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respect, dude. I suppose like with anything when you do it often enough you can be safe and get the job done. if it were me I'd take the long walk around the wing for the first few thousand times before I changed it up, lol

I once saw a fuelie walk between the fuselage and the prop of a twin otter... while it was running. fuck. that.

I was camping at a lake next to a big mountain in the cascade mountains with friends. The lake is at the bottom of a pretty imposing 3000 foot cliff. We were drinking beer, fuckin around when we heard what sounded like a rock slide. We looked up and saw someone under canopy directly above us, maybe a few hundred feet up. That's when I saw a black spec racing away from the cliff across the sky. For a good 15-20 seconds we watched them cover a pretty good distance before they deployed and landed on the other side of the lake. We didn't know it at the time but obviously it is an object the local BASE community frequents. I decided then and there that I needed to try skydiving. After finances allowed, I did a static line jump and decided after I landed that this was for me. So I knew before jump 1 ;)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/crime-scene/post/faa-head-randy-babbitt-charged-with-drunk-driving-in-fairfax/2011/12/05/gIQAkNjdWO_blog.html?hpid=z2

That is only true if you believe that a night jump is a literal thing that bears no resemblance to any other kind of dive that you do. That somehow being cognizant of risk factors in a sky dive has absolutely NO benefit in anything other than a night dive. What is it about a night skydive that makes any lessons you learn not work in the daytime? Does sunlight make the brain work differently? The real discussion seems to be a disagreement of whether a night jump is a unique flower that has absolutely no meaning outside of a night jump, or whether it is an implementation of a collection of skills that have applicability to any skydive, regardless of the context.

not to be flip but since they are an arab country, I wouldn't think most places would close for christian holidays. their website doesn't seem to have a calendar, just events, which doesn't specify. i'd just email them http://skydivedubai.ae/contact/

We have been listening to this one quite a bit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B5p-05HvAhc

Anyone ever fart in a recirculating tunnel? Related question: Anyone ever been hit in the face by a 115 MPH fart? I dropped a bomb in the vestibule of the seattle tunnel and people flying at the time said they could smell it. That's pretty much my proudest moment in this sport.

Thanks everyone! Pretty happy about the world. Maybe they'll want to be like dad and jump?

I'm going to be a dad! My girlfriend and I are going to be having a baby and I'm pretty happy. I'm in the gotta-tell-people stage, what can I say.

I've sat in the back of a 182 and watched a guy with a second harness under his rig go out the door with a third canopy literally in a garbage bag so he could cut it away to meet a requirement for getting his tandem rating. It "deployed" just fine and he flew it around for a bit before chopping and deploying his main. Looked like a fun time to me, really.

That I can totally get behind. It would be cool to make the skills demonstration part harder. Maybe make a "perform three of the five actions" thing where night jumps is just one of them.

In my line of work there are a lot of literal tasks and projects that need to be done that don't at face value have much to do with things that your team mates need to do, but when you deconstruct the skills and analytical tools an individual needs to have in order to perform the required work, they are the same. The details of the execution may be different, but it's just taking the same skill set and implementing it in a different way. To me, the real question is when you deconstruct a skydive and you look at all the knowledge, judgement, and execution requirements, a night jump has many of the same requirements as any other "higher risk" jump. A "higher risk" jump to me is anything that isn't a jump under normal, optimal conditions. Whether it is a demo jump, a night jump, or a tandem, you are going to need to have proficiency in all the core competencies that when you put them together equals a jump. So I guess the question I would have is, if you don't like the idea of a night jump, what other mechanism would you like to see put in place to force a jumper to demonstrate that they possess all the required tools? The more I think about it the more a night jump seems like the perfect way to really test that, simply because it hits upon all of these core competencies at such little cost. No specialized gear is needed (other than a strobe and some chem lights). Plus it is a good initial requirement because later on if you want to specialize in demo jumps or tandem jumps, there are additional tests and whatnot. But a night jump seems like a good way to cover the pre-reqs, which is that you can get just yourself down safely in conditions that are not optimal. If you can find a better way to have a jumper demonstrate that that isn't a night jump, cool. But to say that a night jump doesn't have *any* relevance seems weird to me, unless you're only evaluating a night jump as some kind of super unique skill that doesn't have relevance to skydiving in any other context.

Maybe I'm dense, but what is the problem with night jumps to begin with? Why _wouldn't_ you want to do them? I understand from the thread all the issues about whether it is relevant, etc., which is questioning their value, but is it just superfluous in the minds of those who oppose, or is there something about the night jump itself that is so bad? Depth perception was listed, but what else? I didn't find it to be that big of a deal so I guess I'm not understanding the passion on the "aginnit" side".

I'm a lower time jumper, so this is just my opinion based on the perspective of a 200 jump skydiver. I recently did 2 night jumps and what I was thinking about in the preparation phase was that the activity required greater awareness of all aspects of the skydive. You had to understand the effects of the skydive without your traditional visual indicators, which requires a deeper understanding. It also requires you to be prepared to identify and handle any problems you may encounter, but without an easy visual reference. What does a malfunction mean in the dark? How can exit separation become a danger if you have a mal and don't know if the airspace around you is clear or not? You have to think about these things more than you do during the day time, and for some jumpers, they may not be in the habit of thinking about them at all. Having conducted a night jump, it is at least an indicator that you are aware of these things, and making it a requirement for a rating that says "i know what i'm doing" makes sense. By adding this to the skydive, you are forced out of your normal procedures and you can't fall back to your comfort zone to complete the dive successfully (and safely). While you could argue that a HALO jump or a wingsuit jump introduces similar changes to procedure that could serve as a substitute demonstration of skill/understanding, you have a lot more overhead and gear needs. All you need to make a night jump is a few hours of time after sunset to let the light conditions change. tldr; it isn't about the night jump, it's about forcing jumpers out of their comfort zone and making them perform under more difficult conditions than they are accustomed to demonstrate "mastery" of the activity.

This was an incredible event! Both Mel and Nick are absolute professionals and their camp was not only instructional but a really relaxed and fun time. We were able to cover much more than I would have thought, so it was totally worth the investment. If you ever have the chance to attend one of these, DO IT. Don't miss out on a great opportunity to learn a lot, make some new friends, and get inspired :)

Don't believe the hype, lol. "sunny day" there is defined as 30% or less cloud cover. I don't know about any of you, but if I said "want to jump today" and someone said "no, only 70% of the sky is blue" you'd laugh your ass off on jump run while they sat on the ground. to each their own. If I were you (original poster) I'd skip college for a year and spend a month or two in a few of these areas to see what the scene is like. visit schools while you're at it. work odd jobs, be a DZ hobo, and pick up school the next year. figure out what YOU want, fuck what any of us say about where you should live. Or maybe that's just me being 30 and wondering why the hell I didn't take a few years off between high school and college. c'est la vie!

Check out any school in western washington. there are two turbine DZs in the Seattle area, and we have some of the best mountains (mt baker, crystal, stevens), too. plus, whistler is drivable. We ALSO have great universities. You could go to UW, Western, Seattle U. All great schools. edited to add: we also have a brand new 14 foot tunnel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_Pd7V92uU I'm not disagreeing with your point in general, but there is is at least *one* documented case of a d-ring snag.

"weird" is a relative term in the skydiving world. You could probably ask for the same instructor and say that he has to take a little blue pill a few hours before but there's a fat tip involved and it might not really phase them. But when you say "fat tip" make sure you're clear that you're talking about money. They might get confused.

How does one know what their software version is? Is it accessible through the sys info menu interface on the AAD? Edited to add: what is the reason for the upgrade? A known bug/deficiency with the previous version? Increased features/reliability with the new version?

cool, thanks! Makes sense, I just noticed on the omniskore site that it didn't have a key so I figured it had to be a qualifications thing. Thanks for the info!

Newb question but in some of the scores for nationals I'm seeing (G) next to their name and it seems like they aren't included in the ranking. What's that all about?

Talk to your instructors, they can tell you all you want to know about the basics of canopy flight that will give you the building blocks you need to be able to apply your knowledge to your flight. It's up to you to speak up if you don't know something, that's why your instructors are there. Talk to more than one of them asking the same questions. They will all answer them in their own way, so if one explains it and you don't get it, another instructor might frame the same information in a different way that makes more sense to you. you aren't going to really learn what you're seeking from a book or the internet. It just takes time asking questions and then doing jumps over and over and really studying how your canopy flies. It's one of those things you just have to keep doing before it clicks. But really, your instructors is where you should seek your answer. That's what you need. As for that low reserve deployment video... fuck. that. shit.

I found someone to fly Friday night but still looking for someone to share time on Saturday. Melanie posted details on facebook: https://www.facebook.com/notes/highcommscom/ifly-seattle-tunnel-camp-november-18-19/232452623482348