yoink

He gets called a pussy for opening at 3500ft and a homo for all his match matchy gear although he gets props for being stupid /ballsy enough to not have a reserve strapped to his front. He's also absolutely unable to spot a cessna load and is gobsmacked by people with 8 jumps teaching a FJC.

With the huge advances in drone technology since the F35 has been in development do we really think a close support aircraft has a future in the military - at all? I think the niche of close support will be taken over by remote aircraft for about a million reasons. Survivability, cost, deployment and reduced human risk just to name a few... Sure - develop an intercept aircraft to keep the homeland safe, but the problem with a 20+ year design program is that the missions the F35 was designed for are no longer relevant, so they're having to fit a mission to the design, not the other way around. And that's why it's a bit of a mess.

Dirt dives and debriefs must have been interesting... "So, how did we do?" "RANDOM WORDS!" "cool."

What the FUCK are you smoking???

That looks like a BLAST!

Wow! Good resource for students learning about gear on weather-holds. 'What's wrong with this photo?' and how many people can't hook up a 3 ring right?

Put it this way, more students get injured from the drinking after than from their first jump! That said - there is a risk. I'd almost guarantee soreness in your back and thighs the next couple of days from all the arching you should be doing. Is that an injury? Sprains / twisted ankles? Maybe 1 in 20? Hospital time? Personally I've never seen one from an AFF level 1 in 10 years. But it CAN happen. Numbers aren't going to solve your problem I'm afraid. Get to the DZ and watch for a weekend or two. It's no problem! People will be glad to show you around. Maybe that'll help. That said, skydiving isn't a sport for 'by-the-numbers' people. If you're looking for absolute assurances on safety it just doesn't work like that - often times people who are least confident end up getting hurt because they don't make decisions under stress well. Go to the DZ but be honest with yourself. How do you deal with high pressure situations? Not well? Try a tandem. Thrive on them? Go for it!

Doesn't cover mould... There's a grey area if I can prove 'water damage'...

Morning all. I've had some annoying news this week and was hoping for a little advice from those who might know a little more than I about liability for property damage. I've had a load of my stuff in a storage facility in San Diego for over a year and paid extra for it all to be kept in an air conditioned space. I got called in this week to find out that they have a mould problem, and sure enough all my stuff is COVERED in it - including all my parachutes and gear... The facility brought in an expert to determine where it came from and apparently were told that the AC'd units share a concrete demising wall with a separately zoned office space on the other side of that wall, and that the difference in temperatures on either side of that wall has caused condensation to form on the storage side, introducing the mould. The contract with the storage place is fairly typical - they state they assume no liability for any damage at all. I'm wondering if folk here think it's worth approaching a lawyer seeing as I'd paid specifically for a unit with AC and that their building is at fault, or whether the contract I signed precludes any chance of suing them?

Unfortunately, unless you've carried on a bail out bottle with you, and are attuned to your personal symptoms of hypoxia, you're still not getting out. You're just sitting there with a rig in carry on above you grinning stupidly. Hypoxia leaves pretty much NO higher reasoning. Certainly not enough to comprehend the ramifications of a hypoxic flight and then gearing up and exiting. IMO exiting a commercial disaster is a skydivers fantasy. You'd be torn apart the second you started putting on gear by other passengers, even if you had time, consciousness and a stable environment. Your best hope is hoping you survive the breakup of the plan and using your freefall skills to aim for something relatively soft. Trees, snow, whatever.

It's just skydiving... That's all. You're doing it for fun. Not to put bread on the table. Not to solve world problems and you know that it's expensive and dangerous. Ask yourself who's being unfair.... her for not liking you doing it, or you for doing something that's dangerous and expensive while you have a young family to support? Try explaining to us why putting yourself at risk 2 days a month is justifiable, because if this isn't a friendly audience, I don't know what is! Is there any room for compromise? If not, what it comes down to is simple - are you going to resent her if you stop jumping because of her? If so, you're probably done. Skydiving is more important than your relationship at this point. (Just remember, most people don't stay for the long-haul... the thousands of jumps, and decades in the sport are the exceptions). Is she going to resent you if you continue jumping? If so, you're also probably done. Keeping her amused 2 days a month is easy. Calming the fear that you're going to get badly hurt or die, and leave her with two small kids isn't, because that's a reality. The sky isn't going anywhere. It'll still be there when the kids are older and more settled. Personally, I'd step away from it for a while and find something else for a bit.

Gear checks on the plane are a really bad idea in my opinion. Too little room, and too much squirming around. It's too easy to undo the good work you've done earlier. Get a proper check before you get on board, and then check your handles and PC before the door opens.

I kinda see this as a shortsighted solution but then I was brought up in the BPA system where getting gear checked is mandatory and was normal in my jumping career. As I see it, checking your own gear has 2 sides to it. Pro: You know nobody has messed up your gear while they were doing a check. Con: You're not infallible. You may forget a check (even if you're sure you won't) or may miss something (even if you're sure you don't). With someone else giving your gear a look over after you've done it, you mitigate the risk of the con above and can minimize the impact on the pro by proper training and constant repetition of gear checks. I used to routinely ask newly licensed jumpers to check my gear, and would then get another check by a more experienced jumper who I trusted before I got on the plane. This has the dual benefit of teaching the beginner about gear, and giving them lots of confidence without endangering me. After a few dozen flight line checks they can be as good at it as anyone with a thousand jumps. In effect you're teaching everyone to be as diligent about gear as you are. That said, with the change of culture has to be the education of jumpers not to mess with stuff they don't understand, and a understanding that 'Gear Check' isn't synonymous with 'pull on everything'. I used to refrain from doing checks on CRW jumpers because of all the funky shit they had going on - for specialist disciplines like that or WS I can see how it's best kept in the family, but for general jumping I think gear checks are a great thing if they're limited to a visual inspection of the 3 ring & harness routing, and then opening the main pin cover and visually inspecting the main pin seating & orientation and bridle routing, and then visually inspecting the reserve pin before closing the flaps back up. At no point in a gear check performed by someone else would I expect any physical contact to be made with the pins, bridle or PC unless they identified a problem and told me first. My flightline check for someone else used to go like this - front to back, bottom to top to bottom: (Do it the same way everytime...) 1) Check legstraps. Are they twisted? Is the excess stowed? Any obvious issue with hardware routing. (no contact) 2) Check Cutaway and Reserve Handle position & seating - not tucked under, velcro is all done up. (no contact) 3) Check chest strap routing. (no contact) 4) Check 3 ring setup. (no contact unless you can't see the cable going through the white loop, and then ask if they want it checked) 5) Ask - AAD turned on and zeroed? (no contact) 6) Check reserve pin seating. (Open reserve flap. No contact on the pin. Close reserve flap) 7) Check main pin orientation (pointing up) and seating. (Open main flap. No contact with main pin unless you see an issue). 8) Check bridle routing - any obvious error that would lead to a PC in tow? (Close main flap.) 9) Check PC is all the way in. (no contact)

No chance. The chance of user error is too high. I know some skydivers who can barely operate their phones and you want them to be able to accurately determine what firing parameters are best for their individual jumps and THEN configure the device properly? Ther'd be 2-outs and no-fires all over the place.

Just to emphasize - I'm assuming your fiancee isn't massively experienced at demos - if he is, then he can make his own decisions. Do you know one of the recurring root causes of serious injuries were at my last DZ?... It was when a young guy would show up with his girlfriend for the first time - it shouldn't change anything, but it does. The jumper tries just that little bit harder to swoop the beer line, or concentrates on whether he's being watched on final rather than looking what he's doing and then, BLAM! Ambulance time... Now imagine that pressure multiplied by dozens of people watching, on your wedding day. This isn't us being curmudgeonly. We're trying to make sure you and your fiancee have a great day. Speaking as someone who just got married, I can tell you that my head wasn't in its usual place on that day... Personally, I wouldn't have been making good decisions. He's not going to impress anyone by jumping into his wedding who doesn't already know and I'm sure you've got other things to plan rather than trying to improvise a demo.

Unless he's REALLY experienced with a ton of demo jumps this is a exceptionally bad idea. Congrats on your wedding! You don't need to make it more special.

Ring. The only argument I've ever heard that's even remotely in favour of a pillow is a lessened snag hazard and that can be mitigated without losing the benefits of a ring - mainly by not jumping with fucktards who get all grabby on exit or who have stuff hanging off them. I believe it's mainly a fashion thing, with the excuse of snag hazard being used to justify having 2 pillows. That said, there's no good reason for mini rings other than fashion, and I have those on my rigs...

Canopies opening can sound like jets to whuffos too. Wingsuit is mistaken as a jet, snivel sounds like the jet engine and then poof! Parachutists.

After 10 years it just wasn't fun anymore. The 2 hour drive to the DZ started to become a chore, rather than getting me excited, so I just started to do it less. As I did it less, it started to become even less fun until eventually I just didn't turn up any more. I only miss it very occasionally. As DanG said, it opens opportunities to do loads of other fun stuff!

Ho! shit! Well that's that part of the world being put on all sorts of no-fly lists... and it wouldn't surprise me if that's the catalyst for NATO intervention of some sort.

Now I'm imagining a button on someone's username that just lets you send them spam. Hey, Billy? Need some viagra? Know a Nigerian Prince?? Imagine the carnage!

Do NOT feel pressured into doing jumps you're not ready for just because of the boogie vibe. 16 way tracking dive organized in the plane? Sure! What's the worst that can happen?

Did you ask what his reasoning was for putting the student out of a plane after failing ground school? Someone needs remedial training, and it ain't just the student...

And this is why it's a really good idea to have a fair bit of experience before changing your EPs... You may not have thought of everything. Do you REALLY want to put your hand into an area with lines and risers whipping all over the place? What happens if you get a wrap around your right hand, now you've turned a high speed mal horseshoe with a a simple decision tree into a high speed entanglement and horseshoe... now what? Despite that risk some folk will do as you suggest, but I'm using it as an example to REALLY think through the process of altering your EPs before you do it.

How many jumps do you have? Because the answer to some of those is experience dependent. If you've just started jumping, then the answer is 'do what you were taught to do'. For experienced jumpers, some people modify their EPs or have multiple procedures depending on the situation. But you have to have the experience and judgement to be able to make that call when stuff's going wrong.... that's why typically, students are taught the simplest solutions. 1) At hard deck. Pull reserve. 2) If entangled above hard deck, untangle yourself first, then full EPs. 3) All other scenarios, Pull red, then silver.