ernokaikkonen

>Yeah, It's a virus, just not a computer virus. What do they call these? >Socially engineered viruses? Or a "norwegian virus", like the one I received:

>Mguessing this picture isnt work safe? right?wrong? It's safe enough.

>Here's mine (gee, skydivers seem to have similar tastes...) Or is it that skydiving geeks on the Net have similar tastes? Erno

>tips from the rigging staff at RWS: > >http://www.relativeworkshop.com/rigging/washing.htm That's pretty much the way I've heard people cleaning their gear. It goes without saying that you should disconnect the main before washing the container, but disconnecting the reserve can be a good idea too(which of course requires a master rigger). The reason for this is that the reserve risers and lines can "suck" the soapwater into the canopy even if the canopy itself is in a plastic bag. I don't think mild soapwater would damage the canopy, but somehow washing your reserve just doesn't feel right... Erno

>I've got one, but I don't use it. I prefer to keep mine next to my ear > in the pouch in my helmet. Oh, thats weird.

I don't really know about the Lightning, but I have ~10 jumps on Flight Concepts Express CF-canopies. At the wingloadings most people at my DZ jump them, it is impossible to get a soft landing with a straight-in approach. Some people do a front-riser hook, but most seem to use double front-risers for that extra speed. Erno BTW, when jumping a new CF-canopy, remember to test the stall point at altitude. The scar with four stitches in my elbow reminds me not to stall an Express at 3 meters above a taxiway...

>(which when your jumpship only fits 5 max is pretty limited) limited? limited?? At 110 jumps you think your options in a 5-person jumpship are limited? If you've done all this and are totally bored of it all then you might have a problem: -A five-way flat? -A five-way flat with N points? -serious 4-way with a cameraman? -2-way sitflying and N preplanned points? -3-way sitflying and N preplanned points? -A 3 to 5-way hybrid dive? -tracking dives? -speed skydiving? Seriously, even if you think freeflying is your thing, good solid flatflying skills will make it easier to learn(so being "stuck to flats" isn't necessarily such a bad thing). And before you start jumping head-down, there are tons of stuff to learn while sit-flying... Erno

Wow. 0.83 seconds/point... Is the video available anywhere on the Net? Erno

How big are the biggest docked formations built with wingsuits? Not just an N-way flock, but formations with grips? I know people routinely do two-ways, probably even 3-ways, but has anyone built, say, a 4-way diamond? Erno

>How's about a bit of sharing in regards to our most beloved books? The Hitchhiker's Guide seems to be a popular choice here, the whole 5-part trilogy(!) is probably the funniest stuff I ever read... Terry Pratchett's Discworld-series is also funny as hell; if there are any Douglas Adams fans out there who haven't read Pratchett, you should give it a try. The books of Arto Paasilinna have a different kind of humor in them, but are also very funny. They have been widely translated from finnish, but I haven't read any of the translations so I don't know how well the humor translates. I'm also a big fan of William Gibson's books. And of course the LOTR if a must-read every few years... Erno

>this sounds pretty funny. Hilarious, really: >The origin of the competition is based in Finnish history. A 19th century >notorious character, Rankainen the Robber imposed strong physical >standards on men he considered for his band. To qualify, the men had >to complete a difficult course with a heavy sack on their backs. It was >also not uncommon for men to steal women from neighboring villages. I must've slept through the history-classes in school....

>Does anyone have any experience with this >canopy? especially landings. I've jumped a Springo140 loaded @ 1.35 for a few jumps, and have had no problems with the landings. The canopy does feel different than most of the canopies i've flown(especially the landings), but that's the case with all Parachutes de France-canopies. >Two other jumpers who jump other 120s tried it >and both had less than perfect landings. The Springo is not a bad canopy, but you definitely have to get used to the "french" feel of it before you can get perfect landings. Erno

>Don't use swim goggles for skydiving. Actually. I do. I was trying to find a reasonably priced pair of goggles with prescription lenses, and the swimming ones were the only ones that fit snugly enough(Not letting any air in from the sides). I anticipated the pressure problem, and simply drilled small holes on the sides of the lenses before the first jump. I was afraid that the goggles might limit my peripheral vision, but that has not been a problem on my approx 100 jumps with these goggles. They also have a great anti-fogging coating. The cost was about 50€. Erno

I posted this on another thread yesterday, but here goes: Homer eating a donut...

>Now make Homer eat Remi's donut, DUDE! I'm not going to make ANYONE eat ANYONES donut!

>And here is a picture of Homer EATING a donut... And here is a picture of Homer eating THE donut... what do you mean, "Are you having a slow day at work?"? Erno

I got this(attachment) after previewing a post... Saving the sourcecode and opening the page from a local harddrive fixed the problem(?), so this may be a quirk of Opera...

>Have just started a 4 way team here in Australia and Im having some >issues with being relitive to my team. I can fly flat with the but when it >comes to turning, I sink big time. It's easy to "fix" fallrates when you're face-to-face with the rest of your team, even if you're holding no grips. I believe that you naturally fall faster than the others, and that you compensate for that when you're flying face-to-face. When you start a turn, you revert your natural fallrate. A drill I used with my team was star-360-star. After the turn, see if there are any vertical differences, get level, repeat. You should end up low after most of the turns. Don't try to fly different to change your fallrate, it won't work too well. The solution is that the rest of team wears weights, or that you wear more fabric... just my 0,02€ Erno

"No shit, there I was, ready to throw the ball down the lane, when all that beer got better of me and my brand-spanking-new BB2100X slipped out of the fingers of yours truly. And wouldn't you believe it; there Frank was, minding his own business, when the ball landed squarely on his foot(mind you in those days we didn't use any of thoise pansyass steel-capped shoes). Screaming and yelling, man I can tell you his ankle wasn't pretty to look at. Well they took him away to the hospital, and they had to fill his ankle with all sorts of nuts'n'bolts to make the man walk again... Frank you still have that X-ray now do you?" Erno

Default Template Set: Default, post info on left Default Post Style: Markup Default Private Message Style: Markup Default Post Display: Flat In flat view, when viewing thread: Jump to first unread post After posting: Return directly to forum view Default Forum View: Collapsed >More browser and platform info from other people will help as well. WinNT4.0, Opera6.03 ...but IMO it seems to be a cross-browser problem. I haven't looked at the page code yet, but I'll cut'n'paste it for you if I get this bug again. Erno

I don't think there ever was a clear line between overload/everything ok for me. The first couple of S/L jumps blacked me out completely(hanging on to the strut-->open canopy). After that I started remembering some things(seeing the canopy at line-stretch, seeing the JM in the plane). Bit by bit I saw and remembered more with each skydive. In freefall, I of course first experienced tunnel vision, but then the tunnel gradually became wider. Now I like to think I notice pretty much everything in my field of vision, and I sometimes even have a pretty good idea of the whereabouts of people behind/above/below me. I think the awareness gradually grows with everyone, faster with some people, slower with others. Erno

>Well, that means that russian instructors and DZO's with thousands of >jumps are stupid, because jumps through the clouds ARE permitted >there, right ? You just don't know if there are other aircraft under the clouds. Yes IMO jumping through clouds is stupid and dangerous, as are all instructors or DZO's who endorse jumping through clouds. BTW, having seen a couple of videos from a russian skydiving club, the activity there is just outright scary.... Not exactly the most safety-conscious bunch in the lot... Then of course this might vary from one DZ to the next. >May be pilots should really read the GPS manuals, because a GPS is a >VERY exact thing. I would trust any GPS over ANY person's eyes, given >that the pilot knows how to operate it. A GPS only tells you where you are! It does not know if a stray aircraft with a broken radio is just under the clouds! Also a GPS needs to be operated properly, and the coordinates need to set right... I don't need to calibrate my eyes when I look out of an airplane

...of me and my team building a donut. That's me with the old and battered VectorII and yellow grips. Erno

>I'll look into it tomorrow, when I'm at work and getting paid for it. LOL Nothing beats being paid for hanging at DZ.com... Or being paid by one company to do work for another company that pays you as well... Erno

>2) Confidence building for recoveries in case the brake line should snap while >doing a high speed approach. Does this idea seem valid? I don't think so. I'm really not an HP-canopy pilot, but if a brakeline snaps during a high-speed approach, it will snap when you're trying to get your canopy out of the dive, into level flight... I don't think anyone could react quickly enough to recover the situation with rear risers: 1. dive with front riser 2. release front riser 3. pull toggles 4. one brakeline snaps, canopy instead of leveling out dives to one side 5. pilot realizes something is wrong 6. pilot realizes it was the brakeline 7. pilot switches to rear risers 8. levels out and flares with rear risers I think the pilot would hit the ground somewhere between 5 and 6... Has anyone ever heard(/seen/done himself) of anyone doing such a recovery? Erno