Legs

You have to have BPA membership to Jump anywhere in the UK. Unless you are a foreign national jumping on your home liscence I believe. Regards With love in Christ

Ounce for ounce or pound for pound - both muscle and adipose tissue (fat) weigh the same.

Refferal - others I know had done a jump at my now home DZ. Theirs was a one off ......... I'm still here. With love in Christ

Welcome Steve, You'll have to pop over and try some of the UK DZ's. Cheaper flights / travel than florida but I cant say much about the weather. Welcome to the sport anyway

Time to change your DZ. The club atmosphere at my DZ is likely to get you a cheap plane ride especially if your reluctant after your first chop. Your DZ doesnt sound like a fun place to be when the DZO wants you to think about the cost implications before chopping on his DZ. With love in Christ

Wayne, If you feel bad about this you can pop down to Headcorn on the weekend and put a crate of beer in the fridge. I'm sure there will be no arguments. With love in Christ

Karen Ear wax doesn't cause eustachian tube malfunction. Rather, as we get older some people do tend to produce more of the stuff. As we know wax can cause an air tight seal. If you put your finger in your ear and mimic this seal you can feel the effect of unequal pressure. If this 56 year old gentleman has problems in this regard it could be easily solved. That was my only point. Softening the ear wax with the appropriate softening drops can allow wax to drain more effectively. As health care proffesionals we are prone to seeing the most serious complaints when simple issues are present. I was merely starting at the beginning and not jumping to rumptured tympanic membranes. I do support your view that if these symptoms are not resolved with the suggestions I made that a specialists opinion be sought. off the subject slightly, why in the US do you make things so complicated "Otolaryngologist" in england we call this Ear Nose and Throat specialist (ENT). congratulations on your degree With love in Christ

Just to give you some assurance of my credentials - I am a registered nurse with some 25 years service, both military and public health service (UK). Now.... This problem you have with your ears.....Does it happen when swimming also (diving too)? Does it happen on airline flights?....How old are you? Do you get nasty sinus infections frequently (Colds in the head)? The cause of difficulty in equalising pressure are many. The simplest ones to resolve can be ear wax, then its just ear drops for 2 weeks, inflammation... then NSAID drugs like Brufen would help as well as sudofed etc. Sinusitis can be longer term and may require anti-biotics. The easiest way of checking is to go through the first two options as both are available over the counter. If you still have an issue you may need to get your ears looked at by an ENT specialist. I don't know the route for this in the US. One other question. While in the plane and again post freefall do you equalise? Divers learn this skill as the pressure differences increases more rapidly. Some people equalise the presures between inner ear and the atmosphere by wiggling their lower jaw, others by holding their nose closing their mouths and blowing into their head known an valsalva manouver (avoid blowing too hard in your excitment). I only ask because if you are not equalising pressures and walking around with different pressure in your ear this may cause an extended problem. I hope this is of some help With love in Christ

Sorry I'm going to suggest something you may not like. Im saying it for all the right reasons. You have an excuse for every piece of advice given to you here. To me it seems like a simple issue to fix and Im a relative novice too. My suggestion is..... it may be a bit early to downsize at the moment. If you are not used to a control check after opening, especially when your jumping a rig for the first time. If you can't open a visor with your toggles in your hand or demist specs etc. Now is the time to speak with your senior instructor and get some advice. Downsizing is not the right thing to do. Good luck and a long skydiving career With love in Christ

Dont get a divorce, thats more expensive than membership. Trust me, I know....... Now moving to the US mmmmmmm With love in Christ

Good point, well made I can't see an out to this. With love in Christ

I agree BIGWAY, Although I feel the people in the thread are misunderstanding the difference between third party liability insurance, which each member of the BPA enjoys and Personal accident cover. Personal insurance to help you manage after an accident. I dont want the comment on the current claims. But on the effect of each skydiver purchasing their own cover for personal accident (as well as the third party cover included in the BPA membership) With love in Christ

This is interesting. I wonder if there was a compulsion to have personal accident insurance. The financial motivation for litigation will reduce, thereby reducing the number and size of litigous claims? To this end I encourage everyone to look into personal accident cover. There's what seems to be a good advert for one such policy in the Mag this month. With love in Christ

excuse me if I dont rush back with the full facts. I believe I know the facts but they are are subject to legal action. A fact is that at least one of these is a collision in freefall. I suspect what drives the legal actions is not the sense that anyone was guilty and the other partys innoccent, but financial recompense is being claimed against the clubs, due to innability to work and lack of personal injury insurance. If after you have an accident, you will need financial support to live, then please get personal injury insurance, dont count on the third party liability insurance to sue your club / fellow skydivers with. Just my view With love in Christ

You to huh With love in Christ

I note there are two claims that are driving up the insurance this year. Both are experienced skydivers sueing other skydivers. I think this should be banned. We take part in a high risk sport. Sh1t happens. If you want financial recompense in the case of an accident you should have personal extreme sport cover, or hope to sell your video to the highest bidder. edited to add "experienced" With love in Christ

I think this is a great idea. If a research project was done, maybe enough evidence could be given to the sport to standardise exit order, and educate regarding exit seperation, as well as many more areas of safety. Who's gonna fund it? Or is there people out there willing to share raw data with the site so it can be accumulated / studied. I should imagine we would need quite a bit of data to make it worthwhile some ideas may be: 1.wind speed and direction both at altitude and on ground 2. Run in speed and direction 3. Position of skydiver / group in freefall ie flat / head down 4. No. of people in group 5. Planned Break off height 6. Planned pull height 7. then all the GPS data to match that jump. 7. Height of full deployment. Is anyone in a position with a good database to do this easily? Is anyone already doing it? This has the potential of changing the face of skydiving. With love in Christ

If a young novice skydiver posts a question that has been asked and answered 100 times on the forum, is it right to refer him to a search engine and discourage discussion with his peers by locking the post? I would love to start a poll to take a general feeling on this issue but am concerned that it will be taken as an insult by the mods. I do feel that if you prevent conversation on a matter of safety in an area you entitle safety & training, you have to be very sure that the individual who is exploring this subject (and his peers who are to afraid to ask the same question in fear of a snub by experienced skydivers) have resolved their questions fully. I know immediatley that I will be told one should read before asking and I can't agree more. If however someone does ask I think an appropriate response should be. The post shouldnt be locked. If people do not want to talk about it, it will drop down the ranking very rapidly. Once on the 3rd, 4th, 6th page etc I'm sure the mods can do housework now and again and delete repetative posts. My fear is that someone relatively new will not bother to ask a crucial question because of an assumed snub by moderators. And before you say it, I know you didnt mean it as a snub, but that is how it reads like it or not. Sorry to have a whinge but I feel this is important and even a safety issue. Regards Graeme With love in Christ

Do you want to link to in here? So us newbys can find it? With love in Christ

Interesting that your search came up with 244 posts and you say response is underwhelming. Reading through some of them, there are alot of valid reasons for a UK area. My main reason for asking is the difference in UK regs. In the main board we get experience telling that A B or C is the right thing to do when the BPA regs do not allow this and D would be more appropriate under the UK regs and systems. I would go so far as to say that safety and training at least should have regional specific areas. Of course we can learn from each other and a general board is helpful, but there should be somewhere that references against the regulations we jump by. Just a thought With love in Christ

Could a section be put in for UK skydivers in the international section? I think it would be helpful when discussing issues specific to the UK BPA rules etc With love in Christ

Tom I jump in the UK and have not yet come accross the pilot issue you talk about. Here it is up to the pilot to ensure we have ATC clearence to leave the plane, the green light goes on but the allocated Jump Master and individual skydivers are responsible for the spot. and I have seen a left or right correction given to the pilot on many occasions. It is also a skill we need to demonstrate to get our B license. One that I am working on at the moment. Thank you for your input it is interesting to here how it is done elsewhere.

Tom Again, thank you for your artcle and some of the others on your web site. I haven't yet read them all but I have found the ones I have read informative and helpful. I have asked several times for different peoples techniques with spotting. In another thread I have been specific in the technique I am using at the moment. I have expressed concern about some techniques I have seen in use. This has got no input as yet. I guess I am a little frustrated because I feel ground seperation is so important each individual or group should be spotting for themselves to prevent mid air collisions. I take on board your premace in the article that time is distance, but because of variables how much time is the required distance is variable. Good spotting is a learnt skill and wonder wether encouragment to practice this skill rather than counting the seconds past would be a better way to go. Thank you for your reply With love in Christ

oh yes, amen With love in Christ

434 feet which at a ground speed of 50mph = 6 seconds With love in Christ