mdrejhon

Distinctive moniker? LOL Close - well, we had the circular Ranbow Boogie logo all over the dropzone. T-Shirts, patches, posters, banner, and the 8-foot banner. We sold three dozen Rainbow Boogie logo T-Shirts as well, to help pay costs of the event... Same circular logo as in my avatar. Everyone says it is a pretty nice logo, and we will be reusing the logo every year. But we'll only wear the T-Shirts when WE want to , not everytime we go to a dropzone -- they are nice and straight-friendly and not-in-your-face. Though I definitely will when I go to the Twin Otter event at Gan.

Hi, Some of the best ones are up now! Check out Nigel's website Photo Gallery (Dozens!). (And see main article for more info) Attendance of about 40 of various skydivers. (Over 100 if including other skydivers not attending for the boogie). The world record 10-way gayway formation is pictured. There's even the 34-way photo too (mixed gay and straight) in the above photo gallery. It actually completed on the first attempt! I haven't updated the www.rainbowskydive.com website just yet; but will soon! (If you didn't go -- Register for Rainbow Boogie 2007 for next summer, if you have never registered before!) Also, here are additional photos attached:

The design might be rethought for certain flyers under experimental tiny canopies (sub-70sq feet canopies). This would save unconscious people going down in an uncontrolled high-G spinning linetwists. Because spinning linetwists are already beyond cypres firing parameters, an automatic cutaway followed by a reserve ride would occur. I noticed an old dropzone.com thread suggesting this, where someone went in sometime under a small parachute not designed to be landed (A 21 square feet Xaos 21 I think -- yes, 21 square feet, not to be confused with the model number 21.)

I don't need to be asked. I think everyone knows the answer about me well by now. FWIW, over 100 people registered for Rainbow Boogie, 50 confirmed, and about 40 showed up. Not too bad for a first year boogie! We expect Rainbow Boogie 2007 to be even bigger, now that the word has spread even further. I know about 35 dropzone.com members who have registered on Rainbow Boogie, although clearly only about 50% of them are gay. (For privacy reasons, I won't list them.) It was a really nice mixed boogie of gays and gay-positive people, at a fully supportive dropzone! We're thinking of hosting RB2007 again at NouvelAir.

LED strip lighting, with color effects, maybe?

Part of the delay is that my digital camera did not arrive on time, and I had to take photos by film. Also, the aerial photos have some copyright credit and some potential magazine submission with it -- but I should be OK with posting web-resolution pictures. Another bottleneck is I'm catching up with work and there's Montreal Pride, so I believe Sunday will be when I am posting a new flood of photos online; updating the rainbowskydive.com website, and responding to about 10 to 15 unanswered emails. Lotsa to do... Well, not meaning to be impatient but well??? Scott C.

I'd gamble that Montreal Pride 2007 is a good timing, or the weekend after. That way, THIS TIME we can set up a booth to attract First Jumps and grow the gay skydiver population. (We were originally gonna to do that -- but it was going to cost $4000 at OutGames) Speaking of which, I believe we have 3 new gay skydivers in training right now indirectly as a result of the boogie (or via my encouragement). But of course, that's not definite -- I gotta talk to Alain and others and come to something that would maximize attendance.

Consensus seems to say we must hold it again at NouvelAir, at least for 2007, to keep the ball rolling and because it's convenient (only 2.5 hours from me). There were some suggestions that it be held elsewhere, but that could still happen as smaller satellite "gettogethers" with NouvelAir location being the main boogie. (I do want to travel and meet more skydivers from all over the place...!) We don't know dates, but we want to hold it on a date where everyone is able to come! (less interference by other boogies that everyone seems to want to go to, too as well). What I do WANT to know is dates that may interefere with the boogie -- i.e. when's WFFC 2007 and SkyFest 2007? That's a catch-22: Do we decide dates now; or do we decide dates after some other boogies announce theirs?

Fratelli's! We had more than 50 people Saturday night (boogie attendees and dropzone regulars), and we gave a resounding toast and a gift to Kirsten Johnson (JumpShack was one of our sponsors, so we presented her with the gift certificates for her hard work doing load organizing for free). The presentation was wonderful and we thank JumpShack very much for them too! Thanks very much to my partner Alain, who I'm going to put into the sky in the near future. The cheering and clapping noise was so deafening (even though I am already deaf) that the people outdoors on the patio could hear it. And yes, there will be a Rainbow Boogie 2007.

Here's a photo of the group that did the 14-way attempt. Group sitting in front of the 8 foot Rainbow Boogie logo set up at the dropzone. Photo taken by Calen (freakyrat), size reduced to fit online. Lots more photos coming...! (And the aerial photos are AMAZING -- the 10-way photos we have are among some of the best I've seen and I am proud to be in them! They will be provided very shortly.)

It's a success! We managed to set a world record (biggest gayway -- a 10-way) and Kirsten Johnson is getting the paperwork done!!! About putting pictures on website -- I'm ascertaining photography rights and will be responding to the numerous emails I've gotten this week!

Regardless, I can't wait to fly in this tunnel! I'm thinking it'll be sometime in Sept or Oct though

Rainbow Boogie is underway! The first attempt at a 34-way succeeded -- everyone docked! The attempt at a 34-way mixed formation skydive succeded. (It consisted of the entire dropzone 300+ jump experienced bellyflyers). I saw it complete from the ground! We also tried a 14-person "gayway" world record, but failed. We'll try again tomorrow... About 40-45 out of the 53 confirmed came. There were about 60 tandems as well, though mostly straight. Two reporters were here too as well. About half of the non-tandems here aren't here for the Rainbow Boogie.

Skyventure New Hampshire. Already running to train instructors -- Opens in a couple weeks. www.skyventurenh.com About 6 hours drive from Ottawa. Aerodium is no longer operating a tunnel -- they did in 1979-1980; they were the first recreational VWT open to the public.

Every country has their own hellhole. So what. (No offense to the Thunder Bay residents, mind you) An idea: Demand a loaner car while your car is being repaired. A more expensive idea: Rent a car while your original car is being repaired in Thunder Bay. An even more expensive idea: While it's being repaired, fly to Montreal. I can pickup on Thursday at YUL. A last resort idea: Hotwire a Cessna. ;) Montreal's worth it!!

Final Rainbow Boogie 2006 reminder! It's happening this coming next weekend! Website: www.RainbowSkydive.com When: July 28th - 31st (Fri, Sat, Sun, Mon) Where: NouvelAir in Farnham, Quebec, Canada (near Montreal) News/Calendar: Click here Driving Directions: Click here Over 100 registered to attend, and a lot have given confirmations. I've now confirmed that a few well known people such as Jason Whitt (president of Skydive The Point club!) and Carol Clay (Queen of Skydiving, 15,000 jumps -- she is straight though!!). From our preliminary checks, it looks like 50% of people will be straight. So the boogie's not embarassing to go to, no matter who you are; it's just a bunch of regular skydivers. Don't miss the chance to meet such a wonderful woman... RW Load organizing by Kirsten Johnson, AFFI of Skydive Spaceland. Yes, a girl! We may be doing 34-ways (multiple plane formation) if enough jumeprs have the experience level to do so. NouvelAir and the plane captains are ready to do so -- provided there's enough skilled jumpers to do so! I did my first 30-way last month (docked 14th), so I'll see if I'll be able to be part of this formation! Also there will be plenty of freefly loads and novice 4-way loads along with the bigways by Kirsten -- I will be jumping with novices 4-way and 8-way too as well, since I want to make sure I jump at least once with most RW capable people at the boogie! NouvelAir and other people have been doing an amazing job helping me organize this boogie -- it has grown bigger than I originally expected 9 months ago! Location... Just in case you're not familiar, NouvelAir is less than 1 hour from the U.S. border. That makes it only 5 hours from big cities such as Boston! This thread will also be used to post some photos from the boogie as well. See you there!

Hey Chris-Ottawa, I do downhill skiing in the winter. Also, we even do some winter jumping at Mile High Parachuting (Arnprior) at times. I was there for a few jumps. Had my first ice-slide landing, too! Once you have enough jumps (I think a D license), there's paraskiing held annually in Quebec as well.

No comment about the "pretty gay" part, but one other thing that comes up is where is the location of the dropzone? Scenery? Which locale? Etc. That could all influence the name... (i.e. Skydive The Farm, Lost Prarie, MOAB, etc.)

What does the opening altitude on Neptune say? 0 feet? You might be able to calculate the terminal velocity this way. If you leaped at 14000 feet and oened at 3000 feet, and you normally belly fly for 60 seconds during this time period. But if you lost your Neptune at 3000 feet as you were opening and Neptune recorded 1 minute and 30 seconds of free fall, the "opening altitude" would read 0 feet (the impact with the ground). That would mean it spent 30 seconds freefalling from 3000 feet, from whereupon you can calculate the speed would be approximately 80mph. Most likely terminal velocity is probably more like 40mph or thereabouts for a falling neptune that's tumbling (it's not an aerodynamic shape). I'd wager to bet that a falling Neptune never reaches 100mph -- a Neptune is an awfully light piece of electronics since it comes in a plastic case. My guess would be that its algorithm goes something like this, once it thinks it's in free fall... highest_freefall_speed = 0; while(speed > 20) /* or some other "minimum" speed of free fall */ { speed = measure_speed(); if(speed > highest_freefall_speed) { highest_freefall_speed = speed; } } /* now we are under canopy */ store_to_nonvolatile_memory(max_freefall_speed); The reason it waits until it thinks it's under canopy to record the max freefall speed is that often, writing to the non-voltatile memory (flash) is rather slower than writing to the volatile memory (RAM). In freefall, it doesn't want to spend a lot of time writing to non-volatile memory, as then it might miss a momentarily higher freefall speed. So it just keeps looping quickly and keeping the highest speed it saw in RAM. If it fell out early enough in the deployment, it probably never slowed down enough to register "I'm under canopy now" and write the max freefall speed to non-volatile memory. It just kept looping and kept the max freefall speed in RAM. I would further guess that it might have suffered a momentary power loss at impact (was the battery still in it when the guy found it, or had it popped out?), OR it kept running, but a built-in time out caused it to "give up" on that jump after, say, 15 minutes or so. On the other hand, maybe it should have seen the zero speed after it landed and concluded that it was under canopy, and gone ahead and recorded the max speed. A little rough estimating says that if it was falling with its smallest face down (least cross section into the relative wind), it might have hit 100 mph or so. There is probably at least +/- 30% tolerance on this estimate, though. It might be interesting to ask Alti-2 about this. They probably already know what terminal velocity of a Neptune is, but they might be able to explain better why it didn't log the speed. Eule

My Sabre also is much happier with new lines -- make sure your tail isn't being constantly deflected (shrunken steering lines). These seem to help make some Sabre openings into spankers. Basically if your steering lines feel tight and taut even all the way to the stops, that can be a factor in affecting the openings.. I remember noticing improvements to my openings after steering line replacement. (Since you are a new jumper, one word of warning about line replacement: Make sure you get really familiar with where the flare begins -- basically, you may have to preposition your hands a few inches below the stops, not all the way at the stops -- the point where the tail deflects. Steering line replacement can be confusing on the "first experience" for sudden adjustment to a new flare band (different hand position for start of flare, and for end of flare)... so hop n pop high altitude.) Ditto about bigger slider -- mine already came with the bigger one (I think. I only quickly measured it.)

Kirsten Johnson will mostly be concentrating on the bigger ways, but we definitely need to keep the novices happy. I'll jump some 4-ways since I want to make sure the RW novices are taken care of too. (skill level depending, of course) Can't leave them out -- I will skip out on some of the bigways in order to jump with some of the novices. Possibly a 50-50 split between the bigway jumping and the novice jumping. Forecast looks good -- no rain on all 4 days!

Most of the profit from windtunnels comes from whuffos paying $35-$45 for a 1 hour "wind tunnel experience" (including 2 hours of actual airtime). By treating the windtunnel as an amusement ride, you can give 600 "rides" per day or so to whuffos who dream of flying without skydiving. Run efficiently, gross from a windtunnel exceeds $10K per day - over $3 million dollars a year. Split the market between skydivers and whuffos, 50-50, or 25-75, or 75-25, you can find a comfortable balance appropriate to the market that the windtunnel is in. Depends on how tourist-heavy the city is, too. A good reason why the first SkyVenture was built in Orlando. Assuming it is marketed properly, I believe it would probably be financially sustainable in the Toronto area or Montreal area. Toronto is in the top 10 biggest cities of North America, after all. If I won the lottery, I'd be looking at whether it is economically feasible for me to put together a group of investors (and put a percentage of my winnings into this project). Maybe even approach Canada's Wonderland (and other big-amusement entities) and say you're building one but prefer to partner with them -- after all; Universal Studios is building a windtunnel now. I'm sure they'd still let skydivers play for extended periods on certain days, too. We could even approach the Canadian Army too; to see if they want to invest some money in it for airtime guarantees (electricity paid at cost). An investor needs to do his or her homework; and keep all these kinds of options open. For example, if you only have a fraction of the cost of a windtunnel, say $500,000 (a full Skyventure tunnel and building costs a few million); that may be enough "power" to attract people to partner with you; a group of people also works. Remember, the big money in windtunnels is the WHUFFO market... You investors reading this thread, DO SOME RESEARCH -- Study the tunnel business and past Skyventure partnerships -- Skyventure is at www.skyventure.com ... Buy a tunnel, bring the tunnel to Canada! (Disclaimer: No, I don't work with SkyVenture. I just want a recreational tunnel in Canada!!! My puny RRSP fund doesn't have enough money today to invest in a tunnel.)

As a computer programmer, that's hilarous. Do you command "Ping John!" Wonder what your dog would do when you ask him... "ping www.google.com" or "ping www.microsoft.com"

QuoteI was under the impression that the CSPA and DZ's in the Ontario area were pretty stringent concerning HP canopies and pilots being qualified to fly certain wings, guess I have been misinformed. At the dropzones I go to, there's been sufficient strictness. I can't see how the dropzones I go to here in Canada, would allow a 65-jump visitor to fly a crossfire. If this is not a troll, I think it would be the exception to the rule. You Americans have a (at least) couple of "questionables" too as well.

There's a good article that helps reduces neck injuries. It doesn't quite say anything about neck injuries, but more about stable openings, but it helps! (things like looking at the horizon while opening, etc)