sebcat

Once off student status it's possible to get a canopy that's able to stall without wrapping the lines around your hands (which I guess is what you're referring to) so discussing why it's a bad idea in the first place, and why the control lines on a student canopy is longer is IMHO better than withholding information.

Old, but relevant: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tgVyJ2bmqE - Xaos 98 vs Dust Devil. Was the sun shining, was there anything on the ground that might have created some thermals? Like dark sheet metal, asphalt, etc. On another note, here's what wikipedia has to say about hail: So, was there any cumulonimbus clouds?

I stayed in a hotel at 32 Rue Duperré called Libertel Montmartre Duperré a couple of years ago (2006 IIRC) with my sister. We shared a room for 30 euros/night, including breakfast (a great deal, it wasn't high season). It wasn't fancy, but it wasn't bad either. However, given the neighbourhood, people got the wrong idea about me and my sister ... I looked it up now and apparently they renovated the rooms in 2008 and the price is higher. We walked around a lot, but the Pigalle métro station is very close if you don't want to walk and the Paris métro is great. Buy a carnet (10 tickets), it's a lot cheaper than buying one at a time. I liked the place, but it was a couple of years ago and it might have changed, for better or for worse

Sure, running is cheaper but will it get you to 13k feet AGL?

I provided a link with the election results that showed that the republican party got 59M votes, the same amount you said the Nazi party got, thus making a clarification as to what you referred to.

Unless that's sarcasm, here's a hint for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008#Nationwide_results OK, what's ur point? Obama's election pertains how? There are relevant comparisons to the Nazi Party and the current-day Republicans. Please, oh please ask me how. My point was to show that you compared the republican party to nazis. Nothing more, nothing less.

Unless that's sarcasm, here's a hint for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2008#Nationwide_results Edited to add: Germany is not the only country to have laws like this. Hate speech can give you two years in prison here in Sweden (or four if it's considered to be major). Public diplay of a swastika is considered "hate speech" here. A very subjective law, a movie poster for inglourious basterds can have a swastika in it, but if someone (white) walks down the street wearing a swastika printed on his/her shirt they'll probably get arrested. People have been arrested and convicted for that in the past. It has everything to do with the intention of course, the court has to prove that he/she was spreading a message of hate and that a group of people got offended by it. I'm not a nazi, but that law doesn't make much sense to me. Of course, if you look at the history, it might be justified...

Here's some math for you

Tadam: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1917044 :)

My old phone didn't act up, but my new one does. First time I brought my new phone with me, I followed a cutaway student main&freebag. I thought, "I'll land with it I do have my new, shiny phone with me so I'll just call the DZ and tell them where I am". So I landed, picked up my phone, dialed the number to the manifest and... Nothing. It didn't freeze, it just refused to make the call. Tried a couple of other numbers, same thing. Similar results on a couple of other jumps. It's a samsung. Dunno what model.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-PsviSStA8 video of the jump on youtube So I guess we've determined who failed here

Michelle Rodriguez on CBS' Late Late Showhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UGwz-SA5aI yesterday. 10 jumps.

If it's my gear, I'll chase it. The first (and only) time I did this, however, I had zero experience on my reserve. My freebag and main landed in a wheat field right next to the airport and I landed next to the field. No obstacles nearby and my reserve had a lot more flare than my main so it was a very smooth landing. Finding the gear in the wheat field was a lot harder than I thought, though landing in the wheat field right next to the gear would probably not have been such a good idea either. Don't get target lock. You recently cut away, your adrenaline level is a bit elevated, you're following something in the air, you're excited, etc. It's easy to forget things like the people around you, wind direction, altitude. Especially when skydiving is relatively new to you. It's a choice you have to make for yourself. Though if you've got

Not a re: to JohnDeere. In the '50s, some guy (the prime minister of Iran) decides that it's a good idea to nationalize their oil reserves. Britain does not approve and why should they? After all, it's British oil, right?. A coup d'état is staged by the CIA, Operation Ajax. British approved and assisted. The government is overthrown and Iran is no longer a democracy. The CIA killed democracy in Iran. The Shah is the boss in charge now and he doesn't answer to anyone. He likes the US so no problem. Fast forward a couple of years and you've got the 1979 revolution, this time by Khomeini and his pals. But hey, now US got a new friend in the region, Saddam. Dam tam tam. It's like a bad soap opera. I find it ironic when e.g. a president of the US (today, he's an ex-president) criticize Iran's lack of democracy. But then again, he didn't have anything to do with that, at the time of operation ajax he was just a small kid and at the time of the Islamic Revolution, he was just an oil guy. Arbusto and all that. As for Israel, they played out the "we're only defending ourselves!"-card a long time ago. So if I was the guy in charge on the other side of the atlantic ocean, I would not care about the comments made by the Iranian prime minister that much. It's meant for the folks back home. Blame the americans, blame the jews, blame the muslims (oops, don't do that!), blame the rich, blame the poor, just blame someone, it's politics. Now, since '79, the united states has been blamed for a lot of things and I doubt they'll change that anytime soon.

If you're close to Denmark, they've got a 300 jump and C licence requirement.

I did proximity flight at jump #43 with a guy who at the time had about 2-300 jumps. Good times. My interest in CF grew a lot after that one jump. To participate in CF jumps here you must have 100 jumps and your first CF jumps has to be with a person with at least 25 CF jumps. CF is defined as 'contact between jumpers under fully inflated canopies'. Bumping end-cells is not considered CF by most jumpers but it falls under that definition I guess, and if the shit hits the fan... Proximity flight is not restricted in any way. It's actually encouraged. As long as you understand the possible problems that might occur, I don't see a problem with it. That involves not using/disconnecting RSLs etc. Wing loading limitations was my biggest problem when I tried getting involved with CF. I had to wait 'til my #200 or so to do the real thing with a properly loaded Lightning. Now, CF is pretty much all I want to do

I can see how that sucks. Life has never been better for me though. School beats the hell out of manual labour.

The hell with pain, school time is the best time of your life! Real life obligations is a lot tougher than taking a test. As far as money goes, it's nice to live in a country where school is free and the state pays for your education. Too bad they don't pay for your skydiving though...

There was a freefall simulator posted here a while ago that depicted the whole thing in a very neat fashion. A search might bring it back to life. Anyway, when you leave the aircraft you're traveling in the direction of flight, relative to the ground. Since the plane (and you) travels towards the wind, the wind will push you back, but you're still traveling "with the plane" at the beginning of the dive. The wind continues to push you back, and at a point during your dive, you'll cross the point of exit again (at a lower altitude of course), and continue to drift. The slower you fall, the more the wind acts upon you, the longer you'll drift. Big belly groups in formation falls slower (more drag I guess) than solo belly fliers, but when it comes to freeflyers, that's not necessarily true. Also, the whole thing changes if you're not exiting when the plane flies towards the wind... Unplanned downwind finals are not that good, I've noticed. To gain horizontal separation, slow falling jumpers should exit first. So, it's pretty much down to fall rate*. Slow people before the fast people, and never trust vertical separation during opening. But then again, the lower you pull, the less chance of someone falling into your canopy during/after opening ;) I guess the main point is: be aware. Although some people (tandem camera men in particular, I've noticed ) might not want you to wait a second (or three) in the door, having a chew on the ground afterwards is a lot better than being hit by someone during deployment. It's a fine line between fucking up their spot and risking improper separation. *: Unless the free flyers are going head down at an angle, tracking unknowingly. And the belly flyers track in the line of flight. And a lot of other stuff that doesn't make you fall like a dead, stable object. Oh, and hey Hellis. Didn't see you at the DZ yesterday.

No, that's not me. That's Icarus' team extreme. I posted it because (as ScoobieDoo pointed out) they're doing CRW with "improper gear". So by all means, CRW can be done with x-braced canopies with cascading microlines, or HMA, or whatever they're using in that picture. Needless to say, these guys have a lot of experience. I wouldn't call them irresponsible, they probably know what they're doing. They know the risks. A new CRW-jumper might not know the risk, and should be given the proper education before finding out the hard way why microlines are bad, or why trailing bridles can kill you. That's what I believe anyway. To answer your question, I wear gloves. It's cold without them. Hell, it's cold with them too this time of year. I should also point out that I am by no means an experienced CRW-jumper. I am glad however, that I took the time to find someone who could teach me the discipline, and provide me with the proper equipment. Am also glad for the time this person is willing to spend teaching me, and I hope that I too will teach CRW to someone one day... I guess that's not very relevant to this discussion, but I get the feeling that CRW is a more friendly discipline than e.g. FS or FF, and also a discipline more open to new-comers. I also want you to know that I find your reply to my post to be a bit patronizing in the way it's formulated, with the laugh, the smiley and the added exclamation marks. Was that intended, or am I guilty of the old "misinterpreting the state of mind behind the author of a written reply"-phenomenon?

Yeah, safety's a real obstacle. It's better to ignore it. But then again, what do I know: http://www.daedaluscanopies.com/F4.jpg :) You could start out with less-than-optimal gear and no training, but people have died because of bridle entanglements, use of improper gear and improper actions during entanglements. People used to do BASE jumps with modified skydiving equipment too, that doesn't mean it's recommended today.

related: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3633763

At jump 20 or so I started jumping a Sabre2 170 sqft @ WL 1.0. I don't have a lot of experience (180 jumps or so in total, all in the last year), but I've jumped a Spectre, a Silhouette, a Sabre and a P.d.F. Merit as well, all 170 sqft. At 1.0 the Sabre2 is IMO very friendly. It has a lot of flare, it's not agressive and it's fun to fly. I've landed it down wind (about 3-4 m/s) and cross wind and I've gone through turbulence at landing. The Sabre2 performed well during all my jumps. The Merit was the most fun to fly though, but it was harder to land. It was old and worn and didn't have a lot of flare. Most of my jumps where made on the Merit and the Sabre2. All I can say about jumping a Sabre2 @ WL 1.0 as a novice jumper is that it's fun and, in my opinion, relatively safe. The recovery arc has not really been an issue for me. I've never done a low front riser turn or a too low toggle turn. If I had done so, I doubt that it would have injured me more if I've had a silhouette. Too low is too low. IMHO, it's about the wing loading (and shape, but the sabre2 is not really that different). Like I said, I don't have a lot of experience, but the sabre2 at that wing loading felt safe to me.

I'd spend that money on jump tickets instead, but that's just me

I have an Icon. I like it. I've got about 130 jumps on it so far. I've got a few jumps on a javelin in the past, that's pretty much my only reference. The only bad thing I have to say about the Icon so far is the hook knife pocket located at the left leg strap. The knife started to wear the fabric, so I moved the knife to my chest strap instead. I've had several delays on hop 'n pops too. I first thought pack volume was the issue, but then I got another canopy that packed a lot smaller and there was still some trouble. Maybe it's the pilot chute. It wasn't the loop though. It's not a problem if you're aware of it and got the altitude, but I almost cutaway the first time it happened. However, that might have something to do with my configuration and not with the Icon. I think my next harness will be an Icon too.