riddler

Yeah - if it was an AOA problem, then it's obviously not flying, so there is a definite drop. But I think you are forgetting about valuable "re-inflate" time. If it was an AOA problem, it certainly recovered quickly for him, but I'm sure he lost a lot more altitude than an air-lock would have to make the canopy re-inflate. If he was 10 feet lower, there would have definitely been an unfortunate collision with the ground (however serious), whereas (I believe) an airlock would probably have not dropped him that much. Of course, airlocks do NOT prevent line-slack, so if something hit him from the side, he would have likely been in some sort of turn whilst making previously mentioned unfortunate collision with ground. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I also found it interesting that bullets can't really ignite jet fuel. So even if the bullet went into the wing, or some other fuel tank, it wouldn't explode. Another hollywood myth debunked. I'm really starting to regret watching so much TV when I was a kid. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I know everyone's got their own opinions, but I really do believe in air-lock canopies. I'm not saying they definitely would have prevented this, but from the sound of it, they probably would have. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I have this theory that our subconcious minds get bored from neglect and so they try to invent ways to get us killed. In this case, your friend might kill you if he found out about you lusting after his g/f. Just more proof of my theory. Skydiving, anyone? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Whenever I see a white canopy, I assume someone had a cutaway. Quite possibly a prejudice I need to get over. I had to chop mine this weekend and found that my reserve is yellow. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Thanks for the advice. Answers to questions - no I wasn't in a track - I had just finished practicing my stand, then gone to belly at 5,000, then pull at 3,500. I did do a barrel roll after 5,000 (I always do this to check for jumpers above me), but I was stable again by 3,500. Line dump is certainly a possibility, as I remember that there was an extra few inches of line between the last stow and the risers than I usually have. Is it possible the steering line got caught on something and broke, causing the hard opening? Or is the broken line the result of the hard opening? Chest strap is a about an inch and a half above nipple level - I would prefer it to be right at. I just emailed the guy that sold it to me and he said that's never happened to him. My tri has always treated me pretty well - even the hard dumps are not normally that hard. I will start marking the leg straps and checking - I suspect that is the culprit, but my rigger is going to add a few inches of webbing to the straps to help limit this. The container is pretty old - 14 years, so I think if I can prove that the leg straps are slipping, I'll replace the hardware there. Can anyone give me an idea of what acceptable slippage is? 1/4 inch? None? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Casa boogie in Brush, CO! Casa's are SOOO nice. Anyway, on my last jump, I had the hardest opening I've ever had by far. Turned out to be a broken steering line - spin - cutaway - land way off - usual story. Same thing that happened to Luna. What bothers me is that I got strangled by the chest-strap on opening. I have strap-burn from my left ear to my right - looks like I tried to hang myself recently - and my voice is pretty fucked-up, but getting better. I got this rig a few months ago - Vector 2, j8 - DOM 1988. When it opens hard (about 5-10% of the time), I usually get the chest strap hitting my chin or throat, but I never thought much about it until today. So I'm wondering if the container is just a bad fit. It was made for someone 6'1" and 185 lbs - I'm 6'0" 160 lbs. Canopy is a triathalon 190. I noticed I have pretty good scrapes just above my hip bones this morning, so I'm guessing the leg straps loosened on the hard open. Also, I've gotten in the habit of tightening the chest strap more than normal to keep the shoulder straps on my arms for those windy King-Air climbouts - this seems to make the choking effect worse. I think I'll stop doing that My rigger is going to put extra webbing on the leg straps to keep them from sliding as much. I do check the legs straps before every jump to make sure they don't loosen with downward pressure. Anyone else have this problem? Should I get a new container? Anyone have a new container that they would recommend? And where is the ideal position of the chest strap on your chest? Mine is about an inch closer to my clavicle (top of sternum) than my xiphoid (bottom of sternum) - a little higher than I would like. Would it be difficult or even advisable to lower this? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Work is as boring as you make it. If you're afraid of your job/boss/company/fellow employees, then you'll never have any fun and you'll be bored as Hell. I try to talk all of my bosses into doing a tandem while I'm on the plane with them - then joke with the tandem master about the "money" I gave him for "you-know-what". Keep skydiving - you will lose all other fears. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Women look better without makeup every day. And definately lay off the perfume. I don't like long, polished nails either, but that's just a personal preference. Natural is better! But shaving is still good

If you like sweet and salty, go with Fat Tire - it's not my favorite, but it can be found in a lot of places, unlike the much better brew you can only find locally in Seattle, Denver, Portland and other brew-hubs. MMM - Great American Beer Fest. That's the same weekend as the 60-way in boogie Lamar - too bad Lamar and Denver are so far apart. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Let me suggest a new rule for DZ - "absolutely no dog-fucking. None" Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Pant ... pant ... pant (where's the damn "horny" emoticon?) Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Why do the people in government always feel obligated to introduce their morals into our lives? The worst part is that they use the excuse that it's for our own good. I think I'm going to start going down to the city hall and throw pies at the elected officials that feel the need to interfere in my personal perversions. I think that would be for their own good. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Now is the time to give thanks to those people that made skydiving a better sport for you. I'm not talking about people that you simply like, or respect. I'm talking about that one or two or three people that taught you something valuable and made this such a great sport for you. Who are your skydiving heros? I'll kick it off: 1. Micheal Pintamo - took me on my first skydive and has been a teacher to me ever since. Several thousand tandems, and he is one of those people that just makes the sport fun for everyone. 2. Skratch Garrison - taught me how to pack, even after I thought I knew how to pack. He and his wife DJan are real assests to the sport of skydiving. Skratch is the sort of guy that remains humble even after being featured in two different articles in the same issue of Parachutist. 3. Brian Germain - a great teacher and someone who is working to advance the sport. He said ONE thing to me and suddenly I knew how to land my canopy. One of those people that finds a way to help every person he meets in at least one small way. I've only been in the sport a year now, so I'm sure I'll meet more great people. In fact, I'm counting on it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

"I'm mad as hell and I'm gonna quit! in three months" J/K - good for you for making the decision. I hated my last job (engineer) since the interview, so when they started giving me shit, I walked out that day with no notice. Took me 20 minutes for me to type up my resignation and give it to my boss. He said he thought I was "too slow" at getting things done, which is what spurred me to quit - I wonder if he thought 20 minutes was too slow to type my resignation and give it to him? So now I work for myself from home and my plan is to sell my house and work remotely while touring dropzones around the country. Meanwhile, the former boss got laid off last month. I will live on the street before I subjegate myself to another pee test. Here's to living your dreams and living free. Cheers! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

This might be a good idea about Cypres rental. Or another might be to ask skydivers if they want to contribute an extra few dollars during USPA dues to the "Cypress relief fund" for poor skydivers The problem is that EVERY skydiver is a poor skydiver! Funny thing, too - I didn't start out poor. It would be nice to find someway to make these less expensive or have a way to finance them. There just aren't enough skydivers in the world to have the type of production numbers that would drive down cost or justify financing. I'm not sure I would want my cypress to be mass-produced anyway. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Just an informal poll - would like to hear from people that do not jump and AAD because they are too expensive. I'm talking about that being the only reason. You would like to have one, but you can't afford it, so you jump without one. I don't want to turn this thread into a debate about the merits or dangers of AAD. I suspect there are more than a few that feel that $800 or more is beyond their financial means, even if $20 for a plane ride is not. I hope no one feels too embarrassed to post. I'm not too embarrassed to say I would like to have an audible, but can't afford it right now. I've already asked for one for my brithday! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

In Colorado, the cow shit freezes over the winter and it's so arid, it doesn't disintegrate. Just lies there and dries up and eventually blows away. But you don't want to land on frozen cow shit. They're like smelly boulders. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

0:5:1 0: This is getting damn aggrevating. We need an emoticon for horny. 5: 4 sit flys and one hop-n-pop (kinda) from 5,000. 1: First Cessa ride. And I only buy the good beer. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Since I started working for myself, I've had to get my own health insurance. Costs $100/month, and the only reason I got it was for skydiving. The peace of mind is worth it, but it's a hassle to get it set up. Also working on life insurance. Sent in the forms, got a physical, etc, but I think because they know I skydive/scuba/mountain climb, etc, that they are going to try to ream me on the premium. We'll see. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I just did my first Cessna jump yesterday. Jump #77. Every other jump has been out of a twin engine turbine of some sort. Can you believe that? Fortunately it was Sunday, so I don't have to buy beer until next time. I think the sport's changing a lot if a new jumper can go through all the training, jump at five different DZs and not jump a Cessna until #77. I slept in my car - 40 feet from the runway. I was having a dream that Tinkerbell was shouting at me and trying to wake me up ("C'mon - it's time to jump!! Don't you want to jump? Let's go skydiving!!"). LOL. I guess Peter Pan's not the only kid that can fly and doesn't want to grow up. Just then, I woke up to the Cessna starting it's engine 30 feet from me. You know you're a skydiver when you wake up in your car smelling like beer and jet fuel and you have a pull-up cord in your back pocket. Anyway, my new friends at Brush were all geared up and they let me grab my gear and get on with them for the 6:30 am load. The Cessna was cool! Went up to 5,000 and hung from the bar by one hand until I couldn't hold on anymore (all of 2 seconds). I was in shorts and a t-shirt at 5,000 feet, 7 am. Brrrr. The acceleration when I let go was awesome - I'm used to jumping out of much faster planes, and I really felt like I was falling. Can't wait to do a balloon jump! Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

What - no one thinks about work or the other problems they have in their lives?? I knew there was a reason I liked skydiving.

This is so interesting to me because I was just down in Memphis a few weeks ago (I do some contract work for FedEx). Took my rig out to jump at Mike's place. The KingAir was down, and his Cessna, so they flew up a Cessna from Atlanta and I was all ready to get on it when it ran off the end of the runway and crashed, so there was no skydiving that day! When I was there I talked to Mike, who's a real nice guy and he's got some great people working for him (as most DZ's do). But it wasn't until I got back that I heard about the investigation. I don't have a television - did anyone see it? What was the media's conclusion? Just asking because in my experince, the media is always wrong, so I like to base my opinions contrary to it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Funny thing, when spotting I often ask the pilot what the uppers are, expeciting to hear something like: Winds from 13,500 to 9,200, 13 out of the southwest From 9,200 to 6,300, 4 from the north From 6,300 to 2,800, 6 from the east From 2,800 to 100, 19 from the south Watch out for those nasty crosswinds from the west as you are landing Unfortunately, all I ever hear from the pilot is "GET THE FUCK OUT".

One of the things I try to impress on whuffos that ask about skydiving - it's a great sport because it is incredibly varied. There are many things to try and many things to get good at, and each one is critical. Whuffos think it's just a matter of jumping and pulling your "ripcord" (this is why I don't watch television), but you all know there's a lot more to it than that. Anyway, what strikes me is how everyone seems to have at least one thing that they are naturally talented at. I don't mean something that you started off being bad at or even average at and got better. I'm talking about something that you were good at from your very first jump, and probably didn't even know you were good at until you jumped 20 times and realized most people don't do it that well. For me this was canopy control. From opening altitude down to landing, I think I have a good sense of winds, relative speed, etc, and almost always land very close to or on target. From talking to and watching others, I think I have much better canopy control than most people at my experience level. How this helps me, I don't know, but it's nice to have a sense that I do at least one thing well. And I see that other people seem to have natural talents in other areas - some people are good at everything, and others maybe only one thing. So I'm wondering - what are your natural skydiving strengths? I think everyone is naturally good at one thing at least, but let me know if you suck at everything, or if you rock at everything FYI - how I feel about my other abilities: packing - below average. exits - pretty good. belly flying - pretty bad. free-flying - way, way sucky. relative work - worse than just about anyone on the planet. spotting - I can't tell honestly - my DZ has GPS and I think winds are more of a factor than the spot. landings - below average. CRW - never tried. I'm sure I missed lots of other skydiving skills, so feel free to fill them in. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD