JackC1

I'd rather jump with someone who is a bit bored than someone so amped up they don't think straight. Sensory overload is definitely a problem, sensory underload usually isn't. To the OP. In my opinion, skydiving is far too dangerous and expensive to continue if you don't love doing it.

Apparently little miss Temple shot Eleanor Roosevelt in the ass with a slingshot. Epic.

Not really. People use two audibles so that if one fails to work on a jump they still have the other. I want that redundancy because I do certain types of jump (speed) where a visual alti is not really an option so I have to rely on an audible. I really don't want to be screaming through 4k ft at 250+mph waiting for an audible alarm that never comes. I use an Optima and an old Pro Dytter both set to the same altitudes. The Dytter seems to be the more reliable of the two.

It's not a true representation of skydiving at all. Unfortunately it is a true representation of dropzone.com.

5k, 4k, 2k. I set them like that when I bought them (I have two audibles), I've never changed them, I'm used to that and I don't want to confuse myself by changing them now.

In a sport where staying alive depends directly on being seen, camo is really really f'king stupid.

Not out in front, arms out each side like you're waiting to hug the whole planet. A lot of people say you need to explode out the door into a big arch. I tend to think of it more as slipping out and placing myself gently on the wind, like I'm getting off a bus that's still moving, I need to pirouette so I'm facing forwards but not over rotate so I end up going sideways. I don't want any residual rotation after I've exited, I want to place myself with the right presentation and know that I'll be stable because I've exited in the right orientation. It's actually really easy. Exit positively because you need to clear the plane, but place yourself gently on the relative wind.

Meh, there are a hell of a lot of trolls in this place. It's not the obvious ones you have to worry about.

Now what if the first 25% of that toggle stroke is doing nothing but taking up slack in the brake lines because you are afraid of stalling it? Pulling your arms 50% of the way down will give you 33% of your effective brakes. I land a lot more than I have to dig out of a corner, hence I generally have better fine control at landing and knowing where my stall point is than I do at digging out. If I'm in a situation where I need to dig out, I need to dig out right now and not find that my brake lines are so slack that I've waisted 25% of my arm movement doing nothing useful at all. I reckon a low turn that I might have been able to dig myself out of is much more likely to kill me than a stall right at the bottom of my flare, especially when I know it's there just like it has been for the last x00 jumps. YMMV.

I wouldn't do that. I want just enough slack in the brakes so I can pull on a front riser without it applying brake. I don't want two feet of slack just because I have long enough arms to stall the thing if I don't. If my canopy collapses due to turbulence and I need to pull on the strings to re-inflate it, I want brakes not slack. Set your brakes up correctly and make priority #1 to learn where the stall point is. If you need to detune your canopy because you don't have the skills to avoid stalling it, you should probably up-size and spend some money on a canopy course.

Jumpsuit for me. No waist band for a t-shirt to pull out of and flap up covering your handles. No exposed flesh that gets scuffed when you faceplant a landing. More drag gives you more range in freefall. It's not even close.

Out of those two I'd probably go for the Vortex. Mostly because I owned one for a while and although it wasn't the greatest rig on the market IMHO, it was built fairly well and worked. I can't say I'd chose to buy a Teardrop, mostly due to the god awful RSL design (unless the Viper is different?) and the fact that the pop tops have been known to loosen off unless they're packed perfectly. But the truth is I'd rather stump up the extra cash for a Vector3/Javelin/Icon/Wings/Mirage/etc.

By whom? Standard Americans. Obviously.

You definitely need a WTF option for most of those questions.

This.

Where I jump it is highly likely that a few minutes after you get dumped out at 10k, there will be another plane full of skydiver getting dropped on your head. I'd consider that a real danger.

Meat bombs?

That depends. If I thought you were the sort of person who made a mistake, recognises it and won't make it again, I might come around. If I thought you were likely to pull some other equally stupid stunt in the future, not a chance.

Not mad exactly, but I wouldn't jump with you again.

I think you got off light. I'd have been considerably less understanding.

I've never seen a cutaway camera set up on a full face that I'd be willing to jump. As far as I can tell you can have safe, full face or camera; pick any two.

Relax, straighten your knees a bit more, arch from the hips not the back, head up looking at the horizon, hips level then reach with your arms, don't twist your body, and pull. Watch the horizon all through deployment until the canopy has stopped doing funky things, then do your canopy/airspace checks. If you look down at pull time it makes you de-arch, but also your head low position can mean your head gets whipped down towards your chest which makes an otherwise decent opening feel uncomfortable. Everything else is either gear configuration, packing, or just plain old "shit happens" which it unfortunately sometimes does when you throw 250sqft of nylon and string into a force 4 hurricane.

Atheism: "disbelief or lack of belief in the existence of God or gods". (emphasis mine) Lacking belief in something is not the same as a belief in the lack of something. You can lack belief in something simply by being ignorant of it. That is not extreme or hateful although attempting to tar all atheists with the same derogatory brush just might be.

Nah, JJ Cale's original was better. Noah Guthrie's Youtube version of LMFAO's "I'm Sexy and I know it". By a very long way. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vsvlsuLau5c Maybe not strictly better, but a highly notable cover of the Pixies "where is my mind" by The PeteBox, if only for how he does it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JhjA2nvVD7U

Meh. Mine are set at 5k, 4k and 2k so that they tell me I'm at 5k, 4k and 2k. I might have to break off at 4k, I might have to break off at 6k, it makes no difference to my audible settings. I never change them and they've never surprised me.