BenW

This is SOOOO unfair!!!!!! Las Vegas is 1/2 way around the planet! We need to organise a European Boogie! YEH! Umm, anyone else here in Europe?? Damn Planet. Waaay to big. Ah! I've got an idea... We need to get some of you inventive types working on this teleporter that Greg was talking about - just make sure it'll sort our souls out too (should keep Zennie happy). Get working on it peeps, then all the rest of us from around the globe can come and spend our money too! Yea.

Welcome Dan! Our revamped home here at dropzone.com is cool and there are some great people here! Glad to see you aren't lurking on the sidelines! B.

Pull high (5k ish) and have some fun with it, learn it's stall point for the flare, get some use out of the thing!! B.

I don't have a jump 13 in my logbook. It's 12, 12a then 14! I'm not even superstitious though! (touch wood...) B.

I'm with Danhole here! I love hanging onto the side of the plane, looking over the top of it, taking in the view and then just jumping off! Can't beat the feeling! B.

Jump: #69. Place: Zhills. The skydive hadn't gone particularly well. My sit had gone into a head down that was a little out of control and dangerous. Went flat at 5k & pulled at ~3800 as per the dive plan. What happened next wasn't too good. I had a line-over out of the bag. Watched the canopy deploying from the bag and it didn't look good at this point. Continued to watch the LH side of the canopy stay packed and the RH side starting to unfold. My thought process at this stage was "THAT doesn't look good - it's a line-over/tangly mess". The RH side of the canopy popped open and started to drive forwards, the LH side was still a ball. Next thing, it dives into a LH spiral. About 3/4 of a turn into it the thought process was "I'm out of here". Followed the drills exactly to the letter including shouting out loud whilst performing the actions. Nothing like stress to make you follow what you were taught. Next thing I know there's this grey canopy above me - beautiful little thing! Felt pretty shaken when I got down and I didn't want to jump anymore that day. It was pretty late in the afternoon by this stage, so I just bought the beer and blathered on about it all evening. Everyone just let me get on with recounting the story to anyone that'd listen - THANKS GUYS!! The next day I really didn't want to jump and hung around helping everyone else. The sunset was looking like it was gonna be beautiful. One of the girls asked if I'd go and jump with her (she wanted to get me back in the air again). MAN was I sh1t scared on the climb to altitude. The door opened and I was almost shaking! We did a two way sit with a cool sunset. Broke off and man was I nervous about pulling! Threw the PC out and everything was fine. I WAS SO RELIEVED!!! The next 5 or so jumps were still scarier than normal but I'm back to my normal (!??!) self now! Sorry to waffle, but I was reliving it as I typed... :-) B.

Instead of "No Fear", what about something along the lines of: "Found Fear; Faced Fear; Kicked It's Ass!". I always find fear, but make sure I overcome it! That's what it's there for...

This pretty much sums me up at the moment anyway... 1) Lost; 2) Not sure what I want; 3) Wouldn't know how to get it even if I did. Aaarrrgghhhh!!!!!

I used to dream about flying as a kid. Just me flying around a lighthouse (don't know why!). Had these types of dreams for years and one day saw formation skydiving on TV. WOW. Little me wanted to go skydiving. It took another 20 years after seeing it first to get big me to do it! Glad I have though!! B.

A 206 is slightly larger (takes 4-5 people) than a 182. I think a Grand Caravan is a 206B. Not sure about the Caravan. B

Yeah, What they all said! MORE CHICKS!! B.

I wear soft lenses and would no WAY jump with glasses on! IMHO your peripheral vision isn't good enough - well mine isn't anyway! I tend to only wear lenses for sports etc, so I look like a "Dork" most days - thanks PatKat... Ben

Langar use the two handle reserve deployment method and the ripcord (while on student status). Conversion is then done to BOC. Ben

SpeedRacer, Go to the announcements board on the main index. Sangiro has put up a facility to upload the picture to the DZ.com server. Check it out. Ben

Speedracer, If you have nowhere to put the file (i.e. host it) email me your jpg and I'll host it on my site for you. You can then link to it. Ben

I'm about 220 out the door which loads my sabre 170 at about 1.3lbs/ft^2. I don't have that many jumps on my sabre (~60 jumps) and have no problem with landing in all conditions (touch wood...). I do notice that I get down faster than most others - my glide/descent ratio appears steeper than theirs. Then again, I do like to spiral! I don't do ANYTHING radical near the ground and am quite happy with the landings. Take it easy and get used to it! Ben

Hey Boss, If the detour is going to be to the east coast, you may as well pop over to Europe and go for a ride with us European bikers! Well I thought it was good idea... Ben

Hey MikeD!! Glad to see someone else out there has a 'sensible' form of transport! I myself drive a 1983 5door Range Rover. She's an old beauty! Comfy, fast and great for offroading over in the Welsh 'mountains'. Manual box too! 4speed box with overdrive. Mines one of the last before they got the 5 speed box and became less agricultural - which is what I like about it! YEAH, Landrover products!! Ben

hey no fair! This is MY test LOL Happy Icons!

This talk of RSLs has me thinking. I had a lineover malfunction in January. As the canopy came out of the bag it looked deformed (you notice this kind of thing...) and as it started to develop the LH half of the canopy stayed in a mess. The RH side 'popped' open. Obviously the alarm bells were going at this point! As soon as the RH side opened fully, the canopy went into a violent LH spin. This all seemed to take a long time to happen. Once this spin had started - maybe 3/4 of a turn later, I think "I'm outta here!" I have an RSL and yes, it can be detached. Did I even think about this little strap on my right shoulder? No. I followed my reserve drills to the letter, even including shouting out what I was doing! The reserve open perfectly with no twists or even end cell closure. What if I'd have waited longer? Would I have had a whole load of line twists? Perhaps the RSL should be removed because I didn't even give it a second thought, let alone unclip it because I had a spinning mal. I'm not really sure what to do! Obviously I know now that I can get the drills right and pull both handles. I don't like the idea that if I get a spinning mal again and I wait for longer until cutting away, I'll end up with problems under the reserve! I suppose I'll keep jumping with the RSL until I can make a more informed decision. Any ideas? I don't do CRW and at the moment only really jump up to four way RW with a little solo/2way freefly. Ben

Thanks Dude! Glad you're looking after us - and I for one am damn glad to be here! R&R? You need to get out on the bike a bit more! Blues B.

I liked the 'old' feature of being able to just list the forum users profiles only. Eee, when I were a lad, we used to be able to list the forum users only... Etc... Sangiro, Is there any plan to offer this 'feature'. I don't know how many people would want it though... I can live without it and seeing as you've done an amazing job with the new site anyway, I feel like I'm taking the pi** asking for additional features! But... If it's not going to be available then fair enough - you've provided us with plenty of features anyway. Thanks for the site! Ben

Test need to see how this thing works

Yeah! They won't let me on the plane without a 'grown-up'! I refrain from using the word 'adult', let alone a 'responsible' one.... 'Altitude restrictions' can be inserted where it "stupidly" says "height" - I should have known as soon as I wrote it... ;-)

Thanks! That gives me access to users of Dropzone.com as a whole but it doesn't let me list just the users of the forums. It's the profiles of the forum users that I'm more likely to want to access. Any ideas? Thanks B.