G.Anvil

Cheers everyone for the replies. Work are paying for my flight via Singapore so I guess I'll be selling in the UK and buying new in NZ

I'm going to be moving from the UK to New Zealand to live in Christchurch for 3 years. I really wanna sell my current rig (harness too small, want to downsize) but I cant decide whether to sell in the UK, buy in NZ, or sell in the UK and buy before I go (meaning I'd have to carry a rig in my bagage allowance). Does anyone know what the NZ market for rigs is like? Are there many second hand rigs around or is it quite easy to get hold of new ones? I dont want to spend much more than I expect to get for my current rig (~£2000 / ~NZ$6000). Cheers James (I leave in January!)

I had some trouble on easyjet trying to get from Bristol to Madrid last year. Well easyjet were fine but the airport security at Bristol wernt happy with us taking rigs on as hand luggage (saw them on the XRay). Having made us go back to easyjet to check the airline were ok with it they finally let us through to only just make our flight - leave loads of time. I suppose this could be a problem on any route because it was airport security and the CAA that were concerned not easyjet. On the way back I got caught by the 'your hand luggage is too heavy' rule at check in. Luckily my check in bags were a couple of kilos light so I cut away the packed main at check in and put it in my suitcase. I carried the container and reserve through security in a rig bag with no problems. I'd just say however you take your rig on an airline, try and check in with loads of time to spare! James (Ive had no problems with that route on other occasions)

I agree with most of the posts above, I didnt feel any dropping sensation on any of my SL jumps. As Wendy W said, I found it helped to have to concentrate on canopy & survival skills only for the first few jumps then move on to freefall skills when the important stuff became natural. SL training can be as fast as AFF too with a god DZ.

Since we're plugging unis... Bath Unis got some great people in it and some of them even jump! They go to Netheravon near Salisbury most of the time although some of them seem to prefer to jump abroad more... Got to agree with one of the posts above though, Langar is a great DZ near Nottingham and the Nottingham club is really active there (witha few other unis). Plus some jumps are subsidised with Nott I did have someone tell me not to drink with Leeds once but i'm sure it was just a viscous rumour... On the AFFvs RAPS front, RAPS can be quick. I went down to Headcorn for my first RAPS jump in May 2004, three weekends (of perfect wether) later I had my A Ive heard people say its better if youre gonna train in the UK because you still get to jump when its cloudbase only (often). And of course RAPS trained jumpers are just generally much better... If youre gonna do AFF, do it where the sun shines Enjoy uni and your jumping (Ok i really should be revising now...)

My revision is gonna suffer so much because of that post! Just beat the king at last (26843 )

This video really helped me; http://www.precision.aero/packing/mvc-002v.mpg Along with some help from someone who regularly psycho packs of course!

Bigway, Just found this in another thread; "Keep posting and keep enjoying, dont lsten to the fools that tell you not to have dreams. For the fools who need to put newbies dreams down, you need to realise that the people who have dreams usually research their dreams way before they can live them, these are the people that go places in life." Just might be relevant?

Could someone post a picture of a seal, being from the UK I've never seen one either. I'm trying to imagine where / how they are attached without becoming another risk?

The ops manual is a bit more specific. It says; 8.1. Student Equipment. All Student main parachutes are to be packed under the supervision of a person holding a BPA Packing Certificate for the parachute being packed. 8.2. Main Parachutes FAI ‘B’ Certificate (Red) parachutists and above and holders of JM1 Grade qualification are responsible for the packing of the main parachutes they are jumping. I take that to mean B license jumpers and above don’t need a packing certificate, or logbook endorsement, to pack their own gear. It’s up to them. Go get that license! James

Absolutely, although as i said in my post i'm not sure this is what jigneshsoni is asking. I think the answer to his question lies in the fact that there’s a difference between being small and being far away J

I’ll have a go at this one. Using your scenario lets take two people. One is at 100ft looking straight down, the other is at 10000 ft also looking straight down. Both of these people have a field of view that takes in 90° (because it makes the maths simple) in one direction on the ground. The unlucky chap at 100 ft looks down at a fence he knows is 100 ft long. The fence takes up 50 % of his field of view in that direction. (The total length he can see in that direction is 2 x 100 x tan(45) = 200 ft). The other fellow (who paid more) is enjoying a view from 10000 ft of the same fence. His field of view encompasses 20000 ft (2 x 10000 x tan(45)) in the direction of the fence. Thus the 100 ft fence only takes up 0.5 % of his total field of view. These two guys are shown in the attached picture as (1) and (2). Now the plucky skydiver at 10000 ft jumps. Skilful as he is he moves 10 ft horizontally without losing any height (Lets just assume very little height is lost at least). The fence is still taking up 0.5 % of his field of view, but now 60 ft (0.3 %) of it is one side of the centre of his view and 40 ft (0.2 %) of it is the other side. According to your assumption; as he now descends his field of view continues to be 20000 ft. So when he gets to 100 ft and is kissing his a$$ goodbye he looks down and sees our fence as 50 % of his view. Crikey, that fence must be 10000 ft long he thinks. Well I moved 10 % of its length earlier; I must have travelled 1000 ft up there. Fuzzy logic I think you’ll agree. In reality the clever skydiver will realise he can now only see 200ft in total, so the fence is 50 % of 200ft = 100 ft and he moved 10 % of it, 10 ft. Not that it’s going to do him much good at 100 ft in freefall. _________________________________________________ The effect of the curvature of the surface of the earth, or indeed heading towards the centre of it, is indeed negligible as others have said. A quick google reveals the radius of the earth to be about 2090000 ft. Although obviously we know that not only is the earth not a perfect sphere it is also quite hilly, this seems like a good number to use. A trivial calculation shows 10ft movement (parallel to the earths surface) at 2100000 ft from earths centre is 7.5788x10^-5 % of the total circumference of a sphere of this radius. Now 2090000 ft from the centre of the earth (on the ground) 7.5788x10^-5 % of the circumference equates to 9.95 ft. A 0.05 ft difference. __________________________________________________ I hope all my talk of fences has helped not hindered James

I know its a bit off topic but according to the BPA ops manual (the rules we all stick by); 2.2.1. The following Wing Loading criteria should be applied to main ram-air canopies: a. First Jump ‘Solo’ Student Parachutists - not to exceed 0.8 lbs/sq.ft. b. ‘Solo’ Student Parachutists having completed at least one ‘solo’ descent - not to exceed 0.85 lbs/sq.ft. So its most likely to be a 290/270 you are jumping, that would make your wingloading ~0.75. 290 canopies are common early student canopies, I weigh ~13st and jumped a 290 for my first 15 jumps or so. PLF James

Any need to register? James

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