riddler

Thanks for the video clip - I had been wanting to see that. I don't have an opinion on the case - it doesn't matter to me. But I will say I'm disappointed in the sensationalistic trash "journalism" that A&E created - I always thought they were above that. Now a question - was Mike a pilot in Vietnam? One of the interviewees said they "thought" he was, but that statement, considering the source, probably isn't that reliable (not unlike most of the story). If he was a pilot in the war, what kind of aircraft did he fly? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I wonder if anyone has done a sport jump at supersonic speed? I wonder if it could be done? I'm sure there have been quite a few military and test pilots that have ejected at supersonic. I know that Kittinger broke the sound barrier during his jump. Fournier will too when he finally gets off the ground. But I wonder how easy it would be to jump out of an aircraft that is flying supersonic? Could the plane fly supersonic with a door open? Could you even get out? If you could get out, would the wind sheer break your body? I wonder ... Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Probably should have allowed for multiple selections for those of us with two rigs. One rig is 15 years old, and the other is three years old. They both have advantages and disadvantages. I'm really impressed that they last so long and maintain their useful life. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Post continued from Incidents This is what doesn't make sense to me. I guess I think in terms of a rope. Old school ropes were nothing more than fibers twisted together (I actually made a rope once by twisting twine together). The fact that the fibers are twisted doesn't make the rope less strong than if all the fibers were straight. My understanding of why steering lines break so often is because they take more of the opening shock than any of the other lines. This is because they are on the back of the canopy, which is taking the majority of pressure during the initial opening stage as the canopy starts to inflate. At least that's the way it was explained to me by a rigger

This is a really useful site, but since it hasn't been update in a year and a half, I recommend: http://www.skydivingfatalities.info/ Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Also keep your eyes peeled for CanuckInUSA, ryoder, RkyMtnHigh, KonradPtr, prepheckt, and many, many more. OR, you could do a member search, by state Looks like a few hundred at least.

I was wondering if whuffos understood this little segment? Then I thought maybe it wasn't a reference to skydiving at all - maybe I just have jumping on the brain, but they were really referencing something else? Like maybe bungee jumping or something? What was I talking about again? Who are you people, anyway? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

1:1:0 Taught AFF class on Saturday - always fun and exciting, but it does limit the jumping for the day. One awesome FF jump with dsbbreck and DrewEckhardt. It's getting cold in Colorado. I wanna jump where it's warm!!! Another reason I don't like Colorado - there's a "blue law" where you can't buy (or even look) at automobiles on Sunday. You can't buy liquor here on Sunday either. What kin dof hick state is this anyway? If I wanna get drunk and test-drive a Porsche on Sunday, I should have every right to do so. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Not to mention you can't keep up in a sit anymore Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Are we talking Canadian dollars here? Doesn't seem right to post the price in US Dollars and mention the revenue stream in Canadian Dollars. It sounds to me that they are marketing to people that have no clue about wind tunnels. I wonder how many people have no experience with wind tunnels and say to themselves "hey, what a great way to spend my spare $100,000"? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I think these pics were discussed on this site before and the consensus was that they were staged photos. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

SHhh!! I felt so violated, but strangely satisfied at the same time Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

That's probably where I saw it - repacking my Voodoo reserve I've only done it once, so I don't remember too much about it. Question is, how much additional extraction force can this provide?

Hook - what is the chance of the failure being larger than one square of the material? It seems unlikely that these factors would cause a large failure area in the material - at most a small hole that would probably be found at the next repack.

It seems that I've also seen reserve bridles that have small pouches sewn to them to assist with pulling on the bridle. Improvement or gimmick? Seems like if you have enough of them, you can easily tip the scales from 2 pounds to the 5 pounds needed to begin to pull up on the reserve, and if you can get the processes started, the extra surface area should be able to finish pulling it out.

Nope, I'm not doing that.

My opinion is the same as indyz 's ... es ... s Personally, I like airlocks because they give me a sense of security in turbulence. But I really like the way the Lotus flies - the planform is almost the same as a Sabre2, and they're the same price, so you just have to decide if you want airlocks or not. The best thing you can do is demo the canopies. I demo'd a 190 before I decided I wanted one. I have a friend that demo'd a Lotus and hated it. If you're buying new, there are plenty of good canopies on the market to choose from. Ed to add - Lotus is not terribly high performance - semi-elliptical. High performance airlock would be the Samurai, or the new Sensei (I don't know if it's been released yet). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I'm sure the manufacturers would like to mandate that reserves get replaced after every use. Think how many canopies they would sell. If the thing still has a useful life, even after 100 repacks, then I'll jump it. But then again, I know my rigger will do a thorough inspection and pack job and I trust my rigger.

Things that I've seen that I feel reduce the chances of canopy collision: 1. Separate landing areas. Put all the people that are going to fly conservative, predictable landing patterns in one area, and swoopers/downwinders/etc in another landing area. It means some people will have to walk a bit further. Also, make sure there is a well-defined boundary for the "in" area and the "out" area. If you want to land downwind/crosswind/hookturn, you can always do it in the "out" area, where there is more space to do it. 2. Below 1,000 feet, fly a predictable, conservative landing pattern. Left-hand square-in landing is standard, but I rarely see it done consistently. If you can't make a left-hand square-in pattern, land in the "out" area. 3. Land in the same direction as the first person down. If you're the first person down, make every effort to land upwind . Everyone else follow. If wind direction changes, and you want to land upwind rather than the same direction as the first person down, land "out". 4. Exit separation. If your DZ does not have a good culture of exit separation, then take it upon yourself to foster one. Waiting 5 seconds is probably not sufficient, nor is the 45 degree rule. Distance covered over the ground is the only way to be sure of proper separation. This calls for something called "spotting". In our day of GPS, I think a lot of newer jumpers (myself sometimes included) don't really know how to spot - ask more experienced people to help you learn to spot - it's the best way to see how much ground you cover before exit. 5. Try to separate yourself vertically, as well as horizontally from everyone else. If everyone is headed for the same spot, then it makes sense to time it so that there's at least a few seconds between each person landing. If you try to get halfway between the person in front of you and the person behind you, you will maximize the time interval between all three of you. There are quite a few more things that everyone can do. I think BillVon said "fly like everyone else is trying to kill you", or something like that. Also, there is plenty of good information on this website and other sites about canopy skills. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

We have competitive meets where people enter and win prize money. That makes it as much of a sport as soccer or curling. You'll never convince some people. I heard one person state that baseball isn't a sport. His rationale was that "anything you can do while drinking a beer is not a sport" Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Great - thanks for pointing this out. I made a clicky for others interested (3 meg dowload to ZIP file): http://www.relativeworkshop.com/pdf_files/09351.zip It says cameramen must meet RW requirements and also have 100 RW camera jumps. Wow - this is an interesting rule on page 97 for RW requirements: 2) Relative worker must be either a current Tandem Instructor or a current AFF jumpmaster. Are they saying that to do camera with a tandem jumping a RW rig, that the cameraman must also have an AFFI or TI rating? I don't know many camera people that have those ratings ...

I really just like having two rigs. If I have to chop one, I can jump the other until I get repacked. Also, they both have advantages. If I want a slower landing on a no-wind day, I can jump the Tri. If I have high winds, I know I can get better penetration with the 1.3 wingload of my Lotus, so I'm less likely to land out. The Tri is also great for teaching students to pack - it's not slippery. And someday, I hope to learn some CReW, and the Tri is a better canopy for that. But most of the time, I jump my Lotus - it's the best canopy I've ever jumped. If I'm at a boogie, I'll usually jump both. When I'm done jumping one, I'll throw it down for the packers to pack, and then grab the other one. By the time I'm done jumping that one, the first one is packed again You can get 10-20 jumps a day pretty easily that way. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I can't find any information on camera flyers in the Relative Workshop manuals, but I don't think they have all the manuals on-line. Is that 500/100 number recommended or required by RWS? Can you point out which document it's in? I've always thought is was interesting that tandem manufacturers set their own individual standards (Strong rating vs. Sigma rating, et al), while standards for fun jumpers are set by more national organizations (USPA, etc). It implies that there is more liability assumed with tandem students than fun jumpers.

Don't be coy. If you like him go up and talk to him. Most guys would love a cute girl to just walk up to them and start flirting. I know I would. Someday, I'll take my own advice ... Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

From the USPA web site: Someone should tell USPA to run spell-check before they post stories Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD