thelem

In the UK it is pretty much exclusively called FS, or informally flat or belly flying. We also introduced FS Coaching manuals a few years ago and stopped using the term WARP.

As you're still a student it's important to make sure you can easily transfer between the dropzones, as they might use different training programmes. It's less of an issue if you're expecting to do several jumps, but I wouldn't always recommend just popping in for a jump or two. Give them a call first and see what they say.

I'm not sure if you're referring to a dive in a plane or under canopy. I think there have been several instances of student Cypreses firing during aeroplane decent, and unfortunately Adrian Nichlas lost his life under a full canopy because he was decending faster than his Cypres activation speed.

Then you assume the lower one is correct and work out why they read differently before you jump either of them again. This is actually a benefit to wearing two altis - what if you were only wearing one and it read high? (I know - trust your eyes, but thats not always easy for a new skydiver)

Um, you can do all of those things at 16 in the uk (except drive a car, which is 17)

What country are you in? That is kinda essential when dealing with anything legal... In the UK you do not need permission to publish photos of other adults, but you might have problems if someone has explicitly told you they don't want the pictures published. In terms of copyright, you are being paid to make the video, and that payment may or may not include a fee for the copyright of the video. Unless there is a contract though, I don't see that the tandem master could make any claim on the copyright (he didn't make the video, and he didn't pay for it).

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I'm looking at buying my first camera for skydiving and need some advice on what to get. Most people seem to go for a MiniDV Sony, is that the best choice or are there other brands that are cheaper and still OK? Can hard drive cameras be used in freefall? The camera I'm currently considering is the Sony HC35, since its Sony's cheapest model that includes DV in/out. My main worry is that neither cookie composites or 2k composites list it as a camera that will fit their helmets, is that just because their website are out of date or is there something that would make it unsuitable? Cheers for any help.

I'm a brit, so things a different over here, but I assume you need more than just your B and 100 jumps to get your coach rating? There must be some form of evaulation jump(s)? If so, and those jumps are sufficiently difficult then 100 jumps should be fine. You're going to increasingly get tunnel rats whose freefall skills far outwiegh their jump numbers - why shouldn't they be able to coach at 100 jumps?

I don't think there is enough tension and strategy visible in a competition. The early rounds lack tension because there is plenty of time to make up poor scores in later rounds, and the later rounds can lack tension if there are clear winners. A couple of ways of introducing tension: * Keep the format similar to the current format, but drop a certain proportion of teams each round. Leave 4 teams in the final round and reset their scores (so anyone could win gold, and one of the teams will not get a medal) * Forget the cumulative scores and just have it as a knock out competition. Maybe get the top 4 teams to have a 2 or 3 round cumulative score competition as the climax. It would need lots good of teams to make it worth while though (at least 16, 32 would be better) * Live judging: Judges give scores within seconds of a team finishing a round. You could do this by allowing the judges to watch the video once only (possibly at 2/3 or 1/2 speed) and then independently give scores, like they do with figure skating. Watching the video at 2/3rrds speed would allow the judges to supply a score within 20 seconds of the competitiors finishing the round. Also, holding the competition in a wind tunnel would solve a lot of the practical problems, and allow a fast turn around and easy judging.

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How did the "Mother of all boogies" make it onto the homepage? From the write up, it looks like they are just borrowing SOME of the Skydive Arizona aircraft and regular jumpers, so it looks like it will be just another medium-sized boogie. The dropzone itself normally runs tandems out of a small cessna - so it doesn't sound like it will even have the facilities to properly cope with the number of people they are expecting, as indicated by the mention of "extra porta-potties" (does that mean they don't have any proper toilets, or just not enough?).

No, he was still on AFF consols - the shop had advised him that he needed a knife when he moved from AFF levels to consols. I think a lot of jumpers assume that because students do not normally have knives they are not allowed to jump with them. The problem is not really the BPA rules, its that use of knives is not taught as part of the RAPS/AFF course - ideally your instructor would go through it with you just before you got your a-licence.

Or he could do the jump, depoly a working parachute and then cut it away because he was convinced it was going to malfunction. You might think he woulnd't be that stupid, but I know people who have cut away because their slider came down (on his second jump!) and because the canopy was a different colour to the one in the photos.

Yeah, but that $350,000 tunnel is portable and only big enough for 2-way (and probably not even really that). Doesn't really compare to something like a skyventure or bodyflight bedford.

What advantage is there to *not* letting them be USPA members?

Best place to look is probably DZ websites. There are also other costs you may want to consider - dropzone membership, coaching costs, national organisation membership (eg BPA, USPA), third party insurance, accomodation etc. Off the top of my head: Netheravon, Wiltshire, UK: £18 to 12,500ft; Grand Caravan/Turbine Islander/Piston Islander Cark, Cumbria, UK: £21 to 14,000ft; PAC 750XL Gap, France: EUR21.50 to 14,000ft; Twin Otter/Porter

Remember that in addition to all the reasons you have not to pull your reserve (it might not work, money etc), your CI also wants to minimise the number of reserve rides on his dropzone. Obiously he'll prefer a reserve ride to an injury, but its another factor he will be subconciously considering, especially after a safe landing (which can falsely make it feel like you would have been safe either way).

"Following numerous ill-timed firing, the Vigil's manufacturer, Advanced Aerospace Designs, was forced to acknowledge that its products had incompatible malfunctions with its one and only function: Saving skydivers' lives." The way I read this (and my instinct from the summary in the opening post) is that the actual units purchased have not malfunctioned, but they have design problems that have caused other units to misfire.

Thats not really a fair comparison, since the AAD market was different back then. As I understand it, even with the teething problems, the Cypres was clearly the safest AAD available. The same is not true with the Vigil - it offers no clear safety benefits over a Cypres, yet it is having teething troubles that could reflect badly on RI. In response to the people who are saying that Vigil and Argus are taking advantage of Airtec's goodwill with free pouches etc, Airtec had a near monopoly on the market for over a decade - I'm sure they can afford to pay for those pouches with the money made over that period.

hand slide, knuckle bump, point, in that order

At my dropzone in the UK it is £5 for student/sport, £7 for tandem and £18 for a jump ticket. Other dropzones vary, my impression is roughly £3-5 for a student/sport packjob, £17-25 for a jump ticket.

"Special" children? What a meaningless term. What is wrong with calling them orphans and children with learning difficulties?

What skytash says about the UK is correct, just a couple of additions. The little red book she refers to is the jumpers FAI licence, I think they are used pretty much worldwide but I could be wrong. It should also have a photo in it. You do need your CH1 to have your A-licence, although from what I hear most dropzones will treat a Cat-8 student (ie lacking CH1) the same as an A-licence. I'm not sure what the regulations say. The jump master must be B-licence or above. Techically this means that there must never be only A-licence jumpers left in the plane, although that technicality is often ignored. If you want to jump with another person, and they are not an instructor or coach, then you must both have the relevant qualification - FS1 for formation skydiving (aka relative work), FF1 for head up freefly and FF2 for head down freefly. These will be stickers in the FAI licence.

I am thinking of practicalities though. If its going to cost £20-30 to allow europeans to jump here, how much would it cost to allow anyone world wide? £40? more? Given all the recent fuss there has been over BPA insurance costs, can you really see the members voting in favour of a £40 rise (or even £20)? When people voted at the AGM it was far from unanimous and no figures were mentioned. I agree it would be nice to let foreign nationals jump here on their own insurance, but I can't see it happening. A more likely possibility would a 1-month temporary insurance-only BPA membership. Hopefully it would be possible to sell that for under £30 with the current insurance policy, which is a small price when considering the other expenses like travelling, jumping and tunnel time.