Trae

in reply to "The young guns that have the “I know what I am doing” attitude haven’t seen their buddies bounce 4 feet off the ground and land in a heap." ......................................... Knocks the wind out of em when they do. .. perhaps a bit of sense as well but what a hard way to learn. A possible future for minimising canopy carnage might be to emulate the CRW pilots more so than the swoopers . Not as highly visible as swoopers, but they have a much wider skill set. These CRW canopy specialist guys fly meticulously matched wingloadings and standardised gear minimising undesirable canopy performance differences. General sport skydivers fly a smattering of .....whatever. As a highly refined (30 years of development) and therefore a less experimental facet of our sport than swooping , CRW offers a well trodden path without the same degree of carnage down the swooping lanes. CRW is also more of a team effort than swooping and teaches consideration of others which makes it less of a stunt and more of a sport. .

in reply to "Well if you have read this entire ramble of a post, I would appreciate any advice to help me overcome this. I really want to jump again, but I am abit concerned about this happening again. Any advice on learning more about landings without jumping so that I can jump again with some confidence would be appreciated. " ...................................... Practising slow motion PLF's while you are still nursing your hand can help you refine your falling over techniques. A padded floor helps . When steering/flaring the canopy, try drawing the toggles down towards your centre of mass(stomach) not parallel to each other. Practice it until it is natural for you . Then your arms wont tend to flail out in a crash. An important aspect of a moving PLF is to remember to swing into it a bit, not just crash straight in. The swing heaps spread the load as a PLF is designed to do. You can practice the swing bit without actually falling over. I've found imagining you are holding a fragile little bird in your hands while you practice a PLF can help feel what is happening during the fall and so help you control it.

in reply to "$10 he blames the "short recovery arc" of the Safire. " ................................. Now how do we get these slightly uneducated newish people to realise even Safire's are too hot for them ?

I think it a is a fair point you are raising. A dilemma?... probably not. On the one hand having an AAD can make you safer if it works when required. On the other hand having one may blinker you to some important safety lessons...eg you might not be quite as fast on your EP's cause you were not so thorough in your training as you would have been if you had no AAD..? Can you really act like it aint there? mainselling point for me? ..the versatile little gadget tries to save you from other peoples mistakes as well.

Hypothetically it would have humungous effects on the sport. How would mandated DZ's suck it up and get on with business. Tandems without AAD's, students relying on SOS, COD-impact. 1980's here we come We'd all have to get careful again.

in reply to "You said that you were grounded and there was no discussion. May I ask, did they try to teach you what went wrong or did you have to figure that part out for yourself? " .............................. I was grounded (a couple of times) for hook turning . The CI just said not to do it. This was on a F111 7cell 230. Slow motion compared to today but still heaps of fun. Got grounded by a good friend on his first official day as SO, by dumping at 1000' on the last load of the weekend at the end of a two week training camp. He apologised as he grounded me. People might not realise how low people used to regularly open. Above 2000' you were a dirty highpuller and not to be trusted . I've watched many a 4ways turning points below 2000' and done it myself. this was before turbine aircraft were prevalent in the sport and we often only got 9500'. We used to squeeze in as much freefall as we could . We knew we shouldn't do it and when we got caught we got grounded...sometimes the whole team sometimes just the lowest puller. They were right to ground us to maintain standards and perhaps save our lives. And yes we did work it out for ourselves eventually. Funny thing, I saw the same CI that had grounded me a few times for hook turning, decades later grinning away in the company of the swoopers he was judging. Their swoopy splashy crashes made my graceful spirals and slow flares look tame . Go figure

OK coreyangel I've reread exactly what you're after and will fess up. When I was young and stupid I was grounded about 5 times and disciplined otherwise on countless occassions. Even though I had done stupid stuff the person actually grounding me was always polite but firm, there was no discussion, just them telling me that I was grounded , usually immediately in front of the whole DZ. I never hurt any-one (including myself) during these incidents. The people grounding me knew what they were doing. I was being grounded to prevent injury to myself and others, and to NOT set a new standard of careless recklessness. On rare occassions verbal threats or actual physical contact occurred but more to assert dominance than to injure. These people had no DZ power to ground me If one of the highly experienced jumpers ever put me in my youthful place by chasticing or talking to me, it truly sunk in cause they rarely spoke to me. Just about every person that dished up rough love during my youth is high on my list of people I truly respect. They had the strength of character to say it how it was or at least how they saw it. Priceless . Without that type of truth, skydiving can easily become needlessly dangerous. Non- grounding discipline included cleaning out the peas , sweeping out the floors, (I refused to clean toilets except from a distance, with a hose), Sometimes I had to pack every parachute left unpacked at the end of a weekend . Over time there wasn't much about a DZ I didn't know from first hand tidying up. Gotta love a tidy DZ. My punishments had educated me. Sadly under the same treatment many friends went pioneer base jumping and got dead or injured out. Over time I've noticed a general reduction in disciplinary actions. The tactics of some have got a bit nasty at times. eg one little group that didn't like me tried to drug my beer . why? I had laughed at an AFF tape when I genuinely couldn't tell who was the student. Amoungst old friends? no worries , amoungst those newbies? end of their world.

in reply to "There are people that would say that Orla should have been grounded for a day. " ................................... One of the basic pursuits of skydiving is learning how to do it...continually......there is no point when you can say that you have really mastered this sport. I'd love some-one to stand up and say they have . I'd truly like to meet the fool. When people make mistakes generally the best thing is to encourage them to learn how to do it properly ie safely. Repeated mistakes of a serious enough nature require grounding so the person can learn lessons safely on the ground instead of not learning them dangerously in the air.... just like when we begin. My suggestion for your study is to explore the train of events that lead to an incident. Some people dodge the major problems and have long injury free experiences. Many others get injured out. some quickly, some drag it out for a while. Emulating the long term survivors may seem boring to some people but in my experience then they're dead or seriously injured....so ? are we learning in a professional or amateurish manner? The discipline after the incident is important but should focus on determining the cause of the incident and then eliminating the factors that led to that incident.

in reply to "I have a Javelin with puds for cutaway and reserve and have had no problem finding either of them on the 2 cutaways I have had. I also muscle-motor train under canopy to find both handles after I have loosened my chest strap by climbing the MLW from my hip rings if I ever need to cutaway once under a fully functioning wing. The Javelin puds have a metal barrel within which makes them more solid, I have a black and red jumpsuit so my handles are orange. " ..................................... Thats great, glad it works for you. I'm thinking its not for everyone though. Slimming down emergency handles, taking away thumb purchase for what reason? opposed thumbs are an evolutionary advantage we should use especially in an emergency. I'm wondering how many people have been killed by the slippery little pretty puddy things. I'm going with Sparky on this one and convert my rig to a decent cutaway handle too ....thanks.

in reply to "The DZOs would each have a login and this is tagged to each entry they make in the database by default. In the event of a dispute they're the ones making the call and presumably have the reasons typed out there for all to see. Noone is suggesting it's a single 'ban this guy!' field. Transparency would have to be a big part of it though. " .......................................... There's a bit of a precedent for this type of networked record taking/sharing . Not sure if it happened in your part of the world but during the mid to late 80's base jumping skydivers were put on a register and banned from skydiving in Australia. It was fairly effective at keeping people out of the sky but created a lot of distrust for quite a while. It also taught a heavy disregard for authority. Many otherwise harmless skydivers were victimised and hounded by the powers that be. These same "powers that be" also readily grounded people for doing hook-turns , dumping low , and often for no apparent reason other than the CI didn't like the young wild ones. One stormy evening our CI's diary somehow came to be in our hands for perusal . It was amazing what this guy had written about everyone who had ever visited the DZ. It was like a gestapo hit list with totally outrageous assumptions about people's character. We had the funniest time seeing what had been written about ourselves. This same CI who had hounded and grounded me and my mates for hook turning 7cell F111 230's happily oversaw the canopy carnage of the 90's and 00's as a safety officer and elder in the sport. Snoring and dribbling at the wheel this guy was. If there's gunna be a database for bozo's then hopefully the bozo's won't be running it.

in reply to "I have one stuck that way too, but don't have the tools to try and fix it. " ................................... After some messy emailing attempts Alti-2 have replied and reuested I send the unit in for repairs . ...so no easy fix but some small joy ....as for $$$ no answer yet.

in reply to ".....and think I may have managed to hook myself up with a free logo canopy. " .............................................. Nice one. perhaps your company would be better served if you had a full-timer jumping the logo. Better yet, perhaps your company/manager could see the benefits of sponsoring a team, As he has asked for a quote , perhaps give him a few options at the top end of the scale as well as the bottom. Win win

in reply to "I'm sure Alti-2 would love to sell you a N3" ............................................. If the trade in price was good I'd be interested. otherwise ...I've always wondered what was inside the thing, got the tool and the gravity just have to let go and find out .

in reply to ".. don't believe they can fix it if you dropped the hammer. " .................................. Its sad I'm bad and want to smash it cause it doesn't work.

in reply to "I believe that the answer is that it is stuck in boot loader mode. I have one stuck that way too, but don't have the tools to try and fix it." ........................................... Good possibility by the sounds. Amazing how such complicated little things have such few controls :( Back to a reliable and highly visible non-digital alti for me ,

Thanx Left them a message.

I've just replaced the battery in a Neptune (1) but it is now bleating at me quietly every 8 seconds or so and refusing to do anything else. Nothing happens when buttons are pressed/held/cajoled except for continued beeping Do I bin it or is there an easy fix?

First paid packer I saw was myself . $2 student cheapo packs early 80's. me and a couple of mates couldn't believe they would let us pack these things starting on our second weekend in the sport. We'd know which student was using who's pack job and watch the low SL exits closely, hardly beliveing they were going to open ok. The mistakes we made hurt no-one and I never got to see a cheapo mal ever. An eye opener much later was watching the base rig packers at Kjerag heli-boogie . once again not a mal in sight

in reply to "So I was enjoying the sun and took a long walk.....and the more i thought about it.....the more i actually find myself regretting the decision to buy, putting a down payment, on the AAD. Any one else feel this way? " ............................................ Sure . I was happily enjoying my jumping sans AAD . I wasn't enjoying the 5hour+ drive to a non AAD DZ when 3 AAD DZ's were an hours drive. I was spending way more on travel/accomodation than jumping. Now an AAD looks like an investment to save me money in the long run , not cost me,.. added bonus it might even save my life one day or kill me. Whats NOT to like?? Loss of freedom of choice? thats where the regret sneaks in. I can see people not learning stuff skydivers used to take for granted. I hope I never expect my new AAD to save my life cause I know that means I'm not paying enough attention.

in reply to "Simple answers would be appreciated - I'm just the drogue chucker in the back who doesn't want to fight my way out of an aircraft that has been 'compromised'. ................................. Would it be better for you in a 172 if the wingsuiters got out after you ? I'm thinking yes..... ...otherwise if poised the wings are much more likely to catch air inadvertantly. A 45degree dive followed by a left turn into relative air works for me.

I reply to "f people want to jump at sites with super strong thermals and wind concentration due to mountain topography(?), there is a cliff(1224m elevation...over 1000m usable with good wingsuit flight) in India I visited in 07, where at any point during a sunny day(except dawn and dusk), water poured over the edge makes a U-turn in front of our eyes and disappears skyward. There is a video of this online somewhere. " ...................................... Nice pick up. One possible future of wingsuiting would see us accessing sites like this during ideal conditions specifically to catch those thermals/updraughts. For this to work the updraughts would have to be nice and steady and well spread over a large area. Hopefully the out would be a nice calm valley to fly down into and land. Wingsuiting 2050? India leading the way

Another realisation.... I checked and couldn't find a skydiver under thirtyfive who even knew who Johnathon is. please newbies , read some Richard Bach (best to start at the beginning) and stop crashing through the rocks in such a pointless hurry. ..er.. sorry.. whatever you do DON'T read Richard Bach and keep crashing pointlessly into the ground and each other.

I can see your confusion, Slow down = speed up OR Slow up = speed down to land slower you speed up. In this world yes means no, slow is fast , there is no death.. ..... it all makes perfect sense....such a brilliant distortion of reality subconscious payback for reverse psychology upbringing ?

in reply to "We (cameramen) are hired to make the "student" the Star, not ourselves, not the TM or I's ," ................................... It is possible if the TM and camera person work well together, to make the TM almost anonymous and semi-invisible. Some of the best tandem videos I've seen make it look the TM is just part of the equipment. It is the passengers special day , often the achievement of a life long dream, something not to be messed with by unpro bozos. As for the titty touchers .......name and shame.

Some of us slow down before we stop not after. heck even aircraft do it ,..... but skydivers speed up for landing???