Fast

The site should most likely be designed for people using an 800x600 screen resolution. There are still a TON of people who run thier screen at that size. I have 19" flat panel monitors for all the secretaries here and they STILL use 800x600.... *sigh* ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

cool, grats!

You may want to ask them specifically about putting the risers under the reserve pack tray. Any thoughts from this weekend? ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Being someone who has had an HDTV with HD service for a few years I can't see how you are able to ignore the stunning difference in picture between broadcast and HD. Bitching about seeing black bars on the TV is going to work the other way too! Already its true that many of the shows on NBC are recorded and broadcast in a wide format. If you have a standard aspect television you get black bars on the top and bottom. Not all TV is like this, but people are moving in that direction. That is besides the fact that with almost every wide screened version of TV they have image processors that can make the picture fill the whole screen and you don't even notice the distortion after a week. Bottom line is that quality on HD products is a bigger step than going from 3.0 to 3.2 ghz. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Yep!

You stood there!?! Ya know, I don't like hanging on the side of the plane a whole lot. It tends to be cold and all that metal right there for my gear to interact with sucks. Forget that, once I get out, I want off! I have fallen off a C-182 at least 3 times when I lost my grip, that made for funny skydives. People looking down at me thinking.. "what the hell we weren't ready!" oh well they made do! Tumbles out the door are pretty damn fun too! You got stable which is half the point of being a student skydiver. Learning how to get stable. If you can get stable and know how to pull then there is no reason to fear letting go of the plane anymore. I mean sure, when you have never jumped and don't know what to do, don't know the people you are jumping with, and generally are scared, yeah I can understand door fear. You on the other hand, know your instructors some (trust them to help you out / look after you) and you can get stable and pull all on your own. Also, stop worrying about other people on the plane wanting to get out the door faster. You can worry about that later when you are jumping with them. Right now leave that to your instructor. If you aren't letting go of the door its because you are afraid of something still. I don't really see a reason for you to be afraid. From your words you clearly know how to save your own life after you get out that door. Do you trust yourself yet? (edit to add) Just don't worry so much about it. If you just keep skydiving it goes away anyways. So you might as well stop being afraid now instaid of waiting 10 more jumps. I mean really

While the second half of this statement is true, I don't think you can compare this to doing crew, freeflying, turning points, or anything like that. Maybe you can. dunno. If you want to compare this to something comparing it to Greg Gasson type stunts is probally your best bet. GL with this, get great video, and try to not die

I think that would be cool too! But not from a plane, a balloon/helicopter seems like a much better platform for this. As for comparing this to wuffos not understanding skydiving,.. really I just don't see the analogy. I am pretty open minded too! I'm looking at this from a logical standpoint and the only thing that comes to mind is trying to "ski/board" behind the plane al la tailspin. I also don't know many pilots that would put up with that but hey it could be fun! I am not ragging on anyone in here just trying to understand the desire to be dragged through the sky behind a plane some.

This is BY FAR the absolute worst place you can be asking this question. Please seek competent medical advice from his/a EN&T doctor. Hell call a few different ones and ask em! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The only thing that makes this is a bad assumption is that... Students lack an understanding of what pushing the envelope is. They do all kinds of stupid stuff because they either forget to think, think it will be ok, panic, or just plain fuck up. The docile canopy helps to save thier ass. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Someone was just telling me about a few reserve containers that were ripped off the harness because of lines getting caught on the bottom of the packing tray. I doubt that any of the manufacturers recomend stowing that way. There are lots of reasons that it is a bad idea. Do you freefly or ever fly with your head up? Or even anything close to that? If you have your risers stowed under your reserve and you have a sitfly premature opening you are going to be much more likely to have the reserve ripped off on top of that your at an even higher risk for main problems when you have a fast deployment. This would be in part due to the fact that your body position might lock the risers under the reserve tray as the bag leaves you at an angle that is much closer to your head. My question to you is what percieved benifit are you gaining by having the risers go under the tray? I can see some downsides which include what I mentioned above as well as added wear on the reserve pack tray and stiching between reserve and harness. It is also one thing that stuff could get caught up on just in general. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Hey I am not saying I can't picture it going on... just can't see how it would be cool. I mean, I have done all kinds of shit including Mr. Bills and cross country, and revserse cross country, and (probally stupidly) jumped all different kinds of inflatable shit out of the side of a plane, want to try bridman, jump a camera (and a camera jacket), and done lots of other odd fuck around jumps... Just don't know what would make this specific thing any better than just goin skydiving. Well,.. Ok i can see some intrinsic fun... just not enough to take all the risks this would involve. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I honestly don't even know why this would be cool to try. Anyone able to enlighten my on why this is worth all the risk? I mean I can see what billvon was talking about, that might be cool. Hell, it even sounds like a decent way to land a Mr. Bill but I guess I don't see what would be cool about hanging from a plane. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

The best part of it all is, at this experience level, a person doens't even have the skills to tell the differences between a given canopy. I know I don't have all them skills. I am no wing loading nazi either. I went right to 1.2 before I even had my A card because thats what my instructors thought I could handle. I just paid my dues and spent some time jumping that canopy (300 jumps) so I could learn a few things before I ended up hurt. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

That's what I've been doing when I coach. I've found (in my limited experience) that if you tell somebody to "wait one second", they tend to wait too long. yeah! If I asked a student to wait 2 seconds in the door after I jumped out, it would be the last time I saw them that skydive cause they would never get down to me. Sometimes people have a hard enough time with going at "near" the same time. Its a learning thing! They get it eventually though! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Its sad because I just had this conversation with someone at my own DZ. I know at least 3 people who are jumping canopies that I don't think they should be. Who am I to say shit though? I was at 1.2 on my first canopy 1.35 on my second and I have moved on to 1.5 now. Been doing some kind of speed induced manuver for near 500 jumps now. I just hope that they don't hurt themselves before they get to even my low experience level. It would be a real shame. Every time I read a thread like this it reminds me of that kid out in california that died jumping a velo when he only had a couple hundred jumps cause he thought he could handle it. He was doing really good to, decent swoops. Then he fucked one up and died. I am glad that my fuckups have been on canopies that were forgiving enough for me to live and learn, rather than die and teach. Oh well. I don't argue too much with people about what they should jump. I just don't like seeing people get hurt. Already saw one person swooping fuck up and go to the hospital and know another that has had surgery twice and still walks with a limp / cane because he was being too aggressive. Shit happens I guess ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

I will just clarify that the rigger in question in this thread was NOT employed as a rigger by the stated dropzone or any dropzone to the best of my knowledge. As far as I am to know the work he did was only private for jumpers who needed reserve repacks and other rigging services. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

LOL, Good point! Maybe if he wasn't just acting childish and puting fake info into his profile. I don't know how he expects people to take him or his questions seriously. Oh well. Also JJ, I think you would be wise to learn a little bit about something that you are going to buy, open your eyes! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

At my dropzone the coolest thing is the backyard... but you better have skills if you want to hang with the big boys and swoop the beer line. We have had to move the beer line out a bit in the last year to keep people a bit safer but its still damn cool. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Something with no less than 15 clashing colors and 20% tiedye. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Happy Birthday! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Vectran like HMA doesn't shrink so keep that in mind. Just pointing that out incase you didn't know!

Basically, if the plane were accelerating forward at 60 knots and the conveyor was moving backward at 60 knots, the wheels would simply spin at 120 knots to allow the plane to continue accelerating forward. So here's my next question: If the conveyor were set to move in the opposite direction of the plane, at TWICE the forward speed of the plane, would it neutralize the movement of the plane? Edited to add my theory: As I said before, imagine a plane with no engines sitting on the conveyor. If the conveyor started moving, the plane would move backward with it. That's because the wheels do have some resistance to turning. That resistance has to be overcome by the thrust of the plane's engines, in order to hold the plane neutral. Even more thrust is required to move the plane forward. If the conveyor were turning at twice the forward speed of the plane (the speed the plane would be moving forward on stationary ground), it would be matching the wheel speed required to move the plane forward, and the plane would remain neutral. That's my theory, anyway. The only way that the plane would fail to take off is if the wheels blew up -or- if the drag factor in the wheels was greater than the force generated by the plane's engine. What exactly the speed of the conveyor is doesn't matter. It has to overcome the thrust power of the plane against the air via friction in the wheels. One suposition that you could make was, given a plane with indestructable wheels and an indestructable conveyer, if it spun fast enough the plane wouldn't have enough thrust against the air to take off. The formula for how fast that would be requires me to do physics that I don't remember anymore. It would also have to do with, can the conveyer accelerate fast enough to get to speed before the plane takes off. But seriously, lets just use a helicopter and avoid this question from now till the end of time. ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

One thing that many people forget is that a flare is not a 'OH SHIT MUST FLARE NOW JAM TOGGLES DOWN OH MY GOD" type of thing. It really isn't. Landing is a dynamic thing. You can't take all day long to accomplish it because the ground will come up but you don't have to wait wait wait and rush it out. How you land depends on the canopy but for most modern ZP canopies flaring is a dynamic and ever changing thing. You do need to learn what height looks about right. Look out in front of you more if you think that might help. Being fixated on any angle isn't going to help you. If 45 doesn't work, look out a little farther. Depending on your canopy, 45 degrees might still be before the point you are going to land and that wont give you a good sight picture for when to flare. When you start flaring everything will start to slow down but that doesn't mean you can start thinking slower, keep thinking fast and evaluate where you are. "Am I high?" stop giving input. "Am I low?" More input "Just right?" Ride it out then give more input. If you know what to do when you start high or low you can pull it off. Just don't stop thinking after you start pushing toggles down. That might be hard to do if you havne't worked on this second point. Don't be afraid of the ground, you should respect it but if you are coming in to land scared out of your mind your going to have a more difficult time learning to land. Respect the ground, it can hurt you, but don't be afraid of it. If you are afraid your going to forget to think and just react. That won't get you good landings. Though it will probally get you on the ground. bottom line is, be ready to plf, keep thinking, practice what different types of flares feel like up high (feel it in the preasure on your legs) and get someone to video your landings and then explain them to you. Have fun, fly safe! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka

Ok this is a tough question and it isn't so much about skydiving more about psychology. Skydiving is an escape from the mundane nature of every day life. You will experience things jumping from planes that even your imagination can't predict at this point. That doesn't make it for everyone though! What are you trying to get away from should be the real question that you ask yourself. Skydiving is a great thing to do if you want to be apart of something fun, special, and with a great community. I think you should go into it with level head though. If you have problems in your every day life, you shouldn't run away from them because they won't ever get fixed. This sport is a lot of fun. If you are competative I can bet you will love 4-way. Don't just rush in thinking it will melt away all the problems in your life though, cause it wont. It will distract you some but you will still have problems if you don't go out and activly fix them. I don't know you or how you deal with problems, maybe some distraction will help, but don't abandon things you know you have to deal with. That's all! oh and, with all that said... Skydiving rocks you will have fun! Go make a tandem and see if its for you. If you think you like it take aff, its even better once you fly on your own! ~D Where troubles melt like lemon drops Away above the chimney tops That's where you'll find me. Swooping is taking one last poke at the bear before escaping it's cave - davelepka