sraja

I remember, my first car was a http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.carsonhire-india.com/images/cars/maruti-van.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.carsonhire-india.com/budget-car-rental-delhi-taxi-rentals-in-india.html&h=135&w=186&sz=9&hl=en&start=1&sig2=BEgvOYDIYVJc4r_JjFBA1w&um=1&tbnid=uwt_zSGatOhQtM:&tbnh=74&tbnw=102&ei=EImJR4_9MYuGetKHsNoO&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmaruti%2Bvan%26svnum%3D10%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1B2GGGL_enUS177US177%26sa%3DN Maruti Omni Van. I thought it was a pretty safe car until I saw my friends dead body after an accident in one of them. The driver and the front passenger are right up against the windshield, like in a bus. So there is no layer of protection in a head on collision. Secondly small wheels means more likeliness to skid or roll over. Worst of all, in a head on collision, the steering wheel will pop out into the drivers face. Regardless, safe or not, I continued to drive that vehicle until the wheels came off - simply because getting from A to B was a greater concern than getting from A to B safely. Having lived in the US for 7+ years, my perception of safety is radically different. Now when I visit India I rarely drive preferring to employ a chauffeur when I visit India.

The speed limit within cities is limited to 20 - 25 mph, not because of regulation but because of congestion. However there are crazy people who will drive these at 40-50mph when given the opportunity (read as an empty lane or empty road). The safety standard in India is negotiable - if you understand that in a third world terminology. Unlike in the west, safety of a vehicle is not a big concern for people in India - reliability and durability are. For instance, 99.99% of people driving cars in India don't wear seat belts, over 50% don't wear helmets when driving motorcycles - these risks are acceptable to them - just like jumping out of planes is an acceptable risk to us. People will take these cars out on the highways and if indeed these cars are plied as taxicabs they will be used for long distance trips across cities. That is where the greatest risk is - collision with lorries and trucks. I would probably bet that the car and its passengers would be flattened in a head on collision with a 5 ton truck traveling at 55mph. But in the context of Indian people - that is an acceptable risk for the comfort of traveling in a vehicle with 4 seats and 4 doors.

I have lived in India for 21 years - I predict this car will sell millions overnight. A good motorcycle costs $2000 in India and can transport 2 safely, 5 illegally. Every person who has a family of 4 and is looking to purchase a motorcycle is now going to pony up the extra $500 and gain the ability to transport his / her entire family to dinner, outings etc. Not to mention the numerous auto-rickshaw drivers - this now makes it affordable for them to transform into taxi cab drivers. Which is actually better from a pollution perspective. The autorickshaws operate using a 2 stroke engine and poor maintenance in these means excessive emissions. An affordable four stroke car that meets Euro 4 standards could make such autorickshaws obsolete all together. The biggest area of concern is going to be safety - I bet the car wont even get half a star in western safety ratings (all passengers in this car would be killed in a collision) and probably seat belts are optional too. In India safety expectations are much lower than western countries. But that shouldn't matter much to the Indian consumer who risks his / her life in anyway they travel the road.

N10EA at SDC has got two new PTA-34 engines. Climb to altitude is approx. 10-11 mins (same as a PAC) - next year N30EA will have the same engines with 4 blade props for extra performance

Skydive Chicagoland in Hinckley

Here is a story about a hook knife "saving" someone A late evening cessna load was taking off at a major mid-western DZ - 1 pilot, 2 RW jumpers and an AFF student and his instructor. At altitude the first RW jumper exits uneventfully and the second RW jumper climbs out onto the strut - ready..set..go..... and the plane banks to the right all of a sudden The pilot looks out and the jumper is nowhere to be seen but something isnt right as the plane is in a hard tug to the right. The pilot glances out further and starts laughing. The "booties" of the RW jumper are stuck on the strut and the jumper is hanging upside down. The fellow AFFI grabs his "plastic" hook knife and starts sawing away at the booties. Just as he cuts away an inch the hook knife breaks and he stares at his hook knife and then shows the same to the pilot. Both of them break out in hysterical laughter - the AFF student too starts laughing. Meanwhile the RW jumper is wiggling, jiggling and trying all kinds of stunts to free himself. Luckily for him a bit of the blade is still left on the hook knife - the AFFI finally succeeds in sawing away the booties and the jumper is free to go - dont know if he made it back to the DZ on that spot though Now the above is true but it is 3rd hand information passed down to me and I remember to check that the pilot has access to a hook knife every time I jump with my RW suit out of the cessna.

Its a good DVD - you'll learn a lot from it. Pro-pack, Psycho-pack and Flat-pack - look for the others in the special features sections

Anyone tally the incidents yet? Within US and outside US? Fatal / Non-fatal? Just curious since 2006 was projected to be a record year with very low number of incidents at least within the US. I wonder if airplane crashes will skew the number significantly this year - or will they be excluded from the list? I would presume that incidents of airplane crashes need to be excluded unless the airplane was on a skydiving run. On the other hand - should we count any active USPA members whom we have lost (plane crash or otherwise) in the incident tally?

You can download it for free from skydivingmovies.com - go check the section called TV & Movies and its there - 2 parts

Not sure if you are aware but a lot of the SDC crew will be down at Skydive Sebastian between Dec 26 and Jan 6th. You can continue your AFP there but please check with manifest and your instructors regarding this. I know Rook will be there but not sure if he will be able to complete your AFP - you can ask him though.

Casual visit there - loved it. Been to other skyventure tunnels elsewhere in the country but I have to admit that Las Vegas was equally good. A bit hot inside the tunnel but nothing unbearable. Thanks to Topher and Alex and the girls at the reception.

Is there any kind of pro-active physical exercise or training one can do to strengthen these muscles and reduce the possibility of a shoulder dislocation?

Just watched it. Nice, nice, nice...

It is normal. I felt the same way for my first 80 jumps. You'll get over it with experience and regain it with everything new you try in the sport e.g. Your first few freefly jumps, your first few wingsuit jumps etc.

Maybe a side track - but didn't some famous canopy pilot from Tennessee flying a VX 29 also induce tremendous G spins "under a canopy" that he was unconscious and also slow down to a speed that his AAD did not fire? Not sure of the exact facts but I thought this was the gist of the incident. Point I am trying to make is, it isn't only wing suit pilots who can experience such problems but also people under canopy.

Are you talking about So Cal?

California or Mexico (Ixtapa)

I just saw some of those and I would applaud him for being brave about his life but at the same time it makes me re-evaluate why I jump out of a plane (and the people I jump with). I have heard of another instructor who took a person on a head down jump and had a similar accident - unfortunately (or fortunately - depending on your perspective) he is no more. I cant imagine (and I sincerely pray it never happens) a life for myself where it takes 10 minutes to get out of bed.

There is a lesson to be learnt in this video - does anyone know if this jumper is ok now and jumping again?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7c4r3N5KqU&mode=related&search= On a fun note - this is an amazing skydiving video - once again, does this jumper post on dropzone.com?? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HB4uLm2wKNg

Green card holders actually. I am told that Green card is sufficient to compete and win a medal

For what its worth - my first cutaway was at jump #13 - I felt similar to what you have described here but my instructor made sure I got back on the plane and made my do my first hop and pop from 4000 on the next jump. Once you get back in the air - you will (barring anything out of the ordinary) be fine.

So with all of the above folks probably taking "passengers" even before the dual harness system - would it be right to say that tandem parachuting was in works even before Bill and Ted came along and improved it by million-fold???

Question - wasn't early tandem experiments done by stuffing 2 people in a single rig? I mean by putting the chest strap around two people and the leg strap around 2 legs? I remember reading somewhere that some french dude did this with a tiny girl as initial experiments in tandem parachuting. Some old timer could perhaps shed some light on this??

Norman Kent Rook Nelson

For those who are perplexed by the fear of no-wind landings, let me try to put it in some context - since I was one of those scared of such landings not long ago. I am not claiming to be an expert but simply sharing some of the fears I had earlier. It boils down to the following 1. High speed on final approach - many newbies haven't learned to finish their flare, hence still retain a considerable amount of their forward speed creating a huge ground rush scenario 2. No wind days are sometimes the hottest days as well - creating thermals - resulting in a bumpy, high speed ride which isn't exactly appreciated by all skydivers 3. I still hadn't learned to butt slide, and even then didn't want to butt slide (blame an earlier botched tail bone for this). And no matter how much I PLFed, I was still being dragged by the canopy after touching down. I hated that 4. Some people have sensitive ankles, knees - you name it. And if they cant run it out or appropriately arrest their forward speed, it isn't going to be too pleasant. 5. As a newbie, I found myself overshooting my targeted spot - this could create an unpleasant scenario if you had a tight landing area to begin with - you could find yourself on the runway, near trees or corn. This goes away with experience but several newcomers are not yet skilled to adjust their patterns on the go according to wind conditions. Hope the above makes some sense