obelixtim

Sad to see Bills stuff up for sale like this. Good idea to ask him to donate them to the museum, but I suspect he will at least want compensation. Might be better to wait till the auction is about to close, and if he has no bids, for someone to put in a low bid and see where it goes from there. Then it could be donated to the museum, which is where it should be anyway. Just don't get into a bidding war with someone with the same idea..... My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

I had a Delta 11 back in 1976, did about 80 jumps on it, never had a mal, but they were regarded with suspicion by just about everyone. It seemed to me most of the mals were caused by wrapping all the lines inside the OSI. I always left one nose line out. I lent it to a guy one day who had sold his Delta 11 after lots of chops, he packed it, and of course chopped it as well, due to packing it with all the nose lines in. A mate decided to take the OSI off his Delta 11, and put on a slider type device, basically 2 x 6 inch rings connected by a short piece of webbing. He asked me to jump it (without telling me what he'd done) which I did. The canopy came out of the bag, the rings fell down the lines and hit me on the head a nano second before the explosive opening nearly knocked me out. 2 grand under canopy still seeing stars, I looked down to see him driving at speed out of the airfield gates. Didn't catch up with him for about a week. Thats mates for ya!!!. He modified his "slider" a couple of times and came up with a workable system. I think his idea was simply to save a bit of weight and bulk, because the OSI was quite bulky. Being rather solid, I got quite good performance out of my wing, some of the early Strato Stars were just coming onto the market, and I could usually stay with them when the PC's and cheapos were being left behind on long spots. I liked that canopy, mainly because everyone was scared of it and loved telling me every load that I was going to have a mal, but it proved them wrong every time. No one ever asked to jump it. Eventually sold it and bought a Strat. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

A person with 100 jumps should never lose control like that guy did. Its a big worry if there are more like that. They have no business being that incompetant. Senior people are not doing their job. And these turkeys are the guys who want to strap go pros to all outer surfaces. No one should get past an "A" licence inless they can control all aspects of FF. Ever. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Darwin and the Reaper.....rounding up the unthinking. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

By "old farts", I'm talking about people who were jumping last century. One or two weird ideas seem to have popped up over the last few years, based on I'm not sure what. The laws of gravity and motion haven't changed since flying too close to the sun went out of fashion. And substandard instructors is another slow festering can of worms. More professional study as a requirement for instructional ratings, on instructional techniques, teaching and learning, would be a good start. But thats another story, yet to be played out. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

. Only if you try every square inch.......through your nostrils. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Try and suck air through it..... My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Well I've been jumping for 39 years, and instructing students for most of that time, and its only recently I've ever heard of "balling up". Maybe its a tunnel technique, as you say, but as a way to recover from instability on a skydive, its not a tried and true method. A bit like the recent "idea" to barrel roll while tracking away from a formation to check for traffic. Some bright sparks idea, just not a very good one. Listen to the old farts if you want sound advice. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

That's why we file NOTAMs :-) It doesn't stop you getting hit .. juts let's them know where to look for the bodies Hang gliders don't file notams especially out in the boondocks where these guys were. The Skwarqs were on a low level cross country exercise, and being air force, pretty much go where they like. They wouldn't have expected to see Hangliders whwere they were. I doubt there'd be anything but mince if there had been a collision. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Had a friend and his mate who had just launched their hang gliders off a cliff about 1000 feet above the valley floor when a couple of A4 Skyhawks blasted through underneath them. I doubt the pilots even had time to register them before they were past. I think the boys had to change their underwear when they landed. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

"Conscious thought and awareness in the air". The gospel according to Captain Hook at a seminar he ran for noob RW'ers back in 1976, that I absorbed which changed my skydiving right away. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

I don't know where this idea of curling up in a ball came from, but I don't think it is the best way to deal with it at all. Fairly likely it would put you on your back or maybe continue a tumble, which doesn't help much with orientation. I wouldn't bother with it when you have other remedies i.e. Pull, arch or delta. Stability problems and solutions should be easily mastered within one or two jumps, and should be ingrained before trying anything more complicated. If people are getting right through an AFF programme without mastering these basics, then that points to a massive failure of the AFF programme in itself, and needs to be rectified. I don't know how things have even got to that stage. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Well said. Never underestimate your enemy. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Reinventing ways to die.....now thats clever!!. Introducing a known hazard is not a good move. Notice that the guy in the video had the strap looped around his wrist. The lesson about attaching things to yourself was learnt many years ago (ripcord stops) and has been learnt by quite a few who attached themselves to things like flags, smoke canisters and the like. Entanglements can still happen, and still kill people. Having lots of tandem experience does not make this suddenly a good idea. If it catches on in a big way people will die. And with tandem, that will be in pairs. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

That indicates your instructors were not very good. Its not a reflection on you, but rather a reflection on them. Anyone doing more than 7 or 8 DRP's is not being trained properly, unless their jumping is irregular. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Hopefully Mile hi counter sue for harassment. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Google Libby Lyver New Zealand, and you might be able to contact her that way. It will take you to a link you should be able to use to contact her. Belay that. Make it a Yahoo search. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Well done, great contribution. I take it that the guy in the video is one of your ex students. Looking in a mirror as you typed that, were you?. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

If some of the cells on the main stayed inflated even for a short time, the main would drift further. If someone had a eyeball on them as they descended, the main should be on the same line as the freebag. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

You'll need to get down to about 220 before anyone will look at you...tandem rigs have an all up weight limit, and most tandem operations won't take a passenger over 220 pounds max. A good reason to shed some pounds though.... My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

I would think at 100 jumps he should be way past the sensory overload stage. I don't think he was doing anything to correct what was happening. His brain was switched off. So he was neither thinking clearly, or aware of what his body was doing. In FF the key adage applies. "Concious thought, and awareness in the air". I.E. At all times, you should be thinking clearly, and be aware of what your body is doing (body position), as well as being aware of where others are in the sky. This applies no matter how much experience you have, and is something newbies have to learn when sensory overload is at its peak. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Yeah, why?. Hand in your man card. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

Darwin and the Reaper working hand in hand..... My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

That is a ridiculous situation. A reserve configuration like that does nothing but get you to the scene of the impact faster. Almost need to get back to the days of pack opening bands... And you need a haircut!!!! My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....

You will get practice with this with your CAT F and H dives. There we will go over the difference between swooping and the delta for the best possible flat track when you start jumping with others. Swooping is a necessary evil, that hopefully you won't really have to worry about for some time. We really can't practice either in the tunnel. The spin in this vid is scarey, it is not normal which is why I feel for any student the sees that. It shouldn't happen, which is why a very experienced jumper pointed this out (Thanks Krisanne.) in the very beginning of this post. Then we have another student concerned that the "G" forces build up to the point that you can't function. AND then we have someone who should know better second this view. This doesn't reflect reality however.... The person in the vid was taught, hopefully, that when freeflying with others the most important thing is to stay with the group so that you don't suddenly "POP UP" and become a collision hazard. It is all too common to see very pooor back flyiers or sit flyiers discover that their skills aren't that good at times like these. The alternative is to do what you have been taught from the biggining which is arch and relax. If you do this the spinning stops but you do pop up compared with head down flying. This is what you are seeing in this vid. They are doing everything they can to stay fast. Recovering by arching is the last thing on this persons mind. Despite what others have to say the speed of this kid spinning is intentional. They are doing something to maintain this speed of rotation. Although I want to say that 99.999 percent of us are not going to ever spin that fast, the potential does exsist for this to happen. You should know that if your unconscious, and a belly flier, that spins like this are not possible. And the G Force thing is just bullshit, rumor, and plain old wrong to keep spreading misinformation like this. I have come out of spins much faster than this, my eyes have been bloodshot, I have thrown up, but through it all and as many others have done as well, we have no issues whatsoever moving our arms to pull. In fact at this point the majority of jumpers out there can get into a high speed turn and then get out of any, and I mean any unusual attitude within FREQUENTLY less than a hundred feet or so. If you want to practice leaving the aircraft in unusual positions, because yo can use the step to generate forces that are otherwise unavailable feel free to do this. My only caution is to make sure you don't jump up and hit the tail. Why do this? Well to use the aircraft as a reference and practice recovering as fast as you can. And believe me, most can recover in incredieeebley short distances. making the kid in this vid a moot issue and a bit of an overblown thing that only the unknowing would be concerned about.... Heck talk to any acrobatic pilot, that has pulled over 6 G's and ask them about G forces. They are not pleasant but you can still function just fine. A spinning skydiver cannot generate these kind of forces because their center is not constant nor can they generate these kinds of forces period. Can a highly loaded canopy gernereate these forces, actually this is a bit of a debate and more to do with the physical condition of the individual jumper. Something about the length of the lines and the forces that a hundred square feet of fabric can generate. It seems as the forces increase the fabric starts to stall. In other words even a malignant canopy can't reach over 6 G's, because of this stall factor. BUT most skydivers are not in any physical condition to withstand much over 2 G's without passing out. Yo won't have to worry about any of this for quite some time. And if the day comes remember to do your ep's before the spinning gets radical anyways, your skyhook MARD will do it's job and have your reserve out in less than a full rotation. Why people hang on to uncontrollable postage stamps is beyond me...but that is a different discussion for another day. Have a talk with ELI and show him this thread, I'm sure you have more to worry about up there than worring about this. Like the vast forest surrounding your DZ. C The Delta is coming up, be paitient, and it isn't taught to students for spin recovery for a reason. Good post. The only possible reason to not teach students the Delta is on their very early jumps where they could escape from their AFF Instructors. Once they are solo without an Instructor attached, I see no good reason why the Delta isn't taught. It is one jump, and the most instant and effective recovery method of spin or any instability. It is no big deal to learn, at all. Period. My computer beat me at chess, It was no match for me at kickboxing....