mr2mk1g

Martin. . . . . What's wrong with martin? It's a good name.

From memory I think all three of the DZ's I've mentioned can have periods when the grass is rather long if that's why you're moving... although I've not seen any DZ get quite to the state Hinton can.

I wonder if somewhere in the Islamic world some time ago a group of Muslims had the same thought. Arab 1: "They wont stop sticking their noses into Palestine no matter what we do." Arab 2: "Maybe we should threaten their entire population, maybe then they will not support or aid the politicians among them who want to meddle in the Middle East?" Arab 1: "Yes, what we've been doing now has clearly not been effective." Arab 2: "Doomsday scenario threats must work better. Who in their right mind would dig in their heels and fight to defend themselves when threatened with violence against their people and their holy sites?" Now I'm not saying its all the West's fault that we are attacked by Muslim extremists, I'm merely using that as an example. Why on earth would we think they would simply say "ok, we'd best do as they say" when threatened with violence when that is far from our minds when we are threatened with violence? It is human nature to stand up to that kind of tyranny. It would merely recruit millions of people in a war against the West. Besides, where do you propose to bomb them to? Most of the countries we'd target are already in the Stone Age.

Yeah, Id be happy to recomend Nethers or Weston or South Cerney. Nethers and Weston are the bigger operations. Nethers will be a little cheaper than Weston but I think a bit further away. South Cerney cheaper again by a way and probably as much of a pain for you to get to and they have some opening issues. The best advice is to go visit each one and jump there. Make your call based on how you found them. I've always personally been able to talk a DZ into letting me jump as a non member/temp member if I plead the fact I'm just visiting for the weekend. Then go back and sign up for real.

I sent 1 set of measurements and got back 3 vastly different sized suits. Go figure. 1 suit was retired after it started to fall appart at 100 jumps. 1 suit had £30 spent on it at a tailor to get it to fit right and is currently looking at retirement/major repair works after only 100 jumps because it too has started to fall appart. And the last 1 was sized so badly that I spent £20 on it at a tailor to make it into a set of FF pants... I've yet to even jump these though.

Just up the road from Hinton is Weston - lovely large DZ, probably the best kept in the country. Their prices have kept me away this year but you ought to find them very closely priced to Hinton. They are only open a portion of the year though and their membership is one of the higher ones. Also within shooting distance of you should be Chatteris... I've only been there a year or two ago so can't comment really on them further. You might also consider shooting up the M1 to Langar although this is a little further.

They would then be justified in making a preemptive strike against us. Remember, Bush said those were allowed now where there was a credible threat. I think we ought not stoop to that sort of level. Not to do it, nor to threaten it.

Be a pain at the DZ and ask other jumpers to try theirs on. Try not to be overly sweaty at the time. Or go to a gear shop, Hinton has a nice one where you can try on many different brands. Other manufacturers are 2k composites - they're a UK manufacturer who do a very nice helmet called the FF1 which is custom fitted. See if anyone has one you could try or call them up. Other popular ones at UK DZ's are one of the many different Boneheads or Parasports open face Z1. You could even try out some snow boarding helmets at snow sports shops. They're probably cheaper and actually have a Snell rating. Just make sure they'd be appropriate for jumping before you shell out for one.

You'll be after a symbiosis suit then. You'll find them at Headcorn DZ south of London where the person who makes it will measure you up. Their website is here: http://www.symbiosis.suits.btinternet.co.uk/ No; US made suits in the UK does not mean symbi aren't up to scratch - their suits are easily a match for any of the top US names and in many ways much better. If there are any other UK suit manufacturers, I'm not aware of them - I'm sure others will post details if there are.

OK... so I've written a long one... I was doing a number of nominated accuracy landings in order to get my UK demo rating (which I later got, as did all the people in the story). Myself and a number of friends were using a Cessna 206 and were the only people in the plane. We'd planned to put us out as a stick across the middle of the DZ with as little horizontal separation as possible as we were all shooting for the accuracy pad. We all get in the plane and many jokes are had on the way up to 3000ft. The pilot called out that he was running in and my buddy who was jump mastering opens the door and lies on the floor to spot. I'm second out so I'm wedged behind another buddy... it's cramped as there are 5 of us in the plane. Several minutes had passed when my friend spotting calls the guy who's first out to come over. I can't hear much over the noise of the prop, the open door and wind noise but he says something about the DZ and points out of the door. First out guy looks out the door as well and they have a short exchange which I can't hear. The jump master then turns to look out of a window on the other side of the plane and the first guy in the stick jumps. I'm watching him deploy as I move forward mindful of the rest of the stick behind me waiting to get out. I see the jump master wave me towards the door as if hurrying me up to jump next. I think "alright, alright; I’m going already" and look out and focus on my friend who’s now deploying so as to ensure we have adequate separation. Then I jump. After deployment I note no one else gets out. I look around and can't see the DZ... in fact I can't see any landmarks I recognise. I see a large wood... but that can't be right as that would mean I'm miles away from the DZ. That's when I realise what has just happened... although I can't quite figure out how just yet. I follow my buddy down who was first out and land next to him in a farm yard. The guys buy the buildings have a quick joke and tell us not to worry – they've even had gliders land in the field before. We head out onto the road and start to wander back in towards the DZ before we're picked up by a van from the DZ within about 10 minutes. Post jump de-brief. It turns out that the pilot called that he was running in about 10 minutes before they even saw the DZ. This in itself was odd and they continued to "run in" for another couple of miles before they even saw the DZ. The jump master, confused by the fact they'd been told they were running in 5 minutes ago and yet he still couldn't see the DZ, called over the first guy from the stick for assistance. He looks out and over the wind noise thinks he hears the JM say "there's the DZ" when in fact he said "where's the DZ?" The pointing was more of a request for him to look rather than a pointing to the DZ as the first man out took it to be. First man takes a look out and sees what he thought was the field next to the DZ and hops out believing we were starting the spot a little short (which if true wouldn’t have been much of an issue at all and would have been only 1 or 2 hundred yards shorter than the other jumps we'd done that day. The JM who had his back turned to the first man momentarily senses someone jumped out and turns round in surprise. He held his hands out, palms facing us in an expression of surprise. As I was looking out of the door I only see the one arm... which in my peripheral vision looks exactly like it would if he was offering me the door in an attempt to hurry me up. When I looked out I wasn’t focusing on the ground... having trusted the spot to two good friends (who I'd just seen have a conversation about it and both look out), but focused instead on my deploying friend, ensuring appropriate separation and was wary of hanging round too long and thus screw the rest of the guys in the stick. The JM didn't stop me because he figured the first man out must have been able to see the DZ where he couldn't. No one else went after me because the pilot started to throw a fit when people were getting out the aircraft miles from the DZ. Lessons to learn? Trust no one. Remember no one can hear shit over wind noise, engine and helmets. ALWAYS look before you leap no matter what secondary evidence you think you ought to be able to rely on... your eyes are the only one's that you can use to control your life. First man out got grounded for 2 days for going when he couldn’t see the DZ and I got grounded for 1 day for following him. Both groundings were shortly rescinded when everyone found out exactly what had happened and instead just took the piss a lot. Ian Marshal, latterly our demo leader, tells us we're a bunch of pricks.

I've pm'ed him this but for anyone else that's interested: Join UKskydiving (£50 membership) and tickets are as little as £10/jump for teams or £12/jump for blocks of 10. These are only available for a couple of DZ's though (2) and you buy them for your specific DZ. I'm actually almost hesitant to share this info for fear of losing the gravy train myself

In the wishy-washy joe-schmo-public version of the bill the govt. has outlined yeah... Just goes to show how wide ranging the wording they've given is. I have no doubt they'll have to re-think or dramatically re-word it before it goes before the Commons. The law won't be retrospective - pretty difficult to make it so under our constitution. They've also made a big thing about how it won't effect anyone who has already received such training.

World-wide Approved Relative work Progression... or something. It's basically a training system to get you up to speed on basic RW flying. It takes you from bob-the-just-qualified to a skydiver capable of taking part in RW jumps, turning points and joining formations. It focuses on flying your body relative to others without taking them out/becoming/causing a danger to others... and also on getting out of other's way. It involves 10 (I think.. could be 7... been a while) jumps focusing on a different element of belly flying. They work up from 2 way drill dives with an instructor to 3-ways and 4-ways. 6.4. Formation Skydiving (FS) 6.4.1. To obtain Grade 1 in Formation Skydiving (FS1) the parachutist must, be introduced to FS by a CCI/Advanced Instructor nominated FS1 Grade parachutist or equivalent of proven FS instructional ability, have received a full safety brief and demonstrated the ability to: a) Control fall rate. b) Control horizontal movement, (forwards, backwards and sideways). c) Achieve ‘docking’ techniques. d) Turn in place. e) Dive and approach a target. f) Complete four points of 4-way FS. N.B.(1) No more than one Category 8 jumper per group, all other jumpers in any group must be FS1 parachutists. N.B.(2) Training progression programmes such as World-wide Approved Relative-work Progression (WARP) and Skydive University are acceptable for training for FS1, provided all the requirements of sub-para 6.4.1. (above) are met. Basically a 4 point 4-way is the major requirement... but in reality it requires you to be able to demonstrate all the skills taught you during a WARP program. So long as you can demonstrate (or can show in your log book that you have demonstrated) all the elements of the WARP program (those listed above) you can get your sticker even if you simply learned this on your own or with your buddies. That said, without doubt the best way to do this is through a proper WARP program. You will be a much better skydiver for it in the end. (Some DZ's have much more stringent requirements. For example, I got my FS1 at Weston who require 2 x 6 point 4-ways... I got it even though I sucked (thanks partly to Purplebadger who I've just noticed below, as he was on my FS1 dive) and I'd imagine some places simply won't care unless you've been using their instructors to do their form of WARP.

£18 to 12.5 is about standard... that standard though may be going up shortly/now because of the price of oil.

It's already almost as cheap to take long weekends to empuria as it is to drive to the DZ. If you factor out 100miles of petrol, dz membership, BPA membership, £18 jump tickets against easyjet/ryan air ticket, USPA membership, Spanish jump tickets I bet there wouldn't be that much difference already. I bet there's a combo out there which makes traveling to Spain cheaper for some jumpers.

eh, close enough. There are a number of proposed bits of legislation regarding the build up to the sort of acts we saw in London. The first as you point out is some kind of offence of glorifying terrorism. I think the govt. is referring to it as "indirect incitement". This one I'm not exactly sure we need... though that will depend on precisely what form it takes. There was a minister (I think it was Hazel Blears) speaking last week on the radio about the proposals and they indicated that there would be a requirement that the offender had some form of intent that their words would encourage their audience to commit terrorist acts... thus merely glorifying it without any thought that anyone would go ahead and commit terrorism would not be enough to be guilty of the offence. Since the new law would require the intent that the audience would then go on to commit a terrorist act at least partly because of what the offender said; this really ought to be covered by the current offence of incitement to commit a terrorist act / public explosion etc. It's an odd stance for the govt. to take. One I think is primarily designed to make it look like they're doing something although I'm not sure they actually are with this one. It doesn't really matter what you say for the purposes of a charge of incitement, be it "go commit suicide bombings" or "suicide bombers are martyrs". As far as I understood the position, either would be covered by our standard laws on incitement so long as the speaker intends for the audience to act on their words. Maybe Cherrie ought to have a quick chat with her hubby and clear the position up for him. (note that the govt. does not anticipe this to be a inroad on our freedom of speech as you will still be able to say "suicide bombers are martyrs" so long as you're not doing it with the intent of getting others to go commit suicide bombings. But as I've said, I don't really see this as much of a change. That said, I'm sure some people will think a little harder before the exercise their rights to free speech after this law comes in). Other proposed legislation would firstly criminalize conspiracy to cause an explosion overseas (really all this does is close a loop hole and shouldn't really be that controversial) and acts which are preparatory to committing a terrorist act. This is the change that will have some real teeth. At the moment British law recognizes attempt as being an act "more than merely preparatory" to the offence. Thus you would probably be guilty of attempting to cause a public explosion if you made a bomb and put it in a bin. You might not be guilty of that offence though if all you did was to gather together bomb making equipment and ingredients and learn how to make a bomb. That would probably be found to be an act merely preparatory to the offence and not an attempt. I think rightly so, there is now talk of criminalizing such activity, even where it does impinge on our freedoms to collect together various bomb making products. So long as the powers that be are intelligent enough not to start prosecuting people who have two different kinds of bleach under their sink (and the legislation forces them to be that intelligent), then the situation would be acceptable in my opinion). The one other new bit of legislation is the offence of giving or receiving training in terrorist techniques. This could prove to be rather difficult and I expect to see a lot of arguments in parliament over this. Whilst toddling off to some Al Qaeda training camp in Pakistan rightly ought to be an offence of some kind, there's talk of criminalizing giving or receiving training in the handling of "hazardous materials". I wonder what this covers. As yet we don't know. Will chemistry teachers have to get a license to reach chemistry? Will students need licenses? Are we simply going to do away with GCSE and A-Level chemistry and physics altogether? I want to know more. And I want to know what on earth the govt. thinks such a broad offence is going to even come close to being workable. As always, the devil will be in the detail. There's no real information out there yet about precisely what the govt. wants in this new legislation. The full information will come out when the bills are published and that is when the real debate will start.

I think the prices at skydive cark (NWPC) went up 2 weeks ago. I don't remember off hand but it was to somewhere in the mid 20's.(£'s). It's not going to hit me too hard this year as we've got bulk tickets bought at the start of the year... but it will be a huge impact to jumping next year when we're looking at bulk prices... especially if there's prospects of a fall in oil prices making buying in bulk while it's high a bad deal.

I'll cover the Moore film "Crazy People" angle if you like: "DZ.com... argumentative but good." "DZ.com... Most of our posters arrive alive" "Come to DZ.com - we had fewer arguments last year." "DZ.com. It's a little too small to get laid IN it, but you get laid the minute you get out of it!" "You may think skydiving forum sites stink since deregulation, but don't mess with us, because we're all you've got. In fact, if we fold, you'll have no damn forum. DZ.com - we're tired of taking your crap!" "Sangiro Presents DZ.com. This forum won't just scare you, it will fuck you up for life!"

We run at about 2.5 million skydives in the US per year. There are about 30 fatalities per year in the sport (in the US). So that's roughly 83,333 skydives per fatality. The current record for the most jumps ever done is stands somewhere in the high 20,000's I believe. If you did say 100 skydives in the first year then the statistically generated odds of you dieing in your first year would be somewhere arround 1 in 833. In reality of course, statistics show absolutely nothing whatsoever. Seriously, don't start another thread on the statistical risks involved in skydiving - they are UNQUANTIFIABLE. This sport is as safe or as dangerous as you make it (to a degree). Statistics simply can't account for all the elements of this sport nor can they account for the random chaos factor that generally ends up taking someone's life. If you're insistant on putting figures to your wife though... that's one tack you might be able to take. I'd say a better way though would be to go sign up for a first jump course and talk through the risks with her and maybe a couple of jumpers over some beers. Take a 6 pack and sit about at sunset. I'm sure you'll find someone who's willing to talk you through the risks involved for a share. (edit - the above figures are all very rough and straight off the top of my head... their accuracy should be considered with that in mind).

I love fucking with telemarketers and take great joy in messing about every time I have one on the end of the line. A favourite one if I just can't be bothered but still want to mess them arround is to sit the phone next to the TV so they can listen to whatever show's on. I've had people stay on the line for ages like this. What do I care - it's their bill. In the past I've told them to go away because I was having sex. Then hung up on them and went back to it. Last night someone rang and I told them to hang on a moment because I was watching the A-team. I went back to them after a minute or two and told them I had to go because Hanibul had a plan and he always likes it when a plan comes together. Anyther one is to answer the phone by saying "Good evening this is Bristol lunatic asylum, Napolion speaking how may I help you?" Or just say "Oh my God, your one of them aren't you!?" or "It's you isn't it? How did you find me?" Then call out urgently to someone off the phone "Dude - they tracked us down again! we gotta clear outa here!"

Apparently it wasn't C4. They made their explosives from stuff they bought from the chemists, there was an article about it this morning on the radio. See here:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4684869.stm In fact... they think they've arrested the guy who made it: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,162599,00.html

My parents were cool about my skydiving. Last month they came back from a road trip through Europe to Italy and said they'd seen BASE jumpers near some big cliffs in the North of Italy. They said they'd found me a very nice chalet I could stay in if I wanted to go jump the cliffs with them. They thought it was a cool idea. I explained why I was shocked my mother was trying to push me into BASE.

Thirded! I'm a regular at "Marco's" a barber shop owned and run by an ex professional footballer of Italian origin. He has two other blokes who work for him who are full blooded Italian and wander round singing in Italian if they don't have a customer. Great service, great haircuts, hot towel shaves and they always finish your haircut off with a trim with a cut-throat razor. A true gentleman's barbershop. Go find one!

I think the roundabout (medium) attachment is the roundabout just outside Swindon County Court. I've not seen another like that anywhere in the UK. It's insain! I didn't even know what the hell to do with it and I was driving to Court to represent someone in road traffic accident proceedings.

You should be concerned about your credibility if you want anyone here to take anything you say seriously. You apparently have important info which could turn our views about our governments upside down... yet you refuse to back up you wild claims or post any proof. If you really gave a damn about us believing what you were saying you would give a damn about your credibility. As you're "not concerned" about your credibility we must conclude you do not care if we believe you or not. As such we can see you don't really care if you message gets through at all. Thus your motives for posting are evidently not convincing anyone of the truth of what you say. They must therefore be something else. Such as trolling perhaps. No. Show me.