riddler

What you can expect depends on where you are. In general - get an LED flashlight. The beam is less bright (but just as easy to see by) and you won't attract as many annoyances (jellyfish, etc). I did a night dive on Cayman Brac two months ago and had a POWERFUL Halogen flashlight, which attracted nearly every bloodworm in the cayman trench. They swarmed so much they actually blocked out my light. I swam over to my "buddy" turned off my light so they went to hers, swam away, and turned mine back on

It would also be interesting to see what the results would be if the kill-line was not cocked. I'm guessing it would be 50/50. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I completely agree that kids should be able to skydive. I hope to have kids someday, and I will get my tandem rating expressly for the purpose of taking them skydiving. Either that, or I'll just have SkyMonkey do it But I don't think it will be long before a 16-y/o is hurt and their parents sue. It's all about the risk you are willing to take. BillBooth is making that statement that if you do it with his gear, you are also putting his company at risk, as well as the USPA and your dropzone. USPA says that it's OK to take a 16 y/o. Your dropzone may say it's OK, and it's OK with you. So if you can jibe it with the gear manufacturer, then everyone's willing to accept the risk and there's no problem. I know in Colorado, a minor (under 18) can't even ENTER a legal agreement legally, so if they sign anything, it's not binding. Also, I know (at least it used to be) that a parent could not sign away their child's rights here as well. That makes both signatures (parent and minor) not-binding, which will probably get the waiver thrown out in court. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I saw that one too. I don't watch TV at all, but I saw that at the movie theater. Same as you - I thought it was good until the crater part. They actually used real gear (mini - risers, etc). Usually, they use round parachutes with ripcords - it seems that Hollywood is more interested in presenting the "image" of skydiving, rather than the real thing. I recently saw a trailer for another movie where the guy jumped a white round canopy. For a second, I thought that it was a remake of Gypsy Moths. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Depends on if the kill-line was definitely cocked or not. If I go to McDonalds and order a hamburger, they serve the hamburger without cooking the meat, and I eat it without checking it, it's both our fault. I should have checked it before I ate it, but they also should have cooked it. I would demand my money back, and you can bet McDonalds would refund me. That's a fair and expected relationship. You pay for a service, and if the full service isn't delivered, you get your money back. If the kill-line was indeed cocked, the packer should get paid. There's a difference between not getting a service and only thinking you didn't get a service. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Old and outdated gear nearly killed me on two different occasions. One was rental gear - the other was my own and not well maintained. Yes, I want to be a rigger. I want to know everything about everything about the gear I am jumping. I consider it a matter of survival. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

My brother (the biology PhD at Albert Einstein University in New York - have I mentioned how proud I am of him??) benches 300, 4 reps and has never used drugs in his life. He's also been lifting weights for 15 years. It can be done without drugs. Drugs are for people that are impatient. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Snopes Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I think it makes more sense under a reserve to land without worrying about your own main and reserve. It's hard enough landing an unfamiliar canopy without trying to keep one eyeball somewhere else. If you have good friends, they might chase your stuff under their normal canopies But I've know people to swoop their reserve too, so I guess it depends on how much risk you are willing to take Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That's not what I got from it. The message I got was "don't try to catch a main at all, and if you have a lot of experience and knowledge of CReW and a lot of jumps, it is possible, with some risk, to catch the freebag." This is an important distinction. People see video of others catching mains and probably want to try it themselves. Bill just said don't do it, and if even if you go for the freebag, you can get hurt. As much as I'd like to be that good of a pilot, I probably never will be. I used to follow mains down because they're more expensive. I think I'll just follow the freebag down from now on - those seem to get lost more often, and they're usually not that far from the main. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Imagine that you only have one hand to execute your emergency procedures. This has happened to a few jumpers. I know personally one jumper that dislocated a shoulder on exit, and was only able to use one arm after opening - fortunately she didn't have to use EPs. I personally know another that caught the bridle around his right hand and had to execute EPs with the left hand. Either way, you only have one hand free. If your cutaway cables are too long, you will not be able to release your main with just one hand. You pull the handle to full arm extension, and it doesn't release the three-rings because there is still some cable in the loop. Maybe you could pull the handle, then release it and then also pull some very slippery cable. Or maybe you couldn't if the cable was too slippery or if the pull force was high. Maybe the extra seconds of grabbing it twice costs you a few hundred feet of altitude. Do you want to chance that? To me it would make sense to have the cable the correct length, rather than just really long. If the cable is the correct length, you should be able to release the 3-rings with full arm extension with either hand. If it's too long, you can't do that. Edit for grammar. I usually let one spelling or grammar error go, but for two or more, I have to fix it Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

How would you do this if you only had one hand free? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

This is not a normal cutaway procedure at the DZ I teach at. The procedures state "pull the cutaway handle". Some people state "to full arm extension" and others say "and throw it away", which may imply using both hands to get rid of the entire thing. But it isn't stated to use both hands or to grab the cord itself. Here is an instance from Category A of the USPA ISP: If you see anywhere it's written in the SIM to grab the cables, let me know so that I can integrate it into the FJC. There are some problems with suggesting that you can use one or both hands to grab the cables. Obviously it works much of the time, but it won't always. 1. There is a reason both your cutaway and reserve handles have been located within easy reach on the front of your rig. Each can be activated with the use of only one hand. That is for situations where one hand is disabled for whatever reason. This sometimes happens. People have dislocated shoulders during exit, freefall or opening, and have been able to use only one hand to execute emergency procedures. Also, if you have one hand caught in the bridle (horseshoe), you won't be able to use it to release your main. If you don't have both hands free, then you can only use one for EPs. 2. The yellow cable should be slippery from a lubricant applied. The lubricant helps slide through the three-ring release when pull forces are high. The yellow cable should be lubricated every 30 days (recommendation by Hooknswoop). This also makes it slippery and hard to pull. It can certainly be done. But if anyone at your DZ teaches this to students, they should let them know that it's not necessarily going to be easy to do. Maybe they should practice that in the hanging harness. Remember that many times, pull forces exceed 50 pounds - trying to pull 50 pounds or more on slippery cables is difficult at best. 3. Pulling, then seeing it didn't work, then using one or both hands to grab the yellow cable is going to delay the emergency procedures at a time where every fraction of a second counts. Normally, having to use both hands to grab the handle and cables would be an unusual circumstance. But if you cut the cables too long, then it will be required for every cutaway. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What do you think this was? Was your shirt white? Is your main pilot chute white? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I think it's possible for cable lengths to be too long as well. I sometimes put smaller people (usually girls) in the hanging harness, and the cable is long enough that if they have short arms they can't extract it all the way. Then you're getting into a situation where you start using two hands to pull on the yellow cable directly. And if it's got a nice new coating of Ace silicon lubricant (which it should), it's slippery and harder to yank on. Obviously, 2 or 3 inches is way too short, but I think it's better to say that the cables should be the correct length. The correct length should probably be short enough that you can pull it out and free the 3-rings with one hand only grabbing the handle and nothing else. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

More information over in Incidents. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Agreed. And both the passengers and TMs must have identical grips Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

For me, safety is a big one. How well-maintained are the planes? Not that I ask for the service records, but some planes are pretty obvious just looking at them (I once got on a small Cessna that the pilot got out with the prop running to add oil to the engine before taking off). How good is the student gear? I don't jump student gear, but the age and quality of the tandems/student rigs says a lot about how they run the entire DZ. Does the S&TA have clear (maybe posted) rules, and do they enforce them for everyone? Or do they let the good-ol-boys do whatever they want? Maybe safety falls under the "facilities" category? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You people have obviously never been to New Zealand, land of 3 million people and 60 million sheep. At 20-1, you can almost have a different sheep every day of the month. A local Kiwi woke all of us up early in the morning to start the fire for a Han-gi (A local cookout) by proclaiming "last one up gets the ugly sheep!" Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I also believe that the time lag is zero. This means you could have real-time communication between, say, the earth and mars. No more of those pesky four-hour delays when talking with your favorite martians on the phone. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

This is definitely an "ask your instructors" thing - only they will be able to judge the fit of your chest strap, because the rest of us can't see how tight you are making it. I routinely see students and new skydivers yank the chest strap like it's the only thing saving their life. It doesn't have to be that tight - it only takes 10-15 pounds of force when you open. I generally recommend to students that they get the leg straps as tight as they can. The shoulder straps will sit in a "natural" position on your shoulders. From there, just take the slack out of the chest-strap. If you are tightening it so much that it brings the two shoulder straps together, it's too much (or the rig does not fit you correctly). But it should also be tight enough that the shoulder straps don't come of your shoulders when you are standing in the door with the prop blast trying to blow everything off your body. As far as your fall-rate - welcome to skydiving! Everyone is either too slow or too fast, and it takes some time to learn to make big adjustments in both directions. If you consistently float, I recommend you get a tight jumpsuit. I have one that is pretty tight and has very slippery ZP material on the front - it helps me get down fast when I need to. But there are a lot of ways to adjust your fallrate, and your body position is probably the biggest - this will just take time for you to learn. FYI - if your partners are looking up at you, they are making things worse by looking up, which makes them arch more, which makes them fall faster. A better procedure for them is to back away, turn thier bodies sideways, cup air, and turn their heads sideways to look at you. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Student rigs for AFF have the main hacky for throw-out on one side (I've always seen it on the right side), and a release on the opposite side for the other instructor. For every setup I've seen, this entails a BOC pouch that is open on one side (like other BOC gear), but also has a velcro toggle (usually a large and colorful handle) on the opposite side that can open the entire BOC and allow the pilot chute to come free. With student gear, you can activate the main pilot chute from either side. Edit to add - you can see the BOC breakaway on the Student Wings pictured here: http://www.skydivewings.com/student.htm Notice the red handle on the left side of the BOC - that allows the reserve-side instructor to open the main. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

'Cause it's hard to throw out a spring loaded pilot-chute? Last couple I've thrown out whacked me right in the knuckles Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

http://www.comcast.net/News/TECHNOLOGY//XML/1700_High_Tech/3206c947-382d-40d1-af16-aa53f3ee3233.html Watch for the MPAA to follow RIAA's lead and start suing individuals that download movies. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Putting tighter line stows isn't going to prevent slammer openings. At the very least, it's going to give you line twists, as the deploying bag has to fight (and spin) to get unstuck from the stows. At the most, you've got a bag-lock. Either way, it doesn't help. The impact of opening comes mostly from the time the canopy first comes out of the bag until it fully deploys. For most hard openings, changing the size of your slider, or adding a pocket to the slider is going to give the best chance of preventing hard openings, because it will slow down the opening time of the canopy. Rolling the tail and/or nose can delay the time it takes for the canopy to open, but will give you less consistent results on opening. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD