thelem

Who told you that you should have chopped it? If it was just someone on the dropzone then don't listen to them - listen to your instructors. If it was an instructor, then I'm surprised. I'd ask them why, so you can make an educated decision if something similar (but not identical) happens again. My instructors told me that if it has just fallen over the top of the canopy at the front in the middle, then it shouldn't cause a problem. When it happened to me it was still just as controlable and flareable so I landed it. They said that if it had falled over the front, but to one of the sides of the canopy, that could cause it to start to turn. If its turning, that makes it harder to control and flare so I'd probably get off it.

That sounds high to me. Does it have a cypres? How many jumps does the reserve have? Oh, and to answer your question: your rig is worth as much as you can sell it for.

Not strictly true, but probably the best answer that can be given. There are so many factors which affect the probability of a mal on a particular jump: * What you are doing (SL/AFF/Tandem/FS/FF/CRW) * What gear you are using, and how it is being maintained * Procedures where you are jumping * How the rig was packed * The jumper themselves * The height you pull (i.e. do you have time to clear nuisence factors) For the average jump, the odds are in the region of 1 in 750. The number of malfunctions someone has had in the past, or when their last malfunction was, are statistically insignificant, although they may point to problems (or lack thereof) with the points above.

I'm not an instructor, but my DZ uses a 'pivot exit' from both the Grand Caravan and Islander. By pivot exit, I mean left foot in the back corner of the door, right knee near the front of the door with the foot hanging outside, left hand halfway up the back of the door, and right hand near the front of the door. Students are always told to look up into the aircraft. I'm sure someone else can explain the relative merits of this approach.

Also see my reply to the same question at dirtdive.net http://www.dirtdive.net/forums.asp?ForumId=8&TopicId=166 BTW RAPS is sometimes also called Static Line in the UK, but RAPS is the more common name. If you think about it, calling it Static Line doesn't really make sense once the student is onto freefall.

Yes, but lets assume that something happens to your reserve which means that it is damaged after 60 days. If you are on a 120 day cycle, you will be jumping it for 60 more days, if you are on a 180 day cycle you will be jumping it for 120 more days. You could argue that the reserve should be repacked before first use every day, but you need to make a balance between safety, problems that a repack can introduce (eg wear) and convienence. Personally I jump in the UK, and I'm happy with our 6 month cycle.

Yeah, I realise that is the Bristol Uni site. For some reason the Bristol one works fine, but the official symbi one is broken (it asks me what application I should use to open it). It looks like it might have been made by a Bristol person, since it has they Skydive Bristol logo on it and I don't think you can do that without the original flash file (though I don't know much about flash, so I could be wrong)

Yep, here's one for symbi. Dunno if they have it on their official website though. http://www.bris.ac.uk/depts/union/skydiving/suits.html

I hope you mean AFF-I ;) As for doing tandems, I don't know much about them myself, but there is a small guy at my dz who regularly does them, and he usually takes the larger passengers. He can handle them in freefall and it means they are not loading the canopy too high. Its funny watching them go to flightline though, with him practically piggybacking the tandem passenger. You say smaller passenger are more likely to cause sidespins. What does smaller mean? Smaller compared to the average person, or smaller compared to the actual tandem master? I would have thought it means smaller compared to the tandem master, but I'm just guessing.

I agree they need to be put out first or last, and track away from the rest of the load, but I can't see how they can get back from bad spots better than an RW group, I would have thought it would actually be more difficult for them. They can't track towards the DZ, because that is where the other jumpers are (assuming the aircraft did actually pass over the DZ) and why should they open high rather an RW group? Or am I missing something?

You don't think a 40mph collision is dangerous enough in itself? That was my point. You can't compare it with speeds when you are inside a car remember - there are no crumple zones, seat belts or air bags in the sky. A better comparison is with a pedestrian though, what would you expect to happen if they were hit by a car going at 40mph? I'd expect some serious injuries, if they survived.

To put it into perspective how dangerous it can be, the 'typical' freeflyer falls at 160mph, while the typical flatflyer falls at 120mph. Therefore you are talking of a collision at a potential 40mph.

I'd have probably told them what they were doing wrong (not that I'd be able to tell they were doing something wrong, but thats not the point). It does make me think though, why should that team benefit from my advice any more than the other teams? Would it make a difference if there was significant prize money at stake?

Nice one for the gear and the A, but I agree that this wasn't a malfunction, just a nuisance factor. I was always taught, if you have a malfunction then you need to cut away, which you didn't need to do. I've been having trouble with my canopy opening hard too (a hybrid triathlon 175) and I got advice from several different people, one of whom had 900 jumps (and pack jobs) and I got someone who is hoping to win the uk 4-way nationals to pack it for me. It was still a bitch at opening (to the point my legs were hurting too much to jump again after 4 jumps). I found the guy I bought it off, and he suggested rolling the nose of each side into the centre cell, as someone suggested above (4 and 4, or in my case 3 and 3). I've done this a few times, and the opening are now sweet. Only problem is, I should really be propacking it, so I need to find a way to create a smooth opening when propacking. (one of the problems with some of the other pack jobs was they were opening slow, slow, slow, bam!)

The BPA has a list of all the official DZs in the UK at http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzone.htm I would recommend one of these 3 (Hinton, Headcord & Netheravon): http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzhintonskydivingcentre.htm http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzheadcornpc.htm http://www.bpa.org.uk/dropzone/dzoneapa.htm Personally I have only been to Netheravon (APA), which is just about accessible by public transport. You need to get the train to Salisbury (or Pewsey, but I don't know that route), then you either need to get a lift to the DZ, or get the Wilts & Dorset bus to the village, which is a 5 minute walk away. Make sure you check the bus timetable, because walking there (even from Durrington - the last bus stop at some times of day) is not a good idea, and a taxi from salisbury costs over £20.

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but this sounds very much like the 'big sky theory' to me., assuming that you are exiting or landing underneath where the plane will be dropping jumpers. OK, lets say you are still at 2000' when the freefallers exit, and you are over (or near) the landing area. By the time they get down, you will be near 1000'. Now lets say someone has a malfunction, and for whatever reason isn't under a good canopy by 1000' - they could go straight through your canopy. Now admitedly, this is extremely unlikely, but it is possible. Why not just put the CRW jumpers out on the way down? That way the air is empty.

ATM I can think of a recent advert for the "Nissan X-Trail" - lots of clips of extreme sports including about 2 seconds of someone skysurfing. Plus there is the Boogie Pimps video (somebody to love - look for it on apple.com if you haven't seen it - it rocks). I'm sure I've seen others, but I can't think of them now.

That depends. If your boss is outright lieing to get customers, then he has what is coming to him (within reason). Personally, I would see if there is any trading standards equivilent who could pretend to be a customer to him and when he lies to them, stick him in jail (or at least give him a big fine!)

Well, its not on here for another 3 weeks or so - right in the middle of the first episode of Big Brother 5.

Yes, but if you are lighter, then you may well be shorter and have shorter arms, which would affect your toggle deflection.

Really? Pull before impact. I don't need to back that up. Don't turn low, Crash with your wings level, Don't run a PPO of higher than 1.6 while active, Breathe out while you accend. While I can back up each statment...If I don't that does not make them less true. As has been pointed out above, answers like that CAN be supported. But more relevantly, they don't need to be supported because it is clear why the advice is being given (I don't understand the last 3 statements, but if I did then I'm sure I could easily think of a reason why you were giving that advice). Saying "You shouldn't use and RSL" can also be supported, but just saying you have 3000 jumps so you know isn't enough. Saying "Because you want to be stable to pull your reserve" justifies your advice. It also means that your advice can be challenged - eg "True, but are you likely to have the time to get stable, or will you just waste the few seconds before impact trying to get stable and therefore go in" Then, seeing that there are 2 sides to the argument, the jumper can make up their own mind. (and yes, I realise there are other arguments about RSLs, its just an example that I happened to be talking about at the weekend, please don't turn this into a thread about RSLs).

I wasn't saying that anyone should get out at 1000' and expect their cypres to fire. I was saying, that if you are happy to let your cypres open your reserve at 750', then you should be happy to open your own reserve at 1000' going 100mph slower.

I'd advise against making it web-based, since the web is not the most reliable of mediums, and if dzs only have dialup internet access they may have to upgrade that to unmetered or broadband. I am also considering writing some DZ software, but if I do it will be another year until I start it. At the moment, I am considering local Java or a local PHP/MySQL combination. I would use one of the popular PHP, MySQL & Apache installers to install and configure the webserver, and then I would write my own php script to install the tables in the database. The rest would just be copying files, which can be done by an InstallShield wizard. So, for the customer, they would: 1. Use an InstallShield to install apache, php, mysql with no configuration required. 2. Use an InstallShield to copy my files over 3. Possibly use a php script to create the tables, although having thought about it this could probably be done by an InstallShield too. 4. Go to http://localhost/

Here's a few which I took. Nothing too shocking I'm afraid :( http://www.lemnet.com/nethers/index.html

Well, we don't even have seatbelts in our planes, but I would be happy (as I could be) to get out at 1000ft on my reserve. Like someone said, a cypres doesn't fire until 750ft, 1000ft should be plenty of time for your reserve to open. In fact the students at my dz are taught that if there is an aircraft emergency above 1000ft to be ready get out and pull silver.