Tonto

That you were. As WW2 showed, Shinto, some Zen and a bit of Buddhism combined into an emperor cult showed that Buddhists can fight hard. A history of Martial arts and a dash of Daoism has also provided the skills to be able to fight but is restricted in a kind of personal nuclear deterence way. East Timor, Sri Lanka and a few other hot spots do exist, but as one of the "Big 4" the body counts are not really comparable. t It's the year of the Pig.

Steve, you can argue all you like about the warlike behavior of Buddhists - but historically they do not have a reputation that involves events like the crusades, the inquisition, 9-11, etc. Those who beleive in heaven, and in God being on their side are the ones who have committed histories most terrible attrocities. I think you also confuse fighting for Nationalism or Ideology with fighting for religion. t It's the year of the Pig.

Are you familiar with the present tense? Incidently, it's Vietnam, not Viet Nam. All religions allow for self defense. When you are on someone elses turf with guns and bombs - it's OK for them to whack you. It's NOT OK to fly half way round the world and start Napalming villages and having soldiers kill unarmed civilians. Have you heard of Mai Lai? Incidently, the population of Vietnam is only 9.3% Buddhist according to their 1999 census, the rest being Catholic, Hoa Hao, Cao Dai, Protestant, Muslim and those with no religeon. How's that Vietnam history working for you? t It's the year of the Pig.

I did my 1000th at Perris on my 30th Birthday, and picked up my AFF rating at the same time. Of course, at the time I felt 30 was old, but 3700 dives later... I don't think so anymore. t It's the year of the Pig.

I make money skydiving. About half of what I make goes to covering the expenses of my own fun dives, boogies, gear, wingsuits etc, and the rest suppliments the income from my "real job." Wasn't always this way though - just for the past 14 years or so. the 1st 7 were a lot tougher. t It's the year of the Pig.

I don't think so. There is no God behind Buddhism. It's a religion of self with a self determined outcome. There is no God to choose who's in and who's out. No saints who stumble at the end, no killers with a clean slate either. That's why Buddhists are not out there killing - There is no God telling them to do it, but there is Karmic consequence to our actions. t It's the year of the Pig.

I've never had an issue with my audiable (a Pro Dytter) but I think that the authority on altitude is the eyeball, and all other tools are simply that. Tools. They will work if they work as designed and if you use them correctly, but if they don't work or if you use them incorrectly dying seems a punishment worth inspiring some other skill development. Altitude awareness is not knowing where the little needle on your alti is pointing, or how the current is making the liquid crystal run about on the screen of your Neptune, or whether the electrons in your audiable will enable your eardrum to manipulate the inner ear bones to tell your brain there is noise to your left or right. Altitude awareness is knowing where the ground is - how far away it is - not in distance, but in time and in oportunity to complete some tasks and overcome some basic physics certainties. Everything else is just bullshit. t It's the year of the Pig.

How is that different from saying it's OK to cut away at 101 ft and to "smile" while you do it? t It's the year of the Pig.

On the positive side, if some dude steams into you and breaks bones and you flail away unconsious, it will recognise that and save you, but if you fly with some expertise, all the way to the ground, it won't fire. As the Adrian Nichols thread and your Wingsuit observation points out, "modern AAD's" are simply not as modern as modern skydiving. What was good in late 1992 is no longer good enough. t It's the year of the Pig.

Per litre in the US? t It's the year of the Pig.

There is no difference between deployment altitude in feet and deployment altitude in feet AGL. Thanks for making my point. t It's the year of the Pig.

I gotta tell you, as a country, you're under privilaged when it comes to baths. My bath is 5 ft long, 2 and a half ft wide and 2 ft deep. And I can fill it with HOT water in less than 90 seconds. I've seen American baths. Good for brushing your teeth in. Nothing more. You guys got the short end of the stick with electricity (110v) and water. t It's the year of the Pig.

The noise depends on the calibre, barrel length, suppressor dimentions and the design of the suppressor. Very small, subsonic calibers, like .22, out of an integrally suppressed bolt action rifle are impossibly quiet, with the "click" of the striker being the dominant sound produced by the gun and the ZZZZZZZZZZZ of the bullet being the major noise at about 40 Db. Light conversation runs at about 60Db. Properly suppressed semi auto pistols (Like a 45) and sub machine guns (Like the H & K MP5 S) will sound closer to an expensive car door being closed, or a sheet tearing on full auto, the clatter of the slide or bolt will be clearly audiable, and if shooting on a hard surface, the tinkle of the falling brass take some getting used to. (You tend to want to look behind you to see what the noise is if inexperienced.) In a quiet area, it still sounds really, really loud if you're trying to be quiet. Often, the goal of silencing is not to be completely quiet. There is almost always a great deal of ambient noise in our environment. The goal of the suppressor is to keep gunfire within the bounds of that ambient noise. Next time you're walking through a parking lot, listen to all the car doors closing. That level of noise simply doesn't register as anything threatening to us, and so we fail to respond. Humans are intelligent, but they have an incredibly short concentration span. During the Munich Olympic massacre, athletes were killed over a three and a half hour period. The gunfire woke people, but they never knew what woke them due to the short duration. After listening for a min or two, they went back to sleep. 1000's of athletes simply thought they had a bad nights sleep until the news broke the next day. We also have a tendency to think everything is OK. A loud bang is a car backfiring, or a firework going off. We seldom think "Ah. Gunfire. I wonder where that's coming from?" Unless you're in Afganistan or Iraq. (Or downtown Johannesburg, where my GF has learned not to backlight herself when looking out the window..) t It's the year of the Pig.

To silence the round, yes. To silence the weapon, no. This is partly correct, if you use the same weight bullet. If you use lighter bullets, or slower burning powders or integrally suppress the weapon to prevent the pressures from becoming too high these problems can (and have) been overcome. As for the one shot silencer... well, it's going to have to be a monster potato to do the job, and it will create a lot of mess and not keep thinks very quiet. There is a LOT of science in silencers. Hollywood have done a fine job of convincing most people that a 45 can be silenced with a silencer the size of a roll of dimes. The truth is they are many, many times that size. With pistols one faces several additional challenges such as mechanical noise (The slide clacking back and forth) and chamber noise (when the slide allows some of the gasses to vent (Noisily) through the ejector port.) Both are usually solved with a slide lock (negatives are a lot of force transfered to the frame), or even just a thumb resting on the back of the slide for a .22. t It's the year of the Pig.

You're never too new to have a valid opinion or point, and this post is simply a rant and is not aimed at you in any way. What I don't understand is this "comfortable" (Boredom?) of which you speak. The atmosphere and the ground don't care how many dives you have. A lazy pull is a lazy pull. A late flare is a late flare. When I look at those around me, I see great faith in gear, which is something I never had until recently. I DO NOT see great faith in self, except in several worst case senarios. The same 100 jump wonder who doubts their abilities to successfully complete their reserve drills or to maintain alti awareness or avoid collision is often the same jumper who thinks they are ready for a 40 way, or to downsize or to swoop. The military have a saying. "Train hard to fight easy." This sport is no longer a lifestyle. It's a recreation observed by some on an impossibly infrequent basis, and most people are better in their heads than they are in real life. Those people are best served with these "Passive" devices that function when they do not. The idea of my reserve being activated on a swoop horrifies me, as I swoop without exception. (Blah, Blah, conditions, crowded airspace - I'm in AFRICA people. We have few crowds and no weather other than hot and cold) The idea of being knocked unconsious, while bothersome, has not resulted in AAD use due to my choice of reserve and wing loading being unlikely to save me anyway. Loss of altitude awareness is always a risk and was a primary reason for me purchasing an AAD but after 12 years without incident I have managed to avoid that and no longer feel an AAD is an asset in my rig. I don't mean this post to be elietist. I just wish people would put as much effort into planning their dives, diving their plans, prepairing their gear, practicing their drills, staying sharp, planning their patterns, flying those patterns, not skydiving tired, hung over or wasted and improving their skills....... that they do in planning what latest greatest bolt on safety device they're going to use. Of course, that's never going to happen for the same reason AIDS spreads. Everyone thinks it will happen to someone else. So. Stock up on helmets, audiables, alti's, AAD's, skyhooks, hook knives, tershes, RSL's, body armour and gloves. Pain is a great teacher, but only if you live. t It's the year of the Pig.

Lets accept the misnomer "Silencer" instead of the more correct "Suppressor" Wrong. All High velocity and some standard velocity ammo will break the sound barrier out of even moderate barrel lengths. (3 in) Wrong. Look at the calculation both you and John quoted. You need the sound of the crack AND the boom to be able to calculate distance and heading. A silenced rifle will crack - but no boom - so you know you're being shot at (Duh) but you don't know from where. You're wrong on this. You are correct that you don't know this subject. There are three primary problem noises associated with bullets. Problem a) The gunshot b) The bullet c) The target Solution a) is dealt with by using a silencer b) is dealt with by using subsonic ammunition c) is difficult. Shooting meat results is a loud "smack" sound, akin to an open handed strike. Smaller callibers, lower velocity ammunition and careful shot placement can help, but these situations are only usually a problem for sentry take downs, and there are simpler and better ways of doing that than using a gun. Some issues are more complex than others. Using a silenced rifle with supersonic ammo to shoot from within a room out of the window will still reveal the sound source as the sonic boom echo's within the room in the same way the origional poster mentioned the bridge pillars, thus compromising the shooter. The subsonic equiped shooter does not face this problem, but with their choice of lower energy ammunition would face an increased need to take the shot from a shorter range. A silenced supersonic round can cause a great deal of confusion. If the round passes North to South between 2 secret service agents who are both facing North, 30 feet apart on its way to the target, the one on the West side will hear the sound as having come from the Southeast, and the one on the east side will hear the shot as having come from the Southwest due to the >>>> effect mentioned in John's post. Outer circle teams need very good training and coordination to correctly pin down the site of the shooter and will usually fail to do so if the shooter has deliberately chosen a less than ideal position to shoot from, as most security personel will use optimum as a guide to find a shooter when faced with a trucated timeframe. t It's the year of the Pig.

I'm old school, pre 3 ring, pre AAD, pre RSL. My 1st freefall was just that, from 2500 ft, with no AAD and the words of my jumpmaster "No hurry. You have the rest of your life to pull" ringing in my ears when I let go of the strut. It's been a long time since then, but after 4700 dives and 18 cutaways I still think the very best defence is being sharp, aware of your altitude and educated. I have no doubt that AAD's and Skyhooks will save lives (and take them) but those who use these tools succesfully have already failed. The trick should remain how not to do that, rather than equip yourself for when you do. t It's the year of the Pig.

Really? So the skyhook knows if you can't find your hacky, or if you have a PC in tow? That's a smart peice of kit! How does it know if your container is not open, or if you have a low drag baglock? The ad also upset me, particularly the scale indicating deployment within 100 ft. Is there ANYONE here who would use a skyhook equiped rig to cut away from a mal at 100 ft? t It's the year of the Pig.

Hey. Welcome to the forums. The only one of us here who has made no mistakes are the ones who have posted nothing! Generally, experience is what you get when you don't get what you want. That's true for just about everything. Thanks for the post. It took me about 3 seconds to move, and I think we're all having a lot of fun with it now. Blue Skies, t It's the year of the Pig.

I moved this thread from incidents because I don't beleive it warants being in the incidents thread. On a friendlier day, I may have moved it to Safety and Training, but then thought - who could learn from this? A year off and then up to jump with no refresher? A jumpsuit to fit a 370lb jumper? Equipment to suit such a jumper? A 370lb jumper landing without injury with no flare? No cut away or reserve ride. Before posting a thread in incidents, one is confronted with this.. The purpose of this forum is to report, discuss and learn from fatal and serious non-fatal incidents. Was this a fatal or serious non fatal incident? No Most, if not all, new threads here should start with the report of an actual incident. Was this a report of an actual incident? I don't think so General safety issues or small and potential incidents should be posted to the Safety and Training forum. Was this advice followed? No Incidents include: malfunctions, cutaways, wraps, collisions, crash landings etc. I trust everyone will use their good judgment before starting a thread or disposing of advice. Was good judgement used here? In case of a fatality please post your condolences to the Talkback (Bonfire) forum and keep this forum for discussion. Which is where I've posted this. C'mon. I'm having credibility issues here... t It's the year of the Pig.

Speaking of homework... I hope you're planning on coming back end October for our flocking extravigada! Last chance at the "cheap" $22.30 jumps from 11000ft before the price goes up! t It's the year of the Pig.

Please use the other thread. Feel free to cut and past info across. t It's the year of the Pig.

Moved from incidents. t It's the year of the Pig.

He he... (Nylon crack dealer rubs hands in glee..) It's a pleasure Riaan... (Thinks.. "Wait till we slip him the hard stuff!") Welcome to the flock! t It's the year of the Pig.

Glad you're enjoying yourself... but understand that speed is relative. To the snail on the back of the tortoise, it's a wild ride. 300kmph is fast for a train, but slow for a plane. At a loading of under 1.4 and at sea level there are people all over the world who will think your canopy is blindingly fast, or impossibly slow - depending on their frame of reference. Your reaction is the one that matters, and the fact that you think it is fast means you should make every effort to get up to speed before it does something faster than you can stop. Good luck. t It's the year of the Pig.