JackC1

It's an impossible question to answer, there are just too many great guitar players around. Most of them aren't even famous. Take Jess Lewis for example, she's only 18 and can already out play just about everyone on the planet.

There is something to be learned from a rainstorm. When meeting with a sudden shower, you try not to get wet and run quickly along the road. By doing such things as passing under the eaves of houses, you still get wet. When you are resolved from the beginning, you will not be perplexed, though you will still get the same soaking. This understanding extends to all things. ~ Yamamoto Tsunetomo (1659-1719)

That kind of aggressive manoeuvre can give you line twists on virtually any canopy. The reason is two fold. First you initiate a turn one way and generate some momentum, then you tell the canopy to turn hard the other way. But you haven't given your momentum a chance to reduce so your body momentum one way and canopy trying to turn the other creates a torsion on the lines. The second part is that as you flick one way to the other, the lines lose tension due to the change in lift vector. Put them together and you get line twists. Many people have had to chop the resulting mess. Do that too low and it might be the last thing you ever do. It's kind of important to keep line tension as that is the only thing that keeps you in control of your canopy. Lose that connection and all you have is uncoordinated fabric and string with no way to control it. At normal flight, you have 1G of tension. Any manoeuvre that reduces that tension is heading towards bad territory and if you lose enough tension can cause your canopy to collapse. The main thing is to be aware that this can happen, what causes it and where the limits are on your canopy. I'm sure there will be canopy courses in your area, ask around. Definitely get on one (or two, or three), they'll be the best money you ever spend in skydiving. It's no substitute for a real course but Brian Germain's book "The Parachute and it's Pilot" is worth a read too.

Not to mention the flock of gliders about fly under them! What always freaks me out is when someone rips a 450 when you're under canopy 1000ft above them. That always looks like a candidate for SoFPiDaRF.

With dive exits, I tend to try and curl my legs up over my back and extend my arms over my head. That tends to stop the front loop that sometimes happens. They do take a little practice though as you tend to go very head low, especially out of tailgate aircraft. A fun thing to try is to intentionally do a loop on exit and arch out when the planet comes around again. It works with a front loop exit diving out and a back loop exit where you hop out head up facing the tail of the plane and just tuck your knees up and look up. You'd be surprised how quickly you can get stable after an intentional loop. You can do it to get stable in any orientation you want, belly flying, sit, head down. I love em. For a head up facing the front type exit (poised ish), think of it like getting off a bus while it's still moving. You need to slide out facing the direction of flight and place yourself gently on the wind, don't throw yourself out like a lunatic of the momentum will flip you around. Well, that's how I do it anyway.

I don't know about a like button but the place definitely needs an ignore list.

I tend to feel something like this sometimes but I put it down to my pull sequence. I tend to slow fall immediately before pulling to get the speed as low as I can after free flying, but then relax into a big arch and go slightly head high just as I toss the pilot chute. The speed change due to body position is sometimes noticeable just before the opening sequence starts.

Unfortunately, that's not how dz.com works. In this place you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say or do can and will be held against you.

Not quite. Aerodynamic drag doesn't care which direction the wind is coming from, it only cares about the magnitude of it, squared. This mixes up the two components of acceleration so the horizontal component of drag will affect the vertical acceleration due to gravity and this produces a slight amount of lift. Take two identical jumpers, one in a balloon and one in a plane, exiting at the same time. The jumper from the balloon will find themselves at pull time a couple of seconds sooner than the one from the plane due to this effect. It's a well know physical phenomenon.

Hey, I didn't drag this guy in off the street and post his fuck ups for everyone to kick around. I didn't post his youtube account or his facebook page. I didn't stick the boot in along with the rest of the mob. I only said the bashing had gone too far. My mistake.

It's got fuck all to do with feelings. The more you ratchet up your asshole score with bullshit like this, the less people listen to you.

I wonder why that is... Ever been in a traffic jam on the freeway and when you get to the end it's because someone crashed on the other side of the median? People love to watch carnage, but not many want to be part of it.

It doesn't matter what your intentions are. The more you act like an asshole, the less people listen to you. I think this place has almost completely outlived it's usefulness. It's now just a place where skygods come to prey on fresh meat and rubber neckers watch the carnage.

I was thinking it could be air getting in the top of the visor and pressurising as it happens when you look down between your legs. But the rear vent is smack bang in the airflow at that point. Easy to test, I'll just gaffa tape the vent up. If it cures it, job done. Cheers, I didn't think of that.

Has anyone else had problems with their Cookie G3 visor popping open when head down? Any ideas on how to stop it?

Hear hear. Mob rule is getting out of hand.

It's a fact, beer does make you smarter, Al Murray says so. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tHlefllnYA

If you live in the UK why not just go to a UK dropzone and get a BPA A license? Assuming you want to jump when you get back. There are usually no major problems converting if you absolutely must get a USPA license for some obscure reason, but you'll find there are things you need to do again.

Here's my matt black G3. It doesn't fog enough to obscure my vision if I keep the visor open until exit and open it under canopy, even at -35 deg C at altitude. It hasn't developed cracks yet either but then it's not very old. Carbon tends to crack because it isn't flexible but the G3 is ABS plastic so hopefully that's fixed it. They do seem to be on the small side though so try before you buy. For most motorcycle helmets I'm a size L, for the G3 I'm an XXL. They're far from perfect, but they are the best helmets I've tried.

I pack this way. I place my knee across the slider end of the pack job when I'm bagging the rest. When I stand the bag up ready to S-fold the slider end into the bag, I can take the opportunity to make sure my slider is hard against the stops and tighten up the rolls in the tail if they need it.

I've jumped some free fly unfriendly kit in the past but like you say, gear has moved on, and so have I. Now days I wouldn't intentionally buy kit with velcro riser covers when there is better stuff available for not that much more money. YMMV.

For my money, a rig that isn't free fly friendly isn't skydive friendly. Even the most well intentioned belly flyer will end up on their back at some point.

This Honda advert was filmed and aired live on national TV back in 2008 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MJtdeqZru_k

It is often noted that under canopy you must keep your head on a swivel, well here is a graphic demonstration of why that is really good advice. http://www.msf-usa.org/motion.html

That training is usually thrown in for free. They know you need it, they will provide it and all you have to do is ask for it. How do I judge the weather? Well, I look out the window and if it isn't blowing a gale or pissing down with rain I go to the DZ. You can be technical and use the Met Office web site for a forecast or ring the DZ but there isn't really much more you can do than that.