gus

Well I'll give you my opinion, for what it's worth: affordability should never be the main factor when looking for kit - this is your life that you're playing with remember. Look at the rig as if price were no object, is it well suited to your needs, your experience and your skills? If not don't buy it. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I don't think it's a big deal really. 3 of us (ranging between 200 and 400 jumps) went out in April, showed the Babylon guys our FF1 (UK BPA freefly 'qualification') stickers and they gave us our CBTs. I get the impression that they were obliged to introduce some kind of license after the fatal freefall collision there a while back. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I thought that 200 jumps was the minimum that BirdMan would teach a student with and that 500 was their minimum for flying the suit with no instruction. I don't know what the USPA regs are, or even if there are USPA regs. It's worth noting that I'm wrong on a very wide range of subjects a significant proportion of the time. But why should that stop me giving my opinion?

Clicky no good. Try this one. Is this the document that you were helping Fordy prepare? It's interesting that it talks about things like deployment technique and not just the requirements, do similar documents exists for other diciplines like sky surfing? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Your video footage is only made up of 720 x 576 pixels (pal) or 720 x 480 (ntsc) so that's all the information you have. I haven't tried printing stills off but I don't think they'd look very good. Try it and see! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

At the moment I don't think there's an official BPA requirement for jumping birdman: the 200/500 jump numbers are BirdMan's own recommendations. I did my first flights with a little over 300 jumps, a briefing from a more experienced jumper and CCIs approval. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Do you really think they're going to be that much better? Isn't the problem with the ProTrack one of placement rather than the unit itself? Won't the Neptune suffer the same problems from being put inside a helmet or any other 'dirty' air? I did a few jump with my ProTrack on a hand mount, thinking it would make a big difference to how 'clean' its readings were - but it didn't Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Ok, we're talking about slightly different things then. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

It depends on the canopy and the length of the brake lines. My Sabre2 takes about 6 or 7 seconds before it starts to stall and 'get funky'. AFAIK student canopies are often set up so they cannot be stalled, no matter how long you flare for and that may be the case with your Navigator. Contrary to the other replies, I thought that you could 'reverse' a canopy (some canopies at least) for a short while before it stalls. Isn't this a technique in BASE for avoiding object strikes? Again, contrary to other replies I thought that if you hold your brakes past the stall point your canopy cannot maintain presurisation and will therefore collapse. I've never tried it for more than a few seconds but some dutch jumpers I met told me it was part of their license test to hold a stall for 10 seconds. As always you should ask your instructors before trying these things but I'd recommend doing them (up high of course) - learning the characteristics of your canopy can only be a good thing. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I didn't see anyone (cci/instructors/riggers) telling people about the recall at Langar and there's alot of US gear around. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Thanks everyone. Now that I've seen a picture of it I'm qualified to try it, right?

Both those links are blocked by Websense as "Militancy and Extremist" can someone download them and attach them to a post? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Last weekend it was pretty windy, right on the limits on the ground and strong up top. Run-in was into wind and people were not leaving anywhere near enough gap between groups - the group that got out after us were way too close. After a few loads people started to realise that our groundspeed was so low they could put 15 seconds between groups but they certainly weren't at the start of the day. It's quite scary stuff and whoever is jm needs to remind people how important horizontal seperation is. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Why so few dude? Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

I don't have one but the ones I've seen have all been quite skinny rather than big and baggy. I believe their theory/philosophy is that you should fly your body, not the suit. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

530:0

The only 0.3 I can find online is the Raynox HD-3030PRO from Jessops, is anyone using it? I've looked at the at the Red Eye and the Diamond 0.3 but both are going to be over £100 by the time I get them to the UK. Anyone know of any alternatives over here? Cheers, Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

With such a wide angle lense so flush with the helmet (ie the front of the lense is a fair bit behind the 'forehead' of the helmet) can you see the helmet when you're filming? I use a 0.5 kenko which sticks out about an inch but would like a 0.3 as well. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Yes.....and money too. Lots and lots and lots of money. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

If you're looking to skydive cheaply I suggest you take up golf.

Are you sure? I had a series of brake fires on a Spectre loaded at 1.3 and it wasn't just a 'slow spiral'. A friend chopped his Vengance (loaded at less than 2) because of a brake fire - they're not that trivial IMHO. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

We pulled a sweet 4-way tube out of the Let a few weekends ago, anyone gone bigger than that? From a Skyvan I reckon you could lay 2 tubes next to each other and link them side-by-side to make an enormous one! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

How did you get hold of the dvd? I didn't even realise it was out! Gus OutpatientsOnline.com

Anyone else notice the similarities? Both are unaware of the 'other' world. They're unenlightened. The few that are aware don't understand it and are scared of it. They turn up at the dz and wander around staring at the jumpers like they've stumbled into Diagon Alley and can't quite believe what they're seeing. Muggles make me laugh

You were flying your canopy directly underneath another group before they had opened, this sounds alot like your error not theirs. If you need to fly your canopy back up the line of flight to make it back to the landing area you need to be flying at 90 degrees to the line of flight until you see the next group open to avoid this kind of thing. Gus OutpatientsOnline.com