mr2mk1g

If you spend every penny just getting there how are you gonna afford wind tunnel time and jumps? Sure you'll be paid to work at the DZ... but that aint gonna be a whole lot of money. Why not buy a rig with your plane ticket money?

What'd I do ??? (I know, I know, Civil war photographer.... Apparently I'm also "Austrailia's first sex symbol" - http://www.convictcreations.com/history/brady.htm). er... sorry - back to your thread.

...so the guy sees that washed up on a beach and starts dragging it round? There's a new one born every day.

Hinton seems to be swapping planes a lot these last couple of years. At the moment they have a Let410 which is lovely and I think there to stay for the summer. At times they have things like a Nomad or the Beaver. There is reserve repacking at Hinton. Atmos is good and the packing area is indoors and carpeted. They have a very nice DZ shop there, one of the best in the UK. They also have a Bar and snack van. Membership is £10 annual and £18 to 12000. Camping and showers. If Hinton is close you might as well also consider Weston 10 miles up the road. Nice atmos again, Dornia G92, Apples Rigging (highly recommended) and very good FS and FF skills. They have a snack van but recently lost their bar. Their opening hours have also recently been curtailed. Not open to civs during the week, but military jumpers are welcome I believe. Is the best kept DZ in the country and has the best packing facilities anywhere in the world. £30 membership (something cheaper for military) and £18 to 12000 (again cheaper for military). Camping caravans and showers.

It was the car I used to own… a Toyota MR2, MkII and it was G registered (letter denotes year in UK – or did anyway). I’ve used it as my e-mail address for years and years and it’s kinda stuck. Now I know if I type it into virtually any website I’m likely to have joined I’ll have a login without trying to remember what odd name I’d used this time. It’s anonymous enough for the net, but memorable enough for my friends to spot me, and well, it means something to me. Or at least that's my screen name. My avatar is simply a flame logo I pulled off the net cos I'm too lazy to find a mug shot. Flames cos that's what my FF gear and rig look like.

Ever seen any of the pro-swoopers? My bet, (which is a crosspost) a more advanced canopy design with ability to climb short distances... there is already such a thing in development - called the R.A.G.E. by paratec - the mpeg's I have of it made me think it was a con, but it's real.

A more advanced canopy design with ability to climb short distances... there is already such a thing in development - called the R.A.G.E. by paratec - the mpeg's I have of it made me think it was a con, but it's real.

So you find this big cylindrical motorised thing washed up on a beach with "NAVY" stamped on it and you start pulling it round? I'd be like "keep the fuck away from me with that thing - it could be a torpedo!"

There's a lot less profit in the sport over here due to higher tax on fuel and landing fees. That could be one reason why it's not common to see DZ's paying for your skills. Other than that there is plenty of BPA and BCPA coaching available throughout the year.

oh christ... anyone ever get the feeling like they're at the top of a long drop on a rolercoaster.... the carriage is just teatering on the edge and its about to tip over the top...

There's nothing wrong with the idea - it's a good one. Just make sure you don't limit people to picking 1 DZ, cos there are many out there who have more than 1 home DZ. Of the three, they are all equidistant from my home (I pass 2 others on the way to them which I never jump at). So distance can't be the deciding factor. Two of them I jumped at last year all the time and have been to about an equal number of times. When I turn up to either I know people and people know me. They are both my home. The third I am going to be jumping at this year... mostly... I think... I'm not sure yet. How 'bout I tell you next year which is my home... cos right now - it's one of the three. Or Perris.

dude... is that Angelina for real? she's hot!

Let me condense the argument here as there seems to be a little confusion. Overall people are not too worried about the trespass that goes on during a traditional English hunt – its simply not the issue. The hunt does not exactly go straight through people’s back yards but some trespass can happen. Legally the hunt is financially liable for just being there, and also for any damage they cause. The main point of the “ban foxhunting” argument is the moral one based on the way the fox is killed. The pro-ban people usually (there are always going to be some hardliners) accept the fact that the fox is a predator who’s numbers need to be controlled through culls or hunting. The thing they do not like is the way the hunt terrorises the fox for several miles before cornering it whereupon the toffs on horse back all stand round and watch the pack rip the fox into several pieces and proceed to fight over the pickings. The main argument is therefore the inhumane way in which the fox is slowly killed by a pack of dogs – you’ve seen a dog kill before right? It doesn’t often just kill, it likes to play with its food in the process… add a pack and you also add the element of fighting over the food too. There have been proposals to allow the hunt to continue but prevent the final kill or to simply shoot the fox somehow once it’s caught. The remaining proposal is to allow drag hunts where hounds follow a prepared scent trail. All sides mostly acknowledge that the killing of foxes with rifles or poison (etc) will need to continue. I hope that’s a satisfactory synopsis.

Get a fuckbudy... that's the absolute best cure for your problem. Just that kinda thing is a bit like skydiving - it's not for everyone. Other than that - a few drops of Bromide in your tea should do the job.

Oh, yeah - apparently (I've not been dealing with it directly - its the clubs committee's problem) they've been very helpful and we could have sent it back and had it all remedied and back to us by now (with a free reserve packjob at that) but the committee still hasnt decided whether or not it wants to bother sending it back for stainless or if a couple of gear bags wouldn't be a better way of spending the money. The replacement risers beat the rig back to England so that was a bit of a non-issue. The funny thing with the text on the mud flap is that they made exactly the same mistake as Sunpath did on the club Odyssey (ordered 6 months earlier rather than 4 weeks as with the Wings). As both co.s made exactly the same mistake the text on the two club rigs looks exactly the same after all! That's called serendipity.

No - it is only the reserves that are supposedly measured this way. Take a look at this pdf which gives the apparent "real" canopy sizes. The two major surprises I found in this document is that PD reserves are all about a size bigger than the ticket suggests and Icarus Safire 1's are about a size smaller than the ticket would suggest. I have no idea if PD would agree with these sizes or not - there are different ways of measuring canopies after all. I know Icarus are open about the way they used to size the original safire.

Such as risers without an RSL ring, no stainless where stainless was requested, SkydiveUWE written incorrectly on the mudflap maybe? (Cheers for your help with that one JP - I'm still trying to prompt the committee to make up their mind about what they're gonna do with the rig... at the moment it's sat forlornly in my living room).

Ignoring "Ragheads" and content for a moment, I love the image of a bunch of Taliban guerrillas sat on rocks in a dusty cave with their leader putting on a Power Point presentation with a laser pen.

Accepted - my concern would stand for anyone who is suicidal. For example, I am in no way concerned for my friend who wants to skydive and is on antidepressants for they are no longer suicidal. However, during the parts of their life when they were both on antidepressants and suicidal, they would have had to fight through me to get on the flight line before being pulled by the DZO at my request. It’s just that the need for antidepressant medication can be indicative of suicidal tendencies and as such may put you on notice that they may use their skydiving as an opportunity for self-harm. Legally speaking I could even see liability claims stemming from this – ie you knew they were on antidepressants, this should have put you on notice that they were potentially suicidal, armed with this knowledge you should not have allowed them into a situation where they could easily take their own life. Doing so was a negligent act which led to the death of my son/daughter. In a sue happy culture, the above is less a joke and more a bona fide cause of action for a grieving parent. I doubt it would succeed, but these things don't have to succeed to bankrupt people.

I can't speak for Ron, but my only concern considering combining shooting and skydiving with people on anti-depressants would not be from them screwing up, "wigging out" or shooting someone else... but from simply committing suicide. The people I know who are on anti-depressants, have at certain times been people who I would not have trusted with a gun or with the responsability of saving their own life. It would be simply providing them with an all too easy way of ending what they considered to be a miserable life. Now this is not all people on anti-depressants, but there are certainly some out there who are on them because of suicidal thaughts and those thaughts continued untill well after commencing the course of medication. That is the class of person who I would not want in a rig or with a gun. I'm glad you do not fall into this class, but be careful making blanket statements to the effect that no one on antidepressants does.

That's exactly what happened to me. Wanted a Jav because I'd previously had a Jav and liked it, besides all my friends had Javs. Everybody has a Jav why would I want to be different? Er… because it meant waiting 6 months! My friend ordered a Jav 1 week before I ordered my Wings. I’ve had my Wings since the beginning of last October. My mate got his Jav 3 weeks ago! Thus if I’d ordered a Jav when I’d ordered my Wings I would have just got it two weeks ago and it would still be unjumped due to weather! Instead I’ve done nearly 100 jumps on my Wings.

At the moment I do not know which of three local DZ's I would put as my home DZ... and technically I've done more jumps at Perris than any of the three despite it being 5500 miles away. Better make it a multiple listing thing if it happens.

Except 8-Mile was simply a re-do of Saturday Night Fever staring John Travolta. Look at the two films – exactly the same story line in each…

I know people on anti-depressants - jumping should not be an issue for those people. Without it they would feel depressed, cry a lot and would be quick to upset. They too are prescribed the drug just to feel normal. I have however, just read a medical report on a case I'm dealing with where the claimant is on anti-depressants. This woman is suffering from serious PTSD and needs medication to simply stop her from freaking out and having a full blown panic attack at the concept of driving. When I asked the psychiatrist if her meds would effect her driving he wrote: (exact quote) "...to some extent the ability to drive is related to the actual dose of medication, the higher the dose then the more likely it is that driving skills will be interfered with." So there you are - exact words from a Consultant Psychiatrist. It depends on the dose.