JohnMitchell

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Everything posted by JohnMitchell

  1. JohnMitchell
    I couldn't agree with you more. Too many students make just a few (or just one or two) jumps and decide it's not for them. That's totally cool. I thank them for giving our sport a try, but they should be free to leave, or go to another DZ, without a financial penalty.
  2. JohnMitchell
    Here's the other way to calculate. Go to the DZ and see which way the wind is blowing and how strongly. Watch the clouds and see which way the winds aloft are blowing and how quickly. Watch where the other loads are letting out and watch what they do under canopy. Watch to see if they get huge amounts of drift in freefall. Figure on flying over the landing area, straight into the wind, and getting out up wind of your LZ. The harder the wind is blowing, the farther upwind you need go. Ask the pilot and others who've jumped that day how far upwind you should go. If this sounds tongue-in-cheek, I assure you that this is what I used to do long before everyone had access to all the info in the world. I've used the winds aloft forecasts as guidelines, but since we were only jumping from 10-13K, I never bothered with all the arithmetic. I just estimated it.
  3. JohnMitchell
    Of course he's in Bend, OR. Good place for rippin' a bowl. It's nice and close to the Infinity shop in Sun River.
  4. JohnMitchell
    Super Idea. Trouble with reality shows is that the truth doesn't sell. Manufactured Drama does.
  5. JohnMitchell
    Yep, I can think of two documented survivals with no chute out at all. Both times the guys went thru pine trees into deep snow on a steep slope. One had just minor broken bones, the other walked away (into a German POW camp).
  6. JohnMitchell
    See, now you're just getting into the fold-up hang glider type of thing, a whole different animal than a wing suit. But keep working it. BTW, any aerodynamicist will tell you that the pressure interference between biplane, triplane or higher wings makes them very inefficient. One study on the legendary Fokker Triplane of WWI (the quintessential Red Baron plane) concluded that the middle wing was so beset by pressure interference that the plane would have flown better without it.
  7. JohnMitchell
    Nice job. Gosh, he's mid 20's by now, right?
  8. JohnMitchell
    That is what 'formal' means??? And all this time I thought it meant 'no tie-dye'. You ARE a programmer, aren't you?
  9. JohnMitchell
    I'll volunteer to be one slice of the bread.
  10. JohnMitchell
    Well . . . uh . . . yeah.
  11. JohnMitchell
    I know, but he was doing that in 2010! Eww, I see why he's your Ex. His loss . . .
  12. JohnMitchell
    You can totally get away with Preppy. I bet it was cute.
  13. JohnMitchell
    Tucked in used to be the style, back in the 70's and 80's. Check out the old TV shows. Now untucked is the style for t-shirts and polos when you're wearing jeans or shorts. If I'm wearing dress slacks, though, the shirt tail goes in.
  14. JohnMitchell
    Thanks, Skymama.
  15. JohnMitchell
    To all my limping, gimping, hurting friends. . . May we all heal quickly and get back in the air. BTW, something's up with my left knee, but I'm gonna try to make it thru the Summer and cut on it this Fall. Damn.
  16. JohnMitchell
    Paying attention. That's the problem too many U.S. drivers have. I've cruised thru France at 100 mph and felt like everyone was working together. In the U.S. . . . ehhh, not so much.
  17. JohnMitchell
    No kidding. That's the most basic right of everyone on the planet.
  18. JohnMitchell
    I will say that a flare that achieves zero rate of descent is different from a full stop in mid air. We do the first one every time we surf our canopies across the ground. The more efficient your aircraft is at converting speed into lift, in other words the better your lift to drag ratio, the better you can achieve and longer you can maintain that zero rate of descent. With that said, it's going to take some amazing aerodynamic work to achieve that with a wing suit. However, I'm open to seeing what people come up with.
  19. JohnMitchell
    Yeah, a real nice job. Red Bull sure sponsors some cool $hit.
  20. JohnMitchell
    The Moon landings, the Gemini missions, and even the Mercury launches. Ripcord was amazing. I thought it was so cool but I knew I'd never get to skydive. Fireball XL-5 on Saturday mornings.
  21. JohnMitchell
    Okay, the guy's obviously not a scientist, and ignores every other source of low frequency noise except the jump planes. I've seen chiropractors that were very adept at using pseudo-science to sway the gullible.
  22. JohnMitchell
    Nice article, Spot.
  23. JohnMitchell
    What he said. I've seen many exits start off great and then the person starts kicking, twisting and flailing weirdly. Remember that the horizon is an INCORRECT reference the first 3-4 seconds out the door.
  24. JohnMitchell
    Nope, gonna need rigid extensions and longer wingspan for a better LD ratio. You might as well invent a fold up hang glider like the Swiss Jet Man did.
  25. JohnMitchell
    Very creative twist on what many would consider a very mundane job. Nice work.