darrenspooner

DZ's are much better places with kids around. Makes it feel like an accessible sport rather than an elitist one. That said, you will (I hope) fall so much in love with your child that you will start to worry about not being there for them. Then you'll think twice about jumping. Just make sure you think a third time and get your arse in that plane.

Do the brain, do the brain! Amygdala, prefrontal cortex, yee haa!

1st jump I made with my bonehead it was flapping around 2 inches above my head, despite tightening it well. So I fitted it and tightened it at home, then sewed it in the one spot. Hasn't move since.

The 'Yerkes-Dodson Law' might be of interest to you you. Try this - http://blog.johnath.com/?p=11

I reckon there's only two kinds of skydivers - those that have done a low turn and those that are going to. I'm dreading mine, so I fly my canopy the same way as I drive on ice

Ditto to everyone, I know bugger all. But I did have a cutaway at 122. I practiced a million times one hand on each handle. But when I had a mal both hands went to my cutaway without even thinking. I can't explain that, other than by saying it was a high speed spinning mal with a lot of G and somehow I felt I needed both hands to zoom in on red, and it went against everything I'd been trained to do.

I respect people that respect DZ operators. They take a lot of risks and make very little cash out of the experienced skydiver fraternity, but some of the aforementioned believe they get a raw deal.

I have skydiving dreams at least 3 nights a week, and have done for at least 3 years. In my dreams I always miss out on jumping. Weather, gear not ready, plane unserviceable, no slots on a lift, etc. I jump in the UK and this is what happens more often than not, so the dreams are unsurprsing. In probably 2000 dreams about skydiving I haven't done a single jump! Hey, at least they're better than the dream I had once about Hannibal Lecter trying to butt fuck me with a floppy dick!

I did 16500 in a Navajo in Australia about 4 years ago. JM and pilot got a huge bollocking, but I had a great time!

No, its not the Sabre 150. I sold it as a bad canopy unwittingly and I was prepared to give a full refund. Someone else jumped it before I sold it and didn't have problems. I was just too inexperienced to know, and genuinely thought it was just how those canopies were.

I owned a canopy a while back that I bought without test jumping (my stupid fault) from a respected dealer. It was a bad spanker everytime. I did everything that was suggested and just about managed to tame it enough so that it was just about manageable, but still a real spanker. I wasn't very experienced (and I'm still not) but I just thought this was a characteristic of that canopy because I'd read that other people with this type of canopy had hard openings. I sold it and was contacted 3 months later by the buyer saying the openings were horrendous. They told me their rigger had checked it and it was 'probably' defective or below standard. I felt guilty so I told them I would do the right thing. I didn't specifically say that I would refund the money but I strongly inferred it. I never heard from them again. I have just seen the same canopy (it is unmistakable and unique) for sale in a classifieds somewhere. Its not being sold by the same person that bought it from me last year. This means they sold it on, and the new owner is selling it on too. But the ad makes no mention of opening problems. Should I whistleblow or contact the seller? I don't know how safe or unsafe this canopy is. I did about 50 jumps on it I think, and although it never gave me any serious injuries, its definitely not right and opened too hard to ever enjoy using it.

I read some good words of advice on here recently - relax, let go of the tits, and push the bush!

My rigger put a longer chest strap on my old rig, but that was because I'm a fat bastard and it didn't fit very well! I got a new set of kit now.

Why might you go the Pilot over and above Sabre 2 or Safire 2?

I'm a psychologist and I got a patient that found out I was a skydiver, he now calls me - Dr. Skydive Psycho Dude

Even more interesting, what would we call a collection of Whuffos?

I think the fact that he has a jar of fisting cream in the first place is interesting.***Never have sex with a mentally retarded drawrf, its not big or clever

I think this is a bit of a stretch. There are plenty of people with Sabre 2s that don't have opening problems. Its just that the ones that do, like me, tend to come here and moan. I got the same bad openings on 2 different Sabre 2 150s, but when other people with more experience jumped them they opened on heading. I have to admit that its got to be me, especially as PD checked out the canopy and it is fine. I think other people are right that this is not a great canopy for intermediate jumpers because you need to get it right. So I'm going to sell mine and change to a Pilot I think. Anybody have any experience with a Paratec Faqtor?

I have posted a few times on this. I have a Sabre 2 150. I had terrible openings from new. Twisting and turning all over the sky. Then it wound up and I had a high speed spinning mal. It went back to PD and the canopy was fine. Test jumping good, trim, canopy, everything okay. So I have persevered with it and found a way of minimising this twitchy opening. Essentially, I reach up and grab the risers during the snivel and pull them apart to slow the slider down. So far it seems to be working. But am I doing anything dangerous? I there something else I should be doing instead? I go dead man in the harness, focus on symetry and position on opening, try to fly the harness. But slowing the slider down seems to sort it out. Should I be doing this? I don't have enough experience to know.

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Yep, I fucking hate traffic wardens too. See, here in the UK, wardens get a bonus, or commission, for every ticket they issue. No compassion, no mercy, no flexibility. Just money. Fuckers.

I guess there's little we can do. Let's not forget that wages go up too, and even at £25 a ticket, if we can afford a rig and maintenance of it, we can afford a ticket too. I feel for the DZ operators. They are trying to run a business and cater for empassioned people that consider compromsing their loyalty because of a couple of quid. If we all get a tandem student to out local DZs (that make a bag load of cash for the DZ) then maybe they'll keep the prices lower.

See, I don't know how DZ operators in the UK have kept it this cheap for so long, given the hideous fuel prices. A plan full of experienced skydivers makes enough profit for a take away meal here. So when fuel prices rise, as they continue to do, then DZs make a loss on us experienced folk unless the put their prices up correspondingly. Its not the DZs fault, but its clearly wise to buy your tickets right now!

Ahh, good old habituation. You do something enough times it gets boring, good or bad. Same horror movie 100 times - boring, not scary or entertaining. Favourite meal 100 times - boring, not enjoyable. Same everything else 100 times - boring. Simple behavioural principle. The pursuit of novel experience brings new emotional experience. The thing about the old skydiving was risk and challenge. Now its considerably safer and less challenging in many respects. The older guys were pioneers. They are not any more. They are not pioneers any more. People did what they did milions of times since, and therefore its not novel or challenging any more. My respect to the pioneers.

I take on board the inner ear thing, but perhaps its worth investigating panic, dissociation and hysterical conversion. In simple terms, were your symptoms caused by physiological over-arousal. PM me if you want more info on this

I got a parking ticket for putting my car on double yellows right outside my house so I could unload two children and a load of shopping. If I didn't do this I'd have to park 200 yards away, unload one child and leave the other unattended in the car (they are both babies), then leave one unattended in the home while I get the other one in the car, then leave them both unattended in the home while I go and get my shopping before it melts in the car. And there's been a skip parked right outside my home on double yellows (illegally) for a month without getting a ticket. The UK sucks big time. Makes me want to hurt traffic wardens.