bob.dino

If anyone's interested, it's here: http://goo.gl/maps/T3Lxo

Welcome back! You probably don't have the sight picture for diving to and approaching a formation. Your tracking may suck. Your awareness of what's going on around you (Jane is right behind me, Bob looks like he's struggling with fallrate) is unlikely to be super-sharp. All of these can make you that guy in freefall. Once you pitch, remember that you haven't flown a canopy in months, and that people you can out-fly in freefall are likely to be much better at flying and landing a parachute than you. Work on the awareness - count the members of your group once your canopy is open. Look at who's around me, who is going to land before me, who is going to land after. Fly a sane pattern. Flare. Don't forget to buy your beer .

Only the winners were doped. The honest people had their careers ruined by the cheats. That's why Armstrong deserves no sympathy.

It's possible-but-tight to complete your AFF in the two weeks you have left this month. Next AFF ground course at Picton (Sydney Skydivers) would be this Saturday, with first jump(s) on Sunday, weather permitting. Then, if you were at the DZ every day, there's a decent chance you'd get through AFF before you head back to winter in the UK. I'd be very surprised if you were doing AFF in the UK in the next couple of months due to the weather. Plus, it'll take a lot longer to get through, again due to the weather. I believe lots of Brits bugger off to Spain for a week to get through AFF. Might be a sensible option to investigate. If money isn't particularly tight, I'd book in for AFF at Picton this weekend, do a couple of jumps on the Sunday and see how you go. If you love it, but don't have time to finish AFF here before you go to the UK, the worst case is that you'll have to redo the ground course in Europe. Best case is that you'll love it, quit your job, sell all your stuff, and go be a DZ bum in Spain.

A couple of people have mentioned it, but just in case: The difference between landing a shitty twenty-year-old F111 PD190 and a Sabre2 190 is night and day. The latter flies, the former merely slows down. If you're not going to be particularly current, and your budget doesn't stretch to a relatively modern canopy, I'd stay renting. Much more forgiving if you misjudge something a tad.

Forecast for Dallas shows highs around 60-70F this time of year? You'll be fine. Don't be a wuss .

If you get the lines around your neck, I think your chin might be a bigger impediment to removing the lines than the camera.

Cooked food will generally get through, but it will be opened. Put a note in the top with ingredients etc. If you want to purchase a gift, someone like Maggie Beer is interesting and fun: http://www.maggiebeer.com.au/products/category/hampers. The big problem with Interflora is you don't know how good the florist will be. Better to search for "wodonga florist" or "albury florist" and go from there.

Could be worse - you could live in Australia and have to pay for a trans-pacific flight, US car insurance, and travel insurance that covers skydiving . I'm not actually that worried about the per-jump costs. There'll be an extra plane on standby, a couple of dozen people being paid to be there, and lots of other expenses. The cost seems to be a reasonable amount to pay to cover the organiser's costs, salaries, and a risk premium in case the event is cancelled/weathered out/etc. Plus, generalising horribly, the average attendee will be a professional in their 40s who can reasonably easily afford the event.

The dates in your post are 2012, not 2013. Typo?

Dumb Question: where is the high pressure zone?

Saves you when you get a knee to the face. Holds more stickers. Win / win.

Dickless wonders? (sorry )

Yup. I think that's the fun of teaching/coaching. There's a ton of different ways to explain any given move, and you need to find the way that works for the person learning, not what works for the person teaching. Hopefully the various descriptions have helped out Scooby's team somewhat. And hopefully rehmwa is still alive. Scooby: it'd be great to see an updated video, if you have one lying around.

I think your life expectancy just decreased.

The way I think of the IC exit, their goal is to get out of the door lower than the OC. That's an extremely difficult goal to achieve, but it's good to aim at. When thinking about the exit, I break it into three parts: Exit position: Almost a hip-check through the rear of the door. Rather than exiting where OC is, they want to be low, compact, and going through the part of the door that Rear was occupying. IC needs to avoid leaving their feet in the airplane; they almost leave tucked in a ball. This means that ICs leg - which Rear is holding onto - leaves at the same time as their arms, and not later. Removes 90% of the remaining tension from the exit. Setup: Personally - I'm 6'3" - when setting up in the door, I have to think about being low, on the balls of my feet, and almost facing forward rather than out. This allows me to get my legs out at the same time as my arms/head. The better IC is, the less this will matter. Great ICs can exit from almost anywhere. Timing: Try to beat the OC off the airplane. You can't, but if you're aiming for that, you'll probably avoid being late . It'll take some time for these to come together, but if Rear's grip on IC and IC's grip on Point don't have much tension, you're almost there. All of this becomes a lot easier if Rear gets aggressively right-shoulder-down early, and OC gets hips up and square into the wind. Most importantly, don't forget to have fun

That's incorrect. Australia has a mandatory incident reporting scheme. It isn't perfect, but it's miles ahead of the US system. Incidents don't appear to deter new jumpers.

Normally, when I hear that tip, it's aimed at a team training out of a high-wing aircraft like a Caravan or Twin Otter. It means that you think about going 'up and out' not 'straight out' or 'down and out'. I'm not a huge fan of using it as a coaching tip myself, but if it works for you, go for it :-) Personally, when I'm trying to describe what point does on an E exit, I say "place yourself above your centers". To do that, think about a) leaving later than you think, b) presenting your hips to the wind, and c) not pushing too far out of the airplane. When the team's timing clicks, it can be quite the lazy exit for point. Best of luck working it out; it can be a frustrating exit initially, but when it clicks it's heaps of fun.

Looks like it might be the G-suit: http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/combat-edge-anti-g-ensemble-might-be-causing-raptors-oxygen-woes-372642/

The rules say "at least 60cm". http://www.fai.org/component/phocadownload/category/?download=3950:2011-cp-rules-final

Really enjoyed the videos mate. Made me very jealous of all my mates that were competing over there. ps: fuckin' Air Gremlins.

That is the situation today, and it has been that way for a number of years.

Yup. Skydive Dubai are planning to refund the cost of the plane tickets. But, with the comp on there this week, I'm guessing it might be a few weeks before it happens.

...and a caption other than "The Accused"

You might want to check the course for overhead power lines.