skydonkey

How about sticking a survey sheet in the BPA mag to gauge interest? That way you'd know how many people at what dropzone would be bothered to turn up, if they would commit to a one, two, three, four.... round event, if they would like it to have an entry fee/ Prize fund - or just for kicks. etc.etc.etc.

Iv'e put about about 120 jumps on a 150 and done a lot of asking around about packing it as I'm starting to use it for wingsuit. Here's my take on what i've learnt. They are less forgiving of than most other canopys if you don't follow good practice, namely.... Slow down before dumping i.e. down come out of head down for two seconds and dump (been there - HARD - but not too hard) Make sure the slider is tight against the stops and properly quartered Let it slip down and inch as you put it in the bag and it makes a BIG differance Read PDs recommendations on stow pull force - something like 10LBs per bungy (dont quote me on that exactly). I found a huge difference when I swapped my nice, easy, big mouth stows for tight ones. The partial line dump that loose stows allow causes a harder initial snatch of the canopy out of the bag. Don't roll the crap out of the nose This can cause the start of the opening sequence to be snively, stand you up, and then when it does open it will feel harder because the opening shock is lateral, pulling you harness straight up into you crotch. I leave the centre cell out and just tuck both side 4 cells in to the center of the pack job slightly. My openings are now faster, but the pull up feels much more progressive and my body swings forward at the end of the opening, spreading the force. I have heard about people oversizing the slider too. Check with your rigger (never hurts to ask a few, as they all have different takes on certain things). Plus, 1000Ft snivelly openings are not neccesarily a good thing. I would rather my openings where a little spanky and have more time to sort a mal out. Blue ones.

Not quite as bad what happened at the weekend at "the big" aerial site in the UK. What a waste, they could have stuck them on Ebay the bastards! You weren't hopping round the field dressed up as a rabbit beforehand where you?

I love that clip. I believe It's Pauline Richards who was at the time the best female skysurfer on the planet (well above it). My girlfriend was doing AFF last year at Sibson in the UK and chatted to Pauline in the plane, she told me recently as she recognised her from a picture in the British Skydive mag. I wish I'd known who she was when she was around that day even if it was only to high-five her on exit. An awesome talent who is sadly missed.

I'm just about ready to go out and buy my first camera. I'm gonna be restricted on budget (Damn that first year of skydiving was expensive!). What's a good budget model to try to pick up?

I'm planning to do my first wingsuit jump next month with Babylon in Spain. They are one of the official S-fly course centres. How much differance is there between an s-fly and a BM classic? I hope to buy a second-hand classic/GTI later on (yeah right, like I'll be able to resist buying whatever Wingsuit I can get my hands on the second I land after the first jump! Damn that wing-candy!!) What's the latest opinions on S-fly versus BM versus Matter2?

With only 120 jumps? I hope not. The cut corners should be fine for any type of jump though.... Ahh, my profile was a bit out of date. I should have around 210 (in the last 15 months) by the time I do the groundschool and coached first jumps in 3 weeks time

I love my Sabre1 150, but the poor old girl is past her best and needs a new set of legs. How much will it cost roughly and is it worth it on such an old canopy?

Im planning on getting cut corner mod to my Mirage G3 to go wingsuiting. Will my rig still be safe for freefly? (could lines be exposed from corners due to high airspeed)

Im planning on getting cut corner mod to my Mirage G3 to go wingsuiting. Will my rig still be safe for freefly? (could lines be exposed from corners due to high airspeed)

Not at all DZ's so far but I'm sure it won't be to long before it is. It is mandatory in a lot of other countries in Europe though.

The cafe at my DZ is looking at installing a PC with internet access. They want a system to allow everyone to log on seperatley and meter how much time they use so the can charge a fee to cover the cost (i.e. X$/15 mins.) Does anyone know of a cheap and easy way to do this?

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You could argue that most Ski-jumpers do this on every jump, only landing from what is basically a sub-terminal max track. The restrictive position that the wingsuit offers gives little option of anything other than crashing down on your belly. I'm sure that it is do-able, but the VERY best you could expect would be multiple broken ribs/arms/legs if not a fatality. There are lots of old threads on this, do a search if you are genuinely interested. Maybe he could cover the suit in Velcro and land on a slope with likewise? Maybe skiers could match his pace down the hill, holding a giant butterfly net and scoop him up? Maybe he could have a folded fabric wing in a bag on his back, which he could throw out and then fly safely to the ground.........hang on I'm just being stupid now!

No, he was a qualified jumper, but I not sure how experienced he was. When it was pointed out to him he looked at the chest strap and couldn't see instantly what was wrong. Iv'e had it drilled into me that much that I know exactly the picture I want to see when I look down at my own or other straps. I also dont like the fact that some people jump rigs with so much excess chest strap that they fold it back and forth over the buckle, thus making it real hard to spot. From the look on his face I don't think he will forget to double check it again.

I was Jumping in Empuriabrava yesterday and we were just climbing to around 2000 feet in the Twotter. An AFF instuctor calls over to the guy facing me and asks him if he got checked before he got on the plane, the guys hesitates and says No. The instructor then says "Check your chest strap, you are now dead" He had looped the webbing around the outside of the tension bar and through the bungy! He corrected it and then sat there looking stressed for the rest of the climb. I think he decided not to exit and came down in the plane. I have heard stories about other DZ's having saves likes and have got into the habit of having a look round at as many other chest straps as I can see, but I usually do it later on the ride before it's time to goggle up. It would have freaked me out to actually spot one though. I would like to think that if the instructor had not spotted it, then I or someone else would have before the exit. I would have found it hard to take if he had gone in, as I was the last person to talk to him before he got in the plane, and almost asked him if he wanted a check. In the UK we are, some would say a little over the top on checks and it is mandatory to check each other and get signed off before going out to the plane. However when going abroad to jump in larger DZ's with lots of very experienced jumpers around I think there is a tendancy for newbie jumpers to feel that it is un-cool to ask for a check as they see lots of the "big boys" not doing so. How often do these 'near misses' occur? How many people make a concious check of those around them on every lift? Do you think the AFF instructor should have forced the guy to stay in the plane, just in case he had missed something else critical (not cocked PC etc.) If this kind of thing happens, should the guy be grounded and have some retraining to re-emphasise the importance of chest strap routing/getting checked.

I once saw a bunch of rowdy wide-boys turn up to do a group tandem. After they had all jumped I noticed one of the PAX looked like he was having a nervous breakdown and overheard one of his buddys saying that he had done a line of Coke before the lift. I guess he wanted to make the experience a little more intense. I wonder how far out of the door he was before he realised it was a bad move But seriously, he put his Tandem instructor at risk as well as himself. Not good. If I though anyone on a load was going to endanger themselves or anyone else I would get their ass hauled off, even if I made myslef look like a C@~t. Bravest Dog:- Troll or not, where do you come up with all this wacky shit?...Let me think, whats next.....Maybe... ...POST:- Which type of cloud do you prefer to fly through when on a wingsuit dive, Cumulus or Nimbus? or Maybe... ...POST:- Has anybody considered filling their Wingsuit with Helium? or Maybe... ...POST:- Has anybody considered Parascending from a speedboat in a wingsuit?

*** But, people have been saying that he went in shortly after that video was made *** It could be that someone down the line has confused this with another famous awsome video clip 'Faster MotherFucker in the valley', which shows Lucas Knuttson WingBASE across a valley and over a river. I believe he went in with a collapsed/knotted Pilot chute shortly after it was flimed.

He,he maybe its only in England as we have more time sat round waiting for it to stop raining.

Last year we had a funny video competition at our DZ. The idea was to group up and produce a (ten minute MAX) video of any topic, Skydiving related or not, as long as it was funny enough to amuse a room full of drunk muppets on a cold evening at the end of the jumping season, With a token trophy handed out to the best judged effort. It was a bit rushed last year and the number of entrys was a little poor, but they produced some good laughs none the less. However we are now thinking of bigger and better 'scripts' for this year. Is this something that other Dropzones indulge in? If so why not send in your 'winner' and lets have the DZ.COM Oscars with the funniest entry picked out by votes. If anyone thinks there is any mileage in doing it we could maybe ask the guys who maintain skydivingmovies.com if we can park them on there for all to view?

He,He, Welcome to the wonderful world of skydiving my friend. We all go through exactly the same things that your going through but you will only appreciate this in six months time and smile to yourself like I'm doing now, when you see a bouncing young AFF Virgin like yourself niavley thinking "Well if I learn to skydive this week, then wingsuit next week, Oh and does anybody have a BASE rig for sale?" Firstly, you didn't fail. You landed in once piece which is the ONLY thing that matters. Between now and qualifying you will do most if not all of the following.... 1.Have crap jumps when you don't do something right the first time you try it i.e. PRP, turns, dive exit, Backloop, barrel rolls etc.... 2. Feel like a C@*t 3. Have AWSOME jumps when you nail that thing that youv'e been beating yourself up about. 4. Feel like a F#%*ing skygod. 5. Bore everybody stupid gibbering on about that thing you nailed, "geeze, ya should have seen it, dja wanna watch it on video, i'll just go get it" 6. Get your arse chewed by the Chief instructor for just about anything and everything. 7. Get real tired of all the criticism from know it all instructors. 8. Get in a huff for getting your arse chewed by Chief instructor once more and call him a miserable old C~@t under your breath. 9. Decide that once you finish learning to skydive here you will go jump elsewhere, where your skygod talents are appreciated. 10. Realise the importance of getting your arse chewed when he stops you running round the corner of the hanger and into a spinning prop. 11. Realise that your instructors do know everything, it just takes time for your tiny mind to absorb it all whilst it is trying to overcome the fact that a rather hard planet is screaming towards it at 120MPH! 12. Decide that you'll never jump elsewhere as these are the best friend you'll every meet. 13. Jump lots of other places and meet lots more best friends. 14.Forget how a wind sock works and land downwind at what will feel like 500MPH. 15. Buy lots of beer. 16. Have lots of beer bought for you. 17. Have the piss constantly ripped out of you for everything you do until you have at least 10,000 jumps. Anyway, what I'm trying to get at is that you are going to have lots of highs and lows along the way, down let it get you down, i promise you its worth it in the end. Oh, and by the way, once you Qualify AFF you will then realise that you haven't actually even started learning to skydive yet. Enough of the BS, back to your jump. Two things you have realised yourself here. 1. You improvised and tried something again because you thought you'd not done it right. Your instructor is expecting you to do things in the order that he told you too, he is watching you like a hawk and will tell you if you did it right when your safe on the ground. If you start doing your own thing he is going to be on his guard because he can't predict what your going to do next. Think sheep, BAA, BAA, BAA, follow the drill to the letter. 2. You showed confusion at the signals, again your instructors would have picked up on this. 1% of you instructors job is to teach students how to skydive, the other 99% is to make sure they don’t kill themselves in the process. You did a good job on the jump and your instructor would have probably been 95% sure that you'd pull OK. However, because you'd shown a little bit confusion and fumbled your handle he wasn't going to take any risks and removed that 5% chance that you'd fumble again/get more confused/panic Everyone seems to get bruised and battered to some extent by the student gear, it's the size of a house and the harness has to adjust to take all shapes and sizes and hence will never be a comfortable fit. Get someone your size to let you try their nice small rig on. WOW huge difference right! Now give it back! you ain’t gonna be needing that for a long time yet, your just gonna have to put up with that instrument of torture for a while longer. You have lots of things in your favour, including. 1. You are VERY excited about skydiving. Even when you have these bad days, you'll be back for more. 2. You live in OZ for F~*s sake, try learning to jump in England where its ALWAYS raining,cloudy,windy, or freezing, and generally all at once. You have one thing against you. 1. You are VERY excited about skydiving. Calm down and RELAX, there is no rush.

http://www.polarsafari.com/baffinbase/index.htm ....From a thread a few months ago so I think it's pretty well out there, sorry don't know how to link it but you can look it up. Iv'e seen some pretty rocking BASE footage so far but this moves the game up a notch partly due to the proffesional film crew, but those guys kick ass and then some. I just want to know how they managed to squeeze between the camera and felix I'm way off ready for BASE yet, but watching this stuff is making me drool all over the keyboard.

You go baby! But if it's taking you half an hour to come down, your canopy is way too big, or you pulling way too high!! I,ll be in Sebastian early next year hopefully, if I can get my jump No.s up to WS by then I'll come and cruise the coast with ya!

I'm some way with experience yet, but was planning to get over to De land or Sebastian around April time, is there any good coaching to be had there and whats the min. Jump No. required? Blue ones Hey you get offa ma cloud!! - didn't know Mick Jagger did BM?