JohnMitchell

If I have a heart attack in free fall and land under my AAD deployed reserve, that's okay by me. I was gonna pop that ticker anyway. Just make sure there's at least one keg at the funeral, but two would be better.

Very nice job.

We move around by manipulating drag and force from the relative wind. If we truly could generate lift, then we could fall at a slower rate than normal coming out of a dive. A glider can pull out of a dive and climb. We have to work just to slow down to normal free fall speed. Sorry, but Bill is very correct. But the human body is a very inefficient wing. Our lift to drag ratio is so poor it's hard for us to translate speed into lift efficiently. That's why we can't dive, flare out and land. I have had some real monster tracks coming out of no-lift dives. It might be fun to Pro-track some of those dives.

I have to strongly disagree with you, Matt. Any body traveling other than straight down is developing lift. Even the old blunt Apolla capsules developed lift and were "flown" on reentry with good precision. Granted, the human body is FAR from an ideal wing planform, but we DO generate lift as we track. It doesn't require that perfect airfoil shape from your college physics textbook. Ever fly those flat winged balsa planes as a kid? That's a flat wing producing lift. Ever check out the variety of airfoils (or lack there of) on many flying objects, including guided missles, supersonic aircraft, or the perfectly symmetrical airfoil of aerobatic airplanes? These develop lift not so much thru the classic Bernoulli principle, but thru angle of attack. You can call it "simply deflecting the wind" if you like, but it's lift, plain and simple. It's this lift that makes us move across the sky and fall slower when we're in an efficient track. With that said, there is a most efficient angle of attack for the human body. Samadhi has a minor point that a short dive could be an efficient way to start out. Think of a hang glider being dropped from a balloon. The first few seconds it dives to pick up speed, then pulls up. However, my practical experience from jumping with booties is that we have plenty of airspeed at break off, and that aggressively straightening the legs as soon as I turn around gets me plenty of horizontal acceleration to start a good flat track. Once again there's an optimum angle of attack, but I have no clue what it is. I'm guessing it's in the 40 degree range, though.

Feel free to put it to good use.

Everybody goes low at Z-hills. j/k people... Oooh, not over the runway . . .

When Vskydiver chased or videoed one of my tandems, I'd point her out and say "Pull, Honey. Think of the kids!" Then I'd explain.

That was very cool. We visited China with the kids years ago. It'd be even more fun to jump there. Looked like the pilots don't bother with their seatbelts when they fly. I always get a kick out of 3rd world safety procedures.

I think that was cool.

Looks like it. Hmmm, biggest DZ East of Dallas. Totally discounting the closer turbine DZ NORTH of Dallas. Smoooooth.

Slipped and fell in my own backyard, sober, and tore my rotator cuff, requiring surgery and a six month rehab. Too many cuts and scrapes to count, but even with all my woodworking stuff I have all my fingers and toes.

Hah. It's like a hybrid of two punk bands... Rancid and Suicidal Tendances. We've seen Rancid and have tickets for the Bouncing Souls coming to town. "Rancid Souls" would be a great band name.

I know of a fatality caused by one student "fixing" the gear of another student prior to the jump. Even so, the jumpmaster should have caught it on the gear check, but didn't . I jumped pull-out rigs for years. A lot of people didn't even really know what they were checking on my gear. . . "Hey, your curved pin's all straight!"

me too - HOWEVER, I'm always grateful when they offer; or notice something and bring it to my attention I'll always ask before touching a rig - but looking is free I'm pretty good at checking my own stuff, but don't mind a once over by someone who knows what they're doing. I keep my own eyes moving but always ask before I mess with someone else's rig. I've caught 3 chest straps on the plane and one on the ground. It's the jumpmaster in me, it never quits.

Nice lineup. Wish we were there. Forsaken Tendencies ------- ?? I don't know if that's totally badass but it's, um, alienated, so that counts.

Well, my ortho is a cute blonde, so there.

Same goes for me. I've done it twice, and you CAN come back from it.

What a rough time for you two. How's Chad's lower body strength? Do they think he'll have a full recovery, given time?

I was thinking about it. It still gets sore after a few jumps. Doing AFF but not tandems yet.

I lost a friend that way. A bigger reserve might have helped.

Call Gail @ Infinity. They've always sized their containers separately for the customer's main and reserve. My Infinity holds a 150 main and a 200 reserve perfectly.

Nooooooo.... Chuuteless' post was about feet. This is just like building the Stonehenge in Spinal Tap.

So you have decided to be the Glenn Beck of the Bonfire? Glenn was so bad he got fired from FOX "News". Now that's funny, Bob.

Holy $hit. Nice work, Nick.