Trae

gun control? yep they were definitely controlled by guns.

in reply to 'What do you think? ' ............................... I think that whoever invents an effective and fun female condom is gonna make a lota money.

in reply to " Telling your girlfriend about DZ-chicks is realy the most stupid thing in this thread. " ........................................... yep , guilty of gross stupidity, no more of that peace , love and totally truthful open hippy shyte for me. from now on its lies all the way. eg now its " No! there were no goils there, just a whole heap of blokes , nup not even 1 girl for 10 blokes like normal ' works a charm

I was 18 ......but I didn't start skydiving . Some monk in the dark ages did that

Stupid stupid stupid I was having a nice break from my life by hanging at a DZ for a week or two. While on a regular nightly phone call to my bestest GF I told her that I had met a person I hadn't seen for many years. I spoke about how good it felt to see some-one that I knew well and how good it was to see how that person had grown and matured into something special. well .....when she found out it was another she I was talking about funny things started happening. Instead of being encouraged to do something separatley for my own interest , like before , it went weird. My ghoulfriend turned up at the DZ that night at 2.30am after driving 6 hours. Somehow the trust that had existed got a bit mutated into boring ol jealousy. Stupid stupid stupid

in reply to "And worst of all when I catch them taking credit for running MY club. I just love to shut them down in front of their adoring public. Dose this happen to anyone ells, or is it just me? " ............................................................ No its not just you ...unfortunatley. I should have kept a list there's been so much BS. Being a piece of furniture on a DZ as a youth you get to see way too much about disfunctional wannabe hero skydiving crap. One guy tried to tell me that he had been running a particular DZ for 20 years. Funny how I just couldn't remember him for those 13 years that I hung around that same DZ. His crap only worked on the phone with tandem potentials. In person he ran away when confronted.. got in his car an drove away. Another memorable one was a woofo who was known as a skydiver. it was a bit of a rough crowd and he was using a Tandem jump and a night on a DZ to basically be a hero amougst his woofo mates. apparently he would talk about it like he did it all the time. My friend knew I'd done a bit over the years and set me up to meet this guy thinking we might get along and have a conversation topic.. a rare thing in that crowd. It took two seconds to run out of stuff to talk about when I met him. He just could not communicate like a skydiver can. He deflated so fast I felt sorry for him . More scary are the low-experience level people that think they know better than everyone else. I've seen these types lead other newbies astray to the point where the same old lethal mistakes start emerging . I've had the satisfaction of 'encouraging' one of these brutal incompetents to take his horror show elsewhere. Within weeks one of his most ardent adorers bounced right alonside him at a badly organised illegal demo. He just didn't see it coming and had refused to listen to more experienced people who did. Confronting BS headon at the DZ and elsewhere can be rewarding on many levels.

It's good to know you guys are out there. It can be a bit difficult to track down different stories from the guys that were there for real. So much flying but mostly invisible behind the scenes military stuff. The best stories include those little niggly things that only the flyers and their buddies knew about. Hopefully not all the detailed info concerning so many airmen and aircraft is lost in time. One of my favourite recently found aircrew stories involves grease monkeys that liked to fly the planes a bit. This particular crew (WW2pacific) used to check their jobs by flying at low level (5 feet) instead of taxiing them. The photo is somewhere showing several of the ground crew lying on top of the wing while the crew chief 'taxis' at about 5' altitude. Can't let those pilots have all the fun

Yeah there's lots of things that can be picked up and used . Trouble is in my experience mostly nothing will be at hand just when I need it. I'll be dithering around in blissful ignorance and some dribbling psychopath will decide to strike... usually from behind. I like the replies that say they'll just use anything. This is the reality for most of us who don't go around toting 1911's , 454Casuls or broadswords. Going through life with a deadly weapon handy to defend yourself can be fun for a while but eventually most of us would be hankering for a more peaceful place to live. .... And more effective law enforcement .

you don't want to bounce in front of the wife and kids????? so only jump on windy days and you'll just be a dot disappearing in the distance. Seriously though too much woofoness rubbing off and you'll be back to dreaming about skydiving. and you kids'll think you're a real wimp

nice original post. Many old ideas from the past are what got us where we are. With modern techniques (eg computing power ) many of those ideas may/will become a reality ...and a hot looking one Morphing vehicle technology /ideas are not new but they are potentially VERY rewarding. Its good to see aeronautical minds being creative and willing to share as well. Transformers here we come.

You'd think that the sunny island continent of OZ would have a decent beach DZ that was a mecca for sun loving fun jumpers. unfortunately it doesn't. Closest thing is probably Byron Bay ,Coffs Harbour or the Nth Qld DZ's. but wait for the weekend for any real fun jumping. bugger all fun jumping during the week .... its tandem all the way. .. yawn

Touching the passenger unneccessarily looks unprofessional and is. making a habit of hooking arms or legs is limiting you from learning better ways of dealing with any problems you think you may be solving with all the passenger grabbing stuff. It also generally detracts from the passengers experience having TM's grapple parts of their bodies during opening or at other times. A pro asks before touching unless its "safety first ".

"is there even such a thing as safe skydiving " ? Nope. one of the safest forms of skydiving involves ALL participants actively involved in conscious risk minimisation. The weakest link in this activity is the most dangerous one. there are so many things which make skydiving safer. Unfortunately there are more ways that make it dangerous with new ones constantly emerging. The challenge (if you like that safety feeling) is to recognise, isolate and deal with the things making it dangerous = risk minimisation. having fun with your safety mission can be a bit of a challenge given some amazingly negative attitudes towards staying alive and in one peice. enjoy

in reply to " Can anyone describe the feelings they have during freefall." ........................................ You,ve probably heard of the `"fight or flight" adrenalin surge us humans and many other animals have in potentially stressful situations. As skydivers we switch this on at will with each jump but its more like the "flight or flight" response. Over time this can be replaced with a steadier head space where you may feel a sense of heightened awareness compared to early jumps. Time can slow down and your senses can expand to the point that you feel very much on top of things with any previous nerves replaced with competence and true confidence in your abilities. This is a very much better feeling than the often false confidence felt and demonstrated by low jump number people after they,ve survived a hundred or two jumps. used to be said that if you,re thinking of anything else but your skydive during a skydive then you shouldn,t be there as you become a danger to yourself and others. Wondering in freefall where your car keys are or what your girlfriend is up to is a big message to get the ground issues out of the way or at least put on a good hold. time warping when skydives go really well are one of the best feelings going.

in reply to "I know, its not my fault.....but I played a part in it......I cannot mentally handle that. " ............................. We are only responsible for our own behaviour not others. You didn't invent meth. You don't produce it consciously to ruin people's lives and damage our society. You didn't encourage her to use it. It could easily be argued that her drug addiction is NOT your problem. So being easier on yourself could be productive for you. Friends of mine who thought they were just lightweight full-moon eccy heads were unaware that over time the pure E was being cut with heroin. After some time this group changed from being fun and happy to dark and needy.... and dangeroud and untrustworthy. After the smack turned up, declining an offered E was enough to lose them as friends. More recently the 'ecstacy' doing the rounds has been a concoction of ketamine, speed, and whatever the naughty nurses could steal from the medicine cabinet. I tried to help my friends but they hated me for it. personally i'm glad i didn't hang around to see them start to shoot the shit up and fall further down the pit. I had my say at the time and feel no guilt because they didn't listen. I wish you peace of mind and clarity of thought .

in reply to "If you knew you'd someday die from skydiving, would you continue to jump? " ........................................... ALL of us are already dead. most of us just don't know it yet.

in reply to "I could have thought he was 18 years old if I weren't looking at him. That even more impressed me. He is who I want to be when I am old and grey haired." .............................................. Wouldn't be young again for quids. Young people are so stupid() they don't realise that old is what'll happen to them if they manage to survive. I feel sorry for the young people on DZ's that are so caught up in their youth that they can't see that they're already actin 'old' by being locked in their agist attitudes. In my 30's one of my best friends was a 70 year bloke who could stand up to any-one on this planet. What he had lived through would've killed or neutered most modern millies. Seeing how he charged through his day constantly discarding the age myth was truly inspring. His best advice ? Do something everyday to improve yourself . Over a life-time you'll be amazed what even a stupid young person can achieve if given the time, inclination and encouragement. Shyte..... there I've gone getting older again.

in reply to "With wingsuits I don't know if maybe for some reason I won't like the "floating" sensation. Not that I've ever flown one, so there might not even BE a floating sensation... " ................. not floating .... flying or more specifically.... gliding. yep it feels like gliding downwards fairly rapidly. If you like tracking you're gonna lurve wingsuiting. One of the best trackers I've seen could give a fat guy in a wingsuit a run for his money. (Hideo you still out there? ) Before you get your wingsuit you might get some mileage out of tracking pants. Then dodge those early Birdman skyflyer suits..too twitchy and demanding for a beginner . You'll get more use and fun out of a cheap used Classic or Gti and after some jumps the newer stuff available to you will blow that S3 away.

'should have' chopped, but didn't ............... Guilty as charged. I had 120 jumps doing a 5 way at a new DZ . pretty ordinary skydive, most experienced person on load backlooped the 4way that had built at breakoff. I didn't get stable real quick and lost height awareness . I pulled main ripcord...nothing happened. Still in loss of height awareness,and mildly panicking, I thought it a waste of time to cutaway and not wanting to lose main in tiger country pulled reserve ripcord. Round reserve opening shock dislodged square main which opened below me! Main flew around at weird angles and then attacked the reserve as i ntried to pull it in, circling the reserve and eventually flying into it partially collapsing it. this whole mess then went into a rearward spiral with me giving up trying to control the main which I had tried to pull in . This had only made things worse and by the time I considered cutting it away it was firmly stuck in the reserve . A friend front risered near me shaking me out of a mild panic with the shouted words 'good landing roll' reaching my ears. I came in backwards and was OK except for the log i struck with my hip at the end of my landing smear. Limped back to the DZ feeling VERY stupid about not cutting away first. I hadn't wanted to lose my canopy but could very easily have lost my life. DZSO made sure i didn't forget the lesson by grounding me for the rest of the day.

I've done some flying on a Classic 2 with an extended leg wing. Just a thick single skin extension taking the trailing edge down to the ankles with no inflation. Apart from a few flapping issues that weren't there before the suit goes OK with a feeling of more forward speed available. Bit more critical with feet/ankle positions. it may be possible to ressurect a few Classic 1's and 2's with similar mods.

I'd be interested in buying a copy of no. three in this post. She's got vision that sister of yours. WOW .

I had a cutaway a couple of weeks ago and the main beat me to the ground by a few hundred feet.

It sounds like a good time for you to have a chat with a helpful chemist /doctor. Most of the good meds are getting a bit illegal/restricted due to speedfreak and their home production. The psuedoephidrines work up to a point. go the non-drowsy . the newer replacements for these derugs are nowhere near as effective.

in reply to "out of interest, would yanking really hard on your front risers help? get the nose even more exposed to the air? ............................................... If you've got the time -pulling on the rear risers would probably be better. In my situation I only had time to see the snivel before perihperal ground rush made me look down snap my feet together and land. I've met more than one person who had a raven reserve snivel. One was not as lucky as me and went trough a tree busting his legs and hips. He kept jumping though. edited to add nothing against modern raven reserves . they fixed the problem. Now I jump a micro raven but use it as least as possible

like on Mars the possible future source of interplanetary fuel