Trae

in reply to 'I think we've got as much turbine lift capacity as the rest of Australia combined' ................................................ Smug away Sydney deserves to lead the way in Ozzie skydiving . Good on yas.

This question sort of answers itself. SLOW DOWN. Is anyone else sick of seeing inexperienced people smashing into the ground under high performance canopies? Sure no-ones to blame but who is responsible for letting these novices loose on such hard ( for them ) to control HP's? If this problem was addressed with the seriousness that the injury and death rates indicate it calls for then perhaps our safety levels could be radically improved. Is any person, group or association responsible or powerful enough to effect a change for the better? What are the issues that stop our administrators from dealing with this deadly problem in an effective way?

in reply to "Would you let a 13 year old do a tandem? " If it was me at 13 the answer is YES. I had to wait till I was 18. Your legal situation does sound a bit restrictive. NZ does 14 year olds . You could suggest the blustery one travel there. If the harness was designed for a little one then the actual jump would be a breeze. Perhaps it's an untapped part of our sport. Get em while they're young. No fear but heaps of FUN.

'Anyone have any ideas on where to look for case law involving skydiving injuries or fatalities? I want to do a case study on it for my business law class, but I am having a hard time finding any cases to work with. Any help would be great.' ........................................................ Just because you haven't found any doesn't mean there's a shortage. Many are settled out of court. Some more mature people pride themselves on rooting out the negligent and irresponsible ones amoungst this blind trusting 'new to the sport' crowd. Perhaps a few well placed questions in the Skydiving History section could get you a few leads to follow. Be Righteous NOW.

in reply to "it's part of the idea " ................................ Crool Idea.

in reply 2 "Saw on Yahoo News today that the planet discovered on September 10th has been nicknamed "Xena" by those who found it, a team of astronomers from Cal Tech. " ................................................... An astologer friend told me that 'Chiron' the 10th planet was discovered by a psychic some time ago but put down as out of whack quackery. new quacks claiming Gabrielle? Any mystics know what the asteroid belt was called before it got nuked?

I didn't realise a monitor could smell so bad. Does that site record reaction photos? Kinda reminds me for no particular reason about the virtual dildo/virtual pocket pussy electronic hook up idea for world wide virtual safe sex orgies. or did I just invent that again? That kid next door is working on it in his dads garage as well as ?????? perhaps next decade............

in reply to "The last news I had was he had to think about the future of the whole project as he had to cutaway the wing and the webbing holding the wings parachute broke and the wing was totalled. " .......................................................... The man deserves a medal or better yet a grant.... pity about the harness/recovery chute issue. I wonder if some form of modified wing based on his jet wing design would be more suitable for a base take off if it can fly horizontally after picking up speed. I would imagine a Base launch would have it's own set of problems that have no doubt been considered. Cheers for the update

Mmmmmm....So the rates indicate some similarities . Wonder what the current totals are ? I've known a few scuba diving instructors even though I've only done several dives..... one beauty to 80' . I was told that the large number of incidents is due to people underestimating it as a dangerous sport. In scuba diving you can die at relatively low depths for a host of different reasons. The phuck up factor and nasty combinations are apparently even more variable than in skydiving which has relatively simple emergency procedures. When in doubt etc. In scuba you've got to think a bit more in a dangerous situation. Automatic response rarely save the day.

I've had whole series of death by dream experiences. One series had me getting shot every night . It got so I was almost afraid to go to sleep. In one a submachine gun walked it's bullets up & across my torso. After the first couple of hits I could tell where the next bullets were going and managed to twist so the next one would miss my heart. I woke up still feeling it. Just the other night I was riding a train crash and had to decide when to jump off the top. I woke up during what would have been the trauma bit...heart racing. I've lost count of the times I've bounced in dreams . They're not all bad I've been doing a lot of take offs lately ..more please

This makes me wonder what happens for the rest of the time we're asleep. Shut down zombie mode. I heard some stuff about how t some Japanese company is working on a gadget that provides the body with what sleep normally does so that workers wouldn't have to sleep at all making them more productive. I've also heard about some drug experimentation that allowed for week long sleep free periods . The side effects must be mean.Apparently the armed forces are pretty interested in this one. .

Sorry no link.(what button do I press?) Last time I checked scuba diving had THE most deaths out of all the sports. This may have changed but I doubt it. in reply to Bert man's "It takes a ton (thousands) of jumps to learn to do it really well. " Different people learn at different rates. Just having thousands of jumps doesn't necessarily mean you're any good at skydiving. I've know people with only hundreds of skydives that could out skydive people with 10,000 jumps. High skill levels are all about application and dedication not how many jumps you've got . Natural ability can also play a large part as well as available cash.

Cheers, You've answered all my questions Thank you

Rock climbing is heaps scarier and demands more respect than skydiving. Any sack of potatoes with an AAD can skydive but the same is not true for climbing a rock (except perhaps downwards) Outside the general delusion that skydivers are some-how automatically cool once they fall out of an aeroplane and not die -- skydiving can be a bit of an adrenalin junkies disappointment. Rock climbing delivers and delivers in the adrenaline department and is also very swift in showing you your true capabilities as a person. It's also fairly unforgiving . You also sometimes get a lot of time to think of your approaching fate after knowing you are gunna fall.... gotta love those muscle spasms. Skydivers once they realise skydiving is safer than driving home can tend to lose respect for the safety aspects as if they've subconsciously gotta make it more dangerous to get the same buzz. Rock-climbers rarely forget that one mistake could be their last. Unfortunatley a lot of skydivers need constant reminding. Gotta love them both as a worthwhile semi-extreme persuit...... but you want real danger ( the statistics back this up ) go SCUBA DIVING . If you do try do it with people who know what they're doing not learning at your expense. The same applies for rock-climbing and Skydiving.

Haven't you brainwashed zombie anti-conspiratists heard of television and the media as a mind control device? Combining visual subliminals with auditory subliminals most people don't even know why they want to get the latest car or TV that the secret messages are telling them to.(adverts) or why they put down people who aren't brainwashed like they are. When it comes to distracting us all from the truth these mind control guys are total specialists. What we need is a brain releasing device. ...freefall ??? The web was gunna be 'free' but now its infested with the same pollution the general media is. Lots of little brain washed minions doing their bosses dirty psych work by putting down any-one who sounds different from the brainwashed mind-set. There's also newspapers , misinformed peer pressure,and a whole swath of mind message affirmations in constant public view. There's also such things as the active suppression of disadvantaged racial groups. A lot of the western world is in the grip of a 'war against terror' that tries to make out we live in a black and white world. What happened to all the pretty colours in between.?? The powers that be have had a long time to work on the control of the masses issue. They've done pretty well for themselves too. Do you think 'they' would inform you through their own media outlets that 'they' are really constantly duping you ? Go on tell me how to think....

I think we all agree that sometimes accidents just happen. Some things are unfortunately outside our control. If the wind comes up after exit and before landing and it wasn't seen coming well this could be due to poor local knowledge or just plain unlucky. in reply to "Please explain how a good spot will not allow lightly loaded canopies to make it back to the landing area (and no farther). It's just applied basic physics. If the student overflies the landing area, the spot was too short. " ............................. What a good spot won't necessarily allow is for a student under a too lightly loaded canopy to get back safely if the wind is too high. The lightly loaded canopy may not be sufficiently controllable for the student to steer it as required. This is particularly worriesome if the wind is at marginal levels. When everything is nice and calm perhaps it doesn't have the same potential dangers. As the wind picks up the lightly loaded canopy is much more susceptible to any turbulance . This has been the main point of this discussion..initially. The point is that putting students or novices out under too lightly loaded canopies in marginal conditions is not to be recommended and could be considered negligent behaviour.... at the very least poor skydiving practise. .....

Skydivers are definitely lazier and unhealthier than rock-climbers. Skydivers are so lazy that even the people doing 10 or 12 jumps a day get some -one else to fly them up to altitude, Usually they need aircraft maintenance people & refuelers, some-one to feed them, Often some-one else packs their rig, they even get other people to massage them if they strain themselves, Skydivers let their money do the work for them. Often skydivers are so lazy they get a lift to the DZ with some-one else, let other people do their talking for them, and if they can get other people to pay for their jumps. I know rock climbers aren't lazy at all and if they get the shakes they might fall. Skydivers are so lazy they fall sometimes before they get the shakes. Rock-climbers win on every count.

in reply 2 "Oh yeah, one more question. How come no minorities skydive? " A lot of minorities are disadvanged. Unless you come from a disadvantaged background you just don't get it 'cause you have no direct experience. You'd be just looking in even if you're being helpful. When a family is struggling to pay the rent and put food on the table it doesn't look kindly on one of its members spending hard to come by money on something as frivolous as skydiving. Skydiving as a money suck is right up there with drug abuse , gambling and other financial black holes. Skydiving like private plane ownership is something that requires large amounts of disposable cash . A lot of minorities just don't have the cash. There's a DZ in the Phillipines where the skydivers may only do one or two skydives a year. This is because it takes them a year to save up for their one jump. they're always on the lok out for second hand gear as their gear is old and well worn. Affluent westerners are often totally blind to the hardship that exists in our world . Rich Jet-setting skydivers are amoungst the most priveleged people on this planet and have often come into their funds through inheritance or by dubious means....some have even had to work for their money. Minorities? skydiving?....most of them just want a chance to do what they want. Skydiving doesn't figure prominently in their dreams ... feeding their kids and looking after their parents does.

Cheers I'll try that . I got a new dog once that gave me a pretty weird time table ...waking up all the time to let it out for jobbies. I got in the space where I didn't really know if I had woken up or not and was dreaming about letting the pup out while it happily shat on the carpet. Now I really look forward to waking up in dreams ..it can get so real... even feeling the breeze and consciously deciding to go to places . Waking up dead has become a new phenomena lately..... as in bouncing or getting wiped in a dream accident. . ciao

in reply to"Perhaps you could clarify your question. I am assuming you are wanting to cover as much ground horizontally as possible over the course of your flight? ....................................... What suit has the fastest Forward speed ? This doesn't need to be complicated The following may further clarify /simplify my question if you don't get it. Say you had two identical weight people with identical skills. (just pretend for a while ) and they were testing suits to see which was the fastest horizontally...as in velocity not max distance travelled .....FORWARD SPEED. What suit would allow them to travel the fastest forward? eg which suit would beat the others in a race . This is really quite a simple question. Not tortoise and hare ..flat out forward velocity. From the replies so far it seems like the Vampire1 has the highest forward speed abilities. I'm in the market for a new suit and don't want to get stuck with a slow one.

in reply 2 "How much would you respect a skydiver or basejumper that won't wear a rig? I normally only hear this kind of stuff from new jumpers that still think it's only about the adrenaline rush. That and whuffos. " .................................................................... Woof woof 'wha for you jump out a dem dair pairchootes." Free climbers still get my vote .... super cool and skilled . in reply to "Or do you want to return to the days when skydiving was a stunt rather than a legitimate sport? The thrill seekers can go kill themselves in someone elses sport. I don't want the regulation. " .................. So people skydive to be bored to death now do they? Perhaps skydiving could do with a bit of outside regulation. Might cut down on the large number of people being hurt and killed in landing accidents. ps I skydive for fun....what's your excuse?