yoink

That's one of the daftest things I've ever heard.

Not a horseshoe. It's a clusterfuck, but not a horseshoe. Could have been much, much worse though. I thought his hands were trapped in the lines as the main deployed...

Part of that is designing the landing area for antisocial human behaviour - landscape architects know this problem all too well and have to factor people being idiots into their designs. If you can design a landing area that is EQUALLY attractive for all 60 acres, you'll have less problems getting people to use the space as you want, rather than landing n the 10 acres near the packing hangar. The grass landing strip at Perris is perfect example - not counting students, go out there on a busy day and work out the percentage of people that don't aim for a tiny crowded bit of sky and ground, because it's nicer to land there - albiet a shit load more dangerous. I reckon it'll be less than 5%.

What's this 'running' your going on about? It sounds dangerously like exercise and my doctor has told me that I'm allergic to that. Besides, I have a car if I want to get anywhere faster than walking.

What the hell is DSE talking about? A canopy that had rigid ribs? History lesson please!

If you're talking about the BPA packing cert, from memory an instructor has to sign you off for the kit anyway - not a packer. Ignore the packers and anything they ask you to do. Find a friendly instructor, buy them a beer, tell them that you're this one step away from your B and ask if they wouldn't mind watching you pack one rig after jumping has stopped for the day and then signing your packing card. If they won't do that at this DZ, go to a different one. Permanently.

I still don't understand why people insist on flying skydiving gear in places where they are highly likely to encounter turbulence. If you keep doing this, it will bite you. Particularly if you're using front riser inputs. Get some proper GL gear.

Don't worry about it dude. They're there by design on pretty much every modern canopy - part of the whole 'staying inflated' thing. Good job on looking and asking though. Never stop doing that! As an aside, you're at nearly 70 jumps now - time to start learning as much about your gear as possible. Rather than just having your rigger look over these holes, why not arrange a time for you and your wife to get a lesson in the details of the gear your jumping with him? Take over some beers at the end of a night and spend a few hours with him going over detailed stuff? Design parameters for canopies, line lengths, reason for brake settings, stitch patterns, checks you can do... It'll all be really useful info.

that's because you're talkiing to people with no understanding of the sport, so you have to talk in generalisations. We're supposed to be experts. We understand there's another level of granularity and understanding, and we look for it. By your reasoning: AAD not cutting the reserve loop properly & locking the reserve - DIED SKYDIVING. Student running into the back of another canopy, killing one, severely injuring another - hey, DIED SKYDIVING! how about Inexperienced jumper flying agressive canopy and swooping before receiving adequate training - guess what? DIED SKYDIVING. ... nope. There can't possibly be any lessons to be learnt there. Whuffos don't understand the nuances - we're supposed to.

and remember: Power is everything. Never give up on the gates. Trust your rears.

This is a great plane with a huge door. Launching big chunks from it was never a problem. http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3c/Technoavia_smg-92_turbo_finist_ha-ydf_at_kemble_arp.jpg

*assuming you're being sarcastic? I'd hope not, because you know that's stupid and dangerous. My post wasn't to suggest you're an idiot who would blindly follow dangerous advice, but the truth is that you know virtually nothing about skydiving yet, even if you believe otherwise. You don't know what is good advice and bad advice and therefore might get into trouble because you simply don't have the knowledge or experience to make that distinction. Some are obvious - others aren't. However, feel free to ignore everything I said and use DZ.com as a fantastic resource. It's no skin off my nose. I've survived a decade doing it, and am pretty sure I'll survive another even if you ignore my advice. Hopefully you'll be able to say the same.

Hmm, I must have a particularly evil imagination, Imagination and rality are pretty different. I saw a DZ deliberately try and pack some mals for training videos they were making. They had to resort to sewing them into the canopy to get them to mal regularly and they way they wanted. re Carofreefalls: pfft. You don't lack the ability to ask anything. You lack the confidence maybe, but that's a different issue. Look, in skydiving this axiom is truer than almost anywhere else - "there ARE no stupid questions". Look at the explanation of the forum you're posting in: "There is a direct relationship between your knowledge, skill and attitude and skydiving safety." Never, never be afraid to ask something of your instructors. It may well keep you alive. However, know WHO you're asking and whether you should trust their advice. On the internet posters can be anyone and may unknowingly give poor advice. I could easily lie about my name, experience or jump numbers. If you asked a question 'I'm having trouble going forwards in high winds - help!" I might reply in several ways: 1) Strap on 20 pounds of lead. 2) Fly a smaller canopy. 3) Don't jump in high winds. 4) Use your front risers. 5) Use your rear risers. 6) Fly close behind another canopy to draft them. 7) Curl up in a ball to make yourself smaller. Some of these answers are simply wrong. Others are wrong for your experience level. Others are right. I might not read your profile if I'm in a rush and give advice that isn't suitable. I might simply be regurgitating stuff I've heard or read without checking to see if it's true - there's a lot of bullshit on these forums! How would you know, with your experience, which are which? You shouldn't be afraid to post here. You should be very very cautious about using it as a source of information over your instructors.

So you don't know how to do a gear check, yet you're deciding that your instructors aren't giving you a proper one? Okaaaay. You know you can ask any experienced jumper for one, right? Although they will probably refer you back to your instructor as you're a student. Why not cut out the middle man and ask your instructor to their face to show you what they're doing when they do a gear check? That way you're learning AND reassuring yourself. You know that a completed packing slip indicates that a student rig is ready to jump, but you decided to take a rig without one attached and are worried about it? Again... okaaay. How about not takig one until you've asked if it's ready to jump? No offense, but you and your friends have about 10 jumps between you and currently have no idea about skydiving, but are forming opinions based on your interpretation of internet posts and how you believe things should work. Don't rock the boat - just ask your instructors these questions rather than putting a 'sloppy DZ' post up in a public forum. If they're any good at all they'll welcome a chance to share knowledge with students. Seriously, this site is a really bad learning tool for students - You can't differentiate between good information and bad information yet, or information that's suitable for one level of jumper or one type of gear or another simply because you don't have the experience to make those calls. Add to the fact that students are treated differently to experienced jumpers and you'll soon work out that your instructors are by FAR the best source of information you can get. Ask them all of these questions - buy them a beer in the evenings and ask them to show you how the gear works, or how to pack, or what the requirements for jumpmastering students are (I can guarantee you that they don't just 'fumble together' a JM ), or how exit orders work.

There's no need to be defensive or abusive. Just like in skydiving you don't know what you don't know and you don't realise that until you get hundreds and hundreds of jumps. I've no problem with you doing whatever you want - as you say, it's a free world. I do have issues with you (or anyone!) posting potentially dangerous advice in a public forum where a newbie may take it at face value. Call me a wimp, but I'd rather minimise the risk of injuries like that as much as possible, by say, using gear that will help me prevent it. It doesn't do me any good as a pilot to be busted up for a few months because I've blown a launch... A little about my experience - I've flown almost every type of speed wing over the last 6 years. I've missed the more paraglider-y types like the Bobcat and Swoop, but pretty much all the others in various sizes from 8m up in all sorts of conditions. I pretty much taught myself on a Sabre. Possible? Yes. But smart? No, not really - not when we know much more about it and it's not what we should be encouraging new pilots to do. So why shouldn't we use skydiving wings? That seems to be the big question you've got? There are a load of reasons, but for me the big ones are how they recover from turbulence (speed, heading and altitude), how fast they pick up altitude from deep toggle input (for when you get a line wrong), good glide ratio for shallow parts of the mountain and high dive rate on toggles or harness for when you hit steeper parts, ease of inflation on launch (particularly in low wind)... the list goes on. A skydiving canopy may have one or two of these, but it isn't built for all of them. Again, why would you use something for which it isn't designed? Forgive me, but for someone with 500 jumps you sound a lot like someone with 100 jumps looking for an answer that they like, rather than the correct one. Skydiving gear isn't a good choice for groundlaunching / speedflying. It can be done, but it's not smart. I'm far from the only experienced GL pilot here - I'd be surprised if many of the others said that it isn't better to have specific gear, rather than skydiving stuff. Ask them if you don't believe me.

That's because it is. Why would you fly canopies that are designed to perform in clear skies in areas where turbulence is highly likely? You can argue it all you want. It's like using skydiving gear for BASE... it can work, but it's a really bad idea and we shouldn't be telling newbies anything else.

Yep, it's always priceless, when the one's who are used to constantly winning are being wiped out by so much.. Too bad you can't see their faces do you know Sangi, by any chance? Because you sure sound a lot like him.

Search for the Australian static line hangup where the student releases his reserve while still attached to the plane. Points please.

Suprised no one's linked PD's Dual Square Report here yet... http://performancedesigns.com/docs/dualsq.pdf

I'm curious how he managed to create a meltdown on his stove. Recipie for splitting the atom: Preheat oven to 420 degrees. Take 400g fissile material, bake slowly for 18 hours.

Always be very carefull about asking the government a question or for help. Kinda tough to fault their reaction on this one, to be honest. "Get round to this guys house. He has uncontained nuclear material in his kitchen..." Yeah. I can see how the police could get involved pretty swiftish. Ask yourself this - if it was your neighbour, would you rather the authority told them 'you're doing it wrong. Have a go like this...'?

I'd love to see a video of that 730ft swoop!

Thank you!

I'm coming up on an anniversary for me and the missus and I'd like to take her somewhere that does really good food in San Diego. Price isn't an issue and I don't mind it being dressy - we tend to be quite casual so a suited-and-booted evening might be quite a change. Any help from locals for something romantic and good would be really appreciated!

What's that in real numbers? I'm gonna go for 'fuckin' miles'.