mdrejhon

When I haven't jumped for a few months (i.e. winter layover), my ears will hurt on the first few jumps. They most certainly did when I did my tandem first jump(s) and during an AFF-type program.

I'm pledging to be at the 2010 event in Europe, wherever that may be. It'll be a good timeline for an Europe vacation for me, and hopefully the European currency exchange rate will be a little more reasonable then than it is now. (But even so, I'm still interested in going!)

Hello! Told that this is a better place to post... I need a ride from LAX to Perris on April 30. Will make sure you get to jump a few times for free, or drive for free* (*for the duration of one tank of gas ) Alternatively, I'm willing to split the cost of a rental car from LAX from April 30 through late May 4 (or early May 5) I am trying to go to Perris (for P3 bigway camps) on April 30th. I am about to purchase a flight that lands there around 1230pm, and LAX saves me $300 over San Diego and Ontario so I will brave the 2 hour traffic from LAX. That savings is money I can pay for a rented car or pay for the ride. Alternatively, anybody who has better ideas for me to get from LAX to Perris, or a way to cheaply fly closer to Perris? (LAX = Los Angeles airport)

Hello, Thanks for the responses. This is a real tough decision because it saves me a huge amount of money ($300) if I fly to LAX instead. That's enough for a car rental, even if I have to suffer two hours of traffic. I certainly could be convinced to fly into Ontario and San Deigo...just would need guaranteed rides on the days I need, so that I don't need to take workdays off April 29th or May 5th. (I don't get paid for vacation days as I am a consultant) Anybody flying into LAX from far away?

Hello! I've been on the waiting list for the P3 camp for ages. Just recently and unexpectedly, I got an email saying I have a slot available and I need to decide if I can pull this off. Good news, I think I can just about wiggle this out of my paycheque... Whoo hoo! The airfares are only $400 to LAX (1.5-2 hours from Perris) But $700 to Ontario/San Diego airport (45 minutes from Perris) Now those costs are quite painful and I would like to avoid being the only person to rent a car. Anybody else going (April 30 to May 4th) looking for carpool buddies? This will help determine which airport I fly into and when. Or should I go LAX and use the savings to rent a car... (and preferably share one) PM me or post here. Let's cut costs.

BINGO!! you are the winner with the correct answer.. Definitely is a tourist attraction first and foremost! But doesn't make it 100% useless to skydivers. Occasionally practicing slow and burbly flying is good for people like me who have to navigate RW on the slide (exit) or trying to recover from somebody flying under me without causing me to tumble, or trying to fall slower in a more controllable way whenever I go low. I imagine I would prefer Skyventure most of the time but next time I am in Niagara (dependant on whom I carpool with), I'd be willing to visit there to expand my experience with all kinds of airstreams, either smooth/clean or slow/burbly.

Hello Chris! Nice to see you online again. Will have to say hello next time I am in Arnprior... Although you are absolutely featherweight, and even under the 135 you seemed pretty slow but... The big problem occurs when you are at a boogie and so many people are landing at the same time. Imagine this, you followed rules and you're on your final approach. Nobody's in your way. You even intentionally landing a little further away from the main landing zone, to smartly avoid canopy traffic. Of a sudden, a swooper idiot from above you swerves to avoid somebody else (a third person) and then is in a collision course with you in less than 1 or 2 seconds and he's still looking at the other canopy he just avoided (So he won't be the one doing collision avoidance with YOU). Think quick! Now you have to flat turn or flare turn IMMEDIATELY to avoid collision! You're barely more than 50 feet above the ground. TURN NOW!!* Pick a scenario... Scenario 1: You yank a toggle, and the 105 suddenly dives. Bam. You're in coma for a week, and can't walk again - or your best friends is now doing an ash dive. Scenario 2: You try to flat turn or flare turn but the diving is worse than you expected than when you practiced in the past. A tib breaks. Welcome to the titanium club. Scenario 3: You get lucky, and just about to flat turn/flare turn, and land without incident. Because you already practiced at the same altitude in the past under the same and previous sizes. Practice your low altitude turns and flare turns, but rent/borrow/get a bigger canopy often to do that. It doesn't matter as much at your DZ as it does at a busy boogie. Please know how to safely make low turns. Not for swooping, but evasive turns to save your life someday, or even to safely avoid obstacles. I even have to do more work. I have flat turned and flare turned at pretty low altitudes (including several intentional turns while landing) but I have to do a lot more, to meet billyvon's "checklist", as I haven't yet intentionally done the recommended NON-SWOOP full 90 degree angle at 50 feet or less, found in a popular downsize checklist. (Although I may have done this once, unintentionally and safely, as unexpected obstacle avoidance (landing zone clutter) - the fact I don't remember the altitude is because it was something I did safely with plenty of margin and ended with a 100% complete ordinary flare in a non-panic situation.) And the fact I haven't jumped often in 2007, I need to practice this more before I let myself own a 150... Rent and demo a 150 at a dropzone with lots of outs, I'm fine, but I need to make sure I can land it in a backyard or tiny outs, even crosswind or downwind, at unfamiliar dropzones because I love to travel and I want to be part of some future Beach Boogie (belize or kenya, etc) ___________ *Similiar, albiet, less severe situation happened to me once. It was airspace incursion rather than true imminent collision. The difference in variables are: 200 feet altitude, other parachutist was forced into an unexpected right-hand swoop (instead of left-hand) because of long spot/get-home-it-is, while I was safely in my normal pattern. Swoosh at my altitude in front of me, probably about a hundred feet ahead. Nontheless, I flat turned immediately into my final leg earlier than expected to avoid his flightline. While it didn't necessarily need to flat turn at that altitude under a Sabre170, I definitely know I need to be able to quickly turn safely at 25, 50, 100, feet altitude in the future with non-swoop low-altitude turns, if I have to, even though I'm not a swooper (yet?). I reported this to the manifest and they made an announcement about following landing pattern properly. No snitch as I intentionally didn't identify the jumper to the DZ (but I talked to the jumper privately).

There's something drastically wrong with that picture I have a interest in someday doing video because it is something I love to do as a deaf individual (maybe in a year or two, when I can afford it), I talked to some people. My interest in video isn't earning money at this time (yet?) but I heard of some interesting stuff about what vidiots earned... From what little I know, a dropzone often charges almost $100 for a video to a tandem student (i.e. $75 or $95, etc), which is often split three ways between DZ, the lift, and the vidiot (but not exactly). Some dropzones are having lots of difficulty retaining vidiots who are trusted to video tandems, and may be giving them more money than doing AFF. Especially if there's a very busy AFF day and there's a history of not having enough vidiots around. The money split gets adjusted to fit the dropzone, vidiot get paid a bit more, dropzone gets a little less, etc... Also, there might be a benefit clause where in AFF, some dropzones might offer a longer 'contract' in exchange for less pay (At some dropzones, you're nearly guaranteed to be the same AFF instructor for that same student for say, 7 or 8 prepaid jumps at $30 apiece, while vidiot are one-off events at $40...) And the instructor being paid separately for classroom stuff (if he/she is part of it). I really think this varies by dropzone... I think it has something to do with supply and demand, sometimes that monetary pressure out-prices the danger-pay aspect of the jump... Petty Economics 101 stuff.

20 minutes, 45 minutes, 90 minutes, and 150 minutes. Gatineau, Arnprior, Gananoque and NouvelAir respectively. NouvelAir is the nearest full-time turbine DZ, while Gananoque has Otter boogies. I'll probably be jumping Gatineau airport more often this year.

Mia, Blue skies out there, wherever you are up there, even though I didn't know ye except for hellos... I recently had a very good friend pass away (not related to skydiving), this can't be easy for the family, Blue Skies to Mia,

Hello, This represents the 3rd anniversary of when I paid for my AFF-type program (progressive freefall) to become a skydiver! Part of my incentive to first become a regular skydiver was because I read about Deaf World Record 2005, which was happening later in the same year! I wanted also become Canada's first licensed deaf skydiver. (As far as I know, I am the only licensed one in Canada who was born deaf, not deafened later in life) For you deaf newbies who happen to be reading this, if you happen to be surfing dropzone.com, why not sign up for AFF this year -- or at least do a First Jump tandem? Then do an European vacation with a side trip to Deaf World Record 2010 that will be happening at Spain's most beautiful skydiving dropzone, freefalling near the mountains. It is like a small skydiving boogie but for deaf individuals, and since this is the only deaf skydiving group. They sound like they are organizing something amazing again! For those newbies who ask (like I was), if you see a "DWR" thread in this forum in the future, now you know that it means Deaf World Record! Read those other threads and learn about them too! And if you are a new deaf skydiver and say hello, please introduce yourself in here, to encourage other new deaf skydivers too!

Really, it's not. Think of it as recycling -- Reduce, Reuse, Recycle anyway. Depending on how long your driveway is, it is less effort than taking the keyboard to the curb with the garbage. Short form: Next time dishwasher is empty - slap keyboard in. Done. Shake keyboard over sink, then park keyboard someplace warm and forget about it. Then a few days later, keyboard's good. No need to pop keycaps, I don't bother with that. Sure, keyboard takes longer to dry but where I live, still easier than chucking it in garbage. Sure, if lazy, keep the hot water cycle (better than nothing), just make sure you use what looks like the smallest dishwasher setting and use the top rack only.

I'd be interested in DWR2010. Keep me updated. For future thread titles, please use "Deaf World Record 2010" or "DWR2010 (Deaf Boogie)" for us deaf whuffos, because it was DWR2005 that coaxed me to become a skydiver. I didn't know what DWR was at the time, so please use the full expansion "Deaf World Record" - so that new deaf skydivers can enter AFF this year and be experienced enough for 20 or 30-way then!

If it's one of the cheaper models (i.e. non-wireless, non-backlit), try cleaning the broken beer-laden keyboard in the dishwasher (lowest heat seating, top rack only, keys facing down, small pinch of detergent, skip the drying cycle, no other dishes). Once washed, leave it on top of a radiator for about 3 to 5 days. It has worked with an 80% perfect success rate on dirty, grime filled keyboards that I was about to throw away. 4 out of 5 keyboards. That were reused into spare/friend/student systems... The one that didn't work was already not working. Google "wash keyboard in dishwasher" -- it's a classic last ditch geek trick; something to attempt before throwing away a keyboard that has stuck keys or gummy keys. Not to be tried on fancy keyboards (wireless keyboards, or with an LCD screen, LED backlighting), but works fine on good old fashioned 101/104 key keyboards. And simple ergonomic keyboards that don't have fancy extras (i.e. Microsoft Natural Keyboard)

NewClearSports I have been going to windtunnels more regularly now that a military friend of mine organizes a group from time to time (someone named Mr. Kotscha), including visits with members of the Evolution team acting as instructors, to Skyventure New Hampshire (the Lemays). I'm looking forward to my next 2 hours of 4-way at the end of April at SVNH. I am not a military guy myself though... Obviously I pay for my tunnel instructor's flying (plus a little extra) so I'm the one paying to let SVNH fly both me and the outside (non-employed) instructor. To SVNH's perspective the instructor is flying for free but not really, because I've paid the instructor. SVNH has no problem outside instructors, because they realize I want real RW training from one of the Canada's top 4-way team, rather than a tunnel instructor who never skydived. Although Niagara may be Flyaway technology, the fact I fly in 4-way (3 persons plus 1 instructor) cuts my tunnel costs significantly, even though it means we all pay one third of the instructor's flying time... I am willing to try Niagara anyway, although I haven't heard if it was possible to fly 4-way group in that one. Also, one of my inspirations for the future is to someday become a Canada Big Way Record Holder (in the next 80-way or 100-way event at Skydive Burnaby). Skydive Burnaby near Lake Erie, also happens to be very nearby -- so I'm interested in going there a couple times again this year... One of the groups was going to go to your Niagara to "give it a try" and was going to invite me along during the next visit as well. I still would like to go to Niagara but I tend to stick with groups now (cheaper to fly 4-way than as solo). So if one of the people in these groups got scared away, they might spread negative PR. So I wonder if one of the people in one of my groups mentioned that something happened and got discouraged from Niagara since I haven't heard anything further about Niagara within this group lately. So there must be a chain effect happening... I don't care whose fault it is, or why the publicity is low (among skydivers), but hey it is still wintertime, there's still time to advertise in CanPara magazine, there's still time to change policy, or clarify a more formal policy (i.e. 15 seconds of comp for every 2 hours total of customer referrals, etc.) or study SVNH's informal "visiting-tunnel-instructor" policies to see how they operate? Clear policy documents will eliminate misunderstandings. Did a skydiver make a mistake? Or did the tunnel make a mistake? Or both? I don't care, but there is plenty of time to market skydivers to bring them into the tunnel. Especially if it develops a good vibe among all my friends. I live in Ottawa and it is very easy for me to get to Montreal, which is under a 5 hour trip from SVNH. So the time is roughly equal to SVNH versus to Niagara. And I don't own a car (as neither do some of the members of these groups)... So I can be on the fence, depending on what benefit there is - vibe, price, convenience, amenities, friendliness to people I know, etc... If some are choosing SVNH, I'm carpooling in their car (Ottawa or Montreal departures) -- if some may be going to Niagara (Ottawa or Kingston departures), you could be seeing me this year... Maybe team up with Skydive Burnaby for instruction, etc? Much like instructors at NouvelAir teams up with SVNH from time to time. It is probably important you cultivate the Niagara area skydiving market (i.e. Skydive Burnaby) market and be familiar/respect its culture, otherwise that could kill that market... Please note: Most Canadians don't read dropzone.com, so there may be others in my position... And at least two in my last group were in the same position as well... (I'm now curiously wondering what has happened of my group's earlier trip to Niagara -- never heard from them about their experiences -- I'm going to ask why. I wonder if any of the negativity affected this...) Neutral guy here, and don't care about politics. But I'm at the mercy of friends/groups who cultivate relationships with the windtunnel, or influenced by other people's experiences at the tunnel...

I'm waiting, I'm waiting. I'd very much love to go to one of the Canadian tunnels. Especially to do 4-way. (which makes tunnelflying much cheaper)

I'm only a baby and I remember when the Freefly world record was just a 20-way -- out in the open air... 20-way in a tunnel. Wow.

It hasn't been that cold lately - I skydived at Gananoque in January when there was a warm spell and no snow on the ground. ... This year though has been a blizzard in December, so none of that this year from my area (Ottawa, Ontario). Seriously, if you want to avoid the cold in Canada, go to Vancouver area. It's a very temperate zone there with grass staying green year round in some areas, even if it's occasionally freezing at night sometimes in the winter. But average temperature is in the positive year round, and some dropzones operate year round! See if you can get a good job in Canada, and with Canada's recent high flying dollar, you can afford to travel frequently. Typically, two U.S. jumps for the price of one Canadian jump.

For Deaf World Record 2005, I recall my comp-quality suit (Bev Suit) cost me almost $400. I did have all sorts of extras ordered such as extra pocket, as well as reinforced 'seat'. I stilly fly it today, still in great shape and hope to keep jumping it for a while yet.

This author is definitely not a skydiver I can actually see it in a different light - at the moment, skydiving is 'relatively' cheap -- in not many hobbies you can pay for an actual airplane flight for less than $25 (and plus, get some thrills). I do fear that in 50 years from now, skydiving is going to be far more expensive than it is today, while windtunnels could be far cheaper to operate in 50 years than it is today.... Either way, I'm pretty happy I can now do 4-ways in the tunnel. This dramatically cuts the costs of my tunnel time FWIW on the topic of "saving the sport", I perceive a small surge in Canadian skydiver skills due to the stronger Canadian dollar as well as the recent emergence of a windtunnel within 5 hour drive of the Canadian border (Skyventure New Hampshire). The CDN dollar recently became more valuable than the U.S. dollar by a little and is now maintaining rough parity, and many of us Canadians taking advantage of the lower U.S. dollar to jump cheaper. In Canada, we pay $35 for Twin Otter jumps but we can do so at $20 (either USD or CAD) the states....

I'd be up for an Euro DWR, sign me up. I think I'm now much better at RW than DWR2005: I did a 26-point 2-way in Skyventure New Hampshire recently (60 second timespan). My last sky jump was a 4-way with 11 points (I think 8 or 9 of them in a 35 second time span) I'm cleared for 4-way tunnel and going for another 2 hours with a novice group (250-500 jumps) again this coming January. I now have 3 hours tunnel time. That's more tunnel time than my sky time now. We got lucky to get a member of the Canada's 4-way champion team, as our 4-way tunnel instructor, roadtrips to SVNH only take 7 hour from here, and I hear Monteral will gain a Skyventure within 2 years (reducing the roadtrip to 2 hours!) I am hoping to go to Perris Bigway camp next year May 1-4th, 2008 because I want to tryout for the Canada 100-way Record. (Gulp. Wish me luck!) Will register very shortly, once I confirm finances for the trip...

Then you might prove it's not the weathervane effect that causes some canopies to fly downwind. (I did warn you I may be wrong. ) But fact remains: Some wings are observed to fly downwind (like my and many other people's canopies), some wings are observed to fly upwind (like a classical rigid plane). I'm more inclined to think it's more related to rigidity. And there must be underlying factors that 'tempers' unstability, that we haven't discovered (i.e. maybe extra tension exerted on certain lines that counteracts instability - as a non-elliptical canopy turns, like my own, it quickly wants to go back to straight.) Also, some elliptical canopies actually exhibit the unstable behaviour you describe: Some really extreme canopies need input in order to keep going straight, or they'll spin out of control. (Perhaps not by this effect, but this is something worth mentioning - who knows - coincidence, coincidence - maybe someone daring would like to find out (at high altitudes) if extreme ellipticals flies more stable without input downwind or upwind). Square canopies like mine have the stability of wanting to go straight when I let go of input. So it is powerful self-balancing behaviour that quickly massively recovers from minor turning-into-wind effects. I can confirm you that the turn-into-wind effect is less powerful than the go-back-to-straight effect. It takes less than a few seconds for my canopy to go back to straight from a very steep turn when I let go of turning input, while it takes more than a minute for me to turn downwind on no input. The fact that the stabilizing effect of a square parachute prevents runaway destabilization, is the best theory I can throw on the table at the moment, but feel free to bring up an alternative one... Again, it would make for an interesting University Thesis, to come up with an authoritative answer for why this happens, or why this 'seems' to happen.

That's normal. Weathervanes can be designed to point INTO wind or AWAY from wind. It just depends on how the weathervane is designed, no? The physics aren't the same for a regular rigid airplane with a tail, and an inflatable flexible wing with no separate tail. Next. I'm even sure that it might be possible some canopies respond differently (i.e. it might be rigidness, and cross-braced might behave differently). Maybe yours flies into the wind. I have no way of knowing. Nobody has written a scientific paper on this matter, but I can definitely guarantee that some wings turn into the wind, and some wings turn away from the wind. The pre-existing scientific proofs for turning into the wind only applies to classical airplanes (rigid bodies), and does not touch upon the physics of flexible fabric wings. On a rigid wing, anything affecting one tip of the wing to affect the other pretty much virtually instantly (less so for bouncy thin wings such as those on solar aircraft, etc), but this doesn't happen in a fabric wing -- one edge can respond faster than the other edge - with a noticeable human-visible lag. So we're in nearly unexplored physics territory. Might make for an interesting University paper.

I don't have enough authority to know for sure. It just does happen to my canopy. But remember this: Winds aren't perfectly uniform from 15,000 feet down to 0 feet. There's no time, anywhere in the world, that this ever happens. There's always say, 0.1 mph difference somewhere, and more likely a much bigger difference, like 23mph at 6000 feet and 17mph at 3000 feet. As a result, there's always guaranteed wind shear as the wind layers friction against each other, even if it microscopic: i.e. varies only 0.001mph per second as the parachute floats down. But I could be wrong too. Anyway, according to mathematical physics (what I know), I believe perfect parachutes (perfect balance, perfect lines, perfect fabric, perfect symmetric, etc) will fly without turning in a perfect wind as long the perfect wind is also perfect consistent at the full range of altitude (top to bottom). But that will never, ever happen... There's always disturbances, even at 0.001 mph level, everytime somebody has ever jumped in history... However, a very well setup canopy in very amazing gentle wind conditions, at not too high an altitude, can probably reach the ground before turning downwind, if you time it well. And body movement might even be the more dominant effect in affecting turns. (harness turns caused by even very minor shifts in your center-of-gravity) But as one of the few who love high altitude hop-n-pops (15K), I definitely notice a minor turning-to-downwind bias in cross countries, that overpowers my minor body movements during relax straight hands-off-risers/toggle flight... FWIW, I fly Sabre 170, which is mostly immune to harness turns (unless I try very hard).

I witnessed some minor weathervaning when flying without touching my straps (leaving brakes stowed - flying only using risers, but I temporarily let go of my rear risers during a long 15,000 feet cross-country and relaxed, while minding my spotting). So, yes Canopies seem to want to turn downwind eventually. But two things need to happen: (1) Winds must be inconsistent speed across your canopy to cause the weathervaning effect, i.e. turbulent air, varying wind speed zones, etc. Your canopy will randomly turn 1 degree this way, that way, like a coinflip, but it is generally biased downwind. (like a coin that's slightly heavier on one side) (2) You fly with for long enough with absolutely no touching of the toggles or risers. (only pratical to do this reasonably safely during a cross country, i.e. a 15,000 feet hop-n-pop) Most turbulence is so minor, you dont' feel it, so you'll only gradually turn downwind over a long period of time (i.e. a few minutes) - it's cumilative. However, if wind is perfectly steady across your entire canopy and body (no turbulence), you will keep going perfectly straight. No argument there. But as I have learned, this definitely isn't always the case - you've probably flown through turbulence before, including turbulence that causes you to change direction slightly. Also, I'm not sure (need more than a few hundred more jumps experience), but I think I noticed flying INTO strong turbulence (upwind) knocks me around more than if I was flying WITH the strong turbulence (downwind). This probably is the weathervaning effect being more intense the further away from the downwind vector... Of course, it probably depends on how much windsheer there is in the turbulence, but generally turbulence often has a windshear component: Some of that air is rising diagonally, swirling, vortexing, etc, and all that includes a horizontal-variance component (windshear) I'm not an authoritative source, but I tend to agree that canopies do tend to fly downwind - but it needs a little "jiggling" (turbulence, wind shear) to do so. Without that, the canopy will go straight until you hit the ground (if everything else, including lines are perfect.) Swoopers won't notice this (hurrying to ground), but longtimer CRW guys will definitely notice this.