mdrejhon

Hi, The Skyventure Montreal tunnel is much easier to fly than the Niagara tunnel which is similar to Flyaway technology. While Niagara is still fun, skydivers will have a much better learning experience in general with the Skyventure technology, which you will encounter in Montreal! See if you can afford to purchase a 15 minute block of time, and tell them you're a skydiver-in-training, still in AFF.

skymama, Another easy way to find your PIN is to type "mypin" in an email message. That autotexts to your current PIN. Compose a new message or memo, to someone, type "mypin" and hit Enter or spacebar. Presto -- "mypin" gets changed to your current PIN. Also, Facebook Version 1.6 for BlackBerry is awsome too. To install it on your BlackBerry, type http://www.blackberry.com/facebook into your BlackBerry Browser to download. Not to mention, the Application Store at http://www.blackberry.com/appworld to download lots of free goodies ranging from MP3 player to Internet Radio, video games, weather forecast software (good for skydiving!), and more.

Wow -- an interesting discussion triggered by my post. It's very interesting reading, but I see reason to both sides: billyvon/pchapman: Although flying fast definitely has elevated risk, please see page 39-40 of Brian Germain's "Parachute and its Pilot". It's based on this, as well as having read at least one or two other Germain articles, where I came up with the phrase "punch through the turbulence". That said, I should be clear I realize there are OTHER risk metrics that do go up, and this won't work when turbulence gets bad enough... I think some risk metrics (as billyvon says) definitely go up, while other risk metrics (as page 39 to 40) definitely go down, when I fly a little bit faster through medium turbulence. To a certain extent, anyway. That said, I definitely DO NOT fly fast on purpose to go through turbulence, and I've tended to automatically punch brakes (like I did when I flew through a dust devil at 1700 feet sometime last year). But, when I'm flying through manageable turbulence -- the kind that slightly buffets you around -- I do feel some better stability (Against instantaneous moments of turbulence) when I'm flying front-riser accelerated, but I do feel slightly vulnerable during transition from brakes to risers, so I don't pull down brakes much during transition. I've aborted front-riser accelerated plans when conditions were adverse. If Brian Germain wants to write an addendum, have him come to this forum and reply to this thread, to explain how some risk metrics go up and other risk metrics go down, when I fly fast front-riser-accelerated, on a lightly-loaded (170sqft @ 1.15) through moderate turbulence. Also, under my 170, I fly vertically similarly front-riser-accelerated than I do straight-in under some 150sqft and 140sqft full-glide demo-canopy jumps I've done. In many cases, slower, too. It's not 90's or 180's I'm doing, so my speed isn't like mammothly increased, and I don't have other complex dynamics to concentrate on, that arises during swoop turns... [Edit: Sent PM to Brian Germain. I'd welcome his opinion]

There's some well-known gay male penguins at a German zoo, frequently found to attempt to mate each other, and tend to stick together like a male-female penguin couple otherwise would. They repeatedly refused to mate with female penguines. There's been some stories written about this queer residents at the zoo... It has brought up a share of controversy at that zoo, in past stories in previous years...

CanadaBigWays.com update, June 12th Of big interest to Canadian formation skydivers. June 27-28: 18-ways -- Parachute School of Toronto (Toronto) June 27-28: 12-to-36-ways -- NouvelAir (near Montreal) July 4-5: 20-ways -- Skydive Gananoque (near Kingston) July 24-25: Canadian Freefly Record -- Voltige (near Montreal) July 30-Aug 1: POPS formation record -- Skydive Burnaby (near Niagara Falls) Aug 7-9: Canada 40-Way Camp by Doug Forth -- Skydive Burnaby (near Niagara Falls) Aug 14-16: Skyventure Montreal Tunnel Camp, includes 4-ways, and "red zone" skills. 2010: Canada 100-Way announced by Skydive Burnaby If more events are added, I'll reply to this thread to add them. Email or PM me about any other Canadian big way events. That's how I get to know about them!

I'm interested in what Germain says about this in my perspective: One of the things I do with a 170, which is classified as one of the larger canopies in this article, is that I do double-fronts to speed my landings, which are often preceded by a brief application and sudden release of half brakes, to make it easier to grab the front risers down on larger canopies. Basically, I pull my brakes down halfway for a few seconds, then quickly go to full glide by releasing fairly quickly. In this event, my canopy surges forward slightly, and at that point, a perfect opportunity to grab and hold down both front risers down to keep it in accelerated approach, without being bothered by intense front riser pressure. It's a technique for making it easier to hold down front risers of canopies with lots of front riser pressure. I'd be interested in how this article applies to my case; as I often do jump at dropzones of well known turbulence, such as Perris. I believe the moment there is relatively low front riser pressure, is when lines are slightly slack which means increased risk of turbulence for 1 second. As I let go of my brakes, I'm briefly vulnerable, until I quickly replace the line tension with my pulling down the front risers, then I'm at lower risk (after the brief moment of higher collapse risk) punching through any turbulence more efficiently with the extra speed.

Really no simple answer. You can still even go to the hospital with a good flare on 0.6 wingload, while it's possible to land 1.1 straight-in without a flare or broken bone if it's under really good conditions, the right amount of wind, soft ground, perfectly excuted PLF. It all depends on so many variables... Wingloading and descent speed is one of many variables... Still full of risk no matter how's it's sliced... That said, on average, your odds of injury (And death!) definitely do increase the higher the wingload, to a point where certain death is going to happen. (Landing a 2.5:1 canopy without a nearly perfectly executed flare, can easily be lethal)

I was at The Ranch for the New York Premier Sequentials, and I camped under the willow tree by the swoop pond. There's the forest too, if you don't mind bears. I showered at the showers; they aren't bad at all, just the water comes from a well and is a little earthy but not too bad. They are nice compared to showers I've seen at other dropzones.

Actually, I've decided to wait before applying. I want to make sure my resume is filled with more experience first. I'm a rookie in the field of 1000-jump big way jumpers. As a result of my performance at Guy Wright's New York Premier Sequentials, I just got invited by multiple organizers to the Chicago 40-way sequentials as well as the Texas 50-way sequentials, and a few others. It seems I'm finally on the invitational circuit! If I attend some of these beforehand, I might actually get invited to the 100-way sequential, which I'd want to put on my resume for the World Team application.

There will always be people who actually disagree: What about Nazi Germany feeding itself off such books back in the 30's and 40's? Certain books in those days, today would be considered in the gamut of 'racial epithets'. And, WWII - the rest is textbook history...

I had this situation of a brake being stuck, on the very same jump I flew into a dust devil and got knocked around. (Perris, at 1700 feet -- and I looked back, to see the tall column of dust.) __ Edit -- I just thought of a new method to re-stow a brake line. For TruLock toggles, one can pull down the line with one hand, hold it down, then poke the metal stick on the toggle through the loop in the steering line below the toggle stop ring. That'd pin it in place to make it fly straight, in a "makeshift restow". Then hold it in place while steering with rears. Has anyone ever tried that? I'd think it'd be safer than taking wraps around hands. [Warning, the content of this paragraph is NOT appropriate for the original poster, this is a reply to others who have mentioned various techniques of restowing excess line] FWIW, I do fly a 170 at 1.15WL, so I'd probably land a stuck line after practice flares, if it was fully controllable that way. That's just me and my canopy, and I've landed on my rears before.

To chris -- I think what he means is that you don't want to be too scared to save your life in an emergency situation. That said, I imagine it's a different ballgame when you do have that incentive -- i.e. plane disaster, hot air balloon disaster. But still, some people do hesitate even in emergency conditions.

My line over was after a full inflation by 1800'. As a big way outer. So a very bad time for me to have a mal. Not to mention, over a bad spot too. I had to land out in a very small field framed by suburbs, forest, road, and an apple orchard. If I ended up having to cutaway, it'd definitely have started at 1500'. This is below hard deck, but a slow-speed mal. (Better a slow speed mal at 1500' than a high speed mal at 2000' I say...) One fast yank fixed it instantly as soon as I noticed the deployment didn't go the way I expected. It was a minor line over, over only one end cell, and cleared. Beginning my deployment at 2500' at full terminal in a big way outer, there are times I'm fully inflated below 2000'. I try to aim at the 2000' sweet spot, but often there's a bit of fuzz on timings: Typically arrive at between 1700' and 2300' for the completion of full inflation of all 9 cells. Often 1500' has happened with some jumpers, and cypres fires do occasionally happen at big way events (there was two at the last Perris 100-way, though one was the result of a mal). Big way outers really do push altitude limits. Even though I'm am of the pampered AFF generation, having now done many big way jumps in the last 1.5 years, I'm now used to it, but it does scare me at times. That said, I was prepared to do a very fast two-punch in a moment, if my quick try to fix the lineover didn't succeed. It was almost my first reserve ride.

I'm back from my first invitational sequential -- New York Premier Sequentials. That was lots of fun! I jumped several slots and exits including floater and last-out. First exit was an easy one: floater from trail. This was the only jump I was really nervous about: I really wanted to make a good impression at my first multiple-plane sequential. Fallrate finetuning skill is very critical to success. To test the fallrate of the formation, I chose to jump the fastfaller with no weights at first. We did 10 jumps. My fastfaller has little wings, but I can keep them stretched out by strapping my gloves very tightly. That doesn't affect fallrate much, but in my experience it does slow me down faster marginally (probably 1-2mph additional deceleration per second). enough to allow me to decelerate a couple seconds faster. Non-camp formations are somewhat ballistic, so that was perfect for me. I just started braking sooner, which was very easy to do with these ballistic-speed formations. In one jump, I fell as fast as 131mph on my belly according to my Altitrack -- on a floater exit so there was no dive sequence to artifically inflate this number! Most averages was 121-124mph fallrate. The word used was, 'ballistic'. If my memory serves me right, this is what happened: Fastfaller, no weights (rear float from trail) Fastfaller, 3lbs (rear float from trail) Fastfaller, 5lbs (rear float from trail) Fastfaller, no weight, no stretch (middle diver) Fastfaller, stretched wings (last-out from center) Fastfaller, stretched wings (last-out from center) Fastfaller, 8lbs (middle float from center, dock on base) Fastfaller, 8lbs (middle float from center, dock on base) Fastfaller, 5lbs (front float from trail, zipper off base) Fastfaller, 5lbs (front float from trail, zipper off base) This may not be in exact order as I am going from my memory alone (my logbooks are packed away somewhere in one of the three bags sitting elsewhere), but you can notice the pattern here of fine-tuning. See, on the first few jumps, I gradually added weight as I familiarized with the fallrate of the formation. My fastfaller has little wings, but since it's spandex, I can create up to 1.5 inch wings out of it. I devised a way to stretch it, to make sure I had enough stopping power after a nonstop dive, in case I needed that extra 1-2mph per second of deceleration... I probably didn't need to, but I felt like I was taking a gamble deciding not to use the slowfaller. Because if I was last out of a full Twin Otter, I have only successfully docked a bigway if I was wearing the slowfaller suit instead of the fastfaller suit. But since the formations were ballistic, I took the gamble and it worked (remembering that Jan make a big point out of the fine arts of fall-rate fine tuning) I did my job, with only a few minor mistakes here and there just like everyone else normally does, I made every slot, docked every single time, and I got invited to my next sequential! I seemed to perform much better in these non-camp formations than camp formations, so it's a relief I don't have to focus on slowfalling as much anymore. Now I'm invited to my next sequential invitational in Chicago. Can't wait! At the next camp, I think I still need to wear my slowfaller but I may use weights with it more often to speed up my arrival. I may not need to use the slowfaller again at invitational events, unless as a weighted one where I'm forced last out on the first jump of the first day from a trail at an unfamiliar event with unfamiliar people, and the lineup ends up long for the plane (i.e. cramming 23 people in an otter). Though at the camp, the formations fall slow enough to scare me in my fastfaller. At Perris P3 100-way, from a near-last-out from a trail at 16000-16500 exit, I was docked on the 100-way by 9000 feet and stayed docked a solid 18 seconds before breakoff. So the slowfaller still really benefitted me here) At the camps, the slowfaller benefits me by diving fast and being able to stop fast at top of the stadium, being in the video frame sooner. Especially on non-oxygen jumps. But as Jan says, she is totally right about the invitational events (non-camp) being faster! For people trying to 'ace' the camps (i.e. Perris) before getting invited to sequentials and similiar events, for those who tended to go low even with a sweater, I do highly recommend a slowfaller suit, but not to make it unnecessarily too baggy with too much wings (which I probably did). It made the difference as a confidence-builder. "be prepared", "dress for success", "have a plan B" as everyone like to say.

Good timing. I just came back from my first invitational sequential big way (New York State Premier Sequentials)

Really? That rocks!!! Second that! I've been to five Perris camps and never rent a car for any of them.

I have a separate logbook for tunnel now -- although I don't regularly get that one signed. I now have over 9 hours of tunnel time.

I get really freaked standing on the roof of a house, even one storey up. I cower... But, I had no fear climbing up on my first hot air balloon jump at Perris between the 50-way and 100-way camps. I was more worried about being scorched by the burner, or scalded by hot metal frames. Remarkably I accidentally did a perfect zero-G exit, timed perfectly - simply based on reading up on stable zero-G exits - I just lept sideways and freefell with no flail, then slowly onto belly. The zero g meant I had the butterflies I normally don't get, though, so that was fun. Next time, I'll just intentionally keel and simply flip over the edge and flail - for the extra thrill. Who knows - maybe I'll become a BASE jumper, not hardcore renegade, but things like the legal Norway cliffs, bridge day and tower events type of thing. That's a new BASE rig and an APEX type course in the future, maybe. But for now I'm in a bigway career for the next few years. My recent "beer" line over was WAY more scary. It cleared instantly in one yank, though. I am most nervous during takeoffs (plane or balloon) and landings (whether it's me landing or plane landing). Especially with treetops below me after end of runway.

I'd say better 50-50 chance it'll do wonders -- at the very least, the 'accomplishment' will help self-esteem! My experience is that Skydiving, has actually, historically proven more reliable than anti-depressants alone (less than 50%), and more reliable than therapist alone (less than 50%), but I see a clear trend of better than 50% success rate with a skydiving prescription. I mean, in the real world, I see a clear trend. Doctors will not write a skydiving prescription, but I can vouch for a lot of people in this thread. However, definitely tandem first. How you present it -- a trip -- a gift certificate -- you will need to use your judgement. You don't want to pressure her. Remember to factor it into budget -- it's an expensive hobby, but so are medical bills! Don't forget to make it combination therapy -- i.e. skydiving+friends, or skydiving+therapist, or therapist+meds, whatever -- personally skydiving+friends is probably cheaper, but everyone responds differently. Sometimes it's even motorcycle+nature+getting out of city. Just don't put her too much on skydiving+excessive booze! And, it's often easier to coax a depressed person to do a tandem than get professional help for depression; some people are stubborn about it... So give it a try. Tandem! And then a 2nd tandem. Then maybe AFF (using Tandem progression). Choose the dropzone carefully, some are more fun than others and the people there make a big difference especially to a new skydiver!

You can also rent a SuperShuttle.com to Perris for about $108 .... We did that for 4 of us for a previous big way event, and the cost went down to $33 per person. ($100 + $8 per person) For the return trip, I just carpooled with other event attendees. If you're attending a major event at Perris that's well attended by internationals, you may be able to simply ask around for a ride, too. There are other options, but this was the easiest way to avoid a car. Just so you know!

From the analysis of the Wii skydiving Youtube video Things they got "sorta" right: - Interior of airplane looks like a real skydiving plane - Rigs look real enough, including legstraps - Booties on jumpsuit - Parachutes are square - Sliders! - Docking looks plausible - Arching body position look plausible - Waveoff at the end of a RW skydive - Deployment sequences (pull, Things they obviously used "liberty": - No goggles or helmets - Some body manoevers aren't realistic - 'Stadium' of approaching people around formation - The 'demo' near the end of the YouTube video (after 1:20) - Length of skydive (feels like more than a minute) - The bigheaded cartoony Mii's - Deployment too close together - No forward speed in square parachutes (though the focus of this skydiving subgame isn't canopy but formation skydiving) I would have to imagine that at least one person on the development team was probably a skydiver, working with the whuffos for an arcade-ified RW skydiving game.

That said, while the BASE game has amazing visuals, the new Wii Sports skydiving game will probably bring in more 'new skydivers'. Maybe not, but some will google for more information, and be curious what it takes to "fly in the sky", even if it's just a tandem... Wii Sports is the world's most popular videogame, and Wii Sports Resort is the sequel -- and the videogame industry is bigger than in the "Drop Zone" movie days (1995) that led to some small boom in new skydivers. Dropzones may wish to take advantage of this opportunity.

Add reason to the "reasons" list: Another reason to untwist lines is because when they get twisted enough (over 5 twists), they start slowly making packing more inconvenient. Interfering with the cascades while packing, making it harder to visually verify the line groups while packing. When I pick up the lines to pack and smooth the lines until I put the canopy over my shoulder, the twists also tend to get pushed to the top of the canopy, exacerbating this, too.

Ouch. Both of my jumpsuits are custom made Bev Suit's with three pockets, cordura seat and booties, and they both arrived approximately 1 week or so, first one in 2005 and the second one in September 2009 My trick... TRIPLE RUSH order (but be warned of $100+ premium to get it that quickly - the rush order add-on and the FedEx overnight shipping) Yeah, I was that desparate to get my new slowfaller before my first 100-way at Perris last September 2008.

Update: Youtube video of Wii skydiving Definitely an RW skydiving subgame. Some realistic looking aspects, and some cartoon-ified aspects. Before 1:20 there's even a waveoff, but right after the tracking, it goes very "unrealistic" -- I hope that funky unrealistic formation after 1:20 into the video was just an E3 "motion demo" only, and actually is excluded from the actual gameplay, but will have to see.