GalFisk

I second that. A Surface is a miniaturized PC, while Apple and Android tablets are more like oversized phones. This makes a big difference. You can also have a look at other tablet or 2-in-1 computers (foldable into a tablet form factor, or with a detachable tablet as a screen).

You don't have a "call waiting" service on the landline? It's supposed to let the second caller hear the phone ringing, and give you some sort of signal that another call is incoming.

I'm hoping that improved simplicity, operating cost and cycle times will mean that electric or hybrid jump ships will start to make business sense for DZs in a much shorter time than this. The paper posted by cpoxon, and running cost estimates posted by current manufacturers, give me hope. Though since no jumpship class hybrid or electric aircraft has been built yet, it remains to be seen.

Three years later, and the Tesla model 3 battery pack would give us roughly 36 kWh at 200 kg weight, an improvement of 50% over the Nissan Leaf pack from 2013. The wholesale price is $150 per kWh, or $5400 for our 200 kg pack. They are rated at 3000 charge cycles to 80% of nominal capacity, and at 80% we can still haul a full load to altitude. Not charging them to 100% will both speed up charging and prolong battery life. Swappable batteries are the only realistic solution for now, maybe forever. I would love for our small weekend DZ to cover the hangar roof with solar panels and charge 3-4 sets of plane batteries during the week. The excess (if any, a very rough calculation shows there will be plenty most of the year) could be sold or stuffed into cheap storage batteries. I used to drive a Nissan Leaf 24 kWh, and it could be charged to 80% in about 20 minutes (the last 20% also took 20 minutes). The charging characteristics are better for newer batteries. It would require several beefy (expensive) chargers, and unless we can make and store our own power, quite a beefy and expensive power line too. I hope the first electric DZ is less than five years out. Electric cars are at the tipping point right now when it comes to TCO. Electric airplanes are behind, but not that far. I hope that some time in the future, flying electric will be so inexpensive that jup ticket price actually goes down.

I agree completely. The dangers we face in the sport are of two kinds: the dangers we can predict and mitigate against, and the ones that we just know are there but can't do anything to avoid. We make the effort to minimize the former, and the decision to accept the latter. The freak accident is when the latter comes back to bite you in the ass. The guy who got a bird through his visor in freefall suffered a pure freak accident. We know that birds share our airspace, we also know they usually keep to canopy altitudes, but this one time an unlucky bird converged with a skydiver in freefall. Nobody could've said to him "Dude, you'll get a bird in the face one day if you keep jumping like that". Many accidents can have elements of both. If the bird guy had hit a bird because he went low, I'd be less inclined to call it a freak accident - though hitting a bird is still pretty unlikely at lower altitudes. The guy who got his RSL lanyard caught in a C182 door handle, and thereby blew up his reserve, was a victim of an unlikely event and something many probably didn't think about - but it was not something that could not have been predicted, and therefore not a freak accident.

Have you guys using medicine or valsalva, found that pressure equalization gets easier with time, and you need to use the medicne or maneuver less? I've almost never used either, and I found, as others have mentioned, that it gets better over time. My fist jump from 4000 meters had me in real pain once I was under canopy, but nowadays(~600 jumps) I usually don't even notice. Only when I have a cold can it become an issue again.

Sometimes I worry that I don't scare easily enough, and that I therefore will fail to duck/jump/dodge if something sudden and dangerous was to happen. I've only ever once been scared "green-faced" and that was during my first bungee jump, right before jumping. That water sure was far down, and that tall stone dock sure was close to my touchdown area! But sure, there have been some "Oh, shit" moments in my skydiving career, though not of that magnitude. The interesting thing is that neither my forest landing at

I recently bought a camera suit used, after I "fell off" a lightweight tandem pair. And I love it. I've done a few training jumps with it, and filmed around 15-20 tandems. I'm used to jumping RW gear with booties (200+ RW jumps in >500 jumps total), and I've found that I had to relearn some things with the camera wings. I'd like to know what tips and tricks you experienced camera wing flyers have - what should I learn to do, and what exercises would be good to try - either in solo freefall, or while filming a friend or RW group? I'm using the suit mainly for tandem photography, and I want to do it as well as possible for the paying customer. Problems I've noticed: 1. Sidesliding - doesn't work the same as in the RW suit. I'm starting to get a hang of it though 2. Hanging outside at the rear of the door, and letting go immediately before the tandem pair - I tend to fly into them. I've started exiting earlier, but then their exit gets pretty small int he video. Is this just a matter of getting the timing right, or could I do something special to keep pace with them - while maintaining good control? Should I be big, or small? Where's the best place to be before they throw the drogue - below them, straight to the side, or above and to the side? I've also exited after and filmed the drogue deployment from a safe distance above - but filming the AC and exiting pair from below looks much more dramatic, so I'd like to keep doing that, but closer up, without getting in the way. 3. Stopping forward motion without popping up. 4. I've seen camera flyers sit-flying or backflying just below the tandem pair. I have very little experience sit flying (or freeflying in general). Will it help to learn to sit fly competently in "normal" clothes, or is it too different from the camera suit? I'm sure it's better to do it in the suit, but then I can't exercise with other sitflyers. Any other tips or tricks when it comes to camera wings are of course also welcome, bot flying, maintenance, modifications and in general. My exit weight is about 95 kg (210 lb), in case that helps. One modification I've made is to replace the standard wing hooks with RSL hooks, so I can release each wing by pulling a tab. I also shortened the thumb loops, so they stay on the thumbs by friction.

I like surveys. I don't know why. So here goes: gender: M age: 31 1. When it comes to thrill seeking, which description best fits you: c) Adrenaline junkie is probably closest. 2. What type of thrill seeking activities do you actively engage? Skydiving. Occasional gokart racing. Occasional rollercoaster rides (this was my main thrill before getting into skydiving) 3. How many hours per week do you concentrate on these activities? 12 or more - every weekend I can I'm at the DZ. 4. How much experience do you have in your given thrill? 3 years or more - soon 4. 5. Given the following scale, how would you rate the risk involved with your thrill(s)? 5. 6. Choose the phrase that best fits you: a or c. 7. When seeking a thrill, I am willing to put myself at risk Define risk. All skydiving has risk. I try to minimize risk, but not avoid it. 8. I believe that my knowledge and competence makes me less susceptible to the dangers of seeking risky thrills. Agree. I always want to learn more, and learn from the mistakes of others.Quote 9. I would rate my health as: Good to Excellent. 10. I am open to experimenting with new sensations even if they are illegal. Unsure/depends. Making fireworks is illegal in my country without a permit. But I'd never use drugs (legal or illegal).

I live in Sweden. We skydive using meters for altitude, while our neighbors in Norway use feet for some reason. It may be that they don't have their own association but are part of Luftsportforbundet (Air Sport Association) and have inherited more from other flying sports than we have in Sweden. Or I may be wrong. In any case, in both countries we use ft^2 for canopy sizes. In both countries we have a table (one in Sweden, another in Norway) showing the minimum allowed and recommended size (in ft^2) of canopy, with regard to exit weight (in kg) and number of jumps. Because this table exists and is part of our basic rules, wing loading in actual numbers (lbs/ft^2, or kg/m^2 or combinations of the above) are not often calculated or discussed.

Just fold the side with the tabs on to the inside of the slider. This way the tabs are not exposed to the lines of the canopy. I will try not to forget to post a picture tomorrow. Thanks for the tip. I've never experienced this mal, and my slider tabs only stick out a few millimeters when fully stowed, but I will start doing this. Any little trick that makes the improbable even less probable is good in my book.

Two of my jumps really stand out: 1. Jumping with a friend beside a HUGE cumulus cloud. The base was a little above pull altitude, the top near exit. I felt small. At breakoff, my friend tracked into the cloud... she wasn't happy about it. Hail, apparently. 2. Hop&pop at sunset. The pilot wanted to fly one other lift, but people were a bit tired after a long, great day of jumping. I went on to try and convince the manifestor that day, who hadn't intended to jump at all, and he finally gave in. The sun had just set. I'm sure many of you know how the sun looks at altitude after sunset - it's redder than anything you've ever seen. I pulled down my brakes and just hung there, as if suspended in mid-air in a mild breeze and just felt so alive that I've never felt. It was completely serene and peaceful. The manifestor gave me a heartfelt "thank you" after we landed. Edit: I'm trying CRW for the first time in two weeks. I'm sure that will be quite memorable.

This thread made me contact Contour yesterday about my broken battery clip and rubber rear cover. They're shipping the new parts today free of charge. They already have replacement instructions on their website: http://help.contour.com/customer/portal/articles/250799-battery-clip-replacement (during this procedure, the rear cover will come loose and can be replaced as well).

Great, thanks!

My phone did a commendable job of keeping the GPS lock, even inside the plane (Cessna 206). This is the software I used, in case anyone's interested: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mendhak.gpslogger&hl=en I logged to a GPX file which I then transferred to my computer. Dthames, how do you get Google Earth to show the GPS track as a "wall" as in your examples? I only got it to show mine as a blue line - it is up in the air at the correct altitude in the 3D view, but it's much easier to see with your view. I couldn't find the options in GE for changing how it was displayed.