TrickyDicky

In australia I believe jumping through cloud with a GPS spot is allowed, assuming you have DZ clearance to do so.

Quote

Imagine how I felt when I got up to make a drink and switched on the TV to stop myself from thinking about it that what should be on the TV but a scare mongering documentary and this guys is doing his AFF level one, his parachute detaches on opening and then he only just opens his reserve to only then fly into POWER LINES!

That wasnt mr scott lutz was it?
he was an idiot
watch the video again and you'll notice he pulls the cutaway instead of the ripcord (the instructor pulls the ripcord as he cuts away).

As a warning, to jump in the UK, you have to buy BPA membership, reguardless of whether you have your own insurnace. This comes in at around £110. You might be able to get away with temporary membership, but Im not sure if you can anymore.

As for DZs, ignore london parachute school (its just a field thats open a max of 30 days/year afaik) as they only have an piston islander and no on site facilities (manifest is done out the back of a landrover).

Hinton is a nice place, as said before. Pac 750. Friendly people. Opened 6 days a week (not mondays)
Sibson (near Peterborough) is also good. Dornier (15 place rocket). I think its opened most days (could be wrong) and very friendly. If you ask nice they may pick you up from the nearest train station.

If you fancy a wind tunnel, the Bodyflight Bedford tunnel is 35 mins + 5 mins taxi ride from St Pancras Station.

Otherwise theres chatteris which is open most days, but mostly a Tandem DZ. Then theres Headcorn, but that might be a long journey from london.

For all other DZs, Use the www.bpa.org.uk website. For a distance/time reference, it take my friend about 3 hours to drive to hibaldstow (target skysports) from essex (just north of london). Id really recommend that DZ (its now my home) but quite a trek.

The reserve in my old rig is now 17 years old, and no complaints.
It even flew fine at 15 years old

The Teardrop is a much better container as its free fly friendly, but as previously said the main is probably car cover material.
Get information on the number of jumps the main has, but F111 canopies are normally only good for less than 1000 jumps.

Ive had 3 skydiving related dreams I can remember, ranging from bizarre to possibly seeing the future.

Most boring, but putential future seeing:
Had word on friday night that the wind tunnel was broken, but should be working again for our time on saturday. I dreamt that when we got there, it was still broken and the reason was the computer control system had gone kaput (all completly wrong)

2nd: Having just got a new rig, dreamt that Id have a mal on it on my first jump and the reserve had badly twisted risers.

3rd, very bizzare: We were 2nd out from a Let (jump plane at my DZ at the time) and we got out and it went to shit. The plane was in freefall next to us and my friend was rodeoing it. As I was getting annoyed with this jump I decided to swoop down to the group below. I got there and was having a great time but forgot about altitude. Had a cypres fire and landed at line stretch absolutly fine. I was then hoping that no one saw me. I walked back to the hanger and no one noticed that Id had the cypres fire, so I was really pleased.

I guess Im winning now:

18 months
48 jumps

to get my A. But I did the Uk static line system (RAPS), plus the uni discounted jump tickets helped alot.

I would say dont worry about anything now, just go on your course and start to learn. You'll find the answers to all your questions during the course and jumps. You probably wouldnt be allowed to jump anything other than centre kit for at least your student jumps, but kit is always provided, no extra cost for these.

As for the suit, helmet and goggles, you'll probably find when you get into it, you'll want a custom built suit (built to your body shape/height/build) and other helmets like a full face, camera helmet etc. So dont count on the freebies you've got lasting for ever. But again, you'll find out what you need as you go.

I just got something very similar, but mostly inverted to what you got (swap black and blues) and with white trim tape.

This kinda thing was banned in the UK about 10-15 years ago. Some guy opened about 10miles from the DZ, and on the way back, managed to land on powerline (about 1mile short of the DZ) cos he was focussed on geting back.

All DZs in the UK now have a 1.5mile radius that you're allowed to exit in.

2-way RW... dump at 7.
Get into a 2-stack
Go into a downplane.
Simo-chop
do some more points
dump reserves
Make 2 stack
land it

The DZ owner charged extra per jump (when you got on freefall) until you could pack.

At my old DZ the owner started getting pissed off with people using him as a bank. Packing was loged in the packing book and this was added to peoples accounts when someone went through the book (usually about once a week).

Some people managed to make huge amounts through packing, and some people just left large sums on their accounts. Because of tax things, he eventually started charging people £50/year if they left too much on their account all the time. He used to refund people with cash, but he stopped this, but would let you transfer credit to anyone else.

From what Ive heard, when empty, they can have a groundspeed of 0knts in a 30knt headwind.

Quote

I'd like peoples advice on whether a lot of tunnel time can make you forget the aspects of a 'real' (no offence meant tunnel rats!) skydive.

I'm thinking primarily of alti checks - surely spending time in a tunnel with no alti' to check makes you more likely to forget about it when your in the sky?

I think there was a cypres fire in the UK last year exactly because of this. Something like 100 jumps, but several hours in the tunnel. But other than that, not heard anything.

Quote

We have an AN2 that we can Jump do we bring it or not? How many people want to jump this aircraft?

Surely it doesnt matter how many people want to jump it. You'll only have time for 1 lift to 10k at the WFFC. :)

Andy Montriou, the CCI?

Tunnel will definatly help. It would mean you can concentrate on exit/drills/awareness without having to worry about body position aswell.

Also, not all DZs charge that much for rejumps. I know one DZ will just charge slots(yours + instructors) + kit hire price.

Quote

i did it on 45 jumps, 20 cat 8 pre-fs1, i didnt get very close though, at least 20ft separation, mostly more cos i was very cautious, great to see ur mates face as u climb onto the camera step, different setting to when u usually see them...

Technically, you've broken the ops manual, as the only person without FS1 in this situations should be the tandem student. Just because you stayed 20ft away doesnt meant you havent broken it, you intended to go out with the group.

Personally, Ive never jumped with a tandem. I have asked about it (I want my brother and sister to do one) and Ive had oks from several TIs, aslong as theres a briefing before and I dont get stupid. One TI did say no (when I had about 150 jumps less), as especially with family you can make the tandem a target to aim at and show off, which doesnt help anyone and just puts people in danger.

Quote

Stoners - (riggers)

I hope my rigger isnt a Stoner!

You can buy the DVD of the competition from bodyflight at £10 for the FS footage and £10 for the freefly footage.

whats wrong with off the shelf batteries?

wasnt that a major selling point for the new L&B products?

My setup (that workes nicely)
2 large tube stows on first 2 mouthlocks (doubled over, the small ones are too small)
2 small bungies one 2nd mouth locks
then large bungies (double stowed) to stow excess.

As a general rule, always mirror the bungies on yuor bag. I have also been told that double stowing mouth locks can be a bad idea.
I used to use small bungies for the first 2 mouth locks, but they used to break every 2-3 jumps. With the current set up the bungies break about every 10-20 jumps, and the tube stows about every 30-40.

My friend has a Predator (South african afaik) as a reserve, which is actually a 9 cell main.

If it's your DZ, then surely you have the right to say who jumps and who doesnt jump.

if not: Its your responsibility to give advise to help protect him. Its up to him to listen and take it on board, not you. If the DZO then lets him jump and he spanks himself in, then you cannot be to blame. All you can do is put your point accross to the DZO to try and stop him from jumping if you think he's gonna hurt himself.