jerry81

I do a stretching routine in the morning and try to combine it with some breathing exercises...some elements of yoga, but mostly just a thorough stretching from head to toes. I'm among those who pay a lot of attention to the psychological aspect of skydiving and while doing this in the morning definitely helps my physical performance, it's also a good way of putting myself into an optimum mood for jumping.

This page has some interesting stuff. At least to me, a cutaway system on weights seems like a good idea. It's a German company, although most of the page is in english as well...

I call Wednesday funny. And horrible, horrible grammar.

You probably mean the L&B's new line of products. Of those, I think only the Altitrack offers jump logging, so for this guy it's still just a choice between Protrack (proven over time, getting cheaper because of the new stuff) or Neptune (more functions and upgradeable). Personally, I'd recommend the latter.

OK...my bad. I thought you were told it was closed for the whole month. Guess I'll jump my account empty and leave on monday, then.

For a closed dropzone, there's really a lot of skydiving happening at Tortuga right now. I'm not sure where that info came from, but I am posting this from the dz and I guarantee you it is most definitely open. Come on over!

I agree it's good to note the level of the clouds...but don't trust them to stay where they are. Once, at around 50 jumps, while wearing an altimeter, I decided to punch through a cloud before opening, because I noticed on the way up the base started just around 3000'. When it seemed a bit long and the glimpse of the ground I got looked more like what I was used to seeing under canopy, I took a peek at my altimeter and saw I was burning through 2000' already... So clouds can't be relied on all the time. Back to the subject, I'm personally just too cheap to buy a visual....it's like 5-7 tickets! I'll wear my Neptune on my wrist for canopy jumps and if I do invest into an altimeter, I'll probably get another audible (maybe Wave) and use the Neptune as visual, but until then, I'm comfortable relying on my inner clock, my eyes, the audible and other people around me.

How would you miss (and I suck at packing, even after 9 years), a 1/2 collapsed slider when you are quartering it? You're asking him? I didn't miss a 1/2 collapsed slider. That's why I'm here. If you suck at packing after 9 years, you should be put on a packing bingo list. Well, since you're down to "I know you are, but what am I" type of discourse, I'd suggest you start another thread on some related subject so we can get on with round 3 of you against the rest of dz.com. Or you could get a case of expensive imported beer, as was already suggested, take it to the dropzone next time you go, swallow some pride and employ the sense of humor that you've been displaying lately to sit and have a laugh with the other people at how you freaked out on the internet over some completely banal and probably imagined issue...

If you're jumping solo, taking the neccessary separation and freefall orientation precautions so you're not interfering with anyones' airspace, then I suppose it's safe. You can always recover to a more stable position if the pants try to take you for a ride. But it sounds like the pants may be hindering your progression, not helping, although it may well be that you just need to get used to flying with them. Consider this, though; they may be a useful learning tool, but ultimately, freeflying with the pants might become something you'll have to unlearn if you use them so much you become dependant on them. And, as always, if you have good freefliers at your dz, ask one to jump with you some time. Direct input from more experienced people is way better than any kind of experimenting or research that you do on your own.

Give some more info. Like; your number of jumps, freefall skills, what kind of track pants and perhaps even what exactly it is that you want to know- are you asking if it's possible to fly headup or headdown with them or if it's safe? I remember the Birdman Pantz were marketed as a good tool for freeflying. Never tried them myself, but I know when I was trying my home-made smoke pants some time ago, I accidentally got into a very solid headdown a couple of times (that was way before I could hold it on my own). For headup, I'm guessing the inlets might not work as well and although it's also a position where you should fly with your legs, I don't know if you'd actually benefit from the added surface of the pants or not. The newer types of tracking pants (like PF and Pressurized) are, I'd say, much more of a tracking-specific tool and less allround (like BM Pantz) and if you got one of those, you're better off freeflying (or learning to) in a regular jumpsuit. So tell more...

There have been cases, yes. The most recent probably being the Steven Hilder incident in UK, which I believe is still under investigation. Then there are also the occasional flour bombs which would probably qualify, but are much more benign in nature. If you think you could miss something as crucial as your slider not being completely open when you quarter it, then I'd suggest you think really hard and try to remember if it perhaps wasn't you who forgot to uncollapse one side... A partially closed slider would give you an interesting opening, that's for sure. But if someone was indeed trying to tamper with your gear, they'd have to be pretty dumb to expect you to miss that, especially since it was done before you even started your packjob. A slightly more plausible explanation would be that someone was just trying to see how much attention you pay to your packing (with a reason, perhaps?). But still a lot less plausible than you simply forgetting to uncollapse one side of the slider.

Yes. Same as you can smell a cigarette smoker who's recently had one. That depends on the quantity/quality of the weed and the person. In some cases it'd be very hard to prove any sort of impairment. But in general, yes, pot does alter judgement and motor skills. That, again, depends on the same factors mentioned above. alf an hour to an hour for the immediate 'buzz' to disappear, a couple hours to get back to feeling completely 'normal'. Big can of worms here. From a legal standpoint, an accident involving a jumper with anything in his system is very bad for the dzo and the pilot, even if this wasn't a contributing factor. As I already said, in some cases, smoking will have no discernible effects on the jumpers behaviour/performance/safety. In others, jumping might be dangerous even after the person has come down. And everything between those two extremes. I don't think so...at least not to such extent. But someone so stoned that altitude would worsen their condition has no business being in the plane in the first place. From personal experience, I would say it's common, but I couldn't say if it's any more or less common than it is in a given society in general. You could probably find someone lighting up after jumping's done on most dropzones, same as you'd find people opening a cold one after the beer light comes on. Most of the jumpers I know who smoke weed on a regular basis feel there's nothing wrong with a smoke break in the middle of the day. A lot of them have thousands of jumps without any incidents that could be attributed to weed. In my opinion, that doesn't make such practices any more acceptable in general, but I personally don't have problems jumping with any of them, even if I know they've been smoking recently. But those are my personal decisions. In general, I'd recommend that pot be treated same as alcohol on the dz- light up after the last jump if you feel like it, but keep your head clear during the day. Once again, these were mostly my personal opinions based on my experience with weed and people who smoke it. Legal aspects can (and probably will be, considering previous drug related threads) be discussed separately.

I believe the only data logger in the new L&B product line is the Altitrack, which will also work with Jump-track software. The other three are just audible (optima, solo) or visual (viso) altimeters.

In the new Paragear catalogue, the price for an Optima is 169.95$, no price listed for the LED option (just 'Call') and a notice that 'pricing may change at the time of release'.

Does the camera still work otherwise? And if it still records- is it the image that's pixelated or the actual screen (meaning the problem is there all the time, even when you're just accessing menus for instance)? My PC9 would only record the last 15 minutes of a 60 min tape normally after it was knocked off a shelf. The other 45 minutes would come out warbled and the sound would always skip, even on the last 15 minutes. Cost around 200$ to get the mechanism fixed...which means my 50$ insurance already paid off.

I was there for the xmas boogie and a few weeks afterwards. Unless there have been major changes, this is roughly what to expect; There are (or at least were back in january) two clubs, both operating from the same airport (El Berriel). Both are heavily oriented towards tandems (quite understandable) and fly 206s to about 10k. I got the impression that they fly whenever there are passengers to take up, not just on weekends. Ticket to 10k was 30€ last winter. Landing area is at Playa del Ingles, on the Maspalomas dunes, about 10 minutes drive from the airfield. Winds can be pretty strong and spots are often adjusted so that you open way out above the ocean. I believe floatation gear is mandatory and can probably be rented at the club. Overall, it's worth doing a jump or two for the experience, although renting gear there is probably a better alternative than taking your own along. And besides, if you have a strong emotional attachment to your rig, all the sand that gets on it after landing on the dunes will make you cry.

Jokes? What do you mean? Our Swoop training lane just arrived and should be set up at the dz and ready for testing this weekend...

no it is more of a way to slow down your sit as your are flying it in your 90s right? Actually, I would say flying with your legs spread and utilizing the inside surface of your calves/thighs definitely adds stability. You could say you're trying to straddle the air and rely more on your legs so your hands are free to move around. I know taking docks and flying them in headup has become much easier once I really started paying attention to how I use my lower body.

The angle of incidence on an airplane is the angle between the wing chord line and the longitudinal axis of the plane and doesn't really change on fixed-wing aircrafts. A plane in slow flight would increase the pitch angle (angle between the longitudinal axis of the aircraft and the horizon) to increase the angle of attack (angle between the chord line and the relative wind hitting the wing) and get the same amount of lift a lower angle of attack would produce at a higher speed. So...on to the human body, which isn't a very efficient airfoil to begin with. The direction of the relative wind is opposite to the direction of our flight, so the angle of attack will depend on the pitch of our body and our trajectory. The basic problem of calculations is that the human body, as mentioned, isn't much of an airfoil...the principles of aerodynamics still apply, but things such as airfoil shape and surface and airflow would be much harder to define with any acceptable level of precision. With the relative wind being equal (like on a trackmonauti dive), the angle of attack will be bigger in a tracking position than in atmonauti...yet the two can fly together. For 'normal' airfoils, the coefficient of lift increases with the angle of attack to some point and then drops off (stalling angle of attack). A bigger angle of attack, i.e. a track, would basically produce more lift (given it is below the stall AOA...which you can feel pretty well while tracking if you reach it), but the problem is we're not working with the same airfoil as in atmonauti. Describing tracking as 'stalled atmonauti' is therefore not 100% accurate (personally, that's the way I'd describe making a mistake that causes you to lose lift and drop out of an atmo formation). To sum it as best as my current understanding of aerodynamics will allow; atmonauti=higher speed, higher pitch angle (from -10 to -45°, according to the webpage), lower angle of attack and tracking=lower speed, lower pitch angle (although I don't think 0° is the most efficient) and higher angle of attack. Different body positions/airfoils utilized. Both make you go forward and it is possible to synchronize the movement (the aforementioned trackmonauti dives), but given the difficulty of doing any precise calculations for the aerodynamics of the human body, it's a lot easier to rely on empirical observations. Having been on a few really advanced atmonauti dives, I'm pretty sure about my previous statement; "Atmonauti is more about precise movement than maximizing the glide ratio.". I suppose some testing would be required to determine just how more efficient a max track is compared to a 'max atmonauti position', yet the bottom line remains that atmonauti means diagonal relative work, not getting as far as possible. Hey look, I made up yet another name for it! (And yeah, maybe some physicist who's actually played with human aerodynamics should chime in as well...I remember there was a thread about something similar not long ago.)

A good hard track. Atmonauti is more about precise movement than maximizing the glide ratio.

As far as I know, there's three of us, George, me and the third member of our team, coming by car on wednesday...if all goes according to plan, we should be there sometime in the afternoon/evening. I trust that Romanian beer is good so we don't have to bring a lot of ours along...

60 square meters is somewhere around 650 square feet...so I'm guessing the 60 means something else (if anything at all).

It's interesting, but try as I might, I can't remember anything I heard at the last crash that I witnessed. Guy hit maybe 10 feet from me and most of the people later commented on the sound of his leg breaking, but I guess the visual just overrode everything else in my mind. As for the memory...yeah, it stays. And even though you might understand (or believe you do) that the ground won't move or care if you fuck up, I think seeing what happens adds a whole new dimension to it. Personally, that means the healthy dose of fear/respect I get when I'm setting up for landing now has a more defined shape in my mind...and I might chew someone's ass a bit more if I see them doing stupid things.

Just confirmed...We (Team NoControl Freefly) are coming over for some hardcore training. See you!

Two things...first, this: is one of the biggest understatements I've seen in a long time. Second, you totally need a tail on that thing. Jumpsuit or the rig itself, doesn't matter. Maybe a helmet with some ears sewn on.I guess that would make you the ultimate skydiving furry. Hope you realize this is just good-natured ribbing (from someone who's worn freakier outfits on occasions...don't ask). It is certainly...refreshing to see something like that on a dz.