dninness

Sabre 1 170 here, almost 300 jumps on it, bought it from one of our packers who was this skinny little beanpole who complained it beat the crap out of him. I packed it and jumped it 3-4 times, said "yeah, I'll buy it.." Few jumps later, he packed for me and *bam* I got a hell of a slammer. I chalked it up to bad body position or random chance. My openings, while not like "buttah" were nice and quick, smooth, on heading and sans the sudden stop at the end. Dozen jumps later, he packed it for me again. *blammo* like hitting a Mack truck at 2k. I walked into the hangar and said "Bobby, FYI, its not the canopy. Its you." About 3 months ago, I was doing a bunch of AFF one day and I dropped it in the hangar. One of our newer jumper/packers said he'd get to it. Later, I picked up my rig, did a once over and jumped it. Mack truck slammer. As is my custom, I don't blame the packers for crazy openings (minus the obvious 'The @#$% packer packed me a line-over', of course) but I do let them know when I get a slammer so they can modify/adjust their technique. Strictly feedback, not bitching at them or anything. "Mike, that fucker slammed the shit out of me. What did you do to it?" "Oh, uhhh, I got a little backed up and Bobby packed it." I wagged my finger at him and went for the ibuprofen. The bottom line, however, is that at the right wing loading and in good shape, a Sabre 1 can be a fine canopy. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Great visual, but these are skydivers we're talking about. First time you have a party, there will be more beer _in_ the little recessed area in the coffee table than was bought for the party. "Hey, is that a beer-filled fishtank?" NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Say it ain't so! You know the difference between a fairy tale and a skydiving story? Fairy tales start with "Once upon a time..." Skydiving stories start with "No shit, there I was..." and thats where the differences end. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Guy sounds like a pretentious douche, unfortunately. And by his description of the plane, I'd think he was jumping here: [inline fandangopecos00.jpg] NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Well, its only "partly" Frankenotter'd here: http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=486758&nseq=0 But this.. much better: http://www.airliners.net/photo/Skydive-Arizona/De-Havilland-Canada/0156384/L/&sid=0a1ed5300a3c967c5a6fd299b2aa9d12 NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Generous. I've seen hotter tandem pax with their clothes on, I've seen sexier naked skydives where no sex was (supposedly) occurring. And the production value, UGH. If you're gonna do a skydiving porno, with outside video, you need frontal, penetration, and a finish for both partners. I mean, jeez. Really, you call yourself a porn star and pass this crap off? Mark Whalberg did better. This was a just-about-average tandem outside/handcam vid where the participants simulated sex. Whoopie. (insert requisite joke about it looking just like snot whip..) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I started jumping before I was married. My dad & my girlfriend (later ex-wife ) came out to the DZ to catch the "afternoon jumping" after the FJC. My dad, the professional photographer, took some outstanding photos. He used to race motorcycles, so having a fairly risky hobby/sport is nothing unusual for him. He was totally unsurprised when I announced "Oh, I am _definitely_ doing that again!" Of course, he feigns fear of heights (bullshit), vestibular problems (again, bullshit), and bad knees (yeah, ok) when I suggest a tandem. My mom, on the other hand, lived way up in Northern Michigan and didn't come "downstate" for hardly anything, so she never saw any of my jumping. After I'd moved out to New England, I was back in Michigan for an event at the Air National Guard base not far from where she lives, and her and her husband came over for the graduation part of the week. I'd slipped out of the base theater when all the families walked down to the flight line for the final parade, and my mom couldn't figure out where I'd gone (I'd walked right past her with a smile and a wink and said "I'll be right back). 20 minutes later, it was clear where I'd gone, as I was the guy jumping the flag into the center of the whole thing on the flight line. My buddies who where there said my mom took one look up and said "Oh, there he is." She was quite impressed with my ability to pull off a good demo, though. :) We don't talk about my skydiving, not because she's uncomfortable or anything, its just that its not a common subject for us. She's not terribly interested (she wasn't a big fan of my dad and his motocross racing, either) and I'm not going to press the point. Oddly, my ex-mother-in-law was aghast that I didn't immediately stop jumping and sell all my gear when we had kids. She said to me one day, in complete seriousness, "Aren't you afraid of dying?" "Sure, I'm afraid of dying. Who wouldn't be? But you know what I'm more afraid of? Not living." That shut her ass right up. She never gave me shit about skydiving after that. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

There is a reason they call the Mr. Bill-like freefly exit a "pornstar." LOL NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Well, I think this goes without saying, but: "This thread is useless without video." NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

To the OP: no, non-UK skydiving is nothing like what you describe. Most people don't live 3 hrs from a DZ. Even in my state, which has no DZ of its own, 90% of the population is within an hour of at least 1 of the 3 DZs in neighboring states. However, living 3 hrs from *any* site for recreational activity is really going to limit your chances and choices. Nature of the beast. Whether its skydiving, bungee jumping, mini-golf or bowling. I had a student several years ago who complained loudly about not being able to get up in the air and get his license. Problem was, he lived an hour away and he would show up at 3 or 4 in the afternoon, after participating in his other recreational activities, get his name up on the board, and then bitch mightily when he wasn't the next student in the air. (Nevermind the 3 hr wind hold between 11 and 2 that caused every other student to have to sit, or caused us to be a little backed up for gear) He'd stick around for an hour, then leave in a huff. He finally informed everybody he was going to go jump at a nearby DZ because they'd accommodate him. That was, as I recall 2008. He still does not have a license. Go figure. As I tell my students "If you're not here, you can't jump. Thats how it works." ; NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Funny thing: after a few minutes of googling addresses (and not a whit of a "indoor wind tunnel" to be located, one of the addresses came up as what I took to be the call center for Skyride. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

I was surfing for something else and came across this: http://www.mademan.com/mm/indoor-skydiving-spots-atlanta.html I'm thinking "Wait, there's three wind tunnels in Atlanta? Since when?" 10 minutes of googling and I still don't have a straight answer besides "No" and "Uh oh, this looks like a scam" NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Years ago I was in Circuit City and they had some video playing in a loop on the big screen TVs showing all these neato slow-motion shots, etc. What caught my eye was what looked like Patrick de Gayardon (well, it *looked* like him.. at the time he was the likely guy to try some shit like this) being towed behind a boat with some little tiny pocket rocket canopy and he was carving these crazy hardcore turns and such, just above the water. Like "powered swooping" It was cool, but at the time the discussion on rec.skydiving (and I bet here) was "you'll die if you do it." Good to see the advice hasn't changed in the last 10-15 years. :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Prior to 900Mhz being a viable alternative, Tom Sanders, Norm Kent & Ken Crabtree jumped out of my helicopter with microwave transmitters (fairly directional) attached to them during the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics in 1988. Of course, it required folks on the ground with directional antennas pointed at each camera flyer.. It was kind of bulky and complex, never mind the microwave energy being generated really, really close to your body :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Something to consider, too: The Reno course is something like 8.5 miles around. The spectator area is like 500 ft across. Its not precisely the old "golden BB," but its close. Yes, there are places where the racing line "sweeps" the spectator area (mostly coming out of that last turn), but its pretty quick. That video is pretty incredible from a bunch of standpoints: the response of people, both spectators, first responders and race officials/course workers, and the absolute destruction of that P-51. The only "intact" thing I saw out of any crash sequence video so far was the engine. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

My ex-wife and I used to work in the same company right after I started jumping. One morning, she calls me from her desk in the accounting department, and whispers into the phone "you need to get down here right now.. there's a guy over in contracts who did a tandem over the weekend and he's so full of shit its not even funny!" So I go bombing down to the contracts section next to where she worked, and one of the young bucks is repeating the story for like the 10th time. He's regaling everybody with stories about how the "tandem guy" passed out and he "saved our lives" and they were so close to the ground when the parachute actually opened and all this other shit. So I pipe up with "oh, man, that's cool... where'd you jump at?" He names the DZ I'm jumping at. "Oh, sweet. So you went with a guy, like you know, that tandem thing and all?" "Yeah! I had to save our lives, him and I" "Wow, what was the guy's name?" He rattles off the name of our head instructor and tandem guy. I hold up my hand about shoulder level. "A short guy, 'bout this high, with a beard?" "Uhhh, yeah.." "Funny, I talked to him on Sunday while I was out making some jumps and he didn't mention anything about almost going in and having his passenger have to pull for him or anything like that." Suddenly the guy looks at his watch "Oh, wow, I guess coffee break is over!" EDIT: BTW, a more problematic issue is the people who leave you DZ in November with one number of jumps and return in the spring with some gigantic additional number of jumps that they could only have gotten if they jumped 5-7 times a day, every day, in the interim. And they don't produce a logbook because "I quite keeping a log years ago." NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

My first jump was a static-line, and of my entire class (about 20 people) I was the first student out of the first plane for the day. No opportunity to "see it done from the ground" before I get to do it. Great. So they put the first two students in the plane (running), and the JM turns around and grabs my arm and escorts me to the step/door. I have a bunch of time in small aircraft, 172s, 182s, etc, but this 182 is looking like a frakking sardine can with 2 students and the pilot in it already, and now we're gonna shove my fat ass and the JM in? Holy Christ, Bernoulli better be working overtime on this one. Then, the whole way up to 3k, I'm looking at the arrangement going "OK, if I chicken out, how can everybody else get out of the plane without us having to land?" And of course the answer is "They can't." I'm the cork in the bottle, so to speak. So if I reject in the door, they gotta land to offload me, and I'm gonna look like a gigantic pussy in front of my girlfriend, my dad, my fellow students. So, I did what any red-blooded American male does: I jumped :) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

"But it's just on my chest strap. I won't even know it's there..." NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Thank god I wasn't drinking anything when I read that! Awesome reference. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Hrrmph, I didn't see this thread until today, but the day after you posted it, Bill, I was watching Cutaway in the morning cuz the wx was crappy and I wanted to watch Turbo go "no lift. " :) Cuz, you know, its a documentary. Teee heee. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

IMHO, I think this is a bit of tempest in a teapot. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that the current crop of skydiving helmets strike a decent balance between protecting your melon and not snapping your neck. Add more protection and you'll likely add weight, which increases the potential for injuring your neck on a hard opening. How many accident reports have we ever read where the conclusion is "a better head protection would have made a difference in this accident"? Very, very few. I honestly don't expect my Oxygn to protect me from much more than a boot to the head, or door rash, or a botched landing faceplant. If it does, well, groovy. Until then, it keeps my hair and my audibles in place. Its about balance: what level of protection are you willing to accept balanced against the usability/suitability of the gear and the potential for its need? Skydiving is _full_ of risk/need/reward calculations. My dad is a motorcycle rider, he used to race (moto-x, flat track, road race), and he wears leathers and a helmet every time he rides. Enroute to work one hot day, a kid pulled up alongside him at a traffic light wearing a pair of sneakers, running shorts, eye pro and a tiny helmet. He looks at my dad, says "Ain't you a little overdressed?" My dad says "Hey, if I knew when I'd be needing it, I'd only wear it then." That being said, if you can find a way to do a better protection job within the same size/weight envelope, then yeah, do so. No question there. But I think that any helmet is probably better than nothing, so pick the one thats not going to restrict your vision, give you a neck-ache, or whatever. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Y'know, I think I might make a big sign for the hangar/manifest area that says that... Wouldn't hurt.. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Bunch of the Brazilian guys at my DZ have similar. I've heard them referred to as the "dead Thai hooker bag". That one from LA Police Gear is one I've looked at. Good to see it gets some play here. NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19

Proof was Kevin Reynolds' short film from his days at USC. Filmed partly at vpjr's dad's DZ (Cal City). Fandango was the film made when, uh, I think Bob Zemeckis, saw Proof and offered Reynolds the opportunity to do a feature. He basically embedded Proof into the middle of Fandango as a scene, and that scene is more or less a shot-for-shot remake of the original, but done in a much more polished feature film way. With "name" actors (well, Kevin Costner wasn't much of a name yet, but Judd Nelson was) and of course, "Truman Sparks". I own Fandango. For my money, I'd rather watch the version from Fandango, cuz its far more well put together. ;) Back to your regularly scheduled fear of the dastardly Cessna 182. (of which I have a couple hundred jumps out of.. including my static line..) NIN D-19617, AFF-I '19