Skyper

did you wore a cam during your aff training?

Peripherial vision (up and down) is obstructed with that kind of helmets and it's also too heavy for skydiving. Of course, you can jump what ever you want... but I prefer stuff designed for skydiving because we all know that in skydiving one little f* up might be enough for fatality or bad injury.

even if they land downwind the chance that they would have a perfect downwind direction is very small. Their horizontal path will have a side component as well. Which makes superman (slide) landing even more risky. But hey, superman would look like a dork if he had to PLF on his landing...

`massive drop´ you can also built in small rocket engines activating just prior the landing. They are usually used for massive drops, like tanks and heavy equipment.

Proper PLF includes rolling. While rolling the energy of impact is spread all over the back. Proper PLF includes putting your chin to the chest. I really see no point of why whould superman/karate kid/spider man alike landing of what so ever be better than proper PLF? edit: for the "slide" put your legs too high and you risc pretty intense rubbing of your ass and your leg streps. put your legs too low you risc ending up in the face plant position. and even one hole or rock on your path can make those two scenarios above even worse.

Jim, the "up and down" peripherial vision is exactly what I meant. I can imagine that "left down behind and right down behind" is more hard to observe with an FF helmet. Doing only a 90 degree turn with that kind of helmet is (IMHO) more risky than with open face helmet or no helmet at all purely because peripherial vision is obstracted by the helmet. Of course I'm talking only about canopy flight! Not wearing a helmet or wearing open face helmet may lead to painfull experiences during formation jumps or tail strike or...

Do FF helmets influence the pheriperial vision in such a way that it bounds the skydivers visual perception during canopy flight? A long time ago, and I think it's still the case it was not allowed to students to jump FF helmets because it bounds the pheriperial vision. I remember that some were also speculating that some low pulls or no pulls were also related with FF helmets, because the divers couldn't locate the handles.

After all the recent incidents-So are you saying that even if you're not quite the last to land or the next load is already approaching that you'll still make your swoop??? We only have one plane in the sky at a time so 2 loads in the sky at the same time is a non-issue for my DZ. USPA: "One accident involved two jumpers...who were the only two jumpers under canopy at the time. Another accident involved a jumpers... both very proficient and with very little other traffic around them."

plus 1 how about a big screen or something similar with areal image of LZ, depicting a current landing pattern...

http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumerfacts/wireless911srvc.html Remster, thanks for the link. As you can read, there is no GPS mentioned in the requirements. Up to 300 meters positioning accuracy you can reach almost effortlessly from the very introduction of the cell phone (without GPS thus). And, as I said, GPS signal is indoors almost never available. In some bigger cars with a thick roof and in busses GPS signal is also very often unavailable. Even more, if your GPS is always ON it consumes such large amount of energy that your battery will not last long. Hellis, yes indeed YOU can switch it on or off using some applications. But there is no law inforcement procedure (nor application) allowing police to switch your GPS on. If they really need it they would certainly make such law. They can find you very fast without any GPS signal it's enough that your phone is ON and within the network range. To my knowledge this kind of "services" are used only for tracing the criminals when they need to be arrested and during some emergency calls.

It is required on every phone but you can turn it off. most of the time E911 GPS cannot be disabled to my humble knowledge, there is no such thing as `e911 gps`. Even more, gps has very low signal straight - indoor it almost never works. if you turn gps off on your phone there is no `back door` for the police to turn it on, nor (as I said previously) they need it in order to pinpoint your current location.

It is required on every phone but you can turn it off. gps is not required nor needed to trace a mobile device. police and ambulance in some European countries are using this from the very introduction of the cell phone. The ordinary mobile phone can be very well traced without GPS. If a device is switched on and within the mobile network range it´s tracable. And with a proper mobile equipment on the scene, you can trace it to the point.

I like the part of your story "reserve exploded like a bomb" Did you have any physical injuries due to that hard opening? Edit: how did you cut away that reserve?

Shah which part is not easy? If you are not able to lead the discussion in the direction you want how is she supposed to trust you that you're able to lead your (and her) relationship in the right direction? imho, the person which starts and keep talking about this kind of topics upfront is dismissed - upfront.

+1

I see. In your example, the question about kids is just a side one... it's enough to answer that you did not have kids. And that kind of questions are finished. You don't have to say that you didn't want them. Humans who do not want to have kids are in a large minority. Which means that your quest will take more time than a quest for person wanting them. they are a minority, not only because of the social conditioning, but also because of the animal instincts. People are made to make siblings - at least the most of "us". As long as you want to have sex... your body wants to make the siblings. Condom is rational and purely artificial thing. The "decision" not to have kids is IMHO more rational and more socially conditioned than the decision to have them...

Shah, I really wonder who brings this "kids topic" and when? I cannot imagine that young girls start talking about kids before at least few weeks of relationship are passed... I mean... it's not like internet bull-crap dating putting the board on your forehead "hight, width, depth, lenght(s)... " "I don't like pasta" "I like skydiving", "I don't wanna any kids" well. if you get an "interview" upfront of that kind you better ask yourself who did you choose to go out with... the chance is real you're talking with a psychedelic one.

"Strong" probably refers to intensity of opening and not to durability

this is not particular answer to tk. i just clicked the last post in this mega thread... At the moment of writting this message American toorps are at least in 5 foreign countries. They officially "protect the interests of the USA". Actually, they are occupying foreign territories. Media in the USA convinced the most of the citizens these actions are "legitimate" and "needed" and... blah-blah Actually if it comes to the interests of the American Rulling Class any "evidence" and any "proof" can be produced to convince the masses to think in this or that way. They convinced the public that Sadam has the "weapons of mass destruction" and consequently bombed and occupied Iraq. For the rulling class, producing the evidence of Obama's birth certificat proofing he was born on the Moon would be as easy as zapping to next TV channel for you and me... Get real. some interests are above the interests of the citizens and above the interests of the State.

On my first ff jump I did not pull at all. It was a long time ago and during all these years I still cannot understand what was passing through my head during that jump. I was probably so overwhelmed by the experience that I totally lost the perception of time and altitude. The first time I checked the altimeter was just prior the AAD activation when I thought "maybe it's time to pull..." when I reached with my hand to pull at that very moment AAD did the job... I had a hard times explaining to instructor and dzo what has happened. I was grounded for next two months.

relationship between two persons is a two way road. Both must comply to accomplish something. To make it worse, there are also emotions involved and therefore it´s far too irrational to be discussed... never say never. there is a pretty good chance you´ll ever meet someone with whom u´d like to have a kid more than anything else. again, it´s not only about your opinion it´s about your body and your emotions and those cannot be always controlled by logical decision making ohh, yes, and answer to your question. lying is very big turn off. don´t do it. Pretending to be someone else is fooling yourself, not the others. Even if you succeed in it... you´ll end up with the person you really don´t want.

Thank you Doc. This video is good.

very interesting is the statement that the most midair collisions happend during the landing pattern (and final approach) at low altitudes. Does someone know if this is also the case for parachutes?

+1

I am not sure what you mean. Sparky example: Following the Chuck´s post, he is now aware of the effect that the time slows down in the critical situations. Next time he experience the similar situation he might think that the time slows down again and he might be doing the same things slower... and loose more time. btw. it´s generally accepted theory that during the critical events humans react quicker and because of that might think that the time elapses slower. They are of course not aware of this effect during the event - but afterwards - as Chuck described in his post: he was aware of it while watching the video footage of the event.