mdrejhon

Should be easy to spot the exit. Damn. Even I'd go to Dubai for this event for 4-way competition. I'd just have to be a gentleman for the duration of the trip. I've got a full calendar at the moment, but maybe next event? Where does the airplane take off, by the way?

In reality, alot of deployments start below 2200feet -- just watch all the bigway outers. For me this year, I've flown various sizes from a Pilot 140, Pilot 150, Sabre 150 and Sabre 170. I'm just waiting for my invite to the 500-way World Record (if I get it), before I buy one of those 'World Team' canopies...

For the holidays, Google made it free on Virgin America and eBay made it free on Delta Airlines. If you're on either airline, turn on your laptop's wifi at cruising altitude and scan for a signal. You might find one!

Turning off ignition also works. Most cars let you turn off the engine while you're in motion. In some cases I suspect you may have to go into a certain mode the car prefers before the car lets you shut off engine (shift a gear or tap the brake, etc), but many cars let you just turn off the ignition by rotating the key while in motion, without any other input. It makes steering difficult since power steering is gone, but it's another way. Just keep driving straight while using brakes until it comes to a stop. Brakes may also be difficult too if it is power assisted/pressurized, so use the handbrake simultaneously with footbrakes if you need to, for maximum unpowered braking power... If key is stuck and no way to unstick by slipping foot under the gas pedal and prying it back up, shifting an automatic to neutral also works but it can cause the engine to over-rev, but modern engines have computers to limit the over-revving. Better the engine than your life... Over the years I've once abruptly turned off the ignition on both a 1994 Jeep and a 1998 Honda Civic on a quiet country stretch in a curiousity experiment, and as an emergency "EP practice" ...All while going the speed limit (80kph, or about 50mph). Also, at night, some vehicles will suddenly go completely dark (especially if you don't have day running headlights like in Canadian cars), so don't rotate completely, and maybe turn on your doorlight first. I highly recommend the "EP practice" -- do this once or twice in your lifetime -- turn off your ignition while you car is in motoin (do check for your car if it's safe to do so, and what you need to do first, such as shifting to neutral first, etc) That way, you know how your car behaves if you just turn off ignition while in motion. Empty country straightaway on a quiet summer day, or other safe area with clear visibility to horizon and good wide shoulders. Sudden engine failure, gas pedal problems, power steering failure, and you never know if you need to just flick your car "OFF" on a sudden without stopping first. (Incidentally, hypermilers use this technique called pulse-and-glide where glide is turning off the key while in Neutral to get maximum coast without using gas, but I don't do that -- I just use cruise control)

Let me throw in a perspective that was interesting and hasn't been mentioned often... I go to many events that Aerodyne attends. I'm still holding off buying an Aerodyne for a while until probably mid next year. (The World Team canopy catches my attention, need that 500-way invite first) In the meantime, I've been repeatedly demoing a Pilot 140 and 150 -- I must have jumped one of those a few dozen times over last two years alone! Probably 5+ different Pilot 140's/150's in varoius states of wear and tear. Various Pilot 140 and 150's - Opened ultra-soft and other times medium-hard (mostly packing) - Opened on-heading and off-heading (mostly packing) - Landed much nicer than my Sabre 170 (great new lines on a new canopy) - Landed much worse than my Sabre 170 (it was probably brake lines that was too long for me to have a good flare range) - Landed more slowly than my Sabre 170 (maybe line trim, and/or new 140 versus my older 170) - Landed faster than my Sabre 170 (maybe line trim, and/or old 140 versus my older 170) The difference appears to be chalked up to a lot of differences like lineset wear and tear (demos with new and old lines), number of jumps the demo had, flaring technique, packing technique, whether it was in my rig or a different rig, whether I landed it normally or double-front-risered it in. Bottom line.... The very same parachute is a totally different beast under different conditions and states. Don't judge a parachute just by a single assembly...

Thank you for attending this, Chris...

First time I did 30 minutes in one day, I was really sore! Now I can do up to 2 hours in one day, with no problems. Got about 15 hours tunnel time now. Last day I was in the tunnel, I did 1.5 hours over a compressed 5.5 hour period. It was modelled as 30 minute (2 minute fly, 2 minute rest) with 30 minute breaks in between. This pushed my limits a little, but I didn't have any lasting soreness except minor after the next day or two. You do get used to the tunnel. Do some warm-up exercises. If not reguarly exercise, target quite a few chest exercises and shoulder exercises, and back/arching exercises -- those help a lot to soften the impact. Even if you only do some light exercises, but exercising those muscles, even if just occasionally for the two weeks prior to the tunnel. If you intentionally let it go to the point where you are become slightly sore in exercises prior, and let it recover, then it's less likely to become sore when subjected to the exact same similiarly intense exercise one week later because it's more "in shape". Of course, do it carefully, especially verifying advice for your type of injury -- sometimes you need to stop taking it easy after the damage is healed enough, then you gotta use it to regain strength / regain range-of-motion / regain stamina. Which often means letting it hurt slightly from time to time, as a result of exercise. New, longer/stretched muscle fibers redevelop as a result, and then it stops hurting or hurts less during the next time you have the same amount of intensity of exercise. Recover (a day or few). Then push with more exercise. Rinse and repeat. Often need to let it become sore (carefully) to get more of your original physical state back into it. It depends on type of injury, mind you... Some are permanent, and some are fixable through good old simple exercise... Get advice from your MD, to verify your type of injury benefits from this. P.S. It took 6 months before my finger fully recovered from its limited non-painful range of motion. What I did was to not let that stop me, and let myself push the limits of range of motion from time to time in regular daily use (even opening the door of a car) and letting it hurt slightly rather than avoiding the pain completely. Gradually the range of motion and strength increased as the muscles redevelop. Now it's as if I've never injured the finger.

I'm rather curious -- would that be Don? Then again, I remember him having a shaved head. *staying out of politics, trying to distract this thread*

Everyone, Wow, so many family members! I have discs filled with digital photos of Rainbow Boogie 2006 and Rainbow Boogie 2009 -- some of Steve Harrington's photos are in there. If any family member wants them, please contact me at [email protected]. Many photos are large, so hard to email many of them at once but if any family members need access to them now for the service, they have all my permission to access the Rainbow Boogie 2009 Photos in the RainbowSkydivers Facebook Group. The postage is on me (free). Make sure you identify yourself when you email me... The DVD's are also available too... The DVD's weren't free though as they aren't created by me. I also can get skypeople.ca to create an extra copy of Rainbow Boogie 2006 DVD, and our editor girl to create an extra copy of the Rainbow Boogie 2009 DVD, though most of the footage is freefall based. (None of the money goes to me... ) ... I checked the content and they don't seem to show as much Steve as I hoped, but there's a little of him too. (Note -- Rainbow Boogie 2009 DVD's have not yet been shipped out, they are going to be shipped out in early December, on time for Christmas) Everyone, of course, is welcome to join all of us at Rainbow Boogie 2010 if they wish -- I don't know if this helps -- but something to keep in mind if any family wants to socialize with other RainbowSkydivers who spent time with Steve, too.

After being between jobs for a while, I now have contract software development for cellphones (BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, etc). It also means I get to travel too, as I work on contract outside of my hometown. And it pays for all the big way events and the tunnel time. Pay is excellent, work is okay on average -- sometimes fun, sometimes you get those deadline crunches. Self employment is good, but doing business taxes is dreadful, however - getting caught up on that after a period of no income.

The Emirati's might be paying a pretty penny to attract some unusual entertainment. They seem to be really big spenders there, in so many areas. Those who know what's going on in the UAE, especially Dubai, from the palm islands to the 818 meter Burj Dubai tower, nonwithstanding their current real estate crunch (so construction of everything have slowed down), they are still big spenders, big time... That said, make sure it's real -- $600 for meals/hotel/jumping all-inclusive for 12 days -- get the event verified from multiple sources. It looks pretty legit though, and the emails seem to lead to the Emirati's version of FAA.

On of our RainbowSkydivers booked airfare (Calen Chrzan) is flying in to be at the service. He attended both Rainbow Boogie 2006 and 2009, the events Steve attended as well.

I think the other DZO needs grimmie on speed dial. Thanks for the offer of hepling out...

Skulls-and-crossbones with a round parachute logo above it -- I'd say that it's probably going to be taken literally as if for every time the fire truck attended a skydiving fatality. Not nice. Still, unavoidably, I think the DZO should work on these matters, and still try to improve relations. A new government isn't going to be able to do much, anyway.

As there are no ride offers, probably because of the late time I am arriving -- I am about to rent a car. Let me know at [email protected] if you need a ride from the airport. On the same note, I'm willing to cover a large portion of your car rental costs if there are any last minute offers. See you there. Can't wait! (I'm still asking myself -- how did I make it into such a high end event as the Kaledioscope already! I'm glad I got 3 hours of 4-way tunnel time the prior weekend, to prepare me.)

In North American currency quotation, that's $230,000 USD. That'd make it the biggest prize pot ever for a parachuting event?

Three tunnels for one city is a lot though! Then again, skydiving has historically been pretty big in Russia, so in another way, not too surprising...

Yeah, could be an adolescent joke. The URL content has barely changed over the years. The content is quite 'pink-glitter' drag queen league stuff that doesn't reflect the Rainbow Skydivers as a whole, but we aren't offended, just don't like the assocation with an often-shady skydive booking agency that often in the past, historically google-outranked us... It is hosted on ASC website though since 2006 or sometime before then, as I've been paying attention to the URL from now and then. It appear to have embedded searcn-engine-optimization techniques that help it rank higher on Google. www - ascskydiving - com / gayskydiving.html [I will NOT to ever make this a clicky on the web.]

Taz, thank you -- I have mentioned your information in the RainbowSkydivers Facebook group.

LOL... Wish it did. Clicking the link won't affect my Google ranking. And hum, hitting on me, for that matter, won't help the website's Google Rank either... Posting and mentioning my site and link everywhere on the Internet, however will raise my rank as Google scans websites. Anyone is welcome to blog, tweet, post, or mention my site -- just don't even mention this 'other' one.

A 3G mobile broadband connection has become my primary Internet connection, because I go between Ottawa and Montreal so much these days, for a Montreal contract for a few months. It works great, and it's even enough for YouTube video, and works pretty well, but you wouldn't want to download too much. However, I have Ethernet hooks available at an office, and at home, as well as I have access to WiFi. That will take up the slack whenever I download lots of data. It's great to have "take anywhere" Internet, and 5 GB is really no concern since I can do my 'download surges' over WiFi... over 95% of the time, I don't need to download anything. You could also get two plans, such as a monthly unlimited WiFi plan at your favourite hotspots for the bigger downloads, and a 3G plan for the take-anywhere aspect. I recommend an Internet stick for fastest speeds, although some cellphones such as iPhone 3GS are pretty fast. Some cellphones only have up to 3.6 Mbps while sticks can go between 7.2 Mbps and 21 Mbps (albiet real world speeds will be roughly a quarter that, depending on where you are). You can move the SIM card between a stick and a cellphone too, if necessary, or you can have two SIM's to get 10 GB (5GB each), one for your cell and one for your Internet stick.

They've had this since I was advertising Rainbow Boogie 2006 and Rainbow Boogie 2009. I have tried to out-Google-rank ASC. My website is www.RainbowSkydive.com which links to our Twitter and Facebook pages, of which almost 100 RainbowSkydivers have joined now. It is #1 in the google search for "gay skydiving" in most contexts, but sometimes ASC still out-google-ranks me -- which is a damn shame, because some actually google search "gay skydiving" according to google analytics... Ideally, do not post their link, so that Google doesn't spider this page and re-ranks ASC a little higher because somebody posted ASC's link. One of us RainbowSkydivers, who was at Cross Keys, did his AFF at ASC (we jokingly/cordially make fun of that, but respect that he didn't know, and took up the hobby anyway). He's in the closet. But as a spy, he tells me that it's exaggerated advertising. There's nobody obviously on his gaydar at ASC, and this is just another way for ASC to advertise their skyride dropzone. ASC does, I believe, attract tandems from Atlanta gay pride -- at least that's what I heard. Phamphlets, cards, etc. I could be wrong though. Oh well. BSBD Steve Harrington, fly free... (He was one of us, by the way.)

No disagreement there. In a perfect, constant wind, a canopy will always fly straight ahead in its existing direction, regardless of wind direction, and never get deflected downwind. Total agreement to everyone (including billyvon) here. Moving along in perfect laminar-flow wind would be exactly the same as being exactly still; from a relative frame-of-reference perspective. But such 'perfection' never exists... ... BUT ... (and that's a whopper BUT) There's no perfectly constant wind. Even wind that looks constant to human eyes, can have imperceptible turbulence that's so soft you don't feel it, that will deflect your canopy by one millimeter, causing your heading to turn less than one degree downwind. In a 15-minute flight from full altitude, there might (or might not be) enough of this micro-level happening, to fully turn a canopy downwind. But as we all know, a random canopy flying on a hot day, flying straight over water, forest, asphalt, buildings, etc, will have VERY noticeable turbulence in the wind caused by the different updrafts causing the shear/gusts -- often as high as 3000 feet. On a hot day, there's likely enough turbulence in there, from unconscious flight 3000 feet down to 0 feet, to finish turning a student-size canopy fully to the full downwind direction. (Big canopies, such as student canopies, are where turbulence is REALLY felt during wind shear, gusts, updrafts, etc.) I'm now interested in the more academic stuff -- how does vertical differences (shear, updrafts, etc) versus horizontal differences in wind (horizontal gusts), affect uncommanded 'turning' behaviour... Or is it a plane of shear (i.e. wind layers, boundary layers of wind zones, etc) or a plane of pressure zones (i.e. updrafts, gusts) that has more of an effect on uncommanded turning behaviour? Obviously, if we want to get fully technical, we have to factor in assymetry here (like gusts being stronger at the left edge of your canopy than the right edge, or the updraft being stronger at one end than the other end, etc) which can counter-act the turning tendancy, but as a pratical matter, let's average the assymetry out, which probably brings us back to the simpler cases of shear zones and pressure zones...

That's what I see with my radio control airplanes -- the foamies tend to bank during the gust-up and un-bank during the gust-down. But now it's flying at a direction that's a few more degrees downwind. If I'm crabbing to the left, it'll deflect in the opposite direction than if I am crabbing to the right. It's clearly towards the downwind direction, obviously. It's very obvious when trying to fly crosswind, and I even noticed that once on my canopy too from a high-altitude "no-toggle-unstow" cross-country parachute flight. During the rare high-altitude turbulence I encountered, I felt a ever-very-slight bank downwind of my crosswind flight, opposite to my canopy's built-in natural turn (which is almost imperceptible, but opposite direction). I am thus led to believe, that it makes sense that *some* canopies in *some* cases, do have a tendancy to turn downwind in *some* meterological conditions... No evidence proves otherwise, lots of evidence proves so (especially including external evidence, such as flying radio-control) Pretty impressive. Would you agree that lighter aircraft are more easily deflected downwind by the gust/shear effect? Something I'd like to learn more about: What about wind layer shear (going through vertical differences in wind) versus gusts (going through horizontal differences in wind)? Maybe I need to clarify my terminology, because behaviour is different in these two cases. Does the turn towards downwind only happen during shear, or also gusts? Or to different extents? Computational fluid-dynamics on this could be very interesting! It would need to support shear layers "that moves up from below" (as you glide at a slope), and also support gusts, to test this out.

Before you speak too soon: I think have -- when I just relaxed on a 13500 hop-n-pop, and went through high-altitude turbulence layers without un-stowing my toggles. (I unstowed at about 6000 feet, high enough to take care of any mals that may arise from unstow) Have you let your canopy fly through wind layers/turbulence, while toggles are stowed? I noticed an approx 5-degree turn away from my upwind heading. That was a turn opposite of my canopy's super-tiny natural built-in turn (which is probably caused by millimeter differences in the line) I was only hovering my hands above my rear risers at the time so it was not affected by my hands, and the size of the canopy is a Sabre 170, which is more affected by turbulence than say, a Pilot 120 or a VX99 which a lot people here seem to have. Few people have the patience to keep toggles stowed for a while, due to the safety implications, and related reasons. (Cessna jump, only person in the air, great spot, so I had luxury to just relax my arms for a bit while looking around, and a pre-plan to unstow at 6K.) Non-unstowed toggles simulates an unconscious skydiver under a premature deployment or under an AAD fire; stowed toggles with absolutely no input. Students fly big canopies -- precisely the kind that are more easily deflected downwind by the micro-gusts I describe. [Edit: I created this thread, before billyvon and others split the topic from the incidents forum. Billyvon, please feel free to re-merge this into the main thread.]