skytash

ok, I admit, I forgot it . If the Neptunes have arrived with their owners, they can use the 'Other' option and say so in a post. BTW - have they arrived? If so, what are they like in real life? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I've already gone through threads and gear reviews and got the general impression that people here recommend and use predominantly L&B audibles. I just wanted to see whether in number terms this translates into more people actually owning L&B stuff - and at the moment it looks like we do! Thanks everyone who has voted! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I am doing some work on service guarantees and was wondering to what extent the L&B customer service is resulting in people buying their products over others despite them being more expensive. To anyone into social science research, I am aware this is not a true random sample, people posting here are more likely to have the audibles with additional features as we are more likely to be 'gadgety' and hence I will not even attempt to extrapolate the result of the poll and will caveat the result in my paper! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I will go and hide now, I'm too embarrased to be seen here again for a while Thanks for pointing out the obvious 'little function' I had overlooked! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

no it doesn't. It's too wide for my paper (A4). Is there a way I can change IE 6.0 to fit it to my paper size? tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Does anyone know whether there is a 'nice little function' which will allow me to print a thread of posts? I am doing an assignment for my degree on service guarantees and have decided to use L&B as an example of someone who doesn't actually officially give a guarantee but behaves like they do. I need evidence for the assignment and want to print out posts/threads of people complimenting them. Also, if anyone has a good (or even bad, god forbid!) story not posted here, but you want to help me with my assignment, please e-mail me: skytash AT talk21 DOT com thanks tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Agreed - I couldn't find it either, don't put too much hope into those glasses! From memory (and any BPA instructors out there, please correct me where I get it wrong) the actual requirements are: dive to pin 4 point 4 way However, to achieve these, FS coaches will take you through WARP or Skydive U type training, which will include fast/slow fall, forward/backward/sidesliding movement, turns (90 - 369 deg) and anything else they feel necessary for you to complete a 4 pt 4 way. (again, any rated coaches out there, please add/correct me here) tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

In the UK, in terms of jump numbers the requirements are: B - 50, C - 200, D - 1000. There are further requirements in terms of canopy and freefall skills. You can find details in the BPA Operations Manual. I couldn't find it on the BPA web-site (www.bpa.org.uk), but the Documents on line page has the forms on it to apply for the licences (red applies now, blue was been superceded) as well as guidelines to the other skills needed (IC1, FS1, FF1, FF2, CF1, IS1, SS1 and SS2). Your DZ should have a copy of the Ops Manual and your instructors should be able to explain the requirements to you. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

On the 'grip of death' point, someone once suggested using the flipchart/free standing whiteboard (if being used) as your item to do your grip of death on if you need to. You would be standing next to it, and the grip of death is not as obvious to the audience. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

I am not an instructor, so I may not be completely right about this. I asked my instructors the same question when doing the 'conversion' jumps. I was told that the spring-loaded pilot chute used with ripcords is less likely to get caught in the burble, reducing the potential malfunction types when students are learning the other parts of skydiving safely. He said that ideally everyone should keep using ripcords for this reason, but packing a BOC is easier, which is why people convert to BOC. I think there are some places which use BOC deployment for students. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

just hold on tight if you are floating out of a trail plane - we know you can do it! Happy B'day from cloudy England. tash -------------------------- The Green Otter Rocks! Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

As long as you make sure you have an FAI licence you should be able to jump anywhere. The issue with doing an AFF outside the UK mainly relates to if you have not been able to complete it to get an A-licence from the relevant country. If you have 'just' got an A-licence, a DZ may still want you to do a check-out jump with an instructor. These things vary from DZ to DZ, so it is worth finding out what the policy is of the DZ you are most likely to be jumping at when you return to the UK. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

There are a couple of reasons contributing to jumping in the UK being more expensive than in the US: 1 - Fuel costs are higher, which I think is mainly because of the tax on fuel (might be wrong on that bit) 2 - because of the weather, planes tend to fly less often, generating less money per year despite needing annual checks which cost money. So more money needs to be made per jump to generate enough money over the year to cover the cost of annual checks and maintenance. Beware about going outside the UK for an AFF. If you have done your AFF under a different system (ie not the BPA Ops manual) it may not be recognised as sufficient to get off student status in the UK. The best way out of this is to go somewhere where there is a BPA rated AFF instructor who will train you under the Ops manual. This will be more expensive than the cheapest US/S. African AFF courses, but could be cheaper than UK based courses. The other advantage of doing your AFF this way, is that you may be able to get it done in less time due to better weather conditions in say FL, CA or France. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

unfortunately I have classes all of next week, so will have to go back to school on Monday night as well as read loads of case studies if we have weather holds. Not sure when I'll do the reading if the weather turns out perfect though! Feel free to find me turquoise FS suit/royal blue/white Da Kine Rags FF suit. tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

see you there and let's have fun with the Skyvan!! (not forgetting a bunch of BritChicks this week-end) tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Mine brag about me too. On the supportive front, I don't think I've ever come across a Mum like mine: I was in hospital recovering from a canopy collision (main injury was concussion, I was VERY lucky!). She asked me whether I would jump again, and hesitantly I said yes. Her reply was "Good, I'd hate to see you give up something you really enjoy just because you were stupid once. Just make sure you aren't stupid again. You also seem to have made some great friends skydiving, and it would be a shame to loose them" tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

But regulations can help with judgement. Taking a different example from UK regulations (sorry if this has been mentioned before): You are not allowed to jump a pin-pull (pull-out) until you have 200 jumps in the UK. The story I heard which gave rise to this rule is that someone who had been jumping a BOC had borrowed pin-pull gear, didn't find the handle and never pulled. There is strictly no reason why someone with less than 200 jumps shouldn't be able to jump a pin-pull as the problem was unfamiliarity with the deployment menthod rather than number of jumps. What this *did* do for me, is that once I had 200 jumps I enquired about pin-pulls, asked people I trusted about why the regulation exists, how pin-pull works, and thought about whether to convert. As it happens, I still haven't got the money to get a new container and don't see the point of getting my current one converted, so am still jumping BOC. My point is, that with a regulation in place, you encourage people to seek education and they can then make an educated decision as to what to do. tash

well, the skyvan is at Langar for the boogie - great plane to take a raft out of. I would recommend talking to DH before investing in the raft though... tash PS - looking forward to sharing your beer... Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

so it's you - she's been trying to work out who was stalking her. I'll let her know it's you when I next see her.... tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

Great meeting you too - school is teaching me extraordinary things. Quote of the day: "Exit is the opposite to entry" - from a renowned economics textbook. What would we do without economics textbooks?? Having checked budgets etc I am definitely spending Nov & Dec at Z-Hills and am looking forward to seeing you then. Sod the idea of going back to work after this....I wanna jump some more! tash

And I had the joy of being right beside Mary in green - also having been moved back from an anchor slot! Thanks for always being in the right place Mary, allowing me to follow you into my slot on the formation after watching the trail plane track past us. tash

I had a friend who had the same problem and her instructor recommended she chew some gum. This seemed to work. If your instructor is happy for you to chew gum while jumping, give it a go! tash Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

well, i tried it out. the graphical and screensaver versions wouldn't install (movie maker beta error???). the text only version works and per my task manager ud and f@h are happily sharing (using approx the same %age of my CPU each). SO - why not install the UD agent as well everyone? there are three skydiving teams but i don't know anyone else in the teams although there are only 23 members across the 3 teams! they do protein (cancer), anthrax and smallpox research. the s/w can be downloaded from: www.ud.com or www.grid.org tash

anyone know whether F@H would work when I have UD running? It is a similar concept doing work on protein's for Oxford University chemistry department amongst other things. www.ud.com would be nice to do both if they don't interfere with each other! tash

skymedic, is that the yin-yang option they mention on their website? i've been trying to work out what they meant by that. tash