winksmith

wasn't that a stunt a few years back (10 or so). two bi-planes, each with drogue chutes. a guy gets out of one plane and flies over to the other one and lands in the airplane w/o deploying his parachute. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

flat tracking means you are losing altitude much less than a full track, but you are still losing altitude. where does the energy come from so that you can move? there's always a trade off. try this... go as slow as you possibly can. have a friend maintain altitude that speed, then move anyway you want. do you maintain altitude with your buddy? go up? go down? even a little counts. but we digress (one could argue that is the purpose of a forum

you are trading altitude for horizontal motion. tracking increases your vertical speed. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

i think that you'll find the physics of landing on a cherokee just as desirable. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

i don't have 28 years behind me, but at 17 years i'm no slouch either. there was a couple of times that i should have stood down, but didn't. i regret that even though nothing happened, and i've learned from it. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

how do i read next unread message? there's a button for next thread, but that's not the same thing. the next unread message can be in the current thread or the next thread, or 10 threads down. i looked through faq and searched faq with no luck. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

at 100mph the plan of a PLF may make you feel better, but i don't the physics of it will work. your downwards velocity just can't be translated to horizontal that quickly. your bones just can't handle it (not to mention the soft guey goodness inside your body). -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

> track my ass off to minimize vertical descent not that there's a good plan for this scenario, but keep in mind that tracking increases your vertical descent. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

i seem to remember terminal velocity at sea level as being nearer to 90mph. i know, even if true, not much solice... i know a guy who should have died, but didn't. he had some stuff out (main and reserve), but not enough to slow him down to a survivable rate. he punched a whole in a hangar roof and some parts of this parachute hung up on the rafters. certainly saved his life. i think he ended up with some bruising. not that i'm in a rush to die, but it would be one more adventure, might as well make the best of it (sure, i say this now). -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

the SIM used start off with the sections that were needed for each license. USPA has included this information (sorta) in their online SIM (http://www.uspa.org/publications/SIM/SIMtext/Appendix_B.htm). read that and see if it helps any. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

i was president of the skydiving club (uhm, that would be 1985-ish) at SUNY Stony Brook. we would advertise regularly. many, many, many people were interested all the time. the number of people who actually made it out to the dz was miniscule. i don't remember numbers, but i wouldn't be surprised if it was 1 in 50 or even 1 in 100. the conversation would go something like this: me: get your skydiving here! them: hey, i always wanted to go skydiving! me: you're in luck, we're running a trip next weekend them: uhm, i busy that weekend. me: that's okay, we're running a trip two weekends after that. them: oh yeah, that's the weekend of my . you get the picture... -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot

i know a guy who dropped a motorola radio from 1000 feet into the forest below. on a lark, the guy who dropped it went looking for it the following week--and found it. it worked perfectly even after having sat on the ground for a whole week. -------------- Mark Smith AFF-I, S&TA, ex-Strong Tandem, Instrument Pilot