yoink

Got a link to a video? Tracking in a stand seems oxymoronic to me...

Just because it happened on the first jump last time has no relevance to the odds of it happening again. You got unlucky and had a malfunction. The tandem instructor handled it properly so there's no issue. Good job all round, including from the DZ who have offered you a free jump. That's pretty much unheard of in my experience. Great customer relations! Go again and relax. You can help your instructor by practicing your arch and throwing it solidly when you exit.

Must. Restrain. Self. Fingers crossed for MHS.

I'm not sure I understand the point you're trying to make? Is it that because one police officer gets shot, then it's OK that another one molests a citizen? Or is it that one molestation from a cop is equal to one murder of a cop? Or is it that because a police officer gets murdered, everyone should look the other way when they break the law? I'm struggling here. Help me out... what exactly is the point you're going for?

http://www.bbc.com/sport/0/american-football/32617907 So it looks like the Patriots will be found guilty of deflating match balls. I'd strip them of their superbowl title. It doesn't matter that they were the better team in the end during the match in which the balls were tampered with - they deliberately cheated. If it had been found at the time, maybe the quarterback wouldn't have played the superbowl. Maybe there would have been a repeat of that game... who knows? I'm pretty certain all involved would think a fine and a slap on the wrist is perfectly acceptable in exchange for a superbowl title.

Excellent. The transcript from the hearing made for great reading this morning too. From a laymans perspective it seems like the plaintiffs have made some poor choices all the way through the hearing. Fantastic.

Flying a canopy in clouds can be hairy, yes, but freefalling thru them can be done safely. My understanding from the initial post (which may well be wrong) was that the OP was looking for a way to jump in conditions which would otherwise cause a weather hold. To my mind, that's fairly solid overcast with no visibility from exit to the LZ, or many thousands of feet of dense nimbostratus or cumulus. I still think that in either of those conditions it's best to stay on the ground. Weather holds are a part of skydiving... The smaller, dispersed and puffy cumulus cloud days? Sure! No problem. Jump through them all you want (although not if they're at breakoff / deployment altitude). We've all been frustrated at weather holds, but they exist for a reason. The smart solution is to either take a trip where they're rarely an issue (Eloy, Perris etc) or to wait it out. Not to find somewhere that lets you jump in those conditions... Besides, jumping through rain HURTS! Those raindrops have pointy ends you know?

Let me say this first: The gunmen were completely in the wrong. I'm not saying what they did was OK. That said... there is a certain amount of 'you must have expected this would cause massive trouble?' in my brain. Take some of the deepest held beliefs people have and then publicly proface and risucule them... What did you think was going to happen? It is kinda like painting a bullseye on your own head. There are better ways to address the issue I think.

Even so, tell him to demo a Crossfire II. He might like it more than you.

Me too. It's all fun and games until someone gets shot in the back.

Why would you want to? You've obviously never been under canopy in thick clouds, knowing there are a dozen other people flying about you who you can't see until the last second. If you're lucky, they're heads up and will be in deep brakes and trying to hold to a small patch of sky. If you're unlucky there'll be a dickhead who thinks going full bore spirals is the best solution... At that point you're relying on big-sky theory to save your arse. Flying in clouds is not only scary, it's also dumb. In a big way.

Yeah, we need a retro photo of a a videoman jumping with a VCR cassette machine strapped to his chest. There was also the guy some years ago who was jumping with a gigantic Imax camera on a frame strapped to his chest. Norm Kent... pics here: http://www.normankent.com/photogallery-productioninhouse-behind-the-scenes/h4D1984D2#h4d1984d2

It's an interesting presentation which raised some questions in my my mind. I started getting really excited when John was showing comparable data between the Pulse and the Katana. I'd love to see more of this... One of the things which really hit home was the flight speeds and how that translates into the speed at which stuff happens in the air. Imagine a 2 way where one of you has a 180 on opening and are jumping the same canopy. For just those two canopies (at relatively conservative loadings) you now have a closing speed of between 85 and 100mph! If you track poorly and end up with 500ft between you that's between 3 and 4 seconds to avoid a collision, AS you're dealing with post deployment mental adjustment. So it's not enough to have good canopy skills for some of these canopies. You need to have good enough freefall skills to get into open space if you're using them in a crowded sky.

Maybe it's just me being a dick, but I hate it when people link stuff without any description of what it actually is. For future readers: It's a generic compilation video showing a little skydiving (FF & atmonauti), mostly speedriding and a little additional fluff at the end. It doesn't show any performance comparisons as might be implied by the thread title.

That guy is just an old timer who wants to hold me back! I've spent time riding dirt bikes / scuba diving / filming pornography etc. I know what I'm doing. What does he know about modern camera flying anyway?

I see extraction force requirements as an entirely different experiment with many more variables. This test seems to simply be to identify which PC produces the most drag. Of course, I've not seen the paper yet, so I could be well wrong. How that then relates to the extraction force required for various container types and all of the reserve possibilities would be a much bigger task. and that's the absolute best way of doing it. My suggestions is how I would have done it as a student.

That's one way. Personally I'd had attached each PC to a full length bridle and the bridle end to a Newton meter and clip that to the floor of a wind tunnel. Choose a force for extraction and then measure the wind speed to generate that force. Simple. Comparable.

You are not a special or unique snowflake... ;)

I use 1Password from Agilebits and have done for a couple of years. It's not the cheapest solution, but it's the best for me.

Yup.

Not being a tandem instructor I could well be mistaken - aren't handle checks part of the manufacturer training / requirements? The USPA is rightly afraid of lawsuits which prevents them from mandating certain procedures. Likewise, the DZOs. The only way enforceable rules can possibly work is if the liability is passed down the food chain to the individual level... Now HOW that could happen I've no idea. Didn't Relative Workshop change their name for that sort of reason? 'Don't sue us, sue the guys using our equipment'? Maybe it should be the UUSPA.

Found the attached today which looks at it from a purely fiduciary viewpoint in CA: taken from http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-32299402 "Using data from a university study, published by the Loyola of Los Angeles Law Review, it shows the average amount of money spent per death - just over £200m." Far more than it costs just to lock them up, so even if trials were 100% accurate (which they aren't) it still wouldn't make any sense unless you're just our for revenge...

*Slow claps... Wow. Good job guys. From potential mistakes in the FBI and that implication for death row inmates to Nazi Germany and 'MURICA '(Fuck yeah!)' in 4 posts. Quality forum discussion right here. For the OP - I suggest you make use of the new [on topic] tag if you want to short-circuit crap like this. See the sticky at the top of the forum. So - on topic - aside from the death row implications (which are tragic) another nearly 2,500 need to be reviewed and I assume, potentially corrected?

Maybe I missed the answer to a question I asked earlier? (Of course no DZO would accept this responsibility, and since the USPA is largely made up of DZOs we're back to the original question...) How do you enforce this BSR at an individual level? Who is going to be checking what the tandem instructors are doing, and how? - Is there a position in the USPA who is going to review every youtube video uploaded by passengers as they find them? Are DZs going to be required to submit all their tandem videos at the end of the year for some sort of audit? What's the process? How do you make it so that it's applied equally to all instructors - the ones who take a student without video, for example? Or the ones who don't upload video? I agree with the intention of the BSRs, but think it's an entirely pointless exercise unless along with the regulation updates, you codify how the process has to work, otherwise it's just a wishlist.

thanks Mel. The heat shrink tubing I use for electronics typically works in the 170 - 195 F range, just for information.