mr2mk1g

Given the price difference there's no reason to buy a 300D over a 350D. The 350'll do everything you need it to do in freefall and it'll do it well. You can fill your card at 3 fps in one go if you really want with that camera (the 300 will have to stop and think after 4 shots). Otherwise they're pretty similar (350's slightly smaller and lighter). Then again, there's now the 400D out too... which only costs a little more... and has another 2 mega pixels and a bigger screen... Above that there's the prosumer models like the 20D... whilst that's a lot bigger and heavier it has some pay-offs. And there's also a couple of Nikon models which work but I only know Canons so won't comment. I'd vote 350D or 400D if you find a nice price on one. (note the 350's probably no longer being sold new in most shops though will still be available if you dig).

Nice one dave - that's a cool shot

True, the one instance I can see where an S/L student would be better placed, (in terms of speed of qualification only), is where training is limited by an unavailablilty of AFF instructors which can happen more easily compaired to S/L instructors (usually). (oh yeah - and weather where there's a low cloud base - the first few S/L jumps could go ahead but AFFers would be stuck on the ground).

7 jumps with instructors followed by a H&P and 17 solo's under your own supervision do not take nearly the same amount of time in the real world as 18 jumps, each preceded by finding an instructor who has the time to do a re-train, sometimes a substantial one, on what you are going to do on the next jump distinct from the last, then find a load where the DZ will put the plane up to the right altitude, get bumped, then an instructor to come up and dispatch you and then de-brief you following every jump, then 7 more under your own supervision. If AFF and S/L instructors wanted to compete for who could get students qualified quicker you could probably cut the gap right down if everyone pulled out stops. You'll have one hell of a job achieving that in the real world though if the AFFI's are pushing just as hard as the S/L instructors.

Just keep in mind during your agonising that in the long run it really doesn't make one jot of difference. By 100 jumps you should be exactly the same skydiver you would have been had you taken the other route. Kinda puts this 'momentous' decision in context. Personally, if I had the money I'd go AFF - you'll likely get qualified quicker and be on your way to your 100th sooner. On the other hand if you'd prefer to spread out the cost over the next few months then S/L could offer benefits to you.

1. What led you to want to jump out of an airplane? Some guy called Tim who looked like he hadn't slept since 1982 When was your first jump? 2001 How many jumps have you done? about 450 2. Has it become an addiction, or at the very least, a great love? yes Why? I love doing it and the people who do it with me 3. Do you feel an instant connection with others who have been skydiving, even if you’ve never met them before? yes 4. Do you consider skydiving to be a sub-culture? yes 5. What kind of people do YOU think want to skydive? Is there a certain type in your opinion? I don't think there is a "type" 6. Are there nicknames for people who haven’t been skydiving? Is there a nickname for a first-timer? wuffo 7. How do your loved ones (spouse, parents, siblings, children, significant other) feel about your skydiving? they bitch that I spend so much time doing it Are they fearful? nope 8. Did you take your loved ones into consideration when deciding on whether you were going to skydive or not? nope Did you consider how it would affect your family if you were to be killed or severely injured? yep - I felt they would be bummed... just like if I died in a motor acident 9. Do you feel that there is a hint of selfishness in skydiving? (I ask this because my Mom thinks I’m selfish for wanting to try it.) yes and no. It's inherrently selfish as only you gain something from it... but then again by those critiera virtually every pastime, sport or activity would be defined as selfish 10. Have you ever been involved in / witnessed / or lost a friend or loved one to a skydiving accident? yes If so, did this make you look at the sport differently? no How long after the incident did you return to the sport? the next day What issues did you have to overcome (physically, mentally, emotionally) in order to return? none 11. If you were the one who was involved, what kind of injuries did you sustain? n/a 12. If you know, what is the most common cause of skydiving accidents? pilot error 13. Are there different levels/classifications of a skydiver and, if so, what do they mean? yes, they vary internationally. In the UK an A licence is the lowest licence for those just qualified (have demonstrated basic freefall and canopy skills), followed by B, (over 50 jumps +1 freefall qualification + a further canopy piloting qualification), followed by C (over 200 jumps +1 further freefall qualification), followed by D (over 1000 jumps). 14. What goes into rigging a parachute? a rigger... I think they're a kind of mamal 15. What kind of equipment do you need to skydive? Are there certain brands you prefer? most jurisdictions require at least 2 parachutes attached to a common harness system. Some others will require additional saftey devices for some levels of parachutist or things like helmets or altimetres. Brand wise I'm open to most, yes I have my preferences but these usually change year on year as new things come out... kinda like cars 16. Are you former military? Airborne? nope 17. How would you convince someone that has never tried it to jump? yes... though not friends - they're already exposed to it through me, if they want to jump they'll tell me so, I'm not gonna try and get them to 18. Lastly, please describe in vivid detail the experience and feelings of jumping out of an airplane and falling toward the earth. What do you see, feel (both physically and emotionally), hear, smell, taste (?) – be specific, I want to relive this jump with you! eugh... too much... try it - you might like it... or how about "It's the shit!"

A few months back I represented a man at a Coroner's Inquest who was involved in a fatal head-on collision earlier last year. He was wearing his seatbelt. He walked away from the accident and gave evidence at the inquest despite the fact that his car suffered significantly more serious damage than the other. The woman in the other car was not wearing a seatbelt. The police accident reconstruction determined that each car was going no more than 30mph at impact. The 22 year old woman in the other car died at the scene. She was traveling home from work early because she was suffering from morning sickness. Her unborn baby died with her. Her first daughter was due to celebrate her first birthday the next day and a party was already planned. She was traveling at 30mph along the road she took every day from work to home. She wasn't wearing her seatbelt. She is dead. My client, who was wearing his seatbelt, wasn't even injured. Buckle up folks.

Recently looked into PC1000 vs. a couple of other models to replace my PC101 – see thread a couple of hits down, (the screen on mine also died... but it's also stuck itself in some weird white balance thingy I can't change without the screen). Problem I have with buying a PC1000 is that it comes with an internal battery which only lasts a little over an hour... it would suck big time to move from the awesome M series battery to something like that...

I just killed my PC101 so need to replace it. I'm looking at doing either a straight replacement with a 101 or 105 or maybe upgrading slightly to something like the PC330 or PC1000. Don't really feel the need to go HD right now and want to stay PC style side-mount. Any suggestions or comments? What camera would you get?

Never had a problem with mine, though I don't think I've ever used them in a tunnel as someone mentionned above. I just make sure they're pushed onto the bridge of my nose before exit and I give the elastic a swift tug as I head towards the door, (I ensure the elastic is below the rear edge of my helmet for this reason). Your mileage may vary - give it a shot and if worst comes to worst you just got yourself some sunglasses. I would counsel you against using them till at least you're self supervised. Instructors like to be able to see your eyes so avoid any eye-wear which have tinted lenses.

I wear them - they've lasted maybe 200+ jumps without a single sign of wear. Great goggles and can be used as sun glasses when you're on the ground. DONT buy them from the above link. Hit up e-bay, they're like £10 on there

I deal with PTSD a lot in legal circles. It's massively over diagnosed and many medical experts cannot stand up to cross-examination on their diagnosis. If you're that interested, take a look at DSM-IV, (currently 4th edition), or ICD10, (10th edition), which are the most commonly used diagnosis criteria for PTSD, (google or wikipedia them if you're bothered). The main area I usually attack is based on the entry criteria – ie what must have happened to the injured party before the psych expert is even allowed to consider PTSD. ICD10 states that the trigger event must be "of exceptionally threatening or catastrophic nature, which is likely to cause pervasive distress in almost anyone". DSM-IV uses "the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others and the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror". If the injured party fits into one of those brackets then they at least meet the entry criteria... then the psych expert can continue to consider if they meet the rest of the requirements. To do this they will look at the symptoms reported and see if they match the profile required for a full diagnosis. I'll not repeat those here – go look them up if your question is serious – they are... substantial. Participating in skydiving could easily meet the entry criteria, especially where an incident occurs and so long as the symptoms fit the DSM/ICD profile someone could be diagnosed with PTSD... that's not to say of course they'd be able to recover damages from anyone for it... that's a wholly different question altogether!

Cheers guys, mostly confirming what I'd planned. And thanks Dave - knew I could count on you. Do people collapse their wings when they pitch... which seems logical given the burble etc... but I've heard of people going big to minimise opening shock etc...

el no toucho wingo - there's a big door cut aft of the wing - leading edge of door is about level with trailing edge of wing.

Yeah... cos while Bear was in the SAS, Les went to music and art collage...

IMO best quote of the entire article comes at the very end. So BA uses first class... the other carriers just shove the body in a cupboard! I wonder if they have to fold it to make it fit... ?

Plus there's a skydiver door aft of the wing. I did my 3rd static line jump out of the thing... then I qualified as a S/L instructor by dispatching out of the bloody thing a few years later. Had I known what an arse-ache of a plane it is to dispatch out of I would have tipped my jump master back when I first jumped the thing.

He was effectively fired for doing something the coach told him not to do, not technically what he was actually doing... which was indeed going out and getting steamingly drunk just before a match. By the way everyone... games in World Cup Cricket last ONE DAY... that's why it's called "ONE-DAY International cricket" (the clue is cunningly and surreptitiously hidden in the name).

Any tips for things to watch for on my first few jumps with camera wings? I'm thinking drills/common problems/do's/don't do's etc... Cheers

Release brakes - steer - land - stow brakes. If they never leave your hands you physically can't get twists in your brake lines ever, (so long as you aren't inducing a twist during your release or stowing motion). I simply don't understand why people will wander round trailing a toggle from the bundle of crap they just created for themselves. A little bit of care will solve a whole load of problems.

This website: http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/skydiving.htm gives a passable outline of how a lot of our gear works. DO NOT place too much weight on it; it is not 100% accurate but it does quite a good job for a free internet guide.

John, even your definitions stretch a little with that list. Here we've had Dunblane where a quarter of our entire annual firearms homicides were caused in a single morning on a class full of primary school children... As far as school shootings go that's pretty much it for the UK. Certainly out of your list that's the only murder with either firearms or committed at a school. You can't really compare things like the Shipman murders where a Doctor went round euthanizing 90-year-olds with morphine injections over a 30 year period to a school-yard-shooting. Even on your definitions thats a pretty big stretch...

Back when I did my first static line jump line twists were part of malfunction training and we were told how to fix them etc. They were a malfunction which could be fixed, just as you argue. Fast forward to when I did my static line instructors course a few years later and the BPA had had a major re-thing on their definitions. Now as an instructor I am forbidden from referring to line twists during malfunction training. I don't refer to them as malfunctions, ever. I make a big deal about them being a "nuisance factor" (along with slider-high and end cell closure). Even my lesson about nuisance factors is a whole different lesson to the malfunctions lesson to make sure there's no overlap in the students mind between the two scenarios. The full package of responses to line twists is still covered, including cutting away – the only thing that changed was the name given to them and their complete temporal disassociation with malfunction lessons. (All this is mandated from above). Guess what happened after the BPA mandated a different way of training students on line twists. First jump student cutaways massively decreased across the country pretty much over night. The BPA found that one of the big reasons why students were cutting away was because we used to teach them that line twists were a mal which could be fixed. The student would get line twists, think "malfunction" and cutaway without simply dealing with them as they had been trained to do on the ground. Now they see line twists and think "nuisance factor – I now have to do X,Y,Z". The idea that they're a mal has never been put into their head so they don't simply revert to their cutaway drills for something that is easily fixed. The end result was that safety was increased simply by changing the names we used for different types of scenarios, nothing more. Experienced jumpers can debate the proper definition of a mal all we like – we know the score and it's nothing more than an academic issue to us. Students and the very inexperienced however should be given definitions which will potentially save their life... even if we know at the end of the day there's potentially another way to look at the definition.

Air into water. They've done another episode (I think it was another episode) where they fire guns underwater, both with and without air in the action/barrel. All worked just fine IIRC and they got the same penetration results.

How about "yeah but it can't be international PI day as only those damn, uncultured, gun-toting, polluting Yanks write the date the arse-way-round"?