mr2mk1g

I go to a lot of small BCPA boogies in the UK... there the price is generally the same, although I have to factor in travel and registration. As these are UK DZ's though, I basically treat each as my home, at least thats the way they feel. Say "travel" and I think a trip to a US or Spanish DZ... (maybe even russia next year). There the jumps are deffinately cheeper and I try to cram in as many as poss.

Whats the french for "strafing run?"

I'd love to... but I live in England

There's no such thing as a non-packing jumper in the UK. The concept is a very odd one... I also don't know anyone who has had to pay for a packing lesson. Here you don't bother one of the packers who's job it is to pack for the DZ staff, but any experianced jumper worth his salt will gladly (ok not gladly) but there will always be an experianced jumper who will be happy to give up 5 mins to give a packing lesson. Its called giving back to the sport. It upsets me that there are places where a student can't find a packing lesson for free.

I really don't get why people have a problem with the flying and other "superhuman" things neo does in the movies. They do not portray, nor seek to portray reality. When Neo is in the Matrix he is in a computer generated worled with computer rules. There is no such thing as physics, simply computer rules. Any self aware people who know that there are only computer rules can choose to ignore them... ("there is no spoon etc"). Someone here says they believe the first one up to the point where Neo flys... thats odd... you either accept the premise that you can manipulate/ignore the computer rules or not... why believe they can manipulate the computer generated gravity rule allowing them to jump from building to building but not believe that they can then do the same thing in order to fly... its the same rule, the same manipulation... why if flying less plausable than moving real fast or jumping from building to building?

Can I quote myself?

Yeah I know that.... thats exactly my point. With this system you would have to be under an open canopy (a square not a round) much higher, otherwise there's no point to having it controlable and run by GPS. Therefore with this system, you stick yourself on a big, slow ass canopy way up in the air. Why the fuck would you want to do that? Combat drop under a round at 750 suddenly seems like a much better idea, esp when that system doesnt have a million $ worth of computer system guiding it about the sky to get shot at.

just tell em its your e-mail server... it has the capacity to be. "forums... what forums? I just use it to recieve e-mail... you sent me a staff update the other day on my dz.com adress... how am I supposed to do my job if I can't recieve e-mail from my boss??"

this all sounds sweet. anyone any idea on what the lead time on the helmets is?

jeez when will the military realise that techonolgy will never replace proper training. Besides, the military would not let anyone jump this who has not also been trained to work the parachute should it malfunction.... so why have it? I can see this package will be great for delivering air-droppable supplies and equipment, (if they can solve the whole connecting up the toggles problem) but what does it solve for inserting personel? Ok it frees your arms up to what... shoot? Your a sitting duck anyway - shoulda opened lower. Its not like you have to map-read, its got GPS, besides you shoulda got a better spot. Awww, you get cold fingers when you use the toggles... buy some damn golves!

Yes actaully your right. Thats actually a far more plausable scenario too. Can you imagine how hard it would be to swim to shore of wherever he lands with a parachute deployed in the water? I would doubt anyones ability to swim through deap water dragging an open parachute after them. You could have him cut away from his main on hitting the water, swam out of the harness and then to shore using the reserve as a floatation device. This is actaully straight out of the manual and what you're supposed to do so no one could say its technically incorrect. In this scenario you could still get in a tense few moments of drowning under the sinking canopy before a skillful escape which (no author) im sure could be made captivating. Using the reserve to BASE in the next escape scene would eliminate the tedium of 15 minutes of packing he would need to go through (which must be something of a boring chapter in the book).

if he used a sport rig he could do it... just depends on what he based... If he wanted to BASE something really small in the sports rig he could pop the reserve and tie its pilot chute off to a hand rail or something... this ought to have it opening in about 80ft if we are to believe the skyhook tests. [dont do this at home kids]

well it might have no monetary value... ie you can't spend it, but it is cool to have, and I would put (yes pun intended) money on it being worth something to a private collector, esp as you found it in Afganistan. Somethimes copies are worth more than the orriginal as they are far rarer, and thats the thing that counts in this sort of collecting.

I would...

I remember reading a self diagnosis thingy once... the questions I remember were 1: Do you ever drink alone? Well yes, I prefer to cos then I cant do stupid stuff in front of people... in fact I usually refrain from drinking when out clubbing/ at the pub... and that makes me an alcoholic now?? 2: Do you keep alcohol hidden arround the house ? When I read this I looked up to the video shelves to see a bottle of port, then reached down the side of the sofa and picked up a bottle of wiskey... What I don't have a drinks cabinet... not having a drinks cabinet makes me an alcoholic now?? That makes no sense. 3: I can't remember any more... when I started writing this I thought I could remember at least 4 or 5... It must be cos I got pissed the other night.... But they were all similarly stupid questions which for me tended to point away from alcoholism.

Ydarb Wehttam... (obviously Yiddish or something...)

Couple of things... if you whack the fan speed up to 120 mph then no wing suit needed... with a wing suit on the fans may go much slower... Remember the stick will probably float to some degree unless its weighted. Yes this game has the ability to be hella dangerous, like you said, closing speeds could be high. Remeber the concept of "burble"... the dead air above another player... if one person flew over another they would simply fall out of the sky (remember what caused the crash in TopGun). With wing suits (unless stationary) the burble will be at an angle behind the player. This sounds like a very cool game... I wonder what the possability of actually getting it to work in real life may be at some point in the future... wind tunnels are already becoming more and more popular and common... its only a small leap of faith to stick two or three together to make a bigger playing area... then a few more and you have a "pitch". hmmm...

Your hero would presumably not have done any special modifications to his parachute and would simply be using an ordinary sport parachute... this would mean the opening height would have to be higher than is possible in the extreme. Sport parachutes are deliberately designed and packed to open in slowed stages (120mph (freefall speed) to 0mph tends to hurt if you try to do it too fast). Parachutes will generally open within about 1000ft leaving little safety margin... but then when your being chased by bad people I guess that doesn’t really matter... If you wanted to have your hero cut it even finer, anywhere down to 500ft would be plausible. People above have mentioned his "Cypres" or AAD. This is a little computer which opens your reserve parachute for you if you are unconscious, (or dumb)… this activates at 750ft so if you are passing through this altitude without a parachute out, or with an opening parachute… it is likely to activate. Best avoid the whole concept of a Cypres as it complicates things… your hero either doesn’t have one or has not had time to switch it on (damn those bad people). If you then want your hero to BASE jump to get away later in your book, post in the BASE category and get all the info you need there.

Wow I never knew I had one of these: AD B268489, Hypercone – Inflatable Hypersonic Decelerator, Final Report, Glen Brown, May 2001, 72 pp., Vertigo, Inc. Now thats a cool name for a parachute...

Lets say you set the cypres so it thinks your landing 250ft higher. Theres a warning in the manual that says that once you have gone above 250ft the plane cannot go back below that altitude. The cypres thinks you just flew underground. I know it would be rare for a jump plane to do this but it does happen. I dont remember what the ramifications were... might just be that the cypres re-set... someone will have to confirm... Edit: found it in the online manual - this will "lead to a low, or no activation" ... so by fiddling you just switched your cypres off.

There's already one of those on the market... its called a Falcon 280... its big, heavy and square. You ought to be looking for the Kukiri - very small and highly eliptical. (edited to upload attachement I forgot to hit the damn button on).

firstly its a simple pun on the fact that a Katana is the correct term for the Japanese "samurai sword" After that I guess its hinting at the fact that its a HP canopy only aimed at those who really have the skills to handle it... thus appealing to those pilots who have those skills and want to be part of (or want to appear part of) a highly skilled elite groupe of canopy pilots.

Mine came set from the factory like #1. Whilst I can't realy determin any problem with the second set up, why mess with the way it was intended.... althogh I'd hazzard a guess that Bill Booth would say that about a lot of things we see on the market.

We've had it in England for a while now, shows on Bravo all the time. Its called Takishi's Castle here and is voiced over by Craig Charles of Red Dwarf fame. Very very funny... I just love those little japs running into solid doors. And whats with the ending, at least give them a chance at winning... no one ever even gets close.

best bet in that instance is to wear the RW for RW and wear loose pants or shorts and a baggy top for FF. So long as your clothing choice is safe, there is no real need to have an FF suit as you just start out.