tustinr

Personally I think there is major over reaction here. In fact I am astounded at some of the posts. Silvre has a valid point although I don't necessary agree with him and I do beleive he toned it down in later posts. "It doesn't pay to be nice" - well it doesn't pay to be nasty either. Somewhere in the middle would be great. We all have to live with each other. Like it or not. Hell I wouldnt mind a Skyhook in my Icon and as soon at it does become available I will look at installing one. The 3 deaths Bill alluded to were tragic and, yes, in all probability could have been avoided with either a Skyhook or RSL. Now please folks think before you post !

There is a parallel thread in the Womens forum. So FYI I have cross posted here: According to statistics a rape occurs every minute or less in South Africa. A large percentage of the population are uneducated and have little access to both police and medical services. It was with this in mind that this device was developed. There is a misperception in SA amongst a sector of the population that if you have AIDS and have sex with a young virgin (i.e rape) you will be cured of the disease. A large percentage of these rape victims are under 13 yrs of age, many a lot younger. The percentage of people with AIDS in SA is extremely high and growing by the day. I wouldn't dare to predict the percentage as it varies depending on who one speaks to. Frightening and devastating for the country both from a humanitarian and economic point of view. Some statisticians predict that by 2010 the average lifespan of a black african will be app. 30yrs of age. Many of these young innocent victims of rape end up pregnant and give birth to babies infected with AIDS (there is very little access to anti Aids drugs in rural areas although this is omproving). There are orphanages in filled with kids with AIDS all of whom have a limited life span. Until recently the SA government refused to acknowledge that AIDS was caused by a virus but instead blamed it on poor socioeconomic conditions (which of course play a role). Anti AIDS drugs have only recently become widely available for treatment - too little too late. This may put things in perspective for those of you living in first world countries and perhaps give you a different viewpoint. Food for thought. A little dfficult for a westerner to understand. It is sad that someone had to go to these lengths to develop a "gadget" to try and prevent rape. But it is reality whether we like it or not. Cheers Doc Rich (SA) --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Couldn't agree more. Educate yourself - read safety articles in the relevent magazines Parachutist, Skydiving Magazine etc. Practice those drills until you can do them in your sleep. You just never know when you are going to need them - shit happens when you least expect it to ! --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Previous post: Yes if the D bag was still in the container on landing then it is highly unlikely the RSL played any role in reserve deployment. --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Cutaway Go for Silver ! It happened to me 8 yrs ago when I had 99 jumps on a 20 way (I was base) and it turned into a zoo. Base tracked off too low - dumped at under 2000ft - no deployment. Scary shit and time just flies. Tried reaching my bridle once to no avail - pulled cutaway and then reserve ! As my reserve opened my main released from my bag and deployed behind me. I was pretty releived it wasn't hooked up any longer - the spot was terrible, over a city and as it was ended up landing on a railway line (only clear area - the rest was houses). It would have sucked had I had a two out scenario trying to find a suitable place to land. And I was relatively inexperienced. 5 seconds is just that - five seconds. People don't seem to realise that the time taken from when you deploy your pilot chute to when the the main opens takes a couple of seconds - if your main does not deploy for any reason, be it pilot chute in tow or bag lock it still takes a couple of seconds to acknowledge and diagnose the problem (there is no neon sign saying "pilot chute in tow") and then to make a decision and act on that decision. My point is if you have one set of EPs for one problem (say pilot chute in tow) and another for another problem (say bag lock) then you may just run into problems reaching that decision particularly if inexperienced. Remember you are in a high stress situation (and it is high stress believe me - a high speed mal is frightening). So for me its one set of procedures - right, left, arch. And I NEVER dump low - in the saddle by 2500ft. I cannot stress the importance of muscle memory either. Practice. I didn't even think, there was no time (the Rock is a big dark place at 1000ft at speeds of 120mph) ! One of my instructors years ago told me as a newby qualified skydiver when I was still doing solos to do a belly jump and just look at my handles, place my hands on them (basicallypractice EPs) while still in freefall. And stay stable. A good learning experience. A good many skydivers have never tried it themselves. In the end the whole experience was a good learning experience. It told me I could cope with a high stress situation and my EPs were good. I was pissed off because some brat stole my main and reserve PC though !! Cheers Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Good move ! Stay with the 170 for a while longer. --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Yeah a good South African skydiving tradition, particularly at Skydive Citrusdal. The drunker you are the less painfull it is - not sure whats worse the next morning - the hangover or the burnt flesh ! Flaming Footie rules ! Rich (ex Citrusdal SA). --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

How about assessing your situation and choosing your landing site while you still have the altitude to do so and then landing there safely even though it may be a long walk back ? I.e. don't get yourself into a situation where you end up in a panic and screwing up. Hope the ankle heals soon. Bummer mate. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Yeah I don't want to pull anyone down but the posting about blood clots was really a little over the top and controversial for my liking. There is no doubt in my mind that this had absolutely nothing to do with her fainting. Deep venous thromboses need time to develop and it is unlikely this would happen in the time it takes to jump, open canopy and land. And then the thrombus would need to embolize ........ highly unlikely. In addition - thrombotic emboli from the legs veins very rarely cause heart attacks or brain strokes. In tha case of heart attacks the thrombus develops in situ in the coronary artery in an individual who has severe athersclerosis of these arteries. And clots to the brain invariably arise from either the heart in someone who has atrial fibrillation or from the neck arteries. An embolus from the veins in the leg would have to pass through the lung vessels before getting into the arterial side of the body, pass back through the heart and then onto the brain. Impossible. I agree with Bill - good post. And Karen. The post I am alluding to is nothing less than scare mongering and does not really belong in a forum of this nature - it may cause unnecessary stress to the person who initiated this thread. I hope she has the wisdom to read the posts following this one so as to allay her fears. Please be a little more sensitive in your posts and be sure of the facts. Take care Cheers Rich (Doc) --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

As per Robs post. Mostly traumatic injuries - you can probably add whip lash injuries and broken neck to the list (from chest strap smacking chin). Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Yeah I have no doubt you can discount the theory of menstrual blood loss - it is minimal. It would take a lot more blood loss to cause loss of conciousness. And nah I don't particularly like Holiday Inns - sleeping there anyway. --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Yes take it easy. Basically you end up with an acute hypotensive (low blood pressure - as mentioned above) episode causing decreased blood flow to the brain and loss of conciousness albeit briefly if you stop the spirals immediately. If you don't you may end up in trouble i.e. loss of conciousness with all the sequalae thereof ! --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Just to educate all you non-medicals out there. Arteries have thick walls composed of both smooth muscle and elastic fibres - while they can be compressed it takes some pressure to do so and you will have to use positive pressure to keep it closed. When you release the artery it will spring back to its normal size even without blood in it. A vein is the opposite - the only thing that keeps it open is the pressure of the blood in it. Take out the blood and it collapses. Now take the scenario of tight leg straps: Ateries and veins run alongside one another. The arteries supplying the leg and veins draining the leg are large - app 1cm in diameter. There are more than one but the largest ones, the femoral artery and vein run anteriorly from the pelvis down into the deeper anterior thigh muscles. With a really tight legstrap the veins will be pushed close before the arteries are effected - i.e blood continues flowing down and into the leg but cannot flow upwards out of the leg to the inferior vena cava as the vein is compressed shut by the leg strap. The nett effect is that blood continues to accumulate in the legs at a steady rate while venous outflow is impeded. The end result is a decrease in blood flow back to the heart which means there is eventually less blood available to supply the brain with oxygen resulting in a faint (reduced bllod volume) - similar to orthostatic hypotension. Have you ever seen a parade where soldiers are standing on parade for hours without moving and some of them faint - due to increased blood stasis in the legs and decreased heart output to the brain (as soon as they collapse and are lying on the ground the blood flow to the heart increases and they recover quickly). Remember venous flow from the legs is reliant on muscle contractions in the lower leg - standing motionless for hours at a time causes blood to pool in the leg veins. Pretty simple. The effect of tight leg straps could easily cause similar problems and would be compounded if you spiraled down - the G forces would cause more blood to pool in the veins of the legs and the tight leg straps would impede blood flow out of the legs while arterial flow to the leg is maintained. As soon as you land and release pressure on the occluded vessel - return to normal. Of course muscle movement will also help. We are not all built anatomically the same - different arm and leg lengths, obese, thin, different harness sizes. We may wear different clothes each time we are on the DZ and wear our harness. All these factors may be variable from day to day, jump to jump. Bottom line it is entirely feasible that the cause of her problems are too tight leg straps from an ill fitting harness. The fact she did a few spirals could have contributed. Also the fact she hadn't eaten all day may have been a small contributing factor. Nevertheless having a full medical won't harm anyone but I doubt they will find anything "wrong" with her. Some of the advice given in previous postings is excellent. Like alter body position in straps under canopy, let a master rigger alter her harness etc. I would also like to suggest she move her legs while hanging under harnes even if its only contracting/relaxing her calf muscles to assist blood flow out of her legs. Hope the above helps. Cheers Rich (oh I am a medical doctor by the way - in fact a specialist pathologist - for those who have never heard of me before). --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Oh yeah, I am pretty sure it has nothing to do with the op. Time marches on ! Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

From a different perspective. I am a medical specialist myself and opted to have LASIK app 4 yrs ago now (of course I did the necessary research and spoke to a mate who also happened to be the opthalmologist who did the op). I skydived within 2 weeks of having the op - used an Oxygene full face helmet. No problems. I haven't looked back since the op - best decision I have ever made. I am over 40 and started wearing reading glasses last year - not sure if i is related to the op or just age related. No matter, small price to pay for not having to wear eye glasses or contact lenses while skydiving, rafting, cycling, canoeing, horse riding ..... My two pence worth Doc Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

This is just unbelievable news - just heard it today from a mutual skydiving friend. Egon, Piers and I go back many years - Egon and I did AFF together. Last year Egon stayed with me on his tour of NZ ! Bro, am going to miss your emails ! Your infectious laugh ! The good times we had. All those women .......... man I never could understand how you managed to do it !! This hurts big time. Doc Rich (ex Skydive Citrusdal) --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

I set up my wireless router last week and it couldn't have been easier. Dlink DSL 604T router with 4 ethernet plugs. Set up my desktop with a USB Adaptor as I don't have an ethernet card PCI card. Works like a dream. 15 minutes and it was up and running. Loaded a wireless laptop card in my laptop too - simple - and its a 6 yr old laptop. No problems. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Don't be too hard on yourself - it improves with time and experience. Like everything the more you do it the easier it becomes. Good on you for going back the day after and doing 2 jumps. Try visualisation on the ride up - and take deep slow breaths while doing so - visualise the door opening , the climbout the exit, the fear. Control it in your mind and half the battle is won. And practice your emergency procedures regularly. The more familiar you are with them the more relaxing it feels on the ride up (safe in the knowledge you can do them). Half the battle is won. Keep plugging at it. Cheers Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

As a dr myself I agree with the above sentiments - I wouldn't let anyone near me without all the right answers. From your posting is does seem you have a problem although not quite sure what it is - have you tried nasal decongestants to clear the opening of the Eustachain tube and if so did they work ? Are you an allergic type of person ? Have you had the flu recently ? It would highly unlikely a skew nasal septum would result in problems further back. Have you had trauma to the nose previously ? Etc etc. I worked in the NHS for a few years - I am sure you will be able to get in touch with this consultant if you try hard enough. Alternatively find another ENT consultant who will give you his time ! Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Life is all about balance. I got through 12 yrs of undergraduate medical training and postgraduate studying and very rarely studied on weekends. Weekends were my own time - there is plenty of time during the week to study - the odd hour here and there add up to a considerable number per week. Of course this takes self discipline and control however its your decision as to whether or not you want to study on weekends and NOT have a life. Life is about living. You don't want to look back in 10 years time and think you haven't had a life. If you have the bucks, make the time. Go for it. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Head down is a real buzz !! A coach helps - I remember all those solos I did trying to perfect the technique (still a long way to go). However if one can put something back into the sport by teaching a newbie then so much the better for the discipline - someone else to play with in the future !! Headown in the initial stages can be really fustrating without any input into body position and zippo relativity to know where you are going. I still learn something from every jump. A pleasure to be of assistance. Now if only that 20 knot wind would #$#$ off. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Nope you won't be doing that exit again and yes sit flying may well be a problem in the future if you don't take it easy and rehabilitate the shoulder correctly now. My advice - don't rush back to jumping too soon !! Take care Doc Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Chill out mate. Everybody is entitled to their opinion. I don't necessarily agree with the US foreign policy myself however am prepared to listen to your opinion - no need to get hard headed about it though. There is no black and white just different shades of grey. If 52% of the voters who voted for Bush are deemed intelligent by one person who has posted on this thread then I can only shake my head in despair ! Thats my opinion. Bush has his own agenda and its not in the best interest of the rest of the world thats for sure. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

I think you should read Bill's message again and interpete it in the correct way. Use some lateral thinking ! A cypress is the cheapest life insurance you will ever be able to buy. Rich --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.

Couldn't agree more with previous posting - and remember to get a pin check before exit and make sure your PC is firmly in position in the the BOC before exit. It always blows my mind to see me how many skydivers don't check their PCs before exit no matter what sort of flying they are intending to do ! Be safe --------------------------------------- Everything that happens to you in life is your teacher. The secret is to learn to sit at the feet of your life and be taught.