mdrejhon

Generally -- patience pays. If you only have one inch of slack strap, you may have no margin when you wear thicker warm clothes in colder jumping weather, and have more padding at your legs. And it's awfully nice to loosen leg straps to walk back to the hangar from landing at the other end of the dropzone. Will let other chime in...

I got me glowsticks for my night jumps, they were fun to hand out. You can bulk buy 1000 glowsticks $39.99 from eBay -- yes 4 cents per glowstick. But I think EL cables are tons of fun, sci-fi and TRON like. I guess the technology of battery powered EL cables have improved since the last time. A concern: Risks of entanglement, such as pulling a PC under a cable. It does heighten the risk of a jump, especially with the wind flapping the EL cable a little. But the EL cable I've seen is somewhat thin and fragile enough to be snapped by the forces of a PC. Fun though, if cable was stitched or installed properly. How tough was this particular EL cable, anyway?

I've seen electrolumiscent cables. But I have to say you used a really bright model or you used a long exposure -- most battery powered EL cables I have seen aren't that bright, but definitely TRON. How did you power the EL cables so brightly?

I heard great things about Safire and Spectre openings, they usually go in same sentences with pillow soft openings. If you really hate fast openings, the Sabre would definitely NOT be the canopy for you. It's fine, just a little brisk, just at the edge of comfort when packed properly, though it was nicer than many uncomfortable Manta 288 student openings for me, moreso from the very good gear fit of my current rig instead of cookiecutter student gear.

I believe the Altitrack is a digital that masquerades as an analog (it's digital servo driven, I think); but then again, it's well-designed. So while it's classified as an analog-face alti, the internal stuff driving the needle is 100% digital and subject to digital issues (bugs, battery, etc). Basically, the needle stops moving on the Altitrack when the battery dies, because the needle is electronically driven... You do have a low battery indicator light, which gives you a number of jumps before this happens... That said, it's my favourite "analog" of all I've tested -- will probably be the next altimeter I am getting. While not ideal for everyone, I think it's probably fine even for a beginner, especially at dropzones with on-site gear-store support, as it is well designed and has proven to be pretty durable by field users, just make sure the battery is fresh, and you keep working on guessing the correct altitude before looking at the alti (whenever it's appropriate to guess then check), to build up ability to use the big ball of a planet as your 2nd or 3rd altimeter.

That's funny. Several have said LED is less distracting than audio, and audio catches their attention more. While other times it's vice-versa. Seems to vary by person. However, us deafies don't have such an option and some of us are more aware of visuals to compensate. In my demos, I even missed the visual alerts when I was focussing very hard on other tasks such as pulling 1 second before the alert went off, or when I was watching a 20-way attempt funnel before I docked (I was alerted by other people starting their breakoff, before the LED alerted me). It also depends on where you place the LED. I was using the short-lead LED on a full face, so the LED was always deep in my peripheral vision, so that's partially the reason. Intense concentration contributes to a tunnel vision effect. So, apparently, one can adjust the placement of LED, as a compromise between distraction and non-noticeability.

Consider the Square1 payment plan for a new rig. You get free gear rentals (at that dropzone, i.e. Perris) while you make instalment payments towards a new rig. Ask them if they still have this deal. Should be perfect for you if you are close enough to a Square1! Eventually you have much more money for jumps. If in school, concentrate on that first. You need to get that education for that job that will pay for your skydiving hobby.

I went to my current Sabre 170 at 1.1 wingloading at 59 jumps, and have been jumping it ever since. It was borderline pushing it even back then. You'd be way more radical than I'd be doing. One can easily break an ankle doing a staged flare incorrectly on an unfamiliar canopy... (When going to ZP above 1.0, a proper multistage, or rather, nonlinear flare is critical)

They break a two-person downplane pretty low. I saw them break a downplane at only about 100 feet and land pretty comfortably. I'm talking about CRW downplanes with two people and two mains, not two-out downplanes, though. Tamer CRW canopies, rather than two mis-matched higher-performance canopies, mind you...

Corresponding in PM, I'm told this link doesn't work -- try this link instead www.lagom.nl and clicking "LCD calibration" and going from there. Also, don't forget to check the Sharpness test pattern at the calibration website. FreeflyChile told me that adjusting sharpness helped (edge enhancement is one of the possible distortions of computer text), thanks to DSE for that tip...

I assume you've already tried switching resolutions in Control Panel (via Display Icon). Make sure you try widescreen resolutions, typically 1280x720, 1280x768 and 1366x768 for a 720p-type display (different models vary), or 1920x1080 for a 1080p type display. The easiest next-step is to try switching to DVI cable instead of a VGA cable, if both your computer and the display has DVI connections. Try a different port (i.e. DVI port instead of HDMI port, if using a DVI-to-HDMI converter). Some HDMI ports don't seem to like computer resolutions, although This may require switching to a different computer resolution. The monitor will do pixel-exact display of computer graphics much better on DVI, as not all widescreen monitors support 1:1 pixel mapping for widescreen modes for VGA. However, try VGA too if you're only testing DVI/HDMI, the vice versa actually sometimes happens: On some 768p (rather than 720p) displays, VGA works better than DVI/HDMI because some set manufacturers don't design them to display native resolutions properly on all inputs. Sad, I know. But knowing Samsung (Which manufactures both TV's and computer monitors) and recent displays do have good computer compatibility as a result, it should be possible -- try different inputs. TV settings: If your set has an overscan setting, turn it off. If your set has an image scaling option or computer stretch option, turn it off. (This helps if you're using a DVI connection and your computer only has 1360x768 and the monitor is 1366x768 -- a 6 pixel difference -- that will enable you to fill the screen perfectly and only waste a couple millimeters at both edges of the screen) If you are stuck with VGA, try the clock/phase test pattern at http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/clock_phase.php -- it will get you as close to ballpark as possible until you have a better solution. If all else fails, google for instructions on how to set the exact computer resolution and adjust for 1:1 pixel mapping -- check forums such as www.avsforum.com "Home Theater Computers". Enthusiasts there often have tricks up their sleeves. The discussions can be rather technical. Once this is done, you may wish to calibrate your display since it's not really designed for computer. http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ can be a good starting point on all LCD displays. There are better ways to calibrate, but if you're getting it to look good for videogames which isn't as critical as Photoshop or other applications, this web resource is a big help. This will help you get things looking crisp without eyestrain.

DSE, As for color gamut - let's remember we're comparing LCD versus LCD. Many LCD TV's and newer LCD monitors are 92% NTSC using fuller spectrum CCFL backlights, so they actually end up having similiar measured color gamuts with a colorimeter (i.e. ColorFacts with a Spyder). On these panels, the same filters are typically used. We're comparing LCD versus LCD, not LCD versus plama, LCD versus CRT. So assuming both the TV and monitor are set to the same brightness, which typically means the TV needs to be dimmed, and you're viewing at the same angle-of-view (i.e. 20"@2ft vs 40"@4ft), about the same amount of light is hitting your retinas, with the same amount of color saturation. Resulting in similiar eye stress. Also, typical CCFL backlights, often result in either 78% or 92%, although newer technologies such as LED is leading to even more saturated colors, though they can be calibrated to more subdued levels... Once equality is reached on certain displays, the other straw that might be grasped at is the focal plane. Of course, one has to refocus the focal plane from 4ft away to your keyboard constantly, that could add eyestrain for a non-touchtypist than refocussing from a 19" monitor 2 feet away to their keyboard below the monitor. But then again, this is less eyestrain than continuous refocussing from focal plane 8ft away. This ain't a TV being used as a TV, folks... We have to factor in this other ergonomic of refocussing from nearby materials constantly (copy materials, art, mouse, keyboard, etc) As for profile switching, I only use one profile most of the time, but my Samsung has a nifty front-panel button that allows me to switch to a dimmer or brighter profile, because I am next to a window. When the sun is shining, I sometimes go into a brighter mode when the display is dimmer than a sheet of paper sitting in shadow on my desk, for example... One button press. The fact that I can switch between some predefined modes in the display (movie mode, game mode, internet mode, all separately calibratable) is a convenience just because Samsung added the button to the front of my Samsung 24". Granted, you won't see such a button in front of a 40" Samsung LCD sitting in the television section....so no disagreement there about the inconvenience of switching profiles... I totally agree that following industry recommendations is the best. But for example, have you checked Apple/Dell/HP's recommendations for their oversized 30" computer monitors, versus what people are ACTUALLY doing with them? Note - there's less eyestrain in a properly calibrated-for-computer-usage 40" LCD at 4 feet away than a 19" CRT at the usual office-environment 2 feet distance in actual practice, so all is moot when this is considered. 40"@4ft and 20"@2ft is the same angle-of-view. There's really no contest when we're talking about this apples-to-oranges comparision for that matter. Also, I disagree it's the same thing as a 1.7 wingload - a pretty silly apples-to-octopus comparision. If we're talking about skydiving world, we're talking about round parachutes versus square parachutes -- early on, the early squares were risky for students until it all progressed to the point where students were safer under squares. But even I think that's a silly comparision too (as you do too, probably). The truth is I am witnessing trends (24", 26", 28" and even 30" computer monitors at Best Buy in the COMPUTER section). That's bigger than the 19" you're talking about. Plus, smaller LCD TV's are smaller than these and are more eye-appropriate at typical too-close officedesk view distances than some of these oversized computer monitors sitting in the computer section. We have to understand lines are being blurred and the new university student who's slapping a multifunctional display on their dorm desk, to things like people like these who's posting here instead of AVSFORUM. Anyway, I do not disagree with following industry recommendations, but the lines have blurred more than you think in the real world -- been to a student dorm lately? A LAN gaming party lately? Seen the new 26"/28"/30" computer monitors in computer sections of stores, and how they're actually being used in the real world such as a web design studio, etc? Parallel sets of informal recommendations are popping all over the place based on the explosion of these new technologies. Some crapshoot, some pretty decent (i.e. angle-of-view school of thoughts, etc) And I'm not talking about the CEDIA / NAB community. It's fruitless for the NAB community to be black and white like people fighting a Mac vs PC war in this school of thought. And yes, DSE -- I'm sure some people are definitely hurting there eyes in the meantime, while others are making it much more eye friendly for themselves (based on all the posts in certain foruns how much more eye-friendly things are now -- people who've upgraded from a 17" CRT to 26" LCD widescreen, etc). It's an evolving world. Also, the line isn't sharp at 19" - it's more of a proportional scaling, and other factors need to be taken into account. Improved sliding-scale recommendations (Computer-usage bigger than 19") better be made soon, warning labels, et cetra, to make things safe since manufacturers aren't going to stop pushing the envelopes on making computer monitors bigger, and making TV's even more computer friendly, and keyboards popping up in modern living rooms with media centers, and people using them in ways against recommendations that were made conservative due to lawsuit-proofing. However the fact that this discussion exists, means one thing possibly: Today's new TV-sized computer monitors in the computer section of stores, are getting TOO BIG.

Back into heat. The friction of air circulating in the tunnel against the walls, air mass against air mass, results in heat. A frictionless tunnel would continuously circulate air when the tunnel stopped, but that's not true. The air slows! The energy got converted very efficiently into heat by virtue of friction. So still (near) 600 kilowatts of heat, at the very end, one way or another! Putting the motor out of the airstream and cooling it with a separate airstream would probably help, but would probably complicate the windtunnel design significantly and hurt efficiency! Increasing efficiency (more energy into actual air motion and less energy wasted in motor) is another way. But there comes limits. I'm told best to go early in the day, when the tunnel is not hot, or go during colder weather. Then it's fine. For the short amusement rides, it's a non issue, but for training it becomes more an issue... FWIW, I've never overheated in a Skyventure type tunnel, whether it was cold or hot outside. The high power recircs with venting can equallize to almost equal the outdoor temperature, because they have so much excess power, that they can vent a significant minority of the air on every cycle -- This results into total air replacement many times per hour. So that it never seems to get noticeably hotter in the chamber than outdoors, if they're operating the vents ... All that excess heat is vented from a modern Skyventure recirc. If somebody complains of heat, they adjust and the chamber cools down pretty quickly - a nice convenience of a high power ventable recirc. Of course, in the winter, the extra heat is helpful, so the vents are adjusted until the chamber is a comfortable non-sweating non-freezing temperature, no matter how cold it is outdoors... The tunnel does lose efficiency (more KW to stay at the same speed) the more open the vents are, but there's plenty of excess power in a high-powered recirc, and the motors are very efficient to begin with to the point that only a tiny amount of venting is required most of the time...

Fixed it If you've never had a cutaway before, I suggest the word "BEER" on your cutaway pillow. And "BOTTL 4 RIGGR" on the reserve pillow.

I would like to learn to freefly, However, I decided to focus almost purely on bellyfly and work towards bigways. I have under 300 jumps and just did my first 49-way at the Perris P3 Big Way camp. Last weekend at my dropzone, a freefly camp turned into an RW camp instead. Is it me that RW getting a resurgence in interest these days? I think both waxes and wanes with the times, freefly isn't going away -- it's something I intend to do. Count me in, once I get a few hours of practice in the tunnel -- that's where I'm going to start most of my freeflying. (I have more tunnel time than sky time now). With the gas prices going up, it's the way I stay current in the winter too.

get a smaller rig with smaller canopies Funny advice, obviously.... But on that subject, the 150 is on hold a bit longer as I'm now redirecting funds to bigway camps this year. If I get a new rig, I think I will not be going less than a PD Optmium 143 in my next rig as the reserve (which is safer than a Raven Micro 150 anyway - an incentive for a new rig already.) For standardized containers, this probably limits how small my main will go, more or less. It is entirely possible I won't ever be going less than a approximately a 143 reserve in my lifetime unless I win the lottery and later decide to become a competition swooper (not likely, but I know some of you say never say never)...

All good stuff. It's a challenge to experiment with various kinds of slow-fall positions, especially with limited sky freefall time. Time to adjust some of my Cessna jumps to add some more sky fallrate practice. A few more hours in the tunnel (mainly 4-ways but including one-on-one with an RW experienced tunnel coach) and I'll definitely be much more used to mantis, I just now have to apply it more often in the sky. I do indeed automatically lift my arms sometimes during slow fall (and hurt myself), as I doubled my total tunnel time in the last 6 months alone and I am still at the stage where my different learned skills (boxman, mantis) conflict/mesh/merge with each other and I'm still experimenting with extending the bottom range of my slowfall even further...! The slowfall will help me brake better at the end of my dive to a bigway, and to keep a good stadium on an increasingly slow bigway...

Hello, When I started skydiving, I weighted only about 160lbs and I often fell slow more often than I fell fast, struggling to keep up with a fast-falling base. I still look skinny but now I am 170lbs, so my extra weight is compactly added to my frame. I can fall comfortably in a base of anvils without adding a weight belt, if I arch hard. Some people keep asking me to wear a weight belt, which I do fine if I am in the base, but as soon as I get outside of the base, I have to go in a slowfall posture of feet/legs wide apart and out in the airstream, something I never needed to do as much before... At Perris P3, Dan BC gave me 10lbs of weightbelt, but I fell low a few times with it, once I was outside the base, so I jettisoned it after the first day -- did much better without it. Last weekend, during a dusk skydive that had a rushed dirt dive that contained people from previous jumps going on back-to-back loads (no-propeller-cut!) -- I did something silly: I docked on the opposite end of a symmetric 8-way formation! Realizing the error, I undocked, slid a 180 degree arc, and docked again. In the process, I fell 2 foot slow, but successfully levelled and docked. We saved the formation. (Duh) I was the good-natured laughingstock in the video debrief, as it was just a fun jump... (Excuse #47 out of my alibi book: All dark jumpsuits look the same on a post-sunset dusk jump, especially after a rushed dirt dive! LOL) I am constantly looking for new techniques to help me fall slow while still manoevering. I'm getting much better at dealing with my built-in weight belt now, but the fact remains: I still have an extra 10 pounds of weight... My current methods of falling slower: - PUSH your head down into the airstream!!! Guy Wright gave me a remarkably successful tip two years ago at Canada Big Way 2006. When low, never look upwards at the formation, because if you look up, your head goes out of the airstream and you suddenly fall like a rock. Always keep your head down: You can still see the formation if you're 90 degrees and looking at the formation from the side, while keeping your head down in the airstream. Another reason why 90 degree turns to the side is important when recovering from a low situation. (This REALLY helped me recover from some low situations back in 2006 - I could fall a whole 5-10mph slower than a built-up 20 way, back in that day before my weight belt - once I got Guy's tip that weekend, I miraculously always made my slot that weekend no matter how low I fell, even from an accidental 2-second-early exit...But this is harder now that I have 10lbs extra built-in...) - Cup, cup, cup, with all extremities spread out, head kept down in airstream while keeping eyes on base, legs apart, and booties spread as much as I can sideways for maximum cross-section to the terminal wind. I also know the mantis method of falling slow, but I tend to revert to this method when I slowfall because I seem to fall slower better that way... - Always go to the bathroom before the jump. Get rid of a pound or two. I did that a lot at Perris P3! Every pound counts when you're an outer weed whacker... - For a critical bigway jump like my successful 47-way and 49-way jumps as an outer weed whacker anchor, I did not keep my blackberry in my jumpsuit pocket (for emergencies in out landings), I get rid of a few ounces that way... Stadium was fine but was still getting a little shallow near the end, I was desparate to jettison as much weight as I could, as I really wanted to succeed! - Practice, practice, practice... Some future methods of falling slow, that I am thinking of: - Buy new "slow" jumpsuit. My jumpsuit is mixed fabric cotton(body)-spandex(arms)-cordura(butt/leg reinforcement). - LOSE WEIGHT! If I want to save the money from buying a new slower/looser jumpsuit, I better hit the elliptical hard at the gym during my lunch break... I only have 10lbs to lose, though, though if I bodybuild it back to muscle, I might be back to square one (pun intended) - Or buy some gators(?) which are those sweatshirt sleeves that I can pull onto my arms... - Practice more slow-air in the windtunnel. Tell the tunnel operator to crank it slow, near the bottom of my fallrate range, so I can learn to fly even slower while still controlling, and still be able to move around (turns,slides,fallrate changes). It's much more strenous and challenging because I actually have to push against the air rather than a relaxed arch, AND also simultaneously be able to still have that extra margin to do manoevers. But this practice will help me learn to stay in a slowfall while doing manoevers, and experiment with new slowfall body position adjustments that work better. - Get a lighter helmet. My current one is known to be big and heavy model of a helmet, and I need to replace it anyway for other reasons. Z1 and Oxygen feel noticeably lighter. - More practice, practice, practice. There's still room with my current weight and gear. I'd love to hear more opinions of fall-slow methods from other pros too. Get me ready for my next big way camp!

Hello, I just wanted to post that I demoed L&B Optima at Deaf World Record 2005 and while I did not buy then, it was in my "things to buy eventually" list. I finally bought one at Square 1 in Perris during my visit to the Big Way camp there. Some other deafies also bought the same thing subsequently too... Square 1 did not have the LED attachment in stock, but I bought the base unit anyway, and I am having the LED accessory on order. As of today, as far as I know, the Optima is the only deaf-friendly audible in the world that's currently being manufactured and sold... A flashing light can be put in goggles or helmet, and attached by a tiny cable to the audible sitting in the helmet... I don't really need an audible myself but since I did my first 49-way, an audible starts to become a more essential piece of backup safety equipment, especially if I am focussing on tracking away from a future 100-way and need to know I'm close to the hard deck with other kaikamaze missles. I hope that L&B sends their Optima's as demos for the next Deaf World Record event (Tentatively 2010 at Empuriabravia I think?). I wouldn't mind a ProTrack II having an LED attachment port, since I would appreciate the ProTrack II features. I'll email them to send a link to this post, so they know too, Thanks! Mark Rejhon

Does a helicoptor-based launch platform represent a B, A, S, or an E?

Generally I don't think military do tandem jumps with civilians -- at least I haven't heard about it, even if it happens sometimes with the demo teams. More likely, a military guy tries skydiving in the military context and then they become interested in becoming a sports jumper or even tandem instructor (as a civilian) because they liked the skydiving in the military. I've met a few ex-military people who subsequently joined sports skydiving for that reason. If your story is tweaked a little bit, it becomes much more plausible. Maybe an "A year later...." intermission (Scene 1: Show military newbie doing first skydive. Scene 2: Fade to black, display "A year later..." or "Many jumps later in a new hobby...", Scene 3: Fade to recreational dropzone such Perris showing same person as now-already-experienced about to start a fun jump or a tandem.) ... that way, no explaining to the moviegoer, what happened between the military jump and the tandem jump. A year is a bit fast, but tandem instructors have been made that quickly in less time than that before, given enough money. Of course, this may not work, but the story becomes that much more plausible if you gap it as if he took up skydiving as a hobby ... There are plenty of easy plot band-aids. Let's not scare the plot researchers -- tomorrow's plot researcher will be googling and finding this old archived thread anyway, and they'll be discouraged from even starting to write about skydiving because of the politics. I welcome more skydiving content into movies -- just a few simple plausibility tweaks to keep it realistic.

disagree, body flying is body flying, any chance to excel in one helps skills progression in the other freefall disciplines - as long as one is aware of "how" they are moving the flow during practice and not just striking a body position and blindly allowing it to fly you I totally agree. Maybe a rephrase: Keeping almost all my jumps RW, means I haven't tried more than few freefly jumps -- so don't put me on headdown 3-way just yet...

Canada winters and nearest regular Twin Otters 2.5 hours away and an occasional Twin Otter 1.5 hours away, and another mouth to feed. That's why I haven't been to my home dropzone very often, only 3 times a year now -- I'm constantly hunting for opportunities to go to bigger ways because that is my specialization.... However, the opening of Skyventure New Hampshire helped a lot. I need the wind tunnel bad. It is challenging with Canadian Winters and a limited budget. The wind tunnel makes it all possible. I went from a winter layover to successful bigway jumps to a 49-way complete jump in 28 jumps (Jump #246 was over 6 months ago, and my successful 49-way as a weed whacker anchor on jump #272.) My tunnel definitely kept me mostly "RW-current" in the winter despite few jumps in the sky due to the longer than expected Canadian winter and the lack of skydiving vacation. I think I did very well considering the circumstances, but I realize I need a lot more regular bigway experience to get to the 100-way level. Let's be honest, I'm very much a bigway newbie, even if I am nuch more pure-RW than the average 300-jump people, or even most 500-jump people... I did not think I would enter the club of jumpers who have more tunnel time than sky time, but I did... If this accelerated rate of adding several hours per year tunnel time keeps up, I may even exceed 20 hours of tunnel time before I reach 500 jumps. What happened: Doing 4-ways in the tunnel cut my tunnel costs by 75%!!! (All guys split costs.) Two tunnel visits totalling more than 2 hours of 3-ways and 4-ways, was all that kept me up to date in the winter. So once I was back in the air, I knew that I needed to refresh my dives/radials/stadiums/fallrates/approaches/tracking, which is something you cannot do in a tunnel but refresher jumps by doing a 3-to-5 second Cessna preplanned delay exits (exit the door and chase the agreeing buddy that jumped 3 to 5 seconds ago from the door) and dock a small-way, as if I was last diving out of a trail plane and docking on a bigway. Trying to choose my jumps "efficiently" specifically for these skills ... But at the same time still leaving room for occasional unusual jumps as the high altitude hop-and-pop, for a break... Or a fun tracking jump. I am REALLY looking forward to Skyventure Montreal opens in early 2009. Groundbreaking is happening this month, according to my contacts. Once it opens, I can do day car trips with no overnight stays required. Since I can do 4-way in the tunnel now with people of my own tunnel skill level (or better), it costs me only 3 to 4 dollars a minute of tunnel time (approx $200-250 per hour when all jumpers split cost, then add the cost of a monitoring coach in the staging area) -- much cheaper than a single 4-way jump at a Cessna dropzone. So most of my 4-ways will probably be in the tube rather than the sky. Till then, I'm always keeping an eye out for 4-way roadtrips to Skyventure New Hampshire these days, which happen a few times a year... I will keep doing 4-ways in the sky, but it's almost 10 times cheaper to do 4-ways in the tunnel, minute for minute! New jumpers have it lucky with all the Skyventures popping up. True, for someone who never flew tunnel, it often takes (from some people's perspective, annoyingly) a super-expensive hour with an instructor trying to teach you mantis instead of boxman flying, before you get good enough to start doing 3-ways and 4-ways in the tunnel with a good RW tunnel coach. Tunnels sometimes feel like timewasters in the first hour to an experienced sky bellyflyer who's surprised they keep hitting the walls in their first tunnel visit, but once familiar with the tunnel windstream and cleared to do 4-ways, it becomes a super-cheap way to stay RW-current! I have no idea why some bigway flyers continue to hate the tunnel, if only they take the time to invest (like the expensive step of buying a rig before skydives become cheaper) the expensive tunnel training before they are cleared to be able to share the tunnel with other people, then the tunnel suddenly becomes 10 times cheaper than a skydive... I met other 300-jump people like me doing bigways of the 3-plane league, many of them had tunnel time to compensate for their lower jump numbers... It's not a substitute for the sky but here I am, 6-months winter layover of no skydives to a very safe 49-way in only 28 skydives made possible by tunnel time in addition to very helpful dropzone buddies covering skills that weren't covered by tunnel time. For the same money, 15 carefully optimized sky jumps and 1.5 hours of tunnel 4-way RW with a very good professional RW tunnel coach, helps bigway skills, on rough average, a LOT more than doing 30 RW jumps. Bumbling about in a crowded tunnel helps you to flatfly properly in heavy traffic without taking others out, and recover from things like tension and other problems, and improved burble management, ability to recover quickly from someone accidentally flying under you or even staying stable despite that happening, doing softer docks, chasing fallrate problems, slow fallrate manouvering (avoiding altitude loss during evasive manoevers while falling slow; a useful bigway skill that may be exercised if you are forced to merge into an unstable weedwhacker or outer loop slot slot of a slow falling bigway). Tunnel time helps wonderfully with all of that, if you have the right RW-oriented tunnel instructor! But yes, balance is needed (too much tunnel time can be bad I am told - and you still gotta practice criticals such as tracking, stadium approaches etc. possible only with real jumps) I also realized my application did read 50 recent skydives but that application was made before my winter layover started... Uh oh when I got the call that I made it on the P3 waiting list! I had to get current really damn quick after that call - and I fortunately had almost two hours of tunnel time scheduled on the weekend prior to P3. So I asked some people about this (emphasing the 1.5 hours of tunnel RW the weekend prior) as I worried if that would disqualify me from Perris P3, but what I did to get recurrent worked wonderfully, and I performed well considering my limited jump level... I can only wonder how much better I will perform if I increase my jumping and tunnel visits by 50% annually (which is feasible this year -- four or five bigway camps) and do at least one winter time skydiving vacation.... Now I just have to go to many more bigway camps, do P3 again... And make more new friends too!

This is often an interesting discussions with whuffos I talk to. They often wonder how we can move around so effortlessly in freefall. I tell them we can turn left, right, slide left and right, forward, and back, and even fall slower and faster. I explain to the whuffos we can use arms, legs, body, like rudders to deflect wind, guesturing how an angled hand deflects air and pushes it around. It may be a dumbed-down explanation, but it's whuffo-friendly. Heavens! Change your falling speed, that's against Physics 101 some whuffos may think. How? We just distort our bodies to change the amount of air resistance, imagine spreading out versus crunching up, falling flat and slowly like a leaf, versus freeflying upsidedown like a fast-falling dart. Eureka, they realize we are lucky with flexible bodies that can allow us to brake and speed our fall... I even explain to the whuffo we can fall at a 45 degree angle by distorting our bodies into a glider-like shape sorta (but not quite) like a ski jumper, in a manoever called "tracking"... And tell them that's how we get the hell away from everybody else to give everybody room to pull! I get asked that too. Recover from a tumble? I simply explain that we humans can arch like a leaf, and leaves always recover to fall belly down even after tossed about randomly. Many simple explanations I give to whuffos when they see the RW videos.... Now, if you're a new skydiver, ask your instructor.

Just don't jump RW with me on freefly jumps just yet. Training to become a good flatflyer (just had my first 49-way two weeks ago), means my freefly suffers.