mdrejhon

Fixed it for you

The poll doesn't apply to me. I'm a CSPA B license holder (and fully meet C requirements, just need to do paperwork and get some judge video). My lowest pull was about 2000 feet during a bigway event as outer tracking away and making sure all my air was clear. Typically I pull at 2500 feet if I'm an outer, but a few pulled slightly lower than usual on that jump. Note: This pull altitude wasn't completed in Canada... so the CSPA pull altitudes may not quite apply. I never pull below 3000 when I jump solo, though. I don't like pulling at harddeck, no time to deal with mal except execute EP's immediately. What happens to foreigner jumpers that pull slightly lower than usual for airspace safety reasons, outside of their home country -- this is an interesting question I'd like to familiarize myself with the answers of. I realize it is a gray area but for that one particular jump, airspace safety for other people overrode the need for 500 extra feet of altitude for myself. Most of the time, the general consensus is that it's okay on a one-time event when it is of this very good reason of avoiding people above you, but to learn from it and have everyone track better so that they don't get in each other's way.

Hey, Why don't you submit this to Canpara and/other other skydiving magazines (Just make sure you get someone to translate to French if you submit to CanPara, they seem short in French translators for our 43% of skydivers being francophones) Copy and paste your post into Microsoft Word, do some edits, and submit for the magazine. This is an interesting journey that should probably be documented in some magazine... P.S. As far as I know, I think I'm Canada's first licensed deaf skydiver. (Amongst those born deaf, at least). I have not been able to find any precedent of people before myself in Canada, although there are plenty of U.S. deaf skydivers.

Who did the first 30point, first 40-point, and 50-point 4-way? YouTube: A 50-point 4-way My tunnel coach is a member of the Canadian champion team (TEAM EVOLUTION) - one of the very few in the world who did a 50 points 4-way in 35 seconds, including something like 10 points on the 'hill'. I can only begin my first point after they've already completed 10. Pretty damn awesome. Granted, the 50-pointer were easy blocks, to help inflate the numbers, but they do a damn good more complex 30-point or 40-point 4-way too. I love the Golden Knights and Airspeed, etc too! Am curious who reached which point milestones first, and when.

This may be true -- this is the official reason since it's an easy political apple to pick, as Everyman can relate to a simple florist company scam... As an awe-struck tandem jumper who may even remember certain details surrounding a first skydive -- I can't help but wonder if other scams including Skyride, stuck at the back of this Senator's mind, and helped gave extra will within... One may never know, but either way, Kudos, still!

Congrats for your role in this.

That's great! Actually this interpretor doesn't need to be certified as I need to mainly capture some critical details from the video debrief in semi-realtime. But that's always useful. An interpretor that happens to be familiar with skydiving, would be even more useful, especially in future bigway camps! (Would have to do keyboarding, cued speech or notepad methods, rather than ASL)

Was the battery checked -- maybe test a high quality brand name battery? Sometimes certain (not all) cheap batteries are somewhat inconsistent even when they seem to be full power, the power surge of turning on the backlight may have messed up the altimeter state. (i.e. brief power issue) Just trying to cover all bases, I've seen strange things happen to all kinds of electronics when they were asked to draw more power of a sudden, especially on questionable batteries...

Do you go to other bigways in the states? If I manage to break into the bigway invitationals, I'll probably be seeing a LOT more skydivers during 2009 (and my jump numbers will increase much faster too)... As far as I know, John Woo and Fred Goebel go to some of them. (I might also be going to the Texas winter Big Way camp in November too, but my finances are concentrated on two consecutive bigway weekends Perris P3 at first)

I currently jump a '93 Vector 2 but it had only 200 jumps when I bought it, and now it's still under 500 jumps. It recently got a full inspection at Relative Workshop two years ago (I consider it the "half-life" major tune-up), as I sent it away to do some numerous maintenance items such as a full inspection and replacement of key items such as velcro, etc. I was told that for a rig of this age, it is in excellent condition. I do need to be careful when closing it though because I've been squeezing a 170 into a container originally designed for 150. But I've been pretty good (better than some less experienced packers) at doing it to the point where the closing loop feels too loose and actually have to tighten it a bit. Before that, I was stretching the bottom flap a little out of proportion before the RWS servicing. I think that a rig of this age, does need to have already gone back to a factory rigger for a complete inspection and tune-up... And a washing too, to get built-up abrasive dirt out of the stitchings and fabric (but not washed too often obviously, as washing itself can weaken fabrics).

Find the biggest chamber you can, and share the chamber.

What is scary is you might be right. Tomorrow, I could be paying $80 per jump and it may be a more of a luxury sport. Maybe not - who knows - the more efficient planes (i.e. the modern Twin Otters now being manufactured, amongst others) may be sold into the used market and subsequently to drop zones by then, and we'd keep jumping - at more efficient gallons per jump consumption. And we'd be manufacturing gas from algae or something by then.

You might try www.lawa.org http://www.metrolinktrains.com/stations/ to find info on public transit to get you to the Riverside Sierra station. http://www.riversidetransit.com/home/index.htm has bus routes in Riverside county. Thanks, that will pretty much be Plan B for getting from Point A to B-- There's still excellent odds I'll get a ride, since most foreigners (i.e. Europeans, Canadians) are coming via LAX, and not all of them have booked their airfare this early yet... *waves from the airport curb*

You're right for domestic flights. But definitely not cheaper for international flights. Very few international flights go there conveniently, and even so I often have to pay extra and then switch planes 2 or 3 times (three-leg or four-leg) to go to "less international" airports. Even waiting at the airport curb a couple hours for a carpool and driving 1.5 hours from LAX to Perris, actually saves me time, hassle, and money. I tried to go to SAN, and almost did (it was only about $100-$150 more expensive this time around, compared to $300 more earlier), but there are too many stopovers. LAX allows me to do it in just two legs (one plane change). Less baggage hauling too! I tried LAX, SAN, Orange, Palm Springs. The only airport that could do it cheapest and only one stopover, was LAX...

Whoops, yes, 36 jumps. I sure typed that that too fast.

Hey Billy, Yeah, I got that confused between two. I thought I heard from someone that there was one other deaf skydiver in that World Record, but I could be wrong. Either way, it is definitely a goal to eventually to be in a future World Record (hopefully Project 500 -- can't it be 2012 instead of 2010 as has been talked about!? ). I know that the newbies in that formation have far more experience than I do, and I have my work cut out for me -- it's a matter of finances and getting the experience necessary in short order. If I manage to get myself into invitationals all 2009 long, and when Skydventure Montreal opens in early 2009, I'll be within 2 hours of a tunnel. I may actually do a dozen hours of windtunnel during 2009, as I am already capable of doing 4-ways in the tunnel (split costs - 1/4th the cost to share the chamber between 4 people, so it costs less than $250 per hour, the equivalent of 60 separate 4-way jumps all done in one day!). It's such a cheap way to stay current, at about $3-4 per minute of 'freefall'. However I know I'll still need to do lots of jumping in the sky... Just keeping it up! Jan Meyer -- (MakeItHappen, creator of DiveMaker) -- has agreed to help me during the video debriefs, so I'll have a bigway veteran as an interpretor during the September camps. Maybe this is what I need to put my foot into my first 100-way. (Wish me luck!) I won't always have the luxury of a bigway veteran doing the interpreting (plus some bonus coaching mixed into the interpreting), but if this gets my foot into the entry level of the invitationals -- then I have plenty of 2009 bigway opportunities and it makes it that much more likely for me to make it into Project 500 during 2010. Maybe not. But I'll try to "Make It Happen" John Woo just replied to one of my emails about bigway camp etiquette experience as a deaf skydiver, and that is valuable to me. I run into the risk of being higher maintenance, so it's a challenge. This will probably be the main difficulty for me between now and Project 500 -- if I make it that far. Get a good rep with all the bigway organizers without being high maintenance. I'll have many opportunities to refine the video debrief drill - without disrupting the class. Failing that, at least Canada Record should be an easy one in comparision this time around, and Perris is a wonderful vacation...

NickDG, Thanks for that interesting historical insight on skydiving culture. Even though I am still only around the triple hundred mark and it may have been Easy Street compared to skydivers of the eras past I have been to almost a dozen different dropzones now, from grass strip farmhouse dropzones all the way to a megaresort dropzone just recently. I think I like all of them for different reasons, although I can see that some of them put tandems a little too serously. Cessna dropzones aren't terrible when there's two or three, I was able to get 9 jumps in one day at a Cessna dropzone -- including a very trusty 50-year old C182 that just got retired only recently. (That airfarme must have gotten a lot of TLC to keep flying that long!) It may have been slow, but the sights of the 1000-Islands was always beautiful and I still got 11000 feet, with the occasional 12500 foot jump on a good day... With me trying to be more into big way jumping, this gives me more exposure to more of the megaresort dropzones that has a lot more facilities. I was however, one of the only 3 tents at Skydive Perris during the last Big Way Camp -- I don't really need to stay in a motel, and will settle for a bunkhouse, or tent if bunkhouse is full. The fact that showers are onsite is enough for me, and the restaurant (next to bombshelter) is a big bonus. I have seen a glimpse of a wide variety of dropzones (for someone of my level anyway) and see the vast differences. But it hasn't dissapointed me yet. I would admit, I've had a hankering to see a permanent Caravan at my former-3-cessna home dropzone -- after one C182 got retired (down to 2 cessnas) and one plane broke down (down to 1 cessna), 5 hour wait time for manifest can be quite a drag at the same dropzone I was able to get 9 jumps in one day during a previous year. Probably my biggest dissapointment in skydiving so far, moreso than being cut from Canada Record (But still getting a 30-way success in 2006). I'll just settle for an extra Cessna at my home DZ to bring them back to their former 3-cessna fleet. That way, one breaks down and there's still 2. Just look them up and offer em one.

Thanks for the correction! I got the deaf World Team members mixed up. Hopefully I'll be part of a future World Team but it all depends on the budget pretty much -- bigways are expensive but fun! If I had a time machine, why bother going to 1980 -- how about 2380, and getting my ears fixed with Star Trek technology instead... Of course, I'd want a remote control power switch added too, so I can still have my peaceful sleep and not need to worry about aircraft sounds or other loud sounds....! There are two problems with this approach: - I've been told that organizers would prefer it not to be a participant but an outside person, one not participating in the camp. For more info, see first post... - I don't do A.S.L. ... I do cued speech, and usually I do other alternative means of communications, so I usually rely on notepad and keyboard methods. Either way I managed to get Jan to volunteer all 36 days. (It helps that she knows quite a bit about bigways, wouldn't hurt my chances of making as far as the 100WC...knock on wood!). So that's now covered! All I need is a few more backups for Plan B (not that I'll ever need to rely on backups but just in case for a sporadic session or two.), as well as out in the field where interpretor help might not be available.

There's some good information in my Hearing FAQ on my own personal website: www.marky.com/hearing We got dozens of communications methods such as TTY/TDD (keyboarded telephones) Phone number 711 (relay interpretors - they type out phone conversations) IP-Relay (And many other providers) Video Relay (Sign language interpretors by videophone) Captioned Telephone (closed captioning for telephones) WebCapTel (closed captioning for phone via web) BlackBerry, Sidekick, TREO, iPhone, etc. Email, MSN, Yahoo, SMS/Texting, Mobile Chat, etc. Tons of tech, and lots of it subsidized by the U.S. goverment (directly or indirectly). Now back on topic... I need a ride from LAX!!!!

Since this thread is being hijacked anyway

Anytime! It's a learning curve to get used to get the BlackBerry ball. Do definitely temporarily re-enable audible scroll-click sounds for the first week or two -- it will make it sound (but not feel) like you're rolling a trackwheel; it is a good 'training wheels'. If you ever get a BlackBerry again, I suggest one of the upcoming OS 4.6-or-later models such as the Bold 9000 series. On these, the ball is no longer half bad when browsing with the BlackBerry Bold browser -- it behaves as a true mouse pointer (not the half assed behaviour in the Desktop view on Pearl or Curve). In Bold, there's a mouse cursor when you web-browse on a BlackBerry Bold. Panning, zooming in/out in steps, clicking on links, full 100% desktop-style web browsing, like iPhone (albiet not as good, but MUCH better than the Pearl/Curve browser) www.dropzone.com on BlackBerry Bold behaves exactly as FireFox or Internet Explorer, for example! If you dislike the pointer, you can always use the Mobile view, but it's much smoother and is the best browsing I've seen so far in a non-touchscreen cell phone. It's still a beta, so not all AJAX websites work, but some of them actually do ("Edit Post" on vBulletin forums actually work without refreshing the page!) I've had my hands on a BlackBerry Bold 9000, so my observations are real experience... Anyway, I am impressed that RIM is running as fast as possible to COMPETE with iPhone... A lag of several months, but they are playing hardball, for sure! Thunder won't be as good as iPhone in every way, but they'll have made a mad leap 90% of the way (while still providing superior email, for example -- HTML email is now supported. Hallelujah!), and continue to stay in the ballgame without being eliminated early by Apple. There's also a flip phone Blackberry coming this year too. (Leaked photos can be found on BoyGeniusReport and EnGadget, so it's real too) I just can't wait for better RIM development tools coming in 2009... (Hurry up RIM!

Hello all, Need ride from LAX to Perris on September 10th, anytime noon or later. My airfare with United is confirmed, arriving at 11:20pm. Based on my experience during my last visit to Perris, I'll be at the curb at about noon. However, I'll settle for an afternoon or evening ride, if necessary! I'll volunteer a gas tank fillup ($50 value!) (I could hang out in LAX longer, if only mid-afternoon or late-evening rides are available. I'm not willing to spend $400 for a car rental that'll go mostly unused for almost 2 weeks. Also I did not get a SAN or PSP itinerary because it's much cheaper for international trips to arrive at LAX.)

Got mixed reviews from me too, but the trackball is much better now, when I adjust sensitivity to 90% (its sensitivity is adjustable) and you can turn on click sounds, at least temporarily, to train you to it. Also, there are other tips that I wrote about in BlackBerryForums: Tips to use Trackball Devices Faster ... Might not help everyone, but it helped quite a few trackwheel veterans get used to the "ball"

It's a pretty good device. Love my BlackBerry and won't go without it. I have also tried the iPhone, has its own pluses or minuses. I generally prefer the BlackBerry. The iPhone does have a vastly superior web browser (although the new BlackBerry Bold's zoomable web browser is pretty close -- though the Bold is not coming till September/October and is not going to be on Verizon). People can just download Opera Mini www.operamini.com to get a better web browser on their BlackBerry too... Mixed reviews are usually based a lot on: - Work BlackBerries (too easily accessible), but you can control accessibility on your own personal BlackBerry. - Work BlackBerries often put special restrictions on "fun" Internet use (camera, maps, chatting, etc) - Old BlackBerries are pretty boring devices. Modern BlackBerries now have cameras, memory cards, video, MP3, GPS navigation, etc. A BlackBerry AppStore isn't here yet (coming in 2009 to compete with Apple's), but there's already great software. When you get a BlackBerry, don't forget to install these on your BlackBerry by entering these into BlackBerry browser (to initiate wireless software installation), all free software. www.blackberry.com/livemessenger -- MSN for BlackBerry www.blackberry.com/facebook - Facebook for BlackBerry www.google.com/gmm - Google Maps for BlackBerry www.gmail.com/app - Separate Inbox for GMAIL www.operamini.com - Alternative web browser www.viigo.com - Great RSS reader so far www.amazegps.com ... Free GPS navigation! Turn BlackBerry into a Garmin clone! (not as good as pay GPS software, but hey, this one is free...) There are some excellent pay software too: www.flipside.fm - iPod MP3 knockoff player for BlackBerry with album flipping www.dataviz.com/products/documentstogo/ - Word and Excel for BlackBerry www.beejive.com - Best Trillian/Adium/GAIM clone for BlackBerry. Universal chat client. There's now Internet radio players available, such as xPlayer, etc. If you want to wait, you may want to be aware that Verizon is getting the new touchscreen BlackBerry called BlackBerry Thunder. It's supposed to be using the WebKit web browser engine, the same renderer used in Safari, so the BlackBerry will finally catch up to iPhone web browser eventually. Actual Prototype Photos of touchscreen BlackBerry Personally, I prefer a physical keyboard, but there you go -- more choice in BlackBerry coming!

Dive towards the wingtip, never towards the tail. Torso to the relative wind, being ready to go "on the slide". (You can immediately turn once you've caught air your belly). Imagine a big slide outside a Twin Otter exit going downwards and curving to your left. It's a lot easier to jump onto this slide sideways (i.e. dive towards the wingtis) then turn right. Diving towards the tail, causes you to land on this "slide" incorrectly... Instead, dive out towards wings, then turning 90 degrees to the right immediately after diving towards the wingtip, should point you slightly downwards, in a diving-like position, when you're still "on the slide", and the dive will flatten out as the "slide" flattens out. (relative wind transition from plane forward motion to straight downward motion). More or less what I've been told over time... I could, of course, be wrong in some of my wording... I still have problems doing it at times, especially in a crowded door dive where people are jumping out all at once in a bigway, and bumping each other on exit. Getting better