metalslug

"Control.. control! You must learn control." - Yoda

Depression threads in a forum read largely by skydivers ? It would be unfortunate if we have members that suffer from this.. jumping should never lose it's thrill factor. Let's hope they never get too depressed to pull.

Eh? wot is this? Nekkid pics of Rhino? Glad he spared us from.. erm.. the horn. No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

Stormtroopers ? Hehehe.. Have you been thinking about CrazyIvan.. again ?

Oh come on, Consider the worlds top 50 sexiest women, models, actresses (if such a list exists). Can you even name one of them that has a lasting relationship with a male partner who has neither money, fame nor good looks ? I cant. In my 30 years on the planet I have NEVER known a truly attractive women that sustained a lasting relationship with a partner who lacked both money and looks. Are these women therefore all automaticaly shallow.. or could there be something more to it ? But why are we (both genders) attracted to beauty ? The writings of Charles Darwin make the most sense to me here. A partner who looks good (especialy regarding physique) is almost always a healthy partner. A healthy partner carries a healthy genetic code and is therefore more suitable to be a co-parent for our children. These children are then likely to be lookers themselves so as to easily attract partners of their own and procreate and perpetuate the bloodline, and so forth. Likewise a wealthy (and often influential) partner can offer more for our children. Instinctively both genders sense this. The idea of choosing a partner on charm and personality alone is a noble thought.. but in my experience it is only actualy practised by those that cannot afford to be picky.

A lot of the comments being posted here are made in good spirit, albeit sometimes somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Personaly, I dont own a rig yet and I'm budgeting as tight as I can to afford one later in the year, but I would not do anything that is likely to negatively affect my job or career prospects. If a car in good working order helps you get or keep a paying job, then keep the car. If staying in college (as an example that may apply to others here) is going to help you get or keep a paying job, then ditto. In the short term its gonna pay to invest money in yourself.. so as to make money spent on skydiving more affordable in the long term.

They recognise the addiction problem ...and book themselves into the skydiving section of the Betty Ford clinic.

[[[[[[[[[[[[[[[VIBES]]]]]]]]]]]]]]] metallic vibes.. forged in the African sun.

I read on the dropzone.com homepage that Cheryl Stearns won 2003 Lew Sanborn Accuracy Meet. ..and well done to her. Does anyone perhaps know what canopy she uses for these jumps ? ..and the estimated wingloading ? billvon commented in a January 2 post that she jumps "a huge F111 7 cell accuracy canopy". Is this still so ? Is there such a thing as an 'accuracy canopy' as far as custom modifications go (if any are done) or are some designs, such as 7-cells, inherently more suitable for accuracy work than others ? No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

I'm at a smallish DZ that sells its own freshly-made assortment of burgers, salad rolls and such items. I'm a relative newbie there but I suspect that many members would buy whatever they are selling on any given day both to satisfy an appetite and support the DZ business; to be able to sustain the services offered as a feature for attracting new members.

Heey.. consider a little AFF in South Africa. The £UK stretches pretty far here. We're part of the commonwealth (Gawd save the Queen indeed). At current exchange rates you can do AFF levels 1-8 + 3 'consolidation' jumps for about 650 £UK. (8000 ZAR), gear rental included. More importantly perhaps, we got blue skies pretty much all year round No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

There was a recent news article over here about a guy that was arrested at Johannesburg International Airport. He was found with a protractor, a calculator and a book of logarithmic tables. He is a suspected member of Al Gebra and is being held for possessing weapons of math destruction.

CrazyIvan ? In Tom Clancy's "The hunt for Red October", the Russian submarine in question was said to perform a 'Crazy Ivan'.. whereby it would suddenly shut off its engines and drift forwards while making a slight turn to either port or starboard, positioning its passive sonar so as to listen for submarines that may be following behind. I'm pretty sure this 'nautical maneuver' is entirely fictional.. I'm too lazy to look it up further. And me.. the name and the avatar come from an arcade game "Metal Slug". That little man jumping the round has a serious wingloading, eh?

I've been reading the thread on 'No reserve pull after cutaway' with some interest and have some related questions for a new thread. As a student, my concern regarding emergency procedures was/is with regard to how much force it may take to pull the handles. (I've not experienced this for myself yet) Does the required force vary between harnesses ? Have there been recorded incidents of 'stuck' handles on modern skydiving gear ? If so, What would cause this type of malfunction ? How likely is a scenario whereby a panicked jumper (experiencing a mal) may rapidly pull both handles in the correct order.. but with insufficient force to trigger the cutaway.. resulting in a 2-out situation ? My question applies to all makes and models of modern gear.. but I think my DZ student gear are mostly Naro harnesses.. in event that someone may have specific knowledge of PISA rigs. No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

Hehe.. I guess when an instructor is training me to save my own life, I take every word he says on that day seriously... including a bit of leg-pull when he points out chuteless jumpers. As it turns out; the video footage of one 'chuteless jumper' was taken from an outdoor wind tunnel/fan at a different DZ. The origins of the second chuteless jumper are less certain.. but I have been told its likely to be more wind tunnel footage. So yeah, he was 'falling' chuteless.. sorta.. about 10 feet off the ground.. I get to keep my rig?

Isn't chuteless jumping considerably more common nowadays than the handful of stories in this thread ? I'm thinking that some of these jumps go undocumented, possibly so as not to raise a safety scandal at the DZ involved. First-timers at my DZ get a 10-minute long promotional video of skydiving clips taken by club members.. including a 'fun but not recommended' section lasting a few minutes. I will bet my rig that I saw an approx. 4-second snippet of least one jumper (and possibly even a second jumper in a later clip) freefalling without a rig. Our instructor on my fist jump even mentioned at one point in the training that 'some people do this' .. as though it has happened at least more than once in recent years at this DZ. I'll try to confirm the facts (and regularity) of these incidents if anyone is interested.. and would welcome any correction or confirmation from other DZ members on this. (I still have the video in VHS format but regretably no tools to create a digital multimedia file from it to upload what I saw.) No 'mericans were harmed during the making of this post.

The attached pics show the Bolle X500 'Attacker' goggles. Polycarbonate, fog-proof, impact resistant goggles designed to fit over most eyeglasses and intended more for military use. An ungainly, chunky piece of eyewear for sure. I'm not suggesting a person buy them as a first choice ..but if you have them, would they even be allowed on most DZs ? So long as you can clearly see your handles and have reasonable(?) peripheral vision it should be acceptable, right ?

I think I meant to say: What is the average mass of additional weight carried by those needing additional weight? bkdice has given some indication of this by suggesting that it can range from 2 to 24 pounds, which would put 12 lbs at the middlepoint of that range. ..and the above reply offers more; the confirmation that a few pounds does not have dramatic effects. My thoughts are along the lines of figuring out surface area and drag VS mass of the jumper... and the relative differences in fall rates of different sized jumpers in identical arch positions.

8 lbs ? How much extra weight does the average weighted person carry in a belt/vest ? I'm no physicist and quite a newbie but 8 extra lbs doesnt seem very significant, even on a 130lbs jumper. How does one go about assessing the amount of weight needed ? Would a tall, skinny 170 lbs jumper (who often have more drag) need as much weight as a smallish, stockier proportioned 130lbs jumper to fall evenly with the heavy jumpers? Does one reach a desired fall rate through technique, jumpsuit and weights .. in that order ?

Got pied eh ? At some DZs its tradition to do jump 100 in your birthday suit... which makes me wonder how many variations there are on jump 100 'celebrations'. Pied.. nekkid.. what are the other one's ? Could be an idea for a poll (if one hasn't been done already).