pilotdave

Not very high res but not bad... http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1315 This is a trailer for the director's commentary (Norman Kent) on the Willing to Fly DVD. Posted with Norman Kent's permission, btw. Toward the end are some pretty amazing deployment shots. Norman Kent talks about how he tracked toward the deploying canopies to get those shots. I'm sure if you bought the DVD (from http://www.normankent.com/storenew.htm) you could see these in very high res. Dave

Did he not see you, or was he just too close for comfort? I mean, is it possible he was just spiralling past you to get below to stay out of your way, or was he really headed right for you? How'd ya see him directly above? What I woulda done is asked him if he saw you. If he said no, I would just tell him what happened. Shouldn't need a lecture. If he cares, he'll realize how big a mistake he made right away. If he doesn't care and blows ya off, no amount of lecturing is gonna change him. On the other hand he might tell you he saw you and knew exactly what he was doing and wasn't gonna hit you. You'd definitely be allowed to tell him you didn't appreciate it and it was too close for comfort. Dave

...And removed one more time. I guess it's back up on offheading.com though at least. Dave

You are correct that a feather will pass the 45 degree angle. It all has to do with the ratio of descent rate vs the speed of the aircraft. A skydiver may eventually cross the 45 degree line. But it may happen after he's opened or maybe after he's smacked into the planet. Or it might happen after the plane has started to descend. Who cares? What matters here is that the 45 degree rule does not have any meaning when it comes to safe separation of skydivers. That is what kallend and billvon and many others have proven over and over and over again. 45 degrees is useless for determining timing between groups. Do you disagree? Dave

The main reason (in my opinion) some DZs require 1 or 2 tandems before AFF is financial. They make a shitload more money off of tandems than AFF students. But that's what keeps regular jump tickets cheap. I started with AFF and definitely have no regrets. Finally did a couple tandems after I had 100 jumps... my first tandem was the instructor's 7th. Just slightly freaky. But there are people that completely freak out on their first jump, and they'd be a whole lot better off doing a tandem than AFF. If you're pretty sure you are gonna do fine, and you know you wanna go all the way with it, skip the tandems if you can. Dave

Cheney's still alive? Who knew? Dave

Accuracy and distance. They could drop it from miles away and fly it to the target almost silently. I just wanna see a 4 place powered parachute that can be launched from 14,000! How fun would that be?? Dave

My new phone came with 1 ring (other than music).... I was hoping for a variety. I REFUSE to use a musical ring tone. Haven't found a place to download regular rings. I want a phone with a real bell inside it! Dave

Thats why I love jumping at a club. The financial situation is right out in the open, and we know exactly where the money goes. There's no complaining about jump ticket prices since we know damn well that the club makes basically zero profit off of fun jumpers. I sure do miss having a DZO to be pissed at when things aren't run as I'd like them to be though.

Jumpsuit wasn't on my list so I can't speak for them, but I do know at least one person that's had to go to his reserve because his t-shirt had wrapped over the bottom of his container. I just make sure to tuck my shirt in when I go jumpsuitless, but a jumpsuit would probably be a better way of preventing that. Dave

How does the performance compare to a paraglider of a similar size? And when do I get to drive that thing out of a skyvan?

Goggles were the only box I checked... jumped at one time or other without all the others except a visual altimeter, and I s'pose I could deal with that, especially for a hop n' pop. But my eyes water like crazy even from the wind under canopy (a problem that got worse when I downsized). I used to always flip up my Z1 somewhere between downwind and final, but now I'm usually leaving it just cracked open the whole way down to keep the wind out of my eyes. Landing with watering eyes just sucks. Dunno how anyone can do freefall without goggles. On the other hand... what I actually almost always wear: full face helmet, jumpsuit, AAD, RSL, visual altimeter, hook knife, and gloves. Dave

Just wanna take a moment tonight as we pass 70,000 downloads since the site reopened a couple months ago to remind the downloaders that hosting for skydivingmovies.com is provided free of charge by dz.commer mcrocker. Buy the guy some jumps please! That is all. Dave

I posted a link to a 1968 technical paper on the development of ram air canopies in the history and trivia forum. Ground launching was actually one of the intended uses for ram air canopies originally. Here's a quote from the paper: "During tethered tests of an ND .7 (313) [313 square foot, 0.7 aspect ratio] para-foil at the University of Notre Dame in 1965, two graduate students were inadvertantly lifted into the air. Manned flight soon became standard practice. In the resulting ascending flight test program students were towed to altitudes of 500-1000 ft, first with and then later without the cart..., released from the tow line, and allowed to glide freely back to earth. By pulling suspension lines attached to the trailing edge, the student was able to conduct a flare-out maneuver and practically eliminate his horizontal and vertical velocity components and simply step down to a one-foot landing. The confidence gained through these early manned ascending flight experiences, and extensive unmanned deployment tests lead to the first manned aircraft jumps of the para-foil in 1966 at the Univeristy of Notre Dame..." It's definitely no new idea... it's exactly how we ended up jumping ram air canopies. Dave

Gotta register to post, not to read. You don't know how long he's really been here. Nothing about this thread says "troll" to me. We do fall between 100 and 300 mph, through the atmosphere. Funny wording is allowed here. And I'm a 24 year old kid! Dave

Michele, if you really feel the need to keep your information more private, don't forget about your license number. It's as good as a last name to anyone with some back issues of parachutist (does anyone throw em out?). I've always chosen not to put my last name or license number in my profile, but I'm barely anonymous. I bet anyone that wanted either of those could find them within 10 minutes. But I can at least be proud I wasted 10 minutes of their time!

Yeah, if you're gonna make allegations like this, at least put your name in your profile! Dave

What's the story? Was there a post about this I missed? Dave

I'll answer on behalf of every skydiver in the world... yes it's worth it, or we wouldn't be doing it!

The RSL tab on my vector 3 is very big and easy to grab with either hand. It's a bit farther forward than the one on my old rig, making it easier to grab. By the way, something to watch for when you send in your rig... a MAIN repack at RWS costs $40. The reserve is double that. Dave

Not necessarily useful information, but my landings got much better when I downsized from a PD150 to a Sabre2 135. It's smaller and faster, but it's SO much easier to land. It's surprisingly more forgiving to poor flare timing. Dave

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=1449 Dave

Check this out: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=132976;search_string=pilot%20chute;#132976 Dave

Only lines I ever snagged with my reflex were after walking back to the packing area with the canopy over my shoulder. But I got a lot of dirty looks because of the pop top, and once even got kicked off the plane because some reserve pilot chute was sticking out. Sometimes no matter how tight the pop top is, there's still a gap on one side due to the reserve packjob. And riggers that don't do a good job aren't so anxious to open it back up and try again for free. Dave

I've been out of college for almost a year now. I like having money, but the best part is (or at least was until I started grad school) having so much free time. After work, I can do whatever I want and not have to worry about anything. I'm jumping a lot more now than I ever did in college. There are definitely things I miss about college but overall I think I'm glad its over. Now grad school is just the worst of both worlds... work all day, then 3 and a half hours of class at night, 2 days a week. And homework. Ugh how I hate homework... Dave