gus

I've only been to the Italian terminal wall once but had Uncle Charlie there to spread some wisdom on the local conditions. It seems that first thing and last thing are the best times of day to be jumping (no suprises there really) and that the wind will get channeled through the valley left to right, or right to left. UC talked about the fact that for quite a while (under canopy or during a ws flight) you're inside the bowl but once you leave it you can hit some quite funky turbulence. I'm going back in a week or so, does anyone else have any more good advice to pass on about the conditions? Little pointers to help me spot potential problems? Thanks, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Ok, cool. I was frantically hitting the escape button so maybe it got cancelled! I will do it again now. Thanks, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I just spent the weekend up at BKPC and had a really great time. Phil the CCI and Jeff the dz manager were friendly and helpful and looked after us at manifest. All the regulars were friendly and the whole place just had a nice vibe to it. On top of that they have possibly the best jumpship in the country, a bad-ass porter that was taking us up to 14k in about 10 minutes. Even the pilot was happy and smiling and his spotting was great. I really don't have anything bad to say about the place, I just wish I lived a bit closer. They could do with a bar but even that's not much of a problem - half way through packing from my last jump I had a cold beer put in my hand! I would be very happy to call BKPC my home dz.

I just submitted one by accident half way through writing it (stupid laptop keyboard!) so you can ignore it and I'll do it again later. Ta, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

He's posted on the UK BASE board so I assume he's ok. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Everyone takes a dive now and again but if 3 out of 6 is a typical success rate then maybe you need to be looking at some things. I don't mean that to sound harsh, what I mean is that it's your safety on the line. If you're falling over alot it suggests that something's wrong and if something's wrong it suggests you're more likely to hurt yourself. How happy are you with your canopy? Could changing/upsizing improve your progression? Also, stuff like old contacts, dirty visors and dodgy wind conditions are really easy links in the accident chain to remove. And More coaching is a great idea. Good luck

Basically I want to be able to do something useful even if it's just to secure the jumper whilst the pros turn up. But even that is sounding more and more complicated with my limited rope skills, limited personnel and limited equipment. It's been a while since I did any physics but I reckon an 80 kg jumper on the end of a 50 m rope making a 45 degree angle with the antenna will hit the antenna at 17 m/s which is about 40 mph . So even that idea is sounding bad. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I had thought about the possibility of having more than one person on the rope but to be honest I'm not familiar enough with those kind of techniques. More than likely I would make things worse. The very basic idea that I had was to lower one end of the rope to the stranded jumper, with a figure of 8 knot and a carabiner and have them clip the carabiner through their harness. Then I take up the slack and secure the rope to the antenna. Now at least they have some security. From there they either cut away the canopy and swing in to the antenna (if I've tied the other end a good height above them I think this is feasible) or simply wait for professional help. Thanks for the links they look interesting. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Yeah I thought that it might be too thin for normal ascenders or descenders but that's secondary to whether it's safe to simply suspend someone's weight. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

A while back I bought a 100m of static (abseiling) rope that I thought I'd keep in the car along with a few other bits and pieces that would be useful for rescue scenarios, most likely wire strikes / hangups. Trouble is, the rope's 10 or 11 mm in diameter and it'd be a real pain to haul it up (for example) a tight internal ladder. So does anyone have any opinions on something like this? It's 5mm diameter, static and has a breaking strain of 5.5kN. It doesn't need to take falls, just suspsend someone's weight and maybe allow them to ascend or descend. Or am I just barking up the wrong bush? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I get the "Def" thing too on my x-lander but if I release the +/- buttons then press them again it'll let me carry on to zero. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Sweet. Still love ya!

Dude, 'allow' ??? I'm all for a bit of consideration and cooperation with the coastguard but as far as I'm aware we're doing absolutely nothing even vaugely llegal jumping there. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

You could try asking paragliders/hang gliders but I can imagine the response you may get . Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Try this thread. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Bolts? The mount may have changed since I bought mine but I just used cable ties, they're flat enough that the ProTrack still sits nice and flush in the mount. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Four guys go to scope out a bridge. The conditions are great and the landing area is ok but the cripple and the Welshman decide not to jump. This was much appreicated by the remaining jumpers because it meant they got a driver and video from the ground . So the cripple stays on the ground whilst the Welshman drives the jumpers on to the bridge. It should be noted that this was a motorway bridge where it's not strictly cool to stop a car, or get out, or jump off! It should also be noted that the Welshman wasn't strictly insured on this vehicle. But with pilot chutes in hand the jumpers approach the bridge, it looks good, the Welshman stops the car in exactly the right place, the jumpers get out and the car speeds off. The jumpers climb over the crash barrier, jumper #1 raises his pilot chute and is about to exit when........ sirens! Right behind them. Busted. Outstandingly bad timing. Resigned to their fate (most likely being bummed senseless by an irate policeman in a dirty cell somewhere) the jumpers climb back over the barrier, smiles gone. The police, who are on the opposite side of the carriageway, tell the jumpers to stay there whilst they turn their car around. The jumpers signal their compliance. So the police car moves off but when it doesn't pull an immediate u-turn something dawns on jumper #1 and a little light bulb switches on over his ProTec: they'd already driven down that road once and there wasn't anywhere to turn around for ages. The next motorway junction was a good 5 minutes away, if not more. Jumper #1 turns to jumper #2: "We could still go you know?". Stay and definately get busted or jump and maybe get busted. "Fuck it" says jumper #2. And fuck the exit order because before you could say 3-2-1 jumper #2 was back over the barrier and hopping off. Jumper #1 follows, both land ok and leg it in to the woods with the cripple in not-so-hot pursuit. They desperately try to get the Welshman on the radio to tell him not to come down the tiny windy little track to pick them up because they'll get blocked in by the police. But he's out of range. So the three fugitives sit in the woods and as soon as the Welshman is back in range they tell him to leave and come back in an hour. An hour later, with no sign of any police interest, they come nervously out of the woods, find the Welshman and drive off - staying off the motorway for a while! Just a story I heard second hand one time. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Lou, yes, to be fair Alti-2 does seem to have a good rep for customer service. I also like the fact that they're doing cool and interesting stuff and when I've played with Neptunes on the ground I've been impressed with the interface and the options. But what I like most about my ProTrack is that over the course of nearly 1000 jumps it has given me exactly zero grief. None. Switch it on and forget it. The impression I have of Neptunes is that you cannot say the same thing. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I pack mine right-left and I'm pretty sure all the other Wings I've seen have been packed like that too. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I pack grommet up but it defiantely fits slightly better rotated with the grommet against the reserve. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

In the interests of voicing another opinion...I'd buy a ProTrack. Almost everyone I know with a Neptune has had problems with it: screens going blank, jumps not being logged, cases cracking etc. In theory having upragable firmware is nice but in practice it seems like it's resulted in a product being released before it was ready. Alternatively, wait for the new line of L&B products. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Yes, the whois records tell all and I think Phree has the right idea. The meta info on the page says: Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I don't know who took the pic but the unshaven hungover looking reprebate subject is everybody's favourite uncle. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

That's really cool, I look forward to issue #1! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Realistically I'm never going to be a competitive swooper, if I change canopies it'll just be for fun. It did. Thanks guys. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com