jerry81

It's quite possible your ears hurt from pressure changes, not freefall/airplane noise. See this thread about the problem. If you're certain it was the noise, you can either get a helmet that covers the ears well or/and earplugs. Your JM will have to talk a bit louder to get through, though.

I think surviving an opening with an undone chest strap is quite possible, especially if you notice it's undone before you pull. Still, scary to think someone can make a mistake like that. Hopefully, your "You're dead!" comment drilled the point home for this guy. Even though it might have been an overstatement, it was completely appropriate.

I'm not sure if it's entirely correct, but based on my snorkeling and skydiving experiences, I'd say it goes like this; When you're going up, the pressure gets lower and your eardrums start expanding outward. When you swallow hard, you lower the pressure inside your head, thus equalizing it with the outside. Do this whenever your head/ears start feeling like an overblown balloon. As soon as the canopy opens, close your nose and blow gently till your ears pop. The outside pressure is now higher than it was a minute ago and it's pushing your eardrums in. By blowing you raise the pressure in your head and it once again equalizes with the outside pressure. You could wait 'till you land to do this, but it hurts a bit more then. I think your body adjusts to these changes over time, but they're not that big to begin with. (You'll experience greater pressure changes diving 30' under water than jumping from 12000'.) Anyway, I hope you enjoy your next ride!

Dragging this up again; Q:How many birdmen does it take to change a lightbulb? A:All of them. One to screw it in, one to ten to just stand around him for the two minutes this takes, and the rest to claim it's the closest you can get to actually glowing yourself.

0:6:3 6 jumps after a month of abstinence. Feels good! 1st time at Skydive Maribor. 1st time test-flying my new freefly pants. 1st time I saw my shadow in a glory as I was tracking away. Sweet!

Holy sh!t! What did you need the parachute for if you were wearing that?

If that's German, I should obviously take some advanced classes. Just a guess, but considering the .dk domain, it might be Danish. And the game is gross!!!

I just had a great jumping day and am full of good vibes. I'll keep a little bit for my finals, the remainder's coming your way!!

I got an email yesterday from RI asking if I wanted one on mine.

Just thought you might like to know... This makes it, in my opinion, perfect.

Yes, walking through Sarajevo, for instance, is a bitch with all the spitting and cursing aimed at you.

Hey! Jumping, arching and falling is fun, but you'll probably soon decide you want to fly with others and do something more. What you probably noticed is that rw suits are tighter and have grips on them, while ff suits are baggier and cooler looking (j/k, I just had to say it). The first are designed for falling on your belly and building formations with other people, from one to 300, while the second are meant for falling in any way you can imagine and hold stable. Basically, if you arch and fall, you'll go a little faster wearing an rw suit, because ff suits are made to slow you down a bit in positions much faster than your standard belly-flying. Also, rw suits can have booties on the lower legs (imagine bell-bottomed pants with the cuffs attached to the soles of your feet) which help you maneuver your body with your legs better and are also useful for tracking (usually away from a formation when it's time to break and deploy) As for suit-making, I've only made ff suits- they're usually made from cotton or some cotton-synthetic mix. Patterns are a bitch to find online, so I just drew my own and made some minor adjustments later. A ff suit is basically just a jumpsuit, so making a pattern should be easy for your friend if she has any experiences sewing clothes. Rw suits, on the other hand, have to be a tighter fit, plus the grippers must be sewn on correctly or they'll get torn off the first time you funnel an exit (you'll learn what that is soon enough). If I may suggest- get your friend to make you a simple jumpsuit that's not too baggy and fly it for a while. It won't be too slow so you can still try some simple relative work and if you decide you'd rather freefly, you can always insert some more material at the ankles and wrists or have your friend make you another suit. Most of all, enjoy the learning and welcome to the sport!

Well, she does look good. Family genes, you know. But I'm not letting her near any skydivers.

Oh yeah! New future skychick in the vicinity! Is she cute?

Man, you do go on! All your comments so far have shown that your opinions on the subject have a fairly strong emotional basis. The 'rational' reasons you give are mostly subjective and selectively gathered to keep your knowledge and your feelings in congruence. Due to this, it can be safely assumed that nothing that can be said in a discussion in an online forum will cause a change in your way of thinking. I can only wish you as many positive experiences with muslims as possible. And now, something I feel strongly about.... Boobies! And ice cream! And whipped cream! Oh my!

I'm sorry if you had a hard time reading it, but the ice cream does fit in the context, at least for me. I just couldn't not reply to the views expressed, but it was a choice between a direct rational counterattack, which would contribute to nothing, since it would probably diminish the chances, slim as they were, of ever reaching a point on which we can all agree, or expressing my contempt for such views in a way that would not be perceived as a personal attack on the guy who stated them. So I chose to randomly write about boobies and ice cream and cows and stuff. It was, in a way, a political statement.

Apparently, the girl that died in Finland recently had a soft reserve handle and couldn't pull it because the velcro held it in too well. If this is true (first report in Incidents was that she appeared to be unconscious after cutting away) it could very well be a faulty design and not something inherent to all soft reserve handles. It definitely calls for further investigation.

In short; the guy you posted the link to was like the first cyber celebritiy. He put up his website, someone hacked it to include multiple "I kiss you!!!" sentences and stuff like that, and all of a sudden, he had fans all over the world. It was quite an interesting phenomenon. I'm sure you can still catch a glimpse of his 15 nanoseconds of fame if you search for 'mahir' in Google.

Anyone remember the Mahir craze?

I think I see what you mean. Are you by any chance anxiously waiting for the fifth Potter book to come out like Dave is? btw, that picture is me hanging from the chest straps of the two guys I did a hybrid with for my 100th.

Yeah. How would everyone feel if, with international support and a lot of guns, a substantial (and densely occupied) portion of USA were given back to the Indians to use however they see fit. mmm....boobies and ice cream....mmmm [edit]and I thought I said NO MORE COWS!!!

Started a year ago, I now have 121 jumps and intend to break 200 by october at the latest. And in case I land a better-paying job, the sky's the limit.

A real monkey or one of the tribe? Yes, that might create some work for me- and even more for the people who make sure farmers get reimbursed in case their cows die of shock.

Yes, it certainly is a killer job. Needtojump; I'm afraid noone here posseses swooping skills needed to fatally shock a cow. But perhaps one might laugh itself to death at the sight of some peoples' landings.

I work in acowting at the ministry of agriculture. I have to know the details about every cow that is slaughtered in this country. Well, not exactly, but it's a mind-numbing job anyway. Luckily it's only temp.