Eule

I was at Eloy for tunnel time in mid-January and ran into a lot of Canadians. I think there were some organized jumps and I know there were some events at night, but I think mostly a lot of Canadian jumpers just schedule their winter vacation in the US at the same time. They did bring some beer and hot dogs and stuff and have a free cookout for _everybody_ one night, which was cool. Good to hear that your first jumps went well. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

When the pilots want to go to parachute school, it's a sign that you really ought to be flying a different airline. :) You might know this already but one thing you should ask about is licensing. Some US DZs have instructors that are certified to the UK (BPA) standards and follow the BPA training program, so it is easy for you to get a BPA license even though you're training abroad. Another consideration is weather (as you well know). Florida is nice most of the time but there is the possibility of hurricanes during part of the year. Arizona is nice from fall through spring, but pretty warm in the summer. I hear that California is sunny and 72 all the time. On the other hand, I started jumping in Oklahoma in early June, so maybe I'm not the best person to advise on this. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I started in June 2005 and I started with my first AFF jump. Having done that, what I suggest to new people is that they do a tandem first. The main reason why is that when I first let go of the airplane, the only thing in my mind for the first 10 or 15 seconds was something like "oh sh-t I let go of the plane oh sh-t the ground's down there oh sh-t I'm falling oh sh-t I let go of the plane." After that I got with the program and started doing the checks with my instructors, etc. Apparently this is not an uncommon experience for first-time jumpers, and I think it would be better to have this happen when you don't have to _do_ anything. I don't know if the UK regulations are different, but some US dropzones incorporate a couple of tandem jumps into the beginning of the AFF program, so even your first tandem can "count" towards your license requirements. Even if it won't "count", your DZ and/or tandem instructor may be willing to let you do things like wear an altimeter or fly the canopy a bit, but this is totally up to them. Straight up. :) Seriously... You might post in the "Events and Places to Jump" forum and put something like "New jumper in Somecity, UK" in the subject - you should get a lot of responses there. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hmmm... Hiring an airplane mechanic with a parachute is kind of like eating at a restaurant with a skinny chef, buying something from a rich salesman, or getting representation from a penniless lawyer. Just kidding. :) Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I wonder if it could have anything to do with the relative phase of the fan blades. In other words, when the air gets to the fan in a single-fan tunnel, all it has to deal with are the blades of that one fan plus whatever support structure there is for the motor/engine/driveshaft. When the air gets to the fans in a multi-fan tunnel, it not only has to deal with the support structure, but with several fan blades that probably aren't synchronized with each other. If one fan blade has just gone by and sucked up a lot of air, the blades on the other fan(s) that spin by that spot next won't have a lot of work to do. This might tend to make the flow rather unevenly distributed across the diameter of the tunnel, at least near the fans, and affect how it responds to "blockages" in the test section. I'm pretty sure the control gear in multi-fan tunnels tries to hold all the motors at the same RPM, but I don't think it's designed to keep the blades in phase. Even a small difference between the RPM of two motors would allow the blades to get out of phase fairly quickly, and the control gear probably has a tolerance of several RPM either way. To put it another way, imagine a guy standing in the middle of a field with a bass guitar and a 100 watt amp. When he plucks a string, the time it takes for the first pressure peak to hit your ear depends on how far away from the amp you are standing, BUT that time won't change unless you get closer to or further from the amp. If four guys each have a bass guitar and a 25 watt amp, and they all hit the same string at the same time, you'll still get beat notes from the guitars not being *perfectly* in tune and not being played at *exactly* the same time. Plus, the timing of the beats will vary as you change your position relative to the amps, even if you keep the same distance. I dunno. I wonder how annoyed the various operators would get if the geek patrol showed up at their tunnels with some high-speed cameras and a truck full of smoke canisters. "Hi, we're here to Advance Science, or at least settle several beer bets!" Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Using the standard rates of 10 seconds for the first 1000 feet and 5 seconds per 1000 feet after that... 22 min * 60 sec/min = 1320 sec 1320 sec - 10 sec = 1310 sec (first 1000 feet) 1310 sec * 200 feet/sec = 262,000 feet Total 263,000 feet or 49.8 miles AGL It would actually be higher than this, because there isn't as much air in the air as you get up high and you fall faster. The Russian space program would probably sell you a lift ticket for this if you have the cash. If you don't, maybe a bird-suit would be a cheaper way to get a longer freefall. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

You get a longer canopy ride. If you and I (6'2") pulled at the same altitude, you'd have just over a foot further to go before you land. You may wish to ask for assistance when carrying the requisite cases of beer. You will find no shortage of fellow jumpers willing to help you with this task. :) Seriously... Everybody else has covered it pretty well. When you signed up for your jump, the DZ probably asked about your weight, and might have asked about your height. If you weren't going to fit in the harness, they would have told you then. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I had absolutely no problem with turning. I liked it so much I often made my 90 degree turns into 360s or 720s or even 1080s in some advanced cases. :) So maybe I'm not the right person to advise. Above all, talk to your instructors. Nobody on here has seen you jump; your instructors have and are better able to advise you. Having said that, if you're still having problems after a couple of more jumps, you might see if you can get your jump on video; sometimes watching your jump through the "eyes" of someone else will help you understand what's going on. You're going to get tired of hearing this, and you're going to wonder what the hell everybody means, but relax! The first time you relax, you'll know it... everything will get smooth. There is a wind tunnel under construction in New Hampshire, but it won't be open for at least a few months. I visited a tunnel and found that it helped a lot, but many people have learned to skydive perfectly fine without one. Don't stress too much about not completing an AFF level on the first try. I know a few jumpers who got right through AFF in the minimum number of jumps. I know a lot more who repeated at least one level, sometimes more than once. Then there's me, but I'm a problem child. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Don't sell yourself. Get a boyfriend or girlfriend, then rent him or her out for extra income. In that business, you're pretty busy on Friday and Saturday nights, and if you've tired _yourself_ out, you're no good for jumping the next morning. :) I was once waiting for a load and some other jumpers I knew were discussing their freefly dive plan. One of them commented about the difficulty of a certain position and I (a thirty-jump wonder) piped up, "Heck, that's easy, _I've_ done that!" They informed me that you have to do it _on purpose_, instead of tumbling for 1000 feet after exit, for it to count... Same thing when my instructor told me I had to do a 360 on my next AFF dive and I asked if I could skip that part since I had already done dozens of them. BTDT. Fun rigging fact: a pilot chute works WAY better if you *let go of it* after you pull it out... Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

KSU, huh? At least you have lots of places to land, 'cause there's NOTHING IN KANSAS except corn fields. Trust me, I grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. :) Now I'm a little way down the road from you, in Tulsa. I think KSUPC also hosted a boogie last summer (2005); several Kansas dropzones and maybe some from further away all brought their Cessnas. I think they're going to do it again this summer, but I don't think it's going to be at your Manhattan-area airport like it was last year. You might want to ask about that boogie at the club. It's good that you can do it at a university club... no matter how expensive you think it is, it costs even more to do it "retail". Even so, this link will help you get through attending college and learning to jump at the same time. :) Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Hello all! Just below is a request to add an item to the "Gear" pages. At the moment, there is a similar request in "Error and Bug Reports" Suggestion: somewhere on the "Gear" pages, there should be something like: Want to review an item that we haven't listed yet? Email or PM the editor for this page! If there are different editors for the different areas, maybe there needs to be a generic notice on the main page ("see each area for its editor") and then the notice with the links on each category page. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

QuoteOn every jump i have done i have gone into sensory overload and have no recollection of the first 5 seconds of the jump. Has anyone else experienced this and how did you overcome it? I had this on my very first jump, AFF level 1. I had maybe a second or two on my next jump, but after that, I didn't really notice it. You'll probably get tired of hearing this, but relax! It's easy for me to say and hard for you to do, but when you finally do it, it's great. Some other things that I have found helpful are to make it a point to take several deep breaths on the way up in the plane, and to close my eyes and visualize the whole jump once or twice. One thing I did notice changing as I got more jumps: on my first maybe 5 or 6 jumps, after I got on the ground and the chute was collapsed and everything was over, I would get this big rush of exhilaration and being happy - sometimes I would shout and jump around. The more jumps I got, the less I got this - I don't see this as a bad thing, just as getting used to the whole process. I still get this occasionally, but earlier in the jump - like when I'm first under canopy after the freefall part of the jump has gone particularly well. Eule (edit: speeling misteak) PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I think I like this better than the date-code idea. There are probably still some ways around it, but I think it might work well. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

What kinds of problems are the lead seals said to cause? Hard pulls/jamming the reserve pin, or something else? For someone with a big enough collection of fonts on their PC, it would also be a lot easier to forge. Even if you had a unique rubber stamp mark on it, they could still scan it, edit it, print it back out on sticker stock, and be good to go. I think that blank lead seals and the pliers/press that puts them on and embosses the letters aren't _that_ hard to come by, so to some extent you could make the same objection to the lead seals. But everybody has (or has access to) a PC and a printer. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

New building, potential new logo, marketing-speak that is almost, but not quite, entirely unlike English. Are there any skydivers working there, or just suits? Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Looks like our Brazil nut is back with a slightly different username, still posting to every forum... http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_user_username=edumeirelles&sb=post_time Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The rolling numbers would have to be pretty stout, but I think this could work. As has been pointed out, you need four digits if you're going to do it with MM-DD. You could do something like a letter for the month and numbers for the day: A01 = 1 Jan, B01 = 1 Feb, C01 = 1 March, ..., J01 = 1 Dec, K01 = 1 Jan, and so on. The reason why it doesn't go back to A again for January is to make it a little harder to keep your "Axx"-sealed rig around for a year and then pretend it's current. Still, this scheme is only good for two years and two months. If you were really paranoid, you could use the last digit of the year, a letter for the month, and a letter or number for the day: 6A1 = 1 Jan 2006, 6A9 = 9 Jan 2006, 6AA = 10 Jan 2006, 6AB = 11 Jan 2006, 6B1 = 1 Feb 2006, and so on. This means they've got to keep their reserve packed for 10 years before the seal is valid again. The reason why I am proposing the three-digit codes is that I think that's all that might legibly fit on the seal. You might be able to use smaller digits and get four across, or more likely two rows of two, but that's probably approaching the limit of what you can get. You might be able to use fewer digits and make one of the elements a "minute hand" around the edge of the seal; lots of injection-molded plastic pieces have date codes like this. But for this to work well, the seal always has to be centered up pretty well in the press. A more high-tech way would be to use something like a Dallas Semiconductor iButton or an RFID tag along with the lead seal. An iButton looks like a big watch battery, but it has a microprocessor in it. All of them have a serial number and that's all the simple ones do; fancier versions have some flash memory in them so you can store a few bytes of information. As far as I know, RFID tags just have serial numbers in them. The idea would be that the rigger would do the packjob, seal it in the traditional way, then add the iButton or RFID tag to the seal. He'd record the date and the serial number in his packing log. Later on, he could scan the device to get the serial number and compare it to his logbook. This does break down if somebody gets a repack like this and then later goes to another rigger, as the only place to verify the serial number on the packjob is in the first rigger's logbook. You could fix this by keeping the serial numbers in a database that could be accessed online (USPA website?) or possibly via a voice response 1-800 number for places that don't even have dialup Internet. We're not talking about a lot of data here; the reserve-date data for every sport rig in the US would probably fit on two floppy disks. Some jumpers might object to the electronic tag on the grounds that it might be used by Big Brother to keep tabs on their rig. Probably the biggest problem is getting all the riggers to buy a new mechanical seal press and/or retrofit their old one, or buy the electronic reader they'd need for the electronic tag, or whatever. IMHO, if this came down from the FAA, people would gritch, but they'd do it. If it came from the USPA, people would gritch and might not do it. If it was presented as "here are some cases where Joe Jumper got into trouble with a pencil-packed rig and Roy Rigger had to spend $XX,XXX on lawyer food to get off the hook" then people would probably be more inclined to buy the new gear. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

This article discusses the chicks up through about 30-35 days. By day 30, the observed wing chord was about 240 mm, while the observed mass of males was 366 g and of females 271 g. Several sites peg the wingspan of adults at about 44 inches. The few that give a mass along with the wingspan give something in the range of 350 g, so it is perhaps safe to assume that by 30 days or so, the chicks have adult wingspans. So: 240 mm * (25.4 mm/1 in) * (12 in/1 ft) = 0.787 ft 44 in * (1 ft/12 in) = 3.67 ft 3.67 ft * 0.787 ft = 2.89 ft^2 366 g * (2.2046 lb/1000 g) = 0.807 lb (male) 271 g * (2.2046 lb/1000 g) = 0.597 lb (female) 0.807 lb / 2.89 ft^2 = 0.28 lb/ft^2 (male) 0.597 lb / 2.89 ft^2 = 0.21 lb/ft^2 (female) This does of course assume that the wings are rectangular, which they aren't. It also counts the entire wingspan times chord as the wing area, when it should really leave out a few inches of wingspan in the middle for the fusel^Wbody. If you guesstimate that there are 4 inches of body in the middle, and that each wing has 20% less area than a rectangle, the wingloadings go up to about 0.38 lb/ft^2 for males and 0.28 lb/ft^2 for females. I can probably give you a better answer if I can get to the library on Saturday or Monday. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

This is great! You've got to mention this at the DZ if somebody asks you why you decided to jump. :) I started in June 2005 and I started with my AFF 1 jump. Having done that, my recommendation for new jumpers is to do a tandem first. This is a bit because there's a small chance you may not like it, but mostly because the first time you get out of that plane, probably the only thing you will think about for the next 5 to 20 seconds or so is "HOLY SH-T I JUMPED OUT OF THE AIRPLANE!" If this happens while you're on a tandem, it's no big deal. If it happens on your AFF 1 jump, your instructors will be trying like hell to remind you that there's a few things you need to do to stop this big planet coming at you. As has been mentioned, some DZs have a formal program where you do a couple of "working" tandem jumps and then go into AFF. Even if the DZ you pick doesn't offer this, if you think you're serious about continuing to jump, mention this to your tandem master. He may be willing to show you a few things once you're under canopy, or possibly let you fly the canopy for a little while. He may also point out things like the altitude, landing pattern, etc. You'll go through a class that explains this stuff in great detail, but it's nice to have a bit of a head start on it. The AFF vs. static-line/IAD is often argued here; try the "search posts" link above. One thing I will add is that although I know a few people who got through AFF with only one jump per level, I know a lot more people who have had to do two jumps for at least one level. Then there's me, but I'm a problem child. :) Eule PS I have sent you a private message (PM), which you can read by clicking on the "Messages" link near the top of the page, or here. PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

The waiver I signed here in Oklahoma had something like this on it. As far as I can tell, you still had to fill out the waiver (i.e., put your name on it and initial that you had read each paragraph). At the bottom, in so many words, it says "if you don't want to release anyone from liability, you can pay $500 per jump and keep your right to sue." Even if you picked this, you still had to sign to indicate that it was your choice. I don't think this was on the one I signed in Texas, but I don't recall for sure. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

I am not a lawyer or accountant and this is not legal or tax advice. It's not skydiving-specific, but I'm pretty sure that 501(c)(3) charities and/or non-profit organizations are required to have a set of bylaws. The IRS might be one place to start, as well as your state government. If you know any local clubs that might fit this definition, you might ask them about their bylaws. You may also want to run whatever you come up with by an attorney. I am not a lawyer or accountant and this is not legal or tax advice. Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

A couple of ideas... "Follow the money." I bet all the manufacturers, from Cessna and Piper right up to Boeing and Airbus, would cry for exactly zero seconds if it became illegal to fly an aircraft older than X years. They might cry for one second if it can at least be made economically impossible to fly an aircraft older than X years (like requiring a complete teardown and inspection every 100 hours). I agree that with regular maintenance and inspection, most anything mechanical can be made to last as long as you want it to. I've owned, driven, or ridden in 15-year-old cars that I wouldn't hesitate to drive from New York to LA, and I've driven and ridden in 3-year-old cars that I wouldn't trust to get me down to the hamburger stand and back. Cars built since about 1980 or 1985 that are operated where the roads aren't salted in the winter basically don't rust. I think that most US states that salt the roads extensively also have required vehicle inspections where the condition of the body and/or frame is one of the things they are looking at. I know rust in structural members is part of the UK vehicle inspection (MoT) and I think it's part of the German vehicle inspection (TUeV). As far as I know, a lot of corrosion on small planes is still detected by the Mk1 eyeball. But I also think fancier non-destructive testing techniques have gotten more prevalent and a bit cheaper in the past several years. If some of the inspections can be turned into "wave the probe down the rivet line" instead of "tear apart and inspect", they might get done more often. riggerrob made an interesting point about retiring different generations of jump planes. I guess this is a ways off, but wasn't there a period of time when legal costs basically stopped the production of small single-engine aircraft? I am under the impression that Cessna didn't make any piston singles for much of the 1980s, for example. Sometime in the future, will there be a "hole" in the supply of jump planes? Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Here are some random observations and ideas: - According to posts in the WT forum, people could bring their weight belts or vests empty, and fill them with lead shot available on site. Of course, the event was hosted by the Royal Thai Air Force, and you would sort of expect that the military could easily get lead shot. Depending on the country you're going to, it might not be that easy for civilans. I think there was a suggestion that putting the shot into small sealable plastic bags made it easier to deal with. - This might get expensive internationally, but maybe you could mail your (full) weight belt to the DZ far enough in advance that it would be there when you get there. It would probably be a good idea to give the DZ a heads-up about this. Also, if you're going to another country, you have to work out how to ship it back with postage valid in that country. - All you really need is a relatively dense material that is cheap and easy to find at your destination. "Alternative" sources of lead include SCUBA diving shops and possibly electronics shops for solder in wire form. Solder is expensive, though, and it's not in a particularly usable form. Lead is also sold in long, skinny bars for industrial processes and formerly for auto body shops (panel beaters), but this is probably hard to find. Sand has been mentioned - putting this in plastic bags would probably make it less messy. Steel is is not too hard to find and is reasonably dense - by volume, you need about 1.5 times as much steel as you do lead. Finally, I remember hearing that "a pint's a pound the world around". Clearly, then, if you need six pounds of weight, you should drink six pints of something before you jump, and you'll be set. :) Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

Damn, I knew I had some trouble with multiple personalities, but now one of them is posting to dropzone.com too! [drinks Prozac milkshake] Ahh... better. :) My name is also Matt and I also live in Oklahoma (Tulsa). I'm still a relative n00b - I started back in June 2005. Just curious - what DZ or DZs are you considering? I have made most of my jumps in Cushing, with a few down in Whitewright, TX. Welcome! Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.

It looks like most of the spam was posted about 2100 CST (USA) 29 March. Judging by the number of posts in "Recycle Bin", some of the mods have cleaned up some of them already. But there are still live posts in several forums, at least as of about 2345 CST. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=search_results&search_user_username=dumeirelles Eule PLF does not stand for Please Land on Face.