turnlow

First, thanks for your post. Second, I find the level of detail available interesting, particularly when compared to other countries. How is this inforation gathered and how did you receive it? Could you provide more details on the incident report process in Germany? I am curious to learn how it differs from the US where I believe the reporting to, and membership in, the national organization is voluntary. _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

One weekend in college we got a little sick of the snow and decided to find some sunshine. The result? Madison, WI to Pensacola, FL and back- 2,128 miles. In 60 hours. _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

The thread may have died, but the bee flight reseach went on. The California Institute of Technology has finally figured out how bees fly: http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060110/sc_space/scientistsfinallyfigureouthowbeesfly;_ylt=Aro7xQ4V4OdDYDE66ejmZoYDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

I have to disagree with most of the posters. I have it on my resume and would recommend that you put it on yours. This is especially true if you can relate lessons learned in skydiving to the position/environment for which you are applying. Also, having done a fair amount of recruiting, I would say that it helps to have something that differentiates you from other similarly qualified people (I have selected people for interviews because they were skydivers, in addition to being qualified applicants). Finally, I see it as an important bit of self-selection. Meaning, you would most likely be happy and productive in an environment that considered your personality to be a positive. Just my 2 cents. ________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

The existence of a general predisposition to addiction is hottly debated in the medical community. You could have a predisposition to a specific addition (e.g., alcoholism), but not to addiction in general. While this is far too serious of a post for the thread, I am really, extremely, mind-bogglingly, stupifyingly bored. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

As an American jumping in the UK, I'll share a few observations. First is that, as some one already pointed out, you will need to join the BPA. If you are going to be here for more than a month you will need to buy the full year membership. If you do plan on jumping here for a while, you should try to have a UK instructor sign off a BPA rating for you. You will also need an AAD unless you have a B license. I think in the UK you need more jumps for a B than in the US. Your reserve repack cycle will still be 120 days if it was packed in the US, even though the BPA cycle is 6 months. The BPA also has some different safety practices than what you typically find in the US - flight line checks, signing in upon completion of a jump, every load has a designated jumpmaster, all jumpers must carry a hook knife and I'm sure there are others that I'm forgetting. All and all it can be a fun place to jump when the weather cooperates - nice people, that unique British humor (I guess I should write "humour") and unaflappable attitude. _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

I would emphasize the importance of talking to the instructors personally as well. Not to chastise them, but talk to them in a non-judgemental manner about your impression of the experience. Not knowing this DZ at all, my guess would be that your impression is partly due to the instructors desire for you to understand the life and death nature of what you are about to do. You will be jumping from an airplane with the instructors from this DZ. It is important that you feel comfortable with and trust them. __________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Um, is that really a biplane they are jumping out of? Anyone know what kind of plane it is? _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

I’m sure that many people have their own opinions on this subject and I am far from an expert. With those two caveats, however, I’m happy to share my philosophy (and I would like to hear the opinions of more experienced skydivers). At roughly 1700 feet, I will to decide to land what I have over my head or cutaway and deploy my reserve. If it is not landable at that juncture it is gone. I believe it is important to think about it in terms of your decision altitude as it may take time to execute your chosen actions. You have to both decide and give yourself a margin safety to ensure that you can carry out your plan. I’ll give you two examples to illustrate the point. I had a docile malfunction where the canopy was flying nicely on-heading, but it was not landable and could have rapidly turned ugly. I attempted to fix it until I reached 1700 feet. While it seemed a shame to chop it, I put my hands on my handles, took a deep breath (this was my first) and executed my emergency procedures by 1500 feet. In contrast I had a malfunction that was significantly more challenging. The malfunction caused the canopy to dive and spiral at a dizzying rate. Upon deciding to chop it, the centrifugal force being generated by the spin made it difficult to pull my cutaway handle (tried it once, tried it twice and then used both hands and all the might I could muster and then had to find my reserve handle again). Had I made the decision to cutaway at a lower altitude, I would have been unlikely to get a reserve over my head in time to save my life. I have personally known two skydivers who fought similar malfunctions too long. They decided at a low altitude to cutaway and had trouble finding and pulling their handles. One’s reserve almost got out of the bag and the other’s reserve fully opened an instant before he landed (and an amazing PLF saved him from injury or death – this is quite the video btw). Let me make one final point: I am not saying that I will never cutaway below 1500 feet. If a situation develops below that altitude whereby a cutaway appears to be the best course of action I will not hesitate to do so. What I am not going to do is attempt to fix a malfunction below that altitude. __________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Thanks for the good vibes. BTW, the intended implication was that the line twists were likely caused by poor body position from a sloppy throwout at the end of the track - NOT that deploying in a track by itself would cause the line twists. __________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

I thought I would post this to again emphasize the importance of knowing and respecting your hard deck. Last week I was able to escape the overcast skies of the UK for sunny AZ under the pretense of a business meeting. On my second day of jumping, jump #668 I had a mal and a cutaway. Yes, this would have been a cooler story if it was jump #666, but this is how it worked out. The stats for the curious: canopy – Stiletto 135, loaded at 1.5; no RSL, Cypress AAD. To start with, I had used an unfamiliar packer. While the mal was not likely her fault, I thought that I’d mention it. The jump was a 4-way and went well. We broke off lower than planned, around 3700 feet. You could see this as link one in the chain of events. I turned and tracked off longer than necessary, which took me to approximately 2600 feet. This would be the second link. I realized that I was low, waved off and pitched in a hurry. In retrospect, I believe it was this hurried deployment – likely a bit sloppy, likely with still a bit of forward momentum from the track – that caused the canopy to spin up as it deployed. Link number three. The canopy snivels for while and as it finishes deployment, I hear the final warning from my audible. It is set for 1700 feet, my decision altitude to enable execution by 1500 feet. I look up at the canopy and see about half a dozen line twists and start to fight it. Just then the canopy goes into a diving spiral. “I’ve been here before, I know I can get out of it…I just need a few seconds.” Link number four? No, chain broken. As I’m looking at the horizon over the top of my canopy my thought process goes something like this, “Your hard deck is there for a reason. This is how people die.” And then I chopped it. I pulled the reserve handle immediately after and was under my PD 143R in seconds. I had a pleasant little reserve ride with plenty of time to locate my freebag and main, find the wind direction and identify a nice piece of the desert to land in. I landed near my freebag and my buddy landed with my main. Two hours and $50 later I was in the air again. Know and respect your hard deck. _________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Hey Nataly, Welcome to the land of overcast skies and expensive jumps! I moved here from CA about 10 months ago so my experiences are still fresh. You could likely ship your stuff by sea, minimums are usually around 100 square feet and generally 11 - 12 USD per foot. if you are moving furniture, you'll probably exceed that. As someone else said, don't bring your TV, but many other appliances (laptops, shavers, etc.) run on 110 or 220 so all you need is a good adopter. Don't ship any firearms - as handguns are illegal and most others require permits. I had a close call with this as I nearly forgot that I had a 9 millimeter in one of my boxes (in a double locked case, of course). If you are shipping furniture, you will likely need to complete varius customs forms. As long as you are intended to stay for less than 24 months and do not plan to sell your stuff, I believe that you will not have to pay any import duties. Your drivers license is good for 12 months from the date you arrive. You are highly advised to apply for a provisional license prior to then if you are staying longer. After you have the provisional license, you can apply for a standard one (and take both written and practical tests). If your license is Canadanian (unlike American) you may just be able to exchange it for a British one. Also, this is critical, in most cases you cannot be in the UK when you are applying for a visa. Go to this site to learn what visa you need depending on your circumstances: http://www.ukvisas.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1006977149953 My company had no trouble getting me a visa and then extending it. Contrary to what others have said, I would recommend living in London. While it is expensive, it is a great place - my second favorite city in the world (after New York). Hope this helps. PM me if I can help you any further. It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

Back to the original question of smart things i have done: Dumb and then smart: downsizing to a stiletto 135 (at 1.5ish) after 250 or so jumps, but then resisting the rush to continue downsizing for another 400 jumps (and still counting) and seeking proper training. Smart: ensuring that i performed canopy control drills regularly, so when i did end up dropping a toggle on final I had no problem switching to my risers for landing (thanks Bill Von). Smart: when i was a 100 jump wonder, listening to the experienced ranchhands on a gusty day ("notice that we have 1,000's of jumps and we're on the ground") and not jumping. Smart: choosing an alternate landing area (a nice golf course) instead of attempting to make it back through a headwind over a forest to the dz. I had a quite a walk, but my buddy had a climb down from a tree. __________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.

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I am a recent transplant to the London area and I have couple of questions for the UK jumpers.. What are your recommendations for London area DZs? What is most convenient DZ to London? How do you get there without a car? Are there DZ's around that you can reach via ever reliable British Rail? Thanks for your help and Blue Skies __________________________________________________ It matters not how strait the gate, How charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.