metalslug

Could you elaborate on your reasons for this? I'd like to be able to buy used, but from what I've seen for sale so far, it's tough to find exactly what I'm looking for. I am guessing that someone here may argue: "You're a student.. how can you possibly know exactly what you're looking for?" In my own circumstances; we really only have one local manufacturer of rigs (Chute Shop) offering value and quality that makes them the obvious choice for rigs lately (even prefered over Aerodyne). This therefore makes my choices a little simpler. If my harness fits me well (which it will if ordered new), and it has RSL & AAD, and my canopies are of an acceptable wingloading as advised by my instructors.. then what rig options could I possibly regret later? As for downsizing; I would already probably be downsizing from a 285 student square to a 215 'high-performance' ZP square. (wingloaded at about 0.9) Am I likely to get bored with that canopy so fast that it would not even justify buying it new? ..or am I missing something important ?

To get whuffos interested, you often have to introduce the idea to them from a whuffo perspective. I have noticed a well-made tandem video has a powerful effect on whuffos. No less than 5 of my work colleagues now want to jump after watching the tandem video that was made for my boss' daughter. Therefore, not the documentary-style videos where the entire jump just plays out in real-time with no additional music or effects done. Those seem dull to whuffos and often just downright scarey. The tandem video that was done was more like a music video, set to currently popular pop/rock tunes that changed with the mood and stage of the jump sequence (gearing up, plane ride up, exit & freefall, canopy & landing.) The video included both slow-motion and real-time footage of the freefall stage, aswell as a two sequences of 'reverse-spooling' for the jump exit and canopy landing. Looked really professional and polished. Whuffos took the bait.

More than a handful.. is a waste.

The two DZ's I have been to are very thorough.. both instructors at each DZ are AFF-I rated on every student jump. (I checked their ratings beforehand in the members section of the PASA website). But it does get me wondering "What if..." If a student were to complete all Levels of an AFF course with unrated Intructors, would the completion still be recognised by the national skydiving authority (USPA/PASA/etc.) when applying for an A-licence? In the student jumps that most of us (DZ.com members) have done, our log books are signed by our Instructor/JM, who also include their Instructor/JM registration number, right ? So, anyone taking a look at your logbook, with access to the qualification ratings of Instructors and JMs referenced by their number, would be able to tell soon enough if you were trained by an unrated 'AFF-I'. Could this then have negative effects on the student's progression once the authorities are on the case.. making him/her repeat levels again with rated instructors.. or denying their A-licence application ?

The IT (Information Technology) job market, although becoming somewhat saturated in places, still offers great oppertunities for those with ability. The nature of IT is such that a person can specialise in many different areas; programming languages, operating systems, products... and even adapt to learn whatever skills are required to meet a demand in the market as time goes by and the the technolgy evolves. The '$$ vs Training time' equation for IT is more favourable than for most other careers... and $$ will buy you quality skydiving gear, jump tickets and sort out many of life's little complications. And job satisfaction? Some hard (but not long) study hours, troublesome clients, irregular working hours and late nights.. but I mostly get to manage my own work hours, complete my own project plans, have an airconditioned office, unlimited internet usage and filter coffee on tap. It's not a bad deal

"Venting", in the context of this thread, means what exactly? Does it mean making idle threats at the world's criminals that one has no intention of following through with? More simply stated; does it mean saying things that one doesn't really mean? Is this topic simply not serious enough to justify honest responses on what people would and should really do in this situation? Who is more self-righteous? The person that tells it like it is, or the cyber-paladin mounted on his soapbox, wielding a sword of street-justice that he has no intention of using? (PS. If anyone really would lynch these offenders, then post away.. just dont say it if you dont mean it.)

Roger that! I live in a country that is plagued by an obscene quantity of sex crimes, many of them against children.. but would I really want to turn my own life upside down and/or compound the victims trauma by having her father/friend/relative tossed in jail for taking the law into his own hands ? The poll results so far are almost as disturbing as the poll subject matter. So many vigilantes amongst us ? Unless we have court judges amongst us, "Have him committed" is not an enforcable practical option. Anything other than the aforementioned and "Let The Law Handle It" would make us guilty of a criminal offence ourselves. I therefore wonder aswell why people even create a poll like this.. with such an obviously correct answer. Perhaps the poll serves to separate the stupidly emotional from the practical thinkers.

"Control.. control! You must learn control." - Yoda

Depression threads in a forum read largely by skydivers ? It would be unfortunate if we have members that suffer from this.. jumping should never lose it's thrill factor. Let's hope they never get too depressed to pull.

Eh? wot is this? Nekkid pics of Rhino? Glad he spared us from.. erm.. the horn. No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

Stormtroopers ? Hehehe.. Have you been thinking about CrazyIvan.. again ?

Oh come on, Consider the worlds top 50 sexiest women, models, actresses (if such a list exists). Can you even name one of them that has a lasting relationship with a male partner who has neither money, fame nor good looks ? I cant. In my 30 years on the planet I have NEVER known a truly attractive women that sustained a lasting relationship with a partner who lacked both money and looks. Are these women therefore all automaticaly shallow.. or could there be something more to it ? But why are we (both genders) attracted to beauty ? The writings of Charles Darwin make the most sense to me here. A partner who looks good (especialy regarding physique) is almost always a healthy partner. A healthy partner carries a healthy genetic code and is therefore more suitable to be a co-parent for our children. These children are then likely to be lookers themselves so as to easily attract partners of their own and procreate and perpetuate the bloodline, and so forth. Likewise a wealthy (and often influential) partner can offer more for our children. Instinctively both genders sense this. The idea of choosing a partner on charm and personality alone is a noble thought.. but in my experience it is only actualy practised by those that cannot afford to be picky.

A lot of the comments being posted here are made in good spirit, albeit sometimes somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Personaly, I dont own a rig yet and I'm budgeting as tight as I can to afford one later in the year, but I would not do anything that is likely to negatively affect my job or career prospects. If a car in good working order helps you get or keep a paying job, then keep the car. If staying in college (as an example that may apply to others here) is going to help you get or keep a paying job, then ditto. In the short term its gonna pay to invest money in yourself.. so as to make money spent on skydiving more affordable in the long term.

They recognise the addiction problem ...and book themselves into the skydiving section of the Betty Ford clinic.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[VIBES]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] metallic vibes.. forged in the African sun.

I read on the dropzone.com homepage that Cheryl Stearns won 2003 Lew Sanborn Accuracy Meet. ..and well done to her. Does anyone perhaps know what canopy she uses for these jumps ? ..and the estimated wingloading ? billvon commented in a January 2 post that she jumps "a huge F111 7 cell accuracy canopy". Is this still so ? Is there such a thing as an 'accuracy canopy' as far as custom modifications go (if any are done) or are some designs, such as 7-cells, inherently more suitable for accuracy work than others ? No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

I'm at a smallish DZ that sells its own freshly-made assortment of burgers, salad rolls and such items. I'm a relative newbie there but I suspect that many members would buy whatever they are selling on any given day both to satisfy an appetite and support the DZ business; to be able to sustain the services offered as a feature for attracting new members.

Heey.. consider a little AFF in South Africa. The £UK stretches pretty far here. We're part of the commonwealth (Gawd save the Queen indeed). At current exchange rates you can do AFF levels 1-8 + 3 'consolidation' jumps for about 650 £UK. (8000 ZAR), gear rental included. More importantly perhaps, we got blue skies pretty much all year round No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

There was a recent news article over here about a guy that was arrested at Johannesburg International Airport. He was found with a protractor, a calculator and a book of logarithmic tables. He is a suspected member of Al Gebra and is being held for possessing weapons of math destruction.

CrazyIvan ? In Tom Clancy's "The hunt for Red October", the Russian submarine in question was said to perform a 'Crazy Ivan'.. whereby it would suddenly shut off its engines and drift forwards while making a slight turn to either port or starboard, positioning its passive sonar so as to listen for submarines that may be following behind. I'm pretty sure this 'nautical maneuver' is entirely fictional.. I'm too lazy to look it up further. And me.. the name and the avatar come from an arcade game "Metal Slug". That little man jumping the round has a serious wingloading, eh?

I've been reading the thread on 'No reserve pull after cutaway' with some interest and have some related questions for a new thread. As a student, my concern regarding emergency procedures was/is with regard to how much force it may take to pull the handles. (I've not experienced this for myself yet) Does the required force vary between harnesses ? Have there been recorded incidents of 'stuck' handles on modern skydiving gear ? If so, What would cause this type of malfunction ? How likely is a scenario whereby a panicked jumper (experiencing a mal) may rapidly pull both handles in the correct order.. but with insufficient force to trigger the cutaway.. resulting in a 2-out situation ? My question applies to all makes and models of modern gear.. but I think my DZ student gear are mostly Naro harnesses.. in event that someone may have specific knowledge of PISA rigs. No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

Hehe.. I guess when an instructor is training me to save my own life, I take every word he says on that day seriously... including a bit of leg-pull when he points out chuteless jumpers. As it turns out; the video footage of one 'chuteless jumper' was taken from an outdoor wind tunnel/fan at a different DZ. The origins of the second chuteless jumper are less certain.. but I have been told its likely to be more wind tunnel footage. So yeah, he was 'falling' chuteless.. sorta.. about 10 feet off the ground.. I get to keep my rig?

Isn't chuteless jumping considerably more common nowadays than the handful of stories in this thread ? I'm thinking that some of these jumps go undocumented, possibly so as not to raise a safety scandal at the DZ involved. First-timers at my DZ get a 10-minute long promotional video of skydiving clips taken by club members.. including a 'fun but not recommended' section lasting a few minutes. I will bet my rig that I saw an approx. 4-second snippet of least one jumper (and possibly even a second jumper in a later clip) freefalling without a rig. Our instructor on my fist jump even mentioned at one point in the training that 'some people do this' .. as though it has happened at least more than once in recent years at this DZ. I'll try to confirm the facts (and regularity) of these incidents if anyone is interested.. and would welcome any correction or confirmation from other DZ members on this. (I still have the video in VHS format but regretably no tools to create a digital multimedia file from it to upload what I saw.) No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

The attached pics show the Bolle X500 'Attacker' goggles. Polycarbonate, fog-proof, impact resistant goggles designed to fit over most eyeglasses and intended more for military use. An ungainly, chunky piece of eyewear for sure. I'm not suggesting a person buy them as a first choice ..but if you have them, would they even be allowed on most DZs ? So long as you can clearly see your handles and have reasonable(?) peripheral vision it should be acceptable, right ?