RMK

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Posts posted by RMK

  1. Usual "bravery", "thoughts & prayers" and "greatest nation in the world" talk has already started on the news.

    I noticed the VA Governor just mentioned "too many guns on the streets" which will surely attract rebuke.

    A congressional baseball game with security detail. WTF, this is just one step short of slapping the apple pie* out of your mouth.

    * For our international viewers this is in reference to baseball, apple pie & Chevrolet epitomising America
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  4. format


    would it hurt to bring along a 10 ft long roll of toilet paper and drop it from.. say 1000 ft?



    The whole damn balloon is a wind drift indicator. Watch it's track; that is the wind direction.

    Give a couple seconds to build airspeed before pitching and think about where overhead wires may be (hard to see when looking from above). Most key point, you are calling the spot. The balloon pilot probably knows jack shit about skydiving, no matter how many jumpers he's deployed from his balloon.

    Regarding visual wind cues on the surface (aside from smoke as noted above), the best is any body of water. You'll have lines on the water aligning with the surface wind. The windward side will be smooth/shiny along the edge, whereas the downwind side will have the wind lines going all the way to the edge - I own/fly a helicopter and this is my most used wind cue when landing at private sites.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  6. From the replies above, this is much more widely available than I thought.

    My 10yr old son just did a tandem in Empuriabrava. They too needed authorisation from both parents. My wife didn’t travel with us so they needed an authorisation letter signed by her and a copy of her passport.

    My son loved the jump. Won’t be a too regular occurrence, but will get him the odd follow-on jump as a treat.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  8. Thanks for the notes above. I’ve already been/returned from Empuriabrava and as it was just my son and myself, I just booked a room at the AmpuriaInn.

    As an update on AmpuriaInn, the room was clean, AC worked well and staff friendly. However, if you are with a spouse/partner (non-skydiver), I’d now give it a miss. It is under new ownership and whoever the new owner is, he/she has no sense of style/design in regard to hotels. They have turned the place into a “festival” of tacky. The once nice restaurant and breakfast are now ruined and cheap/messy. They’ve augmented the prior “stylish” makeover in the mid-2000s with gaudiness in every area.

    Should I visit again with family, I will now either get adjoining rooms at Hotel Port Salins or find a nice villa on Airbnb.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  9. nolhtairt



    What language do aviation use in air traffic control communications world wide? English of course.



    The reasoning being that English is the most widely used (geographically) common language. This due to the British activities/colonies/exploration over centuries.

    Has "jack shit" to do with America.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  10. I haven’t been to Empuriabrava in a few years, regarding hotels historically the three hotels near the dropzone were:

    1) Ampuria InnHotel nicest of three, with great pool area
    2) Hotel Castell Blanc OK, but rubbish air-con system
    3) Hotel Silvia always seemed to have new owners and in disarray

    On the other end of town there was Hotel Port Salins which was “upscale” by skydiver standards.

    For a short-notice three-day weekend, is Ampuria Inn or Hotel Port Salins still the best pick? Anything else new and nearby? Not really concerned on price; OK to pay more if it's nice - hard beds and shit aircon are my bane.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  12. Treat is more as "putting the D-bag around the canopy" than putting the canopy in the D-bag.

    Once you get your s-fold and your controlling it with your hands/knees/legs/etc stop and take a breather before trying to bag it. Relax, one more step and once you get the first bungee done you're home free - you can even take a break at that point.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  14. I'm see the the biggest "shit show" of any US president. This is setting off to be a car crash not the inception of greatness.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  15. For wingsuiters you need a sixth choice which is "undressing"

    …Unzip each arm wing, unzip each leg wing, pin up the tail with the snaps then collapse slider & pop brakes.

    While I see some younger guys that can arch both their legs back and simultaneously unzip both leg wings, I'm not that flexible and honestly there is an embarrassing amount of grunting/wheezing while I perform the same.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  18. The final prices of the items were:

    lot #156 (rig) $4480
    lot #157 (suits) $1562
    lot #158 (logbook) $1600

    I registered for the auction and went up to $2500 for the rig – sadly I’m not owner of “Bodie’s” rig (would have been cool though).

    The final price includes the “hammer price” plus 25% auction fee; then you have to pay shipping on top.

    His Point Break surfboard went for $64,000
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  20. On the point of the Daily Mail being a sensationalist rag – yes fully agree. On your thoughts that a small drone is of no worry to a helicopter – that’s bullshit.

    Many helicopters have been taken out by smaller items and killed all on board. In particularly, a small drone hitting the tail rotor (or fenestron in this case) would not a good idea.

    I’m a private pilot and own a helicopter; I took my wife and children out for lunch by helicopter just this past weekend. Idiots, with no understanding of airspace, messing about with drones is of increasing concern to helicopter pilots.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  21. sonnyblu

    .

    I'm a 39 year-old badass ready and willing.



    I've never met anyone who self proclaimed to be a badass who actually was one.

    Maybe you've got a truck with big tires, a handgun and CCP? It's not really the same.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  22. The one type of tattoo that is a true give-away are “stars” tattoos; they permanently mark the unimaginative.

    When I see these, I assume the people showed up to the tattoo parlour with no idea/plan and after looking at some examples just said “I don't know; ehh fuckit just give me some stars”
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  24. My offices are less than a half mile from the Houses of Parliament and I was in a meeting when the event happened; someone noticed the news on their phone, but we carried on uninterrupted.

    When I got home, my wife showed me a text from our nanny/babysitter who coincidentally was in Parliament during the lockdown and was stuck there. She had taken her aunt, who was visiting from Scotland, to a talk/presentation. She said when the news was first announced that there was an “incident” outside the building, they just carried on with the discussion. However, later armed police came in and moved them hurriedly to another room and then subsequently to Westminster Abbey. As they all had to be processed to leave (there were over 1500 people) she was there for 6 hours.

    Ironically, they had gone there to see a presentation on anti-terrorism.
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"

  25. I'm trying to calculate the timing of the rapture. Which date should I input for "arrival of Antichrist"? 08 Nov 2016 or 20 Jan 2017?
    "Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to attend his classes"