mdrejhon

Hi, Might tentatively go, it depends on my job situation then. Since DWR2005 I have more than 1 hour tunnel time (all in one day this year), and specializing in RW, and I have participated in a few bigway camps (6-way through 30-way) including an all-complete 30-way (video too), as well as all-complete 2-point 20-way, 2-point 17-way. I may not know whether or not I am coming until the last minute. Do we have enough people for DWR2007 to exceed the 16-people bigway of 2005?

I think millimeters make a difference. If you throw it -- that extra few millimeters is increased chance it will catch wind, and less chance it will bounce back into the burble. Less chance of tangling with your hand. Of course, just letting the wind rip the thing out of your hand often works, but it's best to try and throw it -- (n a brisk throw that's not too aggressive as to cause you to destabilize your position during deployment.) WARNING: Physics 101 Talk below Around the time I got my B, I once tested the PC by holding it for 1 second before letting it go (yes, a dangerous thing to do in retrospect, because of the bridle - and yes, I posted about it almost two years ago - don't do this), and the force was pretty light because it hadn't inflated. (It was a preplanned event with a higher pull altitude) Anyway, the fact I was able to hold onto the PC and it wasn't inflating while I held it, gives more evidence to the fact that throwing is beneficial, at least in a "safety margin" perspective, since the PC doesn't always inflate instantaneously if I am still holding by the handle. If I let go as is, it would take a finite (small) time for the PC to right itself (handle down to handle top). Odds are is it will fall into my burble before it "righted itself" and I might even get a PC in tow because it wasn't inflating fast enough (especially if it's a marginal PC). I figure that throwing it makes it flip the correct way up more quickly, because it will go outwards at least a few centimeters, inches (i.e. 3 inches out and 6 feet upwards), as it goes from hand to bridle stretch. Baseball throwers can throw almost 100mph, I'm probably only throwing at 20mph outwards, max. Mathematics show that's a few inches of outwards even at 20mph OUT, 120mph UP (due to momentum, even slight, it's actually an acceleration from 0mph relative to my body to some big mph relative to my body (until bridle stretch)). That's not a straight line upwards. And yes, I realize if the PC inflates, the 20mph of outwards horizontal momentum will be nearly instantaneously stopped by the air resistance of the fabric of an inflated PC (much as it accelerates very quickly upwards by the relative wind). But, in the tiny chance, the PC doesn't inflate yet, the horizontal momentum if hackey will be more unimpeded by the relative wind (Because of less resistance caused by a non-inflated PC) and the momentum of the hackey will keep it going outwards more easily and longer before bridle stretch, since more horizontal momentum is preserved by the initial throw. As this cause the PC to keep going further horizontally away from your burble, it makes it more likely to catch burble-free air, and inflate a few fractions of a second faster (and occasionally means the difference between good canopy and a PC-in-tow, especially when we're talking about a marginal PC situation) And we all know how fractions of seconds matter in high velocity sports, not just skydiving. It's just common sense physics 101 and mathematics.... momentum, air resistance, acceleration, velocities, all playing an intricate game of inflating your PC to save your life in your fall. And in some of the videos you see, for a relaxed non-sliding arch, you can see the PC line is sometimes slightly diagonal, in the throw direction -- just very slightly, if you look carefully. So there's more evidence, as you can see. And sometimes in a hesitation situation the PC swings back and fourth before it opens - the throw will help impart enough horizontal energy to eventually cause the bridle to swing left/right slightly at stretch if it hasn't properly inflated by bridle stretch, giving it more chance to catch air beyond the burble, especially if one happened to maybe pack a little tighter than usual. Of course, some of the above this is speculation mixed with facts - but it does make logical sense that throwing adds some extra "safety margin"... (a brisk, controlled throw - a good one, not hurriedly as to destabilize your bellyfly: So you don't throw it too hurriedly and then go into linetwists because you became unstable at pull time). Sure, one can survive by just letting go, but why take the chances - not all of our PC's may be as good as yours... (No reserve rides. A couple of minor fraction-second hesitations that only made me "hmm, that's a bit slower than usual" which I remember DID occur when I did a couple of lazy throws. Even though it may not necessarily be the lazy throw, there seems to be a vague correlation, at least when it comes to an old collapsible PC. It's one of those things "hmm, these tiny hesistations seem to happen more when I do lazy throws"... Anyway, my PC's now replaced. Knock on wood.)

It is also one of the things that seem to happen to me sometimes -- Leaving myself buckled all the way to altitude. Once in a while it happens ("once in a while" is probably too often), but I do have it pretty tight, and always look at it before moving anyway - and I have readjusted my position to do a handle/pin check, which often necessitiates getting my butt away from the seat...

I did some research on this, and one of them was to make sure it had fresh velcro. (This is not the only one). Although this wasn't the main reason for getting new velcro, when I sent my Vector2 for "mid-life" maintenance at the RWS (UPT) factory, which also included velcro replacement... Talk to the factory about what is needed. (Although at your jump levels, talk to the instructors first) Ideally, things like well-designed tuck tabs probably work better -- but that it was reported strong new velcro is okay for the first XX number of jumps after revelcroing. Vector2's are known for flaps opening up by itself, that needs to be checked too by the rigger (bigger tabs can help). I sensed it is kind of a controversial issue, moreso for formations... Do not take my word for it, but I don't freefly at this time (except for a few attempts at sitfly, alone) I'd recommend starting afresh with a fully freefly friendly container... I'm just a bellyflyer who will eventually learn to freefly (which might or might not happen before replacing my container) *** Disclaimer: I am NOT a rigger. My advice can be incorrect. *** *** I am NOT an instructor -- please go talk to your instructor ***

Correct. These are evaluations I will ask myself upon taking the coach course, and if I don't meet them, I'm not going to press forward with coaching. One possible shortcoming I do have, is my verbal skills: I am deaf! However, I am pretty expressive. However, there are many deaf skydivers at www.deafskydivers.org that have become coaches, and even AFF's. However, I have no plan to AFF, and I do feel I do well in English on keyboard or paper. In the event if the student's English reading/sign skill is poor, I'm not going to be coaching them anyway - not safe for me anyway...

The dropzone people who "watch" you land, will be able to give you better advice -- go ask your buddies there. Ask yourself: Wouldn't it save a little money to rent parachutes and try them out, to your A or B license (about 25 or 50 jumps), and then settle on a stable size that every credible person at your dropzone agrees is just right for you? Different-brand/age parachutes (even of same size) land very differently, so renting a few different ones will allow you get a better feel about how they fly too... You may decide buying higher end parachute (of a suitable large size) makes flying a lot more fun, especially if you become bored of a massive oversized model. Some new people make the mistake of buying too early and end up spending more to replace the gear less than 100 jumps later... Or they discover "FeatherLander 210" is a lot more fun than the "Old ACME 210", and wish they waited. (Obviously, make sure that everything is doublechecked by your instructor

Well, I would hope that 200 jumps (very RW focussed) and 1.25 hours of tunnel time would make me a good enough skydiver to be a coach -- that's one of my goals for this summer... I am not interested in earning money being a coach, I just want to be able to jump with 50-jump and 75-jump Canadians who don't even have an A license just because they are too "lazy" to get a license ("lazy" not in the unsafe way, of course), or the paperwork takes more time (getting the right people to sign off on things), having to repeat a certain exercise because it wasn't caught on camera, etc... I can most certainly handle these "get my A when I get around to it" skydivers now - and get the hell out of the way fast enough if they fly under me. I have now recently jumped with lower-jump A license holders who perform worse, and still manage to match their fallrate enough to dock a few points to make them happy (even if I'm not as fast as AFF instructors)... Often getting a license takes a little more time at many Cessna dropzones around here, many of us don't have A licenses until well beyond our 50th jump, even if we qualify well before our 25th jump. It wasn't until I had around 80 jumps before I finally got my A (then again, I also got my B during the same month) Then again, I will eventually want to fly with my better half at some point before the A license, since finding a coach is sometimes hard to find, especially on a busy weekend... And nearly all of them jump with AAD's, so there's really no need for me to chase anyone (including my loved one) below hard deck (and get myself killed) -- even I know the AAD is more "reliable" than a human chasing a tumbling freefaller to under 1000 feet.... I realize I do need to disclaim advice and refer to their instructors, especially if they're still receiving instruction. It's not my place to be an instructor anyway... There's a risk to all skydiving activity, I'm sure what I want to do (jump mainly with 50 jump freefallers who don't yet have A license), once I pass any decent coach course, is probably safer than starting to learn to swoop, anyway... (of course - some might disagree )

$500 taxes! Ouch... You must have gotten your rig new, or you got it cleared by a third party brokerage (which tend to rape you).

It may be because big parachutes don't usually need hard risers as badly as tiny parachutes -- they are far less likely to go into unrecoverable linetwists, and if they do, don't spin with as much G-Forces to keep it as tight. That being said, there's still a risk of hard cutaway on big parachutes. (Then again if I remember right, you're flying smaller one -- a 135 -- because of your ultra light weight...!) Anyway, I bought new risers for my rig and I specifically requested hard inserts, to be on the safe side... And I am still on my 170.

I did one hour in one day. I was pretty sore the next day though, but a lot of that's attributable to not having enough regular exercise lately during the winter.. If you exercise a lot of your muscles regularly, and warm up before every 15 minute session, 1 hour is pretty easy. If it's your first time, 20 minutes per day is probably good. Although I'd personally prefer two separate 15 minute sessions in the same day, followed by another two separate 15 minute sessions the next day. This gives you time to recuperate and apply learned skills while they are still fresh - and fix the mistakes you've made in the first 15 minute sessions of the day....

Because of NAFTA, you don't pay duty when importing skydiving gear. However... what you do pay is a rather annoying brokerage/processing charge in addition to 6% GST. It's like charging you just to charge you for GST. But even with that, sometimes it's easier to buy certain skydiving gear from the U.S. I have bought hundreds of items from the U.S., including my jumpsuit. Email or PM me on how to make costs predictable when bringing stuff from the U.S. When you order something that is delivered by UPS (or, often, FedEx), you often get an expensive "brokerage" charge, but it is not duty. Instead, ship by USPS, or via a BorderFree-type system, then you only pay exactly 6% more plus a far more predictable fee (in the case of USPS/Canada Post), usually only a few dollars extra. Yes, I know ordering from the U.S. can result in unpredictable costs. But you can make it so that you're only paying maybe $11 extra on a $100 item ordered from the U.S ($6 GST plus $5 processing fee).... just need to be a little selective on who to buy from and how you let them ship the goods to you... There are cases where the charges are $50. Sometimes they do make it past the border without any charges - especially when it's a small amount or a gift-like amount... Don't forget eBay too. (But make sure you know what you're doing). I bought my altimeter (Altimaster Galaxy) off eBay, after all... Brand new, $143 US plus about $10 shipping and I paid only about $14 to get it across the border. So still under $200 CAD. (About 85 cents US per $1 CAD) Also, don't forget you can also buy stuff from a U.S. gear store. Bring it back to Canada and you only pay exactly 6% GST at the border -- no duty, no processing fee -- just exactly 6% when you drive your new American-purchased gear back into Canada. i.e. $60 if you buy $1000 from a U.S. skydiving store, and drive it back to Canada. Or $15 if you buy $250. That being said, there are Canadian gear stores you can buy from. Some of those listed work, and you can also order through NouvelAir too (probably the closest stocked gear store to Ottawa), they may have a Neptune in stock. Ordering through your rigger also works. Many riggers, especially if you personally know him, are happy to help you along in exchange to getting you some stuff at insider-type discount rates and selling you at below-retail price.

If this is your first time in a tunnel, they will not let you freefly right off the bat -- find a good tunnel instructor. If you've been jumping thousands of times, you might end up being a good freeflyer and only need a few minutes to get hang of it, but more likely you may end up needing a coach for the entire hour -- make sure you go prepared for all possible cases. The good thing is you have three separate days of 20 minute periods. The first 20 minute period will probably determine what you will eventually do in the next two 20-minute periods...and give you time to adjust and get ready for the next few 20 minute periods. I know, after paying hundreds of dollars for an hour of tunnel, you don't always feel like paying extra for a coach, but it is worth it -- especially if this is your first time in a tunnel or doing new things in a tunnel.

Or the ground. So that means no camoflage effects. Granted, all your designs are an excellent contrast to either. I think I like the first few or the last few the most, and they do seem to be getting the most votes.

Fair enough. I neglected to mention the roadtrip convenience at first. Mind you, a large Canadian population are concentrated in the "Northeast corridor" (the highway 401 corridor), the majority of which is within one day's drive of Boston (near where SVNH is). Though eventually there'll also be Niagara Falls, if their tunnel is any good when they finish building it... (Not a SkyVenture model). Well, that too - yes I think we need at least a little more Canadian "representation" in various skills -- I think it's the first time we really have good regular domestic tunnel coaching. So that, everyone gotta give us a little slack there, because of that. Wind tunnel use is underrepresented in Canada.

Firstly: (1) I do NOT OWN A CAR. Bingo - I save $200 USD off a car rental, and probably $50 USD gas, by carpooling with a Canadian. Granted, I did have to catch a train (or, sometimes bus) to Montreal to meet with the carpool group, but that's well under $100 roundtrip and less than 2 hours. (2) Many Canadian skydivers of under 100 jumps have really never heard very much about wind tunnels. Most Canadian skydivers have never jumped in a windtunnel, even the 1000+ jumpers! Sad but true, we are the country that used to have Aerodium in 1979 -- the first tunnel open to public. Canadian coaches are local who will spread the word and make windtunnels more popular, which means more business by all coaches, Amercian and otherwise. (3) I have nothing against American coaches. I trained at Skyventure Orlando for 15 minutes. Do you know why I only paid 15 minutes -- I was already out of money because I paid for the flight down, and was visiting Deaf World Record 2005. (4) Rainbow Boogie is not exclusively gay. While our aim is to attract gay members, we all successfully pulled off a 34-way formation skydive on the first try, thanks to the great people at NouvelAir and our load organizer who happens to be an AMERICAN. Kirsten Johnson from Spaceland was our official load organizer, who came to organize the jumps for our Rainbow Boogie. (See formation photos in CanPara magazine, this month's issue - an article was finally submitted over Christmas). It became NouvelAir's second biggest successful formation skydive, no pratice jumps were made except for various single-plane formations (mostly 10-ways and 15-ways). Only about 10 jumpers in that formation was gay. We actually had almost a dozen straight jumpers from down south, including Carol Clay, come to visit us - since a president of a skydiving club was gay and he brought along his entourage.

If you plan to build a library of skydiving books, one good book that is not mentioned yet is Brian Germain's "The Parachute And Its Pilot" at bigairsportz.com -- although don't actually exercise the swooping section of the book (except at high play altitude) until you've got hundreds of consistent, good ordinary landings.

This is the web page version: http://www.asciimation.co.nz/ (ASCII Star Wars: a Star Wars movie animated using only typewriter style text)

Correct clicky: telnet://towel.blinkenlights.nl:23/ It's an old one, been around for a long time!

I heard they did tandems from the jet at WFFC last year.

During Canada Big Way 2006 practice jumps, Guy Wright taught me something valuable: The chain reaction of falling low because you're trying to look up at the formation. It's easy to fall low if you lift your head up too much (as if to stare up at the formation). That's because your head is blocking less air and you start to fall faster and dearching won't work as well. And you fall faster and faster as you try to look up more and more. Chain reaction! Even if slightly low, the moment you feel you need to look upwards, instead immediately get a little bit horizontal separation away from formation to get better visibility, turn 90 degrees and then keep your head down sideways staring at the formation to the side, to make your head as big as possible in the airflow (while still keeping eye on formation) while falling as slow as you can. You'll lift up magically. Talk to organizer about recommendations as well. I caught up after an accidental early exit (misunderstood exit count) where I exited 1.5 seconds before the cameraflyer!

I had a brake fire under a Manta 288 as a student. That massive thing only started to turn slow, and by the time I noticed, I had already been unstowing the other brake that solved the problem instantly. It was so minor I subsequently forgot to tell the instructor that this even happened. I don't think he knows I ever had a brake fire as a student. Obviously he knows about my linetwists as a student - that was WAY scarier as a student (no more than one or two twists though) and I kicked those out - and told the story. I repeated a jump jump due to pulling while still turning in a bellyfly.

Sent you a PM. I don't know if I'm allowed to quote prices, but the tunnel time AND coaching combined was still cheaper than Skyventure website prices (without coaching), because some kind of tunnel instructor or frequent flyer discount that he has. (He has spent 50 hours there already)

They are a rather nice dropzone, and they are also hosting our next boogie as well. Fun place! Ultimately, where you decide to learn to jump is your decision. Amongst other things, one consideration that might affect your consideration is what atmosphere you prefer. Dropzones range from tiny cozy lodges/shacks all the way to highly commercialized-with-colorful-logo operations with amenities such as restaurant/gear store/etc. Mile High being the former, with NouvelAir being the latter, with Gananoque neither but they have the biggest hangar, a big World War II plane, and they do have the trailer park/bunkhouse if that suits you. In either situation, wherever you jump, you won't be doing solo freefall on your first jump anyway. You have a choice of either solo or freefall. Tandem + AFF/PFF will probably get you to full solo freefall in fewer jumps. On the other hand, dropzones that do IAD (or static line) may be cheaper per jump, but require more jumps in order to complete. And - thanks for correcting the web address. Yes, I goofed. Ooops. (My apologies to Buck!)

Contact him at lemay_evolution [at] hotmail [dot] com and ask about Skyventure NH tunnel camps. He's in Montreal. If you are a member of CSPA, just look at this month's CanPara magazine. The contact information is already written in the magazine!

I'm an Ottawan here. These are the ones I am the most familiar with: 45min - Arnprior - Mile High www.milehighskydiving.com (2 Cessna, I think) 1.5hour - Skydive Gananoque www.skydivegan.com (3 cessna, plus long-weekend Twin Otter) 2.5hour - NouvelAir www.nouvelair.ca (Farnham, near Montreal) (Full time Twin Otter) All three have various advantages. I like all of them for different reasons. You must visit all of them if you plan to become a skydiver. Gananoque is my home dropzone, great rural scenery, and the biggest bonfires (while I was around anyway), and the biggest landing areas of any of them (fewest "don't land" areas near main landing area). NouvelAir is very well established, very modern, on-site restaurant and great amenities, and the biggest within a daytrip's range of Ottawa, but also the most expensive (you pay for the luxury of a Twin Otter versus Cessna). Mile High is conveniently close, more neighbourhood like, you can even do occasional winter jumps and it's conveniently close to Ottawa (Call them up if you're looking for a winter jumps, they are open spontaneously throughout the winter on mild sunny winter days to experienced jumpers). About Twin Otter versus Cessna. You notice you have to drive further to get better airplanes. Many of us prefer the Twin Otter - Twin Otter is much faster to altitude, but you can have longer waits between loads if there is only one active airplane flying. A great compromise is Skydive Gananoque; you can get tons of jumps in one day, they often fly all 3 Cessna's on busy days so loads are often taking off every 15 minutes on the busiest days. (i.e. It is easy to get 8+ jumps, even 10+ jumps on a busy sunny Saturday, at Gananoque even if you decide to miss a few loads). So this is really good for any Cessna dropzone. Or, if you find it easier to take a 1-week vacation than to visit a dropzone 4 weekends in a row to finish student training, NouvelAir is often open during the week... Then again, you know a buddy that carpools to one dropzone such as Mile High, and maybe you don't have a car, that may cinch your decision... There's paramax in Alexandria in Alexandria (1 hour), but I'm unable to access their website and I haven't heard from them lately so not sure if they're still operating (?).