yoink

No. But it wasn't unreasonable for them to say no either. It is unreasonable for you to expect special treatment. You don't pay your way to favours in this sport. Most people here has spent the same or more than you... Spend time on the DZ and offer to drive the bus to pick up jumpers. Catch tandems. Serve behind the bar. spend time looking for jumpers who land off or packing up at the end of the day and then maybe you'll get an occasional freebie. That's how you earn loyalty and respect. You GIVE to the sport and it'll give back. Your cash has nothing to do with it. I don't know you, and I really hope you're different to how your first post makes you come across, because I can't explain how much it irritated me as soon as I read it. Honestly, I usually read a thread to completion before I comment, but not this time... "I paid money. Give me free stuff. WAAA!"

Spitting Image... I wish they still made that but it would either be banned today, or over the heads of most of the viewing public.

So provide an unbiased news source for your information? All the news on that incident I've seen says it was shot down by Pro-Russian Ukrainian separatists. Not the Ukrainian government which you seem to be suggesting, but the pro-Russian troops who have been armed by Russia. That's not the same as saying Russia did it, but it's further towards that end of the scale than the Ukrainian government doing it.

Less of a cover-up, more of a 1 rule set for the old boys, another set of rules for everyone else.

Never going to convince a minority that it's daft. My post was made for the people with 200 jumps who lurk here. Just because a couple of people do it doesn't make it a good idea and nobody else was saying it clearly.

you've jumped 3 sizes and a performance upgrade in 12 jumps. Just to be clear, for any new skydivers reading this, this is generally considered fucking stupid. Because 1 person gets away with it, doesn't make it a good idea.

Try Reuters or the Associated Press. In my experience they're about as neutral as it gets.

Nope. That's if you get lucky. What REALLY sucks is being paralyzed for the rest of your life because of the decisions you made. Dying is not the worst outcome in this sport... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=4203276;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25; And that was at a wingloading of just over 1.2 Reddog - read that thread and it's associated links. It's sadly a good lessons-learned archive. Glad you're going to upsize. Have fun, but make smart decisions!

Please explain why I can go to hell? My tone? Sorry - but your post is so far from believable that I stand by my conclusion that you're either trolling, or are so far in the danger zone that I'd consider you a DGIT -If you don't know what that means it's 'Dead Guy In Training'. You should be frightened about where your decision making is taking you and I'm being honest about it, not mean. The guy above me has listed a date... if you're not aware of that tradition it's called 'Bounce Bingo'. When an accident is a near certainty other jumpers try to predict when they'll go in as a means to get across how serious the situation is in their opinion.... Unfortunately I've already won one on these boards. Take the emotion out of the posting. My advice is meant to keep you safe. Evaluate at where you are - : 1) Inexperienced. At 80 - 100 jumps conventional wisdom is that you should be jumping a canopy at no more than 1:1. For you weight that's somewhere between a 250 and 280 square foot canopy. 2) Uncurrent. You've stated that you can only jump one weekend a month. With that level of currency you should be erring even more on the side of caution. 3) Displaying poor decision making. Even if you don't understand the 'why's' of how wingloading will affect canopy flight I'm struggling to understand how anyone sees a manufacturers recommendation and then think it can possibly be OK to exceed that without expert knowledge. Explain to me the decision making that got you into this situation in the first place? To any experienced skydiver those are 3 major red flags and chances are that if you don't do something about it, you're going to have a serious / fatal accident. That might be on the next jump - the sky doesn't respect any intentions you might have to investigate or learn about the situation and it's important you understand that and do something about it now. To answer your question, a higher wingloading makes EVERYTHING more radical. Things happen faster and the results are more extreme. On a 1:1 loaded canopy if you bury a toggle you might have what feels to be a quick turn. On a 1.6 loaded canopy if you do the same thing you might spin the canopy up. Imagine doing that by accident down low. Now imagine getting your other hand trapped in the riser twists... it's happened before. It'll definitely turn faster and dive a lot harder. Recovery to level flight will take longer and the canopy will react differently to different input types... The problem comes because everybody at your experience level believes they can handle that and know all about it. I did - It's called the 100-jump-wonder syndrome. The problem is that people think about the best possible outcome rather than planning for the worst... I could probably jump a 70sqft parachute and survive, with a decent helping of luck and a big open dz. But under the same canopy, if something's gone wrong - maybe I'm landing off in a tight urban environment, or have to make a last minute emergency alteration in my landing, well, then I'm probably fucked. That's where you are at the moment. In ideal circumstances, every time you jump that gear you're using up luck to survive. If you encounter less-than-ideal circumstances then you simply don't have the experience and ingrained habits to get you to the ground safely. By the time you're flying a 1.6 wing, you need your responses to be instinctual. You need to inherently understand the differences between control types - front and rear risers, toggles and harness and what the combinatorial effect of each do. You need to be planning you flight before you get there and that includes the ability to look around the sky and reliably predict what everyone else will be doing 30 seconds to a minute from now. All of that comes with jumping, and jumping regularly, but you can start making smart decisions now. Fix that first.

You're either a troll or a DGIT. Choose. Jumping gear over its placarded max weight is dumb. At best you'll wear it out faster. At worst you're going to have unexpected opening and flight characteristics - anything from hard openings to broken lines. Once that happens you're going to your reserve. If that's similarly sized you're now probably overloading your reserve. That seems like a great idea for a canopy you've never landed before, yes?.... Then you've got the wingloading at your current experience level. No respectable skydiving instructor in the world would recommend a 1.6 loading at your experience. Then you've got the fact that you say you can only jump one weekend a month... You're inexperienced and uncurrent, jumping gear that is far to small for your weight and is in danger of structural failure. Sorry mate, I'm not going to sugar coat it. If you go this way you're a statistic waiting to happen. Please - get a larger parachute. Aim for something in the 250 to 280 range for now. Larger people have unique challenges in the sport. You need to be aware of that.

Sounds bad. But... could be worse. I had a ball-under malfunction on my 11th. Sitting on one of your nuts for 5 minutes post-opening does not help landing concentration.

For onece, I've got nothing glib to say. Thank you, to everyone who gave their lives or served so that we retain our freedom. We don't say it enough.

I'm just waiting until you start bringing your wit and sarcasm into the conversation again and then cry about us being unfair to newbies. Answer me this - what's the POINT of your question? What lessons or value does it bring to other posters to belong in this forum? If it's just discussion for discussions sake, that's fine. Put it in the Bonfir - not in here. If you're asking HOW certain stunts got done, why not ask that?

Trolling again huh? Slow day?

+1 She keeps a cracking position while reaching back, too! good job Irene!

It sounds callous, but it's not meant that way. Getting old? I know I have to work out regularly just to stay at a level of fitness that would require no effort just a few years ago now.

hahaha. Not that is irony. Careful pal. You're already well on the way to having mad skillz... usually found in less than 10% of skydivers, coincidentally. Enjoy your bathroom shopping. Hope you don't have to learn anything you don't already know as you're doing it.

So now you want to tell us how to do something else we're experienced at? You asked your original post in a daft fashion when a clear question would have gotten a clear answer, and then tried to obfuscate the message with some sort of international battle of wits. If you don't like the turn the thread has taken, then you need to bear some responsibility yourself. Communication via text medium doesn't convey subtleties. You, with all of your (IMO poor) attempts at what you see as sarcasm, irony and wit are confusing the message more than anyone. Many newbies ask a question in a straightforward manner and get a good answer. They show an attitude of wanting to learn. Within 3 posts you'd shown a completely different attitude and that's the reason you're getting this kind of response. Unfortunately it's difficult to make a 2nd first impression...

Firstly, RELAX.

This thread is retarded. In the air you should be concentrating on flying - It's that simple. Knowledge of how phones work makes not one fucking iota of difference to your ability to use them without distraction. When you've landed, use the phone all you want. Too many people have been killed by canopy collisions caused by lack of attention as it is. To add additional risk factors to that is just stupid and arrogant.

First I hear about that... Wow.... Right? That's disgraceful.

Didn't see one when I was there about 4 years ago. Heavily wooded with regular tropical storms in the afternoons doesn't sound like a great location to me!

I heard a story from one of my old instructors about a guy who grabbed the inside rail by putting his fingers / hand over the top as he was climbing out. He was wearing a ring. As he exited the ring jammed between the fuselage and the rail and completely stripped the finger down to the bone.

It's not what you know, it's who you know. I suspect that's a relevant quote in this sport. That statement shows your ignorance, your arrogance, or both. I've been doing this stuff for 3 decades at all levels of the sport and the business and have never seen a pattern of people or companies choosing favorites over safety. In fact I have seen quite the opposite. In case after case I have seen ratings pulled, memberships revoked (individual and group), jumpers kicked off DZ's, etc. because of safety issues. We see people get away with shit FAR more than we see them called on it in this sport. See the recent incident of the swooper hitting a spectator in the picnic area for example... I've only got a decade so it follows you've probably seen 3 times as much as I have... and staff usually get away with more. Penalties for misbehaviour / safety violations are the exception, rather than the rule. I agree with most of your posts, but believe we as a sport are awful at regulating ourselves on a day to day basis. The rest of the post is spot on. I'd like to see more evidence. I'd also like to understand the timeline better. When were the initial discussions with the DZ? When was the complaint made to the USPA and Strong? When was the vidiot fired. etc etc.

I absolutely agree that you can alter your aerodynamics through body position and that Nick's an expert at it. I'm just one of those who think that you don't create 'lift' from your body, more that you reduce drag. Of course, now I'm going to get jumped on by all the tracmonauti people who insist they create 'lift'...