Steve_Lewis

... but aren't they all going to be Phantom-2 soon?

Certainly no problem pulling other gay wingsuiters in the bar on Saturdays anyway!

I'm a beginner Bird, and I'll be in Skydive Spain down south over easter (18-29 March) with the british universities (BCPA)... alas I think I'll be one of very few birds there.

I changed from a square 200 to a 210 semi elliptical. Glad I did as that was quite a change! I also upsized recently to do a Mr Bill

How much difference does the total number of reserve rides make to the price do you reckon? I only ask as my rig has had three owners, and three reserve rides! (Tempo 170) I'm happy because it obviously works (tested it ), but if I was to sell it how much does it matter?

Butters - I don't like Javs, but that's easily the best one I've seen! AWESOME. My rig (work account so upload doesn't work): http://s73.photobucket.com/albums/i239/SteveWLewis/rigback.jpg ... and yes it at the time was brand new, my 1st rig, and I was about to sit down to watch telly with it on. (Mirage G3 with Cypres, Sabre2 170, Tempo 170... now tested)

Snap - matching gear and people think you're experienced. Little do they know... I still wear a protec though, so I don't look too experienced

Happens all the time in Europe. Never seen it myself, but it's on a lot of Empuriabrava promo stuff. Best thing I saw in free-fall was a C130 Hercules skirting VERY close to our airspace on a tracking dive - it was like we were tracking with a Herc! He got told off on the radio.

>> Is safety in instruction and in the mentality of jumpers less of a concern overall outside the U.S. Is that a flamebait? To be honest from the number of times I've read of US jumpers on dz.com "so we tracked off from the eight-way at 2.5k, I was under canopy at 1.1, and three others had cypres fires" I wonder about the mentality of US jumpers. However, I'm sure that these people are in the minority and are not going to try to kill me when I go jumping in the US.

Absolutely - it uses most of my flare for not much breaking of the forward speed, and has the de-merit of taking me back up where I was trying to get down from! What I was trying to say though, is that going BANG straight to 95% breaks isn't going to plane out my Sabre2 (and would result in an awful landing), but would plane out a triathlon (I think - never flown them, but was on a canopy course with someone who was and that was the impression) so obviously different canopies (especially a 9 cell ZP to a 7 cell F111 comparison) would land very differently. However, barring changes in relative winds (e.g. turbulence or gusting), the technique that you use to land your canopy is the same: someone said - same tensions etc. Until your feet touch the floor, be that running/sliding off a downwinder or standing still on an into wind, landing is almost identical. You can't say "do a 2-stage on a nil-winder and a slow half flare on a windy day" firstly: because your canopy is flying almost exactly the same in both occasions (it just happens that the ground is moving faster on one occasion than the other), and secondly: because your technique will change depending upon what type of canopy you're flying and all the other person to person variables.

Some canopies (such as my own sabre2) will generate so much lift that they will go up quite a lot if you go to max flare. Obviously the only people that can tell you how you would be better to land your canopy are going to be coaches. However the best bit of advice I've ever had is that you should land exactly the same whatever the wind is doing. "There is no wind." I've just moved from F111 to ZP, so I now love Nil-Winders!

Funniest tandem video I've ever seen was jumping through hail. The instructor was grimacing horribly, the student was going between a broad grin and an "ouch" face every couple of seconds. The camera woman (who was coaching me next jump when I had the same experience) had a nasty rash on her neck from the hail hitting her. My last jump was a hop and pop in rain. Nasty. The canopy's still not dry!

Just asked two equally experienced aff instructors about whether they think I should do a Mr Bill. One said "I wish I did it before about 200 jumps, because now [about 1.5k] it looks too dangerous", and the other effectively said "Man up and do it! I've done five!" My friend did one on a night jump because in his eyes what the DZ control can't see can't hurt them

Having fairly recently downsized I was amazed to finally actually be in airspace with other jumpers! Anyway: 1 to 18 - Skymaster 230 19 to 25 - Navigator 200 25 to 30 - Safire2 209 31 to 70 - Merit 190 70 to now - Sabre2 170 loaded at 1:1 After jump 60 I did a canopy course which was so worthwhile, especially now my landings are getting to be fun on the Sabre2!

Why not hire kit for a while until you've (read: your centre instructor, for the time being) a more accurate idea of what you should be on, whether that be a 210, 190 or a 170.

The AFF levels (in the UK) are eight jumps, and people generally repeat one of them on average (less likely if you've been in a tunnel). I imagine that it'll be the same in the US (if that's where you are). Tunnel flying is a bit more difficult than skyflying as you have to be flying "down the tube" in the tunnel whereas I doubt you'd have to repeat an AFF level for a bit of back-sliding for example. Good luck with AFF - and getting licensed!

What's all this talk of "vacuum"? There are virtual particles everywhere. If there are no particles there then "there" isn't anywhere. Tee hee.

I certainly felt like that around jump five. It was either the first one without 2 instructors, or it was the one with the first dive exit. I remember my inner voice saying "I know this is fun, but it's dangerous and you don't have to do it. I'm just saying, that's all. OK the door's open: just stay away from it... wheeee!"

But you'd need a new monkey every time you get a new container or canopy! Oh well. "Skydive Monkey Farm" here we come.

Blimey - 25 observed and then five examined? BPA it's 10 observed and then one test (including pack rotations and step throughs which looked really scary to me then). Then each time you want to pack kit of a different sort (e.g. different container) you have to be signed off on that on your certificate. A BPA packing cert allows you to pack kit for other people to jump (e.g. for money), but you can do what you like with your own kit.

Currently only myself and someone that I really do trust (like an instructor or something). That's just because my current canopy (a Parachutes de France Merit 190 - which is a F111-hybrid) opens like a BASE canopy (indeed has been BASEd by its previous owner!) if you don't pack it to open super-super-slow. If I had a standard canopy that everyone jumps like a Sabre2 (probably my next canopy) then I'd trust anyone that jumps their own pack-job to pack mine, or anyone that packs a lot for other people. Age is not an issue.

BPA has a 6 month repack cycle. I can't work out what is safer: low repack rates or high repack rates. The higher the rate of repacking I guess the more wear you get on the canopy. I guess it doesn't really matter as long as you trust your rigger (not to wrap the PC up with the cypres cutter as I read about here! )

There was some talk of landing a Mr Bill on bridge day apparently. Then the organisers declared that each participant must at least attempt to deploy a parachute. I definitely want to attempt a Mr Bill (both being Mr Bill and being the pilot), though I'd never (deliberately) try to land it. I'd try it near my repack date too, as a large number of Mr Bill videos on SDmovies seem to result in lineovers!

Yes: tore the ligaments on the outside of my ankle. It was my 8th jump and I was on a 290 (having done the first seven on 230 or 260!) That was four months off doing anything!

People will always want to fly their canopies, but what about a solo instead of a tandem?