Gary73

If you're serious, Atlanta would be the obvious choice. More local population, more local skydivers, more travellers through the area, better access to the busiest airport in the world, better weather, and so on. We've been hearing rumors about tunnel projects here for years, but no one's ever broken ground yet. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

It's fine for different Instructors to have different teaching styles, but we should all be teaching the same material, at least at a particular dropzone. Unfortunately, not all DZOs, S&TAs, and Chief Instructors are willing to do the hard parts of their jobs, including this one. Just another example of the lack of professionalism which is one of the things that keeps skydiving a fringe sport. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Definitely take it to your rigger. If the stain is on the reserve portion of the container, have your rigger open it up to make sure the soda (or whatever) didn't soak in and form a sticky mass inside the reserve canopy fabric. Heard of that happening a few years ago. Found on scheduled repack; probably would have been a fatality otherwise. If it's not near the reserve then it'll probably just take a little soaking and light scrubbing to fix it up. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Try this: 1. Hang the canopy up on a canopy rack by the tail, spread full width. high enough to get the nose just off the ground. 2. From the bottom side of the canopy, grasp a few cells at a time by the nose and lift them high enough to let the sand fall out of the airlock sections. Shake the canopy a little. 3. Ease the nose down and let the sand fall to the nose. 4. From the top side, grasp the nose from underneath and turn it inside out to dump the sand. Repeat 2 - 4 until the sand is all out. Good luck! "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

It's definitely possible to induce line twists, even on a properly loaded student canopy. USPA recently clarified the meaning of the A-License requirement to make a sharp turn followed "immediately" by a sharp turn in the other direction. What they want is for you to turn, ease up, let the canopy go straight, then turn the other way. The idea is to learn your canopy's limits, but to do so gradually. Start with gentle turns, then slowly make them more aggressive. When you get to the point where the canopy starts to act funny, remember where that point is and don't exceed it. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

You could have stopped at Cheesy Bake! Sign me up! (It's before 5 PM on Saturday, isn't it? ) "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

I doubt there's a system of any kind that a skydiver couldn't foul up. Heard a good line today: "We could give you guys bowling balls and you'd either break 'em or get 'em pregnant!". So yes, what you're talking about may be possible, but mis-routed chest straps are pretty low on the list of fatality causes (only two in the last decade, I believe), so the effort would probably be better spent in other areas. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

B-12s and even quick-ejector snaps used to be fairly common on chest and leg straps, but fell out of favor between ten and twenty years ago. One reason is that the newer buckles are lighter, but the main reason seemed to be the fear that the snaps could come open accidentally even when correctly fastened. No system is perfect, but standard buckles are easy to route correctly, easy to check, and very reliable. Having said that, I have B-12s on both my rigs' leg straps, just because they make it so easy to put the rig on. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

From the "Qualifications" section of the job listing: You may be exposed to ... and high pressured gases with explosive potential Is that the military description of fart gas? "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Oops! I meant Cutaway, of course, not Breakaway. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Good plan! "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Definitely! No wonder it was such a pain! As for Wings containers in general, all I know is that I have a lot more trouble with them than with Vector, Javelin, or Dolphin. Maybe special, undocumented techniques are needed, but if so, then isn't that a design flaw in itself? Seems to me that a well-designed container is one that any rigger can easily pack the day he gets his temporary license. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Yes, there were crazies back then, even more than now, but they weren't the norm. Most skydivers then, as now, were regular folks who wanted a little more excitement in their lives. If most jumpers had been like those in Gypsy Moths, the sport would never have survived the sixties. Now on the technical side, yeah, it was definitely well done for the time, so kudos to the camera jumpers and all. I just hate the overall premise, that we're all suicidal lunatics. It's like the Apocalypse Now premise that there was something so evil about the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that every American who went there came back insane or dead. One of these days I'd like to see a movie that portrays skydiving fairly. I had hoped that Breakaway would do that; after all it was written and directed by a skydiver, but no: just more Hollywood crap. It's a hell of a thing when the most accurate media portrayal of skydiving comes from a Weather Channel segment on how the weather affects certain sports! "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Another one of those movies that set skydiving back ten years, at least WRT the public's perception of us. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Good point! Tandem is the only training method in which the Instructor is totally responsible for the student's safety. As for getting the Coach rating, if you completed the course, that means you have the pink card with the Course Director's signature, so that should be good for a year. If it's longer than that or you don't have and can't get the CD's signature, it may be a problem. Either way, I'd recommend that you contact Jim Crouch ( [email protected] ). He's the one who'll have the final word, so you might as well go to the source, eh? BTW: never talk to your uncle again! "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Sunrise doesn't have a size chart on their Web site, but they do list a stock W8 for sale and claim that it fits a 150 main and 143 reserve. Better check with them to be sure, though. Keep in mind that they have a habit of claiming that their reserve containers will hold bigger canopies than can actually comfortably fit. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Well put! And yeah, stick with a 170 or so for another couple hundred jumps. Only folks who are operating at a national-competition level of performance need things like tiny canopies, removable deployment systems, or even mini-risers, for that matter. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

+1 "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Here's another one, courtesy of Will Rogers: "If you have stomach pain, it's most likely a gunshot wound." "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Fixed it for you! Seriously, that'll depend on DZ policy; probably a refresher course. That could take one to three hours, depending on how much you remember. Then a jump or two with an Instructor or Coach, again depending on how well you do. You can help things along by reviewing procedures and getting your membership up to date. A USPA GM dropzone will be able to verify membership and license online, which will make them more likely to believe you regarding your experience level. Good luck and welcome back! "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

I've been told that on average, women have better peripheral vision than men, but worse depth perception. I noticed years ago that on average, women have more trouble with landings, so I solicited some advice from experienced women skydivers on what to teach women who have this problem. Here's what I got; maybe it'll help: I suck at all that 6-8feet visualization, especially after a good freefall. I flare mostly by "instinct". However, what really helped me was doing 3-4 hop-n-pops (3500'). That way all I focused on was my canopy control, setting up and feeling the flare. Helped immensly. Sometimes I was just so worn out from freefall, I didn't have much left to devote to the other fun part of skydiving - landing my canopy. I always had trouble telling when to flare. I was always flaring WAY too high. Some people told me when i thought i should flare, to wait 3 seconds then flare. That kinda worked, but what I found to be more helpful for me, was looking for something that was about 10 feet high, then i would kinda know when i should start flaring. I still use that method sometimes (my landing have just started to improve). I found it to really help a lot. bubbles So the biggest key was relax, just say it out loud and keep looking in front of me and not down!! As you know, it is way common for students to fixate on the ground, get serious groundrush, then flare too high. When I was teaching the first jump course, I would tell my students to look off at the horizon when on final (avoids the whole groundrush problem). Our DZ was surrounded by trees to the South, East and West and had a line of hangers to the North. On their first couple of landings while on radio, I had them concentrate on where they were relationship wise with those stationary objects as they began their flare. One of the questions I would ask the students during debrief was "When you began your flare, were the trees/hanger above, even with, or below your feet." (I let them know to be watching for this when they were in class) This gives them a perspective they can directly relate to. As a result, we had very few students flare too high, even after they came off radio. Fixating on the ground can also lead to the no flare problem. Yes I know, people go to other DZs and won't have the same points of reference. But the idea is to get them really looking out instead of down. Another way of looking at it (courtesy of Scott Miller, and not recommended if you're taking a canopy class with a hangover ): Stand up and look at the ground right in front of your feet. Bend your knees fast and see how the ground looks like it's just getting bigger. Try it a couple times; you'll see what I mean. Now look out six feet in front of you, and bend your knees the same way. When you're looking out ahead of your feet, it looks different--you've got some depth perception. Well, Shelly at Perris had me go stand on an 8 foot wall and spend some time up there to memorize what 8 feet looked like. John advised me to wait to flare until it looks like I could kick someone in the head. Both help. Maybe it would help to stress the idea of looking out at a 45-degree angle (or at the horizon) to aid in depth perception, or telling them to wait a second after they want to start flaring if they're flaring too early (until they are flaring at the right altitude), or, if you really feel like a radio is a good idea, to have the instructor only give corrections when absolutely necessary. Also, have them do practice flares up high with their eyes closed. (clear air space 1st) That will help them get the muscle memory for where the canopy planes out at. Which will help teach them to trust that the canopy will plane out when they are close to the ground. It helped me when someone pointed to a reference point, like a tree or a roof, and told me not to flare any higher than that. It also helped when someone told me to use my peripheral vision instead of just looking ahead. I also had problems landing on my feet until the 2 stage flare and pendulum effect were explained to me. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

With stock grants, the value is generally determined at the time the company goes publc; the opening price on the first day of trading. You have three basic options: 1. If the stock is going to go up, accept the entire grant, then later sell enough of the stock to pay the taxes. Then sell the rest before it goes down. 2. If the stock is going to go down, have the employer automatically sell enough of your shares to pay your withholding tax, then sell the rest as soon as you get them. 3. What? You don't know whether the stock will go up or down? In that case, choose the safe path: option two above, but only sell half the shares. A friend of mine tried option 1, the stock went down, and he had to take out a second mortgage to pay the taxes. I basically did option three and even though the stock went up then way down, I came out well ahead. Hope this helps. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

In order to be light enough to be practical, a skydiving helmet can't be as sturdy as a modern motorcycle helmet. Even so, there's no doubt at all in my mind that you're better off with one than without. Even if the helmet is destroyed in a hard hit, the energy that it absorbs in the process of being destroyed is energy that won't go toward smashing your skull. As for canopy size, yeah, definitely keep your wing loading below 1.0 PSF until you have a C license, especially if you're going to jump a slightly elliptical canopy like a Sabre2. As for which model is best, that's mostly a matter of opinion, and there are really too many factors to go into here. Talk with your Instructors and get a feel for what will be best for you. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

The important thing isn't some specific length, it's how tightly the loop holds the pin when the container is fully closed. It should be hard to push the pin out with one finger. If it's any looser than that, you're inviting a premature deployment. It's just about impossible to make the loop so tight that a pilot chute can't pull it out, assuming that the pin and top grommet are in decent shape. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan

Play it straight and pay the import tax. Regardless of how you feel about the tax, it simply isn't worth the potential hassle. And remember, it's not just you who's involved - having the seller falsify customs documents could get him in a lot more trouble than you. I've sold a number of things outside the U.S., and there's no way I'm risking all that grief just to save the buyer 5%. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence." - Carl Sagan