cpoxon

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Posts posted by cpoxon

  1. Quote


    Do have any idea how pathetic you sound? Stand up like a man and tell them you are not going to earn their paycheck any more. Just pay the kit rental, walk through the lines, leave the toggles dragging through the dirt and leave the rig in a heap. Take the next one off the shelf and walk away.



    Two ( hundred) wrongs don't make a right and trashing gear doesn't sound manly; it sounds quite childish, and risky to the next person who jumps it if not stopped/ dealt with by the packer. I am surprised at you suggesting such a thing Andrew.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  2. Quote

    Makes one wonder what other "shenanigans" ( like penciling in aircraft maintenance) they are up to. Perhaps getting banned from that DZ just might not be such a bad thing.



    Unlike in the US, in the UK the BPA carry out regular DZ inspections to help prevent this sort of thing.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  6. I wouldn't call it marketing, if it is not in fact High Definition, I'd call it lying. The box says "High Definition". A representative of the company told me it was High Definition when I asked them directly. In the UK we have the Trades Description Act and Sale of Goods Act legislation and Trading Standards authority that protects consumers from being misled or punish those who do.

    Maybe it depends on the definition of High Definition. But seeing as Opteka's website says,

    Quote

    Opteka's glass optics define High Definition. Change the way you view the world with Opteka.



    I would have thought that they met, if not exceed, the standard definition for HD (whatever that is).
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  8. That's one way of keeping legs up for landing!

    Seriously though, if the TI did have a heavy landing how much upward leg flexion does the student have in that position. Are they any more likely to injure themselves?
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  9. Did you click on the link in the email to get to the website or did you type uspa.org into your browser yourself? Did the link look strange or malformed? What was the name of the person in the email? This sounds a bit like a advance-fee fraud although using USPA is pretty specific and scamming someone over $15 doesn't sound very successfull.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  10. Quote

    I think I suggested the following to you before (?). When in doubt. Put it in half brakes, & PLF it. It beats the H*ll out of stalling it @35 feet. It takes you as long as it takes you to get better @landings. Do it safely.



    Student canopies are generally configured so that they can not be stalled. As a low experienced skydiver talking to a student skydiver, please don't offer advice as it could well be wrong (as in this case).
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  12. Open now? (August 12th)

    video

    http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/2011/08/14/indoor-skydiving-center-opens-near-seattle/

    Quote

    Davy Manning can fly.

    Inside the 45-foot wind tunnel in Tukwila, he’s like Superman — up, down, suspended in the air.

    Manning is the flight crew manager at iFly Seattle, the largest indoor skydiving facility of its kind west of the Mississippi. The franchise is slated to open Monday, offering a less daring alternative to traditional skydiving for those apprehensive about free-falling from an airplane.

    During a training session for iFly Seattle instructors last week, Manning demonstrated what’s possible in the air tunnel, which is powered from the top by four massive fans. Moving his arms and legs, he shot to the ceiling, then swooped back down.

    “He controls the air,” said iFly Seattle co-owner Lysa Adams. “He gets it.”Davy Manning can fly.

    Inside the 45-foot wind tunnel in Tukwila, he’s like Superman — up, down, suspended in the air.

    Manning is the flight crew manager at iFly Seattle, the largest indoor skydiving facility of its kind west of the Mississippi. The franchise is slated to open Monday, offering a less daring alternative to traditional skydiving for those apprehensive about free-falling from an airplane.

    During a training session for iFly Seattle instructors last week, Manning demonstrated what’s possible in the air tunnel, which is powered from the top by four massive fans. Moving his arms and legs, he shot to the ceiling, then swooped back down.

    “He controls the air,” said iFly Seattle co-owner Lysa Adams. “He gets it.”



    Adams is opening the iFly Seattle franchise with husband Bill. Most of her customers won’t be maneuvering like Manning — not at first. They’ll start out hovering on their stomachs in the recirculating air tunnel. At a later session, they may move to their backs.

    The next step is hovering — flying, as Adams puts it — in a seated position. Then, finally, a head-first dive.

    The experience is similar to skydiving. But in many ways, it’s more difficult, Adams said. A controlled fall out of a plane is easier in many respects, she said.

    “This is harder because you actually resist the air,” she said.

    Adams started out as a traditional skydiver — that’s how she met husband Bill, her flight instructor at the time.

    “You can actually say we fell in love,” she said.


    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  14. Also known as...integrity risers! They maintain their integrity as they don't have a hole punched through them.
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  17. Quote


    Mudflap - not great. It's more stable but it will a) be a few inches from your face and it will look bizarre, b) it will cause your harness to shift (which isn't necessarily dangerous but is disconcerting) and c) potentially interfere with handles and/or vision.



    Aside from the slightly closer and offset video angle, how so Bill? I would say that the GoPro is not significantly heavier or bigger than altimeters that are mountd similiarly?
    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  23. August (2011)

    Quote

    Construction has been no stranger to the thousands of drivers that take I-405 through Tukwila every day. But for the last several weeks a rather odd-looking structure has been going up near Southcenter, and when they hung a banner asking commuters "What do you think it is" curiosity got the best of us.
    "What we are building is 14-foot, re-circulating, indoor skydiving wind tunnel," says owner Lysa Adams. That's right, this ominous, industrial-type structure that looks like something out of a Phillip K. Dick novel is actually an indoor skydiving facility.

    Adams and her husband are avid skydivers and are building iFly Seattle.

    "We have four very, very, very powerful engines," says Adams. "The air gets accelerated and it gets pushed up into the flight chamber where we can contain that hurricane in a bottle."

    The flight chamber itself is 14 feet in diameter, and winds can exceed 150 mph inside. That's enough for just about anyone to literally float on a column of air. Adams says the facility will be the largest of its kind in the western United States.

    According to iFly, an international chain with six other locations, the thing is so safe, kids as young as three can do it. First time flyers are accompanied by an instructor who will hang on to your suit and stabilize your position. And if the worst happens, you only fall a few feet onto a mesh netting.

    Adams says there's already been a high demand for tickets.

    IFly Seattle plans to open in August.


    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live

  24. Not related, but came up on the feeds recently about the recovery of Lake Wales after the Hurricane destruction.

    Quote

    Lake Wales Airport Still Recovering from 2004 Trio of Hurricanes

    Airport director Betty Hill said the airport has never fully recovered from the triple blast of hurricanes in 2004 that virtually blew the place down. Charley, the first storm, did the most damage and Frances and Jeanne leveled anything that was teetering.

    All that remained virtually unscathed was the pavement.

    "The last few years, we're still just trying hard to get back on our feet," Hill said.

    The city opened a new main airport building two years ago. But the new building is less than half the size of the one that blew down.

    The opening of the new building was a big step forward, and Hill is hoping for more progress, a step at a time. Before the hurricanes, the airport featured a nice snack bar. Officials would like to see another, but say more traffic at the airport is necessary.

    The airport has been known for decades as a skydiving hub. But Dave "Pink" Floyd, a skydiver, photographer, videographer and airport volunteer, said the skydiving traffic is off at least 25 percent, maybe more.

    It has become much more expensive to skydive than in decades past. Floyd said that in 1975 he bought a "rig," meaning a parachute and all the accompaniments, for $300. He said he bought a high-end new rig recently for $8,000.

    In May, one of the slowest months of the year at the airport, there were about 900 take-offs and landings, a small number. The winter months can bring 1,500 take-offs or landings, or more.

    Here are some of the challenges to pumping life into the airport.

    Hill and Floyd say they're aggressively trying to recruit a flight school to the city airport, which would bring more planes, more aviation fuel sales and more business. But it's unclear whether the school could operate in the main building or another would need to be built.

    The airport has 16 T-hangars for planes and all are leased, with a demand for more. City Economic Development Director Harold Gallup said he is working on a master plan for the airport and surrounding land and whether to add more T-hangars will be addressed.

    Airport officials would like to expand one of the two 4,000-foot runways another 1,200 feet, to make it 5,200 feet. Gallup said he is scouring every possible source of funding. Airport runways are often extended with state grant money, but there isn't as much money available as in years past.

    The airport sees its share of corporate planes now, but Gallup said extending one of the runways would upgrade the airport because it would have the capacity to land larger corporate planes.

    Gallup said the Lake Wales airport must position itself to attract business from the upcoming opening of Legoland.


    Skydiving Fatalities - Cease not to learn 'til thou cease to live