Adriandavies

According to the BPA ops manual Cloud Parachutists may not leave the aircraft if, at the point of exit, the ground between the opening point and the intended landing area is not visible. ...and of course no one would dream of breaking that rule would they...?

If you look carefully at least one of the students was wearing a static line rig when they were wandering around on the ground, but this miraculously turned into a free fall rig when they got into the plane. As an aside does anyone know if it was Langar's OH caeavan which was being used for filming?

£19 a ticket or a block of 10 for £180. Jumping all week long weather permitting. FOUR turbines including a Skyvan and two Caravans. Top freefly, Britchicks record attempt, 2 point big way attempts.....I've never stayed in the bunkhouse but I think they are 'basic' from what I've heard.

...or a tandem factory?

I'm bored at work so I've been looking at www.extremebodyflight.co.uk and Skyventure UK and playing a guessing game as to which one is going to be 'better'. Extremebody flight is using an old ministry of defence wind tunnel which they will update with a new motor. It will have a 5m 8 blade fan as opposed to the Skyventure sites which have 5 much smaller motors and blades. I'm assuming that the 5 smaller motors provide smoother airflow especially at the margins of the tunnel whereas the big blade may give more turbulence. What do all the engineers out there think? Extremebody flight also has a much larger chamber which can accommodate a 8 way star whereas Skyventure can only get a 4 way team in.

I just received an email from PD telling me that a new line set is $125 plus post. This is for a 150 Sabre and is for the line set only....

Than seems like quite a lot. The only instructors I've heard of getting paid that much per jump here stateside, are Tandem Instructors with their own rigs. Could that be what you're talking about, or are jumps in the UK the equivalent of $400 each? At the moment tandems are £210 or $367.50 (using £1 to $1.75) at the weekend at the Langar DZ where I jump. Midweek is cheaper. I've heard of UK tandem instructors with their own rigs and also doing AFF earning £30-£40000 before tax pa ($52500-$70000 pa).

I have been advised to try to keep my knees closer together but no matter what I do I end up with them wide apart. I visualise what position I should be in and I practice on the ground, but when I get in the air, especially when I am doing RW with someone, I tend to adopt a knees wide position which also means that I lose my arch. Any advice would be appreciated.

Langar is pretty good and is the closest DZ to Nottingham. Big landing area, plenty of capacity, freefly and flat coaching, load organising, bar and food. They do a fare amount of tandems, but you should still be able to get plenty of jumps in each weekend day. Public transport there is poor so it will help if you can get a lift or have a car. There is also an active Nottingham Uni club who may be able to help you out.

Apples and Oranges my friend. Your jump prices are a reflection of the lower Canadian dollar value and higher taxation. My poll is defective in that I was thinking American DZs not world wide DZs. When I mentioned $32 jump prices in the UK I should also have said that I am jealous about US prices no matter what reason they are cheaper than here. As you say you guys have a different tax system and when it comes to skydiving you have a whole industry which supports a well developed infrastructure as far as skydivers are concerned.

£18 or $31.50 at todays exchange rates.....which is about the going rate in the UK.

...does anyone know if the DZ is still in business? The website has been down every time I've tried it during the last 2 weeks and I haven't had a reply to an email sent a couple of days ago.

Adam...thanks for the plug but the UK website address is statravel.co.uk but I don't know how to make it clicky. Fares at the moment start from £136 plus tax with Czech Airways, £149 plus tax with Air France, and so on upwards. By the way the Air France fare is open to all not just students. PM if anyone wants more info cos I manage a branch of STA Travel in the UK.

£3 at Langar. It might cost more to jump here than at many other dz's (£18 for 13000 feet) but the packing is cheaper!

£20! Mates rates from a very experienced rigger who jumps at Langar. But it looks from the survey results that there aren't too many riggers around like that.

As far as Europe is concerned Empuria does 100,000 plus jumps per year and has 2 or 3 planes, including Otters and a Porter and gets helicopters in occasionally.

Have a look at the Skyventure UK website and the investors prospectus to give you some idea about how important whuffos are to a new tunnel, but bear in mind this example is from the UK where the skydiving population is relatively small (under 5000 regular jumpers).

Having read the comments in this thread I was left wondering whether A) if the BPA board and/or committee members had asked ordinary members what they think and B) if any regular BPA members had bothered to talk to any DZO's or committee members to express their opinions about the issue? Its all very well discussing it here but your points should also be addressed to the BPA.

I had to phone loads of brokers who all took down my details promising to phone back with a quote but very rarely did. In the end I got a mortgage protection policy from Virgin which covers my house if I am killed but doesn't cover me if I am paralysed! At the moment I can't find a better policy without paying £100's per month so if any UK based skydivers have got any better ideas I could sure do with one.

BPS at Langar in the UK used a Let for many years but recently there were issues with getting it approved by the CAA every year. No one knew when it was going to turn up until it actually landed. Langar has a concrete runway but the plane was still limited I think to 17 jumpers. It had two pilots and one ground crew. Last year they also seemd to have problems with the hire company not supporting the aircraft well enough ie not enough spares! It also had the most Heath Robinson style door which required two people to open it and then as a safety measure it was held in place with a bunjee cord! It was though a fantastic plane to jump out of. Fast, big door, loads of room inside, and with a pilot who could get it down on the ground faster than some skydivers. It also fulfilled a role until BPS could afford to buy their own second turbine, another Grand Caravan.

Tragic stories always make better news than straight forward ones. Combine a skydiving accident with a celebrity parent or two and you have a story which will run for a couple of days. The details are very rarely right but since when does that matter to a newspaper? Retractions or clarifications are rare unless forced upon the papers and articles written with with the benefit of thorough research and time are rarer still. Having read the article from The Guardian I wrote to the Daily Telegraph letters page to ask them how they could justify their reports and pictures when they seem to be clearly against press complaints authority guidlines. Funnilly enough as yet I have heard nothing from them. Lets face it newspaper reports are normally rushed off to beat deadlines, they are ethemeral, they are written to grab attention and they are not written with any consideration for feelings of the subjects. They are also best taken with a pinch of salt and a healthy regard for the 'politics' behind the paper and the journalist.

Whilst looking through some old British Sport Parachutist magazines dating from 1970 at my DZ I saw some pictures of parachutists exiting from an Otter, but I'm afraid I can't remember any more details. When I'm there on another weather day I'll try to remember to look up the details.

I was looking through some old Sport Parachutist magazines at my DZ in the UK and came across an article about an ad hoc parachute club based in Saigon. The guy writing the article was the British vice counsel at our Embassy at the time. I can't remember al the details but the jumps involved getting a platoon of soldiers to secure an appropriate LZ for a start and then borrowing a suitable plane. Jumps could cost an eye watering £20 each due to the cost of hiring the plane. The airport was the main military one for the city and reported up to 600,000 movements per year which was 3 times as many as any other airport in the world at the time. Does anyone have any more info about the club or stories from the period?

This will stick the cat among the pigeons. In the UK FF generally go first meaning in your example FF 4 way, belly 4 way, solo, then tandem. There are plenty of arguments on these pages about FF v belly and which order to exit.

I just looked up 'Skyworld Specialties Concept' on Google and it came up with one response....the world sex guide-escorts-brothels-prostitutes., so unless you fancy untoward itches, and discharges of puss I wouldn't go for the rig.