EnricoPalazzo

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Everything posted by EnricoPalazzo

  1. EnricoPalazzo
    I've seen a semi-flexible plastic board break in half from heavy oscillations. Size was around 8x12 inches, also with cut-outs at the bottom for the hands. Quite hard to do this right with something that does no damage when dropped...
  2. EnricoPalazzo
    I know of one student jumper who blacked out under canopy (granted, student canopy, not a reserve ride) and landed uncontrolled. Canopy was ~220sqft, I guess WL around .75. He released the brakes before his lights went out. He came down on a meadow, short grass, with just a few scratches on his face. Really lucky that guy...
  3. EnricoPalazzo
    Hi Rashiid, if you take tunnel coaching to learn freefly straight after your A license, you will burn through the money you'd spend on a decent used system quicker than you can say "Sitfly", and unless you're a particularly gifted student, you'll be at most halfway stable by that time, but will lack the ability to put these skills to use in the sky. I'd say buy a rig, learn to fly belly until you can comfortably fly a 4-way and then go on to freefly. Even though I'm a freeflyer myself I realized (a little late) that belly is the fundamentals and you will need those skills way more often than you might imagine at this point. Not to mention the increased proficiency in canopy flight if you go for the rig instead of the tunnel.
  4. EnricoPalazzo
    Tracked right over a dove during separation, maybe 30m below me. Took me a few moments to realize what I saw, that might have hurt. A fellow of mine had a wasp splatter on his camera lens once when he looked down before pulling... and then again a few weeks later!
  5. EnricoPalazzo
    From what I can see, this is a chunky, Android-powered device. Of course, a real review has to wait until they actually release the device, but I'm not overly enthusiastic about trusting my life to a newly developed device sporting a notoriously unstable, complex operating system. If anyone knows more, please correct me. Apart from that, I use my old and trusty Neptune 2 for swooping as well, but an Optima/Quattro/ProTrack should do the job just fine also.
  6. EnricoPalazzo
    Love that part: An important part of evolving into a wise and learned freefly type is the difference between merely teasing belly flyers for being lame and actually meaning it. :D Although I get what you mean.
  7. EnricoPalazzo
    While I absolutely agree on objection to any censorship and don't particularly like Erdogan, this case is a little different. Böhmermann's "poem" contained very little satire and a lot of plain personal insult that is not covered by freedom of speech, but by laws against slander and defamation. Only the parts that contained defamation and slander and were not deemed art were forbidden by the judge. This was not in regards to Erdogan being a head of state, every other common person could (and probably would) have sued Böhmerman for this. A head of state might just have been above all of this, but this is where narcism comes into play: Erdogan could not tolerate one German satirist badmouth him, when doing nothing at all would probably have been the better option for keeping things down. Trump vs. the SNL skits (which for me clearly qualify as satire) is a different issue altogether.
  8. EnricoPalazzo
    Sounds just like the guy who lights a match to check if there is still gas left in the tank...
  9. EnricoPalazzo
    Yes, we do, on a C208B Supervan. Please have a look: https://www.facebook.com/airservicewesterwald/posts/1568482543461958:0
  10. EnricoPalazzo
    Thanks for the insight, that actually makes sense.
  11. EnricoPalazzo
    Very impressive. But honestly, I don't fully understand the benefit of landing a dog with a tandem if you have a helicopter which could just set it down whereever it is needed. Much slower, more dangerous, less precise. I guess it's just for keeping the dog happy, which is fair enough.
  12. EnricoPalazzo
    Just drop them an e-mail and hope they still have them in stock. Broke mine a few years ago and got 2 replacements for free directly from Altimaster.
  13. EnricoPalazzo
    Disclaimer: I'm not a basejumper, so I don't know what's customary in that sport. But an important difference to TK's scenario is: In skydiving, it's very clear cut if you're on a jump or not. Anyone boarding a plane without legstraps should of course be stopped by whoever is responsible for safety that day or by any other jumper. Anyone walking around at the DZ with a rig on but no legstraps: hell, why not? He's not boarding at this time. On a bridge jump, there is no plane, no boarding, no ride to altitude, no red line reading "rigs on after this point", so at which point do you start yelling at people, especially if they are not part of your group but a random jumper you've never seen before? I'd say: at the point where said jumper starts climbing over the rail and obviously readies himself for jumping, which is what Douggs did. So hats off for spotting this while being busy watching his own guys!
  14. EnricoPalazzo
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2011_Norway_attacks You're welcome.
  15. EnricoPalazzo
    I admit I'm not the neatest when it comes to packing. My Crossfire did give me some line twists now and then. Since I switched to a semi-stowless bag (on a Curv) around 300 jumps ago, I did have exactly one full twist after opening. No complaints at all, very nice, consistent openings with this type of d-bag.
  16. EnricoPalazzo
    Most interesting! I was reminded of this: https://youtu.be/4ds9mfUB7Dg?t=1m44s
  17. EnricoPalazzo
    Interesting! Would this be available commercially, with after-sales support, and what would be the price? Can you provide more details (e.g. a video) of setup and operation? We've been looking into Herocast, but quickly realized that this would not be adequate for skydiving (mainly because of range, but also because of cost vs. benefit).
  18. EnricoPalazzo
    I did not mean to fight it until you hit the dirt, hence "I don't know how high you were or how hard you were spinning". Of course, always watch your alti regularly when fighting a malfunction, and stick to your harddeck, but the technique I described saves time in untwisting the canopy. Much more effective than simply trying to kick it out, if you can reach above the twist. If you chop, it's your decision alone and no-one but you has the right to second-guess it. But if you decide to give it a try, use the best tools available.
  19. EnricoPalazzo
    Nice spin there :) The twist was pretty low down the lines. If you are give this chance, instead of gripping below the twist and try to kick it out with legs only, grip above the twist and gain a LOT of leverage in turning out of the twists. I don't know how high you were or how hard you were spinning of course, but this might have helped.
  20. EnricoPalazzo
    I nominate "Meet The Feebles".
  21. EnricoPalazzo
    Hey Jerry, I for one really like them, so please keep 'em coming
  22. EnricoPalazzo
    That's because they're assholes. Not really. That's because they know that there's not much to learn or enjoy for either of you. Starting freefly (without the tunnel, mind you), you will spend much of your time just blasting through orbit without being remotely stable in any position. A coach jump now and then will help you spot and correct mistakes, but this is training, not exactly fun jumping (yet). Until your halfway stable in a sit, there's not much sense in making a 2-way for fun. Once you're there, you WILL be asked to join other freeflyers (unless YOU're the asshole).
  23. EnricoPalazzo
    I was hoping for a German rigger to reply. There is no general age limit to gear in Germany. If the vendor does not place a hard limit on the reserve and a rigger has confirmed its airworthiness (e.g. during the normal repack), you can jump it in Germany. My last reserve was 11 years old when I sold it and it is still flying.
  24. EnricoPalazzo
    I cannot tell you if the DZ exists, but I've seen this type of website capture a number of times. I would not rule out that the website does indeed belong to said DZ but was hacked.
  25. EnricoPalazzo
    From the BluTracker website: What is the range of BluTracker when there are buildings or trees between the Smartphone and BluTracker? US Version is approximate 250-1000 feet. European Version is approximate 40-80 meters. Hm... not quite so good either.