a safe skydive? Raeford also seems to be a fairly big DZ so I am very surprised that there is no one there who can do some basic RW 2 ways with you in order to build on your basic skills. I know from my experience that it sometimes takes some persistence and patience in order to get help but it will be worth it. Lastly having looked at their listing on this website they organise tunnel sessions. That would be the perfect environment for you to learn both RW and FF skills before you put them into practice in the air.

Orange or lemon?

How to Get Started in Skydiving by Scott Lutz

Just think with a couple more sessions and a bit more coaching you could start to look as good as the two kids who flew first Kids just seem to have a natural ability in tunnels which puts the rest of us to shame.

Hmmm.....wonder if the new nick name is Paris Hilton?

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Gordon Brown (foreword by George W Bush)

Hey Darius, how about importing a Paykan and see how it compares when used on American roads

31 of those medals were earned in various water-related sports, be it swimming, diving, boating, or triathlons. Hardly suprising, if I lived on an island surrounded by bastard big Sharks I'd be a bloody fast swimmer too! So how does that explain Phelps?

Could be worse, I mean do you want to see ballroom dancing, bridge or poker as Olympic sports? John McCirick (professional British gambler and horse racing pundit) was on the radio last night complaining that archery was an Olympic sport and that poker should replace it! In the past I've also heard other people pushing for ballroom dancing and bridge to be included.

I say good idea. Get rid of the taboo nature of alcohol and maybe kids will approach it a bit more reasonably. Blues, Dave You mean like the way some people respect alcohol over here in the UK? I'd keep it at 21 if I were you.