Eule

I have always thought that would be a really cool idea. Except the having to pay $200+ part. I just can't bring myself to spend that much on a prank. I think I heard this on Skydive Radio. Situation: Whuffo (initially) guy has a sister (living in another city) who flies a jump plane. Unknown to her, he takes the FJC and gets his A license. He visits the DZ she flies for and arranges to take an "observer ride" (with rig). He watches the two or three other jumpers go (182) , hollers at his sister "Hell, that looks easy!" and dives out the door. She lands the plane and is alternately ready to hug him and kill him when she finds out what's going on. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The site has been updated. There are 185 dropzones listed. I added the ones posted by johndyer, Chrisky, and CygnusX-1. Apparently Canada is thawed out enough to jump, because I got several for Alberta in PMs, which I also added. I recently got a new job and had a project with a short deadline, which is why updates have been somewhat slow. The project is done, so I should be able to update the site more often now. For those of you just tuning in, I am collecting all of the files posted in this thread and putting them online here. At that site, you can also download one file that contains all of the dropzones that have been posted so far. Keep those cards and letters coming! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I did a search for my own posts and all of them in that date range seem to have reappeared. As far as I can tell, it's working correctly now. Thanks! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

AIRSHOW TOO Uh, I thought I mentioned the airshow. Am I confused? Or is all that smoke (from demo jumps or otherwise) getting to your brain? Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

If you think about it a little, this makes good sense. With that many hotties on the plane, there was probably enough "extra altitude" to get the plane up into the flight levels, and it's _cold_ up there! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

No that leads to sprained and broken ankles when you hit the sides of the pit. Line it with some plastic or other weed control. It sounds like it might be more accurately described as a "pea pile" rather than a "pea pit" - in other words, you lay the plastic (or equal) right on the ground with no digging, then put the gravel on top of the plastic. The pile has a depth of 1.5 feet in the center and maybe tapers down to the edges? I can see where if you dug out a cylinder that was 1.5 feet deep everywhere, it'd be easy for somebody to get tripped up if they landed near the edge. The only other way that seems to make sense is the bowl idea, but it seems like you could still get a surprise around the edges where the gravel isn't as deep. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I thought one of the small, production (not necessarily current production) Cessnas did qualify for LSA. Clearly it's not the 152; do any of them qualify? Eule (edited to fix broken markup tag) PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I agree with this. Some mechanical engineers spend a lot of time trying to reduce the number of moving parts in a machine - the moving parts are more complex, more expensive, and more likely to break. It used to be a common phrase in advertisements to say "no moving parts" or "only two moving parts" or whatever. A bone does move some in normal living but not nearly as much as a joint does. This depends a lot on the specific injury, but if a bone - especially one of the long skinny ones in an arm or leg - gets broken, it's often possible to splint it with a plate or rod and the bone will naturally grow back together. If a joint gets screwed up, it's more likely to get replaced with hardware. The hardware is good, but it's usually never quite as good as the original equipment. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Before I started jumping, I used to wear the over-the-ankle type boots a lot. Right before I started jumping, I found out about snag points, and also needed new boots. I couldn't find any over-the-ankle boots locally that didn't have at least one pair of lace hooks at the top. I ended up getting some Red Wing 8668 "boots", but they are really more like a slightly taller tennis shoe. It's hard to tell from the picture, but the top three pairs of metal things that the laces go through are full loops, not hooks. I've worn them for 50+ jumps so far and they seem to do OK. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I suspect a crappy parser... Looking at the ad that phoneixlpr originally posted, I get the same thing - no thumbnail, but when you click on it, you get the full-size image. I did a right-click and "save as" on that image and got a file named "ben under canopy.jpg". Linux file(1) says $ file ben\ under\ canopy.jpg ben under canopy.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, comment: "AppleMark" and it would be fun to blame it on the Mac, but I looked further. The same seller currently has another ad with a picture, but the thumbnail for that picture displays OK. Full-size, right-click, save as yields "IMG_1482.jpg". file(1) says $ file IMG_1482.jpg IMG_1482.jpg: JPEG image data, JFIF standard 1.01, comment: "AppleMark" So it may not be the file format. One obvious difference is that the first one has spaces in the file name, and the second one does not. That would be enough to throw off a parser that was written by someone who wasn't thinking clearly. It should be simple to test. (Probably one of the classifieds editors should do this so they can quickly delete the test ads.) Take any random photo and copy it to two filenames, one with a space in the name and one without. Make one test ad with one photo and another test ad with the other. If the thumbnail doesn't show up for the one with spaces in the filename, there's your answer. If this is the problem, the Right Way[tm] to fix it is to make the parser not suck. (It probably would take adding exactly two ' characters in the right spot.) The other ways to do it are to somehow stick a shim in between the user form and the classifieds software to rename the file to something without spaces in the name, or to put up a notice on the place-an-ad form that says "don't use filenames with spaces". Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Well, I didn't say he should do his first solo cross-country to OSH. A n00b might not be all that comfortable with two planes landing on the same runway at once. :) I just figured that there are lots of ways to work in the aviation business, and you could find out about a lot of them in one place in Oshkosh. Also, he doesn't appear to be that far away (~6 hours by car.) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Usually then, yeah. If it's not cold, you might arrange for it to get iced down sometime before the last load or so. If you live in a theocracy (like Oklahoma) where you can't get real beer on Sunday, one trick is to bring your case of real beer, but keep it hidden in your car on Saturday. Everyone will drink up all the real beer on Saturday night, and then on Sunday afternoon, start complaining about having to drink 3.2 beer that evening. Let 'em sweat a little, then go get the case out of your car. Everyone will love you. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

You might look into the size of the available clock mechanisms. The common ones are almost as big as the body of a Galaxy and might not fit, but you can probably get smaller ones. Go to any craft or hobby shop and they should have clock mechanisms, hands, etc both separately and in sets. (Extra points for installing just the hour hand.) This is not a recommended method, but given a loose wrist strap and luck, a standard taxiway seems to take apart an Altimaster pretty well. If you want a really big wall clock, the templates that Alti-2 provides might be helpful. The Photoshop ones (PSD) are raster, not vector, but the resolution is fairly high, so you can blow them up quite a bit before the jaggies appear. Gimp also understands the PSD templates. For sizes up to maybe a foot or so, you could get it color laser printed at Kinko's or similar for a couple of bucks. Bigger than that and you probably have to use a big inkjet plotter, which will be a little more expensive. Rolling your own should be restricted to making one for yourself. If you're going to sell them, you need to talk copyrights and trademarks with Alti-2. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Cessna 182 (1959 B model, straight tail) Cessna 182 (slightly later mid-60s model) Cessna 206 (mid-60s model) Cessna Caravan DeHavilland Canada DHC-6 Twin Otter Go me! Probable forthcoming additions to the list are a King Air and a Skyvan. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The site has been updated. There are 178 dropzones listed. Disodium provided the (and second) entry for Idaho, and skydave238 provided the one for Namibia. The entry for Ohio was sent via PM. I got a new one from Australia and also corrected the location of an Australian DZ - the marker on the map was in the right place, I just had it listed in the wrong place in the index. Keep those cards and letters coming! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I'm not a pilot, but I've sat right next to one several times... :) I've also looked into it, briefly, and here is what I think I know: First off, I agree with riggerrob. The first thing is your medical. Talk to a couple of local flight schools to find out about the doctors in your area, then go see one. If you can't get an FAA medical, you can't get the kind of pilot's license that would eventually allow you to make money. If you just want to fly for fun, there is a new-ish thing called "Light Sport Aircraft" that is supposed to be a little easier to get into. The medical is kind of like a skydiving waiver - basically you sign a piece of paper that says "I certify that I'm not going to drop dead while I'm flying." You are restricted to small airplanes (like a two-seater Cessna 152) and daytime flying in good weather, but you can get in the air. I'm pretty sure that an LSA license doesn't let you do anything for hire, though. The FAA has some info on their Web site about becoming a pilot. Some flight schools have an "intro flight" for $75 or $100 that is kind of the same idea as a tandem - you go up with an instructor and he shows you what being a small plane is like. (If you've jumped, you already know some of this.) Another idea is to go to your local general aviation airport and find out where the pilots hang out and talk to them. The jump pilot at your DZ might be able to give you his or her perspective, and introduce you to other local pilots. Sometimes a group of people form a club and jointly buy a plane or two - you probably won't be able to get flight instruction through them, but they do tend to have meetings occasionally, which might be an opportunity to talk to some local pilots. The Experimental Aircraft Association has local chapters; going to a meeting locally might be another good way to find a nest of pilots. The EAA also puts on the big fly-in and airshow in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, which is happening a little later this summer; you're not that far away and I'm sure you could find out all kinds of stuff about becoming a pilot up there. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I agree that this would be a good idea. You can get this information from other sources (for instance AirNav in the US), but it'd be nice to have it right there on the DZ information page. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I could be wrong, but I've heard that what's required to be in the "book" has changed over the years - mostly that older aircraft were not required to have as much information in the book. I don't know if it was a big change or a more gradual thing, but I get the impression that sometime before the 1970s, much less information was required. This might only apply to "small" aircraft, like ones with

The site has been updated. There are 173 dropzones listed. I added masterblaster72's entry for Cross Keys, NJ, plus one in Texas and one in Germany that were emailed to me. For those of you just tuning in, I am collecting all of the files posted in this thread and putting them online at the above site. At that site, you can also download one file that contains all of the dropzones that have been posted so far. Keep those cards and letters coming! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Well, I'm writing this early Sunday morning, so hopefully you've made your first jump (or two) already. Looks like the weather was great today. I live in Tulsa and usually jump at OSC, but this weekend I'm out of town visiting relatives. Several of the "regulars" out there are from the OKC area. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I think a key question here is: how much mass and/or friction can you add to the rotating assembly of the tetrahedron before it affects the performance? If the tetrahedron is light enough and has enough spare torque, how about permanently coupling (no clutch) a permanent magnet DC motor to the tetrahedron shaft. If the motor is open circuit the shaft freewheels. Hit the motor with DC of one polarity to go clockwise and the other polarity to go counterclockwise. Short the motor leads and it acts as a brake. I think the power supply needs to stay next to the motor, like a deep-cycle RV battery next to the tetrahedron, or a power supply off of a nearby 120 V AC line. A little box next to the motor with relays in it does the switching, and a low-voltage cable (direct bury phone wire, or sprinkler system wire, or similar) runs back to manifest where the control panel is. The control panel has a toggle switch for free/controlled and two pushbuttons for CW and CCW. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

No, I don't. It wasn't in the 2006 safety meeting numbers and I couldn't find it elsewhere on the DFV site. Just going by the number of jumps and accidents reported for 1995-2005, I would guess something like 300,000 to 310,000 jumps in 2006. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

300 m is the figure in the original report. I gave an inaccurate conversion - it should be 900 feet, not 1200. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

That's about the same thing that happened to me. It was early (less than 10 jumps, maybe?) and I had a (spring) pilot chute over. My inspection of the canopy after opening was maybe not all it should have been and I didn't notice what had happened. I did notice when doing the controllability checks that it wanted to turn and I had to hold down one of the toggles about a foot to get it to fly straight. I could turn further that way by pulling down on that toggle some more, and I could turn the other way by letting that toggle all the way up and then pulling down the other one, so I deemed it "steerable" and landed it. The freefall had gone pretty well and I was feeling satisfied. I landed a little further away from the hangar than usual and someone came to get me on the golf cart and asked if I had noticed the pilot chute over, which I hadn't. The DZO was waiting for me at the hangar, which is never a good sign. :) I was asked "Why didn't you chop?" and replied that it was square, stable, and steerable, so I went with it. Once I explained how I was steering it, I think they understood why I didn't chop it, but we did have a good discussion on how much turning a canopy should do by itself before you suspect a problem (answer: less than I thought). Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

This or this or this might be a direct link. The second one works better for me, but your mileage may vary. Neither of the available formats gives a very big picture. Also, I'm pretty sure this is the "Winter Outdoor Games", not the Winter Olympics. :) The only article I could find quickly says this is a new event for 2008. Eule (edit: fixed link, added link) PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.