Liemberg

Again, this is all relative & you should listen to no one else except your instructors but in freefall minute changes in body position like dropping one knee 2 centimeters or bending the other knee a few degrees more can make the whole earth turn several times before you know what is going on and what causes it. Furthermore, you can think you are pretty much OK and doing fine while you are IRL making serious mistakes that would come to light in a tunnel immediately. Tunnels are extremely unforgiving for freefal mistakes AND the feel of the airflow is exactly like 'the real thing'. Whereas IRL you can go down sideslipping, compensating an involuntary left turn that was caused by your legs with a right turn through your arms but never really knowing what is going on other than being told by your instructor, in a tunnel the exact same thing sends you into the wall of the tunnel. The learning curve in a tunnel for basic skills like the body movements you'll need to keep your parachute pointed @ the sky when opening it without spinning is very steep since your instructor will be right in front of you, often the video-review is immediate and you can try again and again without steering, landing, walking back, packing etcetera. Even during the 'jump' communication (and therefore learning) is better and quicker - you can make mistakes, have them pointed out and start correcting - for the typical 'tunneljump' lasts twice as long as a real jump. Of course, several 'advanced' manoeuvres like tracking and backloops/frontloops can not be done, but a rock solid feeling that you can get from being able to 'snap' into a stable freefall can be acquired there. Though it is nice to be able to arch if you 'set your mind to it' it is actually your body that has to do all this arching...

Problem is (probably) that even if one has balls of steel that are big enough, a face plant @ the finish seems almost inevitable... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

For what it is worth: someone with a lot of experience with turbine engines once pointed out to me that a C207 used as a jumpship will always be using it's engine to the max, because of it's relative high weight. Where (f.i.) a PT6 Porter engine typically runs at 80%, the Soloy C207 must operate at 95% or more. That would logically lead to more wear and tear on the engine. One club in the Netherlands has a C207 and they had serious engine troubles a lot sooner than they hoped for. Two other clubs had/have a C206 and I haven't heard of them experiencing the same difficulties... However, I really don't know if the above was indeed the cause of the problems with the C207. Anyway, when you sell it again you may have a hard time convincing the other party that 'it belonged to an old lady and was always parked indoors...'

Err on the side of caution? My reserve opening will be non terminal if I cut it away. No reason why the reserve shouldn't work as advertised... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Like the "Hey let's wear wingsuits" thing, this was a stupid idea. Luckily, not all stupid idea's kill us... The danger lies in getting away with it and therefore believing that it is OK. It is not. I'm not the one to say if the candidate(?) should fail or pass. For most people it is true that making bad decisions every now and then improves the quality of the decision-making. Like in "you live and learn"... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

"All in favour say aye...' Next thing of course: What to do if the pax elects he wants to get rid of it, while the TI-prospect would rather stay? *Note to self (repeated) Never play pax without IE handles*

Even if a monkey can throw a drogue I picture the beast as being way too smart to make drogue-throwing his primary occupation or source of livelihood. Now as to the wisdom of dressing your newly met friends in front in a wingsuit while wearing one yourself also for the occasion of their first skydive? Even a monkey wouldn't be that stupid I would think but you got to admire the balls it takes to do it anyway - can't help myself there... And if your stainless steel balls are big enough, you'll always have a solid counterweight, should you end up on your back right @ the moment you want to throw the drogue. Now, let's all hope that being on your back with your drogue halfway out of its pocket and an overdressed passenger on steroids up front is not going to have a shrinking effect on the genitals.. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

'Wing level' per Skratch Garisson. preferable with my hands completely down at- or close to the moment my feet touch the ground and if possible with my canopy facing into the ground wind usually does the trick for me so that would be what I would have to say about the subject over the internet. Now how you get there it all depends but in general anticipating seems to be a good idea... And avoiding dust devilish meteo conditions of course... In high winds it usually is a shorter 'stab' than when you are bleeding of canopy speed. YMMV... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Who would have thought that your limit is exactly equal to my limit?

True, in general when landing ON the beach. We land 'behind the dunes' most of the time however since that is where OUR DZ is. Can a few 10 to 15 meter high dunes cause obstacle turbulence over several hundred meters distance? I think they can but I do not rule out Gremlins shaking up parachutes a couple of seconds before landing either... Whatever the cause, when that happens and it is severe enough, I'm out of options. Once upon a time I made a landing like that in October. Until March the next year I could not walk for longer than 10 minutes. I do enjoy being able to walk without my feet hurting and I like to keep it that way...

Excellent health insurance plan? In my experience, winds that exceed 20 have a tendency to be accompanied by an increase in turbulence and that can make life for you and your passenger way too interesting. Your hanging on a piece of cloth that is shaped like a clumsy wing with a laughable aspect ratio, which only keeps its shape because of enough pressure inside the cells. If it hits a layer of air that moves towards the ground, even if it keeps it shape, it will move towards the ground with the additional speed caused by that layer of air. Did I mention that you don't have a propeller, turbine or jet? What could possibly go wrong? To the OP Tell me when you are jumping in high winds, so I can send you an email telling you when to flare. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Its an American lawyer thing, methinks. Like Boeing's famous reminder a couple of years ago after that 737 the Turkish Airline crew flew into the ground near Amsterdam while on automatic landing that it wouldn't hurt looking out of the window while at least one person was actually not filling in forms or stuffing papers in a bag, but flying the airplane... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Common set-up on that system. It has RSL's on both left- and right riser, with each their own curved pin. It was to prevent 'open-reserve-one-main-riser-still attached'. Don't know who to give credit for, but the 'one-yellow-cable-slightly-longer' solution achieves the same a lot simpler. They are an interesting puzzle to pack correctly though.

That redundancy may seem a good idea at first but should be well thought through, for it can complicate matters? (From the top of my head: he was jumping a PdF 'Atom' with the double LOR (RSL) system with two extra thin cypress loops. In stead of one separate loop over each successive curved pin, both loops were on both pins. When he chopped and the two curved pins were pulled one loop had gone over the other, keeping the reserve tray closed. Since they also were connected above the cypress cutter, they remained closed as the cypress fired...) "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Thnxs and much obliged. (I remebered the research and the faith of the researcher, wasn't sure about how to spell his name...) Google is the atheists surrogate for God probably, as good as al knowing and a better recall than Borges's "Funes the memorious"... best thing, it answers! Not to me, I'm afraid, but then again I had to learn all this stuff at a later stage in life. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Can anybody direct me towards a scientific publication on Personality traits of experienced skydivers vs. beginners/quitters by the late Jens Henrik Johnsen? If need be, you 'greenies' can relocate this question in History and Trivia. Please don't throw into the Bonfire, Yet. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Forget about him, the proverbial DGIT, the father is much more interesting, directing his ingenuity towards new inventions... Without him, we would all still be jumping rounds!

Before we were so rudely interrupted Jurgen kindly answered a few questions of me. This is what I wanted to answer: Haven't seen it. And indeed you are right that I do not have enough facts. For instance, I do not know HOW experienced the convicted really was, what canopy / wingload she was under, at what altitude she opened, where she landed on that jump, if that was at the spot where she was supposed to land, etcetera. (According to media sources, when you yourself announced what had happened, she was back at the hangar so I tend to conclude she didn't land out - which again could be completely wrong of course...) That the expert was an experienced skydiver / one of her instructors and not a prosecutor I did know. Not working for the prosecution in this capacity seems a bit too far fetched for my taste, however. I would have expected that in such a high profile case as this one the prosecution would have chosen their experts / stand ins for the re-enactment a bit further down the road, but that may have been impractical and again, what do I know... How the weather was on the day of the event I don't know either, I saw it described somewhere as windy (Dutch most southern weather station throughout the day gives 5 octa's cloud cover, wind 10 - 16 knts, highest measured gust 24 knts., predominantly from 205. Gotta love the internet...) How it was on the day of the re-enactment I don't know either, nor if they took wingload and body weight into account in the re-enactment. (Was Clottemans gear used? The person in her role had the same body weight?) How good of a canopy pilot the convicted was is also unknown to me but in any case to know exactly where the pilot chute landed she must have stayed above the pilot chute to follow it until it landed and then safely land herself. Two years before the event, in september 2004 apparently she was still learning the canopy stuff... Which leaves three questions: 1. Did he right there and then suspect foul play and communicate his suspicions to these witnesses? (in court he seems to have said that...) 2. Did these witnesses agree that it was a good idea, given the circumstances, to let him delete this message and did he in fact communicate there and then that he was not only telephoning the next of kin but also deleting a text message? 3. I believe I understood he was the first skydiver on the scene - all other witnesses in the first fifteen minutes were neighbours / EMS / fire-brigade / rescue workers; is this true or not? "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Then again, the USA were not 'paralysed' when taking realistic measures. Germany OTOH, as a nation is to some extent; over there lot's of realistic measurements were not taken because of their 'guilt for the Holocaust'... (Someone already mentioned Godwin? OK, lets move on) AFAIK, when becoming a US citizen you are supposed to take a US citizenship test and applicants must also satisfy other specific requirements of naturalization to successfully obtain U.S. citizenship. In Germany (and for the most part also in the rest of Europe) it is sufficient to stay there legally long enough. Also, a lot of newcomers in the EU were entitled to benefit from all sorts of affirmative action policies, full social services for anybody that managed to get in with a legal status, etcetera, etcetera. One tends to forget, but in many aspects living in a country like Germany on the bottom side of social stratification might be preferable over living a middle class life in rural Anatolia in terms of income security, health services, educational opportunities etcetera. Furthermore, while the US has been taking up immigrants from all over the world almost since the Pilgrim Fathers landed, Europe hasn't. Last but not least, the vast immigration into Europe in the second part of the 20th century started with people that were suppose to stay for a limited period, working, making money and then return to their place of origin. That didn't happen and the combination of hosts-on-a-guilt-trip and guests-'misbehaving' / overstaying their welcome was IMO rather toxic. (i.e. historically the newcomers had no concept of the government chosen by the people and therefore 'their government' but much more they came from a culture where political freedom and human rights were non-exist) Having the prime minister of their original country say things like 'our minarets are our bayonets, our women's headscarfs are our flags' (as in 'planted on conquered foreign soil') and reminding the immigrants that in his opinion they are first and foremost Turkish Muslims that just happen to live in Germany doesn't really help either... Both Turkey and Morocco 'claim' their subjects that emigrated to Europe; Turkey for instance regards male German nationals born from Turkish descent as eligible for being drafted into the Turkish army (or pay a sum of $ 6000 to get out of it), both countries state that it is impossible to give up the original Turkish or Moroccan citizenship even for descendants born on foreign soil, Morocco did provide Dutch municipalities with a list of acceptable names for Moroccans, etcetera. The rationale behind all this may well be that a substantial part of both nations national income is in fact made in Europe and then imported - but it really doesn't help integration. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

I once saw someone install an FXC 'pin puler' AAD in such a way that pulling the reserve manually would have been impossible. So I did choose 'significant, but no real chance of injury' since I never jumped the rig in said configuration (I was looking on during that instalation, told him what I thought was wrong and he agreed with me...) To his credit I must say that had the FXC AAD fired, it would have pulled the reserve pins. It was an eye opener. On another occasion I blew several panels on a 24 ft reserve. A date of MFG stamp had been clumsily removed on that reserve and was replaced by a MFG-date five years later. The culprit has since died of AID's. Is there such a thing as Karma? I dunno... The worst I ever saw (and maybe I should have chosen another answer than the one I did - but this is a manufacturer, not a rigger) was a round reserve where the top was blown of. GQ securities thought it was a smart idea to stitch a kevlar reinforcement band all around the upper third of a bias constructed round reserve, effectively building a perforation band - bias constructed f111 stretches way more than kevlar so I can tell you first hand... It really really really ruined my day when I saw one of my students do everything what he was taught and yet disappear behind the treeline with a streamer on his reserve. Ever since scepticism has been a way of life for me. "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

You daredevil you!

I always thought that Gopros or Contours on a beginners helmet were 'set it and ask around while on jumprun if the red light is on' gadgets... Then again they can be easily mistaken for 'whats with this battery?', 'How do you turn of that laser?' or 'It was in single photo mode' gadgets... As for snagging of bridles or risers or RSL's or control lines: "You Payzzz Your Duezzz and You Takezz your chances..." So you really DO believe that you'll be able to devise completely and fundamentally new, never heard of methods how to remove yourself from the gene pool, while skydiving? Got a youtube channel? "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

Actually, in the days of the belly mounted VHS-C recorder with a separate camera on the helmet, when you had to build your own bag to carry the bulky recorder in it was considered 'general wisdom' to construct that bag in such a way that you had to have a chest strap (and therefore a rig on your back) to keep it in place. It was a sure way to prevent you from gearing up for a camerajump and FORGET YOUR RIG on that skydive. For all the newbies that are reading this and go 'WTF?!?!': I know of one Dutch cameraflyer that ended up in the plane on his way to altitude who was alerted by radio that his parachute-rig was still standing next to the manifest. I know of another cameraflyer in the USA that actually jumped with a tandem with just the jumpsuit, recorder & camerahelmet - no rig on his back. While Murphy's first law ('when it can happen, it will') has a tremendous potential to kill you in this game, luckily his second law ('when it can not happen it will not') is there to rescue the young afficionados... "Whoever in discussion adduces authority uses not intellect but memory." - Leonardo da Vinci A thousand words...

'Beats me' (as much as it does beat you) - however I'm an 'emperical-kinda-guy' and this was the first time I tried the technique. To my surprise it worked much better than pulling them apart. Is there a physicist in the audience?

Actually, you don't have to turn the camera off to deal with the line twist.