yarpos

your contribution here would be missed, I hope you can stay around like sparky....take care regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

I think your right , one of my friends used to jump a crossbow and the sleeve was much shorter than a PC sleeve. A couple of feet at least from memory. You could probably make it work with an s fold or two depending how anal you are with packing. regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

yes just once for a power failure....it would have been more sensible to glide back to the Dz as we had heaps of height.....but all the paaengers looked at each other when the noise stopped and an unspoken, unanimous vote was taken....5 secs later the pilot was coasting along by himself....made it back without incident regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

thanks for those mental images....thats my concentration all shot to hell at work today edited to corekt my spellink regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

interesting and thoughtful post I can only say that I never thought I would die until I nearly did (one classic low cutaway after timewasting under a spinning mal, and one shit happens incident exiting on a formation load with the chase plane underneath us). In reality we progress, we learn, we try things......if we agonised over the consequences many of us would give up....most of us get through it, occasionally some of us get bitten....its the price of the game. In the end you can only prepare to do you best and fight and hope its good enough/ the right choice on the day. Having said all that gloomy sounding stuff , I still think its one of the most amazing things a human can do and cant imagine not having it in my life regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

footy big? sure but only on one country...a lot like american football respect for cricket players? sure why not? skillfull game, generally entertaining in the one day form, high level of fitness required....far fewer barge arses running around than you see on a baseball diamond regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

this has been a great thread , lots of good thoughts and discussion (sometimes heated) ...pity it will get blown of the front page of bonfire quite quickly. interested in the OPs comment about overly anal people in Skydiving and BASE. How can you be overly anal in BASE for gods sake? its a one shot deal, its totally personal, its totally unregulated ...just wondering? regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

re the baggage....cant they be taken empty? or dont they have sand in Spain ? regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

if thats a serious question... no it wouldnt be a good choice some very experienced jumpers load reserves at 2:1 and even they (I think) would admit they are pushing it. roughly speaking load your reserve about the same as your main, and loading it lighter is the side to err on. Reserves are different beasts and provide different landing challenges , plus, you have just had a mal, are lower than usual, less time to think , and may be landing on unfamiliar ground. How much more do you want to stack the deck against yourself? Speak to instructors and responsible gear sellers. regards Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

Assume you are a new or soon to be jumper. For a new jumper 135sq ft at 175lbs (close to 200 geared up) is life threatening stuff. OK to dream about the future .....but talk to your DZ instructors about realistic first steps. regards Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

hi like tbrown I plan to come back to jumping after 20+years away. I am booked in this weekend. simple objectives: learn and have fun dont break me dont break anyone else if I can do that for a few months , I will give it some more thought , dont wanna get ahead of myself regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

hi scrublink I'm also bored after 20 years....of not jumping I am getting back into it in the next couple of months and I see so many challenges and opportunities compared to when I left .....hi performance RW, freefly, very big ways, CRW, wing suits, hi performance canopies, swooping, ground launching, BASE with gear thats designed for it. Not many other sports offer this kind of diversity, so for me its just a matter of getting competent/current again and then picking something(s) to learn. At another time in my life I had had enough also, and left to do other things. Maybe thats what you need to do. Good luck whichever way you go regards, Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

10 floaters out of a DC3? any 3 with a cargo door is fine for that. I had never seen a DC3 with the standard small door till I went to the US to jump (olden days)....would be quite a feat out of one of those.....the D18 pic is scary...I never liked those things even when everything was going right.....the source of 3 out of 4 of my bad aircraft related experiences. take care, Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

hi somehow I got the job of being the spotting guy for many years, and had the job of spotting demos, formation loads etc pre GPS. Here are some things that worked for me...your instructor may have other/better ideas. Spot with your head just out of the plane, dont use any part of the plane to line up with landmarks on the ground. The plane is generally nose up and may also be turning slightly, the airframe is not a good guide. To make sure you are looking straight down, look out at the horizon (the real horizontal), imagine a 90 degree/right angle down from it and run your line of vision down that. If I did this with my head just past the edge of the plane it gave me a pretty good picture of ground position +-100 yards on the ground. I used to do this 4 or 5 times on run in just to check I got a consistent ground picture. Give clear and decisive commands to the pilot. Have very clear unambigous left, right, power off or go around signals. Signal when you are sure, dont give left, then right, then left...it makes them crazy (which can be fun) Talking about run in direction and depth of spot is to convoluted to do here. Better face to face with someone you know, talking about landmarks you know. Good luck on the weekend. Spotting isnt hard , just a learned skill you are well equipped to do, enjoy. regards Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

3 in 1100 2 x spinning mals, 1 x total (floating pud) one other practice cutaway edited to add total cause regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

I was the same at the beginning with the turning,spinning thing...trying to hard...trying to be perfect...falling like a sheet of stiff plywood....everybody says it, but its hard to do at first.....relax, consciously loosen up after exit ....good luck , it will come regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

good post and I agree with most of what you say...I would be a little cautious of the line about "Remember if you are jumping with others,,, that all of you will be alti. conscious thus insuring that separation WILL start when it needs to... ". As someone who, as a 200 jump wonder, whistled through 2 grand in a 4 way (olden days) because no one was checking break off height....I strongly recommend a habit of self reliance for break off. good initial question and lots of good feedback I think regards, steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

mmmm..dumbest was sticking my finger in the water of an electric kettle (with a broken lid) to see how fast the water heats up after you turn it on. Makes a nice circuit to earth when you touch the nearby sink...240V in my country....ouch!!! regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

visible alti eyes + visible alti, for me, creates best awareness dytter is a (good) passive back up (PS having said that, I had my one and only alti fail on a night jump...in pre audible days...funny feeling looking at your alti in freefall and thinking hmmmm that said 7 grand last time I looked at it..arrrghhh!) regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

"In the 1980's a whole load of skydiverrs was landing in a farmers field somewhere in north west louisiana......." embellishing are we? NW Louisiana, give me a break

another option if you are travelling a lot , or participate in other adventure activities good medical / get home coverage, single trip or annual cover, no exclusions http://www.ihi.com/english/individual/2.asp regards steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

two come to mind as memorable (I'm an old guy so did 100's of jumps when landing out wasnt that unusual) landed once in the town cemetery...a bit unnerving among the headstones landed once in a farmers backyard miles from the temporary dropzone we had set up for a long weekend boogie (if you call a cessna in a farmers field with 15 drums of fuel and a hand pump a boogie

seeing we are resurrecting tonto's old thread, I'll have a go: while living in Switzerland the last 4 years (gods country for shooters) AK47, SKS, Sauer 205 .308, Schmidt-Rubin 7.55 Swiss and a nice little ERMA M1 look alike in .22. Like all things Swiss the 7.55 was beautifully made and very accurate (still used today for 300m shooting standard in Switzerland) Handguns - SIG210, SIG 226 sport, Rossi 357 and a Hammerli SP20 .22 IMO the 210 is the most accurate semi auto out there (maybe me just showing my inexperience...and...shock/horror its not a .45) all sold as either grossly illegal in OZ or uneconomic to bring back and store while I did the necessary work to get licenced. Back in Oz now (were its fairly ordinary to be a shooter). After struggling through the licencing process for a 6+ months, I'm getting a Glock 34 9mm to start IPSC here (calibre constraints apply by law here) but will probably be more limited in my shooting here. blue skies and enjoy your freedoms Steve regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

i'm amazed he hasnt already been mentioned..deovoid of any gift for portraying an emotion...captain bland..Val Kilmer regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was

jeez, no violet crumbles, i thought you were civilised over there ! :-) regards, Steve the older I get...the better I was