yoink

Eat one what? Whatever you want, as long as it belongs to a consenting adult. And then later you can marry its owner, regardless of what it was, without being discriminated against by the federal government.

just so you know, pretty much everyone thinks this about themselves. Statistics suggests you're probably about average. Don't let over confidence put you into bad situations.

Assuming I'm reading this right, then no, goign from a Sabre 120 to a Katana 120 isn't a good move. The Sabre is a much older, more docile design. It's not like going from a Sabre 2 120 to a Katana... definitely take a step between the two.

Please don't take this the wrong way, Ian - I think it's great the the Factory Team are looking to put videos like this out, but I think that this one could be presented in a less ambiguous / rambling fashion. I have what I hope is some constructive feedback. It's obvious Shannon is trying not to give numbers, and I understand why, but I think it would be useful to define WHO these videos are aimed at the next time you're putting together a presentation. This one talks about using your pattern entry point as a possible hard deck - very applicable for HP pilots but I think that the majority of jumpers out there still only have the vaguest idea what that it is for them. For someone seriously swooping, that's a defined number for a given maneuver - if you asked a weekend warrior they might answer 'between 1500 feet and 300 ft I guess...' it varies wildly depending on how they fly on that jump and as such shouldn't be a decision marker. So who's this video aimed at? What do people who don't have a predefined maneuver altitude do? - you see what I mean? Additionally, for me, I come away from that video without a really clear 'memory' of it. Unfortunately it's very forgettable. It's a talking head in a bland echo-y space... I'm sure you guys have presentation material where you distill what you've been talking about down to a couple of summary bullet points for each section - do the same for these videos - Introduction - concepts - talking - Summary points. I'd love to see more safety stuff prepared by the PD team, but I think you could do yourselves better than this one.

There are drawbacks to both ways of doing it. I'm not a fan of hammering out 3 or 4 student jumps in a day. I think it's easy to overwhelm a student with too much information and lose some of the retention of what's been taught - it's like cramming for an exam the night before. Sure, you may do OK on the test, but 6 months from now you don't remember much of it. There's also the physical tiredness that needs to be accounted for. Thos ebig student rigs are HEAVY! However, I don't think taking multiple weeks between jumps is a good idea either. A massive part of skydiving is muscle memory, and training your body to behave in certain ways, and that only comes with frequent, repeated practice. If you're taking months or even a year(!) between jumps, you've lost everything you've gained in those areas and it could be argued that you're increasing the danger to yourself. I personally think there's a sweet spot of 2 to 4 jumps over a weekend, then go away for a week, let it sink in, relax a little, then come back and do the same the next week or week after. I certainly wouldn't recommend longer breaks than that. Having said all that, this is only my personal opinion, and it's one of those things that everyone will have a different view on.

It's entirely personal, but this is one of the things I REALLY don't like about AFF. Yes, a student is qualified in 5 days, but they only know the very basics of the technical part of skydiving... there's so much more to it than that. Some things in the sport are learnt by just spending TIME at the DZ. I think the 'get qualified in the shortest time possible' syndrome is in part responsible for a prevalence of newer jumpers thinking they're better than they are, or know more than they do. They haven't had the time to see others making mistakes, or listening to all the stuff in the evenings.

I agree. However asking how the brakes work in a car when you've already been driving for a year isn't the brightest idea in the world... Lets ask this - when did everyone here feel comfortable enough with their gear to disassemble their main from their risers and Dbag? That to me is the surprising part - that it's taken this long to ask the question. For me it was covered as part of my packing & gear lessons that I took while it was too windy to jump. Probably around jump 15 - 20.

The 12-way. Canopy size doesn't give you ANY sort of exit priority. If your canopy is so small that it requires messing around with exit orders, then you should be on a dedicated pass. You have no rationalization here. IF, all other things are equal (i.e., freefall drift is prioritized), why not consider other spacing factors? Because where does it end? I put the 12 way first primarily because of the assumed slower fall rate. It's simple and it maximises the possibility of horizontal separation from freefall drift. If we start introducing canopy size into the equation what happens when you have extremely mixed canopy sizes within groups? A 4 way ff group with 3 tiny canopies and one 200+ followed by a flat 12-way with a different mixture?... As Wendy said, if you can't create your own space under the canopy you're on you probably shouldn't be flying it. I've never bought the 'I'll be down first' argument for small canopies - that might have some rationale for the first group out, but after that they're going to be cutting through traffic that's before them in order to 'get out of the way'... Additionally, the small canopy argument does nothing to change horizontal separation and the risk of opening collisions - they're still opening in exactly the same airspace they would be on a larger canopy and hence are at exactly the same risk of a collision opening - something only mitigated by maximizing horizontal separation from ff drift. I see it in the same simplicity as pull priorities - keep it simple so that everyone can understand it, even when they're tired from a full day's jumping. 1) Slow fallers first. 2) Large groups before small groups. 3) Planned 'standard' opening heights 4) Tracking / Wingsuits 5) High pulls

The 12-way. Canopy size doesn't give you ANY sort of exit priority. If your canopy is so small that it requires messing around with exit orders, then you should be on a dedicated pass.

You guys are like children throwing terms 'Liberal' and 'Conservative' around as though they're insults... You all need to grow the hell up. 95% of the threads in this forum degenerate into semantic bitching matches between the same 6 people to try and score some sort of imaginary points over each other. For the mods - other forums have a 'foe' button that automatically hides posts from people that you tag with this. What are the chances of getting such a system here? It'd help clear up the signal to noise ratio.

You thought it was just Verizon? what about Google, Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, Skype, Facebook etc? Ladies and Gentlemen - welcome to PRISM.

Sell the Katana and use the cash to purchase a canopy you can actually jump and learn on. When you're ready for a Katana, you can trade the wing you've put hundreds of jumps in against another one. Doesn't make much sense to me to have all that capital just sitting around, and if it IS just sitting around, you'll always be slightly tempted... "well, as I've got it there..." and that's the path to the dark side.

We've been SAYING this for as long as I can remember and you know what? Nothing changes... Unless there are consequences for actions, or a prescribed route for progression there's no incentive for those that are most at risk - the guys with the mad skills - to listen or seek out any education. You could have the best school system and teachers in the world, but if the kids don't attend, they're still going to get shitty grades. So unless you can come up with a way to ensure that those that need it GET all this fantastic education that you're talking about, then your suggestion has limited value.

This is one of the best posts that I've seen on these boards. It should be required reading for ALL skydivers... and yes. There will be a test on it eventually... Based purely on anecdotal evidence and gut feel from reading the incidents thread here for 10 years I'm positive many more people go in fucking with their malfunctioning main, or under a unopened reserve due to a too low chop than do under a malfunctioning reserve. That speaks volumes to me about which is the riskier option.

5minutes, even then a text would be greatly appreciated. Rocking up after that without any sort of excuse is seriously rude given how easy it is to keep in touch now..

I was just about to ask this... I don't get it?

Swooping is is perceived as cool. Make no mistake about it, the drive to show your skills in front of groups of people is a very common trait. We need to make swooping UNCOOL. Or at least make everything else as cool as it... that guy who bailed on a turn because he thought he was low? HE should be getting the hi f. ives in the landing area while the guys who are just getting away with the swoops should be chastised by everyone. Not just their dzo. Not just their coach. Their peers and friends... Make swooping only acceptable in an lz a distance away from the crowd - not so far that it becomes its own cool little subgroup, but far enough so it's not a spectator sport - you want people to watch you swoop? Become good enough to compete...

Stupidest scandal ever... all the shit in the world and THIS is what elected officials are bitching about?

hahahaha!!! You're a nutcase! Show me a model-T that would last 250,000 miles... Hell, I had a 1970s Honda that couldn't pass ANY safety tests by the time it had 60,000 miles on it due to the shitty materials they made it out of - it had to be scrapped. But let me guess - that's just the government keepin' me down and givin' more money to the Japs? Goddamn those cheap, easily replaceable, and pedestrian friendly bumpers! We should make 'em out of rhino horn. I hear that shit LASTS!

sorry, but ! Teach that kid some basic internet best practice, stat! I'm sure others here will help you remove the remaining bits and pieces - they don't sound too world-ending! For the future, what I often recommend to friends with young family members is to give them their own non-admin profile on your computer just in case they ever want to use it (even if you think they never will!)- that way you can limit the access they have and the damage they can cause, while also having the conversation about 'this is a work computer so I'm trusting you with a login.. OK?'

I'm going to be less diplomatic than everyone else... Newbie jump pilot and newbie skydiver is an incredibly stupid mixture and is an accident waiting to happen. Don't think of this as a short term goal. Get trained, get some experience, spend some time talking with people to understand everything you'd need to know to do it safely, then get your mate to do the same. The legality of it is the simple issue.

Absolutely and rightfully so! For the young jumpers out there, this vid is a good demonstration on: The jumper hits the key lesson for me. You're flying an unknown entity until you've done EVERYTHING in your flight checks. I used to leave my canopy in half brakes and float back to the dz for no particular reason other than laziness until I saw exactly the same thing happen to 2 other people... albeit under less aggressive wings. That taught me that releasing my brakes are part of my post-deployment process.

"US government orders removal of Defcad 3D-gun designs citing arms control laws" http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-22478310 See? Now THIS pisses me off. The CLEARLY stated intention of the designer all along has been to release the designs on the internet, and the government waits until AFTER the design is complete and released to ask tell him not to do it. Good job assholes! It's too late. Those files are copied, distributed and widely available now. You absolutely may as well not do anything - it's a pointless lip-service exercise to only highlights your own incompetence and inability to make decisions until it's too late..

Yes. Although many will be situational, some definitely aren't and I can't forgive them. Does that make me a judgemental asshole? Probably.

There's no company in the world that carries enough insurance to cover the total cost of an extreme disaster in any field - at least in my experience. (massive engineering, construction & infrastructure projects) Do you really think that design and construction firms carry $1bn worth of insurance in case a hospital they designed falls over? Of course not - the fees required by the insurance agencies for that type of situation would make the system unusable. You carry insurance for likely costs of a mistake... if the explosion is the result of an exceptional mistake, then the insurance liability was never designed to cover that. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have had more. I'm not saying that they shouldn't have been more closely regulated, but implying that they should have carried enough insurance to cover the $100m is overly simplistic.