Di0

I bet you refer to these: http://thedropzonediaries.tumblr.com/ I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Seriously, I paid my canopy from NZAerosport on Thursday, it was sitting on my desk on Monday. 4 days (with a weekend in between... three days and a half really) to do NZ-Boston. Great customer service and communication, I'm sold for my future businesses with them when I'll need another canopy. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

http://www.skydivemag.com/article/rsl-skyhook-or-faith Personally, I don't even understand what we are talking about. On a "normal" rig, with "normal" canopy, for people flying "normal" skydives with "normal" experience, "normal" currency levels and "normal" skills, there really are no reasons not to have one. It doesn't mean that without you're going to die, that people without it have no chance of pulling their handle, that you should not know your EPs. Most certainly good EPs are better than extra safety devices, it means just that: for the regular skydivers that does regular stuff, there is no reason not to have one. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Tandem. I wanted to skydive and had been talking about it since I was a kid but I never followed up on the idea for usual set of excuses:not having the money, the time, my parents not wanting it, not having the guts to do it, etc. etc. About a year ago, my friend calls me on friday night: "Tomorrow is my birthday, do you want to try a tandem jump with me?" - Sure! Saturday morning we jump. Two weeks later I was doing AFF. Best decision I made my whole life, my only regret is that I waited so stupidly long. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

If you want a Skyhook (and I'll agree with this choice), then you are forgetting the Vector 3, which is the "original" skyhook-equipped rig, which later was licensed out to others, starting with Javelins, I believe. All main manufacturers have strong reputation, I don't think that anything bad could be said of any of those you named. If buying used, honestly you'll have overlook the brand name: finding a rig that will fit your body nicely, will have all the characteristics you want (a skyhook, in this case), will not be too old and in good shape will be hard enough, the specific brand will be of secondary importance. When buying used you want something that fits comfortably, that is safe and modern and, well, you can't afford to be too picky on brands and colors, it's already hard enough. My first used rig was a 2008 "girly pink" Vector 3, but heck: it was mint, inspected by a rigger that I 100% trusted, it has a skyhook, the canopies I needed already in it, it was perfect for me. People made fun of the colors for a couple of seconds until I told them how much I paid for it and went "oh shit, that's a deal". If you want skyhooks, Javs and Vector 3 are your best bet because they are the most commons rig with one installed. If you want the similar solution by Wings (I believe it's called "Boost"), then you can go for it. If you go new, the biggest advantage hands down will be a custom fit rig, built specifically to your measures, it makes a difference that you can't even imagine in terms of comfort, running around with your rigs, sitting with it, pain at the end of the day, taking the occasional hard openings etc. If you ask me it's worth to consider buying a new container (custom fit harness) and everything else used, you only need to consider how fast you think you'll downsize because in that case investing on a new container might not be cost effective and buying used until you get to a size of canopies that you'll keep for a long time might make sense. The tradeoff will mainly be on comfort. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Buy a digital alti (a great aid when working on accuracy). Log the altitude of your turns and the winds. Over time you'll build a sense for it. People signing your logbook will make fun of you, "are you logging phone numbers?", joyously tell them to fuck off. They'll get the memo and respect you for that. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I want to go on the record saying that we were trying to launch a compressed accordion at the door, I was floater and trying to grab leg grips (as per plans), he was trying to grab high grips. Classic misunderstanding due to little ground planning. Exit went to shit fast and furiously. Still got together and turned 18 points with 4 randoms + 1 block dive flow. It was honestly fun as hell: he came up with a super fun dive plan and can't wait to try again. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Hey dude, no need to explain. Skydiving is scary, I also feel the need to hug somebody sometimes. Ahaha! The funniest part is that it was a somehow stable-ish exit. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

I used to do that every time I needed help packing. It worked all the times. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Can I pitch in the discussion? I have a new Saf2 149 that came with Vectran 500 lines. I'm very happy with them, always had soft openings even with my crappy pack jobs, very "smooth" to the touch, I'd say almost pleasant to spool them around. I also have a 12 years old Saf2 149 that is in serious need of a re-line and who knows what line size/type is on it. I was thinking of re-lining with Vectran 500 as well, since that seems to be the "default" lineset I got on my new canopy from NZ Aerosport without asking for anything special, just curious though: what type of lines are they? How long do they usually last? Do I have other comparable options? Just so that I can make a somewhat informed decision. I tried to look for info but somehow I didn't find anything clear. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

WL is only half of the picture. It's a good indicator but it's not all. You have two ways of increasing the WL: either reduce the wing area, or increase the weight. Now, here's the trick: at the same WL a smaller canopy be more performing in turns, i.e. less forgiving. This offset increases as the canopy sizes get smaller. That means that that table is not "wrong" but a 100-jumps jumper with 1.3 WL on a 190, for example, might be fine. A 1.3WL on the exact canopy type but on a 135 (so for a much smaller jumper) will result in higher performances. The smaller the canopy, the more performance you get, at equivalent WL. The questions I'd ask myself are: am I really bored with my actual canopy or it's just cool this way? But also I've been through enough shit, mistakes and fuck-ups and handled them well enough that I can consider something that turns and glides faster? For example, have I been cut at the last moment in the pattern? Was my reaction at that point appropriate or I got away with it out of pure luck? Be honest? Did I instinctively go on brake turns or toggle whip? Have I landed off in a backyard? Am I more than comfortable with downwinds, riser landings? Have I dug myself out of an involuntary low turn because, simply put, I fucked up? It's not the drills in the list that you try on purpose, anybody can do those, it's when stuff goes wrong and you don't expect it that you'll understand if your in sync with your canopy or not. You will understand if they are ingrained in your brain and part of an automatic mechanism or something that starts to break down when things happen unexpectedly and fast. I know that I still have a lot of work to do on mine, for example, and I won't touch a smaller canopy with a 6 feet long pole right now. I can brake turn my canopy with minimal loss altitude all day long, if I want to, unfortunately my reflexes and "default responses" are still not so automatic and well tuned to do it under stress all the times at the right time. Because it doesn't matter if you're good or bad, but mistakes will happen, you'll turn lower than you thought, you'll be cut in the pattern no matter how careful you are, you'll land off at some point and you'll have to squeeze yourself between a fence, a car and a powerline. You don't want any of these things to happen, but they migt, they will and then what canopy do you want? One that you know or one that you don't know? Have I obtained every inch of performance from my canopy that I can get? Have I got professional coaching on it and the coach actually said that yes, I might be ready for something a bit sportier? All things that I would go through on a bigger canopy before thinking of a smaller one. I'd try to be honest with myself. The bottom line is: if your actual canopy is still fun, challenging and -more important- has many unknown to you, why getting into something else that would increase the danger without really increasing the fun that you haven't got on the bigger canopy, yet. Yes, you feel confident, yes, you'd PROBABLY be fine, but if you already have fun, why introducing that "probably", know that now you ARE fine? The way I see it is not all about the numbers, the 1.2, the 1.3, the 150 VS 168, that's all cock measuring contest in the locker room, at our experience level. Personally I think that it's way over my head, I don't have enough experience with different gear, different canopies, different setups, different conditions to tell you what is going to change what and how. But I know this: as long as you enjoy your flight, you enjoy your canopy, you handle winds well enough to jump regularly, you have fun with it and you feel safe, why rushing? Most important, don't base your decision on your "feelings", ask a canopy coach or an instructor, take a canopy class on your canopy. Base your decisions on a person with enough experience to steer you in the right direction, it's their job. In the meanwhile, if closing the container is hard, get a power tool, that'll help, will be cheaper and will keep you safer. My 2c. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

In Massachusetts you can totally use a hand-held device under canopy as long as you're not a teen operator. In Connecticut, you can't. Just know the local traffic laws and you'll be fine. Is it true that in the UK you fly on the wrong side of the sky? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

It might be because they block certain content (songs etc) on mobile and tablets. Try to watch it from a computer rather than a mobile version, or alternatively try this: http://www.rightnowintech.com/2012/02/watch-youtube-videos-not-available-on.html Not that it does really matter for the video, there isn't really much to watch, it is more for the sake of figuring out why YOU can't watch it. :) I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

If you were to be the TI for a friend of mine or a relative, I'd be much more interested in how good your emergency procedures are rather than your "surgical" procedures. Ehehe. :D All joking aside, I really wouldn't have the slightest problem if my TI were a LGBT person. Seriously, I can't even wrap my head around why that should be a problem. But I can see how some people that have problem with the idea in general might have problem trusting their lives in your hand. Stupid, backward, irrational, sure. I agree, but I can somehow understand the undeserved feelings you might sometimes get. But I hope and wish that the positive feedback you'll get from your students for your work will overwhelm and make the occasional troubles well worth it. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You don't need his license, that also wouldn't prove much, he can get any license number from any guy that signed his logbook. Get his name and talk to the DZO, ask if he's reliable, yes. That helps. Even better, if you get his name and a description of the gear (brand, colors, S/N), talk to the rigger that last inspected and packed his reserve, that will give you a good idea of the conditions of the gear. Sure, there could be a well thought scam, but that's the best you can do to prevent it. That's how I did it when looking for rigs on dz.com, the FB groups, and even ebay and I was able to get some good info on the guys I was buying from as well as the gear I was buying before it was even shipped to me to look at it and, truth be said, they proved to be accurate and honest (and so were the 4 or 5 people I dealt with). I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Got it, I can "visualize it" now, thank you for the extra explanation. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Oh boy. I honestly don't even completely understand how that's physically possible. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Big Tits 'R' Lovely I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

That's a lot of content, thank you! I'll digest and reply tomorrow. Really, thank you for taking the time to write it and explain very clearly, it's worth a lot! For the time being, I'll add that, when talking about turbulence and related phenomena, the most important "scale factor" is certainly the Reynolds number (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynolds_number) and that you're totally right, to elaborate, as you can see from the description of the Reynolds Number, it's not just the speed of the wind that determines how "strong" the effect of turbulence is, but more like a combination of speed, size of objects involved, etc. etc. Now, since all other factors are pretty much fixed when skydiving (even the biggest difference in "size" between different canopies is never so big to really change the ballpark, since we are talking about scaling order of magnitudes), wind speed is probably the most important factor. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Well, it's a fairly generic graph, so it really wasn't meant to be applied to a skydiving situation. More like a quick way to visualize WHY there is turbulence in front of an obstacle. I agree with you. True, another point often overlooked, as ditched are often not thought as "turbulence creating" obstacles, or obstacles at all for what matters. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You are the comic gift that keeps on giving. I thought that was herpes. Same thing except penicillin wont help this! And neither does with herpes, I'm afraid. The main difference is, in order to get herpes you at least need to have accomplished something. I hope you're talking about not-toxic one. "Some people" might eat that stuff. Glitter is as serious as it gets. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Hi All, This discussion was raised during the discussion of a landing accident: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4632821;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread Although probably unrelated to the specific accident, it is probably interesting to continue on here. So here it goes, everybody knows about the turbulence behind obstacles, the "dead air drop" etc., the principle behind the turbulence forming also IN FRONT and ABOVE a thick obstacle on the other hand might not be as known, but it is clear if you think of a drawing, see the first picture here: http://www.esru.strath.ac.uk/EandE/Web_sites/05-06/wind_resource/wind/wind03.html I know these are maybe known concepts but maybe it's good to stress them every once and a while. Anything worth adding to the discussion that hasn't been covered already? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

You are the comic gift that keeps on giving. I thought that was herpes. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

Quite the story. How's your bowling coming along? I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.

F' me. You're right, I apologize. I confess I skipped through the canopy flight part, thinking "it's the usual 10 or 20 seconds of the instructor flying the canopy before he gets to turn off the camera". Now I get it, the video is the student doing a collage of his jumps taken by the (sick good) instructor and what he got himself under canopy by sneaking the camera? Or... most likely, using his smartphone under canopy. I'm standing on the edge With a vision in my head My body screams release me My dreams they must be fed... You're in flight.