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Skydiving became a lifestyle for me long ago. I have spent 70% of my life at the DZ and wasted the other 30%.

Hi Rob, As do I. Jerry Baumchen

1) That’s what this entire stupid thread is about. 2) They allowed that before.

I skydived for 40 years because skydiving helped keep my dopamine levels up. for some reason, my body does not naturally generate the same levels of dopamine as most other people. In order to kick-start dopamine production, I need to do something mildly dangerous like running or flying or skydiving. With regular skydives, my body learned to generate regular amounts of dopamine. Another theory is that schoolyard bullies and regular spankings at home conditioned me to expect "X" amounts of fear and pain in my life. All those beatings programmed me to expect "X" amount of adrenaline per day. As an adult, I learned how to avoid bullies, but still expected those same levels of fear of and pain. I experimented with a variety of ways to artificially generate those same levels of fear and pain. I Drove fast until I realized the foolishness of that. Drinking to excess just left me feeling hung-over the next day. I never found a recreational drug that generated comfortable levels of adrenaline. Bar room brawling soon proved an awkward way to get my adrenaline levels up. I climbed rocks until the sport quit scaring me. I rode bicycles too fast until I lost too much skin during too many "high speed dismounts". I flew airplanes until I could no longer afford to rent Cessnas enough to stay current. Running helped. But skydiving was the only regular adrenaline generator that I could consume on a regular basis. So I quit my regular job and pursued skydiving as a full-time career for 18 years. I only quit skydiving after the nearest DZ closed and I got into an argument with the next nearest DZO. Since the next nearest DZO and I were never going to agree on the use of seat-belts, I concluded that it was foolish to fly in his airplanes without seat-belts and I quit skydiving completely. I still miss the cameraderie and adrenaline rush of skydiving.

Over the edge - BASE Magazine I've tried putting together a new base magazine, with the intent of making it a more regular thing with news, tips and educational articles. Big thanks to all that helped with issue #1. Feedback and help with future issues is more than welcome :)

I took the 90's off; I had plenty in my life, and didn't miss skydiving while I wasn't doing it. But I kept my gear -- I always intended to take it back up. Since taking it back up, I've spent longer jumping, and made more jumps, than I did in my first skydiving career (and that was 13 years worth, so it wasn't insignificant). I'm in my mid-60's, and I've been actively jumping for just about half of that. If you include the 13 years off (during which I was a very regular reader of rec.skydiving, and an occasional contributor -- it just never really left me), then it's been a part of my life for well over 2/3 of it. And Riggerrob and Jerry -- I'd have to say that even if you're not actively jumping, skydiving is most definitly a part of your lives... Wendy P.

I've "heard" that there are waivers, but never seen them. Perhaps it's an interpretation of the rules. There's the maximum weight the gear has been rated at, and then there's the maximum weight that will put a canopy faster than 24 feet per second descent rate, 36 feet per second total speed (usually around 1.3 WL) which would be significantly below the tested load weight (i.e 254 lbs). As an example, the PD Reserve 143 size has a maximum weight of 254 lbs, which would put it at about 1.8 WL. An Icarus Reserve 149 reserve has a maximum suspended weight listed of 199 lbs, which is about 1.3 WL. Is a waiver required by PD to list a maximum weight above 1.3 WL? I don't know. That's the regulatory part of it, so what of the actual performance? I don't think there's a significant difference in descent rate between the PDR, PD Optimum, Aerodyne Smart/SmartLPV, etc. with the same wing loading and canopy size, so I don't think that's a relevant factor in choosing between them. I think that there was the idea that there was, based on Optimums having some time of waiver, and PDRs not. But I don't believe that's actually the case. And of course what's the safe thing? Most, if not all of the C23 testing standards (NAS, SAE, PIA) list a maximum 24 ft/s descent rate and 36 ft/s total velocity for a deployment configured (i.e., brakes stowed and no flare) landing, and that roughly translates to 1.3 WL. Does that mean you're safe below 1.3 and dead above 1.3 if you land unconscious with no flare? Of course not. The higher the WL you are, the more danger there is. There's also the issue of canopies getting aggressive, regardless of the design, when loading them highly. But in choosing between the various reserves, I don't think descent rate variability given the same size and wing loading is an issue. That would be interesting to test.

Those are rhetorical questions, right?

He wants to troll you. It's a violation of forum rules but no-one cares.

NYT, May 2: "The pay gap between college graduates and everybody else is near a record high. More educated Americans are more likely to be in stable relationships and to be happy with their lives and less likely to suffer from loneliness, chronic pain and alcohol and drug abuse. These differences have long existed, but they have widened significantly in recent decades, as the economists Anne Case and Angus Deaton documented in their 2020 book 'Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism'.” Better educated citizens will contribute more to society in general, and specifically in the taxes that pay for education. The poorly educated are more likely to vote for a populist blow-hard con-man while contributing little in taxes.

Imagine being ignorant enough to think electric vehicles only have one battery... Only May 2 and we have a candidate for stupidest post of the month...

A well educated citizenry benefits everyone. It's not all about career options. Thanks to the poorly educated we got a pussy grabbing con-man for our last president.

To be sure, your immediate concern is to get through your levels one by one. But since you like to over think things, what I was doing with my post was trying to convey a train of thought. Those aren't things you necessarily need to know before your next jump, but it illustrates a way of learning. You mentioned the hop n pop. The hop n pop is relevant to emergency exits. So I was fleshing out what else is relevant to emergency exits. If you look at things that way, you can learn not just 'what' they're teaching you, but why it's important. That way, you don't just do a hnp because that's what they told you to do, you prepare yourself for the possibility of an emergency exit. If you do that with all of the TLO's, and the environment in general, you become a well informed, prepared skydiver. A bit more about the hnp and emergency exits and survival in general. Like I've said, the point of the hnp is not to make a safe jump from 5k, it's to prepare yourself for an emergency exit. By most DZ protocols, you might be asked to do one anywhere over 1500ft. So while it is important on your actual hnp to 'take your time and get stable', it's not really about 'calculating freefall time', it's about being able to get the f out and get the f open when it's absolutely necessary. Taking 1000ft to do it might work on your official practice jump, but it might not be practical some day irl. So it's worth training yourself on. And some of your learning doesn't necessarily take dedicated study so much as targeted observation. For example, learning alternate landing areas. You don't need your pilot to draw you a map of his routes which you then study on Google Earth, just gaze out the window on your ride up and ask yourself 'if I needed to exit now, where would I land?' And to be sure, protocols are in place for a reason, and the Pilot in Command is in charge, so do what he says. And you need to be cognizant of things like weight and balance, and calm order vs panicked chaos. But there may come a moment in time when your immediate survival may require a decision. Here's a story from dinosaur days, long before seat belts were a thing. There was a DC-3 on takeoff roll. They were getting up to pretty good speed, but were still on the runway when things started to get out of control and it was apparent they were going to crash before they even took off. One guy in the back decided to dive out the door and pull his round reserve. He knew he was going to hit the runway, but he figured his canopy would stop him quickly, which it did. He went out the door thinking he was going to be the only survivor. Well the plane did groundloop and cartwheel and whatever, and pretty much everybody was injured to varying extents, by the grace of God no one died. But this guy went out the door figuring he'd be the only survivor, and survive he did. He was satisfied.

Found it....Visor Mount from ZKULLS http://www.zkulls.com/