adamUK

I mentioned it once, but I think I got away with it all right.

And in Germany small talk is considered insincere (which it is in a sense).

Piece of piss. Mount this into your lid. Only thing missing is the battery. It's so small it might fit in a pocket for a pro track. Butcher the camera mount to make it fully integrated rather than protruding. Slight snag at the mo is that you'd have to remove the SD card but that could be fixed. They're coming up with a 1080p version soon which is what I'm waiting for. Cheers Adam.

Hi Andy, You're right. I wouldn't advise on anyone just relying on judging their own impression of time passing as the sole measure of when to pull. More specifically that you're, say, 10 seconds into the jump and then on alti check expect to see a certain altitude having passed. If it wasn't the case then you know something is wrong with the instrument. Ad.

Use all your senses and not just instruments. As you've just found out - they can fail. Get used to what 4k looks like - use your eyes as an alti. This is your #1 backup. On the way up if there's a broken cloud layer then also check your alti to find out how high the bottom and top of it is to give you a further point of reference. Get an audible if you can afford one. Once you've got a few jumps in you will develop your own internal timer of how long the jump has gone. If in doubt then pull! Better off a long canopy ride than AAD fire or worse. Cheers Adam.

So when's the next installment? Hours 20 to 40 in 4 minutes??

See this thread

Fàilte! Where do you jump? I meet quite a few weegies who jump at Black Knights in Cockerham. I reckon it's just best to get out to Florida. Spain used to be good but the cost of jump tickets has gone up with the increase in VAT. Either that or tunnel time. Adam.

Some of the movements you do (e.g. just moving forwards) are different with a rig on. E.g. arching the top of your back in sit to get more lift in the tunnel's not as effective with a rig on either. It's worth trying maybe with just another flyer doing some drills just to get the feel of freeflying with the rig before you rock everyone with your skills. Personally I find freeflying in the sky easier than the tunnel but there is a difference. Good to see some dedication

Ah hell, get your arse to the UK. Weather like coastal WA and the rest of Europe's just short (and cheap) flight away.

If you're smarmy then you're someone who is insincere who will lie to your face but appear ingratiating with it. I think you know what a twat is. P.S. I'd say Piers Morgan is more of a cunt than a twat due to this

If you're ever up at Peterlee then drop by if you're trying new DZs - a small but friendly DZ.

Did you figure out what caused your hard opening? I had one too. I didn't break anything but badly bruised and put me out for a month. I really saw stars! I am 100% anal about my packjobs now and deliberately pack them for soft openings. P.S. Welcome back! Where you jumping?

I don't know if they do Static Line but Empuriabrava pretty much does everything else (including wind tunnel!). Speak to Regan Tetlow there for further info. Skydive Spain also have English-speaking folk around. Hope this helps. Adam.

Used to be made of methanol but now is mostly ethlyene glycol.

I don't necessarily think the sport market is saturated. However if you came to market with a 'me too' product which was little different from the current offerings then I'd be surprised if you got many sales. Simply put: cypress has a proven track record and a new device does not. However, if yours was better in some way and that improvement was valued by jumpers then I'm sure you'd get takers (I'm thinking here of Skyhook vs RSL as an example). So really it all boils down to how better your product will be vs the others. Good luck!

The other thing you might struggle with are the patents. Cypres don't have it completely sewn up but the cutter design is there and the one for the electronics unit covers both pressure measurements and accelerometers so building a new one that didn't breach their patents could be just as hard as making the device reliable. I have a cypres and I see why servicing is important to identify defective components but the 12 year age limit doesn't seem consistent with the 'wear out' phase of electronic systems (do some research on Mean Time Between Failures - MTBF) and you'll see what I mean. Maybe having devices with no fixed lifespan is not a good business model for them?

At 1.4 with 100 jumps he'll potentially qualify as a junior member of SoFPiDaRF. I'd point him over there and let them sort him out. Just make sure you video all his landings for, er, research purposes.

I don't really care where it's made. I'll buy the best kit for the job. Okay, I'm not a US citizen but that's what it boils down to if for this type of equipment. If you've got a product that's better than the cypress then by all means bring it to market. Just because it's 'made in the USA' wouldn't be sufficient IMHO. Good luck with your venture.

I think it's still taking a bit too long to download so I've resized it for you.

Is this free to anyone or is it licenced to specific groups (students, etc)?

Sounds like you have DOMS. Basically you did too much too soon. Warm up by getting some blood round your body e.g. jogging. Then do some stretching as damage is caused when muscles lengthen. Don't just jump in without warming up and then warming down. Next session you'll probably find things are a lot easier. Which tunnel you at? Adam.

This year's a bit unusual in that I've taken some money out of my mortgage and spending it on tunnel time. I've got about 11-12 hours to spend. Up to 3 hrs 25 minutes at the mo but I'm such a slow learner. Hmmph. If you take this into account then this year it'll be over 50% of my take home salary. Other than that it's about 6-10 jumps a month which is about 10%.

Depends if the other half gets an STI or not.

1812?? I think Napoleon was being a particular nuisance at the same time. We seem to make a habit of fighting undersized European dictators Let's all play nice before this gets shifted off to SC. Lots of love from Blighty.