skytash

Tampa - TPA no problem checking the rig in I was not allowed to be there when the TSA checked my stuff, but at the American counter you could see what the TSA was doing from the escalator. I spent some time travelling up and down the escalators until I was comfortable that everything had passed. Funnily enough, the TSA opened my other bag, which contained my tent and the tent pegs, and checked to see what the tent pegs were. They didn't seem concerned with the rig at all. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Can anyone help with this? In the past, I have never had problems with my TSO'd rig having been re-packed by a BPA rigger and sealed by him as long as it was done within 120 days. I tend to make sure that my rig in date by US rules before coming over to visit. The guidelines Tom wrote seem to indicate that that the re-pack needs to be done by an FAA rigger. Does that mean that in future I am likely to have problems with a BPA repacked reserve? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

they possibly had stock of pins manufactured earlier they were using at that time and only started using the pins in the date range indicated by Capewell at a later stage. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

so what's up with the green ones? do they taste different too, like the red ones? I never eat the ones with peanuts in, the others by the handfull! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

480:2 both as a student when the pilot chute came over the front of the canopy and bow-tied it when test-flaring. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

*** well done! This can be dangerous, if that happens and you have a mal with your main, you'll have problems getting to your handles I'm surprised no-one pointed this out before you jumped! Most clothes can be worn when free-flying, especially at the beginning when you are 'flopping' (the way I do!) but the important thing is to 'convert' them as you put it to stop them from flying around your face/chest. The sorts of things you can do are: - put elastic/cord around the bottom of trousers and tops with which you can tighten it to make sure it doesn't fly up or buy ones with them already there - make sure tops are tucked into the bottoms which have a belt or tight waistband I also found it easier to have tight bottoms and a baggy top when I first tried getting into sit! it gets easier with practice/age of the canopy - promise! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Has anyone ever tried using it? It's mentioned at the bottom of the flight confirmation page and e-mail too. Probably intended for skis and golfbags, but would be interested to know how they react to rigs. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Did the same thing to myself the other day. When testing the canopy for responsiveness I was also looking at the twisted risers and was just glad that step-throughs fly and there was no need to cut-away as there seemed to be additional pressure on the cutaway cables in the risers from the twist. lesson learned - be more careful when packing! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

As far as I know, there is less of a problem in the UK, as there is no new set of people doing additional screening here like the TSA in the US. There have been issues in the past with airlines and Cypres's. Just in case I carry a copy of the letter attached which came from the CAA after people had problems with airlines flying from the UK when airlines wouldn't even allow rigs with Cypres's to be checked in. But I never had problems in the UK, Germany or the US. After having reduced it in size to fit here, it may be difficult to read. PM me if you want the full sized file e-mailed. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

From a separate e-mail conversation I had, I understand compensation was paid to said jumper. I've asked them whether they got a letter which could be scanned and posted here for people to print a copy to go with the letter I have from the CAA to fight with airlines in the UK and Cypres card I carry when flying with my rig. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

but they do (or did) use it to make beer tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

From my experience (FS only) your ability to reach your slider if you want to collapse it. I'm 5ft 4in and have 20in risers. Any longer and I wouldn't be able to collapse my slider. There may be some CRW reasons too, but I don't know about that (yet!) tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Nothing stopping you from flying back to Europe for a week is there? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

more to the point, I want to BE that boss! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

but if you have a pilot's licence and are flying it, you won't be able to jump out of it... tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

There was a previous incident in Germany (perhaps one of the dz.commers there has more details?) a few years ago where a couple split up and the girl started dating someone else. The guy cut her reserve ripcord at a point which is inside the housing. On visual inspection, not obvious that the handle-end of the ripcord was not attached to the pin-end! As far as I know, the guy is serving (or was serving) time for murder in jail. I did a search for 'murder' here but found no reference to the story. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Mine's not quite that old yet It has just under 400 jumps but is starting to go out of trim. I am still happy jumping it for now, but will buy a new set of lines when I'm in Florida at the end of the year. At the moment it has a tendency to open with a slight right turn. As I know about it, I compensate in the harness. If you are looking at a Spectre with over 500 jumps, check that its lines have been replaced, or bargain the price down so that you can pay for a new line-set. I don't surf it, as I can't , but have a friend with over 1,000 jumps, mainly on Spectres (135's and 120's) and she does, so does one of our camera men so it is obviously possible! I have been jumping the 135 since my 80th jump (with hindsight I'm scared that I downsized so quickly at the time!), so have little experience of other canopies to compare it with! I'm happy with it and having learned a lot more since I bought it, will probably not downsize for a while and am thinking I will jump it until it is dead! The main 'concern' I have with it is that it snivels when I flat fly. It makes it more comfortable on opening, but I would say it takes a good 6 - 7 seconds to open. Again, being used to that it isn't a problem and I pull accordingly slightly higher (around 2,800) and have never been told off by anyone for pulling high! I have been free-flying quite a bit recently and it opens faster, presumably because despite washing off speed on my belly at the end of the dive I am still going faster than if I had been on my belly for the whole jump. No idea about question 5 - I currently don't work for a living and am unlikely to take up skydiving for work! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Hi Liz and others I know from Bristol Uni, I'm not sure whether I ever met Leo or Sam in my Nethers days, but my thoughts are with you and their families in this hard time. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I think the important thing is whether it is controllable. This happened to me on my 14th jump and when I did a practive flare, the PC inflated and bow-tied my canopy. I decided to get off it. The thing I am confused about is that I was never told about the possibility that it could happen. If it happens relatively frequently do any instructors out there tell their students about it? I was surprised by it and went back to the principle 'If it is not big, square and controllable, get off it'. I decided it was not controllable and cut-away. If it has a tendency to happen shouldn't it be included in the same category as twists, ie not necessarily a malfunction but something to be aware of and know what to do about? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Out of interest, how was this landed?? The only way I can see is a face plant into the snow... tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

My family is very supportive. When still in hospital from a landing injury, my mother was relieved that I would carry on jumping as she felt that being stupid once shouldn't put me off doing something I obviously enjoy. My sister did a tandem while I was still on crutches from the same incident.

As long as you manage to get the Canadian A-licence and whatever other experience to make it equivalent to a UK one (AFF in the UK includes hop'n'pop and 10 solo consolidation jumps), you should be ok. I don't know what the Canadian requirements are, they may be higher than the UK ones. I would recommend that you find out what the Canadian requirements are (perhaps a Canadian instructor here will fill you in) and speak to the CCI at the UK dropzone you are most likely to be jumping at on your return, before you go, just to see what they say. Problems could arise if you are only part way through your AFF on your return to the UK. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

First I want to congratulate Ron on actually writing to his country's association and acting on what he thinks rather than just whining about an issue and that it is being overlooked. I do have a concern with this proposed BSR, jump numbers do not imply knowledge. You run the risk that people will downsize on jump numbers 201, 301 etc when they have not necessarily got the skills to do so, just the permission. [sarcasm]According to statistics presented at a BPA AGM a few years ago, the people most at risk of landing injuries are female first jumpers who are overweight and over forty and male experienced jumpers with between 200 and 500 jumps (fear and testosterone/ego respectively being considered as possibly causes for this pattern ) - perhaps we should just not permit those categories to jump at all or only on REALLY big canopies [/sarcasm] Having looked at the USPA student training programme, I was impressed that it includes canopy control elements. Coaching this skill as well as freefall skills is the way forward. The associations should spend more time on the canopy control issue and by raising the issue with the people who may be able to do something about it you are doing better than those who just complain about the canopy control issue in forums like this one. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Some of the details of the requirements under the BPA system (eg IC1 etc) are on the documents section of the BPA website www.bpa.org.uk It doesn't cover FS1 for some reason. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Unfortunately L&B are not that forthcoming. I asked them a variety of questions and Mads replied that it would be difficult to answer them. And your experience is included (from the gear review page) which so far I can only attribute to being before they decided to offer this kind of service to convince people (including myself!) to buy the most expensive audible around. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe