Groundbound

I was kind of amazed to read the top Expert Wings achievement awards in the sim p171.... 39000 dives! If you jumped 39years, that;s close to three a day, every day isn't it - anyway a thousand a year.. for a very long time.

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I do not see any difference in the regs over who can pack a *student* main canopy. If no difference, then I will (legally) be able to pack my own, as a student?(!) [part a) says the person making the next jump can pack it] I realize to actually do so may be stupid (especially if I've never done it before). So I was wondering what usually happens, who packs dz-owned student chutes? 105.43 Thanks

Where is a good reference (text?) to learn about the basics of aerodynamics for both freefall and parachutes? I had a few simple questions about turning in both regimes. Not much in the SIM. I did a search for aerodynamics, found some dead links and swooping stuff but thats not 'basic'. I could wait and talk to instructors, but why can't we discuss it here? Thanks

now there's a thought..............NOT! Besides causing the Tandem instructor serious long term psychological issues, it might cause panic among the townspeople. A svelte 20yo body I am no longer!

I did a search. Took about 15 minutes and under "Clothing" turned up 65 pages of posts which began with microchipped clothing and Bill Gates - I guess I was too lazy to search all 65 pages. Searched clothes and clothing + first and tandem and only got 19%-type search replies. Thought it might be easier to get current and accurate info from you guys. What should I wear to my first jump (tandem from 13K, at 10 am should be about 70F on the surface, close to freezing at altitude. I imagine frostbite isnt likely in a short freefall even at those temps. I'm used to wearing jeans or shorts and sneakers. I couldn't get the DZ on the phone today otherwise I would have asked them, if you don't think it right to patrol for responses here on this question, I suppose I can wait, just trying to plan ahead. Hope this is the right forum, did't seem to fit in Gear or anywhere else. Dave

My last post aggravated a lot of you and its probably too late to salve the wounds, but I think it is right to try. When I joined DZ.com, I just wanted to ask some skydiving questions. I am a total skydiving greenhorn..... (the profile thingy won't accept "zero" as the number of jumps, or yrs in sport, it's just not set up for non-jumpers).....so yes, my questions appear stupid to a lot of the regulars. I asked those people to ignore them to no avail -- I still received their non-answers such as 'read it in your book', 'go to a class at a DZ', 'go away you are a news reporter'(!), or 'do a search, we have talked about this too much already'. And I understand better now, some of these points - although you should know it doesnt make a person new to your sport feel that welcome, I appreciate how noob questions can be bothersome to some people. I have to say every forum is different, someone mentioned the bike forum that tolerates no fools - well I come from an aviation forum where we will answer any question even if it posted 4 times in the same day, you can ask us aboutthe intricacies of bernoullis theorem...or if the lav will suck you out with the blue juice, and we don't care who you are as long as you treat us with friendliness and respect. So I have learned that not all internet forums are the same... flavor so to speak. Anyway, I started to post with [N] in the title so those who dislike my idjut noob-questions could evade the torture.... but that didn't work really. Finally I pleaded with the moderators to start a newbie forum where maybe I could get answers from like-minded newbs. (please don't tell me only an expert answer is useful to me. I can decide appropriately what I do with the info. This is the internet in the 21st century, everyone knows not to hang your life on the words strangers post online.) No reply from the moderators about a newb forum. In the meantime, I did find another place on the internet where they specifically had a newbie forum and got excited, posted it to DZ.com in the thought that the other newbs who were intimidated by asking stuff on dzcom would want to know...(I got a lot of supportive pm's from like-newbs) and because I figured y'all would be pleased to know we had a more appropriate place to go, the rest wouldn't really care. I realize now that could appear tacky so I say, I'm sorry for offending. I am also sorry to offend those with my questions, my presence. All I can say is unless I am asked to leave by members or moderators I will continue to ask questions.... PLEASE if you don't have a useful answer or cannot do so courteously then at least ignore me -- you can recognize my username attached to each question. My name is Dave. I am in Texas and I want to learn about skydiving, it excites and fascinates me!. I am going for my first Tandem near my birthday in May. No, I am not a reporter!!

Finally found a place for newbies! http://www.skydivingforums.com/ is a forum that has a lot of new-to-skydiving people on it. Thanks to all who took the time to provide useful answers to my questions here. I will be bookmarking the newbie forum for further Q's so I will not be bothering you experts anymore! Thought I would post this because from the PMs I received there must be a bunch of us out there who feel intimidated and were afraid to ask about skydiving on this expert forum... c'mon over to the Newbie Forum y'all! Maybe one day I will get a couple hundred jumps and come back to DZ.com! Thanks, happy diving!

Stall fences are thin plates of metal mounted on the top of the wing, projecting upwards, aligned in the same orientation as the direction of flight. Their purpose is to reduce the spanwise (root to tip) flow of air, thus maintaining boundary layer thickness (delaying the stall) and enhancing aileron control at high angles of attack. They keep the airplane in better control at lower airspeeds such as when jumpers are exiting. . . . ignore this for now:

I see a lot of beginner jumper posts talking about hand signals and many forgetting what they mean or ignoring them, one could see them for the gloves, one only saw one finger, the other was blocked so they did the wrong thing. Just wondering if there has been any thought to fitting noise-cancelling headsets with receiver (theyre real light now) into a helmet, and a mic/transmittor for the instructor to talk to the student? I know it is wildly noisy at 120mph but have to wonder if the technology isnt there already to help 'get the message to the student'. . . .

all I know is when I looked for insurance, I got a lot of people saying to me, "Sorry we are not licensed in Texas" and they wouldn't offer coverage.

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I see posts about "cutting away", usually to separate a falling skydiver from a malfunctioning main parachute. Several discussions involve sharp objects such as knives and I did see what looked like severed ends of 'strings' in the video in which the jumper became entangled on the twin otter horizontal stabilizer and then let go of the chute somehow... BUT in the SIM glossary there is no mention of tools, it sounds more like a mechanical device that one activates to release the chute. Could there be a primary cutaway method, and the backup plan is a knife? Thanks

They have to be licensed in the state in which you live. I guess you could fake an address in NY but that kind of behavior can bite you. I got to thinking about my own policies before I do my first jump.... I guess I'll pull out the fine print this weekend... not that it would change anything!

raleighwood, I am a newbie too, just investigating the sport, planning my first jump in 45 days. You might have seen me trolling this site for information in past weeks. My perspective is as a general aviation pilot (25yrs now) going into this. As many of the experienced guys here will tell you: no sport is without risk. -- What the hell does that mean? Am I going to die or not? -- Well I think it means there is a continuum of increasing risk as you move from sedentary activities from watching TV...to bass fishing... driving a car... to riding in an airplane... to skydiving... to spacetravel... to eating my aunt's meatloaf. Those who partake must consciously learn about, and accept the risk. Most importanly to me, if I am going to get into something new, I am going to try to minimize that risk by immersing myself in the details, asking as much as I can.. learning from the experience of others. The benefit I gain from flying aircraft from taildraggers to jets has vastly outweighed the risk to which I am exposed; I would do it all again in an instant. I suspect the same is true of skydivers. As for the database.... that is truly a GOOD thing. If they swept accident information under the carpet - then you should be worried. I think most safety conscious people try to learn as much as they can from accidents in order to improve training, techniques and equipment and reduce the accident rate for themselves & others. I think I read the skydive fatality rate is about 50-60/yr in the US. The general aviation (non airline) is about 6 times that, and about 30,000 people die in the US each year from auto accidents. (just for your information - comparisons are bound to be unfair because of the denominator issue). Yes you might get hurt, yes you might die. Yes, your risk goes up as you take on new activities. Educate yourself; find out what you are getting into and how to minimize your exposure. Good luck, (ignore the signature lines below for this post): > >

Thanks, all this plus the PMs help a lot... Hey where can I see the Basic Safety Requirement list? Couldn't find it (except in the SIM which is never going to arrive apparently) on the USPA website.

Scouting out my options to finally go skydiving and another question: A couple of clubs nearby do not show up as Group Members of the USPA, but they do indicate elsewhere that they require membership in the USPA. Would I be better off to stick to a club that is a GM as well as requires USPA membership of all jumpers? Thanks. A search did not reveal anything useful. I apologize in advance to those who would have rather not have read this/these question/s. I am indicating by [N] that I am a newcomer if that helps you avoid these questions. I have altered my signature line because the software will not allow me to indicate zero jumps, no license, no equipment etc. I have also chosen a user name that indicates I am not a skygod. Finally I can only hope I have chosen the right forum, I did look first!

Sorry. But check out the link below - it says "Cypres constantly checks 7 criteria....." Huh! Some kind person has been feeding me tech info behind the scenes. I havent read it all yet but there is a pic here of a 3/32" braided steel cable that the cypres cut. Maybe it was just a strength demonstration, Ill check it out in detail. http://www.cypres.cc/Downloads/6_7_1_information_material/CYPRES_presentation_folder_r5_engl.pdf However, http://www.makeithappen.com/spsj/cypresloop.htm says its polyurethane cord. Thanks

Is this about right? The sensor (senses about 8 things) decides the jumper needs a reserve canopy out. An electrical impulse results in a blank shell discharging a 'blade' against a cable. This cable had been preventing the reserve from deploying, therefore it now exits the container. Thanks for the continued PMs on all my questions, too. It's fun to learn. I especially like to learn as much as possible before I 'jump' into something!

I have been unable to find a description with pictures of an AAD or Cypres.. what is the propulsive force that activates it after it senses the excess speed and minimum altitude? Reminder the [N] means Noob question as discussed elsewhere A search of these terms turns up thousands of responses so it seemed easier to ask here.

If you will let a new guy make a comment: I think the point of this being a spray plane is important. We pilots often talk of alcohol based or alcohol-mixed fuels in our carbureted piston engines (many are stc'd to run on auto fuel but try to avoid those with alcohol in them). So it may be that this alcohol fuel will run fine in an engine at low level (spray planes) but not at altitude for the same reason... vapor lock. Alcohol is too volatile at low ambient pressures so it may not be suitable for airplanes flying at altitude (or those carrying skydivers for example). Just a guess as to why they are talking about spray planes and cars only.

Back to the original question on the car, if anyone has any knowledge about it I am interested. Seems to me that an object will tend to fall with its CG (center of gravity) as close to the force of gravity as possible (hence the 'arch' position skydivers assume?) And an engineless car has its CG in the lower half of the vehicle, and midway from the front to the rear. Until that point that it is falling fast enough to develop air resistance on its surfaces. I can see how it may oscillate about its CG if it starts down in an unbalanced or unstable manner. But what stabilizes or destabilizes oscillations? I believe you skydivers probably know the answer to that, having experienced such airflows personally. Any ideas here? Thanks.

Here is one of the videos with the cars doing maneuvers I would not have expected, or could not have explained. http://www.skydive.tv/golf.mov It is from a link someone else provided here http://www.joejennings.com/ which has plenty of interesting skydive videos. Someone asked 'why this forum?' and it may not be the right one, I apologize if I was wrong but look at the choices: General Safety and Training Gear Instructors Incidents Wind Tunnels Events History I just didn't see a better place to discuss aerodynamics. (How about it moderators? Tell me where I should have asked this question, or if I should have at all. You will find me a very compliant participant!) And I am getting a few comments that indicate some don't like to hear my questions. I apologize to you. I myself have worried when I joined DZ.com if the long-time members would tolerate the Q's of a newbie... and I have asked repeatedly if there is some other place to go, to learn about skydiving.. like a new guy forum. (with no reply so far) Too bad this software doesn't have an "Ignore" feature so the experienced guys don't have to be tortured by the questions of a new guy. If questions are unwelcome here then I will ask the mods to indicate so and I will disappear in a flash... if not then I ask the tolerance of others... perhaps you could just skip over posts that are "Authored" by me, "Groundbound"? Maybe I will make my titles more obvious so you will know what is coming and can just skip over and save yo time and grief? How about a capital N in brackets to indicating goofball Newbie post?! There, I have adjusted this title. Thanks

Can anyone explain why the cars and other vehicles I see in the vids move about so unpredictably? I figured they would roll in a regular fashion, or maybe a repetitive oscillate - but from the looks of what they are doing, unprovoked by any weight shifts it seems unexplained by known science!

I cannot tell the difference from the description in "Glossary of Terms". Too bad they aren't accompanied by photos.