JohnMitchell

Yep, in fact it's the water that heats in a microwave oven, not dry stuff. Of course, absorbing microwaves or letting them pass thru doesn't make one show up on radar. It's all about the reflection.

I'm not sure but buy some beer just to make sure.

Nope, two different things.

Classic.

Good thing Skydekker is cool. Someday the world will be color blind. Then what will we do to eff things up?

"OMG, thanks. We never noticed that before!"

Those bug pics?? I ain't visiting if you have spiders like that!

Couldn't agree more. Sooner or later everyone has a hard landing.

Very nice. All the decorating in that park is top notch. Vskydiver said that Dr. Suess Land was just like being in one of his books. Even though our kids were fairly old, even the first time there, they loved every bit of it. It would be cool to meet up with you. I'll keep you posted.

That's a pretty lucrative business. If I could get a bunch of rigs in rotation at those rates, I'd invest in a heartbeat. I've rented tandem rigs before when taking relatives on jumps, etc.

The Harry Potter part is part of the Islands of Adventure, located up in the 2 o'clock position on the map. The rest of the park follows a big circle around the lake. We've done both of their parks several times. IOA is our favorite, but the other one is very fun too. I think we might go back down there next Spring. Maybe stay with Mark and Skymama.

This guy sure got me flipping! Maybe I shouldn't wrestle outside of my weight class. But yep, I did get the drogue out safely and complete the skydive.

I've never seen an injury during practice, but my old DZ had a very nice platform in a pea pit for practice. It's true squares land differently when properly flared. Most the injuries I see are from landing hard, maybe on uneven terrain, or into the side of a ditch, etc. There the dynamics are such that just having your feet and knees together with the knees slightly bent could make all the difference.

No kidding? Damn, yeah, I was being taken for a ride. Thanks for your post.

First of all, your wife is a BABE. I hope you don't mind me saying that but I'm sure it's not the first time you've heard it. Second, we've done the Disney but also love Universal Studios Islands of Adventure. Probably our favorite park of all.

I like your approach, but the latter is becoming the norm.

Good point, thanks.

From what I've seen, it is a trend, Chuck. In the 70's and early 80's, round student canopies meant a lot of PLF practice or a lot of injuries. Try as I could, I never got my injury rate below ~3%. Lots of sprained ankles and the occasional broken bone. Of course, the advent of the (usually) soft landing student square canopies made injuries almost a thing of the past. Any kind of flare on those big bad boys seemed to yield an injury free, if not graceful, landing. Dedicated PLF practice in the FJC became minimalist to non-existent. To this day I still have the students do 3-4 PLF's, hopping off a trailer fender maybe 2' above the pea gravel. I'd like to give better training but we don't have a dedicated PLF platform at the DZ, so I improvise. I think some of the instructors skip it entirely. As any experienced jumper knows, sooner or later you're going to have a hard landing. PLF's have kept me out of the hospital more than once. For us former round jumpers, they're almost reflexive. Unfortunately, I've seen way too many serious injuries among newer jumpers who were never really trained to PLF and didn't when they really needed to. A simple poor landing turns into 6 months in a cast and maybe never jumping again. If you don't know how to PLF, learn how. It may really save your a$$ someday.

We have a similar situation of a major airport's departure route passing above our DZ. Luckily "above" is the key word here. Only seems to be a factor doing high altitude (18K feet or more) jumps.

My guess is that they know the true cost of ownership per jump is more around $20-25, maybe even less, so why pay more when they can invest in the rigs and rake in the cash?

Last weekend I had a guy, mid twenties, bigger than me. I'm 6'1", 175 pounds. Guessing he was 6'2", maybe 220. Standard poised door exit from a Twin Otter, facing forward. The moment we go out, he throws his head down and tucks up for two super fast front flips, the direct opposite of my exit instructions. I got as big as I could, flew to slow the rotations and hucked the drogue as we came face down again. It seemed intentional as hell, like "I want an extreme skydive, I'll do what I want". All I said to him about it, while under canopy, was "I don't remember briefing you to tuck into the fetal position on exit." What do y'all think? Should I have said more, or just suck-it-up-cupcake-that's-tandems-for-ya?

That's cool. My oldest is 87, but she was a stout one.

Well, wearing a bunch of aluminum foil under the jumpsuits would help. And I've never seen that high of resolution in civilian radar to read something spelled out. What the military has, I don't know. In our country, not many DZ's are in airspace that requires permission to jump. Most just give a one minute warning and the controller issues traffic advisories. The controller may advise not to drop, but can't force the pilot not to. Are the rules more rigid in Sweden?

3.1415926

$20 if he can teach our cat that trick.